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.

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. 

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!

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.

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.

The eerieness of super-helium

Almost 3 years ago, for Katie's second birthday, I bought a boquet of balloons the night before her party, so I would have one less thing to run around doing on the day of her party. That was when I discovered that regular helium doesn't last that long. The balloons were all at eye level the next morning--like sad, wilting flowers--much to my surprise and dismay. Somewhere along the line, we discovered super-helium...or "high-float" helium, as they call it at our local candy/balloon store, "Sweet Dreams". Well, now it is two weeks and counting since Erin's 2nd birthday partyand those balloons are still lingering, ceiling height, around our house (see--the second one always benifits from the trials and tribulations of the first) . But it doesn't seem right--this being one week from Christmas eve and all. It's kind of strange. They've long since lost their appeal to the girls, these super-helium balloons. They've taken on the air of some supernatural phenomenon better to be ignored, or regarded as just another aspect of our home decor.

A Banjo-tam for Eri!

When I got home from work last night, Emily told me little Eri asked for a Banjo for her birthday. What a request! She will be two on Saturday and a banjo seems a bit of an advanced request for such a little peanut. Then again, she loves the song "Old Susana" and is often commanding me to "go to car and get it" from the CD player, and as noted on the side, Elmo's Country songs features a talking banjo and a real live banjo playing rendition of said classic.

Anyway the idea has been stuck in my head ever since, so during my lunch hour I did some googling to see what I could see, and I learned a smidgen about a variety of banjo like instruments and kids and banjos. My first search was for "banjo for kids" which lead me to this toy banjo which looked just a little too clunky and toy like, and not really that musical. I also came across a Barney Banjo, which thank god is not available anymore. Then I googled for "baby banjo" and that lead me to this page which discusses "backpacking banjos" , "travel banjos" and, bingo, "mandobanjos". Now those look like the right size. But this is for a 2 year old so it's not prudent to spend $579+ for a fine musical instrument. Finally, I came across the amazing "Banjo-tam" on e-bay, and bingo--baby's gettin' a banjo!

They get into the darndest things

She doesn't need these yet--perhaps she thinks they are streamlined diapers. Before I took this picture the pads were all in the stroller, but she was too fast for me--she got the last one on the floor right as I snapped.

Fairyland and Halloween 2007

We went to Oakland's Fairyland the weekend before Halloween. Katie & Erin loved it. Lots of fake spiderwebs, other kids in costume and fairytale characters dressed up. That's the girls and the pumpkin. Katie in particular was mesmerized--it was hard to drag her away. Notice Erin with the phone. Anyway, after we parted ways with the pumpkin, Katie interjected: "A walking pumpkin--that's disgusting!"