Gametes In Love

Last year, for Thanksgiving my sister and her husband came up for a visit. Both are Pokemon Go players, and they asked for a day trip to Pier 39 so they can play. Shane and Griffin had played for a little bit, and knowing that Griffin was into the game I figured it’s a good way to spend the day. Unfortunately, Shane couldn’t come with us that day, so Pokemon Go ended up on my phone for that adventure.

Since that day, Griffin asked me to spin poke-stops, and catch pokemon as I walk between my car and the office.
This expanded to me progressively reading up more about the game, and strategies of play.
It also has grown to the two of us taking occasional drives out so he can fight gyms (and now Raids).

All this has given me an opportunity to interact with him at a lever other than homework nagging and screen-time negotiations. It’s been good for us. Shane and he have sports. I won’t catch up there, but Griffin and I, for now, have this.
En route to gyms we get to talk. It’s been nice! Yesterday, for example, we talked about storming out of the house when he’s angry.

I never imagined a video game can be an “in” to relationship building, but I’ll take it. Before Storm was born, I was Griffin’s “person”. Once his brother was born though, Griffin’s world became mostly about Daddy. I love that Shane and he are so close; but I want to know he can and would come to me too.

So yeah, judge my Pokemon Go playing — I’ve got something making it worth-while.

If the kids wake up before Shane and I, they run into our room, straight to the office where they proceed to entertain themselves with the ipad (taking advantage of us still being asleep and unable to say ‘No!’). This morning, however, the two decided to entertain themselves by making balls out of rubber bands. Cuz’ you know… why not???

At one point though, after I woke up, I over-heard the following conversation:

Griffin: Who’s your favorite? Mom or Dad?
Storm: Mom!
Griffin: I like them both.
Storm: Yeah, I like them both, too.
Storm: …
Storm: We’re tweensies!

Side note: I’m “in” with Griffin! For me this is HUUUGE. I feel like it’s taken years to be viewed as equal to Daddy in his eyes. Like, no joke, years. Feels like 6-and-a-half, to be exact. But I’ll take it as long as it lasts.

Participating in Science Fair is a requirement for the 2nd grade class of our elementary school.

Griffin had long-decided that he wanted to do his project on crystal growth. Unfortunately growing crystals on their own isn’t much of a project, since there’s no hypothesis there. So he ultimately called out that he wanted to grow crystals in various temperatures to see which will grow faster.
We had some good, dinner-time conversations refining his hypothesis and experiment design, to make sure he was controlling for the right variables.
He grew his crystals in the fridge, room temperature and heating pad. The room temp and hot sample we kept in the downstairs bathroom, because there’s no natural light in that room: this was so that light didn’t become a factor in the experiment.
We had to keep Zoe out of the bathroom too — 1) so she wouldn’t get too curious and want to drink the crystal solution; 2) so that she didn’t decide to play with the sample containers. In revenge, she DID play/break one of the samples AFTER it was done, and thankfully AFTER I had photographed it for the fair poster. Life with pets and kids, man — it’s why you can never have nice stuff.

Oh — in case you’re curious, hot sample grew the fastest.

I’m raising tea lovers.

Growing up, my parents weren’t keen on allowing my sister and I to drink coffee. It was an “adult” drink, and I remember secretly ordering coffee at McDonalds with my Sausage Muffin in High School. Joke was on me though: after all the time, coffee just tastes too bitter to enjoy. To this day, no matter what I’ve tried coffee is yucky. The amount of creme and sugar it required to be palatable doesn’t make it worth it. With that said, I greatly enjoy coffee ice cream, and a few drops of coffee in my milk. Oh… and Turkish Coffee — the way my mom makes it. That is delicious (on account of the pound of sugar, I’m certain goes in it). But it’s also a rare treat I’m exposed to every few years.
Shane similarly doesn’t have a taste for coffee, which is why you won’t find coffee in our house. We DO have a coffee maker, and will go out and purchase coffee when we have relatives coming to down (we’re not tyrants! ;p)

So, tea is has mostly been for me.

A few years back, for my friend Molly’s baby-shower we went to Lisa’s Tea Treasures (in Campbell), where one of the teas served was a Butter Truffle. I found myself yearning for it, only to discover that a tea house a block away from my office sold it. Here is where Tea Time entered my world. Butter Truffle was my gateway tea into high-quality, loose-leaf teas. As I progressively went back over time to refill my stash, I would take Griffin with me. One day we sat down for high tea there. Griffin became an instant fan, and has drank tea since.
And he’s kept asking me to do high tea again… with his brother.

The week-end after Mother’s Day, on (somewhat) of a whim, we went.

Now I have two kids at home that enjoy tea. Their favorites are: Lychee, Butter Truffle, Ceylon, and White Peach Pomegranate.

We’re slowly working on Shane.

A few random memories from our tea excursion:

• Storm discovered sugar cubes. No, I didn’t let him eat any straight… though he asked… multiple times
• A lady next to us broke a tea set. Can’t say I wasn’t relived it wasn’t MY kids
• Storm also discovered Bagel Bites. He’s a fan.

Cinnamon rolls are probably one of Storm’s favorite breakfasts. I’d like to say we make them from scratch, but the Grands rolls are about as good as we get. He’s pretty happy with the outcome.

This year I saw some egg dyeing article floating around where you could dye eggs using food color and shaving foam. I got all that we needed, re-read the instructions, got the eggs ready… and this is how they turned out.

Yep! These were our dyed eggs. Even dyed them twice. Winner!!! Not!!!

But at least enjoy the pics 🙂

We had quite the adventure last week. We spent 4 nights in Florida visiting with family, walking through the world of Harry Potter and … spending an un-anticipated extra night when we missed our flight home.

Let’s start from the top.

Shane had a business conference in Orlando last week. As it just so happened it was Ski Week at school so the kids were already looking at a week off. Grammie and Papa are wrapping up their FL winter so it made sense for Shane to extend his stay past the conference and for us to fly out to meet him.

The kids did awesome traveling! I was nervous flying with both of them by myself on a red eye, but they rocked it! (Gives me hope for the 22hr journey to Bulgaria alone with them this summer). I’m so jealous I’ve what their little bodies can do with those airplane seats.

Our hotel in Orlando was pretty perfect. Separate rooms with bunk beds. A big kid pool with water playground. Close to the RV park.

I worked all day Thursday, since a PM boot camp was scheduled over the first day of our visit. The kids spent time with Grammie and Pappa though, which was great.

Second day was all about Harry Potter. It was so cool to walk through it. The world JK Rowling created is the first I have wished was real and I could witness. Alas, being a muggle, this is as good as it’s going to get. Knowing it’s not likely for us to do this again, we splurged on the park hopper pass so we can do both Diagon Alley and Hogwarts with the Hogwarts Express. Honestly, I enjoyed Diagon Alley much more. Maybe because by the time we got to Island of Adventure it was hot, I was tired and the kids were cranky.
G surprised me by declaring he didn’t want to do any rides. We kind of tricked him going on the Gringotts bank ride. After that it was a little harder to, though he admitted the ride wasn’t too bad. He just didn’t want to do anything that twirled and spined. So no Twirl and Hurl for you, kid!
One thing I will say is that I loved that US allows you to walk through Gringotts and Hogwarts even if you don’t want o do the rides. You clearly don’t go in the main attraction, but can take your time ooogling goblins and standing in awe of Dumbledore’s office.
Also, butter beer is delicious and the person that can keep supplying me with cold (not frozen) butterbeer will have my affection forever.
The kids got wands while I watched in slight jealousy because the inner me is decked out with it all.

We spend Saturday with Grammie and Pappa again, while Shane spent a few hours trying to setup a printer. He had one shipped, only to have to ship it back. Sorry, Grammie!

We were supposed to get home late Sunday night. Well, airlines had other ideas. We made our first flight fine, except for it having an issue, which delayed us leaving. And then when we landed, another plane was blocking access to our gate, so that completely made us miss our connecting flight. The kids ended up getting a free day off of school, since there weren’t any more flights back to the Bay Area that night. As much as I hate long lay overs at least I see some value in them now. Though, frankly, direct flight seem like the better bet.

Earlier this month G’s class did a trip to San Francisco’s Legion of Honor. I’ve never been and it’s been on my list of field trips to chaperone. I ended up with a group of awesome kids and we had a fun ride.

I love their class shirts. Aside from the fact that they’re the most obnoxious color (which clearly is that way for the reason of easily spotting a class member) each kid got to draw a picture of themselves, and their class is all on their shirts. Seriously, best year-book idea!

I’ve been a fan of mummies since I was about G’s age, and was super thrilled to see their mummy exhibit. Amazing to see the MRI scans of the mummified bodies.

I gave the kids in my car a treasure hunt. They had to find paintings from an 1) European artist; 2) whose name starts with a G; 3) done in oil media. Amazingly found one that fit all three criteria.

Here are some pics from our trip. Warning: photo overload.

The very next week, his class did a trip to Chinatown, in observance of Chinese New Year. As much fun as I had in Legion of Honor, I regret not doing Chinatown. Oh well! Now I know better and know what to be signing up for come S2’s class 🙂

Ah… yes — the kids have been talking about the stuff the used to do while they were in my belly. Griffin insist he was able to watch TV through my belly button. Storm, meanwhile is pretty certain he used to ride a bike in there. He drew me a picture.

Note — I am apparently not only capable of baking a human from a small collection of cells, but also have (successfully) laid out road infrastructure AND manufactured a bicycle to keep him entertained. Am I good mom, or what?

They weren’t too happy when I told them that babies pee in-utero… and then drink their own pee. That then inspired this lovely contribution 🙂

When referring to his art in the future, I shall call this his “In utero” period.

This year was the latest we hit up Eucalyptus ever. We went on Christmas Eve. Given how late it was, I was hoping it would be pretty empty, thinking people would be either at church, or with family. But… nope. It was as crowded as can be. And cold. Probably the fastest walk we’ve done on that block. But we did it. And the kids enjoyed their Eucalyptus trip hot chocolate 🙂

Hey I even got a smile out of Griffin. I had to ask for his “Now, show me you don’t want me to take your picture” look. Which you know is like… all the time. But after I kept asking for his angsty/mom you’re embarrassing me look, he couldn’t help with a smile. Gotcha!

Kids slept pretty late today. I had told them “no gifts before 7:30”, but it was 8 when Storm came down… and we had to wake Griffin up.

Oh, also, today marks the day I took one of my all-time favorite photos of my parents. Oh there will be a Christmas card of this next year. This I promise!