Cheese!

And we're off to a winning start with school pictures, with Joey's entry from kindergarten.

Rumpled shirt? Check.
Hair still wet from the photographer's comb? Check.
Forced, toothless smile? Check and check.

Not to be mistaken for a first-grader or second-grader... although that has happened several times already!

Here's Mister Moose with the rest of his class. He began the year knowing only one girl in his class (Vivian, also in the top row), but has become fast friends with Devin (first row, farthest boy to the right), Aidan (first boy in the top row), and Will (in the third row at the far right).

He loves his little crew of friends, and loves kindergarten!

Happy Birthday to the Little Girl Who Knows it All

Four is a landmark birthday around here... at least in Clara Jane's mind. She's convinced herself that she's finally come of age, and apparently told her preschool teacher so in no uncertain terms last Wednesday on her birthday.

As Miss Margaret was fastening her birthday crown on her head, Clara straightened the crown, looked at her solemnly, and said,

"I'm four. That means I know everything now."

And with no further ado, here's a recap in pictures of Clara, four-going-on-fourteen, enjoying her big day... heading to school, enjoying cake, ripping into presents, taking her new, much-hoped-for roller skates for a spin, and, finally, sleeping in her new Tinker Bell jammies and Hello Kitty slippers, and snuggling with her new unicorn Pillow Pet (who she discovered that morning upon waking up: "I saw a big fuzzy thing on my bed, and thought it was a monster. But it was ACTUALLY a pink pony pillow pet from Uncle Kyle!!!!").

Happy birthday to our little know-it-all!

Little Ladies Who Gymboree

After a long week of being carted all over Moraga to drop off a kid here, or fetch another kid there, Molly finally has an activity all her own to look forward to on Friday mornings.

While the big kids are in school, she gets to join her Lamorinda ladies -- Dylan DeWeese and Ava Sills -- along with Ava's cousin Olivia, for a cah-razy 45 minutes of bopping to music, crawling through rainbow tunnels, drooling all over padded structures, batting at bubbles, and joining in the overall bedlam of a Gymboree class for toddlers.

It pretty much blew her mind that a place like this exists -- with nary a big brother or a big sister in sight -- and definitely beats sitting in a car seat.

Three and Eleven Twelfths

On the brink of turning four, Clara has loved telling anyone who will listen that she's exactly "three and eleven twelfths." She says it with gusto, drama ... and a slight lisp. Something tells me saying the word "four" won't be anywhere near as fun!

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Little General

Molly may be small, but we're discovering that she has a pretty big personality. At sixteen months, her new favorite word is, "Yeah?" She loves to deploy this word over and over and over when she knows she's doing something naughty.

Molly: (standing up in her high chair) "Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?"
Me: "No!"

Molly: (standing on ottoman in family room) "Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?"
Me: "No!"

Molly: (holding Mommy's new phone) "Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?"

Me: "No!"

Molly: (pointing to her bedroom door before being put in her crib for naptime) "Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?"

Me: "No!"


Here she is in a tamer moment, letting me know just how much she loves her snack trap.

Girls Gone Wild

Two days before Labor Day weekend started, Clara, Molly and I hopped in the car for our first-ever girls-only road trip to visit Hop and Mop in Orange County. We missed our guys -- who had work and kindergarten obligations -- but there was something really special about making memories with just my little ladies.

Knowing I was travelling with a baby with an extremely low tolerance for her carseat (she's managed to barf all over herself on at least three recent long car trips), I knew I had to break up the 8-hour drive with an overnight stop... and I knew just where to go.

On our way back from San Diego earlier in the summer, we spent the night at Harris Ranch, an oasis in the middle of seemingly millions of acres of farmland en route to southern California. The smell of cattle, Coalinga, and Highway 5 made the kids almost retch when we opened the car doors in front of the hotel at 9 pm that night, but by 9:30, we were all nightswimming in the gorgeous hotel pool, enjoying the magic of a warm valley night after the sun goes down. It turned out to be a highlight of that trip, even prompting Tim to famously ponder, "Do you think people actually come here for vacation?" The idea of someone considering Harris Ranch a bonafide tourist destination seemed absurd at the time, but after a return stay with the girls in tow, I have to admit that it definitely deserves a spot on anyone's itinerary.

This time, pulling into the resort in the late afternoon after a 4-hour drive from the Bay Area, I requested a family suite just off the pool deck, so we could suit up, swim, and be able to dash into our room quickly for bathroom trips, bottles, a glass of wine, or a room service menu :)

Once again, nightswimming proved to be just about the most perfect way we could have spent the evening, especially with a little fish named Clara, who reluctantly emerged from the pool at 10 p.m. after almost four solid hours of mermaid-ing. She wowed -- and scared -- many fellow guests with her breathholding, and barely came up for air to eat dinner, let alone to answer multiple questions about how old she was ("three and eleven twelfths!"), and how she learned to swim.

Meanwhile, Molly loved the water, the pool deck, and the fresh raspberries that a local farmer passed out to all the late night pool guests!

Clara was still wired by the time we got into jammies back in the hotel room, but poor Molly tried to lay down and sleep on the hotel room floor -- naked, thumb in mouth -- after I had stripped her bathing suit off. She's definitely not used to burning the midnight oil in a swimming pool!

Needless to say, we got a late start in the morning, and delayed getting back in the car even more by deciding to get back in the pool for a morning swim.

Finally, though, we had to face facts and get back on the road for our long leg of the trip...luckily, this time, we had Hop and Mop waiting for us at the other end, with a promise of wine, BBQ and more fun in the sun!

Apparently, a five-hour car ride tested Clara's limits in the carseat. She had a whole bag of toys to keep herself and Molly entertained, but only played with two the entire drive: a T-Rex dinosaur and a tiny plastic Superman. While they alternately chatted with each other and battled for control of the world in her lap, I wondered if she felt adrift without her big brother... and after I pulled into a rest stop near Magic Mountain, I had my answer. I turned around in my seat to see this sight, and hear her utter this nonsense: "I want to be a boy and have a beard and mustache. I miss my brother Joey."

This was just the beginning of many strange things that Clara said and did during our five-day trip. Flying solo without her big brother, and suddenly the only "big kid" in sight, her independence, quirkiness, and stubborness were on full display. Luckily, Hop and Mop seemed to be entertained and amused by our wacky little girl and her many wacky moments.

• Seeing Hop and Mop's neighbors over their fence, she asked if they were Mop's parents.
• During a game of catch with Mop, Mop dropped the football, and Clara crowed, "Butterfingers!" and then added, "That's what my Daddy says."
• She emptied their automatic ice dispenser with her overzealous mission to feed their dog Charlie as many ice cubes as possible.
• While mastering the art of diving to the bottom of the pool to pick up a plastic Triceratops -- and fighting her body's natural buoyancy -- she bobbed up to the surface of the pool again and again and breathlessly shouted "No push!" Fiercely independent, but even more stubborn, she finally succumbed after about 25 tries, came up for air, and asked for help by bellowing, "Push!"
• She spent way more time washing the (many) garden gnomes, watering flowers, and playing with Charlie than she did playing with the plentiful dolls in the toy chest.
• After a particularly loud sneeze over breakfast, she said, "That was a big 'bless you'!"

We missed our guys, but we also loved having special girl time with amazing, fun parents and grandparents! Stay tuned for one of the highlights from our trip... Disneyland!

Guys' Weekend

Sara took Clara and Molly to SoCal to visit her parents. That left Joey and me to have as much manly fun as we could without the skirts (and diapers) holding us back. Here's a recap of our fantastic weekend.

On Saturday, we headed to SF. I left my phone in the car so I didn't get any pictures of our Ferry ride under the Golden Gate bridge and around Alcatraz but Joey loved it. It was pretty cold but he refused to sit inside the cabin and have his view spoiled by watery windows. After we got back onshore, I retrieved my phone and got some pics of the rest of our trip.


We went to Pier 45 and boarded the submarine and Navy ship, figuring that was a manly thing to do. Here's Joey lifting a huge anchor...maybe next year.





Guns on submarines...manly.





Driving the submarine...manly.




Firing on San Francisco from a Navy ship...treasonous, but manly.




US flag and Alcatraz. Manly and manly.







More submarine guns = more manly.

Torpedo...'nuf said.

Ghiradelli square...not that manly but very yummy. Besides, we made up for the lack of manliness with our next stop...

HOOTERS!!! After they turned down Joey's fake ID at the Gold Club, we headed for Hooters. But, he wasn't hungry so we didn't really go in. This is the best I could do. Note the manly balloon sword he picked up from the clown on the corner.

Naps are manly when you have a Blue Angels jet in your lap (Plane #4 - same as his idol Pilot Matt)

Having given San Francisco all the manliness it could handle, we headed for Monterey on Monday.

Staring down wild beasts...manly.

If you don't think turtles are manly, consider that these guys had to be removed from the Open Sea exhibit because they bit off a piece of the prized great white shark's tail (granted the shark is only a few months old and doesn't know any better but that story pretty much tops the Tortoise and the Hare). Turtles are now manly.

Leopard Sharks are cool...and manly.

I'd like to see a turtle try to bite this guy in the tail.




On the drive home, we took scenic Highway 1 and had to stop for the largest collection of parasurfers I've ever seen.




I think he was tuckered out again.



Taming more beasts.

I think he told me on 5 separate occasions, "Daddy....I like you."

Pretty cool weekend and the feeling is definitely mutual.

This Blog Brought to you by the School Carline

Summer came screeching to a halt last week. The swim bag was retired for the season, bedtimes got pushed back to daylight hours, the kids got haircuts, backpacks are suddenly strewn around the back door, and our fridge calendar is alarmingly jam-packed.

Yes, we're back to school. We have a brand-new kindergartener who would rather be at home, a second-year preschooler who thinks she should be headed off to college next year, and a baby along for the ride... literally, in the daily trips to and from the kids' schools.

With our first full week under our belts, it's clear that:

1. Mommy needs to wake up earlier.
2. The coffee machine chose an extremely inopportune time to die.
3. The morning rush is ten times more headache-inducing when non-caffeinated.
4. In the morning fog, you will make enemies in the school parking lot, especially when distracted by a glowering 5 year-old in the back seat, who is actually threatening that he won't smile for Picture Day.
5. Dropping Joey off at school, then dragging the girls into Starbucks to gulp down coffee and braid a 3 year-old head of hair, is not a sustainable morning routine.
6. After painstakingly completing two matching French braids, you will be told in no uncertain terms by said three year-old, "You're leaving me today, right?? Right??"  
7. Upon arriving at her classroom each day, Little Miss Independent will ignore the small tearful faces all around her, and slip inside her classroom doorway without a goodbye or backward glance.
8. Left with only a baby on your hip, you're free to linger and relax at the mothers' back-to-school coffee... until, by law of nature, said baby produces the stinkiest diaper ever and necessitates an early exit.
9. Half-day kindergarten and a three-hour preschool day leaves exactly two hours of non-driving "downtime," to be filled with laundry, breakfast dishes, cleaning and grocery shopping.
10. Idling in the pickup carline at kindergarten is the new downtime.

-- This blog update brought to you by the school carline. We would also like to thank "Ice Age," piped in through the car DVD player, for delivering a blissful 15 minutes of silence in the back seat.