Jesus Christ, Superstar Astronaut

When the girls are doing something they probably shouldn't do, it isn't easy to decide whether or not to photograph it. In this case, I kept telling Diana, "No, no, you aren't supposed to sit on that!" But isn't the picture cute? On a related note, have you ever noticed how many fragile, ceramic items that Hallmark stores keep in stock? I didn't give it much thought until we walked through a Hallmark store at the mall yesterday. Luckily, nothing was broken, but I felt like a nag constantly saying, "Please don't touch that. Please don't touch that. Don't pick that up!"

Recently, both girls have been spouting all kinds of gems I've been eager to record here. For example, Diana has been demonstrating some strange fears and phobias lately. She doesn't like skeletons, and thinks they're scary. That seems reasonable enough. But she also doesn't like the song, "Little St. Nick" by the Beach Boys. I have added this song to Amelia's "car repertoire" because she will be performing the song (along with the rest of her preschool class) next month at a Christmas show. Still, every time that song plays, Diana fusses and complains saying that the song is scary.

Even funnier than that, Diana got angry a couple of days ago when I shut the music off before the end of "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath. I guess Mike Love is much scarier, in Diana's eyes, than Ozzy Osbourne.

Amelia has also been full of preschool spark lately. Sometimes she makes me laugh out loud, and sometimes she just leaves me speechless.

A couple of times recently Amelia has told me how much she likes birthdays. Amelia is really looking forward to her next birthday, and her next birthday party (as I've mentioned before, any birthday usually means CAKE). A while ago I gave Amelia a timeline for all of the upcoming birthdays, telling her that mine was first, followed by daddy's, hers, and Diana's.

Somewhere in the conversation I told her that the next birthday we're actually going to celebrate is Jesus' birthday. Her next question was, "Will Jesus be here for Christmas?" I told her, "In many ways, yes, Jesus will be here." That answer satisfied Amelia for a while.

A couple of days later, Amelia asked again about Jesus' upcoming visit to our home. This time it seemed obvious that she was talking about a real flesh-and-blood Jesus. Now I was in an awkward position, because I didn't want to have to explain that Jesus died, but isn't really dead, but is eternal, etc. That seemed like too big of a concept to put on her four-year old mind. I took the easy way out (or at least I thought so at the time) by telling Amelia that "Jesus is no longer on the earth."

I admit, I didn't see this coming, but Amelia's response was, "Maybe Jesus can take Her rocket ship to earth to visit us, or we can ride on our rocket ship to visit Her."

Oh, so much to explain. I couldn't even find a good way to explain that Jesus was a man. After all, He was a man while on earth, but if He is God then He isn't exactly a man or a woman. And in many ways Jesus does live on other planets when you think about it.

Maybe the best thing to do would be to tell the story of Christmas around Christmas time and see how many questions that can answer. And though Amelia's thoughts about Jesus are very unusual, I have to give her points for creativity.

Lisa

The quest continues

This past Sunday, the weather was great. But still the girls were spending far too much time indoors watching television and making a mess. So I took matters into my own hands. I quickly logged onto the Internet looking for a nearby and modestly interesting historical marker for the girls to visit. I decided that the trip to Cooper's Sawmill (CA Historical Marker #835) would be easy, fun and informative. The sun was already descending, so there was no time to waste. I grabbed the girls and their grandmother and we headed up 101 to the road that seemed a straight shot to Marker #835.

The drive was really beautiful. We drove along the Russian River (site of Cooper's mill) and past several major wineries. At one point along the road we stopped for a potty break and for snacks. While in the grocery store I asked about Cooper's Mill and the obviously local gal behind the counter told me that she had no idea what I was talking about. So, we got back on the road.

After a while the natives became restless, but I pressed on. I found a campground that looked promising and that I guessed might contain a historical marker. (After all, it did have a local museum, train cars and bear carvings.) At the campground gate and information center I asked again about the mill. Again, I stumped the local informant. Though this woman had lived in the area some 29 years (if I remember correctly) she had never heard of Cooper's Sawmill. And yes, I told her it probably didn't exist and that there was only a marker left behind. Only very mildly disappointed, we headed back to home base.

That night, after the girls went to bed I told "grandpa" about my adventure. He was fairly familiar with the area and after some searching he found the exact location of the marker. The marker was, indeed, right on the road I was driving, but I had passed it by several miles. Seeing exactly what it looked like from the satellite view, I reckon I could get there again if I tried. Besides, the drive is great and if we started off early enough we could spend some time hiking and just poking around.

The next day I decided to travel to a marker that I had been very close to before. Once, on our way to grandma and grandpa's house we had tried to see this historic location, only to find that it was closed for the evening. Grandpa volunteered to go with us and showed us how to find the Petaluma Adobe (CA Historical Marker #18) by traveling the scenic back roads from his home in Santa Rosa to Petaluma.

The weather was great, and the scenery was terrific. The fall colors were beautiful and I got a hundred beautiful photographs out of the trip. Everyone had a lot of fun and besides all of this admission to the adobe was only $2 for adults (children were free).

I mention the price, only to contrast it with another place I visited on my way home with the girls. As we drove home, racing a BART train for part of the journey, Amelia asked if we could go to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. She had been very good, and insisted that she was very hungry for Chuck E. Cheese pizza. I wasn't sure I wanted to drop $20 on mediocre pizza and racket, but the girls had been very good.

So, we went to Chuck E. Cheese - after I explained the conditions for our unplanned visit. I asked the girls what they wanted and they asked for pizza with black olives. After some pressing, Amelia said she also wanted mushrooms and sausage. So at the counter I ordered a medium, three-topping pizza; a salad; a bottle of water; and a juice box. The total came to over $31! I could hardly believe my ears.

Sure, we got a few meager tokens with our purchase, but I know for certain that I didn't have anywhere near as much fun at Chuck E. Cheese as I did on my $2 ticket to the adobe. Maybe the girls had as much fun at Chuck E. Cheese, but they liked the adobe a lot, too.

Oh, and to put the icing on the cake, if I had the time and energy to do so, that same $2 ticket would have gotten me into Mission San Francisco-Sonoma (marker #3) and Vallejo's adobe in Sonoma (marker #501). I guess what I'm saying is not to underestimate the value of places and experiences we all can have that cost us next to nothing. With a recession upon us, this is an important lesson, indeed.

Lisa

Big Kids in Little Clothes

Last night I decided to go through my Halloween box (the orange and black box stored in the garage) and move some old costumes out of the box and into a new, not as of yet discovered, location. When I went to bed the box was nearly as full as it was before I started, and a number of Halloween costumes were left on the couch without homes.

This afternoon the girls insisted that they both wanted to try on the costumes. After a quick trip upstairs to rotate the laundry, I came downstairs to find Diana struggling to put on a pair of pumpkin footies made for babies 0-3 months of age. I convinced Diana that there was nothing we could do to make this outfit fit and suggested that she try on Amelia's old bee costume.

Diana was unhappy that she couldn't really wear the bee shoes, but she fit into the costume reasonably well. Though it was obviously tight, Diana didn't want to take the costume off at first. But Amelia was itching to try on her old black-and-yellow suit, so Diana gave in and decided to share the suit.

Surprising, Amelia could fit into her old costume, but just barely. She struggled and struggled with the bee slippers until I convinced her to give it up and wear them like clogs. Looking at this old picture of Amelia as a bee reminds me of how much Amelia has grown over the past three years. I'm also surprised to see how much she has changed. It makes me wonder if Diana's hair, for example, will darken as she gets older.

Lisa

I wanna rock!

This afternoon the family and I returned home from Morro Bay. Long before we hit the highway on our way to SLO county I had decided that I needed to get a picture of the girls at a historical marker while I was visiting the area. The easiest and most obvious marker (for me) was Morro Rock.

So after a fun morning at the beach, and on our way back home, we stopped at Morro Rock for a quick photograph. I wasn't sure I would be able to get a good picture because this was a holiday weekend and I worried that the area might be crowded. Luckily, when we arrived at the parking area below Morro Rock it was almost completely vacant. I parked away from the marker, so I wouldn't have to worry about my car showing up in the scene, and got the girls out of the car.

At the very same moment that the girls were situated on either side of California historical marker #821, a truck pulled into view. The driver stopped almost directly behind the marker (from our vantage point) and stayed there. I was baffled. Why was this man parking right in the middle of an empty parking lot when the canoe on the top of his truck suggested that he might want to be a tad bit closer to the ocean? He got out his cell phone and chatted away, taking no notice of the tourists nearby. Mike worked very hard to get good photographs of the girls (and me) at the marker without signs of the truck or the canoe. (In the photograph above, you can just see the shadow of the offender on the ground.)

As you might have guessed, the truck left very soon after we did. This little bit of irritation had me annoyed for some time, but after a while I realized that not only was this not a big deal, it does make for a cute story.

Hopefully, there will be even more details, more photos and more stories from our trip posted here soon.

Lisa

The strength of democracy

Amelia's getting older now, and daddy thought she might be old enough to watch the Presidential election results as polls closed across the west. At eight o'clock, I was saying my final good-nights to Diana and the television was declaring Barack Obama to be the new President of the United States.

Amelia was happy and excited, because as she had been watching the states getting colored on the map she had decided to root for blue to win. Sure enough, blue won. The Democrats won by a landslide.

I don't want to say that I predicted Obama's victory, but when I vote for a Democrat (in fact, more than one Democrat on my ballot) you know that something's in the air.

Amelia enjoyed popcorn and looked through a field guide to birds while awaiting Obama's acceptance speech. Amelia found a favorite bird on nearly every page. One minute her favorite bird was a hummingbird, then it was a duck, next thing you know it was a red-headed woodpecker. In fact, Amelia pointed to one of two very similar red-headed woodpeckers and said, "See, that's me." I looked at the bird's range and told her, "Coincidentally, this bird is found in Indiana. The other one is only found around Texas and Mexico." Amelia told me, "I've never been to Mexico, but I'd like to go there. I love going to places I've never been." I thought it was great to hear that. I guess Amelia really was born a ramblin' gal.

Amelia also confessed that she enjoyed pretending that she was still living in Indiana. This was the first time I got her to admit that she KNEW she lived in California, but liked to talk about being in Indiana. Amelia also said that she would like to be President one day. Assuming she keeps an open mind and continues to enjoy traveling, I bet she'll make a terrific president. (She's already a very good debater.)

Of course, getting Amelia to bed at ten was difficult. She was cranky and after she heard me say that maybe I shouldn't have let her stay up so late she scolded, "You shouldn't have let me stay up so late." The following morning Amelia's crankiness and her great desire to travel RIGHT NOW made her a handful. She begged to go to the snow. Then she pleaded to go to the beach. At the sporting goods store (I need a new swim suit) she was hooked on a basic fishing kit. She insisted that she wanted to go fishing and nothing I could tell her would assuage her. I reminded her that I didn't have enough money lying around to buy fishing polls, bait and licenses. That didn't make a bit of difference to her. (In her defense, she has been wanting to fish for a long time now.)

And while Amelia was hugging her chosen fishing kit (lures, floaters and all) Diana was clearing hula-hoops off the store's front wall. I felt like I was going crazy trying to keep the girls from tearing up the store. I didn't get a swimsuit, but I did manage to get out of the store without buying a fishing kit or a hula hoop...or a lollipop or a nerf football or any of the other myriad of things that the girls wanted.

I still need a new swimsuit. Mine is becoming thread-bare, somehow. I briefly considered taking the girls to another sports shop and trying on more suits, but quickly decided against it. I did, however, pick out new gloves and matching hats for the girls so that we can bring them to the snow when the snow levels are a little lower than they are now.

Lisa