May was another full month. Highlights include:
- trip to San Diego to celebrate Randy’s 40th birthday and go to Sea World
- annual Mother’s day breakfast in bed
- a visit to the Strawberry Festival
- Luke had his fourth year portrait pictures taken
- and open houses at both Lilah and Luke’s schools
San Diego Trip
We returned to San Diego this year to attend my friend Randy’s 40th birthday party and take the kids to Sea World. But our mini vacation to San Diego was almost in jeopardy before it even began. It started when from the bathroom I heard Luke come in through the garage door and excitedly yell “I’ve got your pictures dada…” and then there was a slam, a shriek and a crying plead for help. Turns out that Luke had gone out to get the mail with Cathy and on his way back he ran ahead of her to bring me my pictures. However, it was a windy day and as he entered the house through the garage door the wind slammed the door on his index finger. We thought for sure Luke had broken his finger, but we lucked out this time. His finger turned black and blue, but he was able to move it and with the help of a splint he got along just fine in San Diego. Big time sigh of relief there.
The kids had a great time at Randy’s but what a difference a year makes. Last year, Luke was all over the older girl Kira, but this year he really didn’t want anything to do with “girls.” This picture says it all.
At Sea World, the highlights were seeing Shamu, exploring the shark exhibit, and going on that Shipwreck Rapids, which is basically a circular raft that goes through a rapids course and a can’t- miss-it waterfall at the end which pretty much ensures that the whole family gets wet (not sure mom and dad liked that surprise that much as we had done a pretty good job of not getting too wet up until that point). Another ride I went on with Lilah was the Journey to Atlantis which is a log jammer type ride with two pretty vertical drops. Lilah was fine until she realized a second drop was coming. That’s when she started to tear up a bit and say she wanted off. Luckily, the ride finished right after the second drop and we were done before the preliminary cry turned into a real cry.
Luke
At Luke’s preschool open house, his teacher told us how Luke has become a real leader. According to her, last year Luke was a little bossy, which made other kids tune him out, but this year he has learned to express this energy in a different way, which translates into the kids actually listening to him and following his lead. I guess his catch phrase is “Wait, I have an idea…”
On the flipside, I think we are seeing some of that bossy side here at home as it seems he has recently stepped up his challenges to our authority, reverting to pouting or not doing what you ask him to do when you tell him he can’t do or have something he wants. This can range from not giving him candy or toys, to not playing sword fights, Candyland or some other game he wants to play in order to procrastinate going to bed. All in all, between me and Cathy (mostly Cathy), I think we’re still managing to keep him in line though.
One person he did not have to worry about keeping him in line was my cousin Vivi who smothered Luke with attention, especially kisses. It was funny to watch because it was my cousin’s intention to have both kids remember her and her technique with Luke was to always ask for kisses or dole them out herself. Of course, she did it to excess so that she could see where Luke’s breaking point was. But even though he irritated a few times, letting out big sighs followed by exasperated “Okays,” he never completely turned away the affection. Needless to say, it’s been fun to watch.
Lilah
Other than Sea World, the two big highlights for Lilah this month were showing us all her school work at her open house and getting selected for a speaking part in her class play. She is playing the part of one of Cinderella’s mice, but she’s already complaining that her role is too easy and she is not being given enough lines (apparently she only has one line). At school, Lilah continues to excel in writing and drawing. In addition to the free-hand drawings she regularly makes, she is also using a software package at school called Kid Pix that allows her to enhance her drawings with pre-built patterns, landscapes, and music. Since she’s having so much fun with it, we bought the software for our home machine so that she can wow us with her drawings at home too.
As part of being Star of the Week, all Lilah’s classmates are required to turn in one drawing and a few sentences describing what they like about Lilah. The recurring themes were that Lilah is nice, that she is good because she plays with everybody, and that she is honest and always does her own work and does not copy anybody. It’s funny, when I read the pieces describing Lilah doing her own work and not copying because I just took it for granted that all kids did that but I guess that’s not the case. One of the learning center moms commented to us that Lilah was great in the centers (centers are basically different tables where kids gather around to perform different activities moderated by one of the center moms) because she never has to be told what to do, she just sits down, focuses on the task at hand, and does her work with no nonsense. The mom went on to assure me that this is not the case with every student and that we should be happy that she’s this way.
Like Luke, Lilah also had her first really big accident this month. It happened as she was racing down this grass embankment at the park with Luke right before tennis class. Even though Cathy told Lilah to rest before her lesson she insisted on racing up and down the embankment with Luke until she tripped, lost her balance, and fell off the curb and onto the asphalt parking lot, badly scraping up her knees in the process (here’s a picture of one of her scabbed up knees of few days later). She cried for a while after it happened and ended up skipping her tennis class that day, but what was cool about the whole thing is that she later turned the accident into a positive. As she related the story to me before going to bed, she told me that she had indeed had her first big accident that day, but that she was okay because this meant she was a big girl now and that she was tough. Yeah you are I told her as I tucked her in, gave her a kiss and wished her a good night.
As always, more next month…