Day at the Discovery Museum

Lucas and I spent about 6 hours at the Discovery Museum in Sausalito on Friday. God I love that place!

We had some time alone at first. We spent most of this time outside, on the boat.

Soon we were joined by my friend Christina and her 1-year old twins. At first Lucas kind of ignored them, but when we were in the TotSpot, Lucas was having fun hiding from Sela, then laughing and hiding again when she would find him.

As luck would have it, as they were leaving, we ran into one of Lucas' friends from school, and spent the rest of the afternoon with them. Lucas enjoyed being in the art room, painting a little bit on the windows, but really going to town with the water bottle, spraying the window and washing it. As he proclaimed when we left, "Mommy, I think I'll be a window washer when I grow up!"

By the time we left, we were stuck in the late afternoon commute.

Lucas does not care for long car rides. Usually after about 15 minutes, he starts getting antsy.

We sat in traffic for quite a bit and Lucas was getting anxious, he kept asking, "where are we?" and "when are we going to be home?".

As we were about a minute away from home, Lucas asked what the bear flag was for? I looked to where he was pointing, next to the US flag in front of the local library. I told him it was the California flag.

Lucas said, "Oh, so that's where we are! In California, in the United States." He seemed relieved.

There's a bathtub in our living room

Lucas woke up in quite a snit this morning when he discovered that I had displaced his safari playland from the floor onto the armchair.

After we got over the initial whining and crying, bemoaning the loss of his playland, he asked, "Mommy can you help me build a new one?". "Sure," I replied, "just let me know what I need to build."

My assignment from my demanding client: Use a blanket to make a bathtub for the giraffe and his bucket of berries. Make steps so the giraffe (aka "Sharky") can get in and out.

Of course, my client was standing over me, watching my every move, with non-helpful criticisms including:

- That's not right.

- That's not the way it's supposed to be.

- The blanket is not supposed to be like that.

- You forgot to build in the steps. No, not like that.

When I gently probed to get some more constructive feedback, my difficult client would respond with:

- It's just not right. You need to fix it.

- I don't know how to do it. You just need to finish it so Sharky can eat. Sharky's getting hungry.

Lucas finally decided to become more involved and this was the result.

My client was faily happy with how it turned out. Of course, he still had some personal touches he wanted to add. He spent about ten more minutes adding more animals and other assorted gizmos to Sharky's bathtub.

I thought back to the times I've worked with contractors, giving them similar feedback, okay maybe a little more constructive than Lucas. But I remember using words like doo-dads and gizmos, or saying things like "you know, that thing that goes along the bottom of the wall" (baseboards) and "I don't know what it is about it, but it doesn't look right." Like mother like son I guess.

In case you're wondering, Sharky and his pals are still playing in the bathtub on our living room rug. Lucas made me promise that I wouldn't move them again until he gets home from school. So they're still there, eating and frolicking in the tub. At least it gives me yet another excuse not to vacuum the rug today.

The joys of youth

After viewing this YouTube video, Lucas (and Kevin and I) were so excited to see this carnivorous plant exhibit at the SF Conservatory of Flowers.

While it was nice to be in the Conservatory again for the firs time in many years, the actual Chomp exhibit was a disappointment. I thought there would be live demonstrations of bugs getting eaten by these meat-eating plants. Or maybe interactive exhibits for the little ones. At least plants that Lucas could look at without me having to pick him up. I was wrong on all counts, despite the kid-friendly marketing from the usually elegant and sophiticated Conservatory.
There was one table with venus fly traps and magnifying glasses that held Lucas' attention for about a minute.The real fun for Lucas came after we left the Conservatory. Even though the skies were gray and drizzly, Lucas found a lot to enjoy.

Then we heard a flute-like music playing a ways off. We ventured through a grove of trees and there was a man standing by himself playing the flute. Something in the music must have inspired Lucas, but he just wanted to run in the wide grassy area and move to the music.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The last time I enjoyed stomping through puddles was in college when my friends and I walked home from the local sports bar. There were at least five of us and we sang and stomped in the puddles the whole way down fraternity row, back to our sorority house.

The good old days!

Funnies to pass the time

I found this on Metrodad's blog. Pretty funny. Here are the highlights. Have one of your own to share?

What an adorable little newborn baby! = Holy shit, your kid is ugly!

I don't remember what life was like before the baby. = I used to have no life.

That's so great your child loves Chicken McNuggets. = Why don't you just feed your kid out of the dumpster?

Maybe we'll do a playdate next weekend? = Dude, can you please watch my kid next Saturday so I can get some free time to myself? I'm begging you!

We're so tired by the end of the day. = We haven't had sex in ages!

She has your ears. = Man, that kid looks NOTHING like you. Are you sure you're really the father? I think you seriously need to consider taking a paternity test.

We're not sure when we're having another one. = We're not sure we even WANT another kid. The one we have right now is totally kicking our asses! How the hell do people have more than one kid?

Wow, it looks like they're really hitting it off. = Crap, our kids seem to really like each other. Does this mean that you and I will have to spend time together? I sure hope not.

He sure does have a lot of energy! = Your kid is a hyperactive monster! He must drive you completely insane. I pity you.

Your outfit looks so comfortable. = Grungy sweatpants, a food-stained t-shirt, ponytail in a baseball cap? You look like shit, woman! Have you completely given up on personal hygiene already?

It must be so great having a nanny to help out. = How come you have a nanny when you don't even work?

It's nice that he has such a good appetite. = Your kid is a gluttonous slob who eats like a trucker. Never in my entire life have I ever seen anyone inhale a pizza so quickly. No wonder he looks like a sumo wrestler!

We missed the pitter patter of little feet. = The damn vasectomy didn't work!

Parenting was so much different when I was your age. = We didn't complain like you do. Stop whining. I worked 2 jobs, had 4 kids, and never had anyone to help me out. EVER!

That's such a cute age. = I remember when my kids used to like me. Wait until they get older and hate your guts.

Looks like you could fit a whole soccer team in that car! = Since you have a minivan, can you drive my kids to the soccer game next week?

The school wasn't really a good fit for her. = She got kicked out.

Your daughter looks like a little China doll. = Your daughter is Asian.

I love your daughter's curly locks. = Your daughter is Black.

Your daughter has such a beautiful skintone. = Your daughter is Latino.

She's so exotic looking. = Your daughter is mixed-race.

Global perspective

For the past few weeks Lucas has had homework. Most of the time, it's a fun activity for us to do together over the weekend. Once I heard him say to Kevin, "I have so much homework!" Each week focuses on a different continent. The assignment is to cut out pictures, make a collage about that continent, and make a presentation to class during circle time.

North America and South America were pretty easy with the Sunset and cooking magazines we had around the house. Here is his first assignment of North America.

You can kind of see in the bottom right corner that he wrote "Lucas". He also usually embellishes it with stamps or stickers.

We missed Asia since he was sick that week. Europe was a piece of cake. Africa proved to be challenging. We bought $10 of magazines at the bookstore to do the assignment.

I asked him what he was going to say in the presentation. He pointed to the pictures and said, "This is an African beach. These are two camels walking through the desert in Africa. This is an African lady working in the fields."

Whatever they talk about in school is sinking in on some level with Lucas. How do I know?

1) I was telling Lucas a story on the way to school yesterday, which included the "highest moutain ever, a million miles tall". He surprised me by asking, "Is it taller than Mount Fuji?". He informed me that Mt. Fuji was a beautiful mountain in Japan and his teacher Nobu showed them pictures in class.


2) On the way home from school yesterday, Lucas asked for a scary story. I made one up about witches coming to Radiator Springs and how the cars had to load up the witches on boats to get them to Antartica to break the spell.


Lucas stopped me and said, "They don't even need to get in a boat Mommy. You know that North America and South America are connected? And then, South America and Antarctica are so close that they can swim." Okay, so maybe you can't swim from one to the other, but I thought it was pretty darn close for a boy of his age. I asked him, "How close is South America to Antarctica?" Lucas said, "I don't really know, but they're very close. I guess I can explain it to you with the globe at home, okay mommy? Can you wait until then?"


3) Last night as Lucas was falling asleep he was singing a song to himself. Something like this, "North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and don't forget Australia, and don't forget Antarctica, and don't forget Chile" (his other teacher is from Chile).

It's nice to know that he's learning that the world extends beyond our confines of the East Bay.

Feeling the creaks

For those of you not familiar with the book "Uncle Elephant", by Arnold Lobel, you should pick up a copy. The book has the sweetest stories about a boy elephant who lives with his uncle for a while. The stories provide reminders to take time to enjoy the simple things in life and to look at the world through a child's perspective. It's a classic.

One of the stories is called, "Uncle Elephant Feels the Creaks", about getting older, which brings me to the whole point of this post. I had a whole week of feeling the creaks.

Last weekend I went to SF to walk with my good friend Karen. We walked all over SF that morning, the same morning as the Bay to Breakers run. Though we didn't walk along the route, we saw signs of the Bay to Breakers everywhere. Young people were drinking alcohol and carousing about at 8:30 in the morning. We saw many groups of toga-toting party animals making their way to the route.

Karen and I were roommates in college and reminisced about the old days. Then we walked by my old apartment on Nob Hill. This was my first apartment after college. It's an amazing 3.5 bedroom apartment with 2 fireplaces and a washer/dryer in the unit. I rented it out with three friends from Stanford at the obscenely low rent of $1400 (my share was $425 for my own room). Now you can't even get a one-bedroom for $1400. We asked someone to take a photo of us in front of the apartment building.

Compare the above photo with the one below, Karen and I are in both. Not hard to guess which one is me is it? The one below was taken in 1992. For me 20 pounds ago, for the group, eight kids later. What a difference 15 years makes!Later in the week, we celebrated my birthday. Kevin and I met up with friends at Le Cheval for a birthday dinner. It was nice to see my friends in one place, but gosh, I felt old.Lastly, we celebrated with my family on Saturday night. It was a nice way to top off the birthday festivities.

Having a kid is another reminder of how old I really am. I can't chase him around on my hands and knees on the hardwood floor and it's hard to keep up with him on the playground. Then the other day Lucas said to me, "Mommy I'm pretty good at soccer. I think I was probably better than you were even before you got old." Ouch! Way to pour salt on the wound.

Another bathroom breakthrough (aka - one more entry that will embarrass Lucas when he gets older)

If you have been a loyal reader, you may remember the great poop breakthrough last summer. Well, Kevin was "on duty" again tonight with yet another breakthrough, again, of the poopy nature.

We haven't been pushing the wiping issue, in fact, I have never once asked him to wipe and he hasn't asked either. So we are pretty much at the beck and call of our reigning king, with commands like "Will somebody wipe me?!", or "Wipe my butt!", or most frequently, "I'm all done!"

Tonight Kevin used the same, shall we say, low-maintenance parenting style, that he used with pooping in the toilet, with wiping.

Basically Lucas called out, "I'm all done", but when Kevin checked, he wasn't all done. So Kevin left the bathroom. When Lucas called out "I'm all done again," Kevin waited a couple minutes. Then Lucas said, "I wiped my own bottom."

Kevin went to do an inspection and one more wipe, "for extra measure". And indeed, Lucas did a clean wipe, without even getting any on his hands.

Yay Lucas!

If you still haven't had enough on this topic, read below.

Lately I've been wondering about the whole wiping thing and when kids can do it on their own. For a few laughs, here are some comments and bits of advice from Berkeley Parents Network.

The advice and comments are very explicit, and also, just like poop and little kids, all over the place:

- The 9-Step process, beginning with, "First: lean forward with your feet touching the floor. Don't lean back - it smushes all over the bum and makes a big mess," and including, "Make a ''pad'' - you really have to show them how to wad or fold or however you do it. He was making a hard little ball of toilet paper so I had to show him how to make it into a loose pad."
- I'd say he wipes himself about 80% of the time. I don't insist on that other 20%, and figure that by the time he's six he'll be doing it all by himself.
- I once talked with a mother of four about this, and she said she thinks that kids aren't really good at it until they are about nine. (Maybe she was exagerating?)
- My son will be able to change his poo-ing times to make sure he goes at home (not at school) and yours may too. So, it might not be a worry
- Encourage the child to wipe themselves and let them know that you will check them and do any final bits that need doing. Gradually, you'll find that you need to do less and less ''clean up''. I assume your child is in school. Ask the teacher how she copes when away from her ''personal groomer'' - you!

Yep, he's Asian

Even though everyone comments on how much Lucas looks like Kevin, and yes, they do look a lot alike, he is still very much 1/2 Korean.

How do I know? Here are a couple proof points:

1) He still eats, by the spoonful, these little dried anchovies, which my mom buys for him at the Korean grocery store.2) Lucas loves all other Korean food too. He will even drink the watery remains left at the bottom of a bowl of kimchi.

3) Lucas came out to the backyard today like this. Need I say more?

My new best friend

You know how sometimes you meet someone and you know you're going to be friends. There's no rhyme or reason really, maybe it's the way the person says hi, the initial conversation, or you find a unique bond. Like, "Yes, I love to read books about monkeys who turn into people too!"

Well, I walked into the store, and it was like we knew each other immediately. I could tell, "Wow, we're going to be best friends." So I plopped down my debit card and we walked out of the store together.

My new friend is so intuitive, he knows what I want to do and what my limitations are. Like he automatically knew that I don't like to read manuals, and guess what, there's not really a manual here, just a friendly little quick start guide. It's so refreshing not to have to wade through pages and pages to find out how to turn the thing on/off.

And my new best friend plays well with my other good friend, my computer. There were no awkward introductions, trying to find ways for them to get along. They got along famously and I didn't have to intervene to try and make conversation, like "Well, you both like people with brown eyes (me), don't you?".

I am so excited about my new best friend. I can't wait to take him in the car and we can really go. I'm so excited to get rid of the last of my CDs.

Life is so good with my new best friend.

BTW, I'm not a total newbie to digital music. I've had iTunes on my computer for a while, and actually had an old MP3 player back in the late 90s that looked something like this.

Talk about unfriendly! We weren't compatible at all. We never understood eachother. I think he ended up at my friend's garage sale. He was a dick!

Another one bites the dust

Today I quit yet another job, to start a new job.

I've had a lot of jobs. Why have I switched so much? I guess there are a couple reasons: I get bored easily and I'm somewhat of an opportunist when it comes to work.

It started when I was at an ad agency, I'd been there for two years. Then one of my former clients called me and asked me to work as her assistant brand manager at an educational software company, I wasn't sure if I should take it. I felt I should be loyal to the ad agency.

Then my former boss gave me some advice, "This is a great opportunity. You need to look out for yourself, because you're the only one really looking out for your best interests." So I left the world of advertising and started in on my marketing career. Thanks Elizabeth!

Oh, the places I've been! Here''s a quick rundown post-college:

Law office
Dean Witter (now Morgan Stanley)
DMB&B Advertising (now defunct)
Knowledge Adventure
Team in Training
Providian (now part of Washington Mutual)
Osborne/McGraw-Hill
eSCORE.com (now just the SCORE centers)
The Learning Company (now part of Riverdeep)
LeapFrog
Riverdeep (formerly The Learning Company)
SNP
Kodak Gallery (formerly Ofoto)
See Jane Run

What am I doing now? Well, I'll spend more time volunteering with Potentia Foundation and also working for a new start-up, which so far, is still top-secret. But soon...

Words to live by

We were playing cars the other day. Lucas made his car fly. I asked if I (my car) could fly too. Then he said:

"If you can climb a mountain, you can do anything, even fly."

Maybe one day I'll walk into someone's office and that quote will be on one of those motivational posters you see once in a while.

Career aspirations

Lucas and I spent a considerable amount of time in the backyard today since it was his day home to recuperate from the flu, before starting back at school tomorrow.

I spent most of the time weeding. Something I just started to enjoy, I guess since our yard has been redone and the amount of weeds is not so overwhelming.

Anyway, Lucas was out there helping me. First we had to hammer some of these stakes in the ground, to keep the watering hoses in the ground. Lucas insisted on hammering. He kept saying, "I'm your hammer helper. Don't worry if you have any hammer work, just ask me, I'm you're hammer helper." I couldn't help but think of Hamburger Helper, but that's besides the point.

After we completed our hammering project, he helped me with the weeding and also pruning back our prolific potato vine.

Lucas would ask me frequently to come and inspect his handiwork, to show me how much he had cut from the potato vine, or how well he swept the deck. I would nod in approval and say, "Wow, it looks so clean now!" He would say, "I'm a good cleaner." I'd tell him thanks for helping and he would say, "Yep, I'm a good helper, look at how clean everything looks."

Then Lucas said something that will make my mom's heart sink, "I don't want to be a doctor any more, I want to be a house helper."

Me: What's a house helper? You mean someone who cleans other people's houses?
Lucas: No, just your house. When I get to be a big grown up, you can call me if you need help cleaning your house, or hammering.
Me: That would be nice. But you could be a doctor too and then just help me out when you have time.
Lucas: No, I'll just be a house helper.

Packaging review

When I worked at places where we sold things on shelves, like LeapFrog and Knowledge Adventure, we would have packaging reviews. Basically, everyone and their mother would cram into a conference room where we everyone would express their opinions about the box, clamshell, book cover, or what have you.

Here are some recent case studies, done independently of course, on new packaging I've encountered.

Case study #1: Wateroos

I just discovered these the other day at Monterey Market. I think they are the best thing since sliced bread and then some. I bought them because Lucas has been at home with a fever and I was trying to find something that he would drink that wasn't too acidic (he also has canker sores).

I thought it was apple juice, but on closer inspection saw that it's apple flavored water, which to him, passes as apple juice. So you get the same response as you would if you busted out some apple juice (which is rare in our house), but without the guilt of all that sugar.

Since Lucas revealed himself to be such a juice monger at birthday parties, I always started to wonder why companies didn't package water in more kid-appealing ways. Now I'll have to think of something else to make my millions.

Though the packaging achieves the goal of making a kid (or 36-year old marketing gal) think this is apple juice, I think the packaging could use a little work. I mean, what the heck is so appealing about this creepy turtle with oversized eyes (the "oo" in Wateroo), hovering over the barrel of apples? And don't they know they're competing with Scooby-Doo, Transformers and the X-Men?

Case study #2: See photo below. What do you think came in this package: The fancy folding box, the foot owner's manual, personalized letter and marketing collateral? (Photo doesn't even show the package it was mailed in.)

One pair of Thorlo Socks for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk. Yes, just one pair of socks.

(You may be wondering, "Is this another plug for donations to Sunny's 3-day walk to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation?" No, but I'll take the donations.

I received an email from the good folks at 3-Day that Thorlo was offering a free pair of socks to all Komen walkers. I signed up and about a week later got a rather large cardboard box from Thorlo.

I was astounded, and actually, quite horrified, that so much packaging and collateral was all for one pair of socks. Granted these are the best socks I think I've ever owned - so cushiony. But all this for one pair of socks? I know it's free for Komen, they're not paying money to Thorlo for this. But if I were Komen, I would say to Thorlo, "Thanks for giving our participants the free socks. But can you guys simplify the packaging, maybe just a pink ribbon around the socks and one piece of paper with the marketing messages? Maybe take the $1.00+ you spent (read: wasted) in packaging and just donate it to us."

Where was the CFO when this packaging got approved?

Parenting moments

Since Lucas joined us in July of 2003, we've had so many moments where we stop and think, "This is what being a parent is all about." Of course, you have the great moments:

- Holding Lucas for the first time
- Watching him eat his first peach and loving it right away
- Watching him ride a bike for the first time
- Listening to him tell me a story he made up
- Hearing his friends at school say excitedly, "It's Lucas!", when he walks in the door

Then there are the "other" moments:
- Giving Lucas his first bath at 3 weeks old, without Kevin there. Realizing he had pooped in the baby bathtub and realizing that I was the one who had to deal with it.
- Calling 911 when Lucas had a fever, only to be asked in the living room by the 3 paramedics if we had given him Tylenol to lower his temperature. ("Uh no, we didn't do that. Sorry guys, guess you can go home now.")
- A solid hour of resisting everything as I try to get him out of bed, dressed, teeth brushed, fed and out the door for school.

Yep, we had one of those "other" moments on Saturday.

We were on a playdate with Lindsey and Miles. We had met them at their house and scootered to downtown Berkeley for some ice cream.

The way there and eating the ice cream went fine, of course. But the way home we ran into some issues. Suffice it to say, I carried and dragged Lucas (kicking, crying and screaming the whole way) with one arm, and a scooter in the other, for about a mile.

By the time we got back to our house, I was in tears too.

Move over Spidey, there's a new superhero in town!

On the car ride home today, Lucas was telling me about the Knights of America. I thought it was some new brand of superhero.

But once he started talking more about them, how they were the first people who lived in North America, I realized he was talking about Native Americans.

What matters to Lucas

As we sat down to dinner on Monday, Lucas said, "Mommy, we have to say prayer." I said, "Okay." Lucas put his hand gently on mine and said in a quiet voice, "prayer". Then he said, "Thank you mommy for talking with my teacher. I like that. And thank you for playing birds with me today."

I said, "Thank you for playing birds with me. And thanks for being such a wonderful son. Daddy and I were so proud to talk with your teacher about you." This made him smile.

Then on Tuesday night, he said "prayer" again. Then he added, "Thank you for saying 'thank you' when I helped you put away the dishes."

What a sweetie!

Who is this?

Does this sound like someone you know?

- likes to be the class "peace reporter" (basically, the class rat, letting the teacher know if someone is doing something they're not supposed to be doing)
- challenges himself
- likes to sit close to his teacher
- participates in songs, calendar, classroom tasks
- shows interest in new material
- enjoys working in small group activities
- focuses on individual work
- keeps busy, so he doesn't need to be reminded about classroom limits
- likes to work with math, language, and sensorial materials

If you haven't guessed yet, it's Lucas. These are excerpts from his teacher's report on him (it was time for parent-teacher conferences for the school).

Although much of what his teacher wrote are things we see in him at home, it's still so cool to see the other things he enjoys at school, like small group activities, who knew?

I told him on the way home from school that Kevin and I met with his teacher. I told him how happy we were to hear how much fun he was having at school and that he was enjoying learning new things.

His response? He didn't say anything.

Boys will be boys

At Milan's birthday party, while all the adults chatted politely and the little girls played quietly, drawing and hugging Milan, trouble was brewing in Boy Land.

There were a few boys there, including Lucas, between the ages of 3-15. Christopher, the unlucky one in the tunnel, is in highschool. Once the game was underway, there was no backing out of it. The younger boys staged a no-holds barred assault on Christopher - pelting him with balls, hitting him with their little fists, tackling him to the ground, then sitting on him and further pounding on him. He tried to hide in the tunnel, but those scary little boys pulled him out.

I wonder what parents who have only daughters thought of this.

Happy Birthday Milan!

It was my niece's first birthday on Saturday. Here she is in her Korean dress (she's the shorter one in the middle) with her happy parents.


Milan had her first taste of a real dessert at her party. My sister seated her on the table with my mom and all her friends. Whenever she took a bite of the cupcake, everyone at the table cheered and some even clapped. Soon enough, Milan joined in. After each bite, she would clap her hands and look around to see what our reactions were.


Isn't she adorable??

Update on Lucas'...condition

About a month ago Lucas announced to us that he was expecting two babies.

I hadn't really mentioned it since then. But this morning I asked him about it. I think I said, "How are your babies doing in your tummy? Remember a while ago, you said you had two babies in your tummy."

He looked at me as if I had three heads.

Getting hitched

Over the weekend at my mom’s house we watched our wedding video. Lucas watched it too. During the ceremony, I cried while reading my vows. Lucas asked me, “Mommy, why were you crying?” I said, “I cried because I was so happy to get married to Daddy.”

In the car ride home, Lucas kept asking me about why I cried in “the wedding movie”. I explained to him that sometimes people cry when they’re really really happy.

Lucas: Will you cry when we get married?
Me: Lucas, we aren’t getting married. Mommies can’t marry their kids. I’m married to Daddy. One day you’ll find someone really nice and special to marry. And when you do, I’ll be so happy I’ll cry.
Lucas: But why can’t I marry you? You can be married to two people.
Me: No, you can only be married to one person. Don’t worry, you’ll find someone special when you’re older and you’ll be very very happy.
Lucas: But who’s going to marry me? (a note of desperation in his voice)
Me: Someone really special. Whoever marries you will be the luckiest person in the world.
Lucas: Okay, I guess I’ll just marry Ella.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

I bought tulips for the dining room table for Easter. Last week, they were looking tired and sad to say the least.

Lucas had other ideas.

Me: Lucas, look at those tulips.
Lucas: What about them?
Me: It's time for some new flowers.
Lucas: I think they look beautiful. Look at the design that the praying mantis made on them. (The night before Kevin let his praying mantis roam around on them)
Me: Which design?
Lucas: See, how all the leaves are going all over the place. It looks beautiful.
Me: Yes, it does look kind of neat.

I waited till the next day when he was at school to toss the flowers. I replaced them with some from our yard.

Watch your back Martha...

Here I come!

Today Lucas and I made banana nut bread from a recipe my mom has used from her Betty Crocker New Cookbook (copyright date 1961). As the bread was baking, I was flipping through the book and struck a gold mine of useful information. The page was labeled: Kitchen Know-How – Hints for the Homemaker. The page included some pretty common-sense suggestions: Plan Ahead (make a list of things you need at the beginning of the week), Combine Jobs (while you’re waiting for the bread to bake, mop the floor – what fun!), Organize Work, and Be Comfortable (wear comfortable loose-fitting clothes when you’re working in the kitchen – like a house dress probably).

But I didn't have my full come-to-Jesus moment until I read the last one.

Refresh your spirits.
Every morning before breakfast, comb hair, apply makeup and add a dash of cologne. Does wonders for your morale and your family’s too!

Think pleasant thoughts while working and a chore will become a “labor of love”.

Have a hobby. Garden, paint pictures, look through magazines for home planning ideas, read a good book or attend club meetings. Be interested – and you’ll always be interesting!

If you have a spare moment, sit down, close your eyes and just relax.

This is the advice that I’ve been searching for all these years. I can’t believe no one told me this before. Thank god for Betty Crocker!

I also found a poem in the book, about planning meals. I’m going to stitch this onto a doily and frame it for my kitchen, just as soon as I fluff the pillows and fix Kevin a cocktail. Enjoy!

Planning foods that go together
Something soft and something crisp
Should always go together,
And something hot with something cold
No matter what the weather;
Serve bland foods with tangy sauce
And garnish them with green
If you will use these simple rules
You’ll be your family’s queen!

After-school lessons

Anatomy
Lucas: Mom, what is the name of the apple that’s in my body? You know, right here? (pointing to his throat)
Me: Your Adam’s apple.

Comparative Art and Literature
Lucas: Mom, you know the person who wrote “There’s a Wocket In My Pocket”, what’s his name again?
Me: Dr. Seuss.
Lucas: Did he write “If I Ran the Zoo”?
Me: Yes, he did. Why do you think it’s the same person?
Lucas: Because the pictures look the same.
Me: He wrote those stories and drew the pictures. He also wrote “The Cat in the Hat”, “Horton Hears a Who”, and a bunch of the other books we read.
Lucas: Oh yeah, he writes all those funny books. I love those books.
Me: Me too.

Geography
Lucas: For my birthday, I’m going to get presents for my friends from South America.
Me: That’s nice of you to want to get stuff for your friends. South America is pretty far away. How about somewhere closer?
Lucas: How far is South America? Is it farther than Berkeley?
Me: No, Berkeley is right next to where we live. We go there all the time.
Lucas: Okay that’s fine. I guess we’ll just go to Berkeley.

Coming to a living room near you

Get ready for the hottest new boy band this side of El Cerrito! Turn on your speakers.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The band is currently looking for a new member to play the jaw harp. Let me know if you're interested.

Letting go

Kevin's brother Brady came to town with his girlfriend Michelle. We had a great time. We went to dinner with them Friday night. Lucas had so much fun with them, and of course, roughhousing with his Uncle Brady.

On Sunday we all spent some time at the Marina flying kites. It was a gorgeous day, with just enough wind for kite-flying, but mild enough where we weren't freezing our butts off.

(If you look closely, Kevin and Lucas have the exact same expression on their faces. Also, you'll notice that Lucas has his hoodie on backwards. He put it on that way in the morning and left it that way all day.)

Lucas was concerned that his kite was too far away. "Bring it back," he would say, "It's going to fly away. I want to put it back in the package." I explained that the fun thing about kites is to see how high it can fly in the sky. I assured him that there was no way the kite would fly off with someone holding onto it. After a few times, Lucas got it and could enjoy watching it.

Then of course, I was holding it and accidentally let it go. The spool quickly rolled across the grass away from me. Kevin caught it in time, but Lucas saw the whole thing (of course) and reprimanded me, "See Mommy, you almost lost my kite."

I wonder how long it will take him to trust me with his kite again.

When the shit hits the floor

I knew I was in for a rough late afternoon when I picked Lucas up from school today. As I was gathering his things, I saw another kid take the LEGO toy out of Lucas' hand. Lucas pushed him, the boy started to cry. I went over and said, "Lucas, you need to use your words. You hurt your friend. Tell him you're sorry." I said this several times, then Lucas had a full-blown tantrum, crying and screaming and flailing of the limbs.

Then Lucas clocked ME in the chin with his toy. I abruptly got up and said, "Time to go Lucas," and started walking toward the door. He screamed and came after me, then sat down right outside the gate, screaming at me, but not budging. I picked him up and dragged him, kicking and screaming, about a half a block and finally wrestled him into the car seat.

For some reason, the drive home cheered him up. He seemed to forget that he had just done his best public imitation of Regan's evil side from the Exorcist.

I was willing to let bygones be bygones too. As we were nearing our house I asked him, "Do you want to go out for Mexican food or do you want hamburgers at home?" He answered, "Hamburgers at home and maybe some strawberries sound good to me." He even offered to carry in some of the bottled water I had in the car. I said, "Thanks for being such a good helper," to which he replied, "I'm not just a helper, I'm a helping machine!"

However, once we got inside, Lucas decided he had a couple more tricks up his sleeve. All of a sudden, he didn't want a hamburger. He said he wanted "something else" in an excruciatingly hard-to-listen-to whiny voice. When I told him we were having hamburgers and he could eat it or not, he had some other kind of fit, which I've since blocked out of my mind.

After a time-out in his room, Lucas came out and started eating his hamburger. Something else must have happened, because I gave Kevin the SOS signal for him to take over. I retreated upstairs for a bit, then came down once I heard things had settled down.

Kevin was in the bathroom with Lucas, as he was appointed the royal butt-wiper for the evening, and was helping his royal majesty get ready for bed. So I snuggled onto the couch with some blankets. I was starting to think we would have a peaceful ending to this day after all.

Then I heard Kevin yell, "Fuck! Shit!" My first thought was, "Watch your language." But I got up, and sure enough, water and shit were flowing out of the toilet, onto our bathroom floor and out into the hallway.

Kevin asked me, "Do you want to put Lucas to bed or clean up?"

After an afternoon like the one I had, I chose to mop up Lucas' shitty toilet water, and gag while doing it, than risk having to endure another one of his crazy tantrums.

Good NIGHT!

The true meaning of Easter

Family and friends
We had a small Easter party this morning with some family and friends. About 15 of us in all, it was a good small number. Especially since Lucas was concerned that we not have too many people over, since he thought that everyone else would be taking his Easter eggs.

Food
We had a small Easter party this morning with some family and friends. Our friend, who is Jewish, said to his wife before they came over, "Wouldn't it be funny if Sunny served bagels and lox for Easter brunch?" I guess I was in a funny mood, because that's exactly what we had. Plus sausages, mini quiches and strawberries and cream and chocolate-dipped strawberries (Yummy! Thanks Lori!).

Oh yeah, candy!
Lucas has been looking forward to the Easter candy for a while now. Word sure must get around fast at preschool. He quizzed me all week on this:
Lucas: When is the Easter bunny coming?
Me: Soon, on Easter Sunday.
Lucas: What type of candy will the Easter bunny bring?
Me: Something good I'm sure.
Lucas: Does he know I like chocolate?
Me: Of course he does. The Easter bunny knows those kinds of things.
Lucas: What if he forgets to bring candy to my house?
Me: He'll only forget if you keep asking me about it. (I didn't really say this, but after the nth round of questioning, I felt like it.)

The spirit of competition
Ella, Owen and Lucas were geared up and ready for the Easter egg hunt. When Lucas was getting his shoes on, I asked him, "Are you going to wear your rain boots?" (He's been rather fond of them lately) "No, I need my running shoes because I have to run fast to get the Easter eggs."(If you haven't been to our house recently, note the newly landscaped backyard, below.)

And what would Easter be without some one-up-manship in the candy department.
- I got 2 chocolate eggs.
- But I got FOUR chocolate eggs.
- I found the most eggs, more than both of you!

Because after all, isn't that what Easter's all about??

Family day

Kevin's company is headquartered in Texas so he gets his fair share of "Go US of A" emails around 4th of July. But one of the perks is that he gets Good Friday off. Yee-haw!!!

To celebrate us all being home, we went on an outing to Tilden Park. We walked around Jewel Lake and then hit the merry-go-round. Lucas was feeling in a festive and photo-friendly mood. So of course, I took advantage of that.

Here is Lucas performing as a hand model, so you can get the scale of the banana slug. They were everywhere around Jewel Lake. We had a great outing and topped it off with a sushi lunch.

Pushing 40

You know you're almost 40 when the spinny thing on the merry-go-round makes you so dizzy you go pale and want to vomit.

I had to shut my eyes while on it, I felt so ill. After my ride was over, Kevin wanted to try it.

I think Kevin felt worse off than I did. Of course, Lucas had a great time!

Extra income

I've joked before about Lucas' future career options. But if we needed extra cash, there are some things he could do right now to earn some money for the family:

- Car crash choreographer - Lucas takes time and thought into directing any high-speed chases that we have in the house. "First Lightning jumps over the pillow, flips in the air, lands on his back, but then he bounces back onto the racetrack."

- Sound effects - Inspired by Lightning McQueen's signature, "Ka-Chow!" Lucas is now really into making his own sound effects. "Pa-Chow" and "Pa-Ching" are his current favorites.

- Party planner - When Lucas proposes a new activity for us to do, he describes the activity in great detail, "I have an idea. We could play cars, you're Fillmore and I'm Lightning. Then we could have lunch. And then, we can go to the playground and ride my scooter!" He always ends it with the phrase, "How fun is that??!!"

- Criminal interrogator
Lucas: Remember when you picked me up from school, you said I could have a juicebox for dinner.
Me: No, I didn't say that.
Lucas: I remember that mommy. You said that, you did!
Me: No, I wouldn't have said that Lucas.
Lucas: You said that mommy! I heard you.
Me: No, I know I didn't say that Lucas.
Lucas: Now you're telling lies. [shakes head] You need to tell the truth!

Dancing debut

A couple months ago when I picked up Lucas from school there was a sign-up sheet for a once-a-week dance class, specifically with the end-goal of a performance at the annual multicultural feast and fundraiser for the school.

I thought, what the heck, I'll sign him up and see how he does.

I peeked in on dance class one day, Lucas was lightly kicking the ground with his shoe, while his partner, Ella, danced joyfully on her own.

I received periodic reports through Ella's mom, that according to Ella, "Lucas doesn't do the dance right."

When I asked Lucas about dance class, he mostly denied that he was in a dance class. A few times when I asked him to show me what he was learning, he would skip around the room wildly flinging his arms about.

I learned from Ella's mom more about the dance, Ella actually practiced it at home. In fact, it didn't include any skipping or arm-flinging. And there were specific moves: heel, heel, toe, toe, and three little jumps to the side; there was also a move where the partners link arms and swing each other around. Yeah...I didn't see any of these moves from Lucas.

A few days before the performance, I asked Lucas if he would show me his dance moves. Again, he skipped wildly around the room. Then he said, "But Yovanka (his dance teacher) told me today that that's not how the dance goes." I asked him if he knows how it goes and he replied, "Not really." I told him I thought I knew a little bit of the dance and I showed him the heel, heel, toe, toe move that Ella's mom showed me. But he ran off to play with his cars so I didn't push it.

Kevin and I eagerly looked forward to Lucas' big dance debut, wondering what would happen when Lucas got on stage with his dance team in front of 100 or so parents.

There were two dance groups. Lucas was in the 2nd group. (Turn up your speakers!)

Everyone was clapping and laughing throughout both performances. After Lucas came down from the stage, he had a big smile on his face. So whatever he was thinking about, he must have been pleased with himself. Unless he was just relieved to be away from the whole dancing escapade. Kevin and I were there to congratulate him on a job well done. He seemed pleased as he ate his 4th cookie of the day.

As I look back on the videos, I wonder what he was thinking when he was up there.
- How does this dance go again? (probably not)
- What am I doing here? (maybe)
- Is Daddy eating my cookie? (most likely)

Luckily he has other talents to fall back on.

Pre pre-med

Lucas has been dabbling in medicine recently. More specifically, he has several hypotheses that he has been talking about:

- If you have a black scab, it will give you special powers, like being able to fly without wings.

- If you get dirt on your boogers and eat them, you will throw up.

- If you don't get dirt on your boogers and eat them, nothing will happen to you.

- If you find a dried booger on your cheek, it means you will be lucky. (Isn't finding a dried booger on your cheek lucky enough??)

Lucsa has identified a new gender: the boy-girl. There's a boy in his class at school who has long hair. Lucas calls him (I hope not to his face) a boy-girl.

Sometimes it sucks to be a parent...

and yesterday was one of those days. From the moment he woke up, Lucas seemed intent on pissing off me and Kevin. I'm sure he wasn't, he probably just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Here are some highlights:
- He was being BRATTY! Even when we were playing cars, he was saying things like, "No, your car can't come up on the couch because only I have the special powers," or, "I don't have to say ready set go, because only I can win the race." I pretended my car was making cupcakes and gave him one, he said it didn't taste good. When I pretended my car was going to eat them, he threw a fit saying he wanted more of the pretend cupcakes. So I told him I wasn't going to play with him if he acted like that, which of course, didn't go over very well with him.
- His whininess hit a new high. It was maddening, like constant nails down a chalkboard, all day long.
- He kept changing his mind ("I want cheese toast now," then 2 minutes later as I started to make it, "Wait, I changed my mind, I don't want any till after we read a book"; or, "I want to ride my bike", "I don't want to ride my bike." You get the picture. This went on and on and on...and on.
- He didn't want to go outside. For me, just going outside makes me feel better. Kevin finally forced him out of the house to go rock climbing at Indian Rock. Evidently, they had such a good time, he didn't want to leave to come home. And actually, he was in a slightly better mood when he got home.
- He crapped in his clothes. He says it was an accident, but I'm sure he was rebelling against all the time-outs he was given throughout the day. He was crying and I went over and he had a bonafide poop in his underpants and another one on the way. Luckily, he hadn't sat down in it and we got to the toilet in time so I could just roll the one it into the toilet and then he sat down to finish it up.

The evening went a little better. We went out for a sushi dinner then hit the book store, both were without any incidents.

It's hard to understand the mind of a 3-year old boy. But like adults, sometimes you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed. A few times he said, "I feel grumpy today," which I guess is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, today will be a better day for us all.

Breaking news at the McKay house!!!

During dinner tonight Lucas let me and Kevin in on some very exciting news. Lucas announced that he's having a baby! Yes, you heard it right. Lucas is having a baby boy and he's going to name it Sea Dragon.

Me: Is the baby in your belly right now?
Lucas: Yes it is.
Me: Oh, I was wondering why your belly was so big latetly.
Lucas: Yep, I have a baby in there.
Me: So, when is your baby going to come out? We need to know so we can get ready for it.
Lucas: Actually, my baby is coming on my birthday. July 16th!
Me: Fantastic! We can celebrate your birthday and your baby's birthday. Wait, we need to figure out where he will sleep.
Lucas: He will sleep with me in my room.
Me: That sounds like a good plan.

Then Lucas hit me with part two of his big news.

Lucas: And, there's going to be another one too.
Me: Really, two babies! How exciting! Is the other one a boy or a girl?
Lucas: A girl.
Me: Wow! A girl, cool! Did you pick out a name for her yet?
Lucas: Blood Nose. (I had just been telling him in the car not to pick his nose because he could get some bad germs, or even a bloody nose. Coincidence?)
Me: Interesting name. Did you come up with that name by yourself?
Lucas: Yes.

Apparently Lucas hasn't gone in for an ultrasound yet, but we'll keep you posted.

Watch this movie!!!

Unlike most people, I can read the same book over and over, as long as it's a good book. I have probably read the Lord of the Rings trilogy about 15 times (ten times over summer between 3rd and 4th grade) and Of Human Bondage at least 5 times. Same goes for movies: Breakfast at Tiffany's, Godfathers 1 and 2, Heathers, Goodfellas, Deer Hunter - all of these I have seen somewhere in the double-digits. Every time I read one of these books or see one of these movies for the nth time, I always see something new that I never noticed before.

But there's one movie that stands above the rest. Last night I was so excited to get this movie at the video store that when the cashier said, "$3.00," I thought to myself, "What a bargain!" Then when he said I had 5 days to return it, I started to think of how many times I could possibly watch it before Sunday morning.
Have you seen "On the Waterfront"? If not, go rent it. It's so worth the money. I can't count how many times I've seen this movie. It has everything: an amazing story of betrayal, romance, redemption and inspiration; incredible actors, including Marlon Brando, my personal favorite; and comedy, yes, there are some points where I laughed out loud. I didn't realize till after watching it last night just how funny some of the lines are.


Some interesting facts about this movie:

• AFI ranks this movie in the top 10 (sadly, just #8) in its list of greatest movies of all time, and 36th most inspiring movies of all time.
• The above scene between Rod Steiger and Marlon Brando is the most studied scene of all time.
• Despite winning a Best Actor Oscar for his role, Marlon Brando never thought he did a good job in this film.

Even though the above scene between Brando and Steiger is the most famous, I think that not enough credit has been paid to Brando for his scene at the end where he gives a short speech on the docks to the union boss, Johnny Friendly. Brando was an amazing actor! I have rewatched that scene again and again.

Watch it, you'll be glad you did. And if you don't like it, I want to know.

Who is the grown-up here?

Even through being sick and bored of his parents being sick, and through the occasional temper tantrum and general whininess, Lucas expressed his mature side on several occasions.

- A few days ago I ran to the store to pick up some things even though I was pretty sick and not feeling good. When Lucas heard me open the front door he said to Kevin, "I'm going to go give Mommy a hug because she needs one."

- Kevin will read any book to Lucas, except these two little SpongeBob books that I have from my days at LeapFrog. Lucas knows that Kevin won't read those books to him. So one day when Kevin said he would read a book to Lucas, Lucas brought over a non-SpongeBob book and said, "I think this one is okay for you, right?"

- This morning as I was driving Lucas to school, he asked me, "Can we listen to jazz sometimes? I never get to listen to jazz at home." After asking some questions, I found out that his teacher plays jazz CDs when rest time is over.

Can I get a price check on this?

I usually don't look at prices when I go grocery shopping. So yesterday when I went to pick up a few items at my favorite nearby grocery store, I didn't look at the prices. Imagine my surprise when I was told the total for my few grocery items (bay leaves, 2 single serving bottles of juice, almond butter, and a 4-pack of juice boxes) was more than $30.

The culprit? Kevin's $18.15 jar of almond butter! I had to come home and break the news to Kevin that he would have to suffer with plain old peanut butter.

My next volunteer project

I have a habit of volunteering for things and sometimes regretting it later. Kevin has said to me many times, "Next time you think about volunteering for something, let me know and I will talk you out of it."

Well, I volunteered for something again. No, it's not to watch someone else's kid for an afternoon, or to feed my friend's cat while she's out of town. This is a big one, but I won't regret it, though my feet probably will.

I just signed up to do the Breast Cancer 3-day walk for the Susan G. Komen foundation in San Diego in November this year. I have been looking for something like this to do before I hit the big 4-0, which will still not be for a few years. The AIDS ride is out of the question since I don't like the idea of riding so close to cars on the road. A triathlon is out since I don't like swimming, and I've already run one marathon, which was plenty for me.

So, I'm going to walk for three straight days and cover 60 miles. We get to stop and eat and even sleep in little tents or something. And yes, because I'm not accustomed to walking 20 miles in a day, I will need to train for this. I don't know much yet, like I said, I just signed up.

I'm on a team, appropriately named, the Boob Brigade. It's a small team, so far just me, Amy from my book group, her friend, and my friend Jennifer, who said she will sign up. If you're interested, sign up with our team.

Here is the link to my personal web page. It's a place for people like you to donate money to help fight breast cancer. I have to raise $2200, but my stretch goal is $5,000. That's okay if you don't feel like donating now, I'll hit you up for it later, to be sure.

Still haven't clicked on the link to donate? Here are some things to think about:
- According to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, approximately 200,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year
- Nearly 40,000 women will die from the disease.
- 85% of the net proceeds from the Breast Cancer 3-Day benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network fighting to end breast cancer.
- The causes of breast cancer are not fully understood, but the older a woman is, the more likely she is to get breast cancer.
- Men can get breast cancer too, though this is much more rare. However in 2006, it's estimated that men accounted for 1,720 cases in the US.

I know raising the money is the hardest part. But I'm going to think of some fun things to do to help me reach my goals. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Thanks! Don't be surprised if you hear from me soon. Maybe I'll ask you to go for a walk to help me in my training. Maybe I'll ask you for a donation.

Breaking ALL the rules

Sometimes life calls for drastic measures, like breaking one of your house rules, maybe even more than just one. The past few days required lots of rule-breaking, just so we could get through the days.

On Wednesday, I got a call from Lucas' school. He had a fever and was feeling lethargic. I picked him up and brought him home. He had a high fever, napped (which he hasn't done in ages), barely ate anything, and was content to sit on the couch with me and read books after his nap. This is very atypical behavior for our normally active fireball.

Broken rule #1 - Lots of juice. We normally don't keep juice in the house. In fact, I think Lucas only thinks he can get juice at birthday parties and other times when we are out of the house. But because of his high fever and lack of appetite, we filled the fridge with all types of juices to keep him happy and hydrated.

Broken rule #2 - Because he wasn't super hungry, we went out for "lunch" to Sketch on Thursday for ice cream. Meal of champions!

Broken rule #3 - Lucas started to finally sleep well on his own with the arrival of the Ice Bat, but since I get so anxious when he has a high fever, I slept with him so I could monitor his temperature throughout the night. (I know, I know, but I'm super paranoid about fevers.)

On Friday morning, he was feeling quite a bit better - the meds had kicked in and his fever was down. So we ventured out to Tilden Park's Little Farm for some gentle and quiet outdoor time feeding the animals. However, once we drove down the hill to the farm, I started not feeling so good. But since Lucas was feeling better, I stuck it out and we had a nice time.

By the time we got home, I felt like I couldn't really do anything except lie down. I tried to read to Lucas for a while, but after a few books, I couldn't even do that anymore. Lucas was a trooper and played with cars and trains in our room for a couple hours while I lounged around.

Broken rule #4 - Because Kevin wasn't due home for a while and I felt really bad about just lying around all afternoon, I found some video snippets of Cars and Curious George on YouTube and Lucas was pretty content to watch some of that stuff while I napped on and off.

On Saturday morning, my fever was hovering around 103. I pretty much slept until around noon. Kevin said that Lucas was lurking around me throughout the morning, so a few times he had to usher him out of the room. I felt pretty crappy in general all day.

Sunday I felt a bit better, and Lucas was feeling a lot better, but Kevin was feeling sick. Though my fever was down, my throat was trashed. Between Kevin and I, we tried to keep Lucas entertained.

Broken rule #5 - More videos! I went to the video store and picked up a few DVDs for Lucas. And now, as I type, he's gleefully watching the Curious George movie.

Lucas is home today with me and Kevin, to make sure he's all better before sending him back to school. But he will probably go back tomorrow. We'll have to wean him off of all the indulgences of the past few days. I wonder how long it will take for him to get used to life as it used to be again - no videos, no mom sleeping in his room, no juice, no ice cream for lunch - no fun!

Kindness of strangers

Believe it or not, Maggie has a favorite movie, "Streetcar Named Desire", with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. Although Maggie seems more like the Stanley Kowalski, very butch and masculine, Maggie's favorite character is Blanche. "Here comes my favorite line," she'll say, and then in her best attempt at a feminine Blanche DuBois voice she'll say, "Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."

Well this past weekend, Maggie put her favorite line to the test.

We left Maggie in my sister's yard in Montclair when we went to Twain Harte. She always has a great time there playing with my sister's dog. However, after we were about an hour into our road trip, I received a message from my sister that Maggie had escaped from her yard. I checked our home messages (Maggie's tag has our home number) and there were messages about Maggie from two people:

Person #1) I saw your dog on the corner of Balboa and Asilomar. She's just running around the street without a leash, she's probably going to get hit by a car around here. Good luck finding her. (Thank you asshole, I hope one day you lose something valuable and I can leave you a similar helpful message.)

Person #2) I found your dog. She was taking a dump in my front yard. When she was done I brought her inside and fed her and gave her some cookies. She must be so tired having come to Montclair from Albany. Oh, and don't worry, the dog food is organic. Please call me at...

I called #2 and the nice woman was about to take Maggie to the dog park with her own two dogs. But I called my sister and she picked her up and took her to my mom's house, where we all thought she would be secure in the yard. We thought wrong.

On Saturday night, around 7:30, I got a message from my sister that my mom had been in San Jose all day and came home to find that Maggie was missing. My sister was on her way out to Moraga to help my mom in the search. I checked my messages.

There was a message from 10am (my mom said she left around 10) from a woman that she was jogging past a cafe (only a couple blocks from my mom's house) and saw Maggie there. Maggie kind of followed her on her run so the woman took her into her home, fed her and that she was still there playing with her dog in the backyard.

I was almost tempted to leave her there since it sounded like she was at least safe in a yard with another dog. But I called her back, thanked her, and then gave my mom her phone number and address so she could pick her up. I gave my mom strict instructions to keep Maggie in the garage and to let her out to do her business only with my mom, and on a leash.

What a weekend for Maggie. Luckily she did not get hurt and is now safely back in our yard. We were lucky that Maggie's charm and winning personality attracted the right people to her before she fell into trouble. My mom thinks that she is so attached to us that she escaped to try and find us. Or maybe she did it so she could have her own posting on this blog?

Maggie is probably the sweetest dog out there. Although she's' almost eight years old, she still has a puppy-like attitude and will drop everything to play ball. She has gracefully accepted her demotion from top dog in the house to the bottom of the totem pole without harboring any resentment toward Lucas. Maggie has never snapped at him or even let out as much as a growl. She is uber-friendly to all our guests and everyone she meets. Maggie never jumps on the furniture, never chews on things inside, and knows never to come upstairs. She is a dream dog actually.

Maybe we can take Maggie on our next vacation. But in the mean time, I will need to find a nice movie for her about an agoraphobic.

Snow weekend!

About 15 minutes into our 3 hour drive to Twain Harte for the weekend, Lucas asked, "Mommy, are we there yet?" No, not quite. He asked several more times during the first hour until I think he finally realized that it was going to be a long drive.

We stopped for fast food at In-N-Out (Kevin) and Baja Fresh (me and Lucas). When we finally got to the cabin that we had rented, we were pleasantly surprised to see a lot of snow! Luckily, it had snowed earlier in the week. Lucas and Kevin had fun tossing some snowballs at each other when we arrived.

The next morning, the Hendricksons arrived. Lucas and his buddy, Owen, immediately changed into their snow clothes and we all headed outside. There was plenty of snow to keep two boys (and their dads) entertained.

The cabin was stocked with several different kinds of sleds. The boys thoroughly tested each one to determine which was the best (fastest).

And then there were the snowball fights, probably the most emotional activity. Tons of laughter, but also crying and tantrums if someone accidentally hit someone in the face or if snow made its way down the back of someone's shirt.

Lucas has been talking about building a snowman since Christmas time. Frosty the Snowman continues to rank in Lucas' top 5 songs to sing when in the car or doing art projects. Craig did most of the hardwork with this activity. Lucas and Owen (and Kevin for that matter) didn't have the patience to work on it the whole time. But here was the final result.

Lori and I headed into the lovely downtown Twain Harte for some grocery shopping (how typical!). We stocked up for the rest of the weekend with ice cream, pasta, chicken, veggies, etc. Oh, and we, being the only two Asian people in the whole place, made an obligatory purchase of some sushi rolls at the sushi counter (again, typical).

After a hearty lunch of sushi and sandwiches we enjoyed the highly anticipated ice cream party - complete with chocolate sauce and sprinkles. As you can see, we didn't need to run the ice cream bowls through the dishwasher.

That night, after more snow play, we all settled in to watch the movie "Cars". If you don't know, Lucas has been obsessed with Lightning McQueen since last summer when he got his Lightning McQueen t-shirt for his birthday. He wears it at least 3 times a week. And of course, being part of the Disney marketing machine, Cars has seeped into our house without Lucas ever having watched the movie, via a Cars art caddy, toothbrush, and pull-ups. So imagine Lucas' face when he saw Lightning McQueen and the other Cars characters live, on the big plasma flat screen TV!

Lucas sat there with his mouth open for the first few minutes. Given his sensitive nature and bad flashbacks from certain things he's seen on TV, I said to him, "If something is scary for you, let me know." He replied with a very loud, "Nothing is too scary for me!" But after a few minutes, he turned to me and said, "Mama" and came over and sat in my lap.

The next morning, more excessive eating: those Pillsbury cinnamon rolls and buttermilk biscuits that come out of the tube (just like mom used to make - no really, my mom used to make those all the time, until of course, we were old enough to make them ourselves), bacon, sausages, eggs. After some more sledding and snowball fights, we cleaned and packed up and headed home.

According to Lucas, his favorite things about the trip were, "Sledding, building a snowman, having snowball fights and the ice cream party." That pretty much sums it up.

Coming to a mall near you...

One of my former co-workers at Kodak Gallery sent this to me today. See anyone you recognize?

Lucas and I, courtesy of the Kodak Gallery Scan Van, will be driving around in test markets, initially, in Florida and Southern California.

It's actually a great concept, I could really use a Scan Van at this point. Basically, you bring your shoeboxes of old photos and drop them off at the Scan Van so they can be digitized. I have tons of boxes of old photos that I need to do something with.

It's kind of cheesy, I can't really believe Lucas and I will be seen driving through the city streets like this. I guess we really earned our $10!

Scan Van, please make a pit stop at our house!

What he sees in the wee morning hours

Last night, excuse me, early early this morning, Lucas woke up and said, "Mommy come to my room. There are witches on the ceiling." I had to see it for myself so I followed the little night elf to his room.

"Where are they?" I asked him.

"I don't see them any more. I just see the flying raccoon."