Hanukkah: Part 2

Celebrating with friends

Mmmmmm....latkes....healthy goodness!

Playing Dreidel

Celebrating with Papa and Nana

More Dreidel

Spoiled boys!

Aunt Arie and Uncle Bruce

Hanukkah: Part 1

I never thought I'd be that parent. You know -- the "newbie" who pulls the veteran teacher aside to talk to her about her curriculum. The problem parent. The one to throw a wrench in the plans. The one that all of the teachers talk about behind her back. I was a teacher myself for years. I know how it goes.

And yet, as Hanukkah approached, I was afraid that my Jewish child would be stuck learning about Santa and making construction paper Christmas trees every day of the month of December in his low-key Park and Rec. preschool. My brain conjured up nightmare images of my sweet little boy feeling like an outsider and an outcast in his own class. I remembered Scott's stories of being forced to make a blue "Hanukkah Sock" (?!) out of felt while the rest of his classmates made Christmas stockings.

So, putting aside my natural tendency to go with the flow and stay out of the way, I sucumbed to parental paranoia and mustered up my courage and my most ingratiating tone of voice. I cornered the head teacher one day after school and asked her point blank if the kids would be studying other holidays in class besides Christmas. I was ready to fight. I had my arguments rehearsed and ready. I needn't have worried. Ms. V had clearly been down this road before. She gave me a somewhat patronizing smile ("What the hell, crazy mom?! This is the Bay Area, after all!") and explained that they would be covering a number of different holidays in class. Furthermore, she encouraged me to bring in books and project ideas of my own regarding Hanukkah. Whoah! Project ideas? I'm the least crafty person on the face of the Earth! I muttered my thanks and feeling both relieved and flustered, I backed out of the classroom.

A few weeks later, Max came home with a reindeer headdress, a menorah made out of his own handprints and a woven Kwanzaa picture. Here's to multiculturalism! I didn't offer up any project ideas of my own; the preschool clearly already has that covered, but I did send in a couple books and some Hanukkah gelt for everyone.

Max seems to be making it through this holiday season with his Jewish identity intact ("We are Jewish and we celebrate Hanukkah. But other people like Dodie and Hayley celebrate Christmas.") He's asking all the right questions ("What is a miracle?") and he's getting the traditions straight, ("When can we light the candles so I can get another present?").

I have a lot to learn about being part of a minority group in America, including the lesson that sometimes it's a lot easier than you think it is going to be.

Max and Dada wearing silly Hanukkah glasses from Grandma Rhona

Hanukkah Cookies

The boys playing with the new train (Thanks, Grandma!)

Eating pizza and latkes at the synagogue Hanukkah party (pizza and latkes???!!!)

Scott's masterpiece track setup (he was devastated when I took it apart to vacuum)

The boys opening Hanukkah presents

Our menorah on the third night

Let the Holiday Season Begin!

Last night we all enjoyed an annual Alameda holiday tradition -- the lighted boat parade. The parade took place in the estuary between Alameda and Oakland and we watched all sorts of beautiful boats cruise past. Every time a new boat came around the corner, Henry would shout, "Mommy! Mommy!" and point excitedly.

My East-coast friends will laugh to see the gear the boys were dressed in. It was only 50 degrees, but that seemed frigid to us. It's amazing how quickly your body adjusts to a different climate.

In any case, we were all happy to kick off the holiday season, and we look forward to a weekend full of Hanukkah activities next week.

Boys Gone Wild

The Show Must Go On

As most of you know, this has not been the best month of my life, and yet, the blog must go on! Kids continue growing and doing cute things despite everything else, and thank God for that! Plus, my legions of loyal fans (a.k.a. the grandmothers) are demanding photographs.

So here's the recap of the past month...

Halloween was a bit of a blur this year, but the boys looked adorable in their dragon suits. Max had a Halloween parade at school and then his class "performed" a couple Halloween songs. I've had to accept the fact that my child is not destined to be the next American Idol, however. Max refuses to sing any song at preschool and during this performance, he stood in line with his hands over his ears. Oh well! We can't all be Adam Lambert (and based on his AMA performance, perhaps that's a good thing. But I digress...).

A few days before Halloween, we enjoyed a lovely pumpkin-carving party with our dear friends and neighbors -- Hayley, Austin, Sabrina, and Michael. On Halloween night, Papa and Nana joined us for some neighborhood trick-or-treating. The boys enjoyed giving out candy even more than gathering it. In fact, they gave away every single piece of their stash to kids who showed up at our door. Amazing! I'm sure that this is the last year that we can expect that kind of innocence. I also managed to capture a cute video clip of Henry. His language abilities have exploded recently and he is adding new words every day. He even has a few sentences, and he likes to keep track of everyone in the family -- "Where Daddy go? Where Mac go? Mommy doing?".

We had a nice Thanksgiving down in Valencia at Grandma Rhona's house. It was good to get away. The boys enjoyed helping with the meal preparations (though the only items they actually ATE during dinner were cranberries and dinner rolls), and they loved the special bedroom that Grandma had prepared for them. No more scary brass bed!

Despite all of our difficulties, we feel blessed to have two healthy, smart, adorable boys and to have loving and supportive friends and family. Here's to hoping that things start looking up soon...

Max's First Trip to the Dentist

Max visited the dentist for the first time today. We are fortunate to have a wonderful pediatric dental office here in our home town. They had toys to play with, kid-friendly equipment, and dentists and hygienists trained to work with kids. The whole experience went very smoothly. Max was a real trooper -- holding still for x-rays, and allowing a cleaning and fluoride treatment with nary a peep. His teeth looked clean and healthy, though the crowding and the overbite suggested that we have orthodontics in our future. Oh goody! Another expense to look forward to...

Special kids' waiting area

The dentist checking Max's teeth (and shielding his eyes from the bright light)

Is this a dental office or a tanning salon??!!

All clean!

Blood, Bandages, and Runaways

It's always something around here.

In the past couple weeks, we have endured the following:

1.) Henry running away at Kohls. After several increasingly frantic minutes of searching accompanied by two store employees, I found him in a rounder of clothing. He popped out grinning as if to say, "The terrible twos are here! Get used to it, Mom."

2.) Scott spraining his ankle. Apparently Max laid a trap of slippery slate rocks at the bottom of the deck stairs and Scott, who was carrying plates of hamburgers and who has weak ankles to begin with, fell for it (literally). The ankle puffed up to twice its normal size and took on a variety of lovely colors. The only possible "positive" of this whole situation was that Henry learned a new word. He will now look at me solemnly and say "Ankle" while pointing toward the back yard.

3.) Max taking a nasty spill at Krusi Park. Yes, this is the same place where Max split open his head a few months ago necessitating a trip to the ER. A sane person might wonder, "Why does she keep taking her kids back to this death-trap of a park?" What can I say? It's a fun park when we're not gushing blood. In any case, this time Max fell on his face and received the biggest fat lip I've ever seen. In addition, he tore his frenulum (the little piece of skin connecting his upper lip to his gums). The whole thing bled, A LOT, but I was reassured when I took Max across the street to see my neighbor who is a pediatric nurse. She said that there was nothing they could do for him at the hospital and we should stick with motrin and popsicles at home (a very popular course of treatment). Now, a couple days out, he's looking a little less like a prize fighter, and I'm hoping that he doesn't end up with a scar.

Sigh...

Fall Fights and Festivals

Kids + Pumpkins = Adorable Photographs.

Scott and I got into a fight about this very equation over the weekend when we visited Perry's Farm Pumpkin Patch and Ardenwood's Harvest Festival. Scott's "cheesy and inauthentic" is my "cuteness nirvana." You can be the judge as you peruse the following photographs chronicling pumpkin selection, train ride, and picking of corn.

A good time was had by all (at least once Scott and I got past our acrimony. It wouldn't be a marriage if we didn't fight about stupid issues, now would it?!).

An Urban Bluegrass Adventure

Last week I read in the paper about a free bluegrass music festival to be held in San Francisco. I thought to myself, " Heck, I like bluegrass music. I lived in Virginia for ten years, didn't I?" Additionally, I thought, "I like free things. We don't have any money after paying for our deck and fence, right?"

And thus our fate was sealed.

Saturday afternoon after the boys woke up from their nap, we piled them in the car and headed for Golden Gate Park. I was envisioning a scene where families would spread out their picnic blankets and nibble quietly on sandwiches while toddlers frolicked with the family dog and gentlemen strummed banjos on a haphazard stage. What I wasn't envisioning was a massive crush of humanity -- something close to 700,000 people-- overtaking ever corner of the park and pressing up again seven different stages where a dizzying variety of acts played simultaneously.

Our first clue should have been the fact that it took close to half an hour to find a parking spot a million miles from the park in the depths of the Outer Richmond. We shlepped our children and our gear over to the park, staring slack-jawed at the flower children, frat boys, retirees, street people, and other assorted city dwellers surrounding us. The plan had been to meet up with friends near the quaintly named "Banjo Stage" where Gillian Welch was performing, but it quickly became clear that there was no earthly way to find anyone in that crowd and furthermore, the Welch performance was so packed that it was standing-room only and the performer herself was a mere dot in the distance.

Ever adaptable, we took our rugged Peg Perego stroller for a rough trek up the side of a hill and through a grove of eucalyptus trees. Eventually, we found a spot amongst the trees behind some stage or another where we watched a couple acts we had never heard of (from the back) and enjoyed our picnic and people watching. One favorite moment was when a drunk lesbian couple fought their way up the side of a tree so that they could drink whiskey and watch the action from on high. Scott and I also had a good snicker over Max's comment, "It's stinky around here!" Yes, son, that's the smell of pot smoke. Welcome to San Francisco.

All told, we ended up having a really good time, and the kids enjoyed playing in the dirt and dragging logs all over the hill. They didn't mind a bit that we couldn't really see much on the stage.

If we return to this festival next year, I think we will have learned a few things and will be better prepared. It really was an amazing event in an amazing city. Have I mentioned how much I love living in the Bay Area?

Henry posing in front of our "view" of the stage.

Scott and Max eating dinner.

Our "neighbors" trying to get themselves up the tree.

Good Times

Just a few photos to catch everyone up on the fun we've had over the past two weeks...

"Helping" Mommy make honey bread for Rosh Hashanah:

Fun at Super Franks with Hunter and Miles:

Kairav and Luke come over for lunch:

Enjoying the Alameda beach with Anj, Jay, and Kairav:

Trip to the S.F. Zoo with Anj, Kairav, Kimiko and Luke:






One quick story about the zoo -- while we were busy in the petting zoo brushing the goats and raking the dirt, a bunch of ravenous squirrels broke into the stroller, UNZIPPED the lunch sack, and ate our PB & J and turkey sandwiches. Wow! Who knew that squirrels were even capable of this sort of sneaky behavior! Lucky for us, the snack bar was open and selling burritos. Maybe the zoo employees have trained the park's squirrels to go after lunches so that the snack shack can bring in more revenue. Just a thought.