What a Nice Surprise

Yesterday afternoon while Doug and Frank were out “dirt-biking,” and Beckett and I were decorating the house with Christmas stuff (that’s what happens when you have a six-year-old, they wake up the day after Thanksgiving and want the house decorated for Christmas . . . actually they want it to be Christmas), and a strange, as in unknown, car pulled in the driveway. Out comes Uncle Andy!! He and a friend drove up from San Diego, where he was visiting her family for Thanksgiving, and rode by our house, thinking that we were in Colorado for the weekend. We weren’t, so they stopped.

Doug and Frank got home about twenty minutes later, we chatted for awhile and then called Sean the babysitter, who was over in a flash, and the four of us got to go out for an enjoyable adult dinner. What a nice surprise.

Quiet Thanksgiving

We had a quiet, but very nice Thanksgiving this year. It was just Doug, the boys, my mom and I. It kind of snuck up on me this year. I didn’t get my turkey until Tuesday!!

I had CJ call Trader Joes to see if they had any “non-frozen” turkeys. The guy on the phone said they had some that were ”$9.99, no matter how much they weigh,” and they had “a ton of them.” Fifteen minutes later when I arrived at Trader Joes and asked where the turkeys were, I was told they had sold out of the $9.99 turkeys “days ago.” Naturally I recounted the telephone call from only a short time earlier, and the manager kindly gave me one of the “other” turkeys at the advertised price.

Throughout the week, CJ, Frank and Beck did Thanksgiving crafts, one of which was making turkey napkin rings out of construction paper. They were great! And we used them! And boy, was Frank proud.

Yesterday (Thanksgiving) morning I got up at 7:00, got everything going, and we ate at 3:00. And it was pretty much as simple as that, and I’m not sure why. It just sorta fell together. It was, of course, Frank’s best Thanksgiving ever, he said.

Janel’s Baby Shower

Today was Janel’s baby shower. It was a nice event I think. Although it was VERY weird to have that many people in my house that I didn’t know. They got lots and lots and lots of stuff, mainly clothes, and washclothes, two things they DEFINITELY don’t need more of. I’m sure they’ll be able to exchange some of it for stuff they really do need.

I put together a book for Janel, it has baby photos of her, baby photos of CJ, wedding and reception photos, baby shower stuff, and recipes, poems, quotes and other words of wisdom from her friends and family. I hope she liked it.

While the shower was taking place, CJ and Doug took the boys to the beach. Yes, it’s November, and they went to the beach, swimming at the beach. That’s California for ya.

Biker Boy

Frank is getting so good at riding his bike. Well, it’s much more complicated than that, but I’m not certain how else to say it. I feel like a great-great-grandma. “Oh sweetie, you’re so good at riding your bike.” As Frank rolls his eyes . . .

Once Upon a Family

We had the first gathering tonight of our Live, Laugh, Love Club through Once Upon a Family. I think it’s going to be great. We’ve got a group of seven-ish. Tonight our family value to focus on was patience. The monthly family tradition we worked on was a variation on an advent calendar. Rather than twenty-four days of candy, this calendar would be twenty-four days of holiday-related activities we could do with our families. And yes, I came up with twenty-four.

Jill is our leader, and she’s also doing the Once Upon a Family sales consultant thing, although I’m SURE they don’t call it that. She’ll be great at it. She’s one of those people who has absolutely adorable perfect scrapbooks for each of her children, who makes her kids’ Halloween costumes, who bakes twenty kinds of cookies for Christmas and gives her friends gift boxes of them. Yep, she’s a Once Upon a Family kinda girl. Thank God she brings us along with her.

Principal for a Day

Today Frank was principal for a day at his school. He arrived at his office early to pick up his badge, whistle, and walkie-talkie and then started his morning by greeting kids and parents as they arrived at school.

Mrs. Andrich has an extensive hat collection and every morning she is out by the parking lot, with a big smile and a funny hat. Frank had his choice of wearing one of hers or taking his own. He chose one of his own: a jesters hat that Grandma and Grandpa brought him from Italy. It’s a great hat.




After morning greetings, Frank and Mrs. Andrich visited different classrooms and Frank was introduced as principal. The older kids were asking him to 1) make Wednesdays “free” ice cream days, and 2) get rid of the uniform policy. He was quick to say no to both so the teachers all thought he’d make a pretty good principal.




He led the pledge of allegiance in the courtyard, and the pledge to the cross. Wednesdays are chapel days and each week Mrs. Andrich picks different class to sit with, and Frank went with her.

Next up was lunch, and Frank sent his secretary, Miss Sharon, out to pick up lunch for him, from Taco Bell. He got a little frustrated at the end of lunchtime recess because the kids weren’t listening to him when he told them to put the balls away, but Mrs. Andrich assured him that they didn’t listen to her either, so not to get upset about it.

After lunch, it was time for a fire drill. Mrs. Andrich helped him set the alarm, which is a pretty complicated process. Frank then helped to check bathrooms to make sure no kids were in there and missing the alarm (although it would not be possible for ANYONE to miss the sound of this alarm going off, it is one of the most unpleasant and loud noises I’ve ever heard). He and Mrs. Andrich continued on checking to make sure classroom doors with securely closed and then checked to make sure all teachers and classes were in attendance out on the field.

At the end of the drill, he asked all of the teachers to come forward. He gave a report on the success of the drill (meaning he listened while Mrs. Andrich gave a report on the success of the drill), and then told each of the teachers he was giving them a raise, and one-by-one thanked them and handed them a $100,000 Grand candy bar. The teachers got a big kick out of it and Frank was a popular kid.

As he headed back to his office he found Mr. Miguel, the school caretaker, and gave him a raise; the school and church secretaries and gave them a raise; the preschool director and pastors, and gave them a raise too.

Then it was off to the parking lot for afternoon duty. As the cars were leaving the parking lot, almost all of them stopped so the kids could “introduce” their parents to Principal Buchman. Eighth graders to kindergarteners made fuss over him, and all in a good way.

The best part: my little first-grader’s self-esteem skyrocketed that day. Which is worth it’s weight in gold to his mom.

PS. My friend Chris told me a story this afternoon. It seems her daughter, one of Frank’s best friends, came home and said Frank was different today. My first thought was that she would say he was bratty, or mean, or stuck-up, or something else that would take the wind out of my sails or rain on my parade of happy-parenting-moments. I should’ve known better with Chris, she would never tell me something that would do that.

Anyway, Chris went on to ask her how Frank was different. She hesitated a little bit, and then said, “He was . . . sexy.” WHAT??? Chris and I would both pay anything to be able to crawl into her daughter’s head and find out what she thinks “sexy” is! It was a hoot, and the perfect story to finish out a perfect day.

Biking in O'Neill Park

Another family day of adventure. This time we went to O’Neill Park. Doug managed to pack our bikes and the little bike trailer for Beckett all in the back of the Suburban. We rode and rode and rode our bikes. Beckett had fun in his trailer, for the first time I think. We saw horses and lots of dogs, and lots of Harleys too.

The End of Soccer

Today was the last day of soccer. After two years of soccer, Doug and I have decided that it is NOT Frank’s sport. He’s not that crazy about going after a ball when ten other guys are going after the same ball and there’s lots of kicking going on. He’s also not crazy about getting hit with the ball when he is in the unlucky spot of being directly in front of it. So he tries to stay as far away from it as he can. Not a great soccer strategy.

It was fun that he got to play on a team with Tyler for one more year, and we’re hoping the two are on the same baseball team again this season, but the truth is that Tyler and Frank have grown apart and really don’t seem to hang out much anymore. Tyler is much more serious than Frank is. Frank grew out of his seriousness and is now pretty silly.

As a mom, who grew up much too fast herself, I’ll take silly over serious any day. I was way too serious. Still am. There’s no fun in that. When I was ten, I wanted to be thirty. Looking back, I wish I would’ve enjoyed childhood more while I was in it. I definitely want Frank and Beck to take full advantage of being kids and enjoying every minute of it.

After the game there was the usual end of season party. Unfortunately AYSO for this region is really unorganized, which is putting it lightly. They didn’t have the trophies ordered in time for the end of the season. So some time the kids are supposed to get trophies. We’ll see.

After pizza, Doug made a right instead of a left out of the parking lot. Right would’ve taken us home. Left took us to sushi. It was a treat and a blast. Sometimes things just work. And it did.

Mt. Baldy

Andrea stayed clean. Frank played soccer better than ever since he was trying to show off for her. After the game, we went to Mount Baldy for a family day of hiking and playing.
First stop was the ranger station where they have a nice little play area complete with tipis and other historical structures from the area. We thought maybe we’d get a family photo for this year’s Christmas card, but that is never easy.
Up we went for a nice hike in Icehouse Canyon. The stream had enough water running in it to be beautiful, and there were waterfalls here and there.

Hiking with Beckett is a challenge. We took off-shoot trails down by the stream, but Beckett wanted to go IN the stream. The hike lasted about an hour, and we probably went about a quarter of a mile. The purpose of a hike with little boys is more for the experience in general than it is for exercise or having a goal of getting somewhere.

We went into the little town of Mount Baldy for some lunch. I don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but that’s okay because I don’t have anything positive to say about it.

THEN we went fishing. At the trout farm. It was inexpensive compared to Irvine Lake, so we decided to give it a shot. It was high time Beckett caught his first fish and at a trout farm we figured it would take about as long as Beckett’s attention span to do it. We were wrong. The fish weren’t hungry. After about forty-five minutes, Frank caught a fish.
Determined that Beck should catch a fish too, I kept plugging away at it. By the time I actually caught a fish, Beckett was on the other side of the trout farm with Doug. He was trying to scoop the fish out of the water with a large net. I’m sure the guys in the trout farm office were thrilled with us. We took our two fish up to the counter and got them packed in ice. I think the total came to about $1.75, which tells you how small they were. That is if you’ve ever been to a trout farm. The guys in front of us managed to catch about six fish. They were bigger fish, by far. Their total came to a little over $100. We were happy with our two little fish, especially since I had no intention of cooking them.

Once home, Frank had a grand time doing all kinds of scientific experiments with the fish. He named them, he played with them. And I tried my best to pretend as though none of it was happening. Doug thought it was hysterical. I thought it was gross. Since I am outnumbered in this household, three to one, I kept my mouth shut and my distance from the fish. I’m just glad I didn’t discover it later that night under my sheets or something else equally as disgusting.

I’m the one who said I was happy I had two boys instead of girls and I’m sticking by it.

Just Make Sure She Keeps Her Shoes On

Our dear friends the Shammases were in town tonight. Andrea came over to hang out with Frank, Beck and Sean the babysitter, while the adults went out for a grown-up dinner. We always enjoy their company, and miss them very much. They keep encouraging us to come up and stay at the Fairmont. We should do it, and probably will eventually, more to see them than anything else. Double incentive is that Andy, Doug’s brother, lives in San Francisco too, and we never see him often enough either.

Andrea spent the night with Frank, which means Frank had his first official sleepover. And it was with a girl. She slept on the top bunk (I think she’s braver than he is). Quentin, Frank’s cousin, has spent the night, but Quentin’s Daddy, Uncle Jeff, stayed too. So that wasn’t really an official sleepover. I guess it was, but it’s different when someone sleeps over without their parents.

Tomorrow morning Frank has an early soccer game and Andrea will go with us, in her dress she is wearing to a wedding at 10:00am. David and Leslie are picking her up at the soccer field. I have to make sure she remains free of grass stains for the half-hour she is on the soccer field with us. Leslie told me to just make sure she keeps her shoes on. Oh great. The only person I’ve ever met who is as much of an organizational-neatnik-anal-retentive-freak as I am is David Shammas. And I’ve got to make sure his daughter stays clean and beautiful for a wedding. She and I may just sit in the car, or better yet, stay at home.

Milkshake Madness

This is what happens when Beckett gets a hold of Frank’s oreo milkshake from the Date Shake Shack in Laguna Beach.

My Horrorscope

My horoscope today says:

If you're feeling bored, stuck in a rut or held up by circumstances beyond your control, hang tough. It's understandable for you to feel like this, but soon, you'll be feeling like you've suddenly turned into a magnet for admirers who are just as responsible, intense and focused as you are. Treat yourself. Take in a show or call a loved one and make a date. You won't want to be alone.

Ummm . . . okay. At least I have some justification for feeling bored, stuck in a rut and held up by circumstances beyond my control.

Halloween

As we were walking between two houses Frank said, “Mom, this is my best Halloween ever.” Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that Frank says stuff like that frequently. Everything is his best EVER. This time, I agree with him. This year Beckett was able to go trick-or-treating with Frank and it was beyond fun. It took Beck a few houses to get the hang of it. Initially he wanted to hold on to the candy he got, but realized that he couldn’t keep collecting it in his hands which must be why mom was carrying that bucket. He would still hold on to each piece of candy until it was time to approach the front door of the next house—and then he would hang on to one piece, which he would drop as he was given more.

Frank was the “scream” character, complete with blood that ran down his face, which he thought was the coolest and scariest costume ever. Many people agreed with the scary part. Beckett was a cowboy. As I said before, I lost control of Frank’s costume choices after he was three. Beckett I still have final say over, and he looked adorable. I will never forget the mental picture of Beckett running down the sidewalk with his little boots and chaps on, cowboy hat teetering on his head and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen.

We went to all of the houses on our street and one of the side streets and then went over to the fairgrounds for the Hullabaloo. We were supposed to meet up with friends there, but that didn’t work out. We stayed for about a half an hour, but it was VERY crowded and very loud and Frank wanted to go home. It was close to 8:00 when we left which is past the boys’ bedtime anyway and we were all ready to end the night.

I am thankful often that Frank has a brother to share things with, that is especially true of Halloween. I always felt a little sad that he either had to go trick-or-treating by himself, or we had to skip our own neighborhood in order for him to go with friends. We did that three years in a row. One of the years he fell asleep on the way home so didn’t get to go to a single house in our neighborhood. The next morning when he woke up he was really mad, and I felt like shit. But whaddaya do?

Problem solved. Have another kid. Life is complete.