The force awakens -- at 5 am

Sleep has suddenly become hard to come by in the house; the boys are wild and wired at night, and L starts waking up at 11 and then every 1-2 hours from 2 am onward. She'll go back down usually until 6, but this morning she was awake by 5. I took her downstairs, but somehow O had heard her stirring and decided to join us; needless to say it was cranky-pants time this evening, but for the morning there was some cute playtime between the two younger kids while Z dutifully stayed in bed until a practically evening 5:45 am. I missed snapping a photo of the true Jedi action where L actually had her lightsaber up in a nice parry a minute prior to this shot, but still super cute.

With a summertime birthday (and apparently no kid in his class with an actual birthday this week), it was Z's turn to be the 'star student' this week. As with kindergarten, he got to fill out a giant poster about his favorite things -- and I was impressed with just how little prompting he needed to complete it. A few examples:

• These are the members of my family: Mom + Dad + elle + O + Z = everyone.
• When I grow up I would like to be Super Man
• I am a star because... I help people silly
• These are a few of my favorite things!
  • Color: blue
  • Animal: fox
  • Food: goldfish [Ed note: truth.]
  • Sport: socer [Ed note: O RLY?]
  • Thing to do in school: work
  • Thing to do at home: draw

Also as part of "star student" week, a parent can come in and work with the class -- talk about their job, read a book, etc. Z had a big smile when I came into the classroom, and once I'd told the class a bit about my job, all of the first graders were somewhat manically interested in asking questions (e.g. talking about their favorite video games and asking if I'd worked on them). My very favorite part was afterwards, when I got to escort the kids down to lunch and sit in the mildly deafening lunchroom (initiating flashbacks of my own school lunches) and have lunch with Z. It was pretty special for both of us to pull out our lunch bags (yes, I packed my own) and sit and eat together. The other students were great as well, it was fun to see how the class all helps each other out and more than a few seemed to be good friends with Z. After lunch, the students head outside for recess -- I don't think Z even looked back, but I did wave goodbye to him on the playground before heading to work. When I came home, I saw his daily school journal entry, and may possibly have cried.

At the tone, the time will be...

The boys of course have been park-crazed for years. Wednesday it was time to get L in on the action, with her very first swing opportunity. Meh and O took her to a favorite park after picking up O from school. L was placed into a swing and immediately loved it, with much smiling and laughter while both her brother and mommy pushed her. I had my first experience today with the L joy of swinging:

I suspect soon I'll be having to master pushing three swings at the same time.

As we've documented, Z has quite the love of schedules and routines. Frequently when he's excited about a new place, he'll talk about the time that he'll go there and come back. And with a new activity he did for the first time this weekend, he kept asking if there would be a clock there. (He had a great time; it will be wonderful to have this as a future opportunity for him!) So it wasn't a huge stretch to get him a watch of his very own, and Meh and he picked out one at the store yesterday, complete with a button that makes it flash a variety of colors. The only minus is that the time setting buttons are also easily accessible/accidentally pressable.

O was so excited about Z's watch that we knew he was going to want his own; we went (with the boys in full Seahawks paraphernalia for the big game) to the local store (just before said game, so it was a bit of a chaotic mess -- though thankfully not by the NFL-license-lacking kids watches section). I was mildly shocked to see O pass up on a cute Cars-themed watch, but he picked the always popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles one with a fancy fat wristband, and he was pretty darn adorable continuing to read and ask about the time for the rest of the day -- even with a giant bowl of ice cream in front of him.

Show time

Last month we heard from friends R and M that there was a live-action Disney "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" show coming to a local stadium. So after consulting with O for approximately 5 seconds and receiving the emphatic yes, we went in with them and got tickets. This was in advance of our recent Disney live show experience at the mothership, so I really had no idea what to expect. After the Disneyland show, I thought it might be something like that, though I was unclear on how they'd be scaling things up for a sports arena and hundreds (thousands?) of kids.

The show was today, preceded by an energetic lunch at a restaurant "in a rocket?!" Not quite, but the boys were both very excited. J had even graciously brought an extra whirling flashlight toy, as wise parents R and M had indicated the souvenir selling was alarmingly prevalent. After queuing up in the rain, and then explaining to O what precisely hockey is (seeing the signage for the Thunderbirds along the side of the building - ugh, I'm a failure as a sports-love-imbuing dad) we were into the venue -- which was indeed an arena decked out with thousands of seats while vendors hawked a number of Disney-themed wares (along with snacks). The show itself was not quite of the caliber of the one at Disneyland, with the puppets replaced by live actors (most of whom were accompanying their entirely lip-synced lines with highly exaggerated body movements -- designed to engage the preschoolers I suppose?) But the boys had a fabulous time and, as at the Magic Kingdom, the show ended with an explosion of "gold doubloons" (yellow tissue paper circles) showering down from the ceiling, which O of course once more collected, hoarded, and stuffed into his pockets while the staff tried to start shooing kids out for the later afternoon show. All in all, a fun and successful father/son date - thanks to R, M, and J for the invitation!

House, M.D.

Home! With a week of travel behind us, I am glad to report we are all home safe and sound this evening. After our Disneyland adventures, we had a full week of activities with the extended family and many friends in Los Angeles, despite various members of the family (kid and adult alike) falling ill with colds, coughs, and stomach bugs. But somehow despite it all we had a wonderful if exhausting time - and if we were sick, at least we could all help take care of each other along the way! Thankfully the boys were on the mend after their pre-trip bugs (though L got a brief bug towards the end) and ready to burn off much energy.

We set up shop in a very functional house in Redondo Beach, and stocked it with seemingly twice daily trips to grocery stores -- but managed to work our way through most of the food with dinners cooked for each other almost every evening. Friends B and R came one night for dinner and somehow ended up picking up the spatula and taking over the cooking for us - not quite sure how that happened, but we were most grateful to have them as guests! There were actually a steady stream of friends to see, both in the house and out and about.

Of course needless to say there were multiple trips to various parks with fabulous playgrounds, including one conveniently located a block from the house we rented. The boys even got out of the swings on occasion to slide, climb, run around, watch other kids bring crazy RC helicopter drones and flying cars (hey, it's 2015 now, right?).

Foodwise, we enjoyed our favorite burgers and grilled cheese drive through (twice even; I detoured our drive to the airport by a few blocks for a quick pre-flight lunch), grabbed some kosher deli, discovered the kids' favorite Seattle conveyor belt sushi now has a prime real estate Hollywood location, and Meh and I even got a date night at an excellent Manhattan Beach restaurant (thanks to our family for the free babysitting, and to friend J for the recommendation!).

And we did many of the tourist things that I'd actually never done when I actually lived here: we visited the lovely Getty Center, where the kids really enjoyed the automated train up to the campus (I actually was there for only about 15 minutes for drop-off and pick-up between meeting good friend J for his birthday lunch); the kids got to ride on a scale train and explore a bunch of old real trains at Griffith Park's railroad and Travel Town; we rode the Exposition Line light rail past my alma mater to check out the California Science Center's excellent Pompeii exhibit and the hangar housing the space shuttle Endeavor.

Meh got her cooking fix at Surfas, and B and J graciously surprised me with an early birthday present that restocked my tea supply from our favorite LA tea location. And of course we had a lovely time getting to know cousin M and spending time just hanging out with, as grandma would say, "the whole family". Hard to believe the week has already come and gone, and that this afternoon we were once more boarding a plane to come back home. The boys are already conked out, and the recovery period begins (perhaps unwisely along with the restart of school tomorrow) -- happy 2015 everyone!

Better than Chinese food and a movie

Happy holidays! This year we decided to try for a family adventure over the break, flying down to Southern California for a few days at Disneyland and then renting a near-beach house with our extended family (the cast: from NY, my brother B and sister-in-law J and their month-younger-than-L son M; from Michigan, grandma and J; with planned special guests: many childhood friends who now live in LA) for a week. The idea was sound, though perhaps we should have anticipated the season of winter sickness; I don't think we've all five been healthy at the same time since before Thanksgiving, and the boys in particular had a variety of fevers, coughs, and colds over the past week. I even took them to the doctor a few days before the flight to make sure we weren't going to be totally crazy for not cancelling the whole thing -- the doctor just shrugged and wished us a good trip.

So, come Christmas Eve, mima graciously dropped us at SeaTac airport for a trip to the cute little airport nearest Disneyland. L was in a stroller, and with the smaller aircraft, there was a staircase to take at SeaTac, so we got to go (as Z would say) "a sneaky way" way past the actual gate through approximately half the airport, to a service elevator, down through a narrow corridor, and then outside along the edge of the tarmac weaving through a construction zone, to finally board the small airplane from ground level. I think perhaps we could have just carried the stroller down the stairs, but ah well. The boys did fairly well on the flight, though there was no sleeping. Upon arrival, I was happy to see it was about 20 feet from the gate to the baggage claim to the rental car. And Z was very happy about getting to perform a close inspection of the baggage claim; bags in hand, we headed out to try to figure out where the heck to get dinner and baby supplies on the night of the year that everything closes early. We successfully found an open restaurant option that served the boys' favorites (where O was fascinated by four different colors/flavors of syrup), as well as a drug store for diapers, before heading to our hotel to crash out before our first big day with the Mouse.

On Christmas, the coughing and sniffling were continuing, so everyone was dosed up with Tylenol, and after breakfast at the hotel, we crossed the street and were into California Adventure. After a quick stop at Guest Services to pick up a "first visit" button for L and find out about the new version of the Disability Access Service pass, it was time to hit some rides! The boys had been too small last time for the biggest attraction at the park, so we headed there first before the lines got too long. L was already down for her first nap (not a great first night of sleep for her at the hotel), so Meh hung out with her while I took the boys -- but a gracious employee (I mean Cast Member) explained that we could do a rider switch, which lets a parent who's staying with kids who can't ride swap in to the fast pass line immediate -- and take a few people with them to boot. So lo and behold, it wasn't even 9 am and the boys had already ridden the most popular ride in the park twice. From there we hit a few more of their favorites in Cars Land before breaking for lunch. Double bonus -- the boys' lunches came in Lightning McQueen containers. That didn't actually encourage them to eat it, but at least we had our first happy souvenirs (and bonus storage, more on that in a moment) for the trip.

In the afternoon we decided to try a show (possibly my first since the classic Tiki Room in my youth), and they of course had a 'Disney Junior' one that featured the boys' favorite show (as well as a few others - loving the cross-marketing). The boys did an excellent job queuing up patiently, and soon we were into a carpeted auditorium with like a hundred kids and their parents/guardians sitting on the floor. I think it turned out to be the perfect place to rest for 30-45 minutes, as the boys were pretty wiped out from the big morning. The show itself turned out to be fabulously cute, with impressively cartoon-like large puppets of the various characters. Everyone was holding up iPads and taking videos, so I'm sure you could find several hundred versions online. Jake was saved for last, and there was a grand adventure that ended with a volcano erupting gold doubloons (circular pieces of yellow and gold paper) that fluttered down to the floor, which O shovel-hoarded into his aforementioned Lightning McQueen case (see, storage!).

Though the crowds continued to grow, we actually did pretty well with more rides in the afternoon; while the Tower of Terror (that O had long insisted he really wanted to go on) turned out to be a bit too intense for the boys (Z: "You did not like that tower of terror"), we did find a clear new favorite for Z with the Goofy rollercoaster on Paradise Pier. In the evening, we had hot dogs, corn on the cob, churros, and watched the evening parade (which L absolutely loved), before heading back to the hotel to collapse in a heap before the fireworks show even started.

On to day 2, and it was time to visit the classic Magic Kingdom side of the park. Despite what felt like an agonizingly slow start on behalf of the boys, we somehow made it to the opening ceremony, where they walk back a rope and people gradually get to fill in the park. Our first few stops reflected our pattern from the boys' first visit: Peter Pan, then a ride on the carousel next to it. Big hits with all; L was big eyed and smiley for the ride to Never Land, and both O and Z were excited to be back. We even spotted the evil animatronic queen glaring down at us from the windows in the castle across the way (I'd never noticed her before -- point Meh!).

We next made a beeline for Star Tours, since with the boys' first Star Wars trilogy screenings recently completed, the boys had said they were super interested in seeing R2D2. O was talking through much of the ride, but both of them seemed to have a great time. Afterwards, a first: the boys were allowed to go through the store and (gasp) pick out one thing to purchase. We'd cued up the fact that they offer very cool build-your-own lightsabers, and the boys immediately settled on those, with O getting a green one 'like Luke', Z making a red one, and me completely botching the assembly steps until a staff member came over and helped us out. A ride on the Pirates of the Caribbean and it was time for a New Orleans lunch, at which point we got the phone call that grandma, J, uncle B, aunt J, and the very new cousin M were closing in on our location -- hooray! After a failed attempt to ride Indy (I'd forgotten that this was the one ride the boys weren't tall enough for - thank goodness, meltdowns averted), we headed back over toward Tomorrowland to meet up with them and take a bit of a breather through the now super busy park, where O and L both promptly conked out. Z and I went to check out the Iron Man exhibit at Innoventions, and when we returned, L woke up and the extended family arrived (while O's epic nap continued). Z and I got to meet a few familiar faces along with uncle B, aunt J, and cousin M. The rest of the afternoon featured an insane line at It's a Small World (which had been re-dressed for Christmas and with variants of Jingle Bells mixed in -- talk about merging two of the most persistent earworms in the literature), after which uncle B, aunt J, cousin M, grandma, and J all bailed (I felt bad that they'd come all the way to Disneyland for like one ride!) for M's afternoon nap. We stuck around to watch an outdoor show (again, hilariously cute -- a "Jedi Academy" training show that pulled up a bunch of volunteer kids on stage and eventually had them all queuing up to duel with Darth Vader to hilarious comments from the jedi like "They just keep getting shorter!"), grab a snack, and then finally head out in the evening for an In-N-Out drive through dinner, followed almost immediately by exhausted, conked out kids in the backseat as we drove to the family's rented house in Redondo Beach. An exhausting but very fun first two days in California -- more adventures starting today!

The full set of pictures from Disneyland (and the rest of our LA trip) to be found here.

Treasures (and also geocaches)

Last night we had a late abandon of our planned Parents Night Out, as both boys had temperatures. But fear not, O suggested "the next Star Wars", so it was on to The Empire Strikes Back. Z actually fell asleep, but O stayed riveted through the whole thing -- though he talked his way right through the whole father reveal, so I had to back up the film to make sure he caught it. Mind. Blown. ("But why?")

Today all of the fevers had broken and the boys were wild, so it was time to get them out of the house so L had at least some shot at a nap. I decided it was time to continue exploring the boys' new geocaching obsession, and a nearby park looked to have multiple secretly just-out-of-sight treasure troves.

Geocaches are often a bit tricky (on a previous visit to this park, we'd wandered around an area that clearly had one, but couldn't find the specific stone/fencepost/nook where it was stashed), but for cache number one today, we had found the right location in about 10 minutes, and 5 minutes later I emerged with a waterproof canister attached to a wooden bird; O and Z were both delighted, commenting on it and wanting to check it out and pose with it for a picture for mommy.

Spot two was a bit trickier; these often depend on both luck and a bit on the accuracy of GPS reporting and your phone's magnetometer; for the latter two, my phone is pretty lame. We walked past some kind of busy bike obstacle course event in progress, but waded around it towards the second tagged spot, and explored at least two wrong paths before finding the correct one. While we were looking, suddenly a beautiful deer walked out of the woods in front of us. I stopped the boys, whispered, and pointed her out to them, and we all looked at each other for a half minute before she hopped away -- it was very special to be able to share that with O and Z. And that sustained us through the remainder of the search; 20 minutes and several more backtracks later, I decided to check an area that was in plain sight, and sure enough, a sneaky puzzle (also bird-shaped) contained our second treasure of the day. The boys had a great time, and it was just so nice to be able to spend it with them in nature and in pursuit of a family goal resulting in a few little shared discoveries.

Nine months a lady

Happy nine months to Eleanor! Unbelievable that she's already grown so much and is already showing the petite personality of happy, smiling, giggling, and vocalizing little girl. Today was her nine month well check; the report card:

• Weight: 19.95 lbs (50th-75th percentile)
• Length: 27.5" (25th-50th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 16.8" (10th-25th percentile)
• Hgb: 12.3 (yes, another random new test metric to figure out - but apparently normal values for L!)

She fell asleep on the way to the appointment, and though she had to wake up and was a little cranky for the doctor, the actual shot she got was responded to with a single cry, then a sigh and snuggle. She slept again in the car as Meh drove to get her Chanukah nails done in a very Chanukah (blue and silver, very nice!) color scheme.

Tonight we had family movie night and chose a film that I had remembered liking very much when I saw it (jeez, probably 15 years ago) but that Meh had never seen, The Iron Giant. While Z was a bit squirmy and O was asking questions roughly every ten seconds, we all enjoyed the film (yes, both Meh and I were crying at parts) -- a very solid recommendation to others, whether you have kids or not. It was also fun to hear so many familiar voices as the animated characters, and I'd forgotten that this was one of the pioneers of computer animation (the robot) meshed with hand-drawn animation (everything else).

Christmas dinner

When I first moved up to Seattle, I knew precisely one person, from a summer program she and I had attended while in college. Today, at long last, Meh and I took the family to her delightful and highly successful new(ish) bakery. Congrats to Robin! And a huge success with our own food critics; the boys were big fans of the giant cookie sandwiches.

I mentioned yesterday that Z loves associating holidays with months, and that he was very much looking forward to Christmas. When he learned that we don't actually "do" Christmas, he was sad -- though he certainly brightened up when I indicated we'd be in Disneyland for the holiday this year. And then friends-of-friends C and T expressed an interest in doing a bit of a 'cultural' exchange, where we'll host them for a Shabbat/Chanukah dinner in a few weeks. So tonight we went over to their house, which they had just finished decking out for the holiday (with not only tree and ornament, but also trains, model houses, and more), for a very November Christmas dinner. The kids made snickerdoodles, there was much playing (in two separate playrooms no less) with friends, and everyone even warmed up to the family's friendly golden retriever after a while. Some of the adults even busted out with carols, and it was a lovely evening. Happy almost December to everyone!

Double dates

With Thanksgiving now past us, Z has been focusing on the upcoming month and holiday associated with it - "In December we'll have Christmas!" Er, hm. But at least Chanukah makes the list as well. I do still love the selections (and spellings) that comprise the Z bank holiday calendar; my favorite is "short day", which we figured out to mean days where he has a half day at school.

Movie nights have been a popular non-school-night activity with the boys. Last night we at long last introduced the boys to Star Wars (and despite many online nearly religious debates of correct ordering, we opted to open with Episode IV). O definitively proved himself to be my son by declaring during the opening titles, "This music sounds like Superman!" Both boys had a great time, and O definitively stated that his favorite part "was where they blew up the bad guy space ship". We'll have to slot in the rest of the original trilogy soon; that prequel trilogy is still TBD.

Today the boys each had an activity with a non-parent. Mima and O had lunch at a shockingly original location before heading onward to the local art museum for a project making a toolbox. O did a fabulous job with his, and though the paint is still drying, he *really* wants to put all of the tools that used to go in a little plastic box into the new toolbox. And Z got to go to his favorite park with former summer camp counselor E, who was visiting from university for the long holiday weekend. When Z had heard about getting to hang out with E a few weeks ago, he was super excited -- so much so that on an art project that came home with the names of people he was thankful for, E showed up. (Fear not, the entire atomic family and grandparents made the list as well.) All in all, an excellent time for the boys, and some good quality time for Meh and me to spend with L as well!

Cut the turkey

For this episode of "successful picture of three kids", I present some blur, some looking off camera, but at least all smiles. Happy Thanksgiving! We had a festive and high energy celebration of 22 people (14 adults, 8 kids, 2 babies); needless to say, it was a bit hectic - but lovely and yummy as always; Meh and mima outdid themselves, selecting the breast only cuts from the grocery store meant way too much turkey (though far more success with the actual carving), and of course the challah was in high demand. Grandma and J came to visit from Michigan for the week as well, and had a lovely time hanging out with the boys and L. Grandma even got to put her very first girl in a dress (though one of her friends later disputed this, recalling grandma helping out with one of that friend's baby daughters).

Of course the boys had their traditional sleepover at grandma and J's hotel (it sounded like some amount of sleeping actually did occur, though many stories were read first). L continued to show off her backwards crawling to everyone's amusement, and even chowed down on most everything that was at the Thanksgiving table - turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and more.

In earlier news, this past weekend was another rainy/gloomy affair, so I decided to introduce the boys to the pastime of bowling at a local alley. It was like turning back time walking through the door, with the same combination of banner beer ads, funky carpet smell, pull tabs, and of course the classic rental shoes. Thankfully, these fine folks offered automated bumper bowling, where bumpers would physically pop up in the gutters when it was the boys' turn and then back down for mine -- it mostly worked. The scores were embarrassing (well, mine was), but everyone had a great time rolling (or in O's case, hurling) the ball down the lane. And there were even some light math lessons ("you knocked down 3 pins - how many are left?"). Z was a great fan of everyone's bowling, and would hilariously bowl, cheer quickly, then run back to his seat to watch the ball slowly (sooo slowly, though the boys' balls only got stuck like five times) wobble down the lane. The shoes were the favorite part for O, as of couse they had his favorite color (blue) in them.

Near sighted

O's class pictures were Thursday, and he was arguably more excited than we were about the big day. Without a word or cue from me, he picked out his own ensemble and came downstairs in the morning looking quite dapper, ready for his pictures. "Wow, I look very good today!" And he knows it. This spells trouble I suspect.

In other news, L continues to be pretty much in love with her brothers, with many smiles and giggles as she watches them and as they all play together.

Today the boys and I had an early guys' movie morning, allegedly at a "sensory-friendly" screening where they would turn down the volume and turn up the lights just a bit. When I bought the tickets, I double checked we had the right screening, and the staff at the ticket counter first had a blank look and then nodded and said "yes, that's the [mumble] screening". As far as I could tell, it turned out to just be a regular showing, but the boys loved every minute of it and did a great job of quietly watching the movie and mowing through an oversized bag of popcorn. Afterwards, there was a giant version of Baymax in the lobby, and Z confirmed for himself that the robot was indeed as huggable as had been depicted in the movie.

Last Prize

Tonight Meh and I had date night, going to see a special screening of a beautiful newly restored print of Meh's favorite unicorn film at a fun city movie theater that serves up food before and during the show. Before and after, the original author of the book (and writer of the screenplay) himself was signing books and memorabilia. We enjoyed the movie (cheesy music, several corny lines, and all!), and then Peter S. Beagle himself took to the stage to answer questions and then help draw raffle of various prizes (artwork, posters, original film cels, etc.).

At the very end, there was one extra special raffle prize whose winner would get to go up on stage with Peter -- and yup, Meh won! She was so excited that she almost bit it getting up onto the stage, but she recovered and was rewarded with a shirt slightly modifying a quote from the movie, and whose explanation was a regaling of the story that somehow Peter Beagle was the first to author a story involving a female unicorn. Meh also picked up a book (unicorn-themed, by a Seattle writer who was at the screening as well) and a cool tote bag that had the entire text of the book printed on it in tiny but legible type, and forming the silhouetted shape of the lead character. What a fun and magical evening!

A portrait by the artist as a young man

Both boys love to watch L explore her new world. Last month we brought out some of the baby toys as well as the modular play mat (she of course enjoys disassembling it as much as practicing her plank pose on it. Z has taken to calling it her "privacy", since he knows that he and O aren't supposed to go on it, a concept reinforced when one of the folding gates came out to circle her toys (as much to keep the boys from playing with them as to keep their own toys out of the reach of baby hands and mouth). Yesterday, Z drew this excellent "Picture of Eleanor in Her Privacy" (2014, pencil on paper), which will most certainly adorn the fridge for some time. Nice job, Z!