Post Number 8 for February

Hi there friends,

There are two days left for three posts which means it is highly unlikely that I will actually publish ten posts this month, but there we are.  I will still do better than January, inshallah.  (This is my favorite thing people say here, by a lot, even when they are saying something like, "I will bring the painters to your house tomorrow afternoon, inshallah."  And then I say, "okay, but you're coming, right?")

We're all feeling much better, finally, and Lulu has been given a clean bill of health (and a high five for beating her two minor ear infections without anything stronger than ibuprofen for the pain) by her new pediatrician.  So far, we really like him, which feels great.

Lulu has been well enough to have playdates this week and below is a photo with a school friend, on our way to the car.  They are standing in front of the poster for the Festival of Choirs which is an annual TAISM event, entirely coordinated by the high school choir director (who happens to be my friend).  This year is especially exciting because the guest conductor of the whole shebang is the Ole Choir conductor, Anton Armstrong!  Because I am a St. Olaf alum, Eli and I got free tickets.  I told him to stick with me, I can get him places.  (It's a joke; he doesn't even want to go to the Festival of Choirs but he is.)

I've been thinking a lot about my life lately as you all know (even more when the new pediatrican told me his son is a lawyer in LA and I got to remembering all the California codes and practice guides, sigh) and I have another thing to add to the list of things that make me joyful.  It thrills me all the way to my toes to watch my children master new skills (we've had a lot of this lately:  writing "z"s and riding two wheelers, to name a couple).  When they decide they want to do something, and they work so so so hard at it, their determination can actually feel overwhelming to me.  I think there were moments on one of the bike-riding lesson days during which I was actually crying.  I mean, jumping up and down and screaming and some tears.  What is it about these two small people (doing things that the very vast majority of us learn to do at some point in our lives, I might add) that puts me so far on the emotional edge? It's just nutty.  We went to the park last weekend with Tommy's friend who is a few months ahead on the bike riding and much more steady of a rider, and Tommy just kept trying.  For what felt like hours but was only minutes, he just kept starting and stopping or crashing and starting and stopping or crashing and I was just so proud of him.

During the sick period.

Tommy does this almost every morning: rolls out of bed and comes downstairs to read for a while.

Airshow!

Of course, I have no idea why, but there was an airshow last Friday (and again on Saturday) right off the beach near our house.  It was very exciting and the perfect activity to do with our sick little Lizzie as we just drove the car right onto the beach like everybody else does here.

 Tommy was far more interested in the tide pools - look at the big dead sea star he found!

Sicky, sick, sicky, sick, sick

My kids both went to school yesterday, but Lizzie was "too tired" and "unable to participate" for the entire four-hour morning, so I had to go get her.  (Never mind that I see children sleeping on bean bags each day at pick up.)  Otherwise, someone has been sick since last Wednesday.

As my friend Frannie would say, "OH MY HEAVENS."

I have other blog posts nearly ready to go, but I am compelled to tell you that I have been feeling sorry for myself all week and then I started listening to this TED Radio Hour about Happiness and it had the welcome effect of changing my perspective.  It turns out that the secret to happiness, if there is one, is to slow down and make yourself notice the moment you are in.  One speaker talked about it as gratitude:  stop and notice and then continue, and you'll teach yourself to feel gratitude and that will lead to joy.

Anyway, I had planned to write a whiney post about having my kids home all week, and then I realized that it just wasn't that bad.  We did lots of reading, and we are zipping through the third Harry Potter.  We have played games and done puzzles.  There has been no small amount of off-key singing though only in moments of feeling okay, and also, there have been naps.

Finally, they both went to school today and I got to go to Yoga and guess what we did?!? Headstands!  And guess who did one!?!?!  I KNOW.  I am positively JOYFUL.

Bausher Fort

I accompanied Tommy's class on another field trip last week.  For this one, we went to a fort.  The trip started with a talk by the three first grade teachers, one of whom made it clear that the history of this fort ("either 250 years old, or older" and "either built by the Portuguese, or not") was murky.  I was unimpressed at the time, but just spent a couple of minutes on google trying to figure out who built the fort, and when, and was unsuccessful.  History aside, it was a very fun field trip and my group of four students was charming and very well-behaved.  (I consider myself lucky that we did not stumble upon the carcass of a dog and never get to see the fort, as another group did.)

My little birdwatcher

Recently, Tommy burst out, "Grandpa Ollie and Grandma Sid are SO lucky!"  Upon asking why, I learned that it was because they had a bird feeder.  The conversation went on and I discovered that Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Bob are considered lucky because they have a bird bath.

On Thursday, Tommy's entire class went birdwatching at Qurum Park and I was a chaperone.  (During the pre-trip meeting, Mrs. Mongardi asked if any chaperones had questions, and a first grader's hand shot up:  "What's a chaperone?")  I went only because I wanted Tommy to be able to take his birdwatching gear along with him, and I didn't trust him to return with his binoculars.  (This lack of trust proved to be legitimate when I collected the binoculars from the ground where they had been left upon discovery of a lizard.)  Secretly, I thought it was insane to take sixty (three classes!) first graders birdwatching.

But I was wrong.  The kids absolutely loved it and as our bird book promised, Qurum Park is chocked full of birds.  We saw mynas, parakeets, egrets, plovers and of course crows and pigeons.  And here's the thing:  my kid is a really good bird spotter.  He clearly has good eyes (phew! I am so hopeful that the Walter genes will dominate there) and his memory is amazing.  He's spent enough time with the bird book that he identifies birds easily and correctly.  It's impressive.  Anyway, when we got back to school, Mrs. Mongardi observed that the trip had probably converted some of the other kids into bird watchers, so that Tommy wouldn't be the only one.   I'm not sure he minds either way.

One Year

Today is the first anniversary of my Grandma's death.

When I told Eli earlier this week that it was approaching, he said, "that's amazing.  It feels like it's just been a couple of months."

And I thought for a second and replied, "exactly".

New Year's Resolutions: Update

Friends.  I have decided to tell you all about the progress I'm making with my resolutions.  This way, I will want to do better.

First.  I am ROCKING the menu plans.  I am only doing them a week at a time, but I'm happy with them and I love when it gets to five pm and I know what to start doing in the kitchen rather than pulling open the fridge door and groaning.  I have tried some new recipes, and the kids now love butternut squash soup and chicken pie but have been less enthusiastic about black bean burgers.  However, I have read the articles that say you have to give kids a new food ten times before they want to eat it and so I shall persist.  Mostly because I myself quite like black bean burgers and they are easy peasy.  

The discouraging part of the menu planning is that I still go to the grocery store most days.  This is almost always for fresh milk, bread or vegetables, but it still sucks.  On the bright side, Lizzie rides her bike to the store and the weather is lovely so it's nice to be outdoors.

Second:  I have not looked once at the photo books, so boo.

Third:  You know how I'm doing on the photos and ten monthly posts.  Room for improvement.

Fourth:  As far as swearing, I will tell you this story.

Lizzie:  Am I allowed to say 'darn it'?

Eli:  No.

Tommy:  Lizzie, you can say darn it, but not D-M-I-T.

Me:  Lizzie, do you know what that spells? [The stupidest question asked in all of parenthood, ever.]

Lizzie:  Shit.

Eli:  We are such good parents.

And in the spirit of my resolutions, I offer you this photo of my daughter helping me with the dishes:

The News

I don't have any big news; just little things that feel big in our family.  I will note that there are no photos or videos accompanying this post due to technical difficulties but I have my tech guy working on it...

First, may I offer a hearty congratulations to all my favorite Seahawks fans? I admit to being excited when we woke up yesterday at 5:30 (that's right, slackers, we get up to exercise every day at 5:30 unless one of the kids throws up at night and we have had horrible sleep) and saw that they were winning.  I also confess to feeling slight badly for the teacher who left choir rehearsal early to go to bed so she could get up at 3:40 to cheer on the Broncos.  She was even preparing pork for the half-time meal.  Anyway.

Second, we are very excited to announce that Lizzie has mastered the "z" and can now write her name properly.  She mostly just likes to practice writing "z"s though...

Third, we are thrilled thrilled thrilled to announce that Tommy can ride a bike without training wheels!! He is incredibly proud of himself and says things such as, "Dad, could you please come home from work now and take me out on my two-wheeler?"  It took about thirty minutes of Eli running alongside him on Friday, when Tommy could ride a few seconds by himself but Eli (or I when Eli got too hot) ran with the bike the whole time.  On Saturday I forced him back out and after doing a couple of laps with him, I decided he had it and let go and from then on, all I did was pick the bike up from wherever he had crash-landed it, turn it around, and then push him off.  He has hand brakes which make this part a bit trickier (and perhaps cause a bit more crashing) but I know it will be better in the long run.  And anyway, we bought the knock-off bikes from the Indian part of town (Ruwi) and didn't really have any choice.  Eli and I are going to buy a bike this weekend that we can both ride as he is close to being able to ride faster than I can run.

Finally, Tommy has his first "wobbly" tooth!

The culmination of these achievements in Tommy's life was an announcement this morning that he intends to hang glide (because he wants to fly and this strikes him as the next best thing).  When I said that "little boys" weren't allowed to hang glide, he thought that was all fine but "what about boys as big as I am?"