Today at 4 pm Lucas will have his first swimming lesson of the year. The lessons are a birthday gift from Grandma Sydney. We are taking lessons through CA Fam Fitness, which we have done once before when Lucas was 2. I’m not sure what happened last summer: I guess I was too busy to take him for lessons. Anyway, I will pick him up from school and take him straight to the gym. I hope he won’t be too grumpy and tired to try. I’m planning on giving him candy afterward to reinforce the experience.

Unfortunately, I sort of forgot we were going to start the lessons today and I kinda double-booked the afternoon with a playdate with Joseph. When I told Joseph this morning that he wasn’t going to be able to come over to our place this afternoon, his little elfin face fell and he walked away without saying a word. His mom said it was probably for the best because they had an extremely busy weekend, but I know for a fact that Joseph doesn’t get to have many playdates, and he was looking forward to it. I feel like a heel for having disappointed him.

Between making sure I have childcare when I need to work, meeting my deadlines, getting Lucas to school on time, swimming lessons (next week), and satisfying the visiting needs of 5 grandparents and 2 great-grandparents, I’m finding that Lucas’s social calendar is rather full.

Now, every day when I pick him up from school, I find that he’s already made plans with one or more school friends to have playdates outside of school hours. “Mom, Ria, Jackson, and Ella are going to come to my house and spend the night for two days! OK?” They make plans with each other! They make promises. And the kids don’t really get the subtleties of adult schedules and social niceties. (Like why would I make a play date with a kid who is rough and mean to Lucas? Or why would I want a play date with that kid’s mom? We moms don’t have anything in common.) And it’s not just Lucas who’s begging me to fill his every waking hour with friends and fun. Other kids ask me directly, “Can I come to your house to play?” Little Laural asks every day.

At least we’re not playing organized sports yet. Gods help me.

However, with all that said, we just had a successful and fun playdate with X. He came to our house, and although X and Lucas bickered for a while, they eventually found a peaceful zone in which they built and fixed things (something about a stage) with tools. And together we three managed to put some seeds in the ground. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks we’ll have some handsome pumpkin and flower seedlings growing.

I do not read The Sacramento Bee in the morning. Instead, I read livejournal.
I do not check CNN.com, Google News, ABC News, CBS News, Yahoo! News, MSNBC, or BBC News, Wired News, USAToday.com at lunchtime. Instead, I read livejournal.
I do not watch evening news TV shows. Instead, I read livejournal.
I do not watch PBS news TV shows at night. Instead, I read livejournal.

I think I have a problem.

Today, Lucas gave me a little gem of advice while he attempted to grope me:

“Have another baby and make some more mama milk!”

So, I’ve been working out pretty steadily for almost two months. I’m back in the swing of things now (the first 3-4 weeks are always the hardest). I’ve made some room for exercise in my life. Today I hit the gym after I dropped L off at school and worked on the treadmill. I’m thinking of trying out one of the yoga DVDs that Kimkim lent to me, but I probably should work tonight instead—Blah. Tomorrow evening is yoga class; I’m looking forward to it because I didn’t go on Monday.

It’s time to step it up now, I think. Time to increase a couple of variables (duration, intensity) and see where that leads me. My friend H asked me if I wanted to do a triathlon with her in July. Sounds fantastic and terrifying, but honestly, I don’t think I’m ready for any such thing.

I indulged in carbs a few times lately, mostly related to my birthday. I can’t resist the naan at the Indian restaurant, so when I picked that establishment for my birthday dinner, I knew I’d be binging. The good news is twofold: 1) I enjoyed the food immensely, and 2) I did not instantly blimp up. I know I can just go back to eating low-carb and exercising and be fine. (I’m not always that calm and confident—sometimes I’m kind of panicky about losing my discipline. But today, I feel secure.)

I want to get my bike fixed up so I can go riding on the bike trails (I think I have a few friends who would be interested in going with me).

Lucas and his buddy from school, Joseph, are playing in the other room right now. They’ve been here about 50 minutes; I picked them both up from HT preschool today. Joseph is the younger of Lucas’s teacher’s two sons. He’s sweet and a little wacky. Although Lucas is 4 and Joseph is 5.5, they are playing beautifully together. Naturally, Joseph is busy exploring all of Lucas’s toys, and Lucas is happily sharing them. The first thing Lucas asked me this morning was, “Is this the day of my playdate with Joseph?”

So, I’m 34 now, as of yesterday. It was a peaceful and fun birthday. I worked, and got a new project. I heard from or saw many of my dearest friends. My dad, grandmother, and brother all called me. Theresa called, by a happy cell phone accident, but still it was great to hear from her. I got cards and emails and gifts from clients and family and friends. I had a perfect evening out with folks at one of my favorite family-friendly restaurants, where the food is reliably yummy (if not spectacular) and the kids can run around without bothering anyone. Thank you, everyone who joined my little celebration. I’m feeling very loved!

Last Saturday, Lucas and Ian took me to the nursery and turned me loose. Although I walked into the place telling myself, “Be Reasonable,” “Don’t Spend a Lot of Money,” “Be Frugal,” “Don’t Be Greedy,” nevertheless, I wasn’t frugal and I was greedy. We bought verbena, mallow, Japanese aralia, geraniums, and a couple other things whose names I can’t remember. We have so much ground to fill up! These plants represent just a drop in the acreage, but little by little, our yard is becoming “landscaped.” (I love flowers, so I almost never buy anything that doesn’t flower.) The weather was so perfect and cool on Saturday that we managed to get everything we bought planted. It was a wonderful day. Thanks guys!!

Thanks to Kimkimkaree, I got a birthday party (for me and Heather) last Saturday night. Games aren’t really my thing, but it was swell to see all my darlings and to eat blueberry pie—and to stay out late despite Lucas’s bedtime. Thanks Kimkim! I love you!

Last Sunday I caught up with my mother. I took her to the movies and shopping for Mother’s Day. It was neat to spend time with her. We saw “Over the Hedge” because there wasn’t much else that we were interested in seeing. It was cute and sometimes funny, but perhaps not worth more than a matinee or rental. We prowled around in Old Folsom afterward. She found gifts for the support staff at AR, and I bought her some fancy soaps. Mom doesn’t indulge in much of anything for herself, so I try to get her simple and luxurious French soaps once in a while.

Mom and dad gave me jewels; Ian gave me fairly wings, plants and hard labor, and perfume; Parnasus gave me a lovely handmade Spring doll and the Bs offered to babysit some evening. H gave me a beautiful necklace and earrings. FIL provided some cash that went to plants. RoRo wants to take me shopping at the nursery (yay!). My MIL, S-FIL, and sisterIL will celebrate with me next week.

That’s the news from my little corner of the world. I am blessed a thousand thousand times to have the friends and family that I have.

My boys treated me to a terrific Mother’s Weekend. On Saturday we visited the Whole Earth Festival in Davis. We took Amtrak to get there: this is a very expensive way to get to Davis. However, I live with train freaks, so it seemed like the right thing to do. It was Lucas’s first Amtrak trip and he enjoyed it a lot.

At the festival we saw the man named after a nut, and Pirate Girl and our friends Kelly and Ambrosia. We danced to the live music, wandered around, and Lucas painted pictures and played with bubbles. It was a very fine way to spend a Saturday. Lucas was a trooper until I unwisely pointed out a tie-dyed stuffed elephant and suddenly he had to have it. “Please, please, please, please, please!” (He did not come home with a tie-dyed stuffed elephant.) By that point it was past naptime and he was pooped. Lucky for Lucas, daddy carried him part of the way back to the train station in Davis.

On Sunday I was presented with two gifts. Lucas gave me a rose-quartz heart necklace with a light blue gem called iolite. The heart is big and heavy, and it rests right over my heart chakra. The heart is for love and the blue stone represents Lucas, I’m told. He picked it out. Ian gave me a beautiful bracelet made of shells (abalone?) that have pale rainbow hues. I like my gifts very much!

We visited with Kelly and Ambrosia at church, and with my parents and grandmother and grandaunt at dinner. In between, we had a nap. Perfect.

Today I had my running date with B.
Alas, it did not go quite as flawlessly as I had fantasized a couple of weeks ago, but some of the fantasy came true: B was beautiful and trim and athletic in matching running tank/shorts, the sun was shining and the trail was lovely, we had fun and talked and laughed. Running in the hot sun (even at 10 a.m.) is NOT the same as running on a treadmill in an A/Ced gym. I feel silly for having thought it would be comparable. It was fairly tough for me and we had to alternate running with walking. Nevertheless…

+ I did not have an asthma attack and freak her out
+ My knees, legs, ankles, and feet were fine
+ B can pee in the wilderness without getting weird
+ The scenery was lovely
+ We got to know each other more
+ B was gracious and kind
+ She invited me back to her place afterward (No, not like that)
+ She suggested we try biking because she knows a little cafe in Folsom you can bike to

That last bit has my insecure self wondering if she suggested the biking because I’m a lousy running partner (which, for a marathon runner in training, I probably am). The secure parts of me look forward to biking and enjoying the cafe with her.

I’m in a great space now (fitnesswise) where I’m willing to try just about anything (fitnesswise). I’m trying to keep it interesting to keep my motivation strong, and although rhythm is a beautiful thing, spontaneity is the spice of life. So, sure, I’ll go biking!

B’s marathon is in slightly more than 2 weeks in San Diego. I’m really excited for her.


The yoga classes I’ve been taking are great! I’m really liking them and I’m feeling much stronger in a relatively short period of time. They are simultaneously challenging and relaxing. Weird. I do not feel like a complete dweeb in yoga class, partly because they tell you to do what you can do and don’t do more, and partly because I can do most of it. I leave class feeling like a noodle, and I think I’m beginning to understand what “core strengthening” means. My back is feeling terrific. I’m still seeing the chiropractor, but only once a month now for maintenance.

It’s getting harder and harder to capture a conversation I’ve had with Lucas on paper. His conversational skills are much greater now, and his ideas are way more complicated than before. Now I can’t hold his speech in my head long enough to jot it down. I mention this because I don’t want anyone to think things around here are less hilarious than they used to be. They’re not!

Four is shaping up to be volatile and exciting!
Four is boastful, hot-tempered, sweet, fascinated, and full of brilliant ideas. Four wants to be a fire fighter when he grows up instead of a train engineer (gasp!). Four wants to do it himself, all by himself. Four is still a girl, but is still sometimes a baby girl and sometimes a 7-year-old and sometimes a “17-year-old in the 7th grade.” Four loves to dig, play tag, and race you. In fact, if you accidentally arrive anywhere before Four, he will scream and cry and insist that he beat you and came in first. Four is very quick to tattle and freak out if we break a rule, whether we know about the rule ahead of time or not. Four is good at censuring parents who say no to any request: “That’s not nice, Mom. You’re not allowed to say that to me. It’s rude! I’m mad at you.” Four also has new interests: robots, astronauts, fire fighters, dinosaurs. Four is helpful around the house, but only when he wants to be, meaning that anytime you ask him to help around the house, he’s “busy”: “I’m sorry, Mom. I can’t do that right now. I’m very busy doing something else. Sorry!”

Four has developed an alter-ego (besides Tidoo). This character’s name is Nukey or Nukey Monkey. Nukey Monkey is atrocious and rude and teasing and full of gibberish songs and tricks. Nukey Monkey makes me think of Loki or Coyote; I really don’t like it when Nukey Monkey comes visiting.

Four is obsessed with drawing! He can’t get enough and is producing many masterpieces each day (crayon, paint, pencil, and ink). Four now draws human figures, complete with eyes, mouth, nose, hat, body, arms, fingers, legs and feet. Four likes to draw volcanoes including Mount St. Helens, cannons, pirate ships, army people with swords, robots with wheels or big claws, fire, suns, trees, clouds, trains, cars, and Nukey. I’ve seen him draw exactly one picture with flowers in it: he gave it to Ambrosia for her third birthday. (I’m jealous.)

Four leaves the house to start his day each morning with ease and he hardly remembers to kiss me goodbye. Four fights me each day when I pick him up from school because he’s so involved in playing with his friends he doesn’t want to come home. Four would rather eat with his hands, or even by picking up food from his plate with his mouth, like whenever he’s playing beaver, for example; this is not allowed.

Four likes salsa! Four can get dressed by himself, but won’t if you ask him to do it. Four still prefers to be naked at just about any time of day. Four doesn’t want me to cut his hair because he wants it to be long like Ella’s. Four is getting along great now with Jackson (4), Joseph (5), and seems to look up to Quintin (7) quite a lot. Four would like me to arrange play dates with almost every classmate. Four is very excited about starting Kindergarten in the fall.

In a nutshell, Four is wild.