Stay-at-Home Coco

Xanthe marks time by our activities, whether it's "ballet day"or "piano day" or "school today," or whatever is on the calendar.  Tonight when I was leaving to teach, she said, "I wish today wasn't ANY of the days.  I wish you could not go anywhere and just stay home."

Aaah, sweet!  I wish I could say I wrapped her in a blanket and we just stayed home and read stories all night, but...I left and Scott drove the kids to their classes and our house was its usual hive of activity.  This morning, however, the weather feels the same way as Xanthe did last night.  The heavy, grey skies and steady rain say, "It's a stay-home day.  Grab a book and a quilt and a cup of hot chocolate."  So I did what any good mom would do when she has a snuggly five-year-old on a rainy day.  I sent her to Coco's house with a pitcher of The Green Drink to share and told her to stay for four minutes.  That was two hours ago, and I hear Xanthe is wrapped in a nice, soft quilt, drinking out of a sippy cup and ordering Coco around.  Coco knows enough to stay warm and dry on a bleak, leaky day like this.  She knows that a little girl on the tail-end of a family can get whiplash from all the directions everyone always seems to be going, and that sometimes it's nice to have your very own grandma to keep you safe and dry, tuck you into a big chair and say, "We're not going anywhere.  Don't get your shoes on.  Don't get in the car.  Don't hurry.  When you need more snacks, I'll be right here."

Thanks, Mom.

Book of Life

When I got to ballet last night, my much-anticipated recital music was there.  I popped it right in the CD player and listened to it with my class.  I should have known, since it was Cori Connors, one of my favorites, that it would hit me in the gut.  It did, and it was all I could do to hold it together.  The sweet music made me want to fall down and sob, it's so poignant.  It's a vocal/guitar ballad that talks about little girls being princesses, and how quickly they grow.  My favorite lyrics of the ballad are

             "There's a book of life she holds now...As her fairy tale unfolds now...Hold her close and help her turn the pages..."

I wanted to run right home from class and hug each one of my little daughters and tell them how exciting it is to watch their fairy tales unfold, how I wish we could live in each moment more, how I wish their childhoods could be an unbroken series of magic wands, sandcastles, warm summer nights and pink tutus, and how I worry that their "happily ever after" won't be.  I love my girls.  They are wonderful daughters.  Thanks, girls.

Abominable Snow Dogs

This video is mostly for Trajan, who asked the question, "What do you guys do for fun out here," and who can't get enough funny dog videos.  Traj, speaking of funny dog videos, I wish I had footage of that dog who chased you in Switzerland and had you cowering on the hood of a Peugeot.  Good family vacation memories right there.  Or how about the electric fence?  Was it Josh who had to find out if the "live voltage" sign was true?  Now I can't even remember how to say "danger" in German.  Achtung?

Anyway, these snow dogs aren't dangerous at all, unless you count all the ways you can hurt yourself trying to catch them, or all the ways they can drive you crazy.  Or you could split a gut laughing at how cute they are, right, Traj?  Maybe they are dangerous.  Achtung!!

Sunday Inspiration

 My brother and sister-in-law, Josh and Emily, gave inspiring talks today in Sacrament Meeting.  Their thoughts on prayer and "choosing the best part" were wonderful.  Among the messages that spoke to my heart was this one from Gordon B. Hinkley:

"My brothers and sisters, we must work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it."

There's nobody like President Hinkley to put everything in perspective.  Thanks, Josh and Emily, for the great talks, and for being the kind of Latter-day Saints whose spiritual example I can be proud to follow.

Evolution

Driving home from ballet this morning, there was salsa and meringue music on NPR.  It hurts my heart a little to hear it, but makes me smile at the same time, because it's the soundtrack of a time in my life that is gone.  It was a time when I was young, intrepid, slightly reckless and passionate about life.  I was on my own and the future was mine to script.  Now, that time and place are gone, those friends are gone and there is no going back. 

From the comfort of my car this morning, waiting in the alley for Araceli, surrounded by the trimmings of my life - ballet shoes, books, homework, sheet music, sippy cups - I know I wouldn't go back if I had the choice.  Here I am on a snowy Saturday, enveloped in beauty, doing exactly what I love.  I never imagined myself as this old back when I was 20, listening to the Gipsy Kings and longing to live in Spain.  I thought I would be young and free forever.  By the grace of God, that didn't happen, and I stumbled into the perfect life, in spite of myself.  My soundtrack now is decidedly less glamorous:  Suzuki violin/guitar/piano/cello, you name a volume.  Taka Taka Stop Stop gets stuck in my head for days on end.  I swear I can hear Ruby's guitar CD in the car, even when it's not on.  But this is who I am at the very core; a mom, wife, teacher, friend, and if there is very little room for salsa in the mix, well, that's the beauty of evolution.

Oh, This is Rich

Scott and I have long maintained that we would be huge jerks if we were super-rich.  It's true.  We always talk about what we would do with "40 million dollars."  That's after taxes and tithing.  Once we get past the part in the conversation where we give our parents and all of our brothers and sisters new cars and houses, we become huge jerks.

We call in a team of workers and completely finish our house.  We even get toilet paper holders that don't fall off the wall.  We expand.  We build a guest house and a pool house in the back yard.  Heck, we buy the house behind us and turn it into a guest house.  I secretly build a pool (while he's out shopping) because Scott doesn't want one, and I hire a lifeguard to sit there 24 hours a day, in case anyone wants to swim.  Our pool house is stocked with new towels and swimsuits for guests, and there's a huge kitchen with its own chef to prepare food for parties.  Because the regular chef is busy fixing nutritious, vegan-ish meals three times a day for our family, plus after-school snacks and things to eat in the car that don't make a mess.  We have another chef who just does sushi.

We have a couple of full-time drivers, a few practicing coaches and at least three people who read to and with the kids for hours every day, not to mention helping them with their homework.  That way, I can work or play with a kid without having to carry on six conversations at once.  Each kid has their own language coach who teaches them Mandarin.  Any time a grade in school drops below an A, an educational specialist appears to tutor the child in the car on the way to their dance classes.  (Can you imagine a driver who just drives?)  And did I mention our housekeeping staff?  I, myself, have three housekeepers that just clean and organize closets all the time.  And each child has an assistant who follows them around teaching them how to clean up after themselves and making them do it. And my hair looks fantastic, now that I don't have to spend 25 hours a day cleaning and doing laundry.  My hair is so freakin' fluffy, you hardly recognize me.

We travel all the time.  We buy a condo in Imperial Beach so we can go there anytime.  Whenever we want to take the kids to Disneyland, we go to the one in Hong Kong.  We have our favorite hotels and restaurants there, and the kids love the multi-cultural city almost as much as they love Paris, where we shop for school clothes.  We spend every summer lounging on the beach in the Algarve, where the kids pick up Portuguese from the locals, and we jet off on humanitarian service trips whenever we have a chance.

Like I said, Scott and I would be SO annoying if we had 40 million dollars.  But we'd take our friends on trips to exotic locations with us!  So, will you still be our friend when we're loaded?  What would YOU do with "40 million dollars?"

Stadium of Fire

 Freestone is on a Beyblade kick, thanks to The Cousins.  Beyblades have kept them busy for hours at family gatherings.  Free earned one Beyblade and somehow acquired another one, but he didn't have a stadium to play them in.  I told him he could earn a stadium if he finished learning a new song.  He tried and tried to convince me that he couldn't play with his Beyblades if he didn't have a stadium, ergo he shouldn't have to earn one.  A Beyblade stadium should just be an inalienable human right.  Not only did that not fly, but Freestone also temporarily forfeited his life, liberty and pursuit of happiness while he worked on May Song.  For three hours after school yesterday, Freestone worked to get May Song "You Tube Ready."  That term made me laugh every time Free said, "OK.  OK.  I think I'm You Tube Ready.  Get the camera." He was on fire!  He just started this song on Friday, but for a stadium, the goal had to be something challenging.  We tried dozens of times to get the song perfect on tape, but the only time he played it for the camera with no mistakes and no kids standing in front of the camera demanding dinner, I didn't have the camera on.  Oops.  Finally, Ptolemy, in a Dove Chocolate-induced frenzy, brought the whole project to a screaming halt.  How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Not like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZGqq6HMudQ

Fortunately, Carnegie Hall wasn't the goal.  The goal was Toys R Us.  I took Freestone last night to Toys R Us.  He claimed it was his first trip ever to Toys R Us, and it's probably true.  Toys R not us.  I hate toys.  But something came over me in that store, and I wanted to buy buckets of Legos big enough to build a solar system and enough dollhouses to start my own commune.  We managed to find the last Beyblade stadium (cheapest, flimsiest piece of plastic EVER) and get out of there before I snatched up my own stable of little ponies.

Thank you, Beyblades creators.  Now get to work!  I need something new to help with the next song.

Cuckoo for Little Playmates

Xanthe is Cuckoo for Little Playmates!  Now she's Lightly Rowing to Aunt Rhody's house.  We'll let you know when she gets there!

Ptolemy's First trip to the Zoo...

 ...was as easy as

 One

 Two

Three!
He had so much fun with Mama at the zoo, we had to go right back after picking up Scott and the other kids from Harry Potter.  Two trips to the zoo in one day?  Of course!

The Zoo, Round Two

 Christmas-card-worthy?

I heart the zoo.