A.B. Kagledom

Last week was an amazing week and Thursday was a pretty darn good day. A historically good day. More news later. For now, I am pleased to report that Simon made it into Bullis Charter School which means Adlai will automatically make it into the school as well. Sometime soon, the school will move from K-6 to K-8 so the boys won't have to switch schools again until high school. Being a charter school, they are not required to stick to the government mandated curriculum. It is a small school with small class sizes and there is a heavy focus on science and the arts (which we know Simon will love since those are his very favorite things). Each fifth grade class travels to Washington DC and each sixth grade class travels to Costa Rica. The students are divided into "houses" across grades so students from kindergarten will work with first graders on up. And did we mention the electives? There are tons - each one sounding more interesting than the last. It's the top scoring charter school in California and among the top 1% of schools in California.

Getting into Bullis makes our enormous mortgage worth it! In fact, since we refinanced into a better deal last week, we intend to stay in our house at least until the boys are off to college. Hooray for better interest rates!

Last weekend we started Matthew's birthday celebrations by spending Saturday with our friends, Mike and Cindi and sampling a variety of cakes. Simon opted out of the cake in favor of a large "I love my Mom" cookie. Adlai napped. It was all good.

Sunday, we drove to San Francisco to see Star Trek with Grandfather while Grandmother watched the boys. After we returned from the movie, we trekked over to Pier 39 to see Grammy and Grandpa and Aunt Judy and Uncle Dave who were arriving at the end of a long cruise. We didn't have much time and the Pier was as crowded as I've ever seen so we ended up back at The Feefadders place for a while before getting stuck in an hour-long traffic jam instead of dinner. We eventually made it to dinner, before which Adlai was given his first cookie (peanut butter - made by Simon and Grandmother). He was starving and there were no other options in the car.

For Mother's Day Simon made me two cards and I was given chocolates and Matthew framed a family portrait we had taken a while back. I cried. It was a good day - if slightly hectic.

New things for Adlai: He ran up to me a few days ago with the diaper cream and a diaper and, in fact, he needed a change. He is in love with shirts that have Elmo, cars, firetrucks, and dogs. Simon never cared about his attire. Adlai INSISTS we put on a certain shirt RIGHT NOW if he sees something he likes sitting in a pile of laundry. In general, he continues to amaze us with how much he understands. He likes to call out "NO NO NO NO NOOOOOO!" so we will counter with "YES YES YES YES YESSSSSSS!" We occasionally sit him in a booster seat at the table and he is very proud to be sitting with us like a big boy. Adlai REALLY wants to be a big boy. I think that pretty much defines him as a person at this point.

Posted by kagledom at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the problems with working where I do is that there isn't much time. The work day starts at 7 am and "ends" at 4 which often bleeds into 5 or 6 or 7. In order to see the kids and occasionally exercise and relax, something must give. Unfortunately, what has been pushed aside is this blog. I'm working on a remedy but it's going to take a while.

The boys attend my morning meeting - watching the screen share and listening to the conference call (on mute!)

Where to begin! Two weekends ago was a double five-year-old party weekend. Simon's beloved friend, Calvin, celebrated five with a Star Wars themed party and one of the best cakes I've ever seen - a 3-dimensional R2D2. The next day Simon bounced and ate pizza and had a visit from a Mountain View police officer at the party of a friend from preschool. Adlai stayed home with Matthew and, I'm sure, did many manly things.

Smile!

Cushion fun - a nearly every day activity.

Last weekend we intended to take a trip to Santa Cruz but didn't want to get caught in the rain so we stayed around the house. We've been doing a lot of Spring cleaning and gardening in our spare time. The boys are very fond of gardening. OK, they are mostly fond of getting incredibly wet. Adlai is even more a fan of soaking himself than Simon...

Soaked. He even pours water right onto his face.

Dandelion head.

Really, is there anything more fun than a hose?

Other things that have been going on...
-We've finally refinanced which has been a mental time sink over the past year.
-Simon went to his kindergarten evaluation and LOVED it
-We've moved up the list to our preferred kindergarten by at least 2 - to number 3!
-Adlai understands pretty much everything. Ask him to bring you something - even a book by name - and he'll run off to get the correct object.
-Adlai is getting his third molar and is COMPLETELY OBSESSED with pacifiers
-Adlai, as it turns out, loves cole slaw and will eat it by the handful
-Simon is very excited to be celebrating his birthday next month (since we agreed that no one will sing or clap after he blows out the candles)

Posted by kagledom at 06:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After an early-in-the-week day trip to Sacramento, we continued our week of travel by taking off to Seattle last Friday and returning Sunday night. In Sacramento we visited with my family. Devon, my nephew, was visiting from Okinawa so we threw him a party. The boys proved to be excellent car sleepers so the four hours there and back were not a problem. Also Adlai was near the end of his fussy week so he warmed up after about an hour at the party and even let us put him down to give us a break.

The Friday trip to Seattle had me near anxiety induced convolutions on Thursday evening. Work hasn't eased up (and it won't be easing up any time soon) so I had done absolutely no planning whatsoever or packing or thinking about planning or packing. Of course, it all turned out fine. Simon didn't sleep the night before we left so we didn't sleep the night before we left but both boys were amazing the entire weekend. Simon was, of course, thrilled to be with his Kagle cousins and Adlai was remarkably sweet and happy and serene - even in restaurants. Simon slept in the top bunk of Jeffrey's new bunk bed (a miracle and his first official sleeping away from an adult while away from home). He even slept in. Adlai cried during the nights in the porta-crib but he didn't keep anyone else up - especially not anyone that is difficult to get back to sleep (you know, Simon).

We are very thankful to the Seattle Kagles for being such gracious hosts. They took us Easter egg hunting at the neighborhood hunt (Simon stayed home but Adlai loved every minute of it). They arranged for babysitters so we adults could have a very nice dinner out at a new restaurant owned by Matthew's favorite chef. They drove us around - even on a trip to the snow for a rather short sledding experience (Simon thought snow and sledding was fun - for about 30 minutes - it was very hot out and very very bright).

When we returned to the airport for our flight back Adlai was so excited to see the planes that he couldn't stop talking. "OH WOW! OH WOW! OH WOWWWWWW!" When he saw the luggage cars attached to the truck he said "Choo choo!" When I told him it wasn't a train he tried the tractor approach singing "E I E I OHHHHHHH." A baby next to us was having his diaper changed pre-flight and he pointed and said "stinky!" And on and on went the chattering Adlai.

The flight back, Adlai was a little antsy (it was past the boys bedtimes) but there was no crying or fussing or screaming. And now that the screaming is over, we're feeling particularly lucky.

More Adlai-isms:

I forgot to mention perhaps Adlai's funniest moment so far! Driving home from SF a week ago, we stopped at a light. Three young attractive women had passed in front of our car and turned the corner - close to Adlai's side. They stopped to talk near Adlai's window. I turned around to look when "Ohhhhh wowwwwwww" came from the back seat. Adlai pointed at the girls and, again, whispered "Ohhhhh WOWwwwww" over and over until the light turned green and his first crush was over.

Last week Adlai started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" using only the words "Mama mama mama ma."

Yesterday it was "family day" at Simon's preschool. We watched as the kids learned their new letter for the week "W." The teacher read a book with lots of "W" words and Adlai started to sing "A B C D E..." How he learned the alphabet song or why he connected it with learning the letter "W" is anyone's guess.

The words are coming fast these days. He has all his two-year-old words down including "Mine!" "ME!" and "NO!" Fortunately, he is also learning some useful words like "cheese" and "more milk."

Posted by kagledom at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)