As a youngster, I remember summertime with the fondest of memories: lazy mornings. Playing with my friends morning to night. Roaming free in the neighborhood. Hours spent at the library reading books. Swimming at the local high school. Bike rides. Skinned knees.
Now as a parent, my memories of summertime are totally different: What can I do with the kids today to keep them from fighting? Where can I go with a 5 year old, a 3 year old and a baby?! How early do we have to leave the house in the morning to enjoy the park before the weather hits roasting temperatures? Is it really that bad to use Target and Toys R Us as an outlet for the kids? How many times can we use the indoor playground at Carl's Jr. and still keep a somewhat healthy diet?
This summer has really kicked my butt. The kids are at such different stages in their lives with very diverging interests that is was hard to stimulate all three.
Kael enjoyed lots of Science Camp this summer - 4 whole weeks! His favorite so far was the Lego Fun-gineering class where they built robots and participated in Robot Games. He started Swim Squad at his swim class, which is basically a strokes class. They have between 4-6 kids swimming in lines for 35-40 minutes straight, working on their strokes. We're talking 25 laps or so. It's crazy -- and best of all, he enjoys it.
Malia has graduated to the next level at her dance studio. She's really enjoying it however it's at a very awkward time so I'm not sure how that's going to pan out once school starts. She's done a couple of weeks of summer camp just to break up the monotony of Mom and Taede, and she's really enjoyed the time away. Hmmm...
Taede is my velcro baby. No Gymboree yet although I keep saying that I will sign him up. He's a shaky napper and class times are right smack dab in the middle of naptime. His naps are kind of a religious experience to me so I do what I can to preserve it. He's taken at couple of steps here and there but won't venture any more than that before he drops down to speed crawl. He's an expert at the stairs though, and I have a feeling he's going to pitch a ginormous fit when the gate finally arrives. He's got his 2 bottom teeth in and one top tooth finally cut through. Poor guy was in agony for weeks, with drool running down his chin and arm. He is still working on the other top tooth - it's a bulging mess up there.
We have lots of good days with all the kids playing well. But we also have some dark days -- and the dark days are oh so dark. Fighting over the silliest things like Kael wanting to wear Malia's tutu (really Kael? You want to wear a purple and pink tutu?!) or Malia getting mad that Kael's storm troopers invaded her Princess Tea Party (they just want some tea, for crying out loud, just give them some tea already!). The best was when Taede crashed Malia's doll's camping trip and destroyed their camp site. It was like a scene out of Godzilla's wet dream: dolls were picked up and chewed on; Princess carriages tossed like a tornado came through; and poor Prince Charming was used like a drum stick, getting head-banged on the back of a pot. The ear shattering shrieks, the desperate attempts by Malia to save her dolls, the scolding and yelling at Taede, Malia trying to drag Taede away but not doing a great job because she's not that much bigger than him. It was hysterical. Unfortunately, she's got a long memory and if he even looks at her doll stuff now, she screams out "NO TAEDE!"
But like all good things, it must come to an end. I managed to talk Truong into coming home early a couple of days last week so we could take the kids to Disneyland to watch of couple of the late night shows. On Tuesday we did Fantasmic. Our family and about half of Orange County. Damn it was crowded. Insanely crowded. But it was a great show. The kids enjoyed it and of course Malia was completely enthralled when the Princesses came out. Their look of wonder makes everything (the huge crowds, the long wait, the lack of personal space) totally worth it. The magic still lives on, you know?
Thursday we ventured back, this time with some friends (Linda, Johnny and Audrey, Malia's BFF) to see the Aladdin Show and the Electrical Parade. My kids love watching live shows and I am going to make more of an effort to take them. Malia was especially wow'ed when Aladdin and Jasmine flew over our heads on their magic carpet. Kael watched them fly overhead, saw the cables, followed the cables up to the moving platform and said "That's how they're flying, huh? With that machine that goes back and forth." It was kind of funny, and I admit, a little sad too. I still want him to believe because he's still my baby, even at almost 6. They had the most fun at the Electrical Parade. We met up with another family (Naomi and her family) and settled down front row seat to watch the parade. The kids (all 5 of them) got along great and Naomi busted out glow bracelets which really helped with keeping them occupied. Malia had such a great time that she pitched a huge fit when it was time to leave. She kept sobbing: "I want to see more light parade! More light parade!" Ugh. It was so sad. I was game for coming back since Sunday was the last day for the parade but Truong just ignored me like I hadn't said anything. Sheesh.
That was kind of our big end of summer event since we canceled our Cancun trip. One more week until school starts so we're going hunker down and enjoy the time we have left.
Some pictures:
Kael's Robots, Gadgets and Gizmos' class. He came home every single day with some random thing he made. It was cool, but damn my counter got crowded!
Kael adding "bling" to his robot. He had so much fun added stuff to his robot that I feared it wouldn't be able to move!
Waiting his turn to Robot Wrestle.
Getting ready to rumble.
Let 'em rip!
The robots were evenly matched. Despite Kael's robot being loaded down with various items like cups, cotton balls and straws.
The Electrical Parade:
From 12 o'clock: Lauren, Audrey, Malia, Megan and Goofy Kael.
Kael, Lauren and Megan. We were literally front row seat. It was pretty awesome. Luckily we shared the space with some super nice people who had another kid the same age and everyone got along fabulously.
Tinkerbelle
Naomi ran in the middle of the street in the middle of the parade to take this shot. If you look closely, you can see me wearing a sleeping Taede in my brand new blue wrap. (Crystal - check it out!)
And no visit to Disneyland is complete without a visit from a Princess. Malia and Megan about peed in their pants when Cinderella waved at them. Luckily Malia doesn't know that there's probably 3-4 Cinderella's running around Disneyland at night working all the shows.
