Another Hallowe'en in the books

We survived another Hallowe'en. By the time the witching hour arrived we were pretty burned out on it already after 2 school carnivals and Greg working into the wee hours to create yet another masterpiece costume for Kai. And this year the little man was pretty sick but determined to get out there. The only one chomping at the bit was Teia. As soon as we got home from Kai's carnival, Teia whipped off her princess costume and shimmied her way into Hallowe'en get up #3 - a mermaid. She wore a unicorn costume to her own Hallowe'en carnival last week (and has been sleeping with it ever since).

Teia was rather a fickle pickle when it came to planning Hallowe'en. She started with wanting to be a mermaid. Then became determined to be batman. This was followed by absolutely, definitely going to be a unicorn. There was a brief tiger phase. Then she wanted to be a shark. But thankfully, she decided that she would just wear each one of the costumes Auntie Karen kindly sent.

Kai on the other hand stood true to his tradition of picking something completely unique and not available in stores and sticking to it. Thank goodness he does not have the fickle gene after the time and effort Greg puts into his costumes. This one was no exception. Little buddy came down with a nasty cold but he wanted to wear his British Airways costume so badly that he made it to school anyway, even if just for a few hours, and managed a little trick or treating.

A few people mistook him for a space shuttle, but mostly his costume was very well received. He also became pretty adept at grabbing candy and dropping it into his pumpkin dangling from the end of his wingtip, all with a one handed maneuver. 

Greg continued the tradition of spending an inverse proportion of time on his costume to Kai's. This year his greatest effort was expended on finding stickers for his hard hat. If you're in the dark like I was, he explained it to me as a "Shipyard Bubba." I discovered that black is definitely not my color. Although the kids did like my new hair. Kai kept smiling at me and Teia took it in for share day at school today. 

Teia's Hallowe'en excitement turned quickly to trepidation when our neighbor at the second house we visited greeted us with a candy bowl that was complete with a talking head. From that point on she would not go up to any house until we checked first that there were "no guys." Kai decided he'd stand back too while we checked for dogs. So Greg and I became the advance party, ringing doorbells and smiling politely at confused neighbors who didn't expect such tall kids at their door, while our little ones emerged cautiously from the shadows once they were convinced that the house was "guy" and dog free. Once they felt safe though they happily trick-or-treated. Teia made sure she embarrassed us soundly by asking every single person "do you have schoclate?" Thank goodness she's cute.

They didn't last too long which was fine by us.  They were were happy to come home and gorge themselves a little bit with the spoils of their labor. Then Greg suggested to me that we take a trip each year in late October so we can kind of skip Hallowe'en. The man is genius. Let's see if I can hold him to it.

And here are our jack o lanterns. Pretty humble this year. I didn't even manage to go out and buy a pumpkin. One came from our weekly CSA delivery and the other two are from the pumpkin express train we rode a few weeks earlier.

So its in the books for one more year. I'm wondering if we can get Kai to think "outside the box" next year for his costume (ha ha very punny eh?) I'm sure Greg is hoping so! But I'm not sure what we'll do if he comes up with something that requires sewing......maybe I better continue to encourage these box costumes! 

She's Four!!!

The day finally came. She'd been waiting since Kai's birthday 6 months ago, all the while plotting pinatas and cakes and presents. Teia arrived in our bedroom in the pre-dawn darkness and announced boldly with arms outstretched in the way that only Teia can "I'm FOUR!"

She started the day with meeting her new fish, a pinkish, blueish, purplish betta fish. Not a cat, or bunny or puppy but a pet nonetheless. Greg and I bet on what Teia would call it. I said "Purpley" b/c she does tend to take a dominant characteristic of whatever "pet" she is naming and then add a "y" to the end. Greg bet on "Purplo" b/c its Spanish (at least the way Teia speaks Spanish). I thought Purplo had kind of a nice ring to it and I think we were both a bit attached to the name by birthday morning. But Teia had her own ideas and first named the fish "Hungry Fishy Swimming." After saying that a few times she found it a bit of a mouthful and changed his name to Sharkie, which has stuck.

Sometime during birthday week, Sharks became Teia's favorite animal. A few weeks ago when we started planning Teia's party the animal du jour was changing so rapidly that I made the parental executive decision that it would be a general animal themed party - therefore covering all possible bases. So it was a bit of a mish mash with a dinosaur skeleton hunt, a dragon pinata, tiny ocean animal softies in the pinata as treats for our guests, and jungle animal cupcakes. Teia's birthday cake for our family birthday dinner was a rather plain affair b/c of our artificial color avoidance and thankfully was not decorated until the last minute. I had run out of time to find a dragon to put on top as requested but shark favoritism had moved in, so Greg was able to sketch a quickie pink shark - b/c that is the only plant-based food coloring we had around! Teia didn't seem to mind.

Poor Kai came down with a fever the night before Teia's big day so he got to stay home and lie on the floor bearing witness to all the birthday hoopla. Daddy took an unexpected day off work too b/c the thought of two kids, one of them ill, one of them having a birthday, house cleaning and last minute birthday party errands and preps just about put a certain Mommy over the edge. So Teia had her whole family around to share in her excitement.

Kai managed the cutest drawing for Teia despite his fever and not getting off the living room floor for 12 hours:

I love how he even captured her #4 badge and her unruly hair! (yes I did try to rotate this but for some reason it was back un-rotated post-upload).

Some photos of her present-opening excitement:

So excited to receive the "dotted Nemo" she'd had her eye on for awhile!

She was entranced by her singing "Puff." 

Ariel was a hit as well!

Lots of Love for Puff. 

The next day we had Teia's first "official" birthday party. It seemed like small kine after Kai's 6 year old mega-affair but I found myself pretty busy with it anyway. We got the bouncy house up, the craft center set up, the dinosaur skeletons hidden and the food ready to go. I have to admit I secretly really like creating my kids' birthday parties and celebrating what they're into on their special day. It would be nice to have an unlimited budget and unlimited time but its fun nonetheless. 

Here is the puppet making station complete my own "sample puppet - zebra." I have to thank Super Dad for cutting out a bazillion construction paper animal body parts. 

Who's that hiding behind the tree???????

The party was a success but I didn't get many photos....was a little bit busy. Here is our Peach with her VERY favorite friend from preschool sharing a chair and enjoying their cupcakes. I didn't get a picture of how cute the cupcakes looked. I think it might be on the video on Greg's phone (as well as some great bouncy house photos). Now that he has joined the iPhone masses I will have to task him with some blogging. 

Teia was very adamant that the 3 boys she hangs with at school be invited to her party even though I didn't know their parents at all.  Two of the three were able to come with both parents and we got to make some new friends, thanks to our little social coordinator. 

I was glad we invited some 6 year olds to T's party b/c this dragon proved tough to open! We were thinking we might need to let the parents take a whack. But it was fun for the kids who got lots of opportunities to test out their aggressive sides. 

Teia did something cool for her birthday too. Rather than getting presents from her party guests, she opted to ask for presents for the animals at the humane society. So we have a big box of great kitty and puppy toys that we'll be taking down there sometime soon. Teia can't wait. One of her favorite games these days is to play "Animal Shelter Woman." That's our girl, patron of the furry four legged creatures :-)

Since the big day T has been telling every person she sees that she is now 4. Turning 4 has brought some changes as well. T has decided unilaterally that she does not nap anymore. As a result 4 seems to be a little bit sassier and moodier than 3 was. This decision of hers may be going to arbitration sometime soon. Although we do love this little spunky, challenging, vivacious, incredible little girl!

Happy Birthday Peach!!!!! 

Teia's story

Teia is really into books and stories lately. She likes to "read" to us at bedtime now, rather than the other way around. Yesterday while she was drawing a picture she narrated the following story and I was quick enough on the uptake to record it on paper.

Once upon a time there was a dragon and a fly and then a little boy. The fly came and got the little boy. And then the fly go'ed all the way back to his home on the flower and he flies all the way back out. And then the little boy saw lots of flies. And the flies go'ed all the way back to their flowers. And there was the prettiest dragon he ever sawed. The dragon fly, buzzing all around. And the little boy sawed a little butterfly flying from flower to flower to flower to flower. And he saw his dragon going all the way back to the little boy and they hugged.          The End. 

Then she added: "Its all about dragons and boys and its for Grandma and Poppa Mike."

I think they'll like it :-)

Airplane Tooth

We've commemorated lost teeth and new beds on this blog, so why not dental work? Today was a big day. Kai finally got his first cavity fixed. It took a long while because we were trying so hard to avoid any heavy duty medication to get him through it. So we were waiting and debating and waiting and debating. We got him through a 24 hr EEG procedure with nary a complaint. He used to be a role model for getting pokes (although not so much anymore). So the psychologist in me really felt that we could role play, prepare, use social stories etc, etc and get him a filling on laughing gas only. Finally, I had to admit it just wasn't gonna happen and we really didn't want him getting an infection.

So today he went under. Its called MAC for monitored anesthesia care. Apparently its a bit lighter than general anesthesia but definitely more than conscious sedation. It is serious enough that the entire dental office staff are there for only the "dental surgery" patient. All other appointments are blocked off. Kai was cool about it all. In his mind he was going to sleep and then he'd wake up with the hole in his tooth fixed.

It all went smoothly and he "fell asleep" in my arms after a quick poke from the anesthesiologist and then was taken back for the full IV and the dental work. No parents allowed. For once I was extremely grateful to sit one out in the waiting room. They even offered me a Starbucks card and insisted I go get something to eat b/c they knew it was a tough day. Harder on the parents they said.

"Fell asleep" is not exactly what I'd call it. No one could have prepared me for his body to go stiff and postured and for the light to literally go out in his eyes while they remained wide open, as his central nervous system shut down. That part was horrible and will take awhile to forget, if I even can.

But an hour later I got to meet my little trooper in the recovery room where his stiff and postured little body slowly softened up and came back to normal. He'd open his eyes and look startled for a minute and then dose off for awhile. He was clearly confused but not panicked. Then he started talking, well whispering (he told me later it was hard for his "voice to come"). I asked him how he was and he replied in a little slurry whisper "I'm good Mommy." Then he told me "I love British Airways" and I knew he was on his way back. He actually got pretty chatty, not that I could understand much of it as he whispered with his eyes still closed. He did tell me "They fixed the hole" and "I'm sleeping in room 210" (the room # he had remembered since his visit two months ago). That kid's memory is amazing. They told us he'd have double vision and he must have b/c he said it was like he was under water. He even drew a picture of his British Airways with wavy water on top afterwards.

30 minutes later he was ready for a wheelchair ride to the minivan. But not before he picked out a stuffed animal for Teia because he's sweet like that. Once we got home he insisted on walking, not being carried, into the house which was a pretty funny sight. 40 minutes of r&r at home and he figured he was back to normal. Somehow I don't think I'd be back at 'er quite that quick. Kids are amazing.

While he was under his dentist and I decided on a stainless steel crown b/c she figured he'd grind off any filling she put in and we'd be back to square one. (A lovely little habit he has inherited from me). So when he woke up I explained the smooth silver tooth in his mouth as his "airplane metal tooth." The dentist had suggested calling it a "robot tooth" but I knew Kai would like the airplane idea better. And he does. He'll happily show it to anyone who asks and I think he is pretty proud of himself overall. As he should be. He was an absolute rock star. But, hey, let's not go through that again.

Coming up on the Masters Division

Shamefully, I haven't posted nearly as much as I should over the last few months.  Louise has taken on the lion share of Fennell news.  Thinking of news, if we were to write a family newspaper, what would we call it?  "The Fennell Crier"?  Some mornings, yes, that would be appropriate.  "The Fennell Gazette"?  Sounds like "gazelle" which is definitely NOT how I feel after eating too much Nutella.  "The Fennell Times"?  Sounds too much like "Final Times" which is a tad morbid.  Anyway...

Summer has come and gone lickety-split and in a few days, I'll be passing the 40 year old milestone.  By some measure, its just a number.  Between 39 and 41, as Kai reminds us with his daily math announcements.  

But there's also a social component that is hard to escape.  Take running, for instance.  I'll now be a Masters runner.  I always thought of Masters runners as being, you know, OLD guys running in too-short shorts, shuffling through the race, then sprinting towards the finish line in a final blaze of re-lived glory.  Or scary dudes w/o an ounce of humor in them because ounces of humor are wasted weight for a Masters runner that must now crush all other Masters runners (yet oddly not give 2-craps worth to someone even a day younger than 40).

Even the name: Masters runner.  Has a noble ring to it, doesn't it?  Kinda like a Karate Master (someone who trains adult-sized turtles to become ninjas), a Chess Master (someone who is really good at staring at a 10x10 board for hours on end to move oddly shaped pieces in odd directions), or a Master Chef (someone who takes 20min to make scrambled eggs w/ saffron, essence chamomile, and lavender then charges $15.95 + 15% service fee).  So a Master runner must be pretty good at the art of running, no?  Like, someone who has is able to sprint through a dense bamboo forest in the rain, blindfolded, without gathering a speck of mud on the back of their shirt.   Or can run w/ perfect form, like REALLY runs, as opposed to a Novice runner who actually skips, hobbles, and falls most of the time. 

Yeah, "Masters Runner" doesn't quite fit in the same grouping as other "Masters"...

Young kids have it easy with ages.  Every age is associated with some type of milestone.  

5:  Start kindergarten.  

6:  1st grade.  

16: Compare your birthday to Molly Ringwald's and wish you were in a John Hughes movie.

18:  Senior year of high school.  

19:  First year of college.  

19:  OR stick around for ANOTHER year of high school if you live in Canada.  Because some people just can't let go of those magical high school years...  

21:  Legally buy alcohol in the US (usually too much on the first night, or so I hear).  

40:  Pay bills.  Go to work.  Get your smog certification renewed in California.  

Needless to say, the latter birthdays don't have QUITE the punch, zing, or the ancillary benefits the earlier ones do.

Teia, Kai, and Louise have been up to something, so I'm always keen to see what's in store.  My usual spy is Teia.  She'll happily tell me she wrapped some gifts and its a secret.   

Me:  What is the secret, T?

T:  Oh!  Its a shirt!  And some shoes!  And a watch!  And....

Louise: Teia Autumn!!! 

 (actually, she normally yells at me, because I know Teia's going to spill the beans and its a little unfair of me to take advantage of our anti-poker faced Peach.   Of our two kids, Kai has the best chances of becoming a professional poker player, Teia not so much)

A few weeks ago, Louise asked if I wanted anything special for this birthday.  I have to admit, I came up pretty blank.  No epic mtn bike rides, no ski trips, no sports car.  (we are going to go on a large sailboat for a few hours).  Instead, I realized I already have all the best gifts in our little home - an amazing & loving wife, two awesome kids, a broken couch that is now at a very comfortable angle for typing future blog posts, roof, food, bed, Nutella.  We're really quite lucky; everyday is a day to be grateful and enjoy.  

Back to School

After sort of dreading it and sort of looking forward to it, the first week of school came and went. Kai started 1st grade and Teia started her second year of preschool. For the first time since our babies were old enough for "school" of some sort, they returned to the school they attended the previous year. That made the whole event a little less climactic and stressful, thank goodness. Anything that involves less stress is something I am ALL over.

I did not manage very good back to school photos this year. But that is okay. I think Facebook was overwhelmed with them anyway. Kai managed to lose his front tooth just a few days before school started and w/n the week, front tooth #2 was gonzo as well. He swallowed it.

Here is his not-so-great-first-day-of-first-grade-photo:

And this is the best pic I've gotten so far of his toothless vampire grin:

Teia was supposed to return to the same class with the same teacher that she adored but a few last minute administrative changes at her preschool meant she got a new teacher. I fretted when I found out but so far at least, Teia has been rolling with it. She is big wo-man on campus this year - her second year in the 3 to 4 year old room. Even her body language is different from last year as she confidently struts around her home turf.

Her first-day-of-second-year-of-preschool photo wasn't so great either. She was just being silly. I had several to chose from, each as silly as the next:

She really is growing up so fast. Her legs are long now and she wants to do pretty much everything by herself. Except when she doesn't. And that's okay. A few days before school started she pretty much told us it was time to take down the baby monitor. She'd had enough of that creepy little red-eyed camera watching her every move. We'd been hanging onto it, enjoying the nap surveillance that it provided. But I had to admit, she is almost 4. We were being a bit ridiculous with that baby monitor. So out of her room it came and I told her that now she couldn't just lie there in bed and call for me, she'd have to leave when she was finished her nap or I'd never know. Since the camera removal, naps have ended anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours after I put her down and then wonder if she's sleeping; she storms out of her room, finds me and announces "Good Morning Mama!" This translates to: "I'm finished being in my room and you have no way of knowing if I napped or not, nah nah nah nah nah."

Doesn't she look like such a big kid in this photo?

Teia is still only a part-timer when it comes to school so I've been keeping her busy this week while Kai has been in first grade. Its been hot so we've just been trying to stay cool....

Back to back to school. Despite staying at the same school, Kai has had to make a big adjustment out of the cozy kindergarten corner and into the big kid area where all of a sudden he looks so tiny again. He's made it like a rockstar. He has visited kindergarten a few times but has adjusted really well to his new class. His teacher is amazing and he seems to be with a great group of kids. Its a multi-age class so half of the kids are second graders doing their second year with Miss Erica. Next year, that'll be Kai, showing the young'ens the ropes.

The early mornings, long days and soul-melting heat we've had this past week has taken its toll though. Poor guy fell down just walking into our house on Friday evening, proof that he'd given all he had for the week.

Videos

I was planning to upload a couple of cute videos from the last few weeks but I am having computer storage issues yet again (time to update my macbook, circa 2008, its sort of a relic ;-P

So the others will have to wait..... But here is an adorable one Greg shot of the kiddos a few weeks ago at a friend's wedding. They enjoyed a little dancing while waiting for the ceremony to begin. Kai found it a little loud but he was willing to waltz around with his sis a few times. They couldn't have picked a better song :-)