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.

Poetry reading

Z loves to write, spell, fill in the blanks, work with bananagram tiles, read, and come up with creative sentences. He loves doing the portions of his "table work" (homework) that involve words, interestingly strongly preferring them over math (though he does well with arithmetic as well). When there isn't school work to do, he will often fill pieces of paper with words or sentences. This has occasionally generated what I can only really describe as poetry; an excellent sampling from yesterday: "One night I dreamed above the moon. I see your favorite day because I love you. It was a busy day of writing."

This past week I took a trip to LA to speak at a few conferences (and while in town, I was also thankfully able to stop off and replenish our tea supply in addition to meetings and catching up with some friends). I returned home just in time to help greet friend M arriving from the east coast, who after many years of threatening to visit finally found the right combination of airfares and schedule -- yay! We've been having a lovely time; she's become an immediate favorite with all three of the kids, and it's been great to catch up with her and also show her some of the boys' favorite stomping grounds.

Tomorrow's Their Wedding Night

Yesterday was the wedding of friends J and L in beautiful Montecito at the posh Biltmore Four Seasons. It was a lovely occasion, full of music, laughter, dancing, glorious weather, impromptu performances, a documentary, and more -- more on that in a bit. Mima and papa graciously watched the boys, but it was a bit early for L to try to go cold turkey with a bottle, so the three of us jetted down to Santa Barbara for the weekend. On the plane, L had herself a lovely snack of cheeks of mommy.

Each morning we were there, L was up crazy early, so I tried to let Meh sleep a bit by taking the little girl for extended strolls around the downtown and all the way down to the beach. Sometimes she dozed again, other times she crowed or raspberried, but it was nice, relaxing, and peaceful. During the day, in between the ceremony rehearsal, we also got to catch up with friends (some of whom I hadn't seen since college) -- and L got to enjoy her very first dip in a warm salt-water pool overlooking the ocean at an equally luxurious beach club opposite the hotel -- she decided she liked the taste of the water and had a lolling tongue for the remainder.

The rehearsal dinner was a joyous affair, with a women's ukulele group serenading the bride and groom, followed by a few toasts; Meh had contributed immensely to my own effort in this regard, a (thankfully pre-recorded) duet performance altering the lyrics to a certain recent animated film number that the boys might have been watching on auto-repeat back in Washington even while we were at the dinner. It was appropriately silly and self-deprecating to get some applause, and the main goal of entertaining the bride and groom was (hopefully) accomplished; while I suspect I should probably pull it down at some point, for now it can be found at this link. L was a hit of the dinner, wearing the fabulous outfit you see here and smiling/cooing/screeching happily at everyone she met.

The wedding day arrived and was again just perfectly "them". The hotel had sourced a very nice babysitter so Meh and I could go to the kid-free wedding, and as a wedding party member I think I was there starting at like 9 am. The last piece of music before the ceremony itself started was the fabulous Muppets Take Manhattan's "Somebody's Getting Married". The ceremony featured multiple references back to their favorite lyrics, and the officiating rabbi had been director of my college Hillel when I was there. The reception was no less excellent, with beautifully decorated tables and a cascade of loving dedications to the happy couple: a faux documentary telling the story of their meeting that J's friend T had made (L, meh, and I had contributed a few clips remotely from Seattle), a surprise rendition of a number from "A Chorus Line" by the bride and her acting friends [they had done a recent production], first dances with the parents and in-laws, and warmth and joy all around.

The weekend was capped off with a goodbye brunch the next morning -- as if the weekend couldn't be topped, the brunch took place at the same beach club overlooking the Pacific, and as we were sitting there eating, a pod of dolphins decided to start leaping and frolicking in the waves outside. Perfect! Congratulations and mazel tov once more to J and L - more pics here!

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!

It's our time down here

It's our last day down on the Oregon coast, where we've been having a fabulous (if exhausting) time with friend L at her parents' amazing beach house along with friends A, J, and their son E. L has been by and large the happy baby that Meh discussed in Bulgaria -- nearly always happy, giving big smiles to all involved. O and Z have surprisingly have slept pretty well in a shared large bed in a separate room from us. O came in both mornings to wake me up by 6:30 or 7, but he and I have had some wonderful times together, including gathering firewood on the beach yesterday evening for a smores bonfire. (And yay, my boy scout days didn't fail me - I could actually still start a decent fire.) Z has been in full artist mode, creating and then hanging a number of crayon-etched creations around the house. (Fear not; the amazing Meh had the foresight to buy and pack, in addition to a full ream of paper and many crayons, some special hanging tape that doesn't take paint off the walls.) Whether it's the noise of the kids or the lack of a fully darkened room, L hasn't always been ready for naps during the day, so yesterday I wore her and hiked out to the local rock made famous by The Goonies -- a wonderful and relaxing stroll (and apparently a big contrast to Meh's experience, apparently battling boys who alternated wanting to go into the ocean or staying high up on the beach avoiding "jellyfish" -- which every little bubble on the sand clearly must be -- oh, each boy also decided on the opposite preference to their brother of ocean vs. bluff). In the evenings, the adults sat and talked, valiantly crowded around my laptop (after a TV DRM fail) to watch the new book-into-TV-series hotness, or spotted the local landmarks in a screening aforementioned 80's film.

In addition to much time in and around the house, we also journeyed to a local beach town's semi-permanent arcade, where the boys enjoyed bumper cars (though O took 'bumper' to heart and kept trying to steer us towards the outer walls) and plenty of freshly made toffee. And there were boxes of new lego vehicles to assemble into creations as well. O and Z also had some nice times playing with their new friend E.

Huge thanks again to L for inviting us, it's been an amazing time -- I won't quite say "peaceful", but definitely a ton of fun! More pictures of the trip can be found here.

Hello ladies

Everyone is home -- hooray! All five of us are mildly exhausted and I suspect it will take a few days for everyone to adjust back, which will take us right to Z's pending birthday party and grandma and John visiting this weekend; as I said, a very busy summer! Meh reported that L was amazing on the trip -- very social, smiling at everyone she met, and making cute happy sounds in the morning that made her all of Meh's choir-mates' favorite roommate. Oh, and L started rolling over on the trip as well; I was sent a video of her just barely almost making a back-to-front turn.

What happened in Vegas

stays in Vegas, of course. But suffice it to say that, of my family, O and Z came out the winners, with cute little car-shaped tins and poker chips made of chocolate that I brought back with me. My primary success was finding one of the toy cars' price to be mislabelled - win. Regardless, it was good to spend time with J and get to catch back up with some friends and friends-of-friends, and to get to see some of the newer sights there (I hadn't been in more than 15 years). And it sounds like the boys had a very nice time with mima and papa (including young friend K's birthday party with a slip and slide) in my absence. Z had been announcing to his counselors all week that "daddy's going to fly to Vegas", so I think most of the camp may be ready to ask me about it when I drop Z off tomorrow.