We’ve been reading a lot of Fancy Nancy books recently. Damon loves them – mostly because they are Riley’s books. They’re actually great books, despite the title. They are about a girl who likes to be “fancy,” but she lives with an ordinary family, so she has to be creative and fancy things up with all sorts of random things, very much like Riley actually. The brilliant part of the books is Nancy uses “fancy” words, which are just big SAT type words. Totally tricks the kids into expanding their vocabulary! Damon’s favorites are devastated, heirloom and ecstatic. If anyone within earshot says devastated, Damon will hear and start running around singing about fancy Nancy being devastated about knocking over the Christmas tree. His daycare teacher was pretty impressed when he told her the kids were devastated about a toy being broken. The combination of Damon and big words that are probably inappropriate for a 2-year-old cracks me up every time…

Speaking of inappropriate… heard the following from Riley a few weeks ago…
“I went out to check the strawberries yesterday and there was a big one that was almost ripe. But when I went to check on it today, shit damn! it was gone!”

She’s been throwing the f-word into conversation from time to time recently too. She totally responds well to the explanation that swear words are special words that kids aren’t allowed to use and that they are supposed to be saved for really serious situations. And that the older you are the more you can use them (which is why Grandma gets to use them the most). Guess we need to start watching our mouths around here…

Eric just finished his first year of law school and is living with us for the summer. He has a job with the city attorney and is doing research for his professor, but he says the real reason he decided to come to LA is to spend time with the kids and get to know them better. I was a little surprised, honestly, but it’s worked out really well. There is nothing more important to me than family, so it was really nice to see that Eric feels that way too (I think everyone in my family feels that way).

Celebrating Eric getting an A+…

We did a lot of celebrating this summer. First for his good grades, then for the law schools he was accepted to for transfer. Always somthing to celebrate with Eric around.

Anyway, Damon is a big fan. He would come home from daycare saying “Wrestle with Eric!”

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Sharing cookies and telling secrets…

Playing basketball…

Riley is a fan too. Eric is (very patiently) teaching her how to play chess. He even lets her win most of the time.

Reading a book with Eric and Kylene (she spent a lot of the summer with us as well… through the computer)

Jungle gym…

Last week Eric left for the east coast to finish up law school at NYU and live closer to Kylene. It was really sad to see him go, though we all know this is certainly the best move for him. The kids miss him terribly already. I suppose we’ll have to make due with video chat, and try to convince him to come out and visit again soon…

Recently Riley and Damon have been squabaling A LOT… mostly because Damon wants to do whatever Riley is doing and Riley wants him to leave her alone (sounds familiar to anyone who is an older sibling I’m sure). Anyway, I put these pictures together to remind myself that they really do love each other…

Tea party…

Reading on the stairs before school…

Just an update to the birthday post… At two years old, Damon weighs 31 lbs (75%) and is 2 ft 11 in tall (50-75%)… which means he is rapidly gaining on Riley. His check-up was uneventful, he seems to be a happy healthy boy with an exceptionally large vocabulary.

Some birthday pictures…

The cornbread mini muffins Riley and I made…

Everyone gathered around to watch Damon get a dinosaur temporary tattoo (he wanted the first one on his leg, then one on each arm)…

The kids running around being crazy…

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Wouldn’t be a party without balloons…

Back at home…

We went blueberry picking recently…

To be fair, Sage and Riley did most of the blueberry picking while Damon and I sat under the bushes and did most of the eating. We managed to pick enough to make little mini blueberry crumbles, which were quite good. Damon likes to help with baking, especially the taste testing part. He kept sticking his little finger into the extra blueberry filling (to freeze for another time) and licking it. I turned around for a moment and when I turned back he was literally covered in blue. I wish I’d gotten a picture of that…

Riley is having some conflict at preschool and it all stems from her active imagination. A few weeks ago, she and her friends Charlie and Audrey discovered a bunch of tiny little plastic balls in the loft at school. They decided they must be dragon eggs and started collecting them and hiding them in the corner under some pillows. A few days later they realized the balls were coming out of a stuffed puppy dog, so they started digging their fingers into the little hole and pulling out more and more balls. Eventually the teachers noticed and confiscated them. Herein lies the the conflict. Riley is certain they are dragon eggs, 100% certain, and there is no dissuading her. How do you get dragon eggs to hatch? Fire of course! She learned that from Harry Potter. When I went to pick her up a few days ago, she marched over and declared indignantly, (hands on hips) “The teachers won’t let be build a fire and they won’t let me take the eggs home! What am I supposed to do?? There are no other options and they won’t listen!!” Her teacher (who is a lovely woman) came over and tried to reason with her to no avail.

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[The origin of the dragon eggs]

On the way home we made a plan… Any alternatives to building a fire? “We could cook them in the oven.” Um, any other alternatives? She finally settled on hot water. She said some dragons have already hatched at the preschool and we agreed that they must be invisible to adults, which is why the teachers don’t believe. Only if you really, really, really want to see a dragon will you be able to see one (very convenient, learned that from The Last Unicorn). Her plan is to hatch one for each kid in the class. Luckily, as soon as they hatch they fly to the kid’s home by magic, so don’t have to worry about dragons hanging around the preschool. When the dragons get a little older, you can put a clock around their neck and ride them to school. When the alarm goes off, the dragon knows to come back and pick you up. They know how to feed themselves, so they are easy to take care of. Riley is planning to write a book with 4 chapters to explain all this: Chapter 1: How to hatch a dragon egg; Chapter 2: How to take care of a baby dragon; Chapter 3: Things you can do with your dragon; Chapter 4: Important rules so you don’t get hurt.

[dragon eggs in hot water]

I’m not really sure how one is supposed to handle this murky realm where reality and make-believe mix. It doesn’t seem right to insist she is making it all up and it isn’t real, but also doesn’t seem right to fully encourage it. So I’m taking the middle ground and neither encouraging or discouraging, just seeing where it goes, and trying to help her have a plan for school that is acceptable to the teachers too.

This isn’t the first and I’m sure won’t be the last example of her imagination get away with her. When she built her fairy village, she put a little sign next to it saying, “If you are a fairy, please sign your name,” and she would check every day if a fairy had come by. If anything moved she took it as proof that a fairy must have been there. Whenever she throws a penny in a pool or blows out candles, she always wishes to see a real fairy.

Last weekend we watched The Last Unicorn, which is an animated movie that both Sage and I watched as kids. My memory of it is really vague, more of a feeling than anything else. After watching it, I realize why. It’s a very strange and dreamy movie, mystical somehow. Riley cried through most of it (but didn’t want to stop watching), and after it was over she went and sat on the couch by herself for a while and just cried quietly. She said she wasn’t sad exactly, just wanted to be alone a bit. That is exactly the feeling I remember when thinking of watching the movie as a kid. Later that day, Rachel came over for dinner. She told Riley she thought the movie was sad and asked if Riley cried. Riley thought for a minute then said, “I almost cried twice.”

Last night we took a look at the dragon eggs, which had been sitting in water on the kitchen windowsill for about three days. I asked her if she thought they had hatched yet, and she looked at them for a long time then said, “No… I think maybe they are just plastic balls. But at least we tried.”

Here’s what happens when I leave the kids alone with my brother Michael…

[buying beer in Costa Rica]

[stocking the refrigerator in Cambridge with Michael's favorite beer]

(just kidding, of course. Michael is an AWESOME uncle. I wish he lived closer…)

Riley’s self-portraits on the wall at preschool…

[5 months ago]

[3 months ago]

Back in April the city of Los Angeles shut down 7 miles of streets around downtown to cars and opened it up to bikers for CicLAvia. It was pretty amazing, tons and tons of people from all walks of life… hipsters, young kids, families, old ladies, anyone you can think of was there with their bike. Damon was in the little green seat on the front of Sage’s bike…

And Riley was in the Wee hoo attached to the back of my bike (that thing is HEAVY, but it’s kinda cool because she can peddle along).

We biked all the way from the begginning (Melrose and Heliotrope) to the end (4th and Boyle), then went back to City Hall to meet up with Riley’s friend Nusia and her family to have lunch. Other friends showed up later, and everyone was having such a nice time that Damon’s nap time came and went… When we finally started biking back to the car, he was exhausted and promptly fell asleep in his seat. The police men at one stop light thought it was really cute and actually called ahead to the cops at the next stop light to be sure they keep an eye out for the sleeping boy biking by…