I thought I should share some of our recent activities. I was particularly amused by Easter and leads ups to it. For some reason Easter really captured Aidan’s attention as something coming close to Christmas – did the Easter bunny always know what we were doing just like Santa Claus? And a week or so ago – How does Santa get down off of the roof? And I know how he goes up the chimney {how} by putting his finger by his nose. He so truly believes at present – what fun. He and Quincy have been practicing their bunny hops up and down the hall. He can do a standing jump 3’ long. He also hops over the train track quite a bit – and sometimes his brother… Quincy loves to practice his hopping too – I have far from natural bouncers here – other kids have been making that trampoline at Acrosports go up and down like crazy from their start at 18 months. Quincy was over 2 when he figured out how to do a 2 footed jump – and he can’t put them together yet. He does a mean Seat Drop however. And very nice forward rolls. He also led the way in hands free off the sofa rolls at Cousin Ellie’s house onto the sofa cushions on the floor. Soon imitated by all.

I haven’t gone into any of the religious aspects of Easter and have just talked about it in terms of a spring celebration – hence the eggs, bunnies etc. Aidan really wanted my Friday before Easter school project to be Easter or bunny related. Instead I thought we should make birds nests (for eggs to go in). I had an early chiropractor appointment then the kids and I hit a median and picked up a few bags full of sticks and grass and other natural debris. Then off to walk to lunch with friends Theo, Lillian & mom Karen – she watches Quincy for me now when I teach and I watch Lillian on Thursdays. At school I had the kids build their nests in paper bowls “since we couldn’t take home trees” you know. They were also allowed to cheat and use glue to hold everything. They all received a plastic egg of their choice (with 3 jelly beans inside) to take home in their nests. It was a fun project.

On Saturday we awoke to a nice sunny day (apparently the fog rolled in midday) – by 11.30 we were on our way south to Redwood City and our 1st brunch and egg hunt of the weekend. Ahhh. Up in the low 80’s, brunch on the deck, a warm swim for all afterwards to work off a few of the calories before the dessert course. Sarah had each kid find different colored eggs in the garden – about 5 or 6 maybe per kid – a couple with chocolates and others with small toys, and a couple presents besides. My kids were liking this Easter thing. We left around 5.30 only to shortly afterwards stop off at a park/playground for a little bit before stopping at a bar-be-que place. Home at 8.30 or 9. Exhausted kids! Aidan started to get a bit worried about the Easter bunny visiting his home while he slept and requested sleeping in our bed. Pete told him that the Easter bunny didn’t come right until dawn so no worries. I worked diligently at stuffing quite a few eggs – either 2 jellly beans or 3 chocolate covered soy beans per egg – or a small rubber animal or car. They got about a heaping tablespoon of candy each – poor deprived children! Also small chocolate bunnies from Sees Candies. I spread eggs throughout the house – some right under Pete’s nose while he read – he had no idea! Too funny. In the morning Aidan woke up first – and I think maybe I was in with him or I was already awake. Pete went back to sleep with Quincy in our room (Quincy had already come in in the middle of the night). Aidan was very excited to see eggs and was busy scooping out their locations all over the place – but was OK about waiting for Quincy. When Quincy woke up 45 min or so later (he had had to go w/out his nap the previous day after all) Aidan was very very cute – he tried to give Quincy helpful hints on where to look for eggs. No desire to gather them all to himself. Quincy just very earnestly asked when could he open his eggs?! Quincy tends to stall at about 3 eggs – wanting to open them and eat or play with the innards and we have to remind him he can put them in the basket and gather more…

We then had to hustle a bit as we were due downstairs at 10 for another hunt. John & Kerry have been hosting Jake & Kazayah from next door for years. There were 10 eggs per kid in the backyard – some quite hard to find although others in plain sight. They set a beautiful table as usual – complete with Royal Worchester (?) Beatrix Potter figurines. Fruit salad followed by warm cinnamon buns. Good eats. The boys all headed back outside to play for a while after eating. Fortunately! Kazayah started opening her eggs – they were all STUFFED with candy. I decided to liberate my kids of some candy and left them with only one or 2 pieces each. Then it was time to head off to Cousin Reiffs house where we were supposed to show up at 11.30 (joining a gang of 27!). Phil & Julia really have party hosting down – she is 8 months pregnant and makes it all look so easy. They had rented a couple of tables and all tablecloths and dishes – which all can be returned dirty! What a nifty plan. Yummy food as always. My contribution was a tart from a new cookbook – actually 2 tarts stacked – a pecan nut one on the bottom topped with the chocolate truffle filling. Rich. We also had our last (4th) egg hunt of the weekend. Phil hid the eggs – and let me say he was by FAR the hardest bunny! Eggs were NOT visible – you had to dig inside bushes or stand on parent’s shoulders. But with enough help they were all uncovered.

We of course have been trying to limit the kids candy intake. I had bought them a count down chocolate calendar from Trader Joes – a deal at 99 cents. One chocolate each morning in April until Easter. That was quite a hit. Aidan is diligently asks before eating any of his egg candy (I think they are just about done with it all now a week later) – and I think he doesn’t think about it except that he sees Quincy diving in. Quincy is smarter – he doesn’t ask (as we often say “not now – after dinner/lunch/tomorrow” – he just opens and eats. He is much more secretive about his escapades than Aidan (who broadcasts everything he is up to). One day we found Quincy with his hand inside Aidan’s piggy bank (paper mache pig – Quincy made the hole a bit bigger…) – he was mining for change to put in HIS froggy bank. I have also caught him several times having dragged up a chair and opened the drawer where we keep loose change – for the same reason of course.

So Easter weekend was a big one for the kids. They also received their fleece blankets grandma Thompson had sent their way. Every night since they have insisted that they must sleep under those blankets (although Aidan is long enough that he pops out the bottom end so we add a blanket at the bottom). That led us into Spring Break week. We joined some school friends at Crissy Field on Tuesday – a remarkably warm and sunny day after all. Wednesday we joined quite a lot of school folks over in Oakland at Fairyland – although we mostly hung out with Theo & family. Thursday we had a stay at home and play with our brother and toys day while Mom struggles with ESPP tax implications for hours. The boys really needed some downtime and playtime together. Friday we headed over to hang out at Cousin Ellie’s house – Julia is now a stay at home mom. She made us very nice paninis for lunch… We got home around 1.30 – Quincy was about to drop from so many missed naps. I managed to persuade Aidan that a nap wouldn’t be so terrible. I grabbed maybe an hours rest and the boys were down for THREE hours! Wow. I got a lot of stuff done around the house – some countertops that hadn’t seen the light of day in 6 months or so got cleared off. We had to get ready for Saturday you know…

Saturday Nanma arrived on The Big Plane. I had a haircut scheduled downtown mid-afternoon and Pete had the idea to head to Coyote Point Museum (very near airport) so I was left behind. I got the place in reasonable shape for the cleaners and then cleared out. A beautiful day in the mid 60s. I decided to head down to the Ferry Building where the Farmers Market was going on. Such a great location on the water and a beautiful remodel to the building – and great produce – much of it organic – and several cafes etc. I grabbed some English Shelling Peas (the kids love them) and a few other things before sitting down overlooking the bay to enjoy my beet, candied walnut & feta salad. I topped it off with Cabernet Blackberry Sorbetto and Mocha Chip Gelato. Yum. Nice to have an afternoon to myself. The rest of the gang enjoyed a Thai lunch and the Museum – they got to try honey from their bees even! The kids passed out late afternoon on the way home although Aidan’s nap was short. They managed to make quite a large train track out the bedroom into the hall before dinner was served up. Aidan couldn’t wait for Quincy to wake from his nap – so they could blow up Nanma’s bed on the floor for acrobatic time.

Today, Sunday, we made plans to meet Aunt Ginette back at the Ferry Building. Too bad it has been grey and a bit drippy all day. We still had fun as it involved a train ride. And Aidan got to start out with some of the local artisan cheese and bread followed up by an hour of a singer/songwriter performing in a bookstore there – with full kiddie participation. It was really just our 2 and 2 other kids for most of the time but they had fun. Sunday is Garden Market day so we bought a couple plants and I got some more yummy organic strawberries and some organic veal shanks. We tried out a new restaurant there too which was good. The kids have enjoyed having the afternoon to their own imaginary games though here at home. They played train for a while. Then pretended to sleep (complete with many blankets and animal friends). Aidan has this past week been very interested in giving hugs – especially to Quincy. He is quite cute and asks him first if he can give him one – but he does this at least ½ dozen times a day! They also played “heading off to the office” – had to hug everyone goodbye and grabbed the car keys and pretended to leave. Well, that is probably more than anyone wanted to know about our past week! Bye for now.

So time passes… A random quote from Aidan a couple days ago while riding in the car “Sleeping Beauty is a story. And girls like it VERY much”. And at Valentines cards when I was attempting to get him to hand do 30some cards for kids at school “I’ll use pink. I hate pink but girls like it very much”. Then a couple days ago I asked him the standard “who did you play with” question – knowing “Theo” would be answer one “I wanted to play with Jenna but it was show and tell time so we couldn’t – we were going to play Baby but no one wanted to be the baby”.

Quincy is quite the little song bird these days. You should hear the Baa Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle at the top of his lungs as we cart through the grocery store – audible from aisles away… I taught him Old MacDonald a few weeks back. He picked it up immediately and sings it often as does Aidan – I think we hadn’t sung it in a couple of years! He also just sings and hums gently when he is playing by himself – I remember Aidan went through a real singing period too. Quincy is much much louder than Aidan at the same age – but he and Aidan egg each other on until you can’t hear yourself think. Quincy is (I think) quite sophisticated in his make believe play (again compared to same age Aidan) – and uses little people and animals and has them talking and doing various things – pretty much playing along at a similar level to Aidan.

I think we are finally out of the Separation / Stranger Anxiety phase with Quincy – Aidan never really had it and Quincy had it for a very long time (big tears when Mommy left him with sitter etc). Amanda Salamanda just got an afternoon job with a preschool – which means I lost her as my sitter for Quincy on my Friday afternoon teaching day. Fortunately Theo’s mom Karen was willing to take him on – she has a 2 year old as well – Lillian – who is a couple months older than Quincy and who will also be starting at Miraloma in the fall. We have often gone over to their house after school for an hour or so as they live ½ block from school so Quincy was comfortable with them. They have a very yappy dog Zapf who used to really scare Quincy. Now Quincy seems happy to see him and waves hi to him and says “hi Zap” and was even petting him the other day. Last week was the 1st time we tried it out. All was going pretty well until the Director pointed out that Aidan’s eye was really pink – I had seem some goo in the corner of his eye in the a.m. but man was it ever pink at 2 o’clock! So we ended up being banished from school mid-afternoon so we took Quincy away with us as he hadn’t fallen asleep yet and dumped him at home with Pete (who was working at home) while we headed off to see the Dr. But yesterday all was well and he did fine with them and both he and Lillian took 2 ½ hr naps. I will try taking Lillian one afternoon next week and see how it goes. She’s a pretty together little girl with no fears so I don’t imagine any troubles. Theo on the other hand is a very timid kid – he is a full year older than Aidan although you would never know it as he is only an inch or so taller and slight like Aidan – and they have always seemed very similar in their play and general developmental level.

Quincy is pretty easy to put down for a nap – although he always tries to deny he needs one. When we get home from school he always tells me “do puzzle! No take nap!” But I say puzzle AFTER nap and off we go. Unfortunately he often sleeps so long that he wakes up just in time to go get Aidan so no puzzles… He likes to try to do Aidan’s jigsaw puzzles. He is surprisingly good at them but they really are beyond his level.
By the way Quincy did come down with pink eye 2 days later – fortunately neither Theo nor Lillian did. Pete and I both sometimes feel like we may be but so far so good. We all have a cold – Aidan coughs a couple of times early morning and shortly after going to sleep and has blown his nose a few times. Quincy has been Mr Goo Running Down His Face for a week or so now – when it hits his lips he comes running for a tissue / wipe. He sometimes even grabs and wipes himself. Good boy! Pete and I are both miserable on the other hand. Pete is having sinus pressure and headaches – 1st time I think I’ve heard him complain. I am going on about 2 weeks now on verge of sinus infection with tons of crud. We have discovered the joy of Nyquil however and are both pounding it. A couple of nights ago I had my first uninterrupted sleep in – maybe 5 years? Quincy has started occasionally sleeping through the night (assuming he has eaten well all day and various other factors) – maybe once a week. Anyway – he did that night and I didn’t wake up once. Last night Quincy appeared in our room at about 3 a.m. – he had dog, pig, bear, zebra and a baby doll all with him. He had to line them all up on the pillow next to him. He is much more “nurturing” than Aidan ever has been and is quite cute with his animals. When we head off in the morning or to school he has usually put some of his animals very carefully on a pillow and covered them with his great-grandma blanket or grandma quilt. Aidan now sort of cares about animals too as he sees Quincy cares.

Christmas was fun with the kids this year. We were here for the holidays and Pop was able to join us. Aidan had been getting all primed up for Santa coming – he’s in the age sweet spot for that. Santa had the room all decorated (all by myself I might add!) and included a new kid-sized fold-up table and chairs and train set – and the stockings were a big hit. Quincy at some point realized that there was candy in some stockings – including the adult stockings – and he quietly started to raid our stockings. I quickly caught him. Aidan isn’t sneaky in quite the way Quincy is – Aidan fully and loudly announces exactly what he is getting into. The kids got some good new train stuff from various grandparents to add to the Santa haul – so Mom has had a great time building track lately and the kids have been loving all their new trains. Win win all round! I tried to be modest with my gift giving to them – but still between that and gifts from grandparents we were unwrapping for hours – they enjoy playing with their toys as they go so the pace is leisurely. Quincy kept Aidan moving forward in the unwrapping department. In the evening we headed over to the Eggerths to join the cousins for a nice dinner and a few more presents.

Christmas eve the boys got to go to church probably the first time in their memory. It was a lovely church, St James, for the evening family service – remarkable not at all crowded. The interiors were beautiful wood with candles everywhere. Predictably there was lots of singing and also we all got to light and hold candles. There was a period in the middle where the minister called up the children to have a musical “parade” around the church to look for baby Jesus to go in the crèche. Aidan didn’t want to go at first but ended up running up and joining in without any of us at his side – I can’t remember his instrument – a tambourine perhaps. Anyway – they looked all over and found a bunch of other characters for the nativity – but Jesus was no where to be found – until they got back to the front and found Jesus in the crèche… It was quite well done and the kids had a really good time. We ended up at Yummy Yummy’s for dinner (quite a few places were closed) – but we love Yx2 so that worked out well.

I continue to be a bit absurdly involved with school. I am still on the Board and I decided to organize a “Playground Committee” to try and figure out how to move our outdoors area forward – we need some better development especially for some of the older children. I had a couple of meetings at school during the Christmas holidays – and both boys came. Boy did Quincy fuss and kick and scream when school started up again and we had to leave Aidan at school and Quincy couldn’t stay too – he had gotten used to having the run of the place for a few hours. Luckily after I got the Committee up and going – and seemed to have no real help with the actual DOING (other than the brainstorming) – I was assigned a somewhat new coop family to have it as their family job – and they are great and are really taking it and running with it. There are several brand new playgrounds here in the city that we have been checking out – with nifty new equipment – some by the same manufacturers I first saw when we were “down under” – nice to see them here in the US as I really like it better than the “standard” playground equipment.

Before I sign off – one thing both kids gleefully like to sing “Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat, if you don’t, I don’t care, I’ll pull down your underwear!” they then say “That’s not nice Froggy!” as they learned it from the Halloween one of the Froggy series books (a favorite with both kids). The book doesn’t say “that’s not nice” – but we do!

Today, Sunday, is a glorious San Francisco spring day. Flowers on the trees, about 70 or a bit more, no wind, no clouds. Pete took the kids to Golden Gate Park this a.m. and they biked from the car to the large kids playground. I walked down later from here and picked up some Mexican food from Zona Rosa on the Haight on my way – a big hit with the boys – all 3. Then the kids spent a good hour in the metal hexigonish structure – I’ll upload photos tonite to ofoto. A good day.

Monday a week ago we went in for both boy's Well Visit Check-ups. I delayed Aidan's to be back to back with Quincy thinking that maybe then Quincy would see that all was OK with Dr Uba = and that he really is a nice guy after all. Not a bad strategy except that Pete took Quincy to get coffee (for Pete I assume not Q) and then forgot which floor we were on... Anyway, by that time AIdan and I were in the exam room and he was in the mini-hospital gown they hand out. I was interested that the nurse had him do a little eye test before we went in, after weighing and measuring height. She asked if he liked letters or pictures. Neither he nor I understood the question until we saw the 2 side by side eye charts on the wall - one consiting of little pictograms of a house, tree, apple etc and the other with alphabet letters. Aidan did great with the letters and even did each eye holding the little black thing infront of the other eye. All seemed well with both kids - and they were both thrilled to not need any injections. I would have subjected them to the flu shots but there is no serum locally. The flu has mostly already decimated his preschool so I can but hope that it won't come back around and that we got lucky. Dr Uba wanted to know what we were feeding the kids - AIdan had jumped statistically to 20th% in weight and 60th% in height! At first he thought Quincy had also had a big jump but then he realize he misread the nurse's numbers and instead he was still off the chart (low) in weight - but tracking fine with himself (and similar to Aidan at that age). We visited with Thomas today and Sara pointed out that our 2 4 yr olds are identical in height at the moment - a first - Aidan has usually been up to 2" shorter than Thomas. I guess there is a reason his pants all seem really short all of a sudden! I have invested in a few pairs of 4 yr old pants but they really are the perfect legnth for him now so will be quickly outgrown - on to age 5 pants we go!

For the stats - Quincy was 23 lbs (10.4 kg) in weight and 34 1/4" (87 cm) high. Aidan was 32 lbs 5 oz (14.7 kg) and 41" (104 cm) - guess he really was OK for that Splash Mountain ride he did - it had a 40" ht restriction and we weren't sure but they didn't stop us...

belated Thanksgiving Florida trip update...

A trip to FLA. Quincy got his last free flight. We flew out the Monday before Thanksgiving – a nice direct flight and even an extra seat to use. We also flew out midday – quite nice. Got us in for a latish dinner – it didn’t help that we got a bit lost on the way there and it took us about twice as long as it should.

Mom & Dad (Gma & Gdad Thompson) had rented us a 6 bedroom 3 bath home with a pool. We all agreed it wouldn’t be our choice of homes to live in but it worked out great as a rental. The living room had 4 sofas in it ringing the room so seating for all was not a problem. We were a bit cozy at dinner as the kitchen table really sat 6 best and we had to drag over the nice chairs from the dining area to supplement it. Audrey had a highchair to use. The garage had been converted to pool, foozball and basketball shooting area – we should have used it more than we did. The Websters had a queen room sharing a bathroom with the 2 twin bed room – the kids beds had very large Mickey Mouse on one and Minney Mouse on the other – the kids were pretty happy. The room also had a Playstation which I regret to say I didn’t try – I have never used one. I think there may have been a TV in every room. The main room had a large rear projector HD TV with DVD. Sweet. I took Finding Nemo with us – Aidan got to see his first full length movie. I think he watched most of it…

The first several days were quite warm and we got to use the (heated) pool a few times. Then there was a cold front that came through on Friday – we drove home in the driving rain from Gville although Rob & Dad & co got an earlier start back and missed it. The OR Thompsons arrived Tuesday evening after a long day and some flight delays. Dad was nice enough to shuttle them back and forth to the airport. Audrey is a real cutie – a very sunny little girl. I was really happy with Quincy’s reaction to her – we have seen him push over at least 4 children smaller than him in recent times at playgrounds – it is very deliberate – you watch him look them up and down – can almost see him determine that he can take them – then a firm hand push to their chest and down they go. Makes us cringe! I guess he is just so happy to be bigger than someone. Most of Aidan’s friends siblings we hang out with are a few months older than Quincy and definitely larger. Anyway – all 3 kids played really nicely together and there was no fighting or pushing. Audrey is still in the mouth everything stage – we got some Dominos for Xmas – she really liked them!

On Wednesday we opened birthday presents for Audrey and Quincy. Both my kids liked the coloring LeapPad Gma got him. Gma also had tons of grandma toys that she had brought along so the kids were fully entertained at all times. Later in the day we had “Christmas� – presents everywhere! I thought I had brought plenty of room for presents once I got rid of ours – after all I had almost a full suitcase for presents. Ha! Quincy got a huge stuffed bear among other things. Good thing there was that car seat bag to fill up… Both kids also got very soft hand crocheted afghans and pillows from Greatgrandma Killinger. They loved them and toted them around all week. Of course Paco loved them too… Quincy was typically terrified of Paco. Especially if he was sort of caught unaware. Other times he would do OK. I think maybe he was willing to pet him once. Audrey was supremely unconcerned about Paco even when she would get to occasional tongue swipe to the face. Aidan liked him but was still somewhat timid.

I baked a cake for Quincy & Audrey – unfortunately the rental truly had no food (not even salt) and limited cooking stuff – no cake pans or mixer. Turned out fine though – Quincy helped me decorate it with sprinkles after it was frosted. I did like Sarah – made a cake I wanted – chocolate with sour cream frosting. Mom had the place fully stocked with food and drinks before we showed up (and I do mean fully!) although we still managed to spend 2 or 3 more hundred at the store. We were all skeptical that there was anyway we could go through it all – and we didn’t finish off the 6 loaves of bread nor all the pantry items, but we did pretty well on the frig items. Mom cooked us excellent meals as usual with Dad’s help manning the grill. There was the smoked turkey, grilled chicken breasts, and a large salmon grilled - all on various evenings. Yum. Also lots of roasted sweet potatos – a favorite of mine. Quincy did manage to blow out his candles on his birthday party night in FL – unlike at Ellie’s house.

On Thanksgiving Thursday Dad was long gone when we work up (golfing with Larry and Troy). The rest of us had a leisurely day – unfortunately Audrey and Quincy had opposite nap times the whole trip. She was getting up at 6 or so and ready for a nap by 9 – we got up at 8 and ready for a nap after lunch. Then she needed another later afternoon nap when Quincy was up. Oh well. Audrey mostly got her naps respected. Quincy didn’t. I think he got to sleep on the way over to Tampa that day. Lynne & Troy have done a nice job (with Larry’s assistance) in making Dad’s childhood home into an attractive more modern home. Larry, Larissa & Alec were there and Adam came with his new wife Meredith. There was plenty of food as you would expect – and tasty. It was a bit of a pot luck with Lynne & Troy providing the turkey, ham, mashed potatos and green beans and others bringing appetizers, salads and desserts. I made the molten chocolate cakes that I love at their house. We had plenty of chocolate as Larissa had also made individual chocolate cakes! After dinner Lynne announced that she was newly pregnant. Hopefully she will have an easy and healthy pregnancy to look forward to. Between dinner and dessert the gang took a walk down to the Bay. Troy took along a couple of fishing rods and managed to pull up a couple of fish (and release them). Aidan was quite fascinated and a bit scared I think. Quincy was in fine form and having a grand time – I think he ran the whole way – and we went a few blocks! Quincy was surprised a couple of times by one of Lynne’s cats – boy you should have heard the blood curdling screams! Poor cat – he just wanted a bite of his food.

On Friday we all headed to Gainesville. A 2 ¼ hr drive instead of 1 ¼ hr. We had lunch of fried chicken, fried okra, hush puppies and lima beans – all you could eat at a restaurant in Alachua. I wouldn’t want to eat it often but it was tasty. Afterwards we headed back to Norma’s house for a little visit. I was disappointed that besides Norma, Stewart & Great-grandma we only saw cousin Shelby. The visit was also short so I didn’t get too much socializing in with either Norma or Gma – also a big disappointment. Rob had even less time as they left at least an hour before we did as Audrey was ready to nap. That was the evening that we had salmon for dinner. Very tasty and I don’t usually like salmon much.

Saturday Mom & Dad headed off to Sarasota to check out retirement homes and visit with a friend. Rob & Sarah decided to hang out at the house. We Websters headed north to the Science Center. It was a very nice Museum (Alec had recommended it) with a variety of hands on things the kids could enjoy. There was also an Imax with free movies – we tried to see one about Stomp but they switched it to one about Dolphins at the last minute. It was fine although nothing too special but it gave Quincy an opportunity to nap. We got home maybe around 7 – just in time for dinner…

We had debated going to Disney on the weekend – but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to join the post Thanksgiving crowds. Then we thought to head to Silver Springs – but Rob had been sick and Quincy had also thrown up so we decide to pass this trip. Instead we headed off on a trip to ck out some more retirement communities. We had lunch (at Irish pub) in Mt Dora and then a little walk around the town. Again the Thompsons decided to head for home earlier so that Audrey could nap. Pete had headed off with the kids in search of a playground and had finally found one as the others were leaving. I joined him and then we headed across the street to do a little nature walk along the lake. I have to say it was one of the highlight activities for me. It was close to sunset. There was a little rainbow in the sky and reflected in the lake for no reason I could figure. We saw a swimming large turtle and also an alligator swimming. There were some nice birds to see including what I am sure was a kingfisher – very attractive. There was a raccoon eating some scraps left at the side of the boardwalk path. The path wove in and out of the woods? Underbrush? Out onto the lake and back. Attractive.

Rob had told us that the Disney planned community of Celebration had “snow� every night on the hour. Aidan had really been looking forward to it but we hadn’t gone the previous evening as it was a bit too cold and perhaps late. But finally – Sunday evening we made the 8 p.m. performance! They have 3 or 4 snow machines above the lightposts on each side of the little main street. The snow is made of soap bubbles. Quite convincing from afar and fun to be in regardless. Quincy wasn’t so sure he wanted those bubbles on his shoes however. It lasted 10 minutes or so and was a hit with the kids. This was all set to Christmas music of course. Then we checked out the fountain thing at one end of town – one of those ones that randomly shoots stuff up. People would try to time it and run across. Finally one dad and daughter got caught and SOAKED. After that my kids said no to the horse buggie ride (esp Quincy) and yes to the little trainlike people mover tour of town. So the train it was. Dad & I had driven around Celebration during the day a few days before – quite nice – looks like it has been there a long time – but of course in mint condition (it is only 10 yrs old after all). There was a variety of sizes of buildings – apartments, town homes to mansions on the golf course. No adjacent houses looked at all alike either.

Finally on Monday we decided to head to The Magic Kingdom. To see Mickey’s home you know! Rob & Sarah had to fly home so they headed off to Celebration for lunch with Dad before he took them to the airport. Mom joined us and we saw Dad mid-afternoon. Disney truly is vast. We only made it to maybe (not even) half the park. And you take long people movers from the acres of parking – to the mono-rail to get to the park – and then you walk…. We saw Mickey and his friends performing in front of the castle as we headed into the park. My first ride with the kids was the Mad Hatters Tea Cups (I love that ride!). Then we decided to do Pooh’s Adventure (Pete had read up in the Official Disney Guide Bk from the rental house which rides we should do with little kids in tow). We waited a good 45 min in line – no too popular with any of us! And saw all these people using their “Fast Passes� to go to the front of the line – aggravating! But we learned our lesson and Pete invested in Fast Passes for us from then on – no investment required other than running around to the various rides to get the tickets when they are available. An odd concept but it works great if you do it! Mom rode with us on It’s a Small World – I remembered it rather fondly but found it oddly freaky this time. Really weird little dolls singing and dancing. We took a little lunch break – I had brought a lot of food but Mom hadn’t and the kids liked her purchased food better than anything I had brought anyway. Other rides we took – The Jungle Cruise (with Dad), Peter Pan’s Adventure, Pirates of the Caribbean (Aidan was scared), Aladdin’s Flying Carpets (Aidan’s favorite – he did it with me and you could make the “carpets� go up and down – I liked it too), Splash Mountain (flume ride partly in the dark to Brier Rabbit theme) – Pete’s favorite – we had 5 Fast Passes all told for this one – he rode it alone first and loved it so much he got us 4 more passes. Dad & I took a turn – we got soaked unfortunately right before sundown – but fun. Pete took Aidan (who was just at the 40� height restriction) – Aidan wore his rain jacket and got soaked but not cold fortunately. And had a good time although he did later say he didn’t want to do it any more – once was enough although he did give it his 2 thumbs up. We also climbed up Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. And they went over to Tom Sawyer’s island (while Dad and I Splashed). Cell phones were a great invention although the book also recommends walkie talkies. We saw the 3 p.m. parade after we saw the Country Bear Jamboree (Christmas) show and we saw the 6 p.m. light parade. Mom and Dad headed back to the car at that point – Pete figured we could get in another couple of rides. We did the Haunted Mansion – Aidan tried to duck out but we didn’t him – so he just closed his eyes most of the way. We got to front of the Peter Pan line again thinking it was the Pooh line when Aidan said if it wasn’t Pooh he wasn’t interested. So we tried to head for the exit when the 7 p.m. firework show started. Aidan wanted NO part of it. Quincy had finally passed out during the Haunted House ride and there was no waking him. We got bogged down in the crowd in front of the castle so we had to join the masses leaving afterwards and waiting in line for the mono-rail. Disney does an amazing job with crowd control I have to say. It takes a while but you are always moving. A good day, a long day. Then home for our last dinner and packing. Pete decided it was his night to put the kids down (the 1st of the trip) and he went down with them. I packed all our bags. Pete rousted himself to ck on me close to midnight. We had a 7 a.m. flight and the airport was a good ½ hr away. We got the kids up a little after 5. Fortunately Dad said he would return our car for us as his flight was an hour after ours.

Well this has been a fairly full weekend. Today is Quincy’s 2nd birthday. Aidan got a party at Acrosports for his 2nd birthday. Quincy got to go watch a Circus Performance at Acrosports for his. Aidan had a cake baked by Mom. Quincy got to go to Cousin Ellie’s party and have birthday cupcakes made by Julia (they were quite tasty). The group was kind enough to sing Happy Birthday to Quincy as well as Ellie although the only kids he knew were Ellie and Aidan. Fortunately I don’t think Quincy minded.

He has woken up at 6 a.m. every day this week since our return from FL – until today. Today he chose to sleep until 10! I dashed off to yoga class slightly before 8.30 leaving Aidan and Pete giggling and goofing around in bed. I returned at 10.15 to find only Aidan dressed for the day. Quincy was noshing on something. Pete headed off for a shower. We were supposed to arrive at Acrosports close to 10.30 to grab seats for the 11 performance. Needless to say we didn’t make it there by 10.30.

Both boys were quite captivated by the activities on stage – mostly the coaches doing things like aerial rope acts interspersed with clowning and juggling. Quincy got a bit restive an hour into it but it finished shortly thereafter. Then to my surprise they said that they were going to have the kids come on stage and do a Circus for the parents. Aidan and Thomas liked that idea. Quincy didn’t make the 3 year old cut off. Aidan and Thomas joined the biggest group (3-5 yr olds) in rhythmic ribbon twirling. It was fun to watch and they seemed to have a good time doing it. Thomas & Aidan (esp Thomas) had a running commentary going during the real show. Main topic was Coach David – who will be their new coach after the holidays when they move into the 4-5 yr old group. He was quite good in the show.

Next activity today was lunch at Park Chow with Thomas and his parents. At first Quincy was telling me he wanted to go home but then he changed his mind and insisted on “restaurant”. Good choice as he didn’t really have a say in the matter… Good eats as always. Then home for a short stop to pick up presents (Aidan didn’t understand why we couldn’t go to Thomas’ house instead). Then off to Cousin Ellie’s house.

Julia had her usual bountiful yummy spread. The kids enjoyed the pretty afternoon (after a few icky days) in the backyard for a while. Most of the guests were Ellie’s Daycare cohorts with a few other friends, Julia’s parents and us. There were goodie bags given out at the start – a hit with my kids as they enjoyed their bouncy balls and bubbles especially. There was a little dancing (one of Ellie’s favorite activities I understand). Aidan was a bit of a wild man on the dance floor. Quincy declined to join in. There was singing and candle blowing and cupcakes. And there was present opening near the end. Ellie, like my kids, really thought that she should play with her toys as she got them instead of ripping them all open. Unfortunately she’ll learn. Julia gave Quincy a bag of tools and a car thingy as we left. A big hit but Aidan was pretty sure he should have it. Quincy managed to go without a nap (a VERY unusual occurrence) and Aidan clearly could have used one – he was not his usual good mannered self but rather over tired and wanting anything Quincy had all day. There were tears on the way over in the car when Aidan realized that Quincy had a baby doll. Aidan promptly desperately wanted it. I suggested he ask Q if he could have it. “No” was the response. More tears. A few blocks further on Q kindly offered it to Aidan.

We came home maybe around 6 or so. Time to open some presents from Nanma & Pop. Nanma even got a present for Aidan. Aidan liked his new finger puppet like gloves – but then asked why he only got 1 present – shouldn’t there be more for him? I reminded him several times exactly whose birthday it was but didn’t make a lot of headway. Quincy was fairly good at opening something, playing with it briefly but enjoyably, and then opening the next thing. He got it. Aidan had some major heart burn over wanting a flashlight I gave Quincy. I actually have a similar one for Aidan – for Xmas. I suggested he ask Santa for one. We made it through the presents and some snacking on yogurts and a couple of phone calls to books and bed. Phew!

Yesterday the kids went off for bagels and the “Toy Gym” with Dad in the morning while I shopped for presents for Ellie & Mateo, picked up some pantyhose for me, a living Norfolk Pine tree to decorate, some Soy Eggnog for Pete and a few other odd items. Then I wrapped packages and made a birthday card in about 15 min before meeting the boys at Mateo’s 5th birthday party at school. It was the smallest group yet at a party at school – just the right amount. And someone described it as an old fashioned party – there was pin the tail on the donkey and musical chairs followed by cake, piñata and present opening. Too bad the birthday boy didn’t play any of the games, but Aidan did. In musical chairs they didn’t insist any of the kids stand out – they got to keep going but there was just one less chair each time. It took Aidan a couple times to figure out what was going on – then he was following Mateo’s mom, carefully watching her hand on the cassette thing, and he had his hand touching a chair at all time. He even learned to lead in with his butt when going for the chair. He wasn’t always successful as there were some forceful bigger kids and when another kid was there are about the same time Aidan would back off – but I was impressed with his quick grasp of the necessities of the game.

After the party we hurried home so Mommy could get ready for the school adult’s only holiday party downtown. Aidan & Quincy got to play with Amanda Salamanda at home while Mom & Dad trudged downtown in the rain. It was nice event. It ran from 4 – 7 so we got to put the kids down when we came back – but it felt like it had already been a long evening. I made the mistake of purchasing a Eucalyptus wreath from Trader Joe’s. I finally clued into the fact that that was what was causing my sore throat etc – it now resides OUTSIDE. I haven’t brought in the Norfolk Pine tree yet – hopefully I won’t be allergic to it although chances are good that I will be.

October 18 – Aidan’s 4th birthday party. Aidan tells me he is 3 ½ but almost 4 but that he won’t REALLY be 4 on the day of his party – he birthday is a few days later. I queried Aidan several times on his desired guest list. Fortunately he isn’t like a lot of kids who like to rattle off the names of everyone in his class. He had no problem at all keeping it down to a select few. Thomas & Zoe are still considered very close friends – although we see Zoe only a few times a year these days. They headed the list. Theo (and his 2 yr old sister Lillian) were next – Theo and Aidan are 2 peas in a pod at school – by far his best friend. Theo also lives a half block from school and we have stopped off there a few times after school recently – which is now becoming almost a daily request. Ella Baker was requested although I wasn’t really that aware of them being good buddies – but I think they play well together. She moved to the morning program but has just added back Friday afternoon with us (my teaching day). And Zoe of Henry and Zoe (and Henry) were requested. Interesting to me that I think he has a preference for Zoe although again I never see him play with her – but perhaps that is because they don’t go to school on Friday. Cammie was also invited – she seems to be liked by a lot of kids at school – she seems very sweet – and her parents are unbelievably welcoming and seem to have at least one school friend & family over for dinner each week. We invited our friend Cassie but she was busy. That is it.

Pete had ruled out the school as a birthday locale. I thought perhaps Acrosports with Thomas might be fun – but after attending another party Sarah ruled that one out. Hmm – what should we do. Should we bite the bullet and host it here?! How many little kids would be wreaking havoc? I thought perhaps we could get Cousin Jeff to come and do sing-a-long with the kids – he picked up my guitar at Quincy & Ellie’s 1 yr party here last year and the kids were entranced. Too bad he was busy. Next thought – let’s have a Cooking Party. The kids love any cooking project at school and both boys love any cooking we do at home – either real or pretend. We already had 2 aprons and I knew some friends had some too. I ordered real, adjustable, paper chefs hats through the internet (thank you google or was it froogle?). And on that day I was working at school helping clear out the basement I ran across 5 or 6 old kids aprons – score! Now to figure out the logistics… I decided to let the kids divide into 4 groups of 2 or 3 and each group make something for us all to eat. Then afterwards the real fun would be decorating cookies. First “course” was Chex mix – add 2 more cereals, some cashews, pretzels, honey roasted peanuts and I think we have a winner – measure, pour and mix – hard work and quite rewarding for 4 yr olds. Next comes the fruit salad. Cutting is a skill they like to work hard at to master. OK let’s cut up some melon, and cut, and cut. Add apples, blueberries, grapes (pluck ‘em off the stem 1st), oranges & pineapple, cut some bananas and toss. Try to keep it in the bowl… Pasta salad time – to the corkscrew pasta add 2 containers of pesto, pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, and grated parmesan. Stir as best you can and try hard to keep it in the bowl. Eat stray noodles. Last item was intended for Quincy & Lillian but soon became a free for all – jello jigglers – firm jello you cut with cookie cutters. I think 8 little bodies would have been content to do vulture imitations around the 11”x13” if I had let them!

I had just enough seats (as Quincy got his high chair and Millie got her Dad’s lap) for the kids. Adults were left to fend for themselves. The food was pretty good. But at least 3 kids had gooey noses and despite insistence on handwashing before “cooking” I am sure germs were freely spread. It was nice to watch – the kids did a pretty good job of having a decent lunch.

After lunch we went on the landing and played a little “pin the nose on the pumpkin”. They all wore the blindfold – and I for one couldn’t see anything out from under it. I had located the pumpkin at the right height with Aidan’s assistance in the a.m. (he REALLY wanted to help get ready for the party). He also took a couple of practice tries. I spun each kid 3 times then set them straight and gave them a push. They only had about 3 or 4 feet to go but they all (with exception of Lilly) were within about 3” of the center of the pumpkin. The adults were joking that it would have been much more entertaining to let the adults try to do it. The kids seemed to like it though. I had another game but didn’t bother getting it out as it doesn’t work that well – the spider dangles and catches bugs with the Velcro on the bottom of its legs – but the legs often catch each other…

Back to the table for cookie decorating. A time that I think a lot of us adults cringed. A time of excess. How many sprinkles can you pile on one cookie? About ½” worth in some cases! I gave each kid their own icing and left them select a color to add and they each picked a couple of cookies. I was surprised that with one exception all kids picked pink or green frosting. I finally had one request for blue. Aidan went with pink although later used some green and blue. A couple of kids just wanted to eat the sprinkles and icing when they were done. Too bad as by far the best part was the cookie – I have a new recipe that makes beautiful cookie cutter cookies as well as tasting really good. I had the babysitter make up this batch yesterday while Quincy slept and Aidan & I were off at school. Aidan selected which of our 100 cookie cutters to use…

Then it was time for cake. Aidan had asked for CAKE not cupcakes this year. What flavor – vanilla. Hmm. I asked if he wanted an ice cream cake – YES! Flavor? Vanilla, strawberry & chocolate. Hmm – I’ll ask again another day… He agreed that mint chocolate chip and regular chocolate chip sounded pretty nifty. I ordered it up from Ben & Jerry’s. It was very good. I brought it right to the table from the freezer and tried to use my slicing / carving knife for the job – it was having trouble – so I had to go back for my 9” chef knife – it was up to the task. The kids were so quiet while they ate. It was so nice! Of course before we could eat we had to have candle blowing out time. Aidan had come to me early in the morning and told me that he didn’t want people to sing happy birthday to him at his party. Both Pete and I at various times tried to reason with him but he stayed firm in NOT wanting a song. When the time came he reminded me and I asked everyone not to sing. We weren’t even allowed to count 1, 2, 3, 4. But he blew out the candles happily enough. I had funny curly candles that were very skinny (he picked them out). The cake was too firm to poke them in! I finally made little hole with the back of the match which worked perfectly.

I had decided to play the present opening thing by ear – some kids take them home to open, some get to open one a day, some open them all at the party. Aidan decided he wanted to open them at the party and I agreed. I was off looking for something and came back and had missed a couple presents! I had cleared the table off and had thought we would do it there but the kids just plunked down on the landing with only one adult in sight and went at it. Thomas said he wanted to help Aidan open his presents – and did so. Normally Aidan is a very slow opener but I think having help kept things moving at a fast clip. He has only really gotten 2 of the presents actually out of their boxes and played with them. Zoe gave him (like she gave Thomas) – a tool set. A big hit. Quincy was enjoying them too – I couldn’t find my camera in time to get Quincy and Aidan pretend screwing something onto a kitchen cabinet with Aidan & Pete wearing kitchen gloves, and Pete using the saw on anything he could think of – like Quincy’s thigh. It was pretty cute. Quincy gets right in there with his brother. Good thing for the most part they are very good friends. 2nd toy to be really enjoyed – the Brio ambulance train for our train track. Came with 2 “cars” – the first one for the driver and the 2nd for the patient (it came with the 2 people too). Quincy really didn’t want to part with them esp as it makes ambulance sounds. Aidan was pretty darn good about sharing. We also got 2 little pieces of track that can be used to make funky transitions when your tracks don’t line up. Both kids liked all the pictures on the box and somehow thought that the little box contained several trains and a lot of track! Aidan is not so sure about the pieces but Sara really got them for me anyway…

Well that about wrapped up the party. Aidan handed out the goodie bags and people left en mass. The party started at 11 a.m. and I think most people left perhaps around 2.30. Ella had come late (from another party – just in time for cookies and cake) so she stayed a little bit after the others left which was nice. Pete and I did a little cleaning but the place wasn’t too badly off. He then took the boys off to the Exploritorium at around 4 while I did a bit more clean up and then put my feet up for a bit. Nice. Both boys have not gotten enough sleep the last few days so we aimed for an early bedtime. That ended up being 8 for Aidan and after 9 for Quincy which isn’t really much earlier than usual. Aidan was quite a little bear at bedtime thanks to being over tired. Quincy just won’t go to bed for me at all unless I stay in bed with him – he cries and cries even if I try to sit in the doorway and read. Somehow he is willing to go to bed with Pete in the doorway. Oh well. And he still doesn’t sleep through the night… Well it is late here – I will post and head off to bed myself now.

Ok – an update at last. I compose regularly in my head and not at all on the computer. That said…

Quincy’s language has been the thing really fascinating me the past month or so. Mid to late August he really ramped it up and started trying to say most words that you said. Julia Reiff tells me that Ellie started her parrot stage mid-August. Her language skills are much more precise than Quincy’s (other people can understand her easily!). I sort of felt for a long time that Quincy must have been an Hawaiian in a previous life. He has every vowel sound going down pat but only about 5 constants – and almost the same ones they use. For a long time now Quincy has had possessive words down – mine, my, our, mommy’s, Aidan’s, etc. “My Turn” gets a good work out. But he is putting together 5 word sentences these days no problem. I seem to remember Aidan’s early longer sentences being full of nouns and verbs – “orange light blue truck” – leaving out the word “on” in the middle. Quincy has the “on”. He says things like “put it down right here” although it sounds more like “puh ih down righ here”. He often says “read A book”. And he’ll use “the” as well. He has picked up most of his colors along the way without any particular effort on our part. Perhaps because often he and Aidan will have matching things but in different colors – or he needs to tell us which color cup he wants. He clearly knows that the yellow chair belongs to Aidan and the green one is his. Both kids can get rather upset when the other uses their stuff although I think Quincy might even be more aware of it than Aidan when it comes to toys – he picks up a yellow car and tells me it is Aidan’s – but then asks where Quincy’s (pronounced Keency) red car is. Aidan would be happy to play with Quincy’s car if he came across it and not necessarily think of it as belonging to Quincy.

Quincy looked to be stretching out his night time sleeping before our summer trip to Europe – which of course wreaked havoc with his schedule esp as he wasn’t getting enough calories at a lot of meals. Unfortunately he hasn’t made any move back and is waking 2 or more usually 3 times a night and wanting to nurse! He can go all day without nursing quite easily however… The boys share the double bed futon in their room most nights. Interestingly this past week (Pete has been out of town) I have brought Quincy into bed with me for convenience in the middle of the night – and somewhere in the wee hours Aidan creeps into bed with us too. Clearly Aidan misses the company as he usually stays in his bed all night although perhaps once a week we get a 4 a.m. visit.

Aidan has had his school days increased to 4 afternoons a week. He loves it as he goes the same days Theo goes now. I haven’t been quite as enthusiastic about that… Aidan and Theo were inseparable until lately when they have been forced to separate at snacktime. The “new” teacher didn’t realize that they were best buddies and she told me that she felt so bad for Theo the last month of school (when we were gone) as he seemed so lonely. Aidan does fine without Theo but the reverse isn’t as true. The were going pee together – in the same toilet even! A few times they bumped heads as they were even so physically close together! I liked having the day different where Aidan played with other kids, but Aidan is quite happy with the current arrangement. Theo has a 2 year old sister Lillian that Quincy likes. We hang out at their house sometimes as they live half a block from school. Unfortunately they have a yappy small terrier that both of my kids are terrified of for no good reason so I sometimes end up with a kid in my lap or within 2’ of me at all times.

We are getting to see a lot of Thomas these days as we arranged the kids’ schedules so that they share Acrosports class at 9 a.m. on Tuesdays followed by playtime at our house before heading off to school. Wednesdays we head down to their house in Redwood City – a 40 min drive south. At least the weather is usually a very nice change from the city – never any fog! On Thomas’ birthday party day our car read 60 degrees as we headed out of town (and we were in dense fog at 1 p.m.) but was up to 77 degrees when we arrived. Ahh. Both boys got “bigger boy bikes” at about the same week as it turns out and we usually take our bikes down there as they live on a dead end street on the flat. The biking interest has died down a bit – and Aidan is always a bit more interested than Thomas. We usually take our swim stuff too and use their pool. Quincy was VERY into that although we haven’t gone in the last 2 weeks. Unfortunately their pool guy comes Wed mornings and adds a bunch of new (cool) water so the pool isn’t as warm as “usual” (Sara installed solar heating). They now have a 5 bedroom home with a large downstairs play area. Quincy usually tries to drag me down their first thing (open door mommy!) as there is usually the train set up. Thomas still has trouble thinking of Quincy as anything other than a baby who eats toys (and Quincy never did much toy eating) and tries hard to exclude him often. The bigger boys often head right into Thomas’ room and SLAM goes the door in Quincy’s face. Aidan sometimes tries to intervene for Quincy esp if I have a little talk to Thomas about letting Quincy play with something – then Aidan will jump right into policeman mode and try to enforce “sharing”.

We joined Thomas for his Wednesday swim class once (and watched it the week before that). He goes to an outdoor (but covered) 92 degree pool. And this summer he really learned to swim – he does laps and is working on various strokes. We are just very excited that Aidan is no longer absolutely terrified of the water and is OK about getting his face wet! He is also willing to splash around now with just waterwings or a life preserver on – a huge step forward. Quincy given the right opportunity would be swimming by now – he loves the water and automatically goes into full kicking mode. He just gets cold (clue lips) very very easily as he has no body fat on him.

Now Wednesday mornings we go to our local park where Coach Jamie has Soccerkids Class. There are a couple of other kids from Aidan’s school and class is at least half girls (often much bigger girls!). Coach Jamie is GREAT. I am not sure we will keep on with it though. First class it took 30 of the class’ 40 minutes to get Aidan on the field. Next class Aidan insisted that I run along side him holding his hand (and carrying Quincy). 3rd class I got to stand out in the field with them (as opposed to all other moms hanging out back on the far sidelines) but I didn’t have to hold his hand nor do much running (still have to hold Quincy). This last time I was out there standing nearby for much of the class but was allowed to go to the regular mom area for some of the time. Hmm. Jamie does a lot of fun games like have the kids pretend they are dinosaurs collecting eggs (soccer balls) and raiding the other kids “nests”. I think Aidan thought these games were soccer. They finally had a “real” game this 4th class – where they also saw the goals for the 1st time and learned to “power” kick. Some of the kids have been taking classes for a while. Anyway toward the end of time they finally divided into teams and played a “real” game of soccer. I was horrified to see Aidan get knocked down and another kid fall over him but coach handled it beautifully and Aidan got a free kick off it that happened to make one of only 2 goals scored. Aidan had told me earlier in the class then he doesn’t really like to run after the ball after he kicks it (he likes to leisurely walk!) and I realized that soccer probably was NOT the game for him! Aidan is one of the few boys I know who does like to just RUN. He is pretty good at it and certainly enjoys running up and down our hallway with Quincy…