Eri's first trip to the dentist

First off, Happy 2009!

So, now that Erin has turned three, she gets to experience the joys of going to the dentist.  Emily suggested I take them both at the same time, which was a revelation to me because I wouldn't have thought of that myself.  The appointment was on Monday February 2, 2009.  We are lucky in that a. our dentist is just one block away, and 2. our dentist is the wonderful doctor Vivian Lopez, DDS, who specializes in pediatric dentistry.  Oh and c. she has a couple of great technicians/hygenists who really work hard to relate to the kids and put them at ease.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Erin got to watch Katie go through the whole routine first, which in her case really seemed to help.  There was one point when it was Erin's turn to get into the chair so that Tanya, the dental technician, could check her teeth and polish them that a flicker of fear went over her face--but it passed quickly as I put her in the chair, and Katie jumped on to go for Erin's inaugural ride up and down in the chair (3 times since she is 3).

Going to the dentist, in the end, was more like going to a party, with all the presents and balloons they got at the end.  In fact on the walk back home we passed a man who said "it looks like you just came from a birthday party" which of course seemed strange since it was 11 AM on a monday morning.  "No, dentist", I said.

Getting from point A to point B

Erin was very upset this morning that she did not have gymnastics as Katie does. It being a gray day outside, I proposed a bike ride to our local "play cafe", an indoor mini-playground for kids. Erin's tears disappeared almost instantly--right, I thought, lets strike while the iron is hot. 

Already dressed in her leotard, so as to attend gymnastics in spirit, if not in actuality, I suggested we put some pants on her, over the leotard, to protect those almost three year old legs from the cold.  Three pairs later, with much whining and gnashing of teeth, I abandoned the idea that she must keep her legs warm on our bike ride.  After all, she has free will doesn't she?  Perhaps if her legs got cold, she'd "learn something".  OK, almost set to go, I looked up a bike safe route on google maps, got my bike gloves out of my bag, and remembered--oops, I left my bike at work last night.

Erin took this news amazingly well.  She commented that she did that once when she was a baby.   Luckily, I was thinking quickly and decided we'd take the bus instead.  A quick lookup of the bus schedule, and we were out the door.  Less than 10 steps from our doorstep, Erin remembers that she wants to be wearing the "new" (to her) polka dot fleece jacket Momma brought up from the bag of Katie's old clothes.  So, back inside.  New jacket on, socks shoes and leotard clad, we made it to the bus stop.  We got what I interpreted as a few concerned looks from passers by in cars as we sat waiting for the bus--"is that girl naked under that jacket?" I imagined them thinking.  

An hour after the plan was hatched, we've arrived and Erin's happily playing away.  The bus ride was actually an adventure for us, despite the fact that I don't believe AC Transit has a single friendly driver in their vast fleet.  The only other minor setback was a bump on the head, via a roll off of a "hop ball" about 5 seconds after Erin set foot in the play area.  It's good to get those things out of the way at the start.    The rest of the day is looking good.

Wrong side of history

A slim majority of Californians voted last night to take away the right of gay and lesbian people to marry in our golden state.  The millions of Pro-8 voters were driven by fear, mis-information, a belief that their religious views must be imposed on others, as well as a frightful belief that rights are to be whimsically bestowed and taken away from minorities with less thought than is shown towards livestock.  Bigger coops for chickens?  Yea!  Marriage for gays? Nay!

Their hate is a blight on the lives and families of gays and lesbians everywhere.  Under the guise of "protecting marriage", they have stigmatizatized gays and lesbians and our children.  They have asserted that discriminating against lesbians and gays is acceptable and they have ordered that inequality be written into law.

Let's hope that they are on the wrong side of history.  Let's hope that these narrow minds--clearly not thinking rationally, if at all, about how their disconnected actions in the ballot box damage real women, men and children in so many painful ways--will not prevail.

California Constitution

ARTICLE 1  DECLARATION OF RIGHTS

SECTION 1.  All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights.  Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.

Top 10 Ways Gay Marriage Hurts Straight Marriage

Top 10 Ways Gay Marriage hurts Straight Marriage

10.  Gay marriages have raised the bar for having fun, creative and fabulous weddings.

9.   All the good venues have already been booked by gay couples.

8.  Your friends can't come to your straight wedding because it conflicts with their other friends' gay wedding.

7.  The lines at the county clerk and city hall are much longer with all the gay couples getting married.

6.  Only the people who really want to be there go to a gay wedding, so the straight weddings get all the people who you wish wouldn't come.

5.  All the offspring of gay marriages will be gay (just like all the offspring of straight marriages are straight) leading to a world wide population implosion.

4.  The pressure will increase on straight married couples to have even more children as a result of #5.

3.  Straight married couples will divorce in increasing numbers as a result of all this increased pressure and stress on them to reproduce.

2.  Straight couples will have no money to retire on because they have too many children and alimony payments from previous straight marriages.

1. Straight marriage will completely disintegrate and be viewed as an impossible dream  because of #s 2-10.

Katie's Alarm Clock

Now that she's a big kindergartener, Emily set Katie's alarm clock to go off in the AM to help her wake up before Mamma goes to work, thus avoiding meltdowns and tears at the start of the day. The first day of this new regime, Emily went up to find Katie on the floor staring at her alarm clock (music playing). Asked how she liked it, Katie replied, "I like it, but it waked me up before I was finished sleeping".

Not a day over 65

Conversation overheard at the YMCA today:

Woman 1: Oh, hi, how are you? We never see each other any more.
Woman 2: I'm good, and you? Yea, we don't.
Woman 1: What classes are you taking these days?
Woman 2: Well, I've dropped Sunday mornings, so I'm mostly coming in to do my own workouts--and I'm also taking a Pilates class at Elephant Pharmacy. It's free and it's nice.
Woman 1: Oh, I'm taking a Pilates class too, it is nice.
Woman 2: Well, you look good.
Woman 1: So do you!
Woman 2: Thank you. We gotta work hard.
Woman 1: Tell me about it, we're old broads, we gotta work hard.
Woman 2: Don't remind me, I have a birthday coming up next week.
Woman 1: Which one is it? Is it the same as mine?
Woman 2: No, you're younger than me.
Woman 1: So how old are you going to be? I'm 72.
Woman 2: 71. But we're children, children!
Woman 1: [laughs]
Woman 2: I'm in better shape than some of my kindergarteners [proceeds to bend over and touch her toes].
Woman 1: You're kidding, that's terrible!
Woman 2: Yes, I know, I feel so bad for some of these kids.

Get out your handkerchiefs

Today is Katie's last day of pre-school.  She's been going since she was 2 years and 9 months old, and she's 5 years and 7 months now. We will be attending her "graduation" ceremony this afternoon, and yes, I will be bringing a supply of tissues.  As well as the camera and video cam.  Emily and I are taking turns fighting the urge to choke up--how could this all be happening so fast?  Looking back, it all seems like a blur, and now Erin is getting ready to go to pre-school and Katie to Kindergarten.  Thankfully they both are more forward looking and eager than their parents who are sentimental saps.  Pictures and video to be posted later. 

Disneyland

We went to Disneyland. Or, rather, I went to the American Library Association conference, which happened to be in Anaheim CA, and brought my family + Grandma (Emily's mom) to Disneyland. So I went to some ALA programs (which were dull compared to Disneyland's offerings), and also went to Disneyland. Hadn't been there since I was 18. My high school graduating class went there after we graduated. This time was more fun, though also interrupted by my obligation to attend ALA.

Hits:

Watching fireworks from our room at the Disneyland Hotel (now Erin thinks that all Hotel rooms must provide fireworks).
Seeing Katie meet the various princesses which are currently part of her imaginary world.
Seeing Erin meet Minnie Mouse--true love at first sight!
The Disneyland Hotel Pool.

Misses:

Taking a five year old on "Space Mountain when A. I don't even really like roller coasters, and B. What was I thinking?!!!

If you have some time to kill, you can check out our Disneyland photos.

Erin in thought

Erin in thought
Originally uploaded by leapinglemur

Erin with one of her favorite tools--a pen. In addition to writing on paper, she also enjoys writing on walls, clothes (especially new clothes), furniture, skin as well as sucking on the ink end.

Hooray for common sense

[Note:  I found this unfinished draft from May.  New commentary added today, 7/19/08.]

The front page of the SF Chronicle reports today that for the first time in 30 years, a majority of Californians support Gay Marriage! It is a slim majority though, and depending on how heavily the prop-22 people sell their anti-rights constitutional amendment, some may be swayed to the dark side. What to do? Well, first off, I guess, we will be getting married.  Yep, that's right.  The date is set, October 25th at the Temescal Boat House in Oakland.  Arrangements are underway.  Another poll came out yesterday saying that of likely voters in California 51% oppose proposition 8, and about 7% are undecided.  I wonder what the issues are for those who can't decide?  I'd be happy to speak to any of those voters.

Raccoon-proof kiddie pool

I'm on the prowl for a Raccoon-proof kiddie pool. So far we've lost two blow-up pools to our local band of back-yard prowling, night-swimming rascals.

The model to the right was savagely attacked, apparently after the raccoons believed they were under a shark attack while wading in the deep end.

Another pool one was just half-heartedly chewed--nothing like a shark to get the adrenaline going. Apparently, raccoon pool wading and destruction is not uncommon. Other enemies of the blow up pool include birds, and logically challenged people, like myself, who dragged our hard sided, but soft-bottomed pool along the rocky mulch to empty it.

Alas, the hard plastic type of pool that used to be in style when I was a kid seems to be no longer in production....so, I must turn to Slate magazine for my pool recommendation.

Mommy Hossy

Whenever I even slightly bend over, before I know what's happening, Erin yells "hossy ride" and tries to climb on my back. And if one girl wants a hossy ride, the other wants one too, so it becomes more efficient just to give them one at the same time. With recent back and neck troubles, my doctor has recommended I lay off this activity. I recently did a backwards somersault to show Erin what fun it was at Baby Gymnastics--and while I failed to convince her to try it, I wound up with a stiff neck for two weeks. My gymnastics career is over. But regardless of what my doctor says, I'd say I have at least one more year of hossy rides.

January Twuonleyeth

Katie's 5th birthday party was Jan 20th and a bouncy time was had by all (well almost all). We decadently rented a bouncy-house for the day, for $90 bucks. Not bad considering we had it from 8:30 AM till almost 7 PM, though of course bouncing was not constant during that period. I'd say we got our money's worth: 13 girls, 2 boys, and at least 5 adults had a go in it, there were no major injuries, Disney princeceses adorned said abode (Katie can rattle them off, but all I know is Cinderella & Snow White (who I never realized was a princess)).


The only major trauma was Momma accidentally serving the first piece of cake to a different Katie (Katie C., not Katie A.), and some minor ouchies which, when it comes down to it, are an essential part of childhood.

While the party had a princess theme (which, on one level I don't relate to, but on another can't object to) we didn't overdo it. Or I should say I didn't. Momma E. made a smashing good princess cake inspired by the princess cookbook that Grandma N. got for Katie last year, and this post will close with an homage to the birthday girl and her adored baked good:

The Tale of Samuel Whiskers

This book is one that Katie and her friend Julia have built an entire fantasy play world around. I love the description by the author of the article on "100 books every child should read":

The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, by Beatrix Potter(Frederick Warne, £4.99)Tom Kitten learnt nothing from his parents about the consequences of curiosity. Abducted by a psychotic rat, he comes within a whisker of being turned into a pudding. Nightmares guaranteed.

100 books every child should read - Pt 1 - Telegraph

In fact, Katie & Julia have never lost a wink of sleep over this story.  Katie is Annamaria, and Julia is Samuel Whiskers, and sometimes, if she's lucky, little Eri gets to be Tom Kitten, and J & K turn her into a "rolly polly pudding".  More often than not though, it is just J & K running around gathering food for their rat dinner, and finding sticks that will be useful in constructing infinite rat houses.

Our Katie

Just received from Katie's teacher. That's our girl on "hat day" with a princess crown that she made at a classmate's birthday party last year. It's held up amazingly well. Last night as I was putting Katie and Erin to bed I was reading them books. Max's Valentine to be precise. Erin wanted it "again, again" (a very common request about anything that is enjoyable) and Katie didn't. "Why not?" asked Erin. "Because it's my body" replied Katie. OK then!

Super helium debunked

So I discovered that it's not the helium, but the balloons that make the balloons stay up for a month. They've got an extra non-porous plastic lining which keeps the helium in the balloon. Mystery solved, there's no such thing as "super-helium"--or is there?

Christmas Cookies

So far I'm a failure at capturing events in realtime. So here's installment 1 of a semi-irregular report on what we did over the holidays.

Christmas Cookies

In honor of MeanLouise who says she was cookie deprived this holiday season, here's a view of one of several Christmas cookie events in our neck of the woods.



Naked chef, watch out!

BTW, these Gingerbread bears were made from a kit from Crayola.

Thank you Grandma, they were a hit--at least the making of them. Neither child seemed to actually enjoy eating them. The cat enjoyed playing cat-hockey with the gum-drops that were deposited on the floor however, and I believe Santa had one too.

First achievement of 2008

I received this exciting call while I was out to lunch:

Katie zips her coat, alllllll by herself!

New Years Eve with Anderson Cooper

CNN was the only channel we could find here on the West coast broadcasting the EST New Year's ball drop in Times Square, New York in real time. None of the 3 broadcast networks bothered. I guess they think we enjoy watching the taped version here in California better than the live version, and Shrek 7 and Dr. Phil would bring in more viewers on New Years here in the 7th largest economy in the world or whatever we are.

But we needed a 9 o'clock New Year.

It was a necessity seeing that we had 3 children of ages 4 and 5 who we wanted to take part in the celebration of year 2008. Despite our best planning, said children either broke down or got hyped up beyond put-downable states just as the EST New Year rang in. Pajama sharing, red vs. gold party crowns and New Year's kisses were all in dispute. At least the 2 year old was asleep--the house might have exploded otherwise.

Some bright spots of 2007: Little Erin, who despite being a home wrecker extraordinaire, has learned to charm the pants off us, even as she nearly sets the house on fire. Katie who never ceases to astound me with profound statements of sensitivity, like last night when she said, as she fell asleep holding her sister's hand "Next time Clara [her friend] comes over, I'm going to tell her that Erin can join the game". The tension between big sisters/little sisters and their friends cannot be underestimated, and the generosity of Katie's statement therefore touched me.

Erin will finally sit down in the bathtub, hallelujah--from ages 1-2 she refused to as I traumatized her one too many times with hair washing. The trauma still happens once a week, but at least she can finally enjoy her bath when it's not hair washing night.

Sleep: we are getting more of it, though still not enough. Erin generally only wakes up once a night between 4:30 and 5:30 AM, coming to our bed to nurse, and Katie has stopped coming up at 6 AM to wiggle me into a caffeinated, toothpicks holding up the eyes, state.

Hopes for the New Year:

• An end to far-right-wing, religious-fundamentalist, corporate-pirate rule of our country.
• An end, or at least an end in sight, to a war that's been going on since Katie was two months old.
• More hope, happiness and love for all of us.
• May we actually send the Thank You cards for Erin's Birthday.
• That we provide Katie with an enjoyable 5th birthday party which will not result in us, her parents, filing for divorce.
• Oops, never mind, we can't get a divorce because we're not married.
• Exercise more and eat more fruits and vegetables (and convince the children that foods besides pasta can be tasty).
• Pick the best public Kindergarten for our firstborn.
• Take more vacations.
• Do more good things.

Crabby

Katie's preschool asked for a volunteer to watch Crabby, her classroom's pet hermit crab. Crabby has a comfortable home on our dining-room built-ins in her terrarium, or whatever you call it. Crabby spends most of her time in her little cardboard house. We take her out a couple times a day and spray her with a little water bottle and put her in her water dish. She then has to make her way back to her little house, and on the way, if she's hungry, she can munch on her little hermit crab meal, pellets, cakes which sit in the upside-down crab food jar insert.

So far, it's been mostly Momma who tends to Crabby, though she asked me to do the duties tonight. I asked her if it wasn't true that somehow Katie was supposed to be involved in Crabby's upkeep, and yes, she admits this is true, but it's easy to forget about Crabby until the kids are fast asleep, the cat's been fed and the dishes are done and the latest batch of Christmas presents has been processed. Oh and there's still Thank You cards to send out for Erin's birthday gifts, and a couple more x-mas presents to buy, the house is a wreck and so on.

Poor Momma is quite worried about our ability to keep Crabby alive until it is time to return her to preschool. I try to remind her that Katie's teacher let us know, via a wink and nod, that it would be "OK" if Crabby didn't make it, as she would be relatively easy to replace. Still, it would feel like a failure not to be able to keep such a low-maintenance creature alive for 19 days.