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.

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.

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).

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.

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!

Cache and Carry

What? That last post had not a single gratuitous pic of L? Just a Facebook link? Okay, rectified here, with a shot of her at the boys' new favorite indoor rainy day activity, jumping on large trampolines until they get sweaty and exhausted. She obviously enjoys going and watching the activities as well. You're welcome.

I've talked at length about O's obsession with "treasure" (perhaps encouraged a little too much by that trove he unearthed at the beach?); every time we go to a park, he's looking on the ground for treasures that he can keep. More often than not he spies litter (wrappers, bottle caps, etc.), but occasionally there's actually a penny or something interesting and non-gross enough to take home. Over the past few weeks, Meh reminded me of the sport of letterboxing, where people around the country hide a small artifact and then post clues online for others to find the item (and then rehide it for others to discover as well). Many of these are hidden in parks and woods, and sure enough, when I checked, the boys' favorite park was indeed a spot with a buried letterbox. Alas, the sport (or at least this trove) appears to have been aged out of fashion, as the boys and I followed the precise instructions but there was no letterbox to be found (the box had been hidden nearly 10 years ago, and the website was feeling a bit long in the tooth as well).

But never fear, in actuality it appears the pastime has rather just morphed in our connected mobile world to something called geocaching, where in addition to (or sometimes in place of) clues are provided GPS coordinates, and of course apps on every phone (yes, even mine) that let you kind of sort of orienteer to the prize. We returned to the same park, which claimed to have a geocache, and after the prerequisite 'exercise' (me pushing them on the swings), O and I intently followed the instructions while L snoozed and Z played with mommy. We looked very carefully at the hiding place, and lifted a seemingly innocuous rock to uncover a tiny black canister filled with a scroll of paper that you sign indicating you've discovered it. O was in awe and super excited, but also concerned when I indicated it was time to re-hide the cache for the next, um, geocacher? Afterwards, he talked about how cool it was, but how it wasn't treasure because you couldn't take it home with you. I asked if he wanted to do it again, and he said he'd rather find treasure. We'll just have to see if Z gets interested as well.

Sweet tooth

Early last month (like, the second day of school), Z lost a tooth at school. His teachers discovered this because apparently one of them noticed something in their pocket that hadn't been there a moment earlier; Z had decided to bring his tooth to the faculty rather than keep it himself. At least it wasn't thrown away -- it came home in a cute little envelope (and within that, in a little tooth-shaped pouch on a string necklace). Yesterday, a second tooth fell out - alas, this one was not recovered. But the lost tooth was perfect timing for a gap-toothed Halloween smile for Z, who did reflect on the holiday in the daily journal sheet he brings home.Z had declared many months ago that he wanted to be the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz -- and he was super pleased with the excellent version mommy devised; my favorite part was the silver spray painted funnel oil can hat.

Meh kicked off the holiday in style, with excellently ghoulish green chocolate chip and eyeball pancakes (as well as orange jack-o-lantern ones) for the boys this morning. During the day, Z reportedly had fun at his class parade (as per the journal above); I managed to entertain coworkers and trick-or-treaters alike at work with my costume. And in the evening, it was time to take the boys out to trick or treat -- everything was indeed awesome, as proven out by our costumes.

For those who haven't been watching The Lego Movie on a loop, that would be Emmet, Wyldstyle, and then the boys as Tin Woodman and the Red Power Ranger. She'd already gone to bed at this point, but here's a picture of our cute little winged fairy L as well.

It only took 7 years, but both boys successfully traversed the entire neighborhood - and with daddy solo to boot, while mommy stayed home to pass out candy to the other neighborhood kids. I was so proud to be able to stop at the foot of the driveway and watch the boys scurry up to the houses. Sometimes they even remembered to say 'trick or treat', and once I may have even caught them saying 'thank you' afterwards (despite me prompting them nearly every time -- manners, people!). We returned home to count the candy hordes and have one piece before bedtime. Happy Halloween!

Faculty dining

Getting pictures of all three kids together had to this point remained an impossibility that scientists hyptothesize may be related to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. But somehow the stars aligned for this rare shot of all three of them, more or less in focus, more or less smiling, and (gasp) a few of them even looking at the camera. I'll claim victory where I can.

The pumpkins have been picked out for what Z reminds us is 'almost Halloween'; we did trips on two consecutive weekends to the same farm/pumpkin patch for corn maze running around, hay rides, picking apples, jumping on a huge trampoline, sliding down slides on burlap sacks, and yes, picking out pumpkins to carve.

I'm afraid to tempt fate, but somehow it's still warm enough to sit outside to eat dinner in October. So tonight the boys and I did just that. O was so pleased to be having a civilized al fresco meal outdoors that I'd prepared that he commented, "Thank you so much for the yummy dinner, daddy. You're the best in the whole wide university." Flattery will get you anywhere, as will picking up new words (seemingly out of nowhere) slightly incorrectly and using them adorably.

Crawl, walk, run

A big milestone is seemingly just around the corner: L appears to be on the verge of crawling -- forward, that is. She already can scoot herself backwards fairly consistently, if slowly. If you dare to look away while she's on the ground, when you check back in mere seconds later, she'll often have rotated herself as well as moving surprising distances. Often you get an audible warning of this because she'll start complaining when she's backed herself up into a wall or piece of furniture.

So so close -- go L! (Or, perhaps, no need to rush - it's actually nice knowing at least one of the three is still fairly contained?)

I love sushi

After another in a continuing series of OMG-I-must-get-energy-out-of-these-crazy-boys-so-let's-get-them-to-the-park-ASAP, this time featuring the boys climbing up a train play structure to precarious positions and alarming heights and still somehow not breaking their necks, it was lunch time. We returned to the boys' perennial favorite conveyor belt sushi restaurant, where the waiter knows all of our names and, when handing us the bill, knowingly says, "See you again... next week!".

Mommy and L came to join us, and L had her first taste of tofu from Meh's miso soup. She was a big fan, and gobbled up nearly all of the solids in the soup before she was done. Speaking of gobbling up, while Z stuck with his standard fare of cucumber rolls (first ejecting the actual cucumber), O has been consistently expanding his own repertoire of sushi, and a crazy smorgasbord of cucumber rolls, potstickers, edamame, and of course a dessert cake pop.

Six months, four shots

L is now six months old! (Or, as O prefers to think of it, less than a week until he's officially four and a half.) She had her checkup yesterday, and the poor girl had to get four different shots! That made her a bit fussy/sad, even to the extent of a low grade fever that kept her and us up last night - pobre Eleanor! The stats:

• Weight: 17 lbs 11 oz (75th-90th percentile)
• Length: 26" (50th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 16.55" (25th-50th percentile)

Seats and tray tables

On the drive up to Whidbey last week, we noticed a big sign announcing that this weekend was the return of the wildly popular-with-the-boys Vintage Aircraft Weekend. We invited friends B, J, and their kids J and M along this time, and preceded the event by sampling mima and papa's favorite New York-style pizza place - a new favorite for us and the other family, though our boys couldn't be bothered to try the pizza (even though we got plain cheese), breadsticks, or caprese salad. Anyway, from there it was onward to the show; after dashing inside and instantly exclaiming about all of the planes (and other vehicles -- though alas, not the huge collection go-carts, army vehicles, fire trucks, or bounce houses we saw last year), O climbed up to check out a dogfighter before asking nobody in particular what other planes he could get in. A friendly passing staff member answered anyway, pointing at an impressive World War II B25-D bomber that we learned had actually just done a demonstration flight an hour earlier. The queue was long, but O impressively and patiently persisted (Z and the others opted out, continuing onward to look at other planes) and eventually got to climb the ladder to check out first the cockpit and then crawl through the tunnel to the forward gunner seat.

We got to see a number of other planes, both stationary and flying in formations low across the runway. Both O and J were pretty smitten (and calling pretty much every single-propeller plane Dusty Crophopper) and Z had a great time as well. And the weather turned out to be surprisingly sunny after the morning rains. All in all a lovely and successful family outing! Full album here.

Tonight another milestone for L - while she's been sampling an increasing number of foods, Meh was inspired by M at lunch, who at one month older than L was already gumming carrots and such. So we reattached the tray table that goes with her high chair and tried a big cube of watermelon. L mostly squished it, but did manage to consume a little bit of it -- go L!

Life's a beach -- again

Less than a week after our lovely family holiday trip to the Oregon coast, we were off again -- this time heading the other direction to Whidbey Island with mima and papa (and with Uncle J and his girlfriend joining up later in the trip as well!). The boys were super excited, even though I had to explain to Z that there weren't going to be bumper cars or L's beach house. I won't say the trip was strictly "relaxing", but we did have a lovely time and had all sorts of adventures.

We arrived on the ferry and headed straight to one of the large farmers markets to meet up with mima and papa for a tasty lunch (well, the boys had snacks -- and then O and I played oversized outdoor chess for a bit), then beat the heat at one of many local beaches with some rocket popsicles from a well-timed ice cream truck. Then it was time to check out our digs! We arrived to a very cozy and very beach-themed house that mima had secured for us; the boys had an excellent pair of upstairs window seat beds, while L, mommy, and I were in a downstairs room (ideally to allow everyone more sleep -- and it kind of sort of worked, at least for L and mommy!). My favorite touch was the railing to the upstairs, which was made of a long wooden oar. L's new de facto play area was a chair with a long cushion that could comfortably hold her (and occasionally one of her brothers as well).

O has been obsessed with "fishing" (which he takes to mean hunting for treasure underwater) for some time, and we had two special surprises for him. First, I'd picked up a kids fishing rod (Spider-Man themed, naturally) and at one of the parks where they'd had such a fun time last year, we gave it a try. Alas, the very first time that I cast off with the practice fish-shaped rubber lure attached, the lure made a lovely arc out into Puget Sound and the line snapped. O was very concerned, but I let him know it was totally fine and that the lure was "swimming with the fish". (I crack myself up.) The rest of that afternoon he was asking about the fish, concerned that it would be okay, and asking me to go out into the sound and find it. Ah well. The second treasure-themed activity went far better -- mima snuck a wooden box full of coins down to the beach by the beach house, and then Meh sketched a map and rolled it up. When O and Z "discovered" it, we helped them read the map and explore the beach, where they found an X of shells that indeed marked the spot. Shovel in hand, O unearthed the chest and both boys were delighted with the results; Z has since taken a liking to drawing maps, while O wants me to draw paths to treasure hidden elsewhere in the house.

Besides park trips and much yummy cooking for each other (including dinner one evening up on a rooftop patio), we took the kids to check out a cool lighthouse. Little did I know it had an increasingly narrow spiral staircase around its interior to get up to the actual lantern room -- I was mildly concerned the boys were going to get stuck up there, but we did in the end get up and down safely, and also explored bunkers and cannons in between snack time. We even had brief houseguests, as our friends who'd been at the Oregon house were also on the island for the day and came to visit. And the last night we had family smores on the beach.

Far too many of the pictures of our excellent holiday here - it's going to be hard to get back into the swing of life at home tomorrow!