Kim, Greg, Maya, and Theo’s News

Maya had a birthday dinner on the actual day of her birthday (which she unfortunately missed due to a migraine), a swim party at swim america with 20 friends, and a smaller slumber party with five of her best girlfriends. Here are some pictures from her swim party:

In order to have free access to the entire pool at the swim party, kids had to pass a swim test, swimming across the pool and back unaided. I was nervous that the party would be a huge disappointment and humiliation for Theo because he would not be able to pass the swim test. (Learning to swim has been a challenge for him.) But he stepped up his game and totally surprised me, swimming beautifully with arms, legs, and breathing, and receiving the coveted wrist band that gave him full access to the whole pool. Theo was the last kid to be tested, and my favorite moment of the party was when all Maya’s friends watched and cheered for Theo as he swam, yelling “Go Theo! Yay Theo!” What an amazingly kind, supportive group of kids!

Maya and Theo have been taking weekly piano lessons for a month now, and both are really loving it. Here are a few snapshots of them with their teacher, Miss Ashley. My favorite sound in the house now is hearing them play, especially when they sing along. Maya’s current favorite song is Alouette. If I sing it slowly, she’ll let me sing along as she plays. I bought a keyboard, which i’ve set up in the guest room, and the kids have been practicing every day.

Here is some recent artwork by Maya and Theo that I finally had a chance to scan in.

Maya’s is a hamster superhero. She told me she listed two ages because one is in hamster years, and the other in people years.

Theo’s is a letter to his parents.

It says in Spanish, “Dear parents, In school, I like recess and Ben and balls and Sra Ramirez (his teacher) and my friends and painting. In school, I like to play and to eat and to look and to run and to draw and to read. With love, Theo

7 year-old Theo’s latest obsession is tennis. He is constantly carrying his racquet around, bouncing balls off walls inside the house. (I told him the only rules are he can’t knock anything off the walls, and he can’t hurt or frighten our very old dog.) He confirmed his love of tennis (and perhaps a gift for marketing) when he informed me yesterday, “Mom, endless amusement is provided by a tennis ball.”

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.)