Our $144 date

$ 13.00: Movie tickets
$ 14.00: Babysitter
$ 2.16: Ivar's triple chocolate mousse cake (takeout)
$ 0.00: Ivar's hot water
$ 0.99: San Pellegrino
$113.91: Tow truck

Sick day?

At 10:00 this morning Katherine's school called to say she was sick. She was complaining that she was tired, and they measured a small fever of 100 degrees. When Lar brought her home, she had red cheeks, was droopy and tired, and crying because she was about to miss a friend's birthday party? Three hours later, after a restorative lunch and movie break, she is crouched on the floor with Alex, making up a Caps for Sale game which involves singing and trading Legos.

False alarm? Miraculous recovery? World's shortest illness? Or maybe it's just the eye of the hurricane.

Things I wanted to ask my mother

Mom, vacationing in Costa Rica for the week, has not been here to consult with on pressing questions like these:

--Whether I should buy Alex girls' tap shoes (if he doesn't care, should I?)
--Whether, having just signed my children up for a series of dance/gymnastics classes, I should pay $160 for them to participate in the end of season dance recital--it's expensive, but they'd be so cute!
--What to do when Katherine is invited to a birthday party when she has a simultaneous playdate with a non-invitee (luckily that one was easily resolved)
--How to handle Katherine's birthday party when she wants to invite school friends and non-school friends
--Whether I can in good conscience continue to forbid gifts at Katherine's parties
--Whether I can miss my son's birthday if I'm traveling
--Whether the yellow paint on the bedroom wall looks all right

Counting the days till she's back!

Seattle Center

Took the kids to the Children's Museum on Tuesday, one of our midwinter break days. They enjoyed it, but Katherine's favorite part is the painting, which always makes me think I could get our own paint out but I never do.

I also took them on a few rides--something I have NEVER done before, and something my parents never did with us, but I figured 1) winter break deserved a celebration, 2) if the rides really are going to be removed soon we ought to try a few. The verdict: Katherine figured out how to steer her little plane or whatever so it went pretty high, Alex couldn't steer so he flew low to the ground; Katherine and Rebecca liked the merry go round, I didn't get to ride anything because they wouldn't let me ride a horse holding the baby, and Alex came off the merry go round complaining that he'd really wanted to go on the cars instead.

Big words

Grandma Hulterstrom was so impressed that Alex says "Actually." Here are a few more:

In response to a comment at lunchtime: “That’s incredible!”

On finding his house in Mexico: "You go north, then you turn on Mexico Lane."

On dreaming up a vacation: “I was going to go tomorrow, but I had to reschedule for today.”

On leaving the Red Apple grocery store: “I forgot to get my discount!”



Meanwhile, Katherine has started spelling things:
"Can we play the O-R-G-I-N?" (organ)
"Where's my S-H-O-R-T?" (shirt)
"I want to R-A-E-D." (read)
"M-O-T-H-A-R" or "M-A-T-H-E-R" ("but it sounds like it should have an "A!")


What an amazing stage of life, when she still sees the words as they sound, and not as they're conventionally spelled. Not to mention she can still count on one hand all the novels she's read herself. Well, maybe two hands now. What a world is opening up to her!

You Get What You Get

"You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit."

This mantra has permeated the parenting world, at least ours. We heard it somewhere and started using it. Kids whining about choice of desserts, or groceries we buy, or books we choose? Our answer: "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit."

The other day I was driving with all the kids in the car, and handed Alex a cup of Craisins to share with Katherine. He gave her two. "Mom," Katherine says, "he's not sharing."

Alex clutched the cup to his chest. "You get what you get," he told her, "and you don't throw a fit!"

Economy

The economic meltdown has affected about everybody, from mortgages to jobs to portfolios. But the dire newscasts never remind us that 92.4% of Americans are still employed (100% - 7.6%), or that some people can now afford homes they wisely avoided during the bubble (congratulations, Jerry!) For those who have been hurt by the downturn, my heart goes out to you; for all the rest, I'd like to invite you to take a moment to count your blessings amid all this doom and gloom. As always, we are grateful for Laramie's job, our home (especially with its new snazzy blue paint job), our family, and our three healthy children. We're also grateful that Jesse (apparently) got on his plane to Korea; that we had lovely visits with my grandparents in California (if Grandma keeps stocking Dove bars we may rush back); that our children love each other and mostly play nicely (although Becca did NOT enjoy Alex pushing her around in a box tonight); that my Dad has worked long hours helping us sheet-rock our bedroom; and for friends and family far and near. If you'd like to share your thoughts, feel free to post a comment.

Highlights at the Hulterstrom house

--books to read (Katherine)
--balls to roll outside (Alex)
--new drawers and cupboards to open (Becca)
--a veritable race track through the living room, the kitchen, the entryway, and round again (all three)
--well-organized scrapbooks with photos, Valentine cards, letters from now-grown children (Loralee and Katherine)
--"ice cream on a stick" i.e. DOVE BARS! (Alex, Mommy, Daddy. Adventurous Katherine tried the Drumstick and the Klondike Bar instead.)

Highlights of La Brea and Santa Monica

La Brea Tar Pits and adjoining museum:
--400+ wolf skulls lined up in rows on the wall
--a 12-foot-tall mammoth skeleton; my head wouldn't have touched its ribcage
--tar display with metal rods submerged in tar--kids could barely budge them and I could hardly pull them out myself. No wonder the animals all got stuck.
--concentration of bones in the pit--they showed a cross-section of tar with fossils all jumbled together thick as pretzels in a bag
--the excavation site: how on earth did they pull so many bones out of a pit the size of my living room?

Kids' favorites:
--the moving model mammoth
--the model of a saber-tooth attacking a sloth (Alex called it a lion attacking a bear, and wanted to go back over and over)


Santa Monica Pier
--the beach: Katherine ran right to the water's edge (would have gone further if we hadn't ordered her not to get wet) and Alex had to be dragged away from his digging
--the Ferris Wheel! We actually paid money to ride one, and got a fabulous view of the whole bay. I hung onto Alex and Katherine for dear life, terrified they'd somehow wiggle out of the seat; Laramie carried Becca worry-free. If our kids ever realize they missed Disneyland, we'll assure them the Ferris Wheel was just as good.

Huntington Library

So we debated all Sunday whether to take the kids to a theme park. After all, we were in California. But then we remembered how much it would cost (Knott's Berry Farm 100$, Legoland $167, Disneyland $256) to get about 6 hours finding rides our children weren't too short for. Opted instead to go to the Huntington Library, which turned out to be way more fun for kids than we thought. (OK, they were pretty much dragged through the portrait galleries and we couldn't get them into the Lincoln memorabilia at all. But otherwise...

Highlights

For Alex:
--long thin telescope, a replica of Galileo's, set up to view a moon model hanging at the other end of the hall
--microscopes for plant viewing in the greenhouse
--flying seed demonstration

For Katherine:
--Cinderella story painted on tile, pointed out to us by a friendly guard
--computers with scanned pages from books

For Loralee:
--medieval manuscripts, like the abbey songbook open to a page with instructions for the nuns to process out to the cross in the churchyard, singing the anthem, with the priests following behind. Also lovely drawings of rabbits in an Aristotle (?) text, which I made sure to point out to Alex, and a picture of the knight illustrating the Canterbury Tales

For Laramie:
--The Green and Green furniture, early 20th century mission-style design. Forget paintings--this is why he wanted to go to the library.

Afterwards we drove back to the grandparents' house, navigating from a map and calling off street names on the way. When we walked in and Grandma asked Alex what he'd seen that day, his answer came promptly: "Valley View!"

Highlights at Bob's house

Had a great time staying with Uncle Bob, Aunt Elizabeth, and their three boys (4, 2 1/2, 2 1/2) Highlights include:
--Costco pizza and turkey wraps, as well as Elizabeth's muffins and chocolate chip cookies. Yum!
--Learning to love kumquats (we picked a bagful off Bob's tree and snacked on them the rest of the trip). For anybody who has wondered, you eat kumquats whole, with the skin still on. Sour juice, sweet skin, they're almost as addictive as chips.
--Watching Bob and Elizabeth herd their boys into confined play areas. Boys have the run of a playroom, TV area, bathroom, and half the kitchen, and the rest of the house is spared.
--Playing Ring Around the Rosie and Run Around the Circle with all five kids (Becca watched from the side).
--Filling in as Sunbeam leader for half an hour. We had them act out Nephi's bow and Daniel in the Lion's Den. Then they drew pictures. Alex drew a surfboard that looked like a sailboat, having been fascinated by surfers during our morning trip to the beach.
--Watching Katherine and Alex enjoy a game of Candyland with 4-year-old David

San Diego Wild Animal Park

Highlights:

--the tram ride from which we saw antelope, cape buffalo, a herd of 13 roaming giraffes, and several species of rhinoceros (the male Northern White rhino was one of only seven still alive; there is only one other male in the world)
--taking shelter from a drenching rainstorm under a covered picnic area near the bird exhibit, where we huddled around the only lit gas heater as we watched pelicans
--finding shelter from a drenching rainstorm in the dry, heated tropical forest aviary, and watching the indigo-blue Hyacinth Macaw eat palm leaves
--hiking up to Condor Ridge in late afternoon sunshine to see the caged condors (happily a recovering species)

Belles Heures

Highlights from the Getty Museum Exhibition of the unbound 15th century illuminated manuscript of the Belleus Heures of the Duc de Berry:

For Alex
--men fishing (two men in a boat holding a barely-visible net, one on shore with a pole)
--Saint Jerome removing a thorn from his pet lion's paw

For Katherine
--a whole saga on the life of Saint Catherine, whose name in the manuscript is spelled with a 'K'

For Laramie
--the libraries (Saint Catherine's library had about 10 books displayed on a round stand like tea cakes; the philosopher Diocres had three)
--the dragons

For Loralee
--EVERYTHING!

pants

The other day we found three nearly-identical pairs of navy knit shorts in Alex's drawer. I asked him which ones he wanted to wear. He wore all three. Later, when I told him to put on long pants because we were going outside, he pulled his jeans on over the lot. He ended up pretty well-padded.

Paint colors

In our search for the perfect bedroom paint, we've looked at lots of paint samples and their interesting names. In a few cases, I think the company must have been running out of ideas:

--Champagne tickle
--Sombrero
and my (least) favorite
--Swampwater

Goals

Katherine: I want to be in The Friend.

Alex: When I grow up, I will be a nice pirate and carry your church bag.

Rebecca: Maximize entropy.