Please join us to celebrate Jared’s 7th birthday!

Lipka yoyo expert Glen will display some tricks and try to teach a few. We will provide yoyos for all children who have rsvp’d over age 5, but feel free to bring your own as well!

A light lunch and - of course – cake will be served

Families of invitees are welcome to stay and enjoy time at the park with us.

Rainy Day Plans: Bring your rain boots and jacket! We’ll go for it! I sure hope yoyos work wet!

Everyone rsvp’d and almost everyone came!!! We had a lot of people! I think the dads enjoyed the yoyos more than the 1st graders though. Developmentally, yoyos are probably a better 3rd grade party.

The Hidden Parks, East and West Hillsdale, are just perfect for parties. They are a decent size and the entire park is visible, so parents can socialize while kids play. They’re also pretty sparsely used generally. The hitch of no bathrooms is solved when your house is down the block! The park serves many ages well because big kids can play soccer or football, while little kids enjoy the sand and slide and 1st graders can enjoy it all!

It was starting to rain 30 minutes after the party was supposed to end and people were still hanging out! And that’s with no alcohol served!

Grandma Penny helped so much by making half the quiches plus the salad and generally helping cleaning and shuttling and just everything. Thanks mom!

Most importantly, Jared had a terrific time. Finally a party for him with no tears and tantrums. Just smiles

Rachel Luxemburg said that if she ever said that around her grandmother, sure as shootin she’d have a pile of chores lined up for her so fast her head would spin. She learned to not say it.

Matthew lately has been saying he’s “bored” at school and he doesn’t want to go. His nursery school, Carlmont Parents Nursery School, is an amazingly rich environment:

. easel paints, chalk board and playdough always available as well as a different art project each day in the art room, not to mention creation station in the hallway.

. at least 25 costumes (all of which I had the pleasure of hanging back up on Monday when I worked Block Room), hats, shoes, accessories, board games, blocks, train sets, beads to string, puzzles, marble run, many kinds of manipulatives rotated in and out….. in the Block Room

. a music room with instruments, all kinds of recorded music, bean bags, felt boards, books and puzzles

. the snack room which includes a loft, play house and kitchen, dolls and carriages

. an amazing outside area with swings, tire swing, trees to climb, boulders to jump off, several climbing structures, grass, sand, a mud pit, balls, water play, sand toys, 3 play houses equipped with kitchens and kitchen tools, tricycles with trailers and other riding toys.

The program, except pre-k, is child-led so that the student can pick what appeals to them. At 4 years old this is generally a lot of imaginative games with friends. They move in packs. A month ago it was the Yucky Stuff Bakery, outside, where they concocted yucky bakery goods out of mud and sand and plants. The last 2 weeks it’s been a group of kitties that speak in meows and build themselves cages to sleep in.

Matthew gets along very well with lots of different playmates and engages in a variety of play.

***

I think that this rich, wonderful environment is “boring” to Matthew because he’d rather be playing on the Wii. When Ethan and Jared were 4 they played Reader Rabbit and Blue’s Clues games on the computer. I read to them for an hour at a time. We played Monopoloy Jr and Clue Jr and did puzzles together. I was more strict about screen time.

Matthew gets a lot more screen time than his brothers did and the games are more mature – not preschool learning focused. He generally has to have his arm twisted to sit and read with me and can’t really sit still for games with lots of rules or puzzles. He’s just a different kid.

However, Teacher Leslie and I think that this “boredom” is because he’d rather be playing on the Wii than doing anything else. Screen addiction! We’ve seen it before when Ethan wanted to watch muscials all day long and couldn’t be parted with Bye Bye Birdie and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Anyway, Glen and I have decided to cut screen game time down to 30 min per child per day and only on school days AFTER school. Plus some TV. It’s not an issue of activity/obesity. They get plenty of exercise and love it.

I’m reading Magic Trees of the Mind about brain development and the effects of enrichment on the brain through all stages of life. It’s a FANTASTIC book. That makes me feel REALLY guilty about Matthew’s impoverished environment. OK, not really. He’s got plenty of amazing enrichment around him.

However, I am really glad to be limiting screen time. So far, after starting this past week with 30 min tv in the a.m. while I’m getting ready for our day and Wii limited to 30 min AFTER school, it takes him about 45 minutes of whining about it and then he finds other stuff to do including reading books with mommy (!!!) and a dot-to-dot book (!!!).

I came back to my computer this morning, where I had left an IM window open and found this:

You have just sent a nudge.

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often.

Katie says:

You have just sent a nudge.

Katie says:

You may not send a nudge that often.

Katie says:

You have just sent a nudge.

Katie winks:

Play “UFO”

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often.

Katie says:You have just sent a nudge.

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often

Sorry Lindy! I swear it was one of my mischievous munchkins and not me!!!

Mischievous Munchkins

Ethan on stage conducting a 40 piece orchestra in front of 350 people. Jared fully attentive sitting up in his seat, somewhat tense, complaining he’s bored. Matthew asleep in the chair cushioned by our many rain jackets.

We went to a free concert for children by the Peninsula Symphony at the nearby College of San Mateo last week. We had to call ahead for the free tickets. Grandma Penny and Grandpa Jim came down from Berkeley to go with us.

It was a great program for the kids. Short pieces were introduced by the conductor. They started with Eine Klein Nacht Music, which is just a small group of strings, but then the entire orchestra came out. 40 pieces maybe?

For the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique the conductor, talented and friendly Jessica Bejarano, first described the piece’s story – the composer is walking to the gallows, then he sees his true love for just a few sweet bars of music, then we hear the guillotine fall and head hit the floor and bounce (eegads!), and then the crowd cheers! The orchestra played these moments separately first, then played the entire piece through.

Then the conductor asked for a volunteer conductor from the audience. Who’s the first person to volunteer for anything? Ethan, of course. And she picks him! He jumps up and goes bounding down the steps of the theater. Does he walk to the stairs to get up on to the stage? No, he leaps on to the stage. The conductor, who had been giving instructions to the orchestra,, turns to look forhim and is surprised when he’s already at her feet ready to go!

She gives him a quick posture check – arms up! They start midway through the piece. Ethan conducts with his entire body, bending his legs to the music, his arms waving, feeling the beat and intensity, loving every second!

We find out afterwards that the guest conductor was only supposed to go 16 bars, but everyone was haivng so much fun that she let him go through to the end!

A neighboring audience member offered to email me pics. What a good samaritan! He got some great ones! I especially love to see how happy the musicians are. They seem to enjoy it as much as Ethan! I think I enjoyed it the most though.

And Matthew slept through the whole thing.

Bow, Maestro!

Many thanks to the Peninsula Symphony for this wonderful childrens’ event!

Tonight we were outside and looked up at the half or so moon. There was a giant cirle around it.

I described it as a giant ring of faint cloud in a perfect circle with the moon at its center.

Matthew described it as Santa’s belt.

Ethan said it was the eye of a giant storm that would hit in 10 minutes.

Jared thought it was a meteor belt like the one in our solar system.

Still waiting for Astronomy Jim to call us back and explain it.

homes… because in the old days there were no houses.

And they’re going to Macaroni Grill. Tired of turkey? What is wrong with the CA Lipka boys? I’m having leftover gravy, stuffing, turkey and cranberry relish!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving – so RELAXED. Only 7 of us. Although Nana was with us in spirit, since we had matzoh ball soup as a light lunch and, of course, her never-fail turkey recipe. Fastest turkey in the west!

Grandma Penny did most of the cooking the day before, so this birthday girl just enjoyed a puzzle and hanging out all day. I was also glad to get to watch a game of Monopoly between Grandma Penny, Grandpa Jim, Jared and Ethan. The boys are obsessed with Monopoly now and start pestering me to play as early as 6:30 a.m.

Our hearts were with Nana on this first Thanksgiving without Joel and Mommer. *sigh*

The day after T-Day we had our first annual Leftover Pie Party in our park. About 30 of us shared our leftovers and also tried to run it off with some soccer, swinging, and sand castle building. Get those kids out of the house! The weather was gorgeous. Only the visitors from NY and former Canadians were wearing coats. Go figure!

On a recent visit, Henry loved to just roam around our house gathering little toys – especially anything with wheels!

Darcie had told me he loved books almost as much as vehicles, but I hadn’t seen it in action yet.

On the first evening of their visit, I was doing something with Claire and Matthew in Matthew’s bedroom. In walks Henry, and he beelines straight for the book case of board books. He stands in front of it, stretches out both arms to the side, palms up, and says: Thank you! Thank you!

Considering he hadn’t said barely another word the entire day, I now know that this is a kid who LOVES books!

The things kids think of:

Ethan wanted to call a friend to go play tennis at noon. It’s ANOTHER hot day in San Mateo. I asked why not wait until later in the day when it’s cooler.

E: “Nah, mom, noon is the perfect time to play tennis.”

Me: “No, it’s too hot and the sun beats down on you.”

E: “Yeah, but at noon you both have equal sun in your eyes.”

Me: “Who told you that?”

E: “Nobody. I just thought of it myself.”

Do other kids think of things like that?

Ethan had his first soccer game of the season today. He played great. He only played the 2nd half, because it turned out he was wearing baseball cleats by accident. So I drove home to get another pair (15 min each way! I had to hustle!!!) We have like 8 pairs of cleats in various sizes. Glen found the other pair that looked like it would fit him and I drive it back to the soccer field. Nope! The ref says those are FOOTBALL cleats. (Apparently American football…)

Why the heck would we have football cleats???

Luckily I brought his regular sneakers too, and they let him play in those. Of course, as the only kid who hadn’t played during the first half, he looked real good out there!

Glen’s grandmother, Florence Green, died last week.

Family occassions, like a funeral or wedding or bar mitzvah, are the times when it is so hard to be far away from family. Those are times when you learn so much about the strength of your family members, about their values for better or worse. Those are the times when you see their faces at their most happy and most sad. Those are the times you remember the memories and make new ones. But not if you aren’t there.

Glen and I have made the commitment that our family vacations (in other words, traveling budget and time away from work) have to be spent with family and that we must commit to those big, meaningful celebrations of life and mournings of death. We want the boys to know their family at the good and bad times, see their faces happy and sad, and hear about the past and help create the future.

Ethan and Jared started school 2 days after Mommer died. Thank god (literally?) for the jewish tradition of shiva. It is such a civilized, meaningful way to deal with losing someone – multiple days to visit and mourn and remember with family and friends. Glen didn’t make it for the funeral (I have no further comments), but he and Ethan went out to see his family for a shiva call.

Mommer was my grandmother-in-law, and I will never forget how she gave it to me straight. When Glen’s family was a mystery to me and so often I didn’t have a clue what I had done to offend, she would tell me. Straight out – no apologies, no sparing my feelings – and it was such a relief! I remember her distinctive voice and the way it softened over the years I knew her. The way she said “Karen,” protesting something or calling her.

Ethan, Jared and Matthew – Mommer wasn’t always the kindest person to everyone, but she was always kind to me and she loved you very much.