Nosferatu or blueberry lover?

So today Zoe has her hand up in her mouth, and she tells me, "Mommy, there's a bunch of skin on my tooth".
Why yes, this remark has my attention. So I slide a finger into her open mouth where she is pointing and I find a large, swollen pad of gums at the back of her mouth. I know it isn't right, but it takes me a moment for it to register. I look up at Marcia with my face of concern and she says quick as a whip, "6 year molar".
I didn't even know there were 6 year molars. We are busy expecting the front ones to fall out at any time. The other side of her lower set of molars feels similar, though not as swollen. So we go on with our day and Zoe doesn't eat much after her huge breakfast. She is drinking like a camel all day, especially snow slushies, but not eating much. Then after barely eating dinner, she's brushing her teeth and I decide to have another feel. Her lower left is twice as swollen as before and the other side is getting there. Then on top, the left one is halfway in, and the right is puffy. She has a mouth full of erupting molars, and I had no idea. So after starting and not finishing 3 different meals, I gave her a bowl of frozen blueberries from a local farm. She ate them all 3 times over and in the end was a blueberry mess, but her gums were finally happy.

Practicing Canadian

Snow Day

Just laugh with them

High Tea

Grammy invited Zoe and Mommy to Christmas High Tea at The Secret Garden in Vancouver.  We dressed up and were treated each to our choice of tea, cranberry spritzers and a beautiful selection of petite goodies ranging from savory to sweet.  Including the requisite scones with Devonshire cream and raspberry jam. All the lovelies were served on delicate mismatched china in varied floral patterns. We sipped our tea and spread our jam while a harpist played carols across the room. What a wonderful tradition for Zoe to add to her rich book of cultural traditions.

Sledding!

These are my hands

Fall ride

The Roberts Gang

Our buddies Kathleen, Liam and Casey invited us to a playdate at Roberts park with another friend of Julian's from Tot Zone, Miles and his mom. We picked Nana up from the airport, threw together a nice picnic lunch and headed up to the woods. We found our friends plus three more and had a great little group of moms and rugrats. The kids had such a great time together, Zoe leading the pack, running through the forest. Julian really liked reconnecting with his buddy Miles, who he rarely sees and those two ran through the redwoods on their imaginary pirate ship, pilaging treasure of unknown kinds from marauding pirates on the tree-sloped seas, swords at the ready.

At Sunset

Buddies

Today I started my bi-weekly volunteer sessions in Zoe's classroom. I spent an hour with the kids; first on the playground, then in the classroom for handwriting and Writer's Workshop. Their teacher has that classroom running like a well oiled machine. I was taking a lot of mental notes. The kids always knew what was expected of them, and how to proceed. They are all in varying stages of learning to read and write, as well as learning how to learn. It was fascinating to be there, watching it all happen.
Zoe was so excited to have her mommy there- but I needed to help all the kids, and I could tell Zoe wanted more of my attention. It was great getting to know all of her classmates- I hear about them in bits and pieces. They are a neat bunch of kiddos.
Here is a picture of Zoe, and her favorite buddy, Cyrus.

Fleet Week

AKA Celebrate Invasion Day with the armed forces!

Pedal Pusher

With the Fishes

Sea of Sand

Little Amelia

Mini meez

Monkey Bar Mistress

Zoe has been working at this for months... The monkey bars. Years ago, she would hang.
Then more recently, she would have me hold her legs, and I would rock her back and forth, and show her how to swing her weight and change her hands across the bars. This week, she finally mastered doing it all herself. She is so happy, and she wants to go to the park all the time to practice. I was looking at her hands today- and a big row of little red callouses are forming. The sign of a bar swinging little girl. The badge of accomplishment.

Birthday with mommy

Julian on the stairs

Julian! Look behind you!

Aaaarrrggzzzzzzzzzzz

"Back, you scallywags! Or I'll brutalize you in 'yer sleep! I mean MY sleep... Aaargffmmmpzzz"

Back to School Night

Tonight is back to school night at Aurora. I met all the teachers, admins and specialists and learned about what they'll be teaching Zoe over the year. Then we went into the classroom and explored. I saw where she spends her days, and all the stories that she's told me over these weeks came to life. Here is a picture of her folder where she keeps her work.

Maritimes

Julian had so much the other day at "The Pirate Ship" (AKA, The Balclutha at Hyde St. Pier) that we returned today and met our friends Casey and Kathleen for a maritime playdate. After wandering around the ship, we walked over to the Maritime Museum to look at models of old tallships.

September Summer

Captain Jubee

Today, Juju and I headed into the City for a maritime excursion. It was beautiful and sunny, clear out to the Golden Gate. North Beach was gorgeous, the piers were warm, and best of all, many of the cold summer tourists have cleared out, leaving us with parking, empty buses, sweater free weather and line-free attractions. I love fall in San Francisco! I lured Julian to the waterfront with promises of a Pirate Ship tour. We walked over to the Hyde St. Pier for dock side sail on the tall sail ship, Balclutha. Many people aren't familiar with this huge vessel that is a great place to visit near fisherman's warf, Ghirardelli Square and the wonderful under-explored Maritime Museum. The Balclutha was a real working sailing ship from the time before steamers. With 3 tall masts in full rigging it traveled the world transporting goods, and sailed many times in and out of the port where it floats today. It is run by the City of San Francisco Parks and is not just a floating museum. Children take school tours where they spend the day and night onboard working, and learning about ship life circa 1906. They will sing sea shanties, learn to tie knots, lower and row a boat, make dinner in the galley and explore the boat as many many sailors have done above and below the wooden decks right there before them. As you walk the ship, you can see the what life was like aboard over a hundred years ago for all the people who sailed her- from the captains' quarters to the galley, to the workmans' bunks, to the tiny undership quarters where the Chinese worked in nearly slave-like conditions. You can see all of the items that Balclutha carried across the sea stacked up under the deck- from boxes of salmon to wood boards, to French furniture, Belgian Glass (that filled the buildings of downtown SF), and everything needed to build a tiny worktown in Alaska.
Not really a pirate ship, that didn't matter to Captain Juju, who took the helm and imagined himself sailing out to sea, through the fog that began to roll under the bridge, through the Golden Gate.

Learning to Ride

Now that we have Zoe up and riding like a pro, it's time to get Jujie pedaling.
He's a mean machine on two wheels, as long as his feet are moving him along- he has mastered the Skuut, but now we have put the pedals on his bike. His balance is perfect, but pedaling is a new issue- keeping his feet off the ground will take some practice. Zoe here, is showing him how it's done.

Family Bike Ride

On the weekends, Daddy likes to take the kids on Family Bike Ride. It used to be that he took them to the store with the kids riding in the baby sit on his bike. But now, Zoe is big enough to take herself. She rode with Daddy and Julian all the way down to Fruitvale through the neighborhook to dinner. Zoe was so proud, riding along by herself, following daddy down the streets.

Making friends everywhere

Zoe has really blossomed into a social little girl.
She makes friends everywhere we go.
Tonight we went to Lanesplitter Pizza & Pub. They make a pretty good pie, and surprisingly, welcome kids. This place is pretty cool, and you will see all kinds of folks at the Emeryville location. Nerdy compu-types. Hipsters galore. Rockabillies unite. Hippies. Burners. Young and Old. Arty types. African Americans in their pretty hats and church best. Parents. Yes, us too. There is a great little corner where the wall is painted in chalkboard black, and a bucket of colored chalk welcomes everyone to pull up a mini stool and draw to their hearts content. Wall too chalky? Nowhere to draw? Don't worry, the lovely servers will come over and wipe it clean so you have a fresh wall!
Meanwhile the stereo blasts a little something for everyone. From Blues, to The Stones to Metallica to the Ramones. When Sheena is a Punkrocker came on, Zoe and her little friend were bopping around, holding hands and giggling away.
When the pizza arrived, Zoe wandered over, sat down and continued to wave at her new friend across the room between bites. She said, "She recognized us from the bagel place".
"Really?" I looked over. They looked familiar, but between schools, parks, grocery shopping and a past life in restaurants and bars, heck, half of Oakland looks familiar.
Then I remembered... one morning in the summer, we shared a table with a little girl and her mommy at Noah's on Lakeshore. They were nice, and friendly. That was a couple of months ago, and here they were, with the girls picking right up where they left off. So cute. Zoe manages to find friends everywhere she goes. I hope she takes that with her for a life time.

Sunday Walk in the Park

We are trying to squeeze every last drop of summer out of our days. It's still beautifully warm and sunny here. As usual on the weekends, we find ourselves up in the Redwoods at some point.
Lately we've been working on getting Julian to use the pedals on his bike.
The pedals screw off and on very easily to go from a scoot bike to a pedal bike.
Today we put them on, and despite many protests, he gave it a try and did very well. He has skidding to a stop down pat, now we need to work on pushing the pedals forward.

Lago de Temescal

Today after we picked up Zoe from school we went down to Lake Temescal to ride bikes and enjoy the late summer afternoon air.

Julian's Classroom

Today was Julian's first day of school in Kristi's classroom. He has already had many happy moments here, while picking up his sister, but now it is he who belongs here. He knows where to find some old favorite toys, but now has more freedom to explore this magical paradise of exotic toys, cozy spaces, and new friends. One of his favorite things to explore is the kids' sized drum kit. Here, after class is over and we go in to pick up his jacket and lunchbox, he sits down to play. He carefully tries out each piece, methodically, intently, listening to the varied sound each one makes.

Sword play

Our buddies Liam and Casey moved over to Marin this summer.
And while we miss having them right in town for last minute park fun or dinner dates, we love Marin, and look forward to visiting them there. So today, we drove over the Richmond Bridge and enjoyed a morning of hunting for swords along the bay.

Zoe's Classroom

This is Zoe's new classroom.  Yes, those are redwood trees outside the windows, and yes, that is a loft-fort for chillaxing with a good book.  Yeah, I know you wish (just a little) that you were in kindergarten too. (Dr. Seuss, cookies, apple juice and a nap anyone?)

Labor Day Party

Today we were invited to celebrate the labor day weekend at a back yard party by some friends. They supplied large cuts of salmon and encouraged guests to bring their best salmon recipe to the kitchen for a salmon iron chef cook off.
We don't go to a lot of parties anymore, as it can be really difficult reigning in the kids, or keeping them entertained while having a conversation with adults at the same time. We wind up just getting exhausted, stressed, and not really having a good time. But we went, I brought my best salmon sauce, and there were lots of other kids there too. And parents. And we had a great time. The kids entertained themselves with basic supervision (no one runs into the street, screams INSIDE the house, or throws anything at anyone/thing not looking). My salmon didn't win first prize at the party, but that didn't matter. We had so much fun and Nico said that mine was HIS favorite.

The End of Summer

Today, now that we're home and getting settled into our new routine, we decided to celebrate the end of summer by going to Santa Cruz. We took our beach stuff and our boardwalk passes and... froze our buns off! The fog moved in and shrouded our end of summer visit in a haze of cold breezes and marine layer. Waaaaa.
We made the best of it, we rode rides and nibbled snacks, and wandered around town, and napped the whole way home.

3rd day of school

Zoe can not wait to go back to school, every day. She loves it. Today was Daddy's Friday off, so we all went together to drop Zoe off at school.

Zoe's First Day of Kindergarten

We've been looking forward to this day for a long time. And it was a wonderful day!
Zoe was so excited, so happy. She was a real trooper. Some kids cried, but not Zoe. She was right where she was supposed to be. It was a little hectic, after our lazy summer of sleeping in and wandering around the entire west coast. But she was great, it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and her school is a warm, happy place.
She went skipping off to her new class, blowing me kisses as she turned to walk away.
Oh yeah. Mommy teared up. Then Jujie and I went to Cafe Trieste to have some breakfast. It was a very calm morning, just Jujie and I. We went to story hour at the library, we did some shopping. We chatted. It was all very mellow and... nice.
Juju and I will have some really nice time together this year his days off from school. In the meantime, Zoe was adapting well to her new environment. And she didn't forget about her brother. When we picked her up from school, she came bounding down the steps, and showed us the crown that she made for her brother. It was covered in hearts, "for love" and drawn in his favorite color, red. She put it on his head, and he beamed with pride. He wore it the entire rest of the day. Everyone beamed with pride.