Kinda Like Brisket

One of my most favorite things that my mom cooks is Brisket. My mom will be the first to admit she is not a big cook. But her brisket? Don't even get me started about how amazing it is. I'm a foodie and appreciate taste whenever and wherever I can get it. And life is too short to eat crappy-tasting food. So when I tell the kids, "Trust me. Try this. You won't be disappointed" and they don't believe me, it's pretty frustrating.

So, last year, Holden got brave enough to try the juicy, flavorful beef dish and he was hooked. Three servings later, he leaned back with a greasy, satisfied smile.

How I feel about food is a lot like how Kevin feels about adventure. Sure, the unknown can be scary. You're not sure if it will be good. But, sometimes, all it takes is a little taste and you know you're in for something wonderful. And, as every parent across the generations have said: "You never know until you try."

We actually were naive in thinking that introducing Holden to one of Kevin's favorite adventure activities, rock climbing, would be easy-peasy. Hello? Did it not take the kid years to put a piece of meat in his mouth? But, Holden has been asking for a while to go rock climbing, and we obliged. We ditched Riley with Grandma Bonnie so we could spend some QT with our oldest and his ever-growing adventurous spirit at the rock gym.

Not sure if it was all the safety tips we peppered him with in the car on the way there, or the overwhelming feeling one gets when they first walk into a two-story room covered with slate gray rock-like walls and colorful protrusions ... but this was what Holden looked like from pretty much the moment we got there:

While Holden's really growing out of his senstive crying jags that were a big part of his earlier childhood, he still gets in these moods where reasoning and discussion are just not gonna happen. He never really told us what was getting him all worked up that day. But he refused to put on his harness or get near the wall.

We decided, though, to take advantage of the opportunity to climb since it's been so long. And we figured he'd see that even MOM could do it, so he could, too. But for the next hour, he stuck close to whichever of us was belaying. At first, he stayed quiet and seemed to just be taking it all in. Little by little, he started asking questions, and offering B-matter and advice from the ground.

Finally, I asked him to toe on up to the wall and just put one hand on a hold. And then another. Then, you know, just put your foot on this little guy a few inches off the ground. Then that other foot can go right up there. And before you knew it, his little monkey instinct kicked in and up he went, forcing Kevin to pluck him off the wall about five-feet up.

Into his harness he went and he spent the next hour repeatedly climbing half-way up the wall.

He never made it to the top, but it doesn't matter. He was proud of himself and had a blast, and we were pleased that he tried something new, tested himself and shown his taste for adventure is just as strong as his taste for Brisket.

Bringing Down Da House

We learned only the day before the Washington Child Development Center's annual Winter Performance and Party that Riley would be singing a solo at the show. If this had been Holden? We not only would've known about the song, but about what everyone else was doing, wearing and thinking. Riley kinda plays things close to the vest. His teacher told us that she asked for a volunteer and Riley piped right up. He got to choose whatever song he wanted, and he waivered for a day between ABC's (his favorite) and Elephant Song. Elephant Song is a lot like Train Song and Airplane Song. These are songs that exist only in Riley and he can just go and go, ad-libbing like you wouldn't believe. Luckily, he chose the ABC's:




Sorry for all the shaking. I was laughing my ass off.

My Two Front Teeth

It looks like all Holden will be wanting for Christmas is his two front teeth. His baby teeth are very loose and if you look closely, you can see the big ones coming in behind.

Trains!

Denise had to work on Friday so I took the boys on a train ride. We took the green line to the blue line to the red line to Union Station Downtown. It's the best way to turn a 30 min drive into an hour and a half trip. Our goal was to see the big trains at the train station, but it was really just about the trip. We did this a couple of years ago and the boys didn't even make it up the ramp before they were terrified by the noise of the big trains. This time it was still a little loud but they loved the big trains. We may have to come up with a little longer trip soon.


As we were walking back to the car, we had a special treat. There was a freight train parked under the Metro Link station. It was even better when we got to watch it go by the house a little later.

Vroomin' for some brain freeze

This is how we spend a typical weekend afternoon:

U2? I, too!

It was pure chance, and luck, and love, that we somehow scored tickets to THE BIGGEST musical event of all time. But when Jami called to say she had four free tickets to that weekend's U2 concert at the Rose Bowl, we couldn't possibly say "no." No rock God would ever forgive such blasphemy. What followed was several days of frantic babysitting and parking arrangements. Totally. Worth. It.
Bono (not bow-know, mom) took advantage of his audience of 100,000 fans who were present and another seven million or so watching live to make sure this wasn't just a fabulous musical show, but a platform to communicate and educate the world about human rights violations and politics. You gotta respect that someone has that much clout and uses his power smartly and wisely.

Halloween Spooktacular

In more Halloween preparation news ... Riley somehow got obsessed with "bider webs" and wanting to make our house "pooky." Amazingly, Target still had piles of the fake spider webs a few days before Halloween. Unfortunately, I forgot how hard and annoying it is to make that stuff stick and look decent and I didn't count on gusty windstorms coming through that whole week. Ohs wells.
We learned from past mistakes and held off on carving the pumpkins until two days before Halloween. In past years, we eagerly dove in, and ended up with a mushy orange-and-green mess come Oct. 31.







The day before Halloween, the kids wore their costumes to school and had a parade on the playground. As if Halloween didn't already seem to be dragged out enough this year, but we had to deal with two days of costume wearing and junk food.
Not sure what was going on with Riley. Despite that he eagerly wore his Thomas the Train costume several times in the weeks leading up to Halloween, he refused to put it on at school and, instead, became a whiny, clingly mess. Here he is in the parade with one of the teaching assistants, Miss Kathy.
If you only knew how many times that day I had to tell someone to not walk around with a bucket on their head:
Finally ... the big night. It didn't help that it was a slow Saturday and BEFORE we turned our clocks for the end of Daylight Savings Time. It seemed like sunset would NEVER come. We actually began trick-or-treating with some friends just as the sun was going down - we couldn't hold 'em off any longer. Luckily, Riley was more game about his costume. No kid's gonna get candy wearing only schleppy jeans and a T-shirt, we told him.


Not sure who won this staring contest:

Continuing the Countdown to Halloween

A couple months before Halloween, Holden started thinking about what he wanted to be. For a long while, it was Captain America, because that superhero had a shield, and he could use a shield to fend off the evil forces of Riley. But, after our trip to the races, he wanted to be a race car driver. Somewhere along the line, he decided that a Green Power Ranger was the way to go.

We went to the Halloween costume store and he thoughtfully perused his choices. No race car drivers and no Green Power Rangers. It came down to Captain America, a Red Power Ranger, something Star Wars and The Flash. With a finger pressed to his lip and a lot of back and forth, he decided on The Flash. His reasoning? The Flash is fast, and so is he.

Riley's costume decision was a lot simpler. He had a choice between the Batman costume Holden had worn the previous two years and Thomas the Train, which he wore last year. Without hesitation, he picked Thomas, and stuck to it ... until his school costume parade, anyway.

A couple weeks before Halloween, they started wearing their costumes at every opportunity, even while doing mundane tasks like watching Go Diego,Go!:In keeping with the Halloween Spirit, we teamed up with the Messingers for a sunset outing to a Culver City pumpkin patch. Holden's pictured here with his class' Brown Bear, who we had to take care of for the weekend. Holden could care less:
Bounce house, always a hit:


We let them each pick one more activity. Riley, of course, chose a train ride:
Holden opted for a pony ride:
Hallie chose face painting:

Not Nearly As Many Mullets As You'd Expect

One week after we saw the planes, we were lucky that our neighbors gave us free passes to the Auto Club Speedway's NASCAR race in Pomona. Can you just feel the testosterone of our October?Yeah, he's still scared of noise. Riley had his hands over his ears the entire day, even though he had ear plugs in. We arrived early to watch the qualifying in the fog and had a chance to see what else happens at NASCAR besides race cars.

Late in the day, the main event began. We only saw 10 of the gazillion or so laps, as we had Brenny's birthday party that night, as well as Holden's soccer game ... and everyone needed a nap.

Negative Ghostrider, the Pattern Is Full

Rewinding a bit.... we always tried to keep track of when the air shows were coming, what with the kids loving planes and all. When the annual Miramar Naval Air Station show in San Diego came, Holden was off being a cowboy at the San Dimas Rodeo with Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Steve. So it was just us, Riley, Grandma Bonnie and a few hundred thousand of our closest friends on the air field.In a bitter ironical twist, the loudest kid EVER is scared of noise. Things we should have thought about before going to see the jets fly at supersonic speeds. It also didn't help that a fiery battle simulation left him scared and we were doing all this at nap time:



He did enjoy going to see the big planes:
And a red Popsicle makes everything better:

But he couldn't hang on and took a half-hour nap on Grandma Bonnie:
He awoke in time to see the Blue Angels a fly, which was an amazing thing to see: