Birthday 4.0

Four years ago today, I was sitting on the couch, 11 days past my due date, barely able to breathe due to all the space my fetus was taking up in my torso. And two days later, Julian arrived, making us parents.

On Wednesday he'll have his third birthday party of the season. His first was with my cousins and his second was this weekend with his friends. Dinosaur digging in the sand table, mini-pumpkin hunting, and cupcake eating were enjoyed by all the kids. See all the pictures if you need proof.

Partying with Scarlett

Untitled from whitneymoss on Vimeo.

Preschool field trip

Julian and Zenaida

From Monterey Market

Scarlett at home

Underwear Do's and Don'ts

Today children's book author Todd Parr came to Julian's preschool. I was very excited about this, since we are big fans of his colorful books. We own two: This Is Your Hair and Funny Faces. I even wrote my own board book, inspired by This Is Your Hair a couple of years ago.

This morning when Julian got ready for school, he put on two pairs of plain white underwear, one atop the other. Both backwards. This is really not a battle worth fighting, so I said nothing.

Interestingly, one of the books Todd gave to the school was Underwear Do's and Don'ts which has a page that explains how one should not wear multiple pairs of underwear at the same time. When I picked Julian up from school, there was one pair of plain white undies in his cubby.

I sent Julian to school with his well-worn copy of Funny Faces. I hoped that someone would facilitate Julian getting it signed by the author and I explained this to Julian last night when I told him to bring the book to school. Tonight, from the bathtub, when Ryan questioned J about his experience with Todd, Julian reported that he did indeed get his book signed. "He wrote my name and a heart because Todd loves me," he explained confidently. "When I am bigger than a grandpa," he continued, "will I be the author of Funny Faces?"

"No," Ryan had to tell him. "Todd Parr already wrote Funny Faces. You'll have to come up with your own book."

I really hope he does.

Liveblogging a vacation

We are at the mid-point of our Santa Cruz summer vacation. So far, excellent.



We arrived in the late afternoon on Monday and were delighted by the location of the hotel, The Dream Inn. (Oh, and the first lovely part of the day was that we had our babysitter come and watch the kids for 5 hours while we took our time preparing for the trip. So worth it!) We upacked at the hotel, had poolside drinks and then went to a vegetarian restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz called Malabar. Delicious.

Tuesday we floated from beach to pool to the Boardwalk where Julian enjoyed carnival rides and a Chinese acrobat performance and Ryan and I DID NOT enjoy the food. We had dinner outside at the hotel pool and it was far more relaxing than the restaurant. Julian danced in place while he ate, and that went over just fine. Scarlett is a total maniac and you don't even want to know what she was doing while we ate. "What wasn't she doing?" is a more appropriate question.



Wednesday was more pooltime and rides and then downtown for dinner. The Taco Bar in The Palomar restaurant was perfect for our overtired little people. I was feeling a little fuzzy after only 1/3 of my pina colada, so I poured the rest in a sippy cup and drank it on the way home. Classy.

More details later, and more pictures are here.

The dress up box has been in use

An uncommonly mischevious adventure

A couple of years ago, we made an "instrument" out of a small tin. We filled it with brown rice - uncooked - duh - and closed it, sealing it with packaging tape. Julian decorated it with stickers and it became a shaker. It was durable and got tossed around in our large bin of musical instruments, surfacing every now and then to remind me that we should make things together more often.

Now let me say that as the parents of Julian, we haven't yet experienced much in the way of the classic naughty preschooler tales you hear. There have been no markers on the wall, DIY haircuts, or snakes, snails or puppy dog tails in my purse.

Yesterday, however, I was treated to a little trouble making. Of course this is entirely my fault for leaving three-and-three-quarter-year olds unsupervised in the house for more than 10 seconds, but live and learn, right?

You can guess where this is going, I'm sure. I looked up from the backyard and see that Julian and his playmate Lila are gleefully screaming something to me from the window of his bedroom. They are very excited and seem to want my attention. I go upstairs where I can hear them saying "Magic seeds! We're eating magic seeds! There are magic seeds everywhere!"

And indeed there were. Brown rice - at least three years old - was everywhere in Julian's room. And pieces of brown rice were on and around the shiny wet lips of the hyperactive preschoolers.

"Stop! Don't eat that rice!" I said.
With full eye contact, they both picked more rice from the carpet and put it in their mouths.
"It's magic seeds!" they said.

After some explanation about how you should not eat things that might not be food, like what you find inside an instrument or a stuffed animals, the twosome was persuaded to come downstairs where their moms could watch them better. We left a storm of brown rice behind in Julian's room which facilitated a more productive conversation after Lila left about what kinds of things are safe to put in one's mouth.

I was annoyed at the mess, but I could not stop laughing on the inside, of course. Plus, no worries about lack of whole grains in this kid's diet today.

Being Savvy

I am blogging for Savvy Source, a preschool directory, about activities to do with preschoolers in the East Bay. East Bay parents, check it out!

Baby in the sky -- with diamonds