Bye-bye Blankie Sweater

An old friend has been bid a (mostly) fond adieu this week. Blankie sweater (aka my sweater) first became the lovey of choice for Evie round about June 2009. Since then she has gone just about everywhere with us. Many a car has been turned around when her absence was discovered. She successfully helped Genevieve get to sleep every night and make the transition from home to preschool. She was such an essential part of our family that I purchased an (almost) twin for her so that no terrible crises would befall us. She has been chewed and unraveled, washed and dirtied and, above all loved. At some times her stench was more than even I could take... Regardless, the relationship between Genevieve and Blankie sweater is coming to an end in part because Evie is a big four year old but mostly because the chewing and rubbing of said sweater on Evie's mouth has caused her poor sensitive skin to have near constant eczema that try as I might I have not been able to treat any other way. She is not ready to abandon the thumb just yet and I am OK with that. Besides Patrick and I are both all about anti-hypocrisy in parenting and both are guilty of thumb sucking beyond the age of four...and look how well we turned out :)

Patrick's Vacation

For the past two weeks Patrick has been on "vacation". I place this time off in quotes because by most people's standards it probably does not fit their definition of vacation. He pretty much spent his first week working... finishing a pro-bono case, going out to business lunches, talking about being a lawyer to high school kids... you get the idea. Evie and I whisked him away at the end of that first week to Disneyland, which probably wasn't the most relaxing time either (especially because he had a cold...) but it certainly was fun.

Then last week he took it upon himself to completely redo our Arizona room and convert it into a space that we pretty literally never went inside of into a new playroom/living space. This was no easy feat. First he had to bring wiring from another part of the house and install a new breaker so that we could have light and air in the room. (My dad, who is pretty darn good with electricity helped him with this part) He then built a box and installed a ceiling fan in the room as well as added a light and hung my Guadalajara star (which now you can get everywhere but 12 years ago when I brought it back from Guadalajara in the strangest looking box you have ever seen, it was quite the novelty). Once the place was wired and lighted he set about sanding down and disassembling the frames for the screen and then painting them all yellow (same yellow as the living room... finally found a use for the uber eco yellow paint we accidentally bought en masse) He then hung all of the screen and put up a door and gave it a new handle. It kind of exhausts me just writing about it!


Anyway the end result is a fabulous new space that we have been taking full advantage of. We will buy a futon for it soon but in the meantime we pulled a mattress out there so we could sleep in the nice cool air. (Did I mention that ceiling fan came from our bedroom and has not yet been replaced... details, details) His level of productivity was so high there is part of me that hopes now he'll decided to change jobs every few years or so, so "we" can get another big project done :)

Disneyland!

A little over 8 years ago I told Patrick that the only thing I wanted for my birthday was a trip to Disneyland. He had never been and being the indulgent spouse he is we took off for the magical kingdom. So it should come as no surprise to you that taking my child to Disneyland has been one of those (ahem) selfish things I have been waiting to do as a parent. The time finally came this past weekend. About a month ago when Patrick decided to take some time off between his old job and new job and I had a Friday where my class was going to be canceled we decided what they heck, lets just go to Disneyland for a long weekend. Hotel rooms were booked and plans were made. Last Thursday at 7 pm we took off for California and made it as far as the state line before deciding we'd better find a place to sleep. All night driving and sunrise breakfast had been suggested but, alas, both Patrick and I must be too old, or practical... or something, for such craziness, so we settled for a Motel 8 in Quartzite AZ and a late breakfast at McDonald's.


On Friday we made it to Anaheim by noon and set out directly for Huntington Beach. A month ago I decided I needed a new "pregnancy" (aka larger) bathing suit and thought, hey, I'll more likely than not only be large and rather pregnant during swimsuit season once in my life, I mine as well get an offensively inappropriate orange string bikini... and so I did. The weather was warm enough to hang out in said suit but not nearly warm enough to swim in it so it only had a partial christening on this trip. We spent a few hours playing in the sand and watching the waves and then headed to our hotel.


We spent all day Saturday and Sunday at Disneyland with nice long breaks in the afternoon for Evie and Patrick to nap and for me to study (I am getting pretty behind and the end of the semester is nigh... so there may be a blog drought on the horizon). On Saturday Evie got dressed up in her princess dress and we headed out. We were there early enough so there weren't many people and so I proposed we check out Pirates of the Caribbean as our first ride, a personal favorite of mine that I could still go on "in my condition" This turned out to be a poor parenting choice on my part as (duh) Genevieve deemed it too scary about 1/4 way through and proceeded to talk about how much she disliked the pirates off and on for the rest of the trip... oh well. We then spent a good part of the morning with Evie playing on Tom Sawyer's island, hit the carousel then home for a long nap. In the evening we came back for more rides (including another personal favorite, the Jungle Cruise... which wasn't too scary) and a trip in to meet Mickey Mouse. We even made it until the fireworks show at 9:30. In the past 8 years Disneyland has really stepped it up a notch and the fireworks were about the most amazing I have ever seen and, personally, the highlight of my trip. As it turned out the first day of our Disneyland adventure was all about boat rides, all but one ride we went on involved a boat of some sort... Oh and a ridiculously awesome Snow White dress for Evie was purchased at the end of the day (I'm a total sucker... I know)


At the recommendation of some Aussies we chatted with while Evie played on Tom Sawyer's island we booked early morning reservations at the park for breakfast with Minnie... a breakfast where an array of characters come over and visit with you while you eat. This turned out to be a really great tip and was a lot of fun for all of us (as you can see from the pictures of Patrick) Evie prepped for the day by getting all dressed up in her new costume and just looked too cute. Her favorite visitor was definitely the penguin from Mary Poppins who she hugged with a never before seen gusto. Patrick seemed to really dig the Winnie the Pooh characters....


From breakfast we went to ride on the tea-cups for the first of what would be three times that day and then to wait in line and meet with the princesses figuring earlier would be better. There are always three to meet with but you don't know which you will have but Genevieve lucked out and got to see what she deemed her favorite that morning... Ariel. It was really sweet the way they interacted with her and was another really special thing that I (no great surprise) had never experienced at Disneyland. After an extra long afternoon break we went back for one last romp, beginning with the Haunted Mansion. After the Pirates problem I wasn't too sure about it, but made Evie fully aware of what she was getting herself into, and she informed me that she was "Not afraid of ghosts Mommy, I have one in my classroom, I know that ghosties are nice." (A long story...of which I don't quite know all of the details) Anyway, indeed she is not afraid of ghosties, and in fact once we were done proclaimed the Haunted Mansion to be her favorite ride.... Pirates bad, ghosts good.. I guess you just never know. The evening culminated with the fancy Fantasmic show and then back to the room and off to the land of nod...at oh around 11 pm. This morning we packed it up and made the long trek back to AZ, hearts full of happiest place on earth. (Almost full enough to still be joyous after 8+ hours of driving and multiple almost accidents with crazy CA drivers who seem to think it is OK to change lanes 2 or more at a time and not look where they are going)

4th Birthday Party

As Evie was going to bed last night she said to me, "Mommy, I think it is really great to be 4." She is just a few days into fourdom but I imagine that her birthday party certainly contributes to the continuing greatness of four. We decided to have the shindig in our backyard again, and really lucked out this year. On Saturday it was raining all day and very cold (last weekend it was in the 90s, this weekend in the 50-60s). Sunday the sun came out and it warmed up to the low 70s... just perfect for an outdoor fairytale birthday party! We rented a jumping castle again and of course did the whole pinata thing (obligatory in my world). I bought crowns for the kids to make and they loved playing both in the jumping castle and in Evie's room on her castle bed... but the best part for me was the cake.

Four years after Evie's birth I have finally managed to make a cake I am proud of. (See previous attempts here and here... and last year I didn't even try...) That's not to say that I think I have arrived at my cake apex... oh no I am just getting my feet wet in this world o' cakes my friends, but it is to say that I finally managed to make one that a) didn't have lumpy or crunchy frosting and b) wasn't gray (although I planned for that possibility by making a castle) As you can see I wasn't setting the bar very high. Regardless, the cake was a hit and the towers proved to have many uses, including enabling Evie to eat her piece like a Renaissance-fair style turkey leg... awesome.


The invitation asked the invitees to dress up so Patrick and I figured we had better dress up too. (I of course only managed to score these costumes on Sunday at 1 pm... but better late than never...) So we both ran around as almost (my Mom and Claudia joined in) the only adults dressed up. I looked pretty silly in my costume and think I may need to wear it again and then get Patrick to dress in black with a black flat hat and recreate my favorite Van Eyck painting, which is all I could think of every time I looked at myself in the mirror.

In the end we must have had 20 kids at the house and at least as many adults. It was quite the crowd, and I must admit by the end of the day I was feeling like maybe 25 week pregnant ladies should not spend so much time on their feet (not to mention miss my Sunday nap...) but all in all a great party is worth it!

Happy Birthday Genevieve!

Four years ago today Genevieve Marie Lacroix first made her appearance on this world stage. A brief rundown as told (mostly) by her of her favorites at the ripe young age of four (I interviewed her as we went to bed last night).

Favorite color: "purple and green, all mixed up together" (umm I think that makes black of some sort... but it does definitely seem to be her favorite way to paint... all mixed up together)
What do you want to be when you grow up? "A doctor" (when I asked her what kind of doctor she replied "a doctor of people")
Favorite food(s): mac and cheese and noodle salad (a Vietnamese salad I make with carrots, cucumbers, rice noodles and fancy tofu... the fancy tofu is her favorite)
Favorite drink: Juice
Favorite book: Tintin
Favorite thing to do on the weekend: "Go to birthdays"
Best friends: Lydia, Garbriel, Alexandra, Nanan, Daddy and Scarlett (after I asked if I was her friend she said "oh of course and don't forget Mommy")
Favorite animal: Anteater
Favorite song: Allouetta
Favorite movie: "The one where flies go into space." (aka Fly Me to the Moon, I'd also like to note for the record that we watch a whole lot of Mary Poppins and Hans Christian Anderson by her request)
Favorite toy: Bunny (aka the bunny Patrick fetched for her with the claw machine last Saturday)
If the baby is a boy we should name him: Alexander
If the baby is a girl we should name her: Ixandra (she also suggested the baby, boy or girl, could be named "french fry, because that would be silly")

Birthday week

Genevieve's 4th birthday week officially began on Friday with a surprise birthday party at her school for her and her friend Lydia (whose birthday was this weekend). Evie's birthday turns into a week because this week is spring break for her school so her "school birthday" had to be celebrated ahead of time and her real birthday is on a Wednesday this year making it impossible to have the main event on her birthday proper.


Her teacher has been planning the event for a few weeks now and I came over too for the festivities (and brought some party hats and skirts for the girls to enliven the festivities a bit). Evie's teacher Isabelle decorated the tables put out glitter, brought cookies and even painted their faces like kitties and Lydia's parents sent in some tie-dyed cupcakes for everyone. The preschool is a pretty small crowd on Friday so after the initial surprise the kindergarten French class came to join in on the fun too. When I came early for the surprise she practically pushed me back out the door saying "No Mommy you can't pick me up yet, there is going to be a surprise!" When I explained that I was part of the surprise she got really excited, it was too cute. I am so lucky to have such a flexible schedule these days that I can just take off and go over to her class for a birthday party (it was also very fortuitous that my 12:30-3:00 class was canceled for the day.)

Language Fair

Saturday was Evie's first Southern Arizona Language Fair, a major annual event for the kids at her school because it is all about kids reciting poems/preforming songs in languages other than English. For the past few months she has been working on a song to sing with her class up on the big stage and a poem to recite by herself in front of judges. She worked really hard and had them both memorized really well. On Thursday at her school exhibition though she refused to sing or recite either one for the parent attendees. Patrick and I really wanted her to give it a try on Saturday, seeing how she had worked so hard on both. We decided that we would give her a little incentive in the form of a trip to Chuy's afterward if she gave, particularly the poem, a try. We sweetened the deal by saying if she tried we'd go to Chuy's but if she did really well we'd go to Chuy's and we'd give her a dollar for games and/or the toy machines. I came well prepared with plenty of snacks (a hungry Evie is a totally unwilling/uncooperative Evie) and she went dressed in her nicest uniform (the only one without copious amounts of stains saved just for such an occasion). The first event was the song. She and her classmates waited patiently for about a half hour while all the other kids at her school performed their songs. This one I caught on tape:



She thought it was pretty cool to go up on stage and was then excited for the solo poem performance. We went to a classroom and then had to sit quietly while another 10 kids before her recited or tried to recite their poems. Most of the kids in her class got too scared but her teacher is so great, she got right up with them and helped them recite it and in the end I think just about all of them made it through at least a little of the poem. Evie was getting antsy and finally, second to last and almost 45 minutes later, her turn was called. I didn't realize how nervous I was about the whole thing until she got up, stood in front of the judges said her name, her school and then recited her poem with a nice big voice and a pretty little accent. The whole thing made me cry (it must be the pregnancy hormones... right?!) We were both so proud of her and it was great to see the look on her face of sheer delight when she was finished for actually accomplishing it. I didn't take a video of the poem, I didn't want to distract her and honestly just wanted to watch her do it more than preserve it for posterity per se.

We of course took her to Chuy's for the full treatment, quesadilla and dollar for games and all. Lucky for Evie her Dad is a savant when it comes to the claw machine and needed only 50 cents to not only get her a stuffed animal but exactly the one she wanted. She is still carrying around that 50 cent bunny and I have a suspicion it will be a favorite for a very long time.