Day +1006: Drum kit

Wow, 1006 days. The 1000-mark kind of slipped past me. I guess it's a kind of a milestone, but I'll be more looking forward to 3 years. Every once in a while something does make me stop and look back at where we've been. Today I donated blood. I'm embarrassed to say it was the first time since before we had Mina, and it was kind of an emotional experience. I was reading the literature where they talk about the different types of patients and how many units of the different blood types they might need, and I was thinking back on the countless units of blood that Mina required, and it just brought everything rushing back and I got kind of teary. It's amazing the emotions that can come back up at times like this. Or maybe it's amazing that it can seem so far away that I'm able to block it out almost entirely. Mina hasn't had an appointment since November, and isn't due for one until April.

Mina is doing great, though. She is really thriving at school and is growing up so fast. We finally got the report from her neuro-psych testing, and it confirmed what the doctor had told us orally, that she is above average on her verbal and language abilities, and only slightly below average in a couple of categories. She really loves her friend Anika, and they spend hours together playing "baby" at school and in the afternoons either here or at Anika's house. Mina is constantly making cards or drawing pictures for Anika, and the other day she made here a present. She asked Keri to get out the wrapping paper, and she took one her babies and wrapped it up and taped it all by herself.

She and Isaac will be going to a tumbling class starting this Thursday. It's happening at Acrosports, which is almost like a circus training facility located just a few blocks from our house. Keri has a friend who took a trapeze class there, and we went to watch her one time. It looked pretty fun -- they were a long ways up in the air! They'll all walk down there in the morning in time for Isaac's 9:00 class, then Mina and Anika will be in a 10:00 class together. I worry that our kids don't get enough exercise since they spend so much time indoors, so I'm hoping this helps out. Mina went to a trial class last Thursday and loved it.

Isaac has been having a bit of a hard time lately. He's so full of energy these days, but is becoming kind of hard to handle. He gets wound up and has a hard time controlling his body. Keri thinks it's due to lack of sleep, and she could be right. He's been getting up sometimes at 4:30 AM and not going back to sleep, and at night he's so wired it takes him a long time to go down. Teacher Julie says she's a bit worried about him, wondering if something has been going on, because he's had a hard time being kind to the littler kids and has been talking about how he likes to hit and push. This is pretty unlike him, so hopefully he's just having a testosterone surge and a growth spurt.

He still loves his music. Last weekend we went to a matinee performance by Kronos, a San Francisco-based string quartet. The performance lasted almost an hour and Mina was just starting to get restless, but Isaac didn't want it to be over. We went down to the stage and talked to the cello player a bit, and as we walked out I asked Isaac if he liked it a lot or just a little bit. He said "just a little bit. No, I liked it a LOT!" When we got home that night, he was taking his guitar, standing it on end, and using a drumstick like a bow.

We finally gave him his drum kit a week or so ago while Auntie Teri was here. This was the last round of Christmas presents (Mina finally got her stuffed puppu), so of course he was really excited. He'd been speculating for quite a while that the big box had "a bass drum and a cymbal". We got it set up and it's now his favorite toy, of course. It's been a bit frustrating for him, though, because it's very loud. He wants to really bang on it, but Keri is sensitive to the noise and sometimes asks him to play quietly. Isaac himself is sensitive to the noise, so it didn't take much prompting. Finally last weekend I took him down to the music store on Haight Street to get some muffled drumsticks, and we also picked up some of the metal brushes that jazz drummers use to make a softer sound. He loves the brushes, so maybe that is the right compromise. We'll still have to find a time when he can bang away, but maybe that can be when Keri isn't home.

The other thing is that he had a great routine going with his other drums. These were smaller, skin and wooden drums that weren't nearly as loud. He would set them up all in a row, and set his tambourine on an overturned basket to use as his cymbal. Then he would bang away to his heart's content. I have some video that I will post one of these days when I find the time. I'm not sure that the new drum kit has been quite as satisfying for him. I'm sure we'll get things figured out, though.

Day +990: Seattle Visit

Happy New Year to everyone! The kids and I celebrated the new year with a trip to Washington to see Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Kari, Uncle Steve and Cousin Carmen. I had a business trip to Seattle, and after checking with everyone, decided it would be feasible and fun to bring the kids! Keri was looking forward to a weekend alone to recharge, and my family was available to help out with the kids. It was really fun. We flew up Thursday morning into the teeth of a storm and spent the rest of the day Kari & Steve & Carmen's. Friday I had business meetings all day, but the rest of the family hung out together and had a great time. Saturday we all went skiing at Stevens Pass. We rented skis for Mina and Isaac put on the strap-on skis for a while, but we also rented a pulk, which is a kind of sled that he could sit in while I pulled him. Last year I ended up pulling both Mina and Isaac in the pulk, but this time Mina was determined to ski. "I'm NOT going to get in the pulk!" she declared. And she didn't. She skied for almost two hours, with Grandma Judy and Auntie Kari skiing beside her. Carmen is a good skier now, so she and Steve were long gone. Isaac loved sitting in the pulk, but I had to keep going to keep him entertained so I didn't get to ski with Mina at all. When we got to the little warming tent and were ready to head back down he wanted to put the skis back on, so I put them on him and he skied about 50 yards before he wanted back in the pulk. It was starting to get late so we had to head back toward the car, and he was very sad. He was tired from having missed his nap, but he really wanted to stay in the pulk! It's good that they had so much fun. We're all flying up in February for a 3-day weekend in the Methow, so they'll have the fun memories of skiing.

Isaac passed out in the car on the way back down and I thought for sure Mina was going to as well, but she rode back in Carmen's car and she made it all the way home. Carmen's birthday was coming up, and Kari and Steve had planned a little celebration for her that night which Mina didn't want to miss. Mina said she wanted to stay awake for "a healthy dinner and the birthday party. You need a healthy dinner!" She didn't want to miss the birthday cake, that's for sure. Mina also got fudge and hot chocolate, and the next day Grandma Judy gave her a gingerbread man she and Carmen had baked. Mina's comment was "I got lots of tweats this weekend!"

Isaac was fascinated by the airplane, of course. He wanted to know everything about it, and he was really excited when it finally came time for the plane "to go faster and faster and faster until it goes up in the air." I still remember last year at Christmas when Keri had to stuff him into his seat so the plane could taxi away from the gate -- he thought he was going to get to fly the plane and was screaming at the top of his lungs "No, I'm the pilot, I'm the PILOT!!!" This year the kids were so excited that they talked nonstop from the time we left the house at 7:30 until we finally got to Carmen's house about 1:30, but even so it was still a lot easier this year. Isaac played airplane all weekend at Carmen's house. He would strap everyone in to their seat belts then go around and turn off all the lights so the plane could take off.

Keri enjoyed her weekend as well. She did a lot of cleaning and organizing, and went out a couple of evenings with her girlfriends. When we got back on Sunday, her comment was "Next time you should go for a week."

The kids were back in school this week, and they were happy about it. They've been in great moods all week. Friday they went for the first of many field trips they're going to do this year. This one was just for a simple hike in Glen Canyon. Mina was really upset when she found out they weren't going to be at school, but she ended up having a ball and is looking forward to doing it again next Friday. We thought they were probably enjoying being back at school so much that they didn't want a break in the routine already.

We're still working through the Christmas presents. Mina has not yet opened her present with the stuffed puppy, and Isaac still hasn't opened the one with the drum kit. He keeps saying he hopes it's a bass drum and a cymbal and a stool to sit on, but they've been really patient. We're kind of waiting for the right time, perhaps a lull in their play that indicates they're ready for an infusion of new toys. But I don't know how much longer we are going to be able to hold out. One present Isaac loves is a book I bought him called "Jazz on a Saturday Night". It's a picture book with paintings of famous jazz musicians jamming together at a club on a Saturday night. We read it almost every night, and Isaac always has a lot to say about it. The other night he was looking at the picture of the audience watching the musicians, and he said "I wish WE were in there!" We need to figure out how to take the kids to more live music. It's hard when they go to bed at 6:30, though.