The Small Family     

Happy holiday weekend, everyone! Hope you’ve enjoyed the long weekend. Ours was busy but fun…and I needed fun, after spending all week editing a 700-page synthesizer book! Actually, I should clarify that I edited about 550 pages of it. I edited the first 150 pages more than two years ago. Then the author dropped out of sight for a couple of years. Then he resurfaced about two weeks ago and dumped the entire rest of the manuscript in my lap. Which completely messed up my scheduling for the rest of the books I had on my schedule--because of course this one had to be done right now--so I’ve been working like a dog all week, trying to dig my way out. And synthesizers do not particularly excite me, so it was rather grueling.

BUT! I finished it on Friday afternoon--about ten minutes before Grandma Kathy and Papa came up for a visit! So I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend before plunging back into the rest of the books that I had to ignore in favor of this beast.

Grandma Kathy and Papa arrived Friday afternoon, and we had a nice visit and went to a yummy dinner at our favorite local haunt: the Turkish restaurant. Theo was a prince at dinner (always questionable with a three-year-old), so we had a lovely evening. And as always, the food was terrific!

After dinner, we drove Grandma and Papa by Theo’s preschool so he could show it to them. Grandma Kathy was quite enamored of it--understandably so, since it’s in an adorable little blue cottage with big, beautiful trees surrounding it and lots of pretty plants. It really does look rather storybook-ish from the outside--and then it’s quite magical when you step inside, too. But more on that later….

Grandma and Papa came by again on Saturday morning, so we visited a bit more with them before they hit the road for home--and Theo even conned them into playing a game of Candyland (poor suckers!!). He also tried to get Grandma to read him his latest favorite bit of reading material: the SpotBot manual. SpotBot is our portable carpet cleaner--unbelievably handy for cleaning up spit-up, dog puke, spills, and any number of other things. And for some reason, Theo is in love with it--and its user manual. Actually, he had me laughing Saturday morning--he was playing by himself, and I overheard him say, “Once upon a time, there was a SpotBot and a vacuum…” I couldn’t hear the rest of the story, but it cracked me up that he was spinning a yarn about our cleaning implements!

After Grandma and Papa left, we had lunch and then headed down to Rancho Cordova (part of Sacramento--about 35 minutes or so from our house) to check out the brand-new Sacramento Children’s Museum. Yes--we finally have one! It’s quite small, but Theo loved it--there were a lot of fun activities for him to do. Some of it is just play stuff, but there are actually a lot of little science-based activities, too--sort of mini physics lessons while you’re playing. It was crowded, though--but still, Theo enjoyed it. And heck, on a 95-degree day, the air conditioning was lovely!

Sunday, we decided to take advantage of the long weekend by taking a day trip to the cooler environments near the Bay Area. I had the idea to go to the beach, so we headed to Muir Beach, just north of San Francisco, where we’ve been before. It was a great idea in theory, except that Chris and I assumed the weather would be reasonably warm, given that temps were to be near 100 degrees in Sacramento. We forgot how cold the Bay Area fog can make things! So we did make it to the beach, but it was very, very cold, and none of us had a jacket. We ate a fairly quick picnic on the beach, explored a bit, and then decided a bit more warmth was in order. So, we drove northeast to Sonoma to visit Traintown, a railroad-themed park for kids that we’ve visited once before.

We had an ulterior motive for the entire trip, though--scouting out potential places to rent. You see, in a rather odd turn of events, Chris and I both had exciting job bits on Thursday. Chris called me Thursday around lunchtime to report that Genentech had called him to say they wanted him to do a phone interview! It’s an editor position, but more in the biomedical sciences area than in the environmental sciences area. He’s pretty excited about the opportunity, because Genentech is supposed to be a very good company to work for. (We know three people who either work there or have worked there, and we’ve heard good things. They’re a pretty big company out here….) Anyway, his interview is Tuesday. The job is in South San Francisco, so we’ve been puttering around the Internet, trying to figure out how much it would cost us to rent a place down in the general area. Turns out the South Bay is probably out of our price range, but the North Bay might be doable. It would mean a somewhat hefty commute for Chris, but the prices are better and we like it up there a lot, so it might be worthwhile. So, we drove around a couple of towns in the North Bay to check out a few rentals we’ve seen, just to get an idea of what our budget would get us. He also just submitted a resume for another promising-sounding job in the North Bay, so you never know….

Anyway, back to our job bits on Thursday…. Two hours after Chris called me to report getting a phone interview, I had a phone interview of my own! In my case, it was for the Dairy Council of California--they’re looking for a freelance editor to help them out with educational materials, press releases, etc. It wouldn’t be a big time commitment for me--I think they would have several short projects per month, on average--and I think I’d enjoy it. However, here’s the funny thing: Chris pointed out that it’s quite amusing that I’d apply for a position with the Dairy Council, given that two out of three members of our household can’t consume dairy products! In fact, the woman who interviewed me asked what my “overall nutrition philosophy” was, and we had gotten along very well, so I felt comfortable telling her, “Well, here’s the funny thing--I know a lot about foods that contain dairy because I’ve spent a lot of time avoiding them!” I went on to explain the situation with Chris and Theo, and she got a good laugh out of it. (I did give her my overall nutrition philosophy too, of course…)

In other job news, Chris is still in the running for that Dream Job in Fairfax, VA--he heard from them this week, and they said they have a meeting with the Department of Education scheduled for 9/12, and they hope to have more of an idea of the funding for the project after that. So, that opportunity is still floating out there, too. (I shouldn't say he's "in the running"--they told him if the funding returns, he's hired...so it's not a matter of competing with anyone else at this point. It's just a matter of funding. And then we'd have to decide whether we're up for the risk--the job sounds fantastic, but a job with shaky funding is a little scary.... )

Here’s the funny thing about relocating: We’d obviously miss our friends and family in Sacramento more than anything else, but I’d also really miss Theo’s preschool! I’ve become quite enamored of it. He starts the new school year on Wednesday, and he is so excited to go back! I just got their curriculum for the month of September, and I have to say, I think he’s going to have a blast! This whole preschool experience is new for me, and I hadn’t realized they even had a curriculum, to be honest. But as it turns out, they do. The first week they’re introduced to “Our Peaceful Classroom,” which I think is lessons about learning to work cooperatively with others. The second week is “Care of Self and the Five Senses”--they learn about all five senses and about personal care: hand-washing, nose-blowing, saying “Excuse me,” etc. I’m interested to see how this translates to home, frankly. We started working on manners with Theo when he was very young--just barely talking. And most mothers I know say that within a few months, their kids are saying “please” and “thank you” without even being prompted. Not Theo. He says “please” and “thank you” with no problem at all…if you prompt him. But he has never once said "thank you" of his own accord, and we’ve been prompting him for a year and a half. He will very occasionally say "please" without prompting, but it's very hit or miss. (I wonder again, who are these children who pick up lessons from their parents so quickly?? Theo can hear something academic once and repeat it back to you verbatim--his memory is that good for academic types of things that have to do with numbers, letters, simple math concepts, musical concepts, etc. But try to get him to remember normal pleasantries, and it’s a lost cause. So we’ll see whether learning it in preschool makes a difference.)

The third week of September is “Care of the Classroom” week, where they learn about caring for the classroom pets (a rat, a gecko, some fish--sometimes other animals, too) and they get to bring pictures of their own pets to share. And then we move into a week and a half of apple lessons! First they learn about washing apples, then they have an apple-tasting lesson, and then they get to make applesauce!

In addition to all this fun learning, we’ve got two upcoming field trips! At the end of September, we’re going to a Children’s Health and Safety Faire sponsored by the Placer County Office of Education. They supposedly have construction and emergency vehicles, craft booths, a train ride, and other fun activities for the kids to experience. And early in October, they have a field trip to this really neat pumpkin patch about 40 miles north of here--they get to go on a hay ride, pick a pumpkin, see a show, take a train ride, go to a petting zoo, etc.

I sound ridiculously excited about all this, don’t I? I’ve become some kind of preschool evangelist. I just love how happy it makes Theo, and I love seeing him experience new things--some of which I wouldn’t even think to do at home. I’m really glad we decided to enroll Theo in preschool this year, and we’re both really happy with the school thus far. It’s funny--I never went to preschool, so Chris was the more driving force behind this. I wasn’t at all opposed to sending Theo--in fact, I thought it would do him a lot of good to get out of the house and into a preschool-type environment where he would learn to work in a more structured environment, in cooperation with other kids. (Structure has never been Theo’s cup of tea.) But I was initially willing to wait until he was four to put him in…whereas Chris felt pretty strongly that we ought to start him at three. Chris did go to preschool and had a great experience, plus he comes from a family filled with teachers. So, I deferred to him and agreed that we’d start at three--and I’m really glad we did. I think Theo is getting a lot out of it, and, as I said, I’m really enjoying watching him learn!

And last but not least, in other news of Theo’s education (sort of), we’re supposed to get him started in a music class for young children in the next couple of weeks. I say “supposed to” because I haven’t gotten all of the info yet. I’ve been chatting via email with the woman who is supposed to be teaching it--she’s been a musician (violin, I think) for 30+ years, and she teaches violin, piano, and a couple of other instruments. Supposedly she’s starting a one-day-a-week music class for young children in mid-September, and she’s supposed to call me this week with more info. The funny thing is, our mall had an “instrument petting zoo” one evening this past week, and of course we took Theo to it. The woman running it turned out to be none other than the music teacher I’ve been emailing with! So I got to introduce Theo to her and talk with her for a minute, putting a face with the name.

The “petting zoo” was a lot of fun. They had a youth string quartet playing, as well as a boy playing the French horn. And they had brought child-sized and full-sized violins, a cello, a flute, and the French horn with them. The kids got to hear a short performance (Theo was rapt!) and then could go “play” and touch the instruments. Theo got to play a violin (yes, really play it!—with help, of course), pluck the strings on the cello, and press the buttons on the French horn. We got to talking with the guy playing the French horn, and we mentioned Theo’s great love of the tuba, and how he had been able to play a couple of notes on one in Buffalo. The guy did a double-take and said, “He was able to make a sound come out of it? That’s amazing--it takes a lot of lung capacity to play anything on a tuba!” Yup, our boy has nothing if not powerful lungs--ha ha, we could’ve told you that when he would shriek for seven hours straight as a newborn!! (I joke, but that was a dreadful time. Really hoping Chickpea does not have colic--seven straight hours of a baby screaming at you is truly overwhelming!)

The French horn player was also rather surprised when Theo pointed to the end of his French horn and announced, “That’s the bell!” Cousin Katy had showed him the bell of the tuba when we were in Buffalo, and he must’ve remembered that and realized that the end of a French horn closely resembles the end of the tuba, and thus the two would be named the same thing. His powers of putting two and two together never cease to amaze me…I think the preschool set are a whole lot smarter than we give them credit for!

Last but not least, a Chickpea update: I am now 16 weeks along, and Chickpea is the size of a large avocado--about 4 ½ inches long. This is about the same as last week, but apparently she is due to go into a growth spurt and double her weight and grow several inches in the next few weeks. Her eyes and ears are nearly in position, and she’s started growing toenails! At this point, her gender is recognizable--if I had an ultrasound. Alas, my ultrasound isn’t for another four weeks, so we still have to wait a bit to find out the gender. I’m using “she” for the pronoun here because I think it’s a girl--not because I know what she is! I figure I can switch to “he” in four weeks if it turns out we’re having another boy. :-)

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend!