On the Hunt

When I loaded the pictures from today's egg hunt onto the iPhoto program on my laptop, a funny thing happened: I scrolled through to the last picture, and then it bounced back to the very first picture in my iPhoto program, which happens to be the egg hunt from two years ago when Luke was three and I was in the hospital and Zach hadn't even made an appearance yet. Big changes since then, eh?

We made a smooth transition from last night's Seder with Dave's family (mmmm....matzoh ball soup...thank you, Suzi, for making enough for leftovers) to this morning's Easter festivities. The four of us muddled our way through Easter mass (with Zach nearly losing it over the fact that there was a balloon stuck up on the ceiling -- don't ask) and got back to the house raring to go for our Easter egg hunt. I had asked Elizabeth to come over because we wanted to see her again and I thought maybe I could convince her not to leave town if I made some Petros-style Greek sandwiches (thick-sliced slow-roasted beef, caramelized onions, goat cheese, arugula, and spicy mustard on crusty bread). Mmmmm. Well, I can't speak for Elizabeth, but I'm pretty sure I convinced Dave to stick around.

Anyhow, I had sort of forgotten that at Zach's age it takes them a while to catch on to the idea of an egg "hunt." So we basically had to hold his hand and physically walk him over to each egg: "Look at that egg! Isn't that a nice egg? Do you want to put it in your basket?" And that's fine with me for now. I'm sure by this time next year the boys will find a way to fight over the eggs.

OK, now I should probably admit that I've buried the lead: On Friday Luke took a sloppy spill over the edge of the patio steps while driving his little red coupe, and broke two bones in his forearm. He's wearing a temporary splint/cast right now while we wait to get the real cast on some time this week. But suffice to say, his t-ball career is basically over for the season, and swimming is out of the question unless we get a waterproof cast. He was pretty miserable for most of the day on Friday, but he had a good sleep that night in spite of the cast, and on Saturday he was philosophical about the whole thing. (It sounds strange to say, but with his baseball cap, and his cast, and his newly circumspect attitude, he seems much more grown up than ever.)

I'm sad for him because he just started getting really excited about making comic books - writing a few words and drawing detailed pictures - and now he's going to be struggling to do it with his left hand. Also he needs assistance with just about everything he used to do by himself - getting dressed, going to the bathroom, squeezing toothpaste on his toothbrush, etc. But parodoxically, he also seems to want to help out more. So this weekend he helped me prepare Easter eggs and hide them, plus he did a whole bunch of sweeping and mopping, all with his left hand. Maybe we're on to something here.

As I sit here writing, the boys have just gone to bed and Dave has turned up the monitor so we can hear Zach in his crib singing himself to sleep: "Twinkle, twinkle, little... staaaaaar. How I... wonder...you are." Now he's muttering something about his cat and some trains. It's a good thing he can't see us at the other end of the baby monitor, cracking up. Is this what our parents used to do after we went to bed?

Part 3: Happy Birthday To You, Dinner Roll

Before I mention Sunday's birthday mega-party, I just want to give a nod to one of my favorite parts of Dave's birthday weekend: At the t-ball game on Saturday, the team surprised Dave with cupcakes at the end of the game. He reported hearing some giggling, some "Shhh. Here he comes!" and when he climbed up out of the dugout, there was a gaggle of giddy Angels players, ready to serenade him with "Happy Birthday, Coach Dave." It was a great moment to watch because he was truly touched.

So the party on Sunday was part family reunion, part crazy kid mud splattering contest, part gorge-fest. There were 16 of us for brunch, all related, representing five different last names and four different states, depending on how you count. We had breakfast, brunch, dessert, and some foods that fall into all of those categories, plus some extra mud pies in the backyard.

I really didn't see Luke and Helena and Antonia for most of the party; they were either in the bedroom playing "Wrap Rug" (one of the games left over from their visit together last year, go figure) or outside in the back yard playing something that involved mud, the pillows from the couch, and my favorite afghan.





But somehow there was no argument from anyone when we finally announced that it was time for cake and singing "Happy Birthday" to Bill and Dave. Sadly, Zach conked out somewhere after the lunch course and slept all the way through the singing of the birthday song. It's too bad, because at the moment it's his favorite song to sing. Actually, he entertains himself (and me) by singing, "Happy birthday to you... dinner roll. Happy birthday to you, hot dog bun." I am sure there's some explanation for this but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Anyhow, Dave had asked for sunglasses for his birthday, and when Dad was helping Luke with the card he had some sort of burst of inspiration (inspired by the Aleutians, he says) and he and Luke hand-crafted some shades of their own special design. Would you believe they work better than you think? Well, better than what he currently has now, which is nothing.

When Zach finally woke up, he got a piece of the cake that he had been hankering for all day, plus some extra lovin' from all of the relatives. Then we all hopped in the pool at some point, and somehow we transitioned over to a pizza/calzone party at Elizabeth's place, and by the time we wrapped up the evening, Dave had flown off to Sacramento, the kids had been tucked in, and the rest of us were just plain tuckered out.

Part 2: A Cacophony of Cousins

Of all the places for a happy reunion with the Seattle branch of our family, who would have guessed... 8th Street by the lifeguard stand? Lucky for us, Auntie E made the decision to move just a few blocks away from us, which made for a fun (and convenient) long weekend with both sides of the family.

I don't know why I should be surprised by this, but I am always amazed that when the kids get together after not having seen each other for months or more, they just slide right into the comfortable relationship where they left off.

Luke and Antonia are best buddies, of course, and Luke and Helena are... hmmm, how to put this ... just like brother and sister. At one point they were curled up on the couch together, holding hands, and looking like the two closest friends in the world, except that they were complaining that the other one was bothering them. It's a relationship that only siblings or the closest cousins could have.

But the one very cool thing about this visit was that for the first time the kids pretty much entertained themselves. They'd disappear into the bedroom or the backyard for long stretches at a time and wouldn't be heard from again until someone needed a snack or a drink.

For the moment, Zach is a little too young to join in the hijinks, and generally the person who is chasing after him (me) doesn't get to participate either. On Friday I swallowed my guilt and had Juana come and babysit for Zach so that we could all go to the farmers' market together without Zach. (Going to the farmers' market with Zach involves lots of chasing and apologizing and paying for fruits that we hadn't intended to buy.)

The kids had a good time at the market, of course, but I think they had an even better time playing in the grass afterwards. Luke and the girls started playing "restaurant" and offering us various dirt-, leaf-, and stick-themed foods. At one point Helena asked Dad what kind of ice cream he wanted and he told her, "Ladybug." Without missing a beat, she replied (all business), "Cone or cup?" Something tells me this is a girl who has ordered a certain amount of ice cream in her life.

On Saturday we took the whole group out to the Skirball to see the Noah's Ark exhibit, and I can't speak for everyone, but Zach and I had a great time. Luke and Helena and Antonia spent most of the time scaling the rope ladders and clambering from level to level on the ark. Luke reports that they were playing "poor," as in, they were poor and they had to steal from the rich people. I don't know how they ever got an idea like that.

Zach seemed to be happiest when most of the crowd had left and he had the conveyor belt all to himself to send the animals up, up, up to the top and then watch them tumble all the way down the chute into the basket. For some reason it got funnier for him - and me - every time.

I hope the rest of the grownups had a good time. If they weren't totally exhausted watching the kids play on the ark, going out to our little Mexican restaurant afterwards probably did them in. It's hard enough to take one small kid to a restaurant but when you take the whole bunch, and they're a little rambunctious to begin with, and one of them is not yet two years old ... well, you take your chances.

Next installment: The Big Birthday Bash.

Part 1: New Jersey Comes to California

We kicked off our week of fun with Grandma Joan and Papa by taking them out to the (t-)ball game. At the game they got to see Luke and Coach Dave in action on what turned out to be a hot and dry game day.

Luke was probably as happy as anyone to have the game be over; he was a little overheated from all the activity. So he and Dad and I hopped into the air-conditioned car, headed out on the freeway, drove all the way downtown to Philippe's and stood in line, stood in line, stood in line until we were finally rewarded with yummy French dip sandwiches and cold lemonade.

On Sunday we had a lot of planning go into a big family-style dinner, and as you can see Luke worked just as hard on the menu as others did on the shopping and cooking.

When we finally got the whole spread laid out on the table it was quite the feast. Since it was the end of March it was still a little chilly for eating outside but most of us braved it, fortified by extra food and drink.


Luke and Suzi topped off the night with a little Candyland activity. All in all, a great night, but still - more fun to come.

More than a thousand words

So, like, if you have a blog, and you have so much going on that you don't have a chance to write for a while, how do you decide what to write about?

Oh, and April?!?! How did it get to be April already? Probably what happened is once Mom and Dad got here, more than a week ago, life just got better and everything started speeding up and going way too fast. Now Julie and Helena and Antonia are here - and we have the added bonus of having Auntie E in town - so we're having so much fun that there's no time to blog, really. In fact, there's just barely enough time to post some pics. As always, many thanks to Bill for sending these along. I have a few more from our big dinner together but they are still on my camera. More pics for another day -- or perhaps, to be saved for the family book at the end of the year.

"Stop and take a rest, over in our nest, stop and take a rest, at the end of the day..."

Bonanza

I checked my email last night and there was one email that took forever to load... load... load... When it finally came in, it was well worth the wait. Bill took countless great shots at t-ball practice on Friday and he sent along dozens of them: group shots, individual shots, closeups, distance - you name it, he took it. (Too bad he wasn't there for the game on Saturday and everyone had to look at my chain-link-fence disaster of a picture instead). I'm not going to put up the ones with other kids in them, but they're all readily available for viewing at our house. Enjoy.

Inside baseball

Looks like it's going to be a great season for Luke and Dave... The playing fields are beautiful, the players are excited, and there's free candy after each game! The only problem is, this season is going to be pure torture for Zach, and possibly for me too, because I don't know if I'll ever get to see a game unless I keep Zach at home with a babysitter. All he wants to do at practice is run onto the playing field (where flying balls are a constant hazard), and all he wants to do at the game is push his way through the chain link fence into the dugout. Oh, and it's the repeated plaintive wail of "Dadd-ee! Dadd-EE!" that is probably most disconcerting to onlookers. I don't blame him - everyone else is having so much fun, why shouldn't he? - but the sad fact is, he's just at that age where he cannot be convinced to stay put. Today I took him away from the game over to a nearby playground and - fortunately - we made it back just in time to see Luke make the final hit of the game (which is always a home run) so we all had a chance to celebrate together.

So yes, it seems like Luke is having fun with the team (each player has a chance to bat at every inning, and every at-bat results in a first-base hit so they all get a chance to run around the bases) and he's even gotten a few hits off a regular pitch instead of the tee. But the real "hit" of the game is Dave. The kids love him so much that one of the boys told his mom last night, "I think I like baseball so much because I really like Coach Dave." Even one of the grandmas at the game today told Dave, "I think my two favorite parts of this game are watching Steven (her grandson) and watching you with all of the kids."

My picture-taking skills are probably going to be fairly poor for most of the season because one hand is on the camera while the other hand is on Zach, but I'll do my best to document some of the highlights. Today Luke was in charge of his class teddy bear, which he's supposed to take around with him on all of his adventures - kind of like a non-flat Flat Stanley - so we took a few pics with Coco the Bear on hand at the game.

Speaking of pics, if you get a chance, check out Zach's blog for a few recent ones taken by Bill; and if you want to see even more amazing shots, go to Bill's photo site at www.meinkephotography.com.

The corner

What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of Luke's incredibly loud snoring here in the living room. And somewhere else, Zach is snoring. And somewhere else, Dave is snoring. It's been that kind of day. Oh, who am I kidding. It's been that kind of week. Luke has been SICK in all caps all week long - fever since Sunday. Suffice to say he's been a total basket case, unable to do anything, even eat a cookie (!) so he's been weak and tired and sad and cranky, which as you can imagine has been barrels of fun for me as well. Today's the first day he's been fever-free, though, so we might be on an upswing. Or turning a corner. Or shifting forward into some different kind of metaphor -- anything to get us out of this rut.

Zach, on the other hand has had a banner week. Laughing, playing, loving school, talking about everything, and even sleeping in past 6 am (till 7 am on Friday, go figure). Dave says it might be one of those dog-pack things where when the alpha dog is down, another dog steps in to be alpha dog. So I guess you could say that this was Zach's alpha dog week.

So, I know I haven't written much about this, but Zach is really starting to talk a lot these days. (Haha! Joke!) Yesterday he was sitting over in the corner playing and just kind of singing to himself, "...Thursday, Friday, Saturday..." What?!?! School is definitely giving him a lot to talk about. He also gets concepts across through full sentences: "Come on...everybody... downstairs. Come on ... Luke ... downstairs. Go outside." Most of the time he wants to go outside so he can 1) Look for the blimp ("Blimp hiding... Where are you, blimp? There it is!") or 2)Visit one of his cat friends on the block. There's one house around the corner that has two cats, plus one of those metallic garden ball thingies. The other day I said, "Zach - let's go around the corner and visit those two cats," and he said, "Garden ball!" So in other words, he knows exactly what I'm saying.

Oh, and here's a little non-verbal Zach-ism: When Zach takes a bath he likes to sit right under the spout of running water. When the water gets too deep, I turn it off. Lately he has started rolling his eyes when I turn off the water, like, "Why do you inconvenience me like this?" Then he stands up, turns on the faucet, feels the water, assesses whether it is too hot or too cold, adjusts the faucet, feels it, adjusts it, etc. until he is satisfied and then he plops back down. Sometimes I turn the water off too soon just to watch this little routine of his.

Today we pulled both boys in the wagon over to the St. Patrick's Day parade. It was Luke's first public outing since Sunday (he missed his first Little League game this morning) and my first trip somewhere other than to the doctor's office in several days. I guess it was among the better St. Patrick's Day parades we've been to. The kids were not in top form (Zach nearly had a fit over a balloon, Luke nearly lost it over candy), but as I told Dave, I set the low water-mark for St. Patrick's days in 2007 when I was in the hospital, and from that vantage point, all other St. Patrick's days seem pretty darned good.

Here's to Luke getting better, Zach staying good, and no one else getting sick for at least another week.

Faces

A few weeks ago we had a chance to do a photo shoot with a super-primo studio that only works with black-and-white and does formal archival prints. Among the many shots they took (it was hard to choose) was this one, for which I got some "machine prints" done to give to people, and one more that I possibly like even better for which I got the archival print. Trouble is, I decided not to spend our entire house savings on getting it framed by the same studio -- I figured, what the heck? I can frame it myself. So instead they delivered it to me in a special cellophane envelope backed with cardboard, and two white gloves to handle it. Turns out it has to be dry-mounted and the print will be damaged if you touch it with your hands. So now I'm left with a beautiful picture tucked away in an envelope that only I can see and touch with gloves on. But at some point when I do get it dry-mounted, anyone who comes to our house will be able to see it (and I hope it will take your breath away, as it did mine).

I guess I can't say enough about how amazing Zach's speech development has been. I just asked Dave, "What kinds of things did Zach say today?" and he said - "Oh, my gosh - where do I start?" One thing that impressed me today was when he filled up two watering cans and came running over to me saying, "Two waters! Two waters!" How amazing is it that he could 1) identify that there were "two" of an object and 2) use the plural correctly! Also I know Dave has been excited every time he uses a gerund ("Water running!") Not to mention that he is an absolute sweetheart... Tonight Luke was not feeling well so Zach went out for a walk with Dave and came back with a flower he picked for Luke. Can you say "Awwwwww!" or do you want me to say it?

There are tons of things about Luke that I'd like to say, but mostly I am feeling bad for him because he was so floppy and under the weather today. But here are some exciting things: One, the kindergarten registration process is underway AND the preparations are in place for his preschool graduation ceremony. Graduation! Two, I talked with one of his teachers who leads the special creative writing class that he takes. She told me that she loves having him in the class because he is always coming up with great new ideas for stories. Even when the other kids just want to write the same old thing, he is always pressing them to try new ideas (Sample story: "The Flower Honey and the Cow in the Forest" -- come by our house for details). So that made me just about collapse with pride. He is definitely a nonconformist at school. I'm just glad he found a subject that will allow him to shine.

Have you ever seen such beautiful brothers?

Parade of Champions

It seemed like the whole town came out today for Opening Day Parade, one of the most beloved traditions here in the local Little League. While we walked down to the firehouse where the parade was starting, we kept seeing doors open and parents and their kids - in full-on baseball regalia - heading outside, until there was a whole mini-parade of us heading in the same direction toward the firehouse.

The parade was another chance for Coach Dave to shine as leader of the Angels. One kid even refused to hold his dad's hand and insisted on holding "Coach Dave's" hand as they walked through the streets. Luke kept up team spirits by banging on his tambourine and shouting the team cheer (it has something to do with being "louder...a little bit louder" but you'll have to ask Dave for the official version). The parade ended up at a mini-festival, complete with moon bouncers, a dunk tank, a home run derby, and of course the In 'N' Out Burger truck.

At this point I have to stop and confess that while it was one of those events that was objectively fun and looked good on paper, the actual implementation with real-live kids was nowhere near perfect. Zach had a total fit when he saw some team members with balloons and he didn't have one. To make the parade marginally more enjoyable for me, I dashed into the grocery store to buy a balloon ... and the only ones they had were mylar balloons that cost $8.65 with tax. So if you hear me talking about us putting money into a "balloon fund" we're not talking about some fancy new investment vehicle.

Luke was having a good day until various things happened and, well, let's just say he was exhausted from all of the parading and partying and kind of lost the plot. I think he's going to have a great time playing with the Angels but we are going to have to try to keep everything somewhat mellow and balanced and not add too many Girl Scout cookies to the mix. (Speaking of girls, Luke announced last night that he wants lots of girls to come and watch his t-ball games.)

There are lots of things to say about Zach, and he certainly has lots of things to say about himself, but the main thing that is affecting me and Dave right now is that he keeps waking up at 5:45 am. And he's just not able to take the hint about how unpopular that makes him. Then when I bring him into our room he'll be all cute, saying, "Daddy asleep!" and "Take off jacket!" (his sleeping "jacket") and "Snuggle Zach!" Or he'll point to Dave sleeping and say, "Name - Dave." I know Dave is technically asleep at this point but sometimes he can't hold it in and he'll just crack up.

Yesterday we were driving around town and we happened to drive by Luke's friend Hatcher's house, from a completely different direction than we normally approach it. As soon as we drove by, Zach got super-excited: "Hatcher's house!! Hatcher's house!!" he shouted. I'm so glad he has such a good sense of direction. On the flip side, he doesn't always get things right. He always calls cereal "cereal food" and for some reason he calls a pineapple "vegetable." The other day I bought a whole pineapple and it got knocked over on its side and Zach said, "Uh-oh! Vegetable!" We are so close to age two I can almost taste it...

Wheeeee!!!!!

If you had to guess which member of our family had the best time sledding down a hill at top speed, which one would you think it was? That's right, me! Wah-hoooooo!!!! Our cabin was one of two cabins on a big lot with a nice steep hill out in the back. There was a group of young whipper-snappers in the other cabin who very kindly offered us their sled and snow boogie board. I hopped on the boogie board and went down the hill, again and again, trying to go faster and longer on each run (oh, sure, Dave and I took the kids down on the regular sled a few times too but I was the only one brave enough for the boogie board) until such point that Dave had to watch the kids inside while I finished my final few runs.

It must be my East Coast upbringing but for some reason I associate "snow" with "cold weather." Not so in Southern California. Up in the mountains we had at least 18 inches of snow on the ground and the temps hit a balmy 60 degrees in the afternoon (we saw plenty of people outside in t-shirts). It turns out that we all much prefer it this way. It was just moderate enough outside that we could really enjoy ourselves -- even Zach, who refused to put on gloves of any kind. Zach loved the sledding ("Again! Again!") but he wasn't too interested in the snow play. To his credit, I think part of the problem was that the snow was simply too deep for him to walk in.



Luke, on the other hand, loved everything about the snow, from the snowballs, to the snow angels, to the snowmen, to the getting-wet-and-not-caring-about-it part. Oh, and let's not forget the cozy cabin, the bunk bed, and the hot chocolate - a five-year-old's trifecta. In fact he was so thrilled about the entire trip that on Saturday morning, for an hour before we even left the house, he insisted on walking around the house with his gloves on and his winter coat zipped up and pulled tight over his head. Go figure.

All in all it was a great quick weekend getaway, if only a little too short. Due to the quirks of our check-in and check-out times at the cabin, both days were a little chopped up. We had contemplated going to one of the nearby ski runs for skiing or snow-tubing, but the timing never quite worked out to make it worth the money. Instead, we were lucky to have the backyard to play in, and then to stumble upon a cool park on Sunday that took up most of our morning play time. The park had some snowed-in but play-worthy jet skis, motorboats, golf carts, and other equipment for kids to sit in and pretend to drive, which of course the boys loved.

I feel like I can't write about the weekend without talking about Zach's amazing speech development. He is now able to tell us, in detail, how he's feeling about almost everything. Example: He fell in the snow after one sled run and he told Dave, "Hands...cold. Go...back...inside." And this part is even more astonishing: When he was playing with Dave on the swings at the park, Dave started counting, "One, two..." and Zach picked up right away with "three...four...five..." and so on up to nine! He can count to NINE!!!!! Of course he probably has no idea what it means, but still... Whoa.

One small problem with him telling you everything that he wants is that sometimes we have no idea what he's saying. We stopped into one restaurant for dinner and when it turned out there was going to be a wait we decided to go to another restaurant across the street. As we were walking out of the first restaurant, Zach started freaking out: "Get it - eyeballs! Get it - eyeballs!" Dave and I were looking at each other scratching our heads trying to figure out what he was talking about, but Dave, good-natured dad that he is, tried to reassure Zach. "Don't worry, Zach, I'm sure they have eyeballs at the other restaurant too."

When we got home, Dave suggested (and this is totally indulgent, of course) that we all go in the hot tub. While we were swimming, we took a survey of everyone's favorite part about the weekend:


Luke: Drinking the hot cocoa;
Zach: Swinging on the swings or sleeping in the bunk bed (he said he liked both and he has no idea what "favorite" means)
Jeanne: Sledding;
Dave: Watching Jeanne sled

At bedtime Luke told me his least favorite part was only staying for one night. So I promised him that we'll do it again every year, and next time we'll stay longer.