Sun-starved, but full of grapes

Today, we had a flurry of friend activity in the afternoon and evening.  We had a spontaneous playdate with some of our favorite people in the afternoon, which involved the dad of the family making a boat out of cardboard and getting the kids to decorate it.  It was awesome.  He always comes up with such amazing ideas and I now feel much more inspired to be more creative with playing around our house, too.  Here are the kids in their cardboard boat:

One of the best, and funniest, parts of the playdate happened before we got there.  When I told the kids where we were going after naptime, Tali turned to me and said, in a complete sentence, "Mama, do you think they will have grapes there?"  I thought, oh, my poor sun- and fruit-starved child, spring can't come soon enough, and of course they won't have grapes this time of year.  We do eat a lot of fruit, but these days it's mostly citrus and apples and the occasional papaya that I can't pass up. 

Anyway, as it turned out, they DID have grapes!  In their kitchen!  And Natalia got to gorge herself on as many as she could eat.  It was awesome and I think we must have been meant to go there today just because of that, in addition to the great company and fun playtime. 

After the playdate, we, along with the friends we had just visited, went straight to some other friends' house for their weekly soup night.  They just started doing it a few weeks ago and it has quickly become part of our weekly routine.  It's perfect to have something to do on a Monday night with good friends, especially because our schedules haven't matched up well in the past few months, so we've hardly seen them recently.  This soup night was particularly great, because we knew everyone there well and our kids all knew each other.  At one point, there was a preschool dance party happening in one room and some actual adult conversation in the kitchen.  True story! 

We ended the evening with Mateo reading his friend a long book and then taking two tired and overstimulated kids home for bedtime. 

To complete the social extravaganza, Sacha and I are having a friend over after all our kids are asleep, for our Finer Things club (with credit for the title going to the fabulous Catherine).  It sounds fancy, but it's really just ice cream sandwiches and good conversation, which extremely fancy in our world these days.  Happy rainy Monday!

Bedtime rituals

Mateo's bedtime routine has changed a bit since he started sharing a room with Natalia. I used to read him two stories each night (one in English and one in Spanish), but now he listens to Natalia's stories. So . . . I just read him one story in Spanish after Natalia goes in her bed.

The first few nights of this, Natalia would yammer away while I was reading to Mateo. I kept on having to ask her to be quiet. Then she started playing with her stuffed animals. This was fine with me, because she wasn't making noise. Mateo could hear his story without commentary.

This last week, Natalia has started turning around in her bed and getting closer and closer during Mateo's story time. Tonight she had completely turned around and her head right next to the end of the bed. I don't know that she understands what I am saying, but she was very quietly listening. A few times she even requested to see the pictures as I was reading to Mateo.

Then I sing Twinkle Twinkle to Mateo. And Natalia always chimes in and sings to him too. It is just so sweet to hear her singing to him every night. Overall, they continue to do a great job of sleeping in the same room. Many nights Natalia has elaborate monologues after I leave, but it doesn't seem to bother Mateo. On the contrary, he seems to be comforted by her talking because it is further proof that he is not along in the room.

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On the work front, I am starting my last week tomorrow. This last week is starting before I anticipated that it would start, but I think it's the right thing for everyone (including Drizzle and my students). I am going to work half-time, as was discussed earlier. I am honestly not 100% better, but I was able to get up and sit and walk a bit today. I have been much more mobile today than I was yesterday. Wish me luck for my last week!

Confusion

We're continuing to deal with Sacha's little situation over here, which has necessitated some heavy duty painkillers and lots of bedrest.  She's finally to the point where her pain is under control, but she's definitely not all healed up, or even close to it.  She made the decision with her doctor and her principal today that she'll work half-time this week and then go on pregnancy disability after that, until her maternity leave officially starts.  She'll be 35 weeks this Sunday and nearly 36 by the end of next week.  The reason she's teaching at all this coming week is that her students have state testing and it is very, very, very important for the class and the school and Sacha (who will permanently have their scores attached to her name) that they do as well as they can.  So, she'll shepherd them through that and then be done for the year.  Hopefully we can make the week as painless as possible for her outside of school.

On the inside, Drizzle seems to be doing fine with all the drugs, (Sacha would like me to point out that she's taking as few of them as possible), kicking and flipping all around in there.   However, if this issue continues to recur, then we could be looking at an earlier than expected baby, in order to limit her exposure to more meds.  However, again, if things calm down, then Sacha could go to her due date (April 2).  Or it could be somewhere in the middle.  Who knows?  I guess we'll find out....

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In the meantime, Sacha told me the other day that Mateo said this to her: "Mommy, sometimes it's hard to tell if Mama is a boy or a girl."  Further investigation revealed that this is because I have short hair.  I've been wrestling with whether to write about this or not, and how to, because it kind of took me aback.  I've heard similar things from countless kids, and I love them for lacking the politically correct filter that would stop adults from asking, but hearing it from my own kid was a little different. 

I can only assume he heard a kid at school, like the one who is always asking me if I'm a girl or a boy, and took it on as his own.  Still, I'm sure this isn't the first time this will come up, and it makes me wonder what our kids' experiences will be with being in school and having lesbian moms, one of whom really looks like a lesbian. 

I guess we'll just take it as it comes, but it just breaks my heart to think of them getting teased because of the way I look, which I'm not planning to change, regardless.  I think I want to keep them in a safe bubble forever and this is just the first step of realizing how impossible that is. 

Palm Springs

I went to Palm Springs last weekend, but I didn't bring my camera, and I'm so excited to have just gotten some photos of the weekend!  My two best friends from college and I get together every year for a weekend and have done so for the majority of years since we graduated in 2000.  We skipped a few in the beginning, but I think we must be coming up on 10 years sometime soon here.   Anyway, we always have a great time and one of the best parts is that it always just feels like we can pick up where we left off.  It's a special thing for all of us and we've all made it a priority to make sure the weekends keep happening no matter how crazy things on the home front can get!

So, the weather in Palm Springs left something to be desired, but we had a great time anyway.  And, it was sunny for a lot of the time we were there, although not exactly warm, but still better than the weather here!  We visited one friend's new neighborhood in Orange County and then drove out to the desert, where we ate great food, saw a movie, wandered around, and talked and talked like we always do.  We also went through some old college photos and reminisced about how things were back then.  Here are a couple of photos, with many more to come in future years!

Freeway

So, we supposedly have a massive storm headed our way, which will supposedly contain lots of snow.  I'll believe it when I see it.  Nonetheless, when the sun peaked out this afternoon, I knew we had to get outside and take advantage of it.  Neither kid wanted to go to the park, shockingly, but both wanted to go up over the freeway to look at the cars. 

We've never done this as a destination, but have been over the freeway overcrossing (for pedestrians and bikes) many times on the way to the doctor's office or the farmer's market.   Today, we just went for fun.   The kids just stared and stared at the traffic, although they didn't last long.  I'd say we were up there for about 5 minutes before they were ready to go.  I attribute that to either little kids' attention spans or the fumes from all that exhaust!

In the next photo, you can also see their current favorite arrangement in our stroller.  We do have a great double stroller, but the pushing and whining that ensues when we use it is not pleasant.  In the single stroller, tiny Tali (who recently weighed in around 23 pounds) fits perfectly in the basket underneath and loves nothing better than to ride down there.  I know you're probably not supposed to use the stroller in this way, but it seems safe to me and it's working for us so far.  I think I've put groceries in there that have weighed more than our petite girl, so I think it's all good.  Mateo gets his coveted front seat and Talia gets her cozy bottom perch. 

 All in all, they both got to check out fun cars and trucks and I got a nice walk out of the whole thing, so we all had a good time. 

Then, we got home to find out that Sacha's hemorrhoid issues have flared up again, so she came home right after school today and will be home tomorrow, too.  Poor baby.  She has really had a rough time this pregnancy.  Here's hoping that some R and R tomorrow will do her some good.  She's not supposed to start maternity leave for another four weeks, but we'll see if she makes it that long.  Healing thoughts and such would be much appreciated!

Sun, ever so brief

It was sunny today for a few hours, and although we didn't know that it wouldn't last long, we decided to take advantage of it.  We headed out to Powell Butte, at which we had hiked a few times before having kids but never since their arrival.

We caught the best part of the sun, and the visitors' guide gave us the best part of our adventure - it mentioned that Powell Butte is an extinct volcano.  That was all it took to get Mateo hook, line, and sinker!  He LOVES volcanoes and couldn't stop talking about how we were on an extinct one.  Here he is, expounding on the volcanic status of our location:

He happily rode his balance bike up, up, up the slight incline, while Tali abandoned her bike and tailed along with one or the other of us.

Then, he (and then, when we finally got back to her bike) got to have a loooong and FUN ride back down the hill.  Mateo navigated the switchbacks very well and we all declared the outing a great success. 

The sun disappeared between looming clouds just as we were coming down, and it stayed there for most of the day, with occasional sunbreaks this afternoons.  This made us even more glad that we had gotten outside this morning.  It was a great family adventure and even more fun since I had just gotten home and we were all reunited again.  

PS:  A post on my trip is coming soon!

34 weeks

I got home from my weekend adventure just in time to take this photo of my lovely wife at 34 weeks.  She only has four more weeks of work to go and then maternity leave will start.  Wahoo!

PS:  Sacha wants me to add that it's actually only 17 more work days, because she has some teacher planning days thrown in there....not that she's counting or anything :)