The Small Family     

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope your 2011 is starting out swimmingly. Our 2010 ended rather quietly and without much fanfare, really--busy workweeks for both of us. We did, however, have two dates this week! Auntie Lynnie has been wanting to babysit Theo, but because she lives 45 minutes away from us and has four kids of her own, it can be difficult to find a time that works for everyone. But we managed this week, and Theo got to spend a few hours with Auntie Lynnie, Uncle Charles, and cousins Stevie, Noelle, and Tyler on Thursday evening, while Chris and I had a yummy sushi dinner and then went bowling. I have to note that Chris bowled his best game ever: a 176. We each won one game, which was a nice change--he usually trounces me at bowling every time we go!

Theo had a good time with my sister and her family, too. Apparently he ate like a horse, had a lot of fun examining their Christmas tree, tried repeatedly to crawl into the fireplace, and watched several shows with Uncle Charles. I’m told a good time was had by all, and Chris and I sure enjoyed our evening out!

Our second date was on Sunday. My Mom had offered to watch Theo if we wanted to use some of our Christmas money to go out, so we took her up on it and went to a matinee and lunch. Indian food buffet for lunch--yum! I was still stuffed seven hours later, when Chris asked me whether I wanted anything for dinner. :-) As for the movie, we saw The King’s Speech. And yes, I saw that last weekend as well! But after hearing me rave about it, Chris wanted to see it, and I surely didn’t mind seeing it a second time. (Can’t ever get too much Colin Firth, you know!) This time, the theater was packed! I guess word is getting around about what a good movie it is.

Theo and Grandma had good fun making dot art (one of his Christmas presents from Chris’s family) and playing, though I’m told Theo was “feistier than usual.” Hmmm, Grandma Diane didn’t elaborate, but I can imagine… Fighting with his sibling, for one. Theo and Zoe are just like a brother and sister, even though one is canine and one is human. Zoe apparently stole one of Theo’s crackers (she’s always stealing something of his), and he was furious. Ah, sibling rivalry… ;-) Most of the time they love each other (actually, Zoe ALWAYS loves Theo, and most of the time the feeling is mutual), but he gets so exasperated with her sometimes. Not so with Luna--she's very mellow and doesn't steal his toys, so she doesn't elicit his wrath.

It so happens that New Year’s Eve is when Chris and I met, so we spent our sixth anniversary of meeting by toasting the New Year with a yummy Italian meal. Chris’s parents got him a gift basket full of yummy gourmet-ish treats from Whole Foods for Christmas, so we raided that and prepared a tasty dinner of pappardelle pasta with puttanesca sauce, Chianti, and asparagus bruschetta. We intended to break into the panettone for  dessert, but we were too full, so we saved that for another time.

Earlier in the day, I took Theo to the gym. We usually go in the evening, but on New Year’s Eve we went in the morning. It so happens that we arrived just at circle time. A moment to explain: The gym has what is technically a daycare center for kids while their parents work out. But it’s actually a bit more like a preschool in that they have structured activities at various times of the day--circle time, art projects, etc. In some ways, it’s probably a good prep for preschool. Anyway, we got there at circle time, and Theo immediately raced over and was one of the first kids to sit down in the circle. And when I came back to pick him up 45 minutes later, the woman working the desk said, “Boy, he loves circle time! He kept saying, ‘It’s circle time!’ while we were singing. He’s always such a good boy….”

Now, naturally I was pleased to hear that he’s always a good boy--what parent doesn’t want to hear that? But I was particularly pleased to hear (and see) how well he does with circle time. Chris and I have long wondered how he’ll adjust to preschool in that he doesn’t typically like to participate in group activities. Little Gym has an equivalent of circle time at the beginning of each class, and it took a full year before he’d participate in that. So we really wondered how preschool would go. But I see that he’s actually adapting quite well to a bit of structure, so I feel very optimistic about it. The preschool that we have likely chosen for him (we still have one more to visit, but we really liked the second Montessori one we toured) does tend to be for independent learners, which I think will suit him well overall, but there is time for structured activities, too. And I do think that’s a good thing, since kindergarten will certainly require him to participate in structured activities. I suspect the baby steps that he’s taking toward it are really going to make the eventual transition much smoother for him. I absolutely love and admire his independence, and I hope he never loses that, but obviously in the real world, structure is a part of life…

So, speaking of our independent little man, he amazed us again this week--this time with his crazy-long memory! For about two weeks, Theo has been very interested in facial features. He talks a lot about what color eyes people have, what their hair looks like, etc. And he kept saying, “Great-Grandma Norma have missing eyes!” Or so we thought, anyway. And we kept puzzling over that, as Great-Grandma Norma is not missing her eyes--in fact, she has lovely blue eyes. But we finally figured out that we were mis-hearing him. What’s he’s really saying is, “Great-Grandma Norma have medicine eyes!” And indeed, when Great-Grandma Norma came up to visit four or five months ago, Grandma Kathy had to put drops in her eyes a couple times. (She’d had cataract surgery shortly before.) No one made a big deal about it, but apparently Theo took note of Kathy putting medicine drops in Grandma Norma’s eyes and filed that information away to pull out some four months later. Crazy how that kid’s memory works!

Our other fun this week was a visit from Emma and Jamie. Janeane’s birthday was back in November, but she was sick--so I told her that when she was feeling better, I’d watch the kids for a couple hours so she and Jason could have a little belated birthday date. And so, they went to a matinee on Tuesday while Emma and Jamie came over to play with Theo. Jamie turned out to be a big fan of Theo’s new little drum set, and Emma really liked his art easel. I had to laugh because Emma is my sort of look into the future when it comes to kids. She’s 18 months older than Theo, so I get to see what I have to look forward to--the fun stuff and the challenges. And on this particular visit, I learned that one does not offer a four-year-old girl chocolate milk in a cup with elephants on it, because if she doesn’t care for elephants, then she cannot possibly drink out of the cup! Emma was very polite about this, but quite adamant that she couldn’t drink out of the cup. I had to really try hard not to snicker at that! And remember that when Theo is four, I ought not offer him a drink in, say, a princess cup. ;-)

You’ll notice that almost all of the pictures this week are from Emma and Jamie’s visit, in fact, as that was pretty much the highlight of our week! I did take a few snaps on my iPhone that I included as well. Definitely more pictures coming next weekend, since we’re hoping to do something fun over the weekend. This weekend was rainy, as almost every weekend for the past six or seven weeks has been, so we really couldn’t do a whole lot. Truth be told, I don’t have a whole lot of hope that next weekend will be any better, though. The weather forecast says it’ll be sunny all week and then rainy again next weekend, which is pretty much what it’s been for the past six weeks. But that could change, as it’s a week out…however, next weekend happens to be my birthday, and I can’t even remember the last time it didn’t rain on my birthday! So, I predict rain. If I’m wrong and we get nice weather, though, we’re hoping to maybe go down to San Francisco for the day. We shall see…. In the meantime, Happy New Year to everyone, and I hope you have a wonderful week!