Merry Christmas Day 2008

Julian and Scarlett love them some christmas!

Bubblicious

Why 4-year olds are weird:

They make up languages
They wear rain boots in the dry summer
They stick their fingers in their noses absentmindedly
They come in your room at 3 am to invite you to come into their rooms
They want to eat rice with their fingers
They don't believe it is wonderful to be invited to lay down for an hour in the middle of the day
They make 5 or 10 horizontal lines in their capital "E"
They say "nipples!" and giggle when their shirts are off

Or maybe it's just ours.

Genetic study

On the left, I am pictured in the tub, circa 1974. On the right, a printout of Scarlett earlier this year. Comments?

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