What's up doc

Today was Owen's three year wellness checkup with his pediatrician. Meh reported that he kept asking when he'd be seeing Doctor R (his dentist), but had some good interactions with Dr. P., and overall everything is looking very good. I asked him about the experience tonight and he said she looked at his teeth. I asked if she'd also looked at his eyes and ears, and he replied "No, just my ears."
The stats:

• Weight: 31 lbs (50th percentile)
• Height: 37" (50-75th percentile)
• BMI: 25-50%

Deep thoughts, by O

Home! I'm back from my whirlwind trip to both Jerusalem and London. It was so good to spend time with friends T, S, and their kids M, R, and A in Jerusalem, and to visit with N, S, J, and R in London. And my conference went very well. But home is goodness. Meh captured a list of O quotes while I was gone - she reported that some of the most excellent comments Owen had occurred at 5 in the morning (and thus weren't recorded), but here are some daytime and pen-at-hand ones:

"Can I have some? Cuz I do sure like it."

"I can't see you cuz I closed my eyes."

"Mommy, you are the beautiful princess"

"They're 5, they're 6, they're ninety ten, Thomas and his friends!" (actual lyric: "They're 2, they're 4, they're 6, they're 8")

Extreme Pond Jumping

Close college friends T and S and their super fun kids M, R, and A moved to Israel several months ago, and when I learned I'd be speaking at a conference in London, I figured that would be close by and a good opportunity to try to see them beforehand. Alas, my European geography apparently failed me slightly, as this meant a 5+ hour flight (and another 2 hour time change forward) less than 18 hours after I landed in London. Still, I got to get into London, have dinner with friends N, S, and their boys J and R, and then hop the Tube the next morning back to Heathrow, getting to friends T and S's house in Jerusalem by early afternoon!

Being in Israel was definitely a change from my last visit, which was more than 20 (!) years ago. The airport is gorgeous; in addition to the self-proclaimed largest duty-free shopping by square footage in the world, there was a giant mezuzah greeting travelers. T and S live in Baq'a, very near where I was based when I came to Israel in high school. In fact, on our first evening, we drove past the new home of the education facility where I'd stayed (which is now the second story of a car dealership). The visit was a nice combination of visiting with the family, playing tourist, lite shopping on Ben Yehuda Street, admiring impressive indoor and outdoor artwork at the Israel Museum, eating excellent kosher meaty food (the big new thing in Israel is apparently fancy burgers with dozens of different sauce options; they looked disappointed when I just asked for ketchup), and getting a brief dose of immersion with R's evening school activities, a doctor's office visit, and general hanging out. It was so great to get to spend time with friends as they adjust to living in a new country and culture. Of course I couldn't leave without a few souvenirs for the boys: a kippah with Pixar Cars, and another with Curious George. Oh, and some rugelach from an excellent bakery. Full pics here.

Back to London, where I had a good and productive conference, and got to see my friends once more before I head back to the US. A good but exhausting trip; very happy to be getting ready to board the plane back!

Slumber party

O has been, shall we say, exploring his sleeping options in the past week or two; last week, he apparently ended up in Z's bed, which Z was none too pleased about. Meh found Z quietly sitting (sulking?) on his stuffed bear seat at a concerningly late hour when she got home from work. And a few times in the past week, I've put him to bed only to have him open his door and then both boys to dash back and forth between bedrooms - this was particularly frazzling when I was solo while Meh was at a conference. So in some ways last night's experiment was bound to occur sooner or later: O was climbing into Z's bed during story time, insisting he wanted to sleep with Z. So Meh pulled down the mattress from the top bunk onto the floor, brought in O's blankies, and the experiment began. We almost immediately had a Berenstain Bears moment when the boys simultaneously declared that they wanted the lights on (Z) and the lights off (O), but managed to make peace with the compromise of the lights off but Z using his night sky-projecting turtle. We heard a very cute conversation from downstairs, but they did indeed both go to sleep in the same room successfully. Perhaps this is the start of a shared bedroom?

Hidey Hole

O had his bi-annual dental exam today, and Meh reports that he did fabulous with all of the related activities. His favorite parts were getting to brush the teeth of a pink dinosaur (with a giant toothbrush) and of course picking out a toy at the end of the visit. He also did great with the various parts of the exam, including his very first x-rays, where he got to wear the heavy vest (when I asked him if the heavy blanket was okay to wear, he said "it wasn't a blanket daddy, it was a jacket!") and hold said dinosaur while biting down on the film and everything. Actually, he was very intent on bringing home a toy for Z as well, so they gave him a second token - what a thoughtful brother! His teeth themselves were healthy, though it seems pretty clear already that some kind of orthodontics may be in his future; the x-ray that came home had some pretty seriously skewed baby boy teeth.

The remodel continues to progress, and the boys' "hidey hole" is just about complete. They're huge fans, both spending a fair amount of time bringing toys and pillows into it. Hopefully all of the downstairs will be wrapped up soon as well; as Zachary continues to remind us, "there's NO POTTY downstairs!" There's also an impressive pile of what used to be in the new hidey hole space that we need to weed through, including high school and college documents as well as plenty of other detritus that one collects when they have an attic to store things in. Meh and I have been trying to take quick tours down memory lane when the boys allow - today I found a Microsoft newsletter from when I was an intern there (yes, they used to have a printed 'newspaper') and some college pictures. Hard to believe this stuff is more than 15 years old!

Let's close with a video; one of the final items that came in the excellent Costco Disneyland vacation bundle was a gift card to the Disney Store. Meredith went over there earlier this week and picked up some excellent Buzz (O) and Woody (Z) pajamas for the boys. They were pleased to say the least, as demonstrated by their high energy bedtime, um, sprint:

Tear down this wall

With a major renovation to at least three rooms about to start, we're going to have workers going up and down the stairs. This meant that it was time to at least temporarily pull down the safety gates that have been fixtures at the top and bottom of the stairs for years. We actually pulled them down for nearly a week when Z was around three, but then O started to crawl/walk, and back up they went. As to the renovations themselves, we're pretty excited even if they're mostly minor rooms -- we're fixing up the bathroom and mudroom (the previous owner was apparently a, um, self fixer-upper, with varying quality results - highlighted recently by tiles cracking and/or starting to come up from the floor), moving the washer/dryer from the furnace room to the bathroom (hopefully opening up some storage space), and perhaps most exciting for the boys, finishing out the little subattic into a tiny room that will be an extension to the guest bedroom (which itself will be turning into their playroom). So a fair amount of change is coming - look for pictures when things start to shape up!

A California Adventure

We are back and on the road to sleep recovery after an excellent but exhausting trip to southern California with mima and papa. We'd long wanted to get the boys to Disneyland, and with Owen only having a few more months before he would become a paying customer, that time was now. The plane tickets were prohibitively expensive until mere weeks before the trip (a big JetBlue sale was brought to my attention even more recently that would've knocked down the fares further - ah well), but we finally found a reasonable fare and got our first taste of the newish uber-trendy airline. Costco Travel also helped out with a fine bundle of hotel plus park tickets plus fun extras.

The boys dug the trendy pinkish overhead lighting in the plane, which of course followed the usual exposure to multiple modes of transportation: Z got off his school bus on the last day before break to get in our car, then take a shuttle into the airport, a couple of elevators, a walk through security, play time at the terminal, and of course the airplane proper, followed by more escalators, a baggage claim, and then a shuttle ride to Anaheim.

The driver complimented our hotel as being very close to the park. He was not kidding - it is literally the closest you can stay to the pedestrian entrance, and the next morning, after a filling continental breakfast, we were into the park by around 8:05 am. The park was shockingly quiet (it had apparently rained the previous day, keeping the crowds down) and fully decked out for the holidays (with faux snow on the castle's turrets), and we managed to quite nearly walk straight onto Peter Pan (the boys are still talking about the "pirate ship" ride as their favorite) then hit a line-free Fantasyland carousel, Dumbo flying circling elephants, the similarly functioning Tomorrowland rockets, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean (O was distraught by the talking parrot at the very beginning, and covered his ears through much of the rest of the ride; Z was mostly concerned about the early splashing, where both he and I got a little wet - but overall both boys seemed to like the pirates, boats, and music), the Haunted Mansion (impressively fully updated for the holidays with a "Nightmare before Christmas" theme), and the train ride around the entire park. Papa and I even got to ride the Indiana Jones ride while mima, mommy, and the boys went on the jungle cruise. Then, with our main initial goals accomplished, it was time for lunch. And it was only 11 am.

As seen in the pictures, the boys were wearing some excellently cute matching Buzz Lightyear sweatshirts that mommy had gotten them for Chanukah - it was amusing to see the number of Disney employees who greeted them both as "Buzz" or "Space Ranger". In the afternoon, we continued to hit a few rides until O conked out (clutching bits of a Mickey Mouse cookie no less), at which point we mostly moved into strolling-the-park-mode. We eventually parked at a spot outside of the castle to watch the twice-daily parade; O impressively slept through the very loud music and floats, while Z seemed only mildly interested in the parade until the Toy Story characters grabbed his attention with appearances near the tail end of the route.

Los Angeles friends M & L and their kids C and I were coincidentally across the street at California Adventure for the day, so we decided to meet up for dinner in Downtown Disney; on the way papa ducked into the giant Disney Store to redeem one of the many coupons in the Costco package, for a set of (Cars-themed) Disneyland pins and lanyard pass-holders that the boys would wear for the rest of the LA trip. Z conked out as we strolled, so he missed the Lego Store's epic Buzz, Woody, and Beauty & the Beast displays - O was very pleased to see the various shuttle buses and of course the passing monorail cars. Dinner itself was a bit rough; the restaurant does a 'monsoon' every 20-30 minutes that startled the kids despite our warnings, and Z woke up a bit disoriented and cranky. It was still very good to catch up with M & L before heading back into the park for the fireworks (and bonus rides of Buzz Lightyear, the updated Finding Nemo (previously 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) submarine, Winnie the Pooh, and snack time). The fireworks turned out to be a dud, they scrubbed them 5 minutes in due to high winds, but the boys were both very happy and pretty wiped with an epic first day behind us.

For day two we adjusted our plans (originally we'd wanted to save the new Cars Land for the afternoon, figuring the boys wouldn't want to leave); based on the success of the early entrance, we decided to get into California Adventure early to knock out as many sights as we could before our booked 'character experience' lunch with Goofy and friends. Good call because the crowds were already way up from the previous day, and there was a giant queue just to get Fast Passes (!) for the big new Radiator Springs Racers ride. We went right into the very cool Cars Land, which is an impressive life-size rendering of the town from the first film. The boys had an immediate opportunity to meet Lightning - O ran immediately to his back, I think either hoping to push him or perhaps climb up on his trunk? Anyway, the boys were big fans of the talking and eye-movement-animated McQueen. We then rode some of the Cars Land rides: the hydrofoil Luigi's Tires and the wildly spinning Mater's Tractor Pull (mima was a late scratch for that ride once she saw what was involved), both of which the boys thoroughly enjoyed. We exited the second ride to find that Mater had replaced Lightning at the Cozy Cone for photo ops, so one more queue to get our pictures with him. (Z, upon touching Mater's rusting frame: "Mater is a little bit dirty!") Afterwards, we walked through more of Cars Land and appreciated the many little touches (I liked that all drinks there are served in orange traffic cone containers), before the music moved O enough to get him and mommy dancing - a cast member even complemented his moves.

We then headed onward to the Paradise Pier, a boardwalk full of rides and games, where papa took Z on his very first rollercoaster (he loved it) and the kids had a blast on the slightly dizzying giant ferris wheel with gondolas on separate tracks that caused them to slide around as the ferris wheel went up and down. (This was the first and only ride I noticed to have prominently displayed motion sickness bags, in a pocket inside the gondola.) We then doubled back to "a bug's land" for some kid-friendly bumper cars.

Then it was lunch time (again, before 11 am), so we exited the park and strolled the length of Downtown Disney to the original Disneyland Hotel, home of Goofy's Kitchen. The boys mostly had a nice time even if the actual eating was at a minimum; O was initially very shy/mildly scared of the life-size characters - before being seated, you get your picture with Goofy, and ours features O's face buried in mommy's shoulder. But he did much better once the staff brought him a "bravery" button (again, both boys added these to their increasingly adorned Buzz sweatshirts), and even gave Chip a nice hug. The meal itself was nice, with a large buffet of kid-friendly food (I particularly liked that many of the stations were positioned at their height) and a steady stream of photo op visits with Goofy, Pluto, Baloo, Chip, Dale, and the Mad Hatter. (My favorite moment was when Z asked the Mad Hatter what his favorite vehicle was; he hesitated for a moment, then answered a very Disney-appropriate "Lightning McQueen!")

The afternoon featured more rides, including the fancy stereoscopic 3D "Toy Story" ride (I tried to explain how it worked to O, but he was much happier just watching me "play" the ride). O then conked out through yet another parade (this time the Pixar-themed one at California Adventure), Z and I rode on a number of other rides, we walked around Cars Land some more (where Mater, McQueen, and a slightly more obscure Cars character made appearances), then O woke up in time for the repeat performance of the parade, which both boys enjoyed immensely. Then mima and papa generously took the boys out for dinner so Meh and I could have a slightly more grownup meal -- at the same place we went on our third anniversary trip to Disneyland, six and a half years ago! It was a wonderful ending to our time in the Magic Kingdom.

The next morning we headed back into Los Angeles, where O was thrilled to be able to pick out which rental car we drove out of the lot (a shiny red one) for a day of visiting with friends (at a local park) followed by driving out to Malibu for both tasty cupcakes and a drive-by visit to two of mima, papa, and Meh's previous residences. We then relaxed at the hotel for a bit, where Z decided he wanted to head for pajamas early; I stayed with him while everyone else fought epic Friday night rush hour traffic to find some conveyor-belt sushi; O was apparently a big hit with the restaurant staff.

Our last day featured visits to our favorite restaurant supplier (O picked out sprinkles; mima and papa some utensils; Meh some lovely-looking chocolate and cocoa), my new favorite tea makers (Meh picked out five fabulous types, including a new favorite alternative to hot chocolate), and then another brunch at friend E's house - huge thanks to her for hosting us! The boys were beyond stir crazy, so we took them to another fabulous park for a bit more playtime before hitting my traditional pre-LAX-flight meal, where we sat at an outdoor table with a fabulous view of both incoming planes and the many cars/trucks queued up for the drive-thru. Then a bit of time in the thankfully not-too-crowded terminal, and we were back in the air for our flight back. Again, a wonderful and exhausting trip, with many great memories - but as both O and Z were saying, "first blue car, then home".

Religion in the schools

This week was Zachary's turn as "star of the week" at school. They rotate through each of the kids during the school year, and each day of the selected week, the "star" gets to do something special. Over the weekend (or more accurately, mostly Monday morning at 6:30 am), we helped him assemble a giant poster full of things that he likes: books, movies, things to do outside, etc. Every day of the week we learned about his activities: he got to choose a friend to have special snack time with, his favorite book (this week at least - a fine Chanukah present from Uncle B and Aunt J) was read to the class, and so on.

On Friday, the family of the "star" is invited to come in and share something - and with Chanukah being celebrated this week, Meh did double duty, introducing the class (Z is the only Jewish kid) to the menorah, dreidel, and other Chanukah traditions. I was particularly impressed with both her kindergarten-level rendering of the story and the kids' continuous concern/questions about the fact that the Chanukah candles don't stay lit for eight days straight - Meh made some references to the actual eternal lights found in synagogues, but it's certainly a good point that the main miracle of the holiday isn't really demonstrated (more the opposite; Chanukah candles often don't even last a half hour!) by the holiday's primary symbol. Happy "star" week to Z, hope he enjoyed his special week at school!

Family news

Grandma and J just boarded a plane home this morning (Z and O were disappointed they couldn't accompany to the airport) after a lovely weekend visit! The boys had a great time with them, from picking them up at the airport to getting to spend lots of time playing, reading, running around at a local park, and more. They also got to see some of the, ahem, culture of the east side, accompanying me to a holiday orchestral concert where one of my compositions was being performed to a sold out (!) audience. (I also got some coverage from the local newsradio station, who met me for an interview in a Denny's parking lot (!).)

And we all got to celebrate the beginning of Chanukah as well. The first night was a mild disaster (due in part to starting things too late and O continuing to battle against the afternoon nap) of melting down children, but the second night was far more positive at friends' R and M's house with their son J, several other families, and of course an all new set of toys for the boys to explore in between lighting candles and spinning dreidels.

Weekend Update

Zachary occasionally brings home completed assignments where the kids talk about what's going on outside of school. The teacher helps them write down what happened, then they write their own letters over the highlighter and draw a picture. Recent examples:

"Over the weekend I went to the pumkin [sic] patch with mommy." (It was actually three weeks earlier. Should we be worried about misspellings by teachers?)

"Over the weekend I watched Toy Story with Owen." (I think the same could be said of most days of the week, but respectably accurate.)

"Over the weekend I had Thanksgiving with my brother. I ate apple crisp." (There were about ten other people. There was no apple crisp.)

Apparently we're not alone in having a kid that brings home contents that only mildly jive with reality, as our neighbor reported during today's playdate that her daughter often similarly has at best fanciful events to report. We were therefore extremely impressed to see Z appearing to start to grasp the assignment with the piece of paper that came home today:

"Over the weekend I went to a party. I had cake. I put bubbles on my face."

He did indeed go to friend N's birthday party, at an excellent local bounce house! (N is 7. His friends are 7. There was much raucous wildness. I fear for our future.) And he even ate cake - though Z appears to disdain icing, and somehow managed to eat the two layers of chocolate cake while leaving an impressive pile of Costco icing in his wake. (As pictured, he also ate tortilla chips for the first time, though eventually they got "too spicy".) The bubbles on his face, well, last week one night in the bath he was doing that, so we'll call that close enough to the weekend. Go Z!

Interview with a toddler

O's nanny does a bunch of fun activities with the kids, often including weekly art projects. Last week they were focused on talking about themselves and what they do and like. This piece of paper came home (filled out by the nanny, but obviously answered by O):

I am really good at:
I like to jump in the leaves.

When I am home with Mommy & Daddy & Zachary:
I like to jump in the woods.

If I could be anywhere in the world:
I would like to go to the park.

I am special because:
I have ice cream at home.

Clearly a bit of a one track response. Also, O often tries to avoid leaves when we're on walks, asking "what's that?" and then responding "I don't like the leaves." Oh, and he doesn't typically get ice cream at home, though he does every Friday at his nanny's. Ah well, silly man.

Check this out

Today, Z brought home his very first library book from school. They've apparently been visiting the library for several weeks, learning how to nicely handle and open/close books, but today an actual book came home. Every student apparently got to pick their own, and Z chose an appropriate one for him. Apparently he gets to check out a new book every Tuesday. Hooray for little man's first school library experiences!

Brand Recognition

Several months ago, while stopped in the car at a traffic light, O proclaimed, "It's a purple fireman hat!" It took us a few minutes to figure out what he was referring to. To this day, he still points out the hat when we pass the sign. And then today in the car, O said "it's the raisin lady!"

Going native

A lovely Thanksgiving was had by all yesterday -- the food was delicious, the company excellent, and the boys decently well behaved. Hooray! Meh of course paid excellent attention to every detail; the kids even had their napkins wrapped in a ribbon with a feather that Z later decided to wear as a pseudo-headdress. My experiment with bite-sized challah rolls was a success (O both helped make them and ate a few), we had an enormous range of scrumptious sides and desserts, and there was a turkey cooked in record time due to our recent discovery (thanks to Alton Brown) of this preparation technique. Granted it wasn't easy; Meh eventually resorted to wrapping a rolling pin in a plastic bag and bashing the turkey trying to remove the last of the backbone. But in the end, a delicious bird that cooked in less than half the time of last year's! More pictures here.

Gone to the Dog

Hooray for visits from Uncle B! Both boys were very much looking forward to seeing him, and had a great time once he arrived from the east coast. There was much playing, talking, dining together, and a nice family walk to the park. The weather is definitely on its way to getting colder, so Z even donned an excellent penguin hat that we'd received from Uncle B and Aunt J after a trip last year.

We got to have lunch with some mutual friends we hadn't seen in a while, at a restaurant called the Barking Dog. On the way there, O was very excited to see the dog, and while I figured it was just a name and tried to set expectations accordingly, sure enough, there was a cute little pug wagging his tail and greeting everyone as they arrived. O: "I like the doggie, he sniffed me a little bit." As an extra bonus, the restaurant had a good selection of coloring books, including a Cars themed one (score) that someone had stuck a bunch of Cars stickers into (double score); both boys were very pleased, even if O passed on the tasty-looking grilled cheese and only ate his waffle fries, while Z ignored the several pounds of pasta they served him. Ah well. Uncle B also visited an orchestra rehearsal and then attended my fall concert; it was great to have him there for support in the audience!

Alas, all too soon, the visit was over - though there was a final highlight as the boys got to drive Uncle B to the airport for his flight, and proceeded to exclaim happily as we drove past all of the planes parked at their gates. We were glad to get a weekend with Uncle B and look forward to seeing him again soon!

Double Booked

"This is how I sit in two seats."

Scary Movie 3

Yesterday O invented a new drink, taking his Halloween candy choice of the day (a lollipop) and discovering that not only did it fit nicely into the straw of his drinking cup, but that he could drink juice around/through it, making it extra sweet. "I like it, it's a little bit yummy!"

O and Z's favorite film series du jour is Toy Story (we're pleased they've moved on from Cars a bit). Z's toothbrush needed replacement, and he happily picked out Buzz Lightyear one when we went to the store -- and then both boys were very excited to spot the Toy Story 3 DVD in the video aisle (we only had the first two films). Many mornings (when we stumble downstairs at 5:30 or 6 in the morning) Z will now query which one we should watch: "Toy Story 1, Toy Story 2, or Toy Story 3?". If I ask him to choose he says, "one with the spaceman, Buzz Lightyear" - note that Buzz is of course in all three of them.

Both boys will then happily snuggle with the nearly-still-asleep daddy and/or mommy and watch at least the opening sequence. But when it's early enough, we tend to make it a good 20 to 30 minutes into the movie before the kids want to go play something else. The last few times, I've noticed O start to get concerned with a certain sequence, and this morning as it approached, he actually put his hands over his eyes and ears and told me "I don't like this part!" Such a cute little sensitive man! Granted, I've also caught Meh occasionally sitting on the ottoman, pulled in by one of the many heartrending scenes in the film. Darn those tear-jerker Pixar montage sequences!