There's a storm a brewing

According to the owner of the place we rented, the minute we arrived, the first storm of the season headed our way. This means very little beach time and finding lots of extra activities to do. This storm has been a mixture of high winds and rain, making it near impossible to even play on the North Shore with the waves crashing dangerously close to us and very rough. Even at the local beaches they are not allowing anyone on the sand at the moment. So this means finding lots and lots of other activities right now.

Let me digress by stating how much we LOVE this house we are staying at for this vacation. There is an enclosed yard and about 100 feet from the house is ocean. If we didn't have this storm we would be swimming away our afternoons and snorkeling right outside our back door. We'll just let it pass and see how it goes.

We didn't bring many toys for the boys minus a few cars and some coloring books so its great watching them run around the yard letting their imaginations go wild. They always find something to entertain themselves. Yesterday I ran around the backyard playing good guys and bad guys with Erik. Its liberating and fun to have nothing to worry about at home and just play.

 

Did I mention how much we are saving by mixing our own drinks. They are just as delicious and just as fun while watching the kids run around the backyard while drinking a pina colada.

There is a bench where you can sit and watch the ocean from our yard. This is Elliot's favorite spot and if you can't find him anywhere he is sure to be headed there.

The first afternoon we got here the weather was perfect and we immediately headed to the ocean. The boys were instantly in love.

We even had a visitor to greet us when we arrived.

The next day started off gorgeous and Grandma and Erik and I headed on a beach walk. Erik found a stick and was obsessed with drawing in the sand and making a trail. I just loved the imagination of this guy!

 

Soon after our walk it started to rain and we headed to the Dole Plantation to check out the train and just have some fun family time.

Here is Elliot going stir crazy and playing in the rain.

Waiting for the train.

On the train...

So although we got stuck with a bit of bad weather the first day we really did make the most of it by relaxing, trains and just spending time with family. Really a good way to spend an afternoon.

My morning view

Its our first night in Hawaii on the North Shore. The waves are so loud all of us said we had problems sleeping and they woke us up all night. How many times in your life can you say that?

This morning our whole sleep schedule is messed up and we were all up at 5 am and we're wasting away our morning until we head to the Dole Planation for a train ride. One benefit to being up so early is seeing the sunrise. This morning we were also graced with a gorgeous full moon.

These pictures are the east and west side of the ocean during my 6:30 am photo session. Hopefully I won't be able to catch a moment like this again and will be sleeping, but with my early risers its very doubtful.

The Moon

The Sun

Elliot, Two Year Old Sneak Preview

Been busy over here with Elliot book and life. I am not getting on to blog as much as I would like and I have tons of idea for blogs. For now I will show you what I have been working on, Elliot's upcoming book.

I decided to go for a minimalist approach to Elliot's book and not squeeze in 10 million pictures. I am using negative space instead of bleeding the pages of the book for the first time. I am also trying to make it look more like a book and less like a scrapbook with the use of similar headers throughout. The other thing I am doing is using the center divider for the two page spreads so some of my images will bleed over the page. I have no idea if I am going to like the result, but at some point you have to experiment because if you don't its boring and static forever.

Here are each of the two pages spreads I have finished so far. My workflow is very different for me this time. Usually I rush to go from page to page just grouping pictures and putting them onto a page. This time I am carefully going through each image, double checking my color and editing and then finally doing an export to the book. Once I layout the book I am making sure my image spacing is perfect before going onto the next page. Usually I save all the image spacing until the very end and its a tedious job that takes me days to finish and I am never very careful. I definitely prefer my new method more!

Two more months to finish this thing, and right now I am only in month one of Elliot being two. I have a 5 hour plane ride to work on this Monday so I am not too worried about it.

Kinder or no Kinder that is the question

Are you going to send Erik to kindergarten or give him a bonus year? I seriously get asked that question about once a day. When you get asked this question as much as I do you really have to think about it constantly. These last two weeks have been worse because Burbank is having their kindergarten information meetings so its on everyone's mind. What is my answer?

Well before our information meeting and a few conversations this week I would say I was leaning towards a bonus year. It was his teacher's recommendation last October and why not give him an extra year to play, that sounds kind of fun. The $750 month bill for Erik and Elliot both in preschool at the same time didn't sound nearly as attractive.

Every person I talk to gives me a different opinion or a different suggestion. Some say definitely give him a bonus year because he is a boy and it is better if you wait a year. Some say, send him to the bonus year program and if he's ready skip him to first grade. Then there are other's who say start him and then transfer in a month if he isn't doing well, or hold him back a year. Others like my mother in law, say he'll be board if you keep him back and he needs to advance. Another opinion, if you hold him back he'll definitely be the oldest kid, almost no one holds back August kids. Then I say to myself, if the cut off was September 1st instead of November 1st I would probably hold him back. In reality this is just a birthday numbers game, what is the difference? Then other say, I was 4 when I went to kindergarten. That is the worse comment of them all because kindergarten is academic and very different than when me or my peers went.

So with all these different points of view it leaves me in the middle. Last month I was leaning more towards bonus year, but after going to the information meeting yesterday I am more towards sending him. Here is the truth. I am signing him up for both and giving him the best shot he has to go to kindergarten next year.

I decided with all these conversations around Erik I had to be honest with him. It was impossible to keep this decision from him. So I told him if he starts practicing his writing, working with glue and scissors and sitting still for projects he can probably go next year. If he isn't interested, then we will give him a bonus year so he can have more time to play. Besides the money, the amount of time he is in school is exactly the same.

Interesting enough putting the power in his hands is a strong motivator for him. He is nowhere near ready, but it doesn't start for another 8 months, and 4 year olds boys are suppose to be bouncing off the walls. Honestly ever since I had this conversation with him, it might be developmental, it might be desire, it might be timing, but he is working more on projects and really putting in the effort.

This morning I decided to stay home with the boys and have more of a learning morning and Erik did stickers for over an hour and then later wrote his name over and over. This is major progress becasue was refusing to write his name even as soon as right before winter break and I can't remember the last time he spent an hour doing anything except watching tv.

When they gave us the list of everything kids need to be doing or practicing by kindergarten I realize Erik was doing everything on the list except sitting for long periods of time. He is even trying to learn how to read right now. So he might not be excelling in writing, but his interest is in other developmental areas.

There are meetings galore until school starts this summer and all Carl and I can do is keep an open mind about our child, make sure he is enrolled in all the programs to keep his options open to make the most educated decision we can come August. For now I am done stressing about it and talking about it. Of course the next time a mom asks me a question about it at the park or in school I can't be rude and say, I refuse to discuss this further. I'll kindly answer the question and try to change the subject.

I do it to myself

One Monday in Elliot's class a mom told us the story of how she gave her 2 year old and 4 year old paint, cardboard and put them on the grass and how they had fun for hours. It sounded like a dream come true to me. My kids never stay occupied for more than 10 minutes at a time these days.

After we built Elliot's bed I had leftover cardboard and tons of paint they never use and decided to give her trick a try. The only thing I didn't think though, Erik hadn't napped that day and it was near the 5 pm crazy hour. See I do these things to myself. I try these creative opportunities for my children and when they go crazy I get upset, but I really have no one to blame. Anytime would have been better than the 5 pm crazy hour on a no nap day.

So it started off simple enough. I took most of our painting supplies outside to see what they were interested in.

I painted a little something myself to show them what to do and get them started.

Then it started off nicely, Erik was trying to stamps and various art supplies.

 

Then I just let him have at it and he started dumping out the paint. I knew this is part of the experiment, and to toddlers and preschoolers more is better.

It worked at first. Erik is really into mixing colors so he was fascinated by the results and what colors he could make. Elliot just kind of followed his lead.

But there is always more and they started to break the few simple rules I gave them, like keeping all the paint supplies only on the cardboard and not the grass.

Then it got even worse and it was Elliot this time, not Erik! Elliot started painting his leg and it was over. I let them have fun and cover themselves. Afterwards I let them run around the yard to let the paint dry and transported them directly to the bath tub. See I always try, but it always deteriorates to this.

 

My baby is growing up

When I was navigating parenthood when Erik was 2 one of the mom's told me she switched her little guy to a toddler bed when he told her he wanted a big boy bed. I thought that was perfect and made it my plan for Erik. Unfortunately Erik had other plans in mind, like climbing out of his bed a 100 times a night and never staying in his room when asked, so we put a crib tent on his bed and then when it broke we converted him to a toddler bed. He didn't transition well, he constantly escaped and I would have loved for him to be in a crib until he was over 3 to be honest.

Last November all four of us were in a hotel and I totally forgot to order a crib. I had the brilliant idea to just have Elliot sleep in a bed with Carl and I share a bed with Erik. It.was.a.complete.disaster. He wasn't ready for any bed other than a crib and eventually that night crawled onto the ground and wedge himself between two chairs so he could feel like he was in a crib. I did tell him after that weekend if he was ready for a big boy bed to just let me know and I will buy him a new one.

Elliot is such a different child too. He has been able to climb out of his crib for 9 months, but rarely does. He usually stays in his room until someone gets him and sometimes crawls out when his brother gets him out of his room. I had a sneaky suspicious the bed switch might go better the second time around.

Then one weekend over the course of several days, Elliot told me and Carl he wanted a big boy bed like his brother. I listened and waited for him to change his mind, he never really did. So on a Monday night we went to Ikea and bought a toddler bed instead of converting his bed. They were cheap and cute and a good difference in size for him. We went there at 5 pm and Carl had the bed built by 8 pm.

Elliot slept in his bed that night, a little afraid to get in at first and a little confused. He went none the less and never made a sound the entire night. In the morning he stayed in bed and screamed at us to come get him. It went pretty much the same way for nap and bedtime the next day and the next day, until here we are 2 weeks later and he is fully transitioned. The only complaint is that he seems to be waking up earlier and earlier everyday, but stays in bed until his clock tells him to get up at 6:30.

So my little baby is now officially out of a crib and into a big boy bed. I can't stand this growing up business and want my babies to stay babies forever.

Nurturing the arts

For ages we have all our kids photobooks sitting on a self along with a book about England and a book about Salvador Dali. Well as you can imagine the Salvador Dali book has tons of pictures and the boys have been captivated by this book reading it everyday, asking us about the pictures and talking about it themselves. Its funny to because when your kid asks you to explain a Salvador Dali picture its a near impossible task. Also I should mention that they dubbed this book, "the scary book," but my 4 year old "LOVES" scary so of course he is obsessed.

Art is a funny thing in our house. Its obviously a big part of our life since I have pictures and prints of my work everywhere and we have art books galore in our house, but there is something natural in there too. I remember a couple years ago sitting at a restaurant with the boys. Erik saw a painting on the wall and had a very emotional reaction to it. At first he HATED it and started screaming about how much he didn't like the painting, but the more we sat there the more he looked at it and started liking it. So from a very young age Erik has noticed and reacted to art.

This is something I definitely want to nurture and something I appreciate in his personality. Since the boys were so obsessed with art Carl remembered that LACMA had a program where the kids could go for free and the parent gets to go with them. I knew today was the day to go, it just made sense.

This program is actually really neat. For free the boys can go to LAMCA and other participating art museums for free until they are 17 year old and are allowed one adult with them. This makes it super easy to go an hour, 20 minutes, 10 minutes or whatever you kids can take before you go crazy. Really its an awesome program to develop early art lovers.

So this morning we decided to take them, maybe not the best idea since Elliot was up at 5:30 and Erik following that much later with a 9 pm bedtime. We all hopped in the car as soon as Erik's gymnastics were over and headed over. In reality we should have checked the time because we got there 20 minutes early, oy!

It didn't go too well to be honest. Erik touched a couple of exhibits and the art we did see was kind of boring even to me. When we finally got to something I like they were too hungry to continue. At least it was free and we can come back another day.

Their favorite was the outside display of hanging tubes. They couldn't get enough of it.

 

They also loved these colorful benches.



My favorite part apparently was the children's art gallery where we got to paint. I think I might have made more painting than the kids.

My favorite story of the day was about The Scream. There was a toy called The Screamer and Erik got obsessed with it and kept talking about it and whined that we wouldn't buy it for him. On the way home I showed him the actual painting and we had a very long discussion about that painting. So the museum might have been too soon for these boys, but we did have some moments of clarity and learning in there.

Oh and I finally got to eat at some food trucks. I have never been to a fancy one since the fad started after I stopped working full-time.