Kim, Greg, Maya, and Theo’s News

For the last day of 2011, my friend Kathryn and I decided to take the kids to Point Reyes National Seashore. The drive was longer than we expected (about 3 hours each way), and we filled the day with a trip to the visitor center (where the kids got to see a seismograph machine built by their great-granddaddy’s company), a reconstructed Miwok village, and then Drake’s Beach. Drake’s Beach was a gorgeous sandy strip where (despite the 40something degree weather) the kids played in the waves and dug in the sand til they were totally drenched and had sand stuck in every crevice of their bodies! After Drakes Beach, we changed the kids to dry clothes and then caught the shuttle to see Point Reyes Lighthouse. When we got there, Maya was pooped, but Theo was somehow inspired by the 300 steps down to the lighthouse, so – not to be outdone by her brother- Maya rallied, and we walked down 300 steps, looked around a little at the waves crashing on the cliffs, imagined what it must have been like to live on that remote corner of the world as a lighthouse keeper, searched but failed (alas) to see any migrating grey whales, and then marched back up the 300 steps. We then waited in the cold wind for about 20 minutes for the shuttle bus. At that point, it was nearly 5 pm, and we had to decide whether we would try to see the one other attraction we’d been hoping to see – the elephant seals.

Poor Maya was absolutely pooped and freezing and asked if we could go home, but the other three of us thought we might not be back at Point Reyes for a long time and didn’t want to miss the seals. So we encouraged (read, forced) her to go. We got to Castle Rock and from there it was a approximately quarter mile walk along a cliffside path to reach the overlook where you could see the elephant seals. The sun was setting, it was getting even colder, and Maya faltered again, but Kath and I encouraged her, saying, “I know it’s cold, but you can do it.” And Theo (who is usually a much less gungho guy than Maya, much more content to stay home reading and doing legos than to pursue adventure) shocked the heck out of me by BEAMING and blurting out, “Let’s go, Maya. This could be an EXPERIENCE of a LIFETIME!” So hysterical to have my studious, cautious guy urging on my usually gungho girl by realizing seeing this amazing natural phenomenon in the fading light of day could be the “experience of a lifetime.” Thanks, Theo.

(So we saw the seals–even Maya thought they were incredible in their huge, blubber covered, hulking, croaking glory — then made the long trek back home, making it just 10 minutes ahead of 9 pm, when we celebrated East Coast new years and put those tired kids to bed.)

Theo lost another tooth (another on the bottom, on his left this time)! He was so excited about losing it that he waited until it was just moderately loose and then pulled it out with his own fingers at school. I only got to see the reenactment, but this evidently showed great bravery and impressed his fellow 1st graders.

Theo and Maya have both been reading a lot of comic books lately, with their favorites being Superman and Calvin and Hobbes. (Theo loves to pronounce Calvin and Hobbes as if it’s written in Spanish, Kal-Veen Y O-Bes. It’s hysterical.)

I threw a little party for 11-11-11. Theo, upon tasting the chips I’d put out, said, “Mom, these chips are swell.” I replied, “Swell? Theo, where’d you learn that word?” “Superman,” he replied matter of factly. It cracks me up to hear a 6-year old boy in 2011 unselfconsciously incorporating 1940s slang into his speech. It just shows you what natural magnets for language small children are. As another example, Theo used the term, “measly punk” at breakfast this morning. I can’t remember for sure, but my instinct tells me this was directed at his elder sister and not meant kindly. I again exclaimed, “Theo, MEASLY PUNK?? Where’d you learn that?” He answered “Superman, Mom. Butch Grogan says, ‘You measly punk, I’ll blow your head off.’” It was eerie how he’d effortlessly memorized the dialogue. The other surreal part of this moment was that Theo, having never heard the name, “Butch,” pronounced it as he had sounded it out himself, “Butch” rhyming with “much”. It was so cute, made me proud of my excellent reader sounding out unfamiliar names…

Both kiddos went down a little early tonight. Maya got to have a sleepover with her friend Lilly and spend all day Saturday at a horse show with Lilly and her dad. Then today we took them to fisherman’s wharf, the Aquarium of the Bay, and out to lunch in San Francisco, so she is pooped.

Theo’s very very very loose tooth finally came out this morning. I actually got to see it happen, at just about 7 am. He stepped from his room, wearing his pajamas. I walked toward him to say good morning, and then he made a face and then gently spit something into his hand. My first thought was that he had been surreptitiously eating Halloween candy in his room and was spitting it out in penance, but then I saw in his hand, a perfect tiny tooth. It now sits in the tooth pillow awaiting the tooth fairy.

Maya wrote some animal poems just for fun. It’s cool to see her starting to get comfortable writing and spelling in English. My favorite is the fishes one, reading it blew away my troubles for the moment.

For context, Furball is the very well-loved hamster belonging to Maya’s 3rd grade class. We got to have him come home with us one weekend.