The Smiling Soccer Player

This was Skip's first season playing AYSO soccer. Let's just say he took it pretty seriously. He wanted to wear his uniform every single day and he was pretty serious about getting a good night's sleep the night before the game.

Despite this focus, the funny thing about Skip was that he had a big grin on his face the whole time he was playing. Other parents definitely commented on this, too. He was having a great time out there.

Because he just made the cut-off this year, he was a full year younger than some of the other boys. So he wasn't the best player on the team, but he definitely had good ball-handling skills, a good understanding of the game, and most importantly, a true joy about competing!

Kind of hard to tell from these photos, but you can sort of see a smile on his face. Zadie, I'm sorry we have no photos of you playing this season (or of Tori coaching you!), but it's only because there was a mom on Skip's team who sent me these photos! Sure wish I would have taken a picture of Coach Tori and her daughter.

Skip's Bike Skills

Skip learned how to ride a bike when he was two-and-a-half years old. He's a little bit small for his age, but extremely coordinated. Someone recently described him as being "very aware of where his body is in space," which is an interesting way to think about it.

Before it started getting dark so early recently, almost everyday when I'd come home from work Skip would be outside riding his bike on the sidewalk in front of our house. It's just a little strip he's allowed to do by himself, but he would madly pedal back and forth like it was a really important race or something. Of all the kids, he's the least interested in independent play, but riding his bike is definitely an exception.

So I'm posting these two photos in honor of Skip's mad bicycling skills!

More bicycling feats from Kate K. on Vimeo.

Skip's ramp skills from Kate K. on Vimeo.

Pomegranate Season

It's pomegranate season and we've been relieving all the neighborhood trees of their heavy, heavy burden. There was a nice one on city property that Tori climbed into one night for a whole bagful and also some neighbors who sent us a few bags. People seem to be letting them rot otherwise. We've loved adding them to salads and just eating them as a stand-alone snack.

Pomegranates were the one fruit I absolutely loved as a kid, I think because it was so rare that we had them.

I think this photo Tori took is beautiful in so many ways. Quite the bounty (and the mess).

Halloween 2013

This is the first year we've let one of our kids choose what they want to be for Halloween. Usually we give them a list of acceptable options and they pick within that, but Zadie really wanted to do her own thing. She wanted to make her own costume so she spent about two weeks making her robot outfit and finding random bits of silly stuff to glue gun onto the box.

We'll probably have to stop being so controlling about Halloween costumes soon, but Tori pretty much requires that they either use their imagination or let us use it on their behalf. We vetoed Skip's desire to be Batman and Charlie's desire to be Superman -- sorry, no superheroes! But when they older and care more, I promise we'll cede the battle. At this point they feel passionately about it for five minutes and then forget all about it.

Skip's In-N-Out costume was Tori's idea, of course while we were dining at that fine establishment. I chose this photo of the back of Skip because it shows she even got the oversized safety pin for the apron (for those poor out-of-staters who don't have In-N-Out Burger, it's a key part of the uniform!). He looked pretty legit. She made the red apron out of a red re-usable bag and just cut out the bottom and tied it around his wait with the arms from the bag. She also got a little In-N-Out lapel pin.

Charlie was the Tin Man this year, which is a homemade costume that Zadie wore twice and Skip has worn once. We were just thankful he actually agreed to keep the thing on because he's pretty stubborn about wearing costumes (and everything else!).

Tori's mom Linda came down from Washington to celebrate her favorite holiday with us. Sure wish I had asked her to get in the photos!

Missing Child

Every night before we go to bed, we go into the kids' rooms and check on them to make sure they've got their blankets on them and whatnot (by "we" I mostly mean Tori!). This particular night when Tori went into the boys' room, one of the kids was missing...

Missing child from Kate K. on Vimeo.

Granddaddy Hal In Effect!

For a variety of reasons, I haven't been seeing as much of my parents that past six months as I would have liked, so I texted them Thursday and asked if they could come up this weekend. As they were mulling it over, I texted my dad that, though I wasn't trying to lay a guilt trip, Saturday night was the school's Father/Daughter dance and Zadie was really hoping he would come and take her to it! I think that may have sealed the deal.

My dad took his role very seriously. Both he and Zadie dressed up nicely and apparently they had a great time. To our utter surprise, Zadie danced all night long and even on stage (none of our kids are into dancing in public). Zadie actually said she was fine with Tori or I taking her to the dance and that she wouldn't be embarrassed (I'm sure that's coming in a few years!), but she was much more excited to have my dad take her.

Skip was devastated when he learned that he was going to be left out of the whole experience since he's not a student at the school. He cried and cried, until I told him we could call my dad and ask him if we would take Skip on a "special trip." So my dad took Skip out to breakfast early this morning and they got all decked out in cowboy gear -- those are Skip's brand-new chaps that my parents just gave him.

The kids were very happy to have these special experiences with my dad. Sorry to leave you out of this post, Mom, but this one was all about Dad. You know how the kids adore you!

Superhero Brothers

Love the joy on their faces in this photo from a few months ago. And I can't believe Charlie was actually catching that much air. 

That's all. Just wanted to post this fun photo.

What Kind of Man Will Skip Be?

Skip cuddling with his new cowboy belt (with silver belt buckle!) from his Granddaddy Hal and Grandma Denise. The Wrangler jeans are from his moms.

Skips's new shark helmet from Grandma Linda. You can also see the planes he got from Aunt Susie.

Skip turned four last week and we had another Polaris birthday celebration. I've been thinking this past week about what kind of guy he'll become. It's impossible to predict, but here are some of the things I know about him so far:

• Big-hearted. Of all my kids, he's the most likely to share a toy or give a bite of his ice cream to another kid. He especially looks out for his little brother.
• Loves the pack. This is Linda's saying, but it's true that Skip is most happy running around with a bunch of other kids. He's extremely social. By the same token, he's the least interested in quiet time or independent play.
• Runs wide open and sideways. His energy level is significantly higher than the other kids and his favorite activities are tackling and wrestling. I think (and hope) he'll love team sports. 
• Call him Steady Skip. All kids have their ups and downs, but you can count on Skip to be as consistently happy as any child I know. He almost always has a big smile on his face.

Skip got his first report at pre-school the other day. The results weren't too shocking -- basically he got really high marks for all of the social categories (shows empathy, takes turns, etc.), but didn't do so hot in categories about his ABCs and numbers (more from a lack of interest than a lack of ability!). I'm perfectly happy with the results. His teacher wrote "Skip is very imaginative and friendly!"

He says he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. He already thinks he's a cowboy. We'll see about that, but I do feel confident that he'll be a kind, loving, and a little bit bad-ass.

Skip Thinks He's Getting a Horse for His Birthday

Skip's first time on a horse. This was Sleepy.

Zadie with my dad's cousin Mark, who owns a working ranch and is a roper with excellent roping horses (that hopefully my kids' didn't screw up!)

I think I've mentioned before that Skip really think he's a cowboy. My dad outfits him with Wranglers, boots, and cowboy shirts and I have to admit he pulls it off pretty well. He's got the swagger and everything. Sadly for him, he lives in L.A. with parents who have zero equestrian ties and so he's about as far off from being a cowboy as he can get. I feel kind of worried about when that reality sets in.

He actually had his first experience "riding" a horse when my parents took the kids to the ranch recently (I think Zadie sat on a horse when she was younger for a bit). My dad's cousin Mark and his wife were kind enough to go through a great deal of hassle and hauled horses down from their ranch to meet up with Skip and Zadie and their cousins. And then they let all the kids take turns riding the horses in the corral.

Both Skip and Zadie absolutely loved this experience and it was the highlight of their whole trip. They came home talking about good ol' Walter and Sleepy, their two favorite horses.

Now Skip thinks he's getting a horse for his birthday. My dad thinks it's karma since I badgered my parents so much about buying me a horse. I was very persistent and truly couldn't understand how they could stand in the way of my life's calling. Not to mention my older brother had a horse named Lightning when I was very little (maybe someday I'll devote a blog post to all the really cool experiences my older brother got to have that I'm still very jealous of!). Anyway, I've been trying to explain to Skip that there's no way in the world that he's getting a horse for his birthday, so hopefully he won't be disappointed.

If so, I blame my father.

Granddaddy Hal's Influence

My dad imparting his fishing expertise to Zadie.

The fishing gang. Tori stayed home with Charlie while he napped.

I like how my dad takes his role as one of my kids' male role models very seriously. Last fall when they were babysitting our three kids for our anniversary, my dad wanted to play catch with Skip and was very disturbed that Skip is terrible at catching a ball. He asked my mom whether that was normal and apparently even Googled it. Something about my dad being driven to Google "normal age for boy to catch ball" just makes me die laughing. It's very sweet that he's so concerned about the matter. (Just for the record, Skip is really athletic but is so boisterous that he hasn't shown much interest in the focus required to actually catch a ball. But I'm determined that my kids will be well-prepared in the sports department and won't suffer from not having a dad to play catch with -- Tori and I both love sports!).

It was with these manly mentor intentions in mind that my dad really wanted to take our kids fishing at a little trout pond near our house that I had told him about. My dad was really intent on doing this fishing thing right and making sure my kids could catch a fish. Everyone around us was catching fish and for some reason we weren't having any luck, but my parents (especially my dad) were determined to catch one for the kids. You can see how serious my dad looks in the photo above.

My mom actually caught the first fish (she grew up in Alaska catching boatloads of fish!) and then finally my dad caught one. Everyone caught one except my poor nephew, who was quite frustrated. Skip and Zadie couldn't hook the fish, but they could bring them in once they were already on the line, which was triumph enough for them.

So mission accomplished. Those were some seriously expensive trout, but my dad got to give the kids a fishing lesson and I think the adults enjoyed it even more than the kids!

A Better Way to Describe Skip

My previous attempt to describe Skip at age three felt very inadequate, so maybe these photos will do a better job.  I think they capture his personality pretty well.

Skip Turns Three in the Polaris

King of the Polaris (for the day at least)!

Sharing his birthday cake with his dear Uncle Hank.

Skip's birthday is July 3rd and his Uncle Hank's birthday is July 5th, so we now celebrate their birthdays together at our annual 4th of July trip to Tori's Dad's house in the Central Valley.  It's funny to think that three years ago, right after our big weekend of fun at his house, we came home and got the very exciting phone call to pick Skip up from the hospital.

This year, Skip said he wanted to have his birthday party in Grandpa Mike's Polaris (which he thinks is extremely cool), and so I took him away for a few minutes while Tori decorated it.  My parents gave him a great cowboy outfit (boots, hat, and Wranglers), Grandma Linda gave him a new scooter, and we gave him a boogie board and his first piggy bank so that he can start earning money for his chores like his big sister.  He also got some little motorcycles from Uncle Leo and Aunt Katie.  I think he was pretty happy with his presents, but much more focused on his cake, that's for sure.

Skip has definitely matured over the past year, mostly in terms of being a much kinder and gentler big brother to Charlie.  Although he still occasionally tortures him, he mostly is very protective of him and enjoys playing with both of his siblings.  People often say "Well, he's all boy, isn't he?"  I'm not big on cliches when it comes to parenting, but in this case it's pretty dead-on.  He has tons of energy and he loves to "run wide open and sideways," as my dad would say.  He's also exceptionally athletic and coordinated.  And he has beautifully sweet and loving eyes.

We love you, Skip!

One More Memory from Port Angeles

I always say that I love my children the most when we're at the beach.

So when I got to pick the outing for my last day in Port Angeles, I chose a trip to the mouth of the Elwha River and the surrounding "beach."  It's not really a beach from a Southern California perspective, but what it lacked in white sand it made up for in flotsam.  And little kids really enjoy flotsam.  All three had a great time picking through a wide and curious assortment of rocks, sticks, logs, seaweed, and shells.  I think we could have stayed much longer, but I had to get back to catch my bus.


Right before we left, we checked out this welcoming little structure, which Grandma Linda called a surf shack.  Talk about an amazing little fort.  I like to think about the people who built this little shack and how excited they must have been when they found that one huge curved piece of wood that makes the perfect entryway.  


I hope our kids remember these sort of adventures.  I mean, as opposed to many other memories they could have of the time they spend with me when I might be grumpy or frustrated or overwhelmed.  I feel very confident they'll remember Tori as being fun and lovable, but hopefully they'll have some fun memories of me socked away in there somewhere.  And hopefully this will be one of them.

Costa Rica: Goofballs with Pipe Cleaners

Tori and her mom are both good at facilitating creativity with our kids, so apparently they took our supply of fuzzy pipe cleaners to Costa Rica with them.  A few nights ago I got a flurry of photos with the kids wearing pipe cleaners in a variety of creative ways, so here is a sampling!

Skip on Harmonica

Remember my post a few weeks ago about Skip's total fascination with live music?  I just realized I have this video clip of him playing harmonica to share.  Clearly he isn't exactly rocking a real song, but I do think you can see a little of his understanding of how to work a crowd in this video, which was probably taken about six months ago.


Skip Playing Harmonica from Kate K. on Vimeo.

Double the Trouble, Double the Fun

Ever since Charlie was very small, Skip has made him belly laugh.  I don't know what it is about Skip, but when Zadie tries she can't quite get him to laugh like Skip can.  Now that Charlie is walking, the two boys have been having lots of fun chasing each other around the house and generally being boys together.

The only problem with this is that, at some point, Charlie's laughter typically turns to tears during the course of their play because Skip gets so hyped up that he ends up hurting him.  So it's kind of hard as a parent to monitor because you want them to play together like wild boys, but you're just waiting to intervene for when Skip takes something too far and accidentally hurts him.  Charlie doesn't stay upset long and hopefully as Skip gets older he'll be better about being more gentle.  Or, more likely, Charlie will get bigger and will start hurting Skip instead!

Anyway, hearing these two boys laugh and play together is definitely a fun part of our daily lives.  They were both giggling like crazy before Tori took out the video camera and then, like always, they get interested in the video camera and stop laughing quite so hard.  So watch the video and imagine the laughter times ten.

Skip & Charlie Jumping on Bed from Kate K. on Vimeo.

The Limitations of a Manny

It's not weird enough to be one of the very few (only?) same sex couples in our town with kids.  We're also the only people I know who have a male nanny, or "manny."  Uncle Hank, Tori's brother, has been our nanny since Zadie was about six months old and has been extremely talented and resilient as we continue to pile more and more kids on him!  I really respect Uncle Hank for his seemingly unending supply of patience (I've never seen him lose his temper or get frustrated), his creativity, and his willingness to play Legos with our kids for hours upon hours.  We are extremely fortunate to have a manny who is not only a close family member, but also a gifted caregiver.

Having said all this, there are some limitations to having a manny.  Just check out the above photo to see how he dressed our two boys.  I came home from work and asked Tori if that was some kind of a joke.  Why does he always try to match plaids with plaid?  I think that's one of the first things you learn as a kid when you learn how to get dressed in the morning -- plaids never go with plaids.

But, despite his severe deficiencies in the wardrobe department, we are very fortunate to have Uncle Hank!

A Future Musician?

Skip can play a pretty mean harmonica. Okay, it's not like he actually knows how to play a tune, but he really  plays with intense passion.

In general, Skip's attention span is about 10 times shorter than Zadie's.  Zadie can color or work on an independent project for hours, whereas Skip can only sit still for a limited amount of time, like when we're reading him a book or he's watching a program on the computer (and he often can't sit through a full 30-minute program).  He's just an incredibly active and physical child who is most happy running, jumping, and wrestling.

The one area in which his attention span is significantly longer than Zadie's is when it comes to watching music.  From a very young age, he's been completely transfixed by live music.  When we were in the mountains with friends recently, we went to a pizza place with a bluegrass band.  It ended up not being a very kid-friendly choice because there was a sign on the door that said "Music lovers only, please."  We had six kids with us, so we sat outside in the patio, but Tori took Skip inside and the two of them stayed in there for 45 minutes, until she had to pull him out of there.  I think the other guests were probably rolling their eyes when they saw a two-year-old boy come in the room, but Tori said many of them approached her to say how amazed with how perfectly still he sat, and how fun it was to watch him watching the show.  One lady told Tori, "I can see his whole future right now.  He's going to be a professional musician."

I don't know if that will be the case -- and, as his parent, I hope that he finds a suitable day job to pay the bills and not mooch off us! -- but I do think that he will have a very special interest and hopefully talent in music.  And in this case, he will be very thankful that he does not have his mothers' genes.

Skip's Cool New Shirt

A friend of ours gave us some really great boys' hand-me-downs and our kids have been really stylin' since then.  All of the clothes are really great collared shirts and most are actually more formal than this, but this is one of our very favorites.  That Skipper is a handsome little devil.

I think most people would be surprised to know that Tori is quite strict about the clothes our children wear.  She's really into them being sharp dressers and the boys almost always wear a collared shirt everyday.  I think most people (including myself) would assume that Tori would not really give a hoot about what kids wear, but it turns out she's quite discriminating.

Frequent Flier

As many people have commented, Skip has traveled all over the world in his less than two years on the planet. Internationally, he's been to China and Jamaica, but he's also been to Texas (a few times), Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon.

Everyone asks why Skip is so lucky that he gets to go on all the fun trips (usually with Tori). The answer is that, at least for now, he flies for free! He turns two in July and then all the free trips will end. We just booked a week-long trip to visit Tori's mom in Washington state right before he turns two so that we can take advantage of this perk one last time.

This is a photo of Skip wearing his Southwest Airlines wings on his flight home from Washington, D.C. last month.