I Wish

Luke has been feeling a little glum since he failed in his attempt to fleece the tooth fairy last week. (He left a note under his pillow asking for a $100 bill, with a jar of his old teeth as an offering. The tooth fairy responded with a very nice note that essentially amounted to, "Nice try.") He'll do just about anything for more money to buy Lego sets, so this week he came up with a new tactic: wishing in a fountain.

After dinner the other night we passed by a fountain in the mall and he begged for some pennies to make a wish. I was curious about what could be so urgent that he needed to make a wish right away, so I leaned in a little bit to hear what he was saying. He scrunched up his eyes tightly, grasped the penny, and then flung it into the water saying quietly, "I wish I had a $100 bill!" Next he repeated this with a second penny and a sweeter, more poignant desire, "I wish I was braver!" Something must have worked because even though he didn't get the $100 bill, he reported to me the next morning that he was pretty sure he was a little bit braver.

Today we were running some errands and he became adamant that we needed to go to the mall, and no other, closer fountain would do. ("Mom, that fountain at the mall has crystals in it.") He had even brought four of his own pennies with him for wish-making purposes. So we headed back over there, because, of course, I can't resist a good excuse to go to the mall. On the way inside he didn't want to tell me what his wish was going to be. "But I can tell you this, Mom. Tomorrow I'm going to be flying with the birds."

This time I didn't eavesdrop; I just watched him concentrating carefully as he murmured his words and carefully tossed each of the four pennies into the fountain. When he was finished I asked him if he wanted another penny from my wallet. A bonus wish! He took a deep breath and said quietly, "I wish I could shoot lasers out of my eyes," and then sent the penny flying into the fountain.

More bulletins tomorrow as events warrant.

You Can Call Me Al

Top five Zach nicknames:
5. Zooey
4. Zacker Cracker (entirely Dave, with minor Helena influence)
3. Gooey Goo
2. Beauty (I know I shouldn't but I can't help it)
1. ZZ

Top three Luke nicknames:
3. Louie
2. Lou
1. LUKEPICKUPYOURLEGOS!!!

Filling the Space

So, have I mentioned that we appear to be raising a lefty? I just wonder if there is anything I need to do differently, or, say, inversely, of what I have done for Luke.

Anyway, in the two weeks since I've written we've managed multiple post-holiday meltdowns, a handful of birthday parties, about four inches of rain, and two ear infections. I've reconnected with several old colleagues, one of whom has offered me some potentially long-term freelance work. Meanwhile, Dave and I quietly marked the 14-year anniversary of our first dinner-and-a-movie, an event that was followed by the longest phone conversation ever, and the beginning of a lifetime of wanting to be next to him, talking to him, all the time.

I haven't had the camera out much, although I do have this picture to offer. Our beloved housecleaners, Beatriz and Felipe, whom we have known for almost ten years, seem to enjoy our kids almost as much as we do. Sometimes it seems like they come early or stay late just to hang out and talk with the boys. On Friday when they arrived, Zach happened to be dragging around a spool of ribbon. Beatriz swooped him up in her arms and declared that she wanted him for a present. He gleefully allowed her to tie him up with a bow and then walked around proudly 'wrapped' up for most of the morning. Later, when he made some artwork with me, he insisted on going downstairs to show them, which of course delighted them to no end. It is a very sweet relationship.

Some friends of ours gave us a bunk bed that they were no longer using, and we have plans to use it as a "real" bunk bed one of these days, but for the moment, things that involve ladders are just far too much of a temptation for Zach. Today we assembled them as single side-by-side beds, replacing the old, low platform beds that we've had for a while, and the boys were delighted to have new and bigger places to sleep. (The new beds are slightly longer and wider, and have headboards and footboards and finials, in contrast to our pared-down single-plank platform beds.)

So, new beds. Yes indeedy. [Crickets.] Actually, now I'm not so sure why I brought it up. I guess there's not much more of a story to it than that, for the moment. The boys are both asleep now, but stay tuned: I suppose if there's some bed-related mishap in the middle of the night I'll have to come back and post an update.

[Crickets]

T-shirt weather. Aaaahhhh, t-shirt weather. Nice and warm in front of the Hollywood sign here today. Yessirree, nice and warm...

Where was I? Oh, right. Current events. You know what it's like when you have a progressive dinner? When the house is quiet and clean and ready, and then all of a sudden a hungry horde streams into your house, devours your food, and then ...[sound of crickets]....? That's what we had on Friday afternoon for our first successful foray into entertaining the elementary school crowd. We invited everyone in Luke's class over after school for make-your-own-cupcakes and pizza. The house was totally quiet while Dave and I hung streamers, arranged tables and frosting and toppings, and stacked up pizzas in the dining room. Then ... zzzzzzzooooom! The hungry crowd of five-year-olds (and assorted siblings) stormed the house. Within minutes the cupcake table had been attacked and the hungry mob was momentarily silenced as cake crumbs flew into the air (cue the "Nom, nom, nom" sound). After we sang "Happy Birthday" to Luke, I announced that there was pizza upstairs, and... whoosh! The whole crowd vanished from the backyard and headed up the stairs. Everyone gathered on the balcony and the crowd was once again silenced as pizza crumbs flew in the air ("Nom, nom, nom, nom...").

After that everyone seemed to settle in, and the kids all started to feel comfortable. We had a Lego table set up, so that kept a few kids occupied at a time. The other games they came up with were 1) a variation on the "clown car" concept, in which everyone was trying to crowd into the playhouse at one time, and 2) some sort of boys-against-girls spy game, in which balloons, flashlights, pirate swords, and power tools were being employed as weapons. But in the end, everyone had fun, nothing got broken, and there were only 5 cupcakes left over (from the 66 cupcakes I had originally set out). Good times.

For anyone who thinks of Luke as the outgoing one and Zach as the shy one, think again. Zach is becoming bolder each day and he seems to have no fear about going up to people and asking questions. Today at Griffith Park we saw a man with a tiny chihuahua. Zach wanted to know what the dog's name was, so I said, "Well, you can go ahead and ask him." Which Zach did. Unfortunately, the man didn't speak English. He managed to convey to me that the dog was only two days old and didn't have a name yet. But Zach was undeterred. He looked up at the man and continued to ask a series of questions that had me and Luke (and the man) cracking up (and you have to imagine each of these questions being asked slowly, with the little lilt going up higher and higher at the end of each one): "Does your dog like to chew on a bone?" "Does your dog like to bark?" "Does your dog like to sleep in his dog bed?" "Does your dog like to snuggle with you?"

Today was the second day in a row Luke has been asking if we have any tomatoes - which made Dave and I briefly consider the idea that we had a case of scurvy on our hands - so when we got home from Griffith Park I sliced up some tomatoes for Luke. Next I made some guacamole for Luke (a food that Zach has never really gotten in to) and a big pot of chicken soup for Zach (a food that Luke has vehemently disdained almost all his life). But then I hauled out a new loaf of olive bread, which is something they both can agree on. And the crumbs went flying. Nom, nom, nom, nom.

You Don't Say

A friend of mine told me that her sons have been doing a spot-on Zach imitation at home. If you haven't been around him lately, you haven't heard the musical lilt he adds to the last word at the end of a sentence. If it's a one syllable word, it now has three: "I see a bli-ii-iimp." We're wondering what it will take for him to finally lose that little trademark flourish. In the meantime, it's becoming quite contagious. You only have to spend a few hours with him before you hear yourself saying, "We have to get in the ca-aa-ar so we can go to the sto-ooo-ore to buy some mi-iiii-ilk."

We're also laughing at other Zach-isms. For a few months he's been watching Luke play Nerf dart tag with his friends. But for some reason he hears "a Nerf gun" as "an Urf gun." So he'll wander around the house asking for his turn on the "Urf gun," which amuses Luke to no end.

Also Luke got a Luke Skywalker figurine for his birthday and at one point we must have told Zach, "This is Luke Skywalker," because he heard it as "Luke's Guywalker." Now if he sees it he'll hand it to Luke and say, "Luke - Here's your Guywalker!"

Luke, who's still reaping the rewards of a weeks-long celebration of Hanukkah, Christmas, and his birthday, is becoming remarkably patient with Zach. Yesterday morning they were both gearing up for a fight over something, and I could see Zach girding for battle, and then all of a sudden Luke kissed him on the nose and completely disarmed him. Talk about charming the enemy.

Aunt Marie gave Luke a special light for his room that casts a rainbow across the ceiling. Tonight at bedtime we turned off the lights and turned on the rainbow, which stretched from end to end across the ceiling. Then we noticed that it seemed to start right at the point where Zach's blimp was hanging, all the way over to Luke's Underground Mining Station at the other end of the room. From blimps to Legos - it seemed poetic somehow - and both boys were quite pleased before they drifted off to sleep.

Speedy

Two nights before we left NJ, I was lying in bed running through a mental list of my favorite parts of the vacation. Of course there was the excitement of present-opening, the thrill of Luke's birthday trip to the Lego store, the joy of watching the cousins play together, and the fun of sledding down the hill at my old elementary school with Luke. There was Christmas Eve Mass, spent sweltering in the heat of the church basement with a singer who sounded like (according to my dad) "a dying cat ...underwater ...recorded on very poor-quality sound equipment -- only worse," when Zach suddenly declared, "Help! Help! I gotta get out of here!!!" and bolted down the aisle and out the door. And of course there was Zach's spot-on imitation of a Philly accent: "We are walking in the sn-eeeeaaaoooow!"

But little did I know that there were more memorable times in store for our last morning in town, with the cutest little snow storm and the most packable snow ever touched by human hands. As soon as we went outside we discovered that you could just roll the snow up from the ground, cartoon-like, and make perfectly round balls that got bigger and bigger the more you rolled them. We made four snowmen in all - a perfect set for a perfect morning.

Yesterday morning when we flew out Dave and I got up at 4:45 in the morning (East Coast time) to get ourselves ready for the 7:40 am flight. The trip was totally fine but something about the timing just completely destroyed me. I usually have no trouble at all traveling in this direction, but this time it's going to take me about two days to get back onto West Coast time.

Today we decided to make the best of a wacky day and so we headed out to Pasadena to view all of the Rose Bowl floats close up and in person. I think we underestimated how crowded and hot it would be. By the time we left, the line of people waiting to take a shuttle bus was snaking all around the Rose Bowl parking complex. Oh, and did I mention that we were all super-tired and cranky?

But when we finally got back in the car, Luke said, "When I think of floats, I think of a root beer float and it makes me want ice cream." We all agreed that was just the ticket, so we went to an old-timey hamburger stand and got milkshakes to share. Finally cool again - whew.

To add a little randomness to this nice new year, here's a picture of Zach holding a stalk of Brussels sprouts. Rosemary served them for Christmas dinner, and Dave and I were literally fighting over the last piece, so we are planning to re-create her recipe at our house this week. Oh, and Zach finally got his own goldfish today. He decided to name him Speedy. I don't know why, but I love it, just like I love having him and all of us, back safe at home.