Pebble Beach Summer Fun

We had a great day yesterday!

Hava has asked for weeks for "table time": when we all sit around the table, kids with workbooks, and I am there to help with everyone's questions.  We actually did it yesterday and it was pretty fun! Liliputian and Pipalicious finished their geography workbooks and the others made great progress.  I played puzzles with Spooner while the other kids worked.  Papaya insists she loves math :D.  Binks was not on board at all and ended up at the sink with towels all around him on the floor to minimize disaster as he played with barely running water and two stoppered sinks.

After over an hour of that we transitioned to crafts and made some jelly fish "shakers" out of paper plates, dried peas and yarn, an idea I picked up from watching a library kid's class briefly.  It went remarkably well.  We then watched a couple youtube videos about jelly fish which were pretty fabulous.  It really seemed to fill the kids.

I tend to try and plan for weeks and months.  Sometimes, it is good to just seize the day and do what feels right that day and not worry about setting in motion a "long-term plan." They were so happy and our quiet time felt good.

We headed out to our Pebble Beach with cousins for a little ones' birthday during the late afternoon.  So much fun!  It was very relaxing. I think everyone got in the water at one point or another, although Binks was definitely not okay with waves.  Spooner even spent some time floating up and down on the waves with his floaties on.  His favorite part was going in the canoe with his uncle, though, and later his big brother Chugger-dude, paddling his little paddle all the while.  He and Chugger-dude didn't have much weight or strength to fight the waves so they ended up going in circles...it was pretty funny.

Papaya was fearless as always, diving off the canoe whenever she wanted to.  Hava had fun towing Spooner around in a little float boat with their little birthday cousin and then spent time in it herself, paddling away.  Pipalicious and Liliputian were like little dolphins, almost constantly in the water.   Towards the end, Q-dawg and his brother had fun dumping Liliputian and Chugger-dude repeatedly into the water, overturning the canoe.  I enjoyed being in the water for quite sometime while Q-dawg took the whiney Binks-baby and then chatted with Jackie.  It was very relaxing and as Jackie put it, "a perfect summer day together."

We ended the evening with a cousin sleep-over swap and Liliputian, Chugger-dude and their oldest cousin came over to pop popcorn and watch "Mask of Zorro," a family favorite while Q-dawg and I enjoyed playing 20 questions together while eating a yummy pot of homemade tapioca pudding, nice and warm.  A wonderful day!

I also got a picture and text from the Goob who is now at his cousins' house in Idaho after finishing up his summer camp.  He will be there for a week, go to hang out with grandparent's for a few days and then he will be home!!!  He will jump right into GCC, which will be good. He has had a summer of super busy-ness and exertion. I think he would go crazy with our normal routine here!  Right after he gets off the plane, he will head to the testing center and then pick out classes.  Whew!

Well, time to go and unpack boxes one by one and make sure they are all good to put back into the house!  All the kids but Spooner have gone with Uncle Zy to pick beans.  Good time to work.

Fun little ones!

Yesterday was a fun kid day!

Before she went to bed, Papaya announced that she must have the fan blowing on her in order to sleep well.  I smiled as I thought of my Lek and his fan obsession over the years.  They are so alike in many ways.  Thanks to Lek, too, because then I appreciate Papaya a little more, seeing what a great person she can turn out to be.

During quiet time, Spooner was snuggled up next to me.  He informed me that he wanted to feel the baby kick.  That is how Spooner lets us know about things: he informs us that things are going to be a certain way.  They just are.  So I helped him put his hand on my tummy.  After a few minutes with no movement I said, "Well, the baby must be asleep."

Getting a determined little look on his 4 year old face, Spooner said, "But how am I going to feel it?"

"Maybe we could wake the baby up," I suggested and started wiggling my tummy with his hand to try and activate some movement, to no avail.  The determined look grew more firm and Spooner looked me in the eye and said, "Open your mouth."

Not sure where this was going, I obliged him.  He put his cute little face up to my mouth and yelled, "Hey, baby!  Wake up!  I want to feel you!"  He then moved his face down about belly button level and repeated his call to action.  My stomach was jiggling with laughter enough to wake up any baby and sure enough, the baby began to slowly move a bit, enough to indulge his older brother at least. :)  Love that kid

Binks has a funny personality.  It is fun to see it come out...even if it is somewhat stubborn at times. (Like the rest of us.)  When Q-dawg swatted his diapered bum for messing with the computer, there was no reaction.  Q-dawg repeated his instruction and when Binks continued to ignore him and he was swatted on the bum again.  After one more repetition, we just got him down.  His face was a picture of determination with a smidge of curled down lips and a twinkle of moisture in his large eyes as his sensitive little side showed through.  Such a cutie.

Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to care if danger is part of his defiance and we had a similar interchange when he went running to the little park road by our house when I wouldn't let him drown our front yard any more with the hose.  It becomes more of a stubborn game and less about the initial incident, I have noticed with him.  Again, having gone through this with pretty much all the other kids, particularly Liliputian, come to think of it, it helps me to become not so emotionally charged over the defiance and gives me a broader range of response options, having done so many of them wrong over the years.

Also like Liliputian, Binks has a broad compassion streak.  Hava was upset when I came home last night, and as I was standing there hugging her in the foyer, Binks came up with concern in his eyes. "Hava sad?" he asked.

"Yes, do you want to help her feel happy?" I asked.

"I help her better," he said with his sweet little 2 year old voice and joined us in our hug. Hearing such a statement unexpectedly from his baby lips made the crying Hava chuckle in spite of herself.  After almost 4 years of Spooner's lack of communication, it has been a surprise every time this little one communicates coherently.

Of course, Spooner has had no problem "making up for lost time" and is such a chatterbox that he talks his teachers' ears off all during swim lessons with his opinion, observations and suggestions.

Right now they are out sitting at the end of the driveway watching the city cut down a huge, bug-infested tree in the front corner of "our" yard.  Technically, it probably belongs to the city...it just looks like our yard :).  Perhaps that is why so many people walk across our front yard to get to the park.  They must all know that part of our front yard belongs to the city.