Stella-licious

Stella-cam

One of the nice features of my pet sitting service, The Whole Pet, is that they leave a little diary entry in a spiral-bound notebook every day after Stella's walk that notes the fun she had at the beach, or forest, or wherever they ventured. A couple of days ago, there was a cryptic message about a camera crew and Stella being quite the charmer. When I glanced at Facebook yesterday, I found the following entry and picture of Stella, her Stella-cam, bandana, and ball:

Preschool acceptance!

I am very happy to report that Jack was accepted to our first choice preschool today - Children's Day School (CDS).

Coincidentally, CDS is conveniently located 2 blocks down the street from our house. It is a private school from preschool through 8th grade which is ideal so we do not have to deal with the admission process all over again for Kindergarten.

Their curriculm is "project based" and a bit progressive. In addition to challenging academics, the school prides itself on equally developing a child's emotional intelligence by encouraging creative exploration and critical thinking, and creating an enduring love of learning. Not happy to just teach at students, they press you to understand the "why". CDS strives for a diverse student body which was important and has an active parent community. There is even a small farm with sheep, snails, chickens and a garden on the premises to teach about sustainability and follows in the footsteps of Alice Waters' "edible schoolyard" project by bringing nature to the middle of the city.

It's been a lengthy nerve-wracking process to get to this point. We previously attended a School Tour to see the school while it was in session and talk with the teachers, and attended an Open House to meet and discuss the program with administrators.  We submitted an application and iterated the essay until it was just right. We brought Jack in for a child evalualtion, and finally had a parent interview a couple of weeks ago.

Whew!

Beep Beep -- Jack turned 3!

Evite invitation to Jack's birthday party

I would think that understanding the concept of your birthday for the first time can be a bit complex for a three year old. Now complicate that by having five birthday celebrations in two weeks. At this point, I'm not sure that Jack understands he has one birth DAY and not a birth MONTH!

First, on the Friday before his official birthday (on February 19th), his class celebrated with cupcakes and a crown. He received a very cool dinosaur sand toy set where each mold is a different dinosaur skeletal bone like a foot or head or tail.

CLICK HERE for more pictures of Jack and his classmates, and a couple of random pictures from class as well.

Next, Jack had two separate celebrations with his cousins from Sacramento on the following weekend. Jack and Tom met them on Saturday for lunch and then they met again on Sunday with Jack and me. That Sunday we jointly celebrated with two of his cousins who also have February birthdays with lots of food, presents, and cake. Jack seemed to like helping them open their presents as well as his own.

CLICK HERE for more pictures of Jack and family having fun.

Last Friday, we celebrated with my two friends, Linda and Christabel (that's "Auntie C" to Jack), who also have February birthdays. We had dinner, wine, and cake. Each time they come over we have a tradition where they brush Jack's hair while he watches a cartoon. It's a big day for Jack when they come over and he and Stella love the attention. (And frankly, I believe that Linda and Christabel lap up the reciprocal attention that Jack gives them too!)

CLICK HERE for more pictures of Jack celebrating with his Aunties.

On Saturday, we attended a birthday party for a school friend at Pump It Up which is like an indoor jumpy house play space that specializes in birthday parties. It is wildly popular as the Mom in front of me complained that she had to fill out a waiver form yet again even though it was her 20th time there with her kids. It was my first visit and it's interesting how they have it down to a science. You enter into playroom #1, put your presents here and your belongings there on a rolling cart, then jump jump jump around on inflatable slides and jumpy houses. After a half hour, the doors open and you are ushered into playroom #2 while the rolling cart of your belongings follows you in. This room has bigger slides, and more and bigger things to climb. By this time, you and your kid are literally sweating. Your kid is wired and you need a nap but they are begging you to go down the slide one more time. After another half hour, the next set of doors open leading to the party room for pizza and cake. This room is nice and cool so you can eat your pizza and cool down. After cake you are prompted out again through another set of doors and find that you have made a circle back to the lobby -- with another party in the room right behind you. 

CLICK HERE for more pictures of our day at Pump it Up.

Lastly, we held a birthday party for Jack at the Bay Area Discovery Museum on Sunday. There was a great mix of Jack's friends, friends from daycare, and some of my friends from work with their kids. About a dozen or more kids and their parents attended. There was a face painter, a crafts table where the kids could paint wooden cars, some pop up tents to play in, and a mat with musical instruments. We did a pinata and then cake. Jack is obsessed with the animated movie "Cars" so we had a Cars theme throughout this year. We even had a Cars cake thanks to a very cool edible decal that was printed with a Cars picture which you just peel it from its backing and lay it on top of a plain buttercream frosted cake. The decal eventually melds with the frosting. After the cake, everyone was free to roam around the Museum.

CLICK HERE for more pictures of Jack's birthday party at the Discovery Museum.

Pillow Fight

Each year on Valentine's Day, hundreds of people come to the plaza in front of the Ferry Building to battle it out with their pillows. It's a big feathery event that starts just after work at 6pm.

Jack and I decided to eat dinner at a restaurant near the action. It had floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the fun. Jack looked up and said it was snowing. He was right, it was a blizzard of feathers!



Happy Valentine's Day

Jack and I had fun making Valentine's Day cards for the grandparents last week:

And today, Jack decorated himself and me with heart stickers. He handed out Cars-themed Valentines to his teachers and put one in each cubby for his friends at school.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Palo Alto Excursion

Jack will fight taking a nap at home to the point where we are both exhausted with each other and no one gets any downtime, just time-outs and escalating frustration. He naps at school each day and is a cranky mess at night if he doesn't have one, so he still clearly needs a nap in the afternoon. And I'm not ready for him to give it up either!

So I've changed my strategy. I try to time our weekend activities around some sort of naptime - whether that's in the stroller and I walk around for at least an hour or travel time in the car with the potential that I park and wait for him to wake up.

With the thought that Jack would nap in the car on the way home, he and I journeyed to Palo Alto this weekend (about a 1/2 hour south of San Francisco) for brunch and a play at the Children's Theater. Palo Alto is a suburb that's next door to Stanford University and the venture capitalists that fund up and coming technology companies. Technology and research dominate the area with many startup and established companies (HP, Stanford Research, etc.) being headquartered there. In 2010, Palo Alto ranked as the 2nd most expensive city for real estate in the United States with a $1.48 million median home price. What's interesting though, is that the homes don't look any different than any other nice suburb - its just that the little Craftsman bungalow on the corner, while well maintained, costs a million dollars.

We ate brunch at Saint Michaels Alley which had a wait list 10 minutes before the doors opened so you know it was good. And then we took in the glorious sunshine and opted to walk/stroll the mile to the theater.

You know you are in the suburbs when your community theater is within 500 feet of a "children's" library, the Girl Scouts "building", and a junior museum and zoo. One in three households has a child under 18 - unlike San Francisco which has the lowest per capita rate of children of any US city.

Big turnout, lots of interaction with the audience

The production was acted by local high school drama students, super interactive, and told the gory story of Little Red Riding Hood (I don't remember slicing up the Wolf to get back Granny and Little Red Riding Hood). They did a great job of getting the kids to participate and even gave each child a prop - plastic flowers which we used throughout the play. There was a big turnout and it was fun to see a roomful of kids simultaneously pretend to be big trees and little mice and big bad wolves.

Afterwards, we strolled the mile back to the car and went even further towards the downtown. We stopped at a yogurt place for a snack. Of course, this was not your typical TCBY. We ended up at an "artisinal yogurt" shoppe where they make batches of organic greek-style yogurt with a variety of chopped fruit and fruit purees. It was delicious and I'm not complaining, but I can't help thinking how fancy food has become in our generation and what a fine little palette Jack will have when he gets older.

Jack, lovey, and bunny rabbit

Then disaster struck. Jack has two loveys that he drags everywhere: a little giraffe lovey and a bunny rabbit. Somewhere in our 2 mile trek we lost bunny rabbit. We cut our sightseeing short, ran back to the car, and frantically drove back to the theatre. No one turned it in so we searched the theatre and surrounding grounds ourselves. I left my name and number in case it turned up. When we got back into the car, I decided to retrace our steps and literally drove in the right lane with my hazard lights on for 1 mile while we slowly scanned the sidewalk. Cars angrily sped past me, gave me the finger, and beeped long and loudly. Found! Laying on the ground was bunny rabbit.

With bunny and lovey in hand, we drove back home. Jack fell asleep about 10 minutes later and then I sat in the Whole Foods parking lot and read the driver's manual and my phone for a hour until he woke up.

When he woke up, he chastised me and told me not to drop bunny again. I promised.