Posted at 03:51 PM in four-leaf Clover | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
His other love: the tire swing
A note to Rocket's future girlfriends: he'll do anything for cake. All men have their price, his is homemade lemon cake. Lemon cake is such an odd thing for a kid to like anyway, shouldn't cake only have chocolate frosting and sprinkles in the world of a three year old? When I decided to make the cake to use up our lemons, Rocket held my hand while I made the batter. It was a sweet gesture, but also annoying to crack eggs and shift flour while holding the hand of a little person. When I appeared to forget he was there, Rocket stepped up his game. He tenderly kissed my hand over and over, saying soulfully, "I love you so much...(long pause)...cake ready yet?" When he wants something, the kid lays it on thick. He dropped his suave demeanor and started squealing and jumping up and down after the oven beeped. The poor kid was crushed when I told him it was the preheating signal and that the baking was only beginning. "I'm sorry, love bug," I said. "DO NOT call me a love bug!" he barked. His sweetness returned when the cake emerged from the oven. "You are the nicest mommy...I love you so much...is the cake ready for eating now?"
Rocket was forced to be the brave one today when the nurse walked in holding the flu vaccines for the kids. "Who's going first?" Without looking up from her book, Clover pointed to Rocket. She made her little brother go first. He took them both (Flumist up the nose and seasonal flu shot in the arm) like a champ, saying ow, but mostly excited by the bunny on his Band-Aid. Clover started crying...as soon as Rocket's shot was finished. A needle wasn't anywhere near her, but there she was, blubbering away. She cried until she got the shot, then abruptly stopped and said, "That wasn't that bad." But then she started crying again after deciding she liked Rocket's Band-Aid better than hers. I laughed, even though that usually makes her mad, but some days laughter is the only thing saving me from running away to Mexico. (That and my fear of getting Montezuma's revenge...again.)Posted at 07:53 PM in Calgon take me away!, four-leaf Clover, rocketman | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tell your grandchildren to save the date for a grand re-opening party because the environment will be fully restored by 2088!
The Brownie troop did timelines the other day where one side of the paper was ages one through seven, where the girls wrote the highlights or memories from that age, and the other side was ages 10-80 (by tens) where the girls predicted what they'd be doing then. Clover threw a tantrum at the start of the exercise, partially because she was overtired, but also because she was upset that being the youngest, she was the only girl not yet seven and without something to write on that line. I didn't appear that the tantrum was going to end before her birthday later this month, so I was tempted to write "I cried" under age seven, but we decided to leave it blank.Posted at 05:31 PM in four-leaf Clover | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
The downside of Halloween falling on a Saturday is that a one day affair turns into two straight days of parties. Today we've got two tired and cranky kids who didn't listen to me when I told them the sole purpose of the time change was so they'd sleep for an extra hour the day after Halloween. I had trouble falling asleep because a light had been left on somewhere in the house, but when Kevin got up to investigate, he found both of Rocket's glow necklaces stacked together as the light nuisance. Later that night Kevin awoke to find Clover using her glow sticks to read books, which gives me an eye strain headache just thinking about it. Possibly thanks to raves, glow stick technology has clearly advanced since my childhood when the necklaces were only yellow green and sometimes you had to cup your hands around them to watch them glow.
Glow necklaces were a great accessory for a ninja, who blended into the dark night without them. Clover was called boy, buddy, guy and various other male names last night by men handing out candy. She took this as a great compliment that they were unable to tell she was a girl under her mask and ninja uniform. My amusement with the ninja costume was that it was less expensive to buy a real ninja uniform online than to buy a ninja costume at Target.Posted at 11:08 AM in four-leaf Clover, if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands, rocketman | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
I need this picture to remind me that the kids have their moments of awesome.
Posted at 11:06 AM in Calgon take me away!, four-leaf Clover, rocketman | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted at 04:58 PM in Calgon take me away!, four-leaf Clover, rocketman | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Poor Rocket is completely confused by Halloween. He gets the trick or treat part and the costumes, but he doesn't understand that this is really only a one day affair. Every time he sees a house particularly well decorated for the holiday, he demands I pull the car over so we can ask them for candy. Or maybe he just knows that people organized enough to do really elaborate decorations probably already bought their candy weeks ago, and like Rocket, they're ready to go.
The annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch has been crossed off my
list. Taking little kids to the pumpkin patch should be great fun,
especially as they get older and better able to handle themselves, but
now they have opinions, which include not wanting to humor me with our
annual photo on the tractor or they argue about which one of them has a
bigger pumpkin. The trip to the farm where we buy our pumpkins wasn't
all that bad, even when a large tour bus pulled up and scores of old
people piled out. We were the only other customers at the farm, which
seemed to draw all of the old people too us, as if watching kids
picking out pumpkins was part of the experience. This would have been
fine, but almost every man in the group came up to my kids and made a
grandfatherly comment like, "Got some big pumpkins there!" Rocket
talked to the first person who approached us, then they smiled at the
second person, but by the third old person, my kids ignored them or
looked bothered by the interruption. I tried to be nice the whole time
until one old guy tried to take their picture. That's when I blocked
the kids and pushed them into the corn. I don't care how old you are, a
man taking pictures of kids he doesn't know is a little creepy.
Actually, that's not always true. Once at Stanford we encountered a bus
full of Japanese tourists, all snapping wildly with their cameras
strapped around their necks who took photos of Rocket at the Rodin
sculpture garden. Somehow that seemed less threatening, probably
because one tour member indicated to me through pointing that they
wanted to include him in their photos and once I said yes, it looked
like a paparazzi attack with bulbs flashing and cameras clicking away.
I imagined Rocket's picture being shown in horribly boring slide shows
to their families back home.
After we left the farm, we headed into downtown Half Moon Bay for hot chocolate and cookies. The kids scouted out the glass case and Clover finally pointed to the largest cookie there - bigger than my hand - shaped like a gingerbread pumpkin man. "You know it's gingerbread, right?" I asked. She said she knew in a tone that implied gingerbread was her favorite and I should have known that. Without question, Rocket followed suit, as he usually picks whatever Clover has deemed best. After we sat down, they nibbled a corner of their cookies, then just picked the sugar parts off. Neither of them ate the cookies because...they were gingerbread. Clover refused to concede the point, insisting she wasn't that hungry, yet she didn't want to bring the cookie home for later. Next time, just get the ghost sugar cookie like I suggested, okay kids?
Posted at 01:53 PM in four-leaf Clover, if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands, rocketman, Sigh... | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Rocketman's room. He asked me to take this photo.
I'm back to that preschool stage where it feels like a rip off when my child gets sick on a school day. Clover goes to school five days a week, making a day off not really a huge deal, but Rocket only goes three mornings a week, turning a day off into a major disappointment over the loss of quiet time.
Yesterday I kept Rocket home with a cold (three "ah-choo's" from the "cold in my mouth," he says). Technically he can go to school with a small cold, but I figured that this is how (and where) he got the cold, so I'll do the other parents a favor (you're welcome!) by keeping him out. It was the right decision because he was pretty sedate, proving he wasn't operating at 100%, and he watched TV and played quietly with Legos while I made the Fall change over in our house. The Halloween decorations are up, long sleeve shirts and pants are out and our bedding has changed from summer quilt to the cold weather down comforter that feels like a giant bear hug. As a result, our living room is full of giant plastic boxes awaiting their return to the attic, this time full of summer clothes. Almost on cue, this is when the girls next door come by with their school fundraisers. I swear every time those girls come by something messy is happening in our living room and as they stand in our doorway, I need to explain that no, we aren't moving and really, truly, our house doesn't always look like this.Posted at 01:49 PM in Calgon take me away!, four-leaf Clover, rocketman | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Hippie school graffiti
This month is never ending. It's been pretty hellish - or as I explained to my doctor, "I can't handle the transition month!" - going from summer's relaxed schedule to the regimented school schedule with extra curriculars and all of the meetings that seem to accompany a new school year. Tomorrow is my last crammed-full day for a few weeks and then I'll spend Wednesday updating my October calendar while being thankful September is coming to an end.
Someone had the nerve to remind me this morning that we are 90 days away from Christmas. I love Christmas as much as the next guy, but really? I don't need this, especially because Clover is telling everyone that she's getting a laptop for Christmas. As she excitedly explained it to me, she can't get on the computer without bothering me, therefore the clear solution is for her to get her own computer. She sees Santa as a Make a Wish ambassador, so he'll make sure she gets the computer. I've got 90 days to redirect her or Christmas morning may be full of tears around here.
We had a ladies day out yesterday, going into San Francisco to see Wicked and have an early dinner. Despite not being a fan of musicals, it was fun to take Clover along. Even more educational was the Folsom Street Fair going on nearby. There's nothing that says "Welcome to San Francisco" more than mostly naked guys in leather straps. Clover rolled with it, as if it's something one sees every day, but the older generation - my mom and aunt - were constantly surprised. "Oh!" they'd say after each group of men would pass wearing almost identical S&M uniforms. One gasp was followed with "Don't turn around," which is an invitation to turn around immediately, only to see a man's bare ass. I think my mom grew up a little that day too.
After dinner we stopped for a few minutes at the playground across from City Hall. When I worked there in college, everyone bolted to their car or bus when it started to get dark and we'd always take the elevator down one floor to the garage because the stairwell was the most dangerous place of all. This doesn't seem the ideal spot for a playground, but it's better than the open grass where people would camp out. Plus, Clover had fun, despite our pulling her along as the evening grew darker. I had trouble imagining that this is the park where Montana Newsom will hang out, but then, things change because when I was in college, I never would have thought I'd willingly bring my child here to play during dusk either.Posted at 02:28 PM in agita, four-leaf Clover | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Oh my god, is this what I think it is? That was my first thought as I picked up my first card. My second thought was are the Garbage Pail Kids back? I decided to roll with it, which was the thing to do because we ended up having a lot of fun.
A package from Hasbro arrived Tuesday, the day before National Family Game Night, sending my kids into orbit. They were thrilled. Christmas had come early. We received Bop It!, Monopoly City and Boggle, games I'd shown interest in while at a cocktail reception at BlogHer in Chicago, which illustrates what a single Midori Sour does to my head. My kids pulled the games out of the box with great enthusiasm, while I grabbed the Advil because each of these games makes a ton of noise. Even Monopoly City requires batteries (according to Kevin, I haven't looked into it).Because Rocket was sleeping, I opted for a quieter card game, pulling out Pictureka! that I'd received at BlogHer. We'd never played before, so it took a few minutes to figure out the point of the game, but once we got going, we had great fun. Even though young kids can play, it wasn't a boring kids game. We played three rounds - the final round was pretty heated as Kevin was fighting off a shut out. He came back to win the final game, ending the night with a win for everyone, literally and figuratively. Clover made us promise to play again tonight, possibly even Bop It! I'm going to be out tonight, so I agreed with her that yes, tonight is a great time for Bop It!
Disclaimer: The games were given to me for free from Hasbro. And Clover thanks them for it!
Posted at 02:17 PM in four-leaf Clover, if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands, products! | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

