A LONG week

Thank God for caffeine! I haven't had real coffee for the past two years and this past week I have had coffee every single day. With Gina in Kindergarten, I now have to get up around 6:30am but I'm still going to bed way too late. Without caffeine, I'm in a bleary-eyed state, struggling to figure out what to put into three lunches and get out the door by 8am. Once at work, loaded with caffeine, I'm wide awake and ready to go.

So far, having the three kids in three different places hasn't been too bad. The hard part is getting everyone up, get breakfast, and get all the lunches together. Dylan gets Cheerios while the big kids get their breakfast and he then has more breakfast at daycare. Gina needs a snack as well as a lunch on the days that she goes to after school care. When I plan ahead, Dylan's lunch is already made, but if not, it takes awhile to put everything together. In theory, Andrew is the easiest. He has the same cereal every morning and he isn't too picky about what I pack in his lunch. This week however he decided to sleep in each morning, stare at his cereal for 5-10 minutes before eating, and then balk at getting dressed. Vic took him to daycare on Wednesday because he wasn't even close to being ready when it was time to go.

Luckily, next week is a short week, I need the weekend to recover.

Andrew Swims

I've been meaning to write about this all week. Andrew had his swim lesson last Monday and this time I decided to leave Dylan at daycare and let Andrew have a lesson by himself. It has been tougher with Dylan and Andrew than it was with Gina and Andrew as a baby. I hold onto Dylan with one hand and then Andrew hangs on for dear life on the other side. He doesn't want fins, he doesn't want to sit on the side, he doesn't want to go under water. He reluctantly goes to
teacher Gina and goes under water for her but he is not happy about it. Then during playtime, he sits on the steps and watches the other kids play in the water.

Then on Monday he decided swimming was actually fun.He was still reluctant to put on the fins, but once he went under water the first time he was hooked. He swam back and forth between me and Gina, he swam to the side and pulled himself out, he swam to the platform in the middle of the pool and then launched himself to swim back to me or Gina. He swam for 25 minutes during the lesson and then continued in the shallow area for another 10 minutes. It was hard to get him to come out. He was so proud of himself.

1st Day of Kindergarten

Yesterday was the first day of Kindergarten for Gina. She was very excited. When I went in her room to wake her up, she was already awake. It took very little time to get up, get dressed, and help me put her snack together. Then it was off to school.

Once we got to school, she was a little more anxious and shy. She didn't want her picture taken while we were waiting with the other kids and she wouldn't say anything to the other girls or parents.

When the bell rang, the kids lined up and teacher Vickie greeting each kid before they went into the class. Each kid was given a little booklet with instructions for the parent and child to explore the classroom and the school, such as figure out where the library is and the outside bathrooms. That kept everyone busy for an hour. It was also very crowded, with thirty kids and thirty plus adults in the room.

Then it was circle time and the teacher read a book about the start of kindergarten. I don't know why, but that part made me a little teary. I guess it was realizing that Gina is really in Kindergarten and growing up.

After circle time, it was time for recess and snack. Gina had a great time playing on the play structure. Then it was time to say goodbye. She was fine with me leaving, though her friend Aidan had a more difficult time.

An hour later, it was time to go pick her up. I had hoped to get a picture of her in front of the school sign but she got camera shy again and so this was the best shot I could get.

Grand Opening

Today was the Grand Opening of the new Whole Foods Market, the biggest in California. Of course, I had to check it out. I had Gina with me as well as Dylan and Gina wanted to get lunch there before heading over to the park.

The parking lot was looney, packed full of cars but it didn't take too long to find a space. Then it was another short wait for a shopping cart. We did a full tour of the store, buying a few staples, getting Gina an agua fresca from the Bistro area which wasn't open yet, buying sandwiches from the deli. It was definitely crowded, but a lot of people were just standing around, looking at everything so it wasn't hard to order stuff at the deli counter (and the nice guy at the deli counter didn't charge me the full amount for Gina's sandwich of ham and bread). They have lots of different stations for buying prepared foods, like pizza, dim sum, etc. The bakery stuff looked wonderful. I couldn't resist the cupcake that looked like a sunflower and Gina of course wanted the one with the umbrella sticking out the top. They also have an area for buying ice cream cones, no more Baskin Robbins now.

I was describing the trip to Vic tonight and all he could say was: "You didn't buy fried chicken, or dim sum but instead you bought fluffy, sugary stuff." I guess I will just have to go again soon and buy something for him. It will be fun to explore all their new offerings once the crowds die down.

Last day of Preschool

Today was Gina's last day of preschool. She has been counting the days for the past week until the last day of preschool and the first day of kindergarten. She has been at the daycare/preschool since she was 4 months old and has really thrived there. I know her teachers are sad to see her go. She excitedly picked out Dora popsicles for her class today and she helped Andrew get dressed after I took off his pajama top. Andrew put on his own mismatched socks while Gina helped with his shirt and shorts.

When I picked her up this afternoon, she was set to go with a huge binder filled with various projects from the last year or so. Another bag was filled the odds and ends from her cubby (a missing pair of socks, a ribbon for her hair, several hair bands) as well as all the pictures she has drawn over the past week (always a lot of paper). And of course, we couldn't forget her stuffed lamb. We did forget her princess lunch box and she was VERY unhappy that we couldn't go back to get it. At that point we had exactly 25 minutes to go pick up Dylan and I knew we needed every minute. And Andrew is going to daycare tomorrow so we would be able to pick it up then.

Yesterday Dylan had his first day at his new daycare, a family run daycare that my friend Noemi has used for her kids. He was fine when I dropped him off and was happily playing when I picked him up. He doesn't like formula and I haven't been able to pump milk for him so I've been a little concerned that he will get enough calories during the day but I've been fortifying his various pureed food with formula which he doesn't seem to mind.

With the new schedule, I will have three different dropoffs and pickups with the three kids. It definitely seems like a wacky schedule (as I've been told by everyone who I have mentioned it to). I even decided to go to work on Tuesday mornings, my one half day, which means four days of driving to Palo Alto. Vic may be able to drop Andrew off in the mornings some days since he works nearby but it still means three different pickup points.

Feeding Frenzy

Today was the last day for the old Whole Foods store. I like shopping there, but ever since the kids came along, their isles have become narrower and it is a lot more stressful going shopping. On the weekends, it is very difficult to navigate. Their new store promises to be huge.

For the last day, everything was 25% off. I really wanted to be there at 8am when it opened, but had to settle for 9am. I went with Dylan in tow, and then had to wait for a shopping cart, an indication of how many shoppers were inside. Inside, many people had carts filled with stuff and were waiting in a VERY long check out line. Throughout the store, most shelves were completely bare, with the odd box or jar left. I found plenty of baby food, a few boxes of pasta and plenty of milk. My one gourmet splurge was a jar of Ultimate Chocolate Espresso Sauce to put on ice cream (though there was no ice cream left and it probably would have melted, standing in the checkout line). I didn't fill the cart, but I did get a fair number of things that we needed. Dylan kept himself entertained, watching all the people and chewing on the cart.

In other news, it looks like a Peets Coffee is opening up a few blocks away. Usually coffee from Peets is very good, though there is one nearby with a high turnover rate and no one seems to know how to make espresso. Vic has noticed that a high ratio of body piercing among the baristas usually guarantees good espresso. A local cafe with high school students, not very good, the local Starbucks, better but fairly average, Barefoot Coffee Roasters, lots of body piercings and really great espresso. We can only hope Peets measures up.

Tahoe

I am finally getting around to writing about our vacation in South Lake Tahoe. It took me all week to recover from the drive back.

I drove up to Tahoe with the kids but without Vic. He still had to work and hoped that he would be able to come up Friday but wasn't able to (my brother Steve also bailed because of work). It was just Andrew and Dylan up to Sacramento and then we picked up Gina at Nana's. The kids were antsy in the car and Andrew loved picking on Gina which made the ride a whole lot of fun.

We had to go shopping once we got to South Lake Tahoe. I put Dylan in the shopping cart so Andrew was free to check out all the junk food he could find. It was tricky trying to shop and keep track of him.

It was great once we got to the cabin though. The water and mountains were beautiful. The kids got straight to work playing in the sand, making mud pies.

On Friday, everyone else arrived: my Dad, Aunt Kathie and Uncle Bruce, Mollie and Andrew with baby Declan, Erica, my Dad's cousin Helen and her partner Eric. It was a full house.

All Gina talked about was going out in the kayak like she did last year. So as soon as Boppa arrived, she asked him to take her out on the water. Andrew wanted to go too but wanted off as soon as the kayak was away from the shore. So Gina sat in the kayak, paddling, while my Dad pushed her around the buoy by the end of the dock. Once back on shore, she didn't want to go out again. Oh well, no pictures this year.

We finally got to meet Baby Declan who was born at the end of April six weeks early. After 2 weeks in the NICU, he is doing fine. He is a cute little guy, though very serious looking and Dylan got all the hair. In a couple of years, they are going to have a lot of fun playing together.


Gina loved playing in the water. It was actually warm (for Tahoe), cold when you first get in but warm if you stayed in. With the lack of snow this year, the water level was higher than I expected but still fairly shallow. Andrew was content to stay on the beach and not get too wet.

Eric brought out the catamaran which they took out for a sail. The kids had fun climbing all over it after it came back.

After three full days it was time to head home. It seemed to take forever (or at least 7 hours) with lots of stops, a few wet diapers and even more complaining from the peanut gallery. I really needed a vacation after that.

Birthday

Wednesday was my birthday. It is hard to believe that I am actually 40. For a long time, it sounded old and so far away, but not so much now. Instead of going out to dinner for my birthday, I took the kids to the park for a playdate with Gina’s fellow Kindergarteners. Not my first choice of how to spend the evening, but it seemed like a good idea to get Gina acquainted with her classmates. Once we arrived home, Vic had flowers and cake ready. He bought a very yummy cake from Satura Bakery, a blueberry pound cake covered in jam and nuts. The kids didn’t think much of it, so all the more for me and Vic (though Dylan thought it was yummy too).

This morning, Gina said to me: Do you wish you only had one kid? Because three kids are a lot of work.

Yes they are. Often because said five year old is pestering her younger brothers and won't stop when politely asked.