Let's just call this one "Snuggle Mommy Cookie Moon"

In school Luke is being asked to talk about his family's traditions for the holidays. I sort of like to think we have traditions, but in a way we're still trying to figure it all out. What kind of gifts do we exchange; with whom, and when? When do we do Luke's birthday? Nothing is really set in stone; and in fact, we're winging it a lot of the time. But the good thing is, if it turns out we need to do things a little differently some years, we'll all be just fine.

Thanksgiving was a non-traditional case in point. It was nearly 80 degrees and we passed some time in the afternoon by going swimming (wait - that's actually a long-standing tradition) and Suzi had to pull off a last-minute dinner switcheroonie over to her house instead of Grandma Bobbie and Granddad's house when Dick was sick. I'm thinking about bringing the whole operation over to our house next year, and Dave and I going to be tempted to start all kinds of new traditions (turducken, anyone?). In this picture you can see the smashingly elegant turkey place cards that Luke and I made for this year's dinner -- hey, it's a step up from hand-print turkeys, right?.

Also I have to admit that yes, we had our tree up on November 24, and yes, we had our gingerbread house (well, a train, really) done by November 27. I don't like to rush the season, but I do love to give the boys a chance to enjoy these things before we leave for back East, and secretly I love reading or working on the computer by the glow of the tree lights after the boys have gone to bed.

The day after Thanksgiving when we could "officially" start celebrating the holiday season, we went down to the usual parade route at the mall to see Santa, a marching band, some firetrucks, and a guy on stilts. Zach, who has always been somewhat of a costume guy, embraced the whole parade concept and wore the complimentary t-shirt with pride, while Luke pouted and grimaced and announced that the whole thing was completely boring. It's interesting, then, that the most exciting thing Luke did all week (in his mind) was to sit outside for hours, waiting for people to walk by our house, and try to sell them water and oranges. I tried to talk him out of it, given that business would be extremely slow, but he insisted and somehow managed to bring in around $15.

Saturday Dave closed out the holiday week (and gave me some free time) by taking the boys over to the Santa Monica pier for some games and rides. Do they look bigger? Because every time I see them in a picture I think I've blinked and they've gotten another year older.

Zach has been cooperating more at bedtime so we haven't had any visits out to the balcony to look at the stars lately. But these days when we're outside and we happen to see the moon, he's started calling it the "Snuggle Mommy Cookie Moon." And if that doesn't drown your morning pancakes in syrup, I don't know what will.

Plain and fancy

Every now and then Zach refuses to go quietly to sleep at night, despite our best parental efforts, and Luke is begging for some relief so he can get some shut-eye. So on nights like those, I carry Zach out to the balcony in back, he sits in my lap on a chair, and we look up at the stars and watch for planes. It's at this point that I always start thinking about the Hollywood Ending: In the Hollywood Ending to this story, Zach would curl up against my chest and drift slowly off to sleep, with his golden tufts of hair gently swaying in the nighttime breeze. In the real ending, I sit there listening to endless variations on, "What happened to the eyeball balloon? I think it's a little bit mushed. The eyeball balloon is mushed. What happened to the eyeball balloon? It got a little bit mushed," and so on, ad infinitum. I wonder exactly what the neighbors think is going on over at our house.

I've had the good fortune of spending two days in Luke's kindergarten classroom this week. The first time was for a Thanksgiving feast that they held for all three kindergarten classes. It was an amazing organizational effort - 60 five- and six-year-olds, dressed like Indians and Pilgrims, all seated outside at placemats, with individual meals cooked to order (You wanted mustard on your turkey sandwich? And no muffin? And extra cranberry sauce? Here you go.) Luke was a little disappointed that they mistook his order for a "plain" sandwich to mean plain turkey, as opposed to just plain bread, which is what he really wanted.

This week they are obviously focused on Thanksgiving, and the kids were instructed to bring in a picture of something they were thankful for. I asked Luke what one of the girls had brought in to share, and he told me somewhat dejectedly, "Oh, she just drew a picture of her family and her friends who are girls." What's wrong with that? I asked. "Well, she didn't even really get to know me, and she doesn't know how cool and fancy I am." We were in the middle of dinner at that point, and Dave and I nearly choked on the "cool and fancy" line, but now that I think about it, I love that he thinks of himself as cool and fancy.

This week also marked another holiday tradition: the annual downtown open house and pier lighting, complete with reindeer and free champagne. Mom and Dad have been here for the open house for the past few years, and we were sad not to have them with us this time, but Suzi and Bill offered to come and we gladly welcomed the company. Odd new traditions for this year included blingy light-up rings for everyone, (including moms), and semi-naked dancers at the premium denim store (where jeans cost $150/pair and up). Luke was mystified by the dancers ("Why would anyone want to dance naked in front of glass in front of people?") but the dancers were seemingly charmed by Zach. One of them stopped her dance to give him a little wave.

All was more or less right with the world until we came out with gingerbread cookies from the Skechers store. I made the mistake of breaking off the gingerbread man's foot to hand to Zach, and he completely flipped out ("Don't break the man! Put the foot back on!") to the point where he was completely inconsolable about the foot-less cookie. Not even hot chocolate or spiced cider could save the situation. I kept hoping for a Hollywood ending or even possibly a Larry David ending ("Look - here comes a man with Christmas-themed eyeball balloons!") but there was no such luck, except to get more cookies. Which was fine, except he didn't get to sleep too easily that night, and we found ourselves out on the balcony yet again.

Free-for-all

Luke's soccer game for today was canceled, and in any other situation, we would have booked a Palm Springs hotel room for the weekend without hesitation. But, um, there's this little thing about not having any money at the moment. Like not having any income coming in, which is what "income" is supposed to do. But we're not going to dwell on that now... there's plenty of time to worry about it at 3 or 4 in the morning, ha ha. Anyhow, we are fortunate to live in a place where there are plenty of free things to do, even if they're not the same as a Palm Springs weekend.

Last night we piled in the car and headed up the freeway, up the mountain, to the Getty Center, which normally has free admission but charges $15 for parking... except on Saturday nights when after 5 p.m. the parking is free too!!! Ka-ching! I knew the boys wouldn't be interested in art, but I knew they'd like the tram ride up the mountain, the spectacular ocean and city sunset views, and the "family fun" room with interactive art exhibits.

Luke and Zach took an instant liking to a replica of an 18th century French regal bed, which was creatively stocked with all varieties of bedtime books. Luke also had a good time mixing it up with a David Hockney painting where you can manipulate the images with magnets and mirrors.

Next there was an interactive version of a Martin Puryear sculpture that I just kind of walked by and didn't think twice about. But Dave directed Zach back over to it, and he was completely captivated. They had a whole mess of foam noodles, and you try to put them into the holes and connect them into a massive web. Clearly I was not thinking like a two-year-old boy. I mean, a whole mess of foam noodles? Kid utopia.


Luke is notoriously a little harder to please if Legos are not involved. The other day I asked him if he wanted to go to a concert with me and he asked, "Do they give out toys at the end?" But tonight he seemed a little more engaged, especially at an interactive version of the illuminated "Book of Hours" manuscript. If you click on the picture you can see what we wrote.

Today we drove up to the Palos Verdes Peninsula to recreate a little hike that I did when Mom and Dad were here, along the rocky cliffs near the new Terranea resort. It was probably a one-and-a-half mile loop, and Zach did it all without a stroller. At one point Dave was having a little reverie: "This is the most amazingly beautiful thing you've taken us to since... since... well, since last night," he told me.

But I don't want to whitewash the whole thing. While Luke had fun, he was also devastated when I somehow managed to lose the walking stick he had selected for me. And while Zach enjoyed stuffing every possible pebble into his pants pockets, he was pretty much done by the end (insert crankiness and whining here).

Or maybe it was just me who was tired and cranky by the end. It was a long, full weekend. But hey, we only spent $9.05 (the total cost of dinner for the boys at the Getty Cafe) so we are in good shape.

Excursions

This weekend we kept it light on planning because we knew Luke would be exhausted from the school week, a sleepover, and his soccer game, so we wanted to give him a chance to rest up. But Zach needs constant activity so that he is worn down enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour. So we split up: Dave with Zach and me with Luke.

Fortunately, Dave had the brilliant idea to take Zach down to see the Goodyear blimp at its landing spot. Unfortunately, the full experience of watching the blimp take off was so electrifying for Zach that he could not contain himself for the 24 hours following. He was too excited to take a nap yesterday, and I'm sad to say that he woke up at 1:30 am and was essentially awake for two more hours, not sad or sick, just wanting to talk more about the blimp. His little monologue went on and on about the blimp going up, and the pilot driving it, and the motor going 'brrrrm' and the blimp flying over the trees... and about how he and Daddy went to eat chicken and rice and mushrooms (they had Chinese food at Panda Express). Obviously it made a big impression. Oh, and I'll spare you the three-minute video of the blimp taking off that Dave and Zach have been watching ad nauseam.

Anyway, he's so excited about blimps these days that he keeps saying he wants to be a blimp for Halloween. (Next year?) He also told us the other day, "Christmas is coming... I want to be a blimp... for Halloween." He is king of the non-sequiturs if nothing else.

Brief aside: Dave and I are running out of ways to speak in code with each other, now that Luke essentially knows how to spell most words that refer to things he likes (c-a-n-d-y, etc.). So today we had talked about taking the boys to the pool at the gym, but when it was clear they were both too tired, Dave said to me, "So it looks like we should not plan a trip to the... natatorium."

Today I drove Luke 30 miles to Glendale, home of the nearest Lego store. When we finally got to the mall after driving for 45 minutes, he asked, "Do they still speak English here?"

I wanted to go to the Lego store because it's the best place to buy loose bricks for creative building. And to visit this store, you would never know that we were in a down economy. It was mobbed with kids, parents, grandparents, you name it, all in one long line to buy Legos.

Luke was so happy to be there that he was bouncing the whole way home. "You know mom, I think when I grow up I'm going to live with you."
"Well, what about if you get married and you want to have a house with your wife?"
"Well, I could move next door to you. Except - wait - Pat and Geraldine have their houses there. Maybe I could just build a new house in some extra space, like next to Geraldine's house."
"On the street?"
"Well, we could figure something out..."

That's my builder.

The whole fan-dam-ily

After days and weeks of pre-Halloween activities, all of the warm-up and planning finally came to a head on Saturday night. The gang included a witch, an escaped convict, a gray cat, and Commander Cody from Star Wars. Mom and Dad were there, although they could not be convinced to wear costumes; and Elizabeth was there, although she didn't stay for the good part (trick-or-treating).

The walk streets were a lively scene as usual and Zach was immediately swept up in the whole routine. "Truck or treat!" he would say gleefully at each house. (Best comment from one guy when he saw Dave walking Zach up to the door: "Nice costume, little guy. And it's great to see that your dad got out for the weekend.") Luke was a little worn out from a busy day of soccer, but he held out long enough to get a bucket full of candy and watch the guillotine reenactment outside one of the houses.

When we finally got home from trick-or-treating, Zach was buzzing around the house, and refused to settle in bed until he could get his hands on one more piece of candy. He finally fell asleep with his little fist curled around a Tootsie Roll. No big deal, I figured. I can just take it out of his hands once he's asleep. So when I heard him snoring I went to grab the candy, and - BAM! - his other arm popped up and slapped me away. (And the snoring continued). I had to wait another hour until he was in a much deeper sleep to finally pry the candy out of his hand.

Also, I'm experiencing something with Zach that I never once had with Luke: Zach wants to wear his costume again and again. (I don't think it ever even occurred to Luke to wear his costumes once Halloween was over). So the cat costume is a little worse for wear; I'm going to have to figure out how to wash it while keeping the feather-boa tail and ears intact.

Two quick Luke things: First, I was asking him about some of the other kids in his class. He volunteered that he likes a girl named Hiyasmin. "Oh yeah, she's a nice girl," I said. And Luke replied, "And she looks good too!"

Also, Luke has been learning about bats at school. The other night we drove by a donut shop with a big sign out in front that said, "Open All Night." Luke looked at the sign, then announced, "Those people who work at the donut shop? They must be nocturnal."