Just one friend

"Luke, do you ever see Zach on the playground at lunch?"
Luke pauses over his snack. "Yeah. He's in a gang."
"A gang?!?"
"Yeah. It's kind of like a hippie gang."
"A hippie gang?!?"
"Right. It's a bunch of long-haired kids. They all hang out behind a bush and sing songs like 'It's a Small World' and throw stuff at people."

After checking in with Zach and a few well-placed sources, I learn that only about 60 percent of this story is true. True: hanging with some other kids who all happen to have long-ish hair. True: playing behind bushes. Possibly true: Throwing a Frisbee at Luke and his friends. False: "It's a Small World."

But I'm not worried about the gang thing. Do you know how happy it makes me to hear that he might have a gang? It's as if all of the things we've been working on are coming together. Here is a guy who so desperately wants to make connections with other kids, and now he's actually got more than one friend. This is brilliant.

But as they say, all you really need is just one friend. Yesterday Zach had a play date with his current BFF, Enzo. This morning when he arrived at school, Enzo happened to come up right behind him. Enzo whispered something in his ear and said, "Come on, Zach!" and grabbed his hand and led him down to the playground. They were off without even a glance backwards. It's like, I don't know...having a regular kid?

Luke is lucky; he's always had tons of friends. But even so, some days can be a little challenging. Yesterday he hung out at the playground after school with a handful of buddies. Eventually, the boys all decided to play football, which Luke hates. Luke sat down to me and leaned his head on my shoulder. "I think I'm basically ready to go."

But before we could get up, Luke's pal Shane wandered over. Shane was Luke's best friend in kindergarten and now, even though they've gotten into different things and each have their own group of friends, they're like brothers - in a good way. They've always got each other's back.

"Hey Luke. You wanna go climb that tree with me?"
"Sure."

I watch them walk away and try to imagine them as the kindergarteners they once were, except now they've both got long legs and a distinctly pre-teen saunter. They're so wrapped up in conversation they don't even notice they're walking in perfect lockstep. And then one of them says something that cracks the other up and they're doubled over in laughter. Once they reach the tree, they're up, up, up...and gone.

Just one good friend.

Fanfare

School is in, and we are all struggling to get our routine straight. Example: On the past three Thursdays, our school has had three different dismissal times. No one is quite sure yet when we are supposed to be where. Exacerbating that issue is the fact that our weekends are no longer special times for relaxation; we have been gone and/or busy for 7 out of the last 8 weekends. We are loving all of the adventures that life throws our way, but we don't yet have much of a routine down.

Zach has a complex web of support at school and at home, and he is thriving with all of the attention, and loving first grade. Of course it helps that he is always positive, super-confident, and extremely outgoing. (On the day before school started, he walked right up to the principal, greeted her by name, and gave her a blow-by-blow description of all of our vacations.) Some social interactions are still a little rocky, but he has a few nice new friends, and of course academically he is rising straight to the top. I think it also helps that he is somewhat (I can't believe I am saying this) tall for his age. He had a playdate the other day with a kid who had turned 7 in June, and the boy's mother simply could not believe that Zach wasn't going to turn 7 until next April.

Watching videos with the cat

Luke is having a little roller coaster ride at school - some days he loves it, and some days he hates it. But in general it is a much better year than last year, and we've seen Happy Luke more days than we've seen Sad Luke. Did anyone know he is playing trumpet this year? He's managed to get a few notes out so far, and I think it's only a matter of time before he can serenade us all.

Most people know that I spent the summer in emotional turmoil over the fact that Luke decided to play soccer this year. My issue was that most of the soccer-playing kids spend their summers and off-seasons doing soccer camp and club teams, and I hated the thought of him getting out there after not playing for a year and being at the bottom of the heap. Man, was I wrong. He LOVES it. Loves, loves, loves it. He might not be the best player on the field, but he is out there having the time of his life, and after every game it is hard for him to contain his enthusiasm. "I LOVE this game!" True story: At one of his games the other day he played goalie and one of the shots got right past him and the other team scored. One of the dads on our team yelled out, "It's alright, Luke! With your good looks, you're gonna be a star no matter what!"

Dave is carrying on and working as hard as ever to develop his growing little business. After more than a year of serving clients, we've noticed a trend: The people who love his blog and turn to him because they trust him entirely, seem to be mostly...engineers. He just completed one transaction with perhaps the most difficult client in history (software engineer), and Dave seemed to be the only agent in town who a) understood this guy and b) was able to endure all of his quirks of character throughout the course of the escrow process. Believe it or not, he has more engineer types lined up to work with him. I have to laugh... but truly, anyone who loves and appreciates Dave is OK in my book.

Last week, following parents' night at school, Dave and I took advantage of the all-adult crowd to celebrate my birthday and the start of the school year with a few friends at our local wine bar. Not much more to say on that for now, except that it was absolutely perfect evening and it was a joy to be able to ring in the "new year" with Dave.

Now for the really cool part. I've spent many days, weeks, and months building my blogs and my social media presence. When I applied to be a social media ambassador for Terranea, I thought it was a shot in the dark. When they picked me as one of the top 10 finalists to experience an all-expense-paid weekend, I was completely shocked and humbled. And when I learned about my competition among the top 10, I thought, "I don't have a prayer in the world."

But they put us to work over that weekend, and I worked non-stop, from morning until night, trying to create as impressive an impact as possible. Here's just a sampling of what I did on Saturday: Got a wardrobe makeover, took a yoga class, swam and went down the water slide, hiked four miles, learned about falconry, toured the residential sale properties, watched golf videos, and ate at four restaurants. I was so bone-tired on Saturday night I literally fell asleep at 8:00 pm, only to force myself to wake up again at 10 pm because I wanted to finish a blog post before morning.

All in a day's work

 By Sunday morning, I was positively morose. I wanted to win so badly, but I was exhausted, and I knew I had no chance of winning. Then they made the announcement, and I shuffled back to the room to talk to Dave and the boys. With a long face and a heavy sigh, I told them, "Well, I worked really hard, so that's why it's hard for me to say....I WON!!!!!!!!!"

Total joy, bedlam, and jumping up and down ensued.

I am now proud to be a social media ambassador for Terranea for 2014, which essentially means that I have unlimited free stays there as long as I continue to write and share my experiences. 2014, you'd better be ready for us!

Portland. Ia.

I am completely fascinated by this little phenomenon wherein our little family does something that we think is the best thing EVER and another family can do the same thing and just hate it. In this case, it was Portland. We had the most fun 48 hours in Portland - a total joyride of a weekend - that had us all yearning to go back again. And then we found out that some friends had stayed there earlier in the summer (in the same hotel even) and had a miserable time - they thought it was dirty, ugly, spooky, etc. Huh. I am completely mystified. What's not to love about Portland?

Our weekend of delight started with the train ride down to Portland and the four hours went by in a flash. We enjoyed a tasty lunch in the dining car and then spent a little bit of time in the observation car listening to the National Parks Service volunteers telling us about local history, wildlife, and scenery.

When we got in the cab to go to the hotel, our cab driver happened to mention that Portlandia was filming in a funky little neighborhood northwest of us. Jackpot!!!! We put our stuff down and then headed straight for said neighborhood. We got to see a little bit of filming, plus we enjoyed other local quirks: A nursery/plant store with chickens walking around, a light bulb store with an extensive Lego display in the window, a restaurant devoted solely to mac & cheese, a warehouse with reclaimed building fixtures, and an ice creamery featuring beet/mascarpone ice cream.

Our hotel was also a total delight - even though it was operated by a "chain," it had a wonderful old-time glamour to it. The nightly manager's reception, game room, funky pool, and full-on breakfast were nice touches. The boys swore they never wanted to stay in any other hotel besides this one. Saturday Dave had one item on his agenda - to get to the University of Oregon store. While he and Luke stocked up on green- and O-themed merchandise, Zach and I went to hold a place in the hour-long line for donuts at Voodoo Donuts. Was it worth it? Oh yes. Yes, it was.

Our next stop brought us to the Aerial Tram, which was surprisingly non-scary. It was just a smooth, easy ride to the top and spectacular views.

Then we headed back to the other side of town (all of this is happening on the Metro, of course) to visit the Peculiarium, a museum of weird and ghastly stuff. On the way we were starving so we walked into house-turned-coffee-shop that was furnished with a Dorm Room Circa Late 1990s theme, and ate some enormous sandwiches. Once we got to the Peculiarium, Luke was entirely too freaked out by it, but fortunately there was an old-timey street festival happening just down the block so we spent our time there getting our neighborhood fix.

Blammo! Right in the old-timey dunk tank

That night for dinner we headed to a pizza place in an old hotel that is described as Portland's most haunted place. Given Luke's reaction to the Peculiarium, we didn't bother to tell him about the ghost until after we left. But while the four of us enjoyed pizza in an eerie, dimly-lit corner, Dave and I kept exchanging nervous glances.

Ghostly pizza place

Then, with a full box of leftover pizza in hand, we walked down the dark streets to the waterfront, where large communities of homeless people were congregating. Dave conspicuously placed the pizza box on a bench, made a universal sign of peace in the direction of the homeless people, and walked away. A woman sprinted over to grab the box and within less than a minute there was a little pizza party going on. Quirky? Absolutely. Dirty? Meh. Scary? Not at all. I'm pretty sure we'd all be a lot happier if there were a little more Portland in our lives.