In Between Rainstorms

After an exceptionally mild winter that left California dry and parched through January, we finally had rain, and lots of it, in February!

 

This is what our back porch looked like for most of the month.

 

 

And this is what our coffee table looked like for most of the month, while we taught Joey and Clara how to play another "grown-up" board game, Risk.

 

 

In the midst of the rain, I got a wild hair and painted our family room a sage green and rearranged furniture... is there any better rainy day activity?

The girls loved the new furniture arrangement and practiced "prince and princess dancing."

These two are peas in a pod lately, happy to be together and making up intricate girl games.

 

We escaped the rain one soggy Sunday for a fun brunch with cousins at Jeff and Sarah's house.

 

In the middle of the month, we celebrated cousin Luke's baptism, and Joey relished being able to hold his tiny little partner in crime.

The kids and Hop and Mop went for a soggy walk high above Joey's school, where Mop also went to elementary school! That's his playground you can see behind them.

 

 

Clara and Molly got to see Frozen for the third time in a theater, this time as a sing-along. Clara was totally unfazed that she was the only one in costume :)

We had a dinner date with the Koplans, made S'mores, played duets on the piano and borrowed cozy jammies at the end of the night.

 

Baseball practice rained out more often than not in February, but on a rare sunny day, Clara and her best buddy Molly got a hold of my camera, and took lots ... and lots... of selfies.

Clara had her first small gymnastics show that involved ribbons, and she could not have been prouder to place ninth in cartwheel and seventh in handstand. She's pretty sure she's on her way to Olympic glory.

 

 

All that rain and all that play makes for tired, sleepy kids... the kind I love most!

 

Easy Come, Easy Go

When Clara was a baby, we got our first inkling that her pain tolerance was off the charts when she was teething. We only found out that brand new teeth were coming in when we caught a flash of white in her smile. I blogged about her impossibly easy disposition back in 2008 (Clara Stock Surges After Growth Report) after I discovered that yet another couple of teeth had sprouted without one sleepless night or one drop of Orajel.

We really had no clue what we were dealing with back then.

But I digress. It should come as no huge surprise that this same little girl was completely unfazed by the extraction of a baby tooth with absolutely no anesthesia, no dentist, and no parental consent.

The scene went like this... all the kids were supposed to be sleeping soundly while I hosted one of my biannual sewing parties (yes, I lead quite a glamorous life) with mommy friends from Moraga Juniors, making comfort pillows for breast cancer patients. The other moms had just finished complimenting me on how nice it was that my kids were down for the night when I sensed a commotion coming from the back bedrooms.

Suddenly, our kid-free zone of wineglasses, brie, chocolate and strawberries was brazenly invaded by Clara, who skidded into the kitchen -- mouth, chin and nightgown covered with blood -- with a diabolical look of glee on her face.

"I lost a tooth!" she shrieked.

Her brother followed her sheepishly into the room, looking pleased to be sharing this amazing news with the group of moms, but also suspiciously sweaty and guilty-looking.

I left my pillow mid-stitch, and ran into the kitchen to get a towel to catch the blood dripping from Clara's mouth, and couldn't hide my horror when I realized which tooth it was... not one of her top teeth, which had been loose for a few months, but instead a bottom tooth which was nowhere near ready to come out, and had left a gaping, bloody hole.

It was only when I shepherded Clara into the bathroom and started washing her mouth out that she realized just how much blood was all over her face, and finally registered a little bit of pain. I turned to Joey, and asked him how this had happened.

He wordlessly handed me the extraction tool: a pink baby blanket that he had apparently placed in Clara's mouth. She had clamped down on it with her teeth, and he had pulled on the other end with all of his 8 year-old might.

We placed an emergency phone call to our dentist friend, asking for tips on how to stop the bleeding (a tea bag, for future reference), and a half hour later, all children were back in their beds with strict instructions to never, ever pull a stunt like this again.

Especially during a sewing party.

Clara now has a party trick that should last for a year or more... a place for a straw to slide in her mouth... and my baby tooth collection will never be the same. That beauty on the far right shows just how long the root on a baby tooth is before it's been worn down by a permanent tooth pushing its way in.

At least that's what my dentist friend tells me during late-night emergency consultations.

 

January Jumble

The first month of 2014 flew by in a flash...

A certain little boy turned 8 and scored 8 points in his basketball game the same day...

My tagalong and I ate breakfast one leisurely morning at a diner in Moraga, and she could not have been happier.

 

Joey and his neighborhood cohorts, Sebo and Teo, sampled a new flag football set he got for his birthday. It was a hit!

 

Clara and Joey started tennis lessons. Is it just me, or can you see Clara's smile from here?

I had to renew my passport and replaced my old passport, which I got in 1999, and time-capsuled with jean overalls. 

 

 

This trio can usually be found together in various spots in the house, in various stages of undress or costume change.

 

This duo got a rare day out while Clara was in school, and Joey was recovering from the stomach flu.

Girl Scouts has officially become a part of my life once again, with the start of Clara's kindergarten Daisy troop. Almost every girl in her grade joined, making for a very fun and manageable group of only 12 girls. They get to learn things like how to set tables properly while they simultaneously plan how to best deal with their extremely boy-heavy class ;)

 

We've been thrilled to find that Clara's small class is chock-full of fun, friendly families, and spent a lot of time this month socializing with them at birthday parties, indoor soccer games, playdates and field trips.

Meanwhile, Molly May has become increasingly obsessed with one of the boys from her class. She's vowed to marry him, have three children, and raise them in Moraga. I finally broke the news to his mom the other day after this month's pictures from their teacher made her crush painfully obvious.

When she's not at school stalking her "boyfriend," Molly May is at home snuggling the very tolerant, very sweet Georgia.

 

Speaking of school, Molly's preschool teacher delivered a one-two-THREE punch to this busy mom when she asked that the kids arrive at school dressed like penguins, bring a frozen treat for the whole class, AND come prepared for Sharing Day. Whew.

I finally buckled down in mid-January and took our holiday décor down... I almost hated to take all of our Christmas cards down... here's one of two doors in our entryway that was dressed to the nines with family and friends.

Even big guys take naps now and then, especially when they're knocked out with the stomach flu.

Molly May got her first bike helmet, along with a seat behind mine on my back... when she's not practicing on her own "scoot bike," she's content to recline while I do the work.

 

 

Clara's taken her new sewing machine for many test drives since Christmas. We've made pillows, pillows and more pillows.

Our other new favorite appliance in the house is this awesome old-school pencil sharpener. It's made homework time (times two now, yikes!) go so much more smoothly!!

 

We headed to Arnold for Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend with the DeWeeses and the Sills, hoping for snow, but settling for 60 degree weather and perfect hiking and fort-building temperatures.

One little person was not happy about the hiking portion of this weekend... I'm pretty sure this is a genetic trait.

We had a Miller, Stecher and Cecchin reunion... this captures the blurry craziness of that night!

 

This is the crew I roll with when I go shoe shopping. Which explains why I don't do this very often at all.

 

And finally, this big guy had his eight year well-check-up the day after he had the stomach flu and lost 5 pounds. You can almost see his ribcage here ... if you squint really hard. Despite being emaciated from his illness, he still weighed in at 83 pounds, in the 98th percentile, and is still defying his genes by registering in the 90th percentile for height, at 53 inches.

So far in his eighth year, he's mastered a new board game... Monopoly. We've played it approximately one billion times since the beginning of the year, and I'm being summoned for another game now!