Chapel

Lucie and Ryan's preschool is affiliated with a community church, incorporating a small amount of religious instruction through Bible stories, short prayers and monthly chapel services.

From what I've seen and heard through the kids, the lessons are quite general, and would likely resonate with people of many different religious backgrounds. The prayer they've learned to recite before each meal, as sung by little four-year-old voices, is just about the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

Last week the kids participated in their first chapel service at preschool. Having never attended church before, I hoped they wouldn't feel confused or out of place, and wondered what they thought of the experience. They told me they liked it, and as Lucie explained, "A man and lots of teachers sang songs about God!"

Though pretty certain I knew the answer, I asked if they understood who God was. They both shook their heads no. Trying to keep things simple, I explained that God was someone who watched over us, and kept living things safe and loved. "Even plants and animals?", Lucie asked. Yes, I assured her.

Ryan, looking thoughtful and slightly dissatisfied, wondered, "Does God take care of green blankie and Bunny too?" I paused for a moment, and then said, of course. He smiled and gave Bunny a big hug. Any God we love must surely look out for our stuffed "loved ones" as well.

And there it was, our first religious discussion. It was very sweet and simple, exactly how I hoped it would be.

Banished

Three times we've dined at the local Soup Plantation, three times someone has thrown up. In the restaurant. Usually while at the table.

Lots of theories on why this keeps happening. Lucie's thinks its because she ate raw broccoli. Ryan says it was the chocolate milk. Megan is suspicious of the blue jello (rightfully so). I'm leaning towards the soft serve ice cream with sprinkles.

In the end, we and Soup Plantation have mutually decided to take a break from one another. Will also help save money since it takes a sizable tip to come close to compensating the staff for having to clean up afterward.

Prepared for Takeoff

It's no wonder Lucie and Ryan have both recently earned free roundtrip Southwest Airlines tickets. A few weeks after our trip in September, the three of us made another visit to celebrate Tate's 3rd birthday. With four flights in as many weeks, our little ones are getting pretty good at taking their shoes off in the security line and managing those tricky airplane seat belts.

When it comes to airports, Lucie and Ryan are easily entertained. They could spend hours staring out the windows asking "why? how? when?" about everything from jet ways to refueling tanks to baggage handlers. The one thing they don't like about airports is the bathrooms. Lucie is particularly terrified of the automatic flush toilets with their unpredictable nature and deafening sound. Her first question whenever we enter a new bathroom is always, "Do they have the automatic flush, Mommy? I don't like those."

These past few trips the kids have been fascinated by the airplane safety instructions found in each seat. They spent a good fifteen minutes each way mesmerized by their laminated sheets, chatting away about what they saw:

"Mommy, when do the slides come out? They look like fun! Can airplanes go in water? Hmmm... that's weird - how do the people float? How do these masks come down? Why is this lady opening the plane door? Where does it go?"

On our return flight a passenger nearby laughed at the commentary, and then began looking slightly terrified, possibly wondering if the kids knew something he didn't know. Of course (and thankfully) the kids' safety knowledge was not put to use. Though I also remember thinking as a kid that those exit slides looked pretty fun.

The party was a blast, complete with "Mater" cupcakes and a Diego impersonator (pictured at top -- no, that's not Uncle Jason with the orange satchel). We all enjoyed meeting some of Tate's little buddies and celebrating the big number three. Lucie and Ryan were especially excited to help him open and try out all his new gifts. The stomp rocket and new stories with cousins before bed were particular favorites.

The Rules According to Lucie

In recent weeks, our household has gone under new management, or so a certain four-year-old girl and her sidekick, Ella the elephant, like to think. Lucie has become quite interested in rules, especially her own rules. Perhaps this fascination came from preschool and its corresponding guidelines, or maybe this is just a normal four-year-old girl phase. Either way, Lucie and her rules -- hmmm, how do I best put this? Well, they rule.

When Lucie is asked to do something she doesn't want or like to do, she simply declares, "But Mommy, that's not my rule!" And, just to cement her point, she'll protest, "And it's not Ella's rule either!" According to the doctrine of Lucie, dirty hands before dinner, shoeless feet outside, and skipping the bathroom before bed are perfectly acceptable.

The rules of Lucie are sometimes adorable, sometimes enough to drive a parent or twin brother crazy. She loves to put her personal spin on games, from made-up adventures at the park with friends to "game night" with the four of us. She assigns her own meanings to the cards she draws during Candy Land, which curiously all get her closer and closer to Princess Frostine. While Daddy may offer a unicorn ride before bed, her rules dictate it should be a baby kitty ride instead, even though we all know she adores unicorns. The Lucie touch is everywhere.

This past week we met one little creature that didn't follow Lucie's rules, and made me just as upset as our girl. While at a pumpkin patch, a bee arrived out of the blue, and stung Lucie through the sleeve of her dress. As tears streamed down her face, she cried, "But Mommy, that bee didn't follow the rules! Why did it sting me if I wasn't bothering it?"

Fortunately, Lucie recovered quickly, with only a short bout of crying and some slight inflammation. She definitely had a point though -- if you bother a bee you might get stung, but what if you get stung while innocently waiting in line for a pony ride? That's just not right. As far as the rules of Lucie go, no bee stings at the pumpkin patch is one rule I'm more than willing to adopt.

"I Be-member"

As the kids get older, they are beginning to develop traditions based on their recollections of events in the past. It's really neat to see this develop as they associate certain locations or times of year with particular activities. There's nothing cuter than the pensive, slightly quizzical look on Ryan's face as he launches into a memory with, "I be-member..."

Many of these traditions are associated with the upcoming holidays, such as a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick out this year's Jack-o-lantern or a desire to buy advent calendars at Christmas. Lucie and Ryan each remember their favorite details of these experiences from last year, and when this memory is triggered, they'll talk, talk and talk about repeating the same this year.

A tradition they've developed with their grandparents is apple picking in September. When we've visited around the kids' birthday, they've enjoyed helping Grandma and Grandpa pick from their backyard tree, and then munch on their pickings during a photo with Grandpa. The top photo is from this year, with the previous two years below. And so a tradition begins.

Pop Flies and Fishing

We found this orange bat and a soft baseball deep in the closet of the beach condo. Catching pop flies (and chasing sea gulls) became a favorite beach day activity. With a little coaching from Chris and Uncle Jason, a group of kids was soon running after the ball on the beach, including three sweet girls who happened to be staying with their family next door.

Our two and the three freckle-faced sisters became fast friends, with very little prompting from the parents. At first they were a little tentative around each other, but within a few hours, they were all calling each other by name, wrestling and sharing birthday cake. The girls took a particular liking to Ryan, and would alternate calling out, "Ryan, tackle me!" or "Ryan, come get me!" and then fall into a giggling pile in the sand. Ryan loved the attention. Everyone was sad to see the sisters go at the end of the weekend.

In later adventures, Papa took the kids fishing on the Capitola Wharf. We had a great time, and by the end of the afternoon, Lucie and Ryan were starting to get the hang of casting and reeling, wanting to practice over and over again. We didn't have much (or any) luck with the fish, but that didn't matter to anyone, as most of the fun was moving from spot to spot on the wharf, enjoying a different view and peeking in the buckets of fellow fishermen.

Fourth Birthday Bash

When we learned that we could spend the week of the kids' birthday at my grandmother's beach condo in Capitola Village, we jumped at the opportunity to celebrate the big number four there. With an open beach (or "sandbox" as Taterbug called it), beloved friends and family, balloon animals, baseball, and cake (two of them, of course), the day of the party was delightful, and reminiscent of the many celebrations my family had there when we were growing up. You can't beat the beach for a party.


The hands-down highlight of the party was our family friend, high school student, and budding magician, Brettso the Great. When I heard Brett was doing his own shows, we thought he'd be a great addition to the party. But, who knew he'd be the hit of the party? The show wowed us, and kept the kids at the edge of their seats. He was really sweet to make the birthday kids feel special, calling them up individually to assist with a trick.

After the show, he started making balloon animals for the kids and amazed us with his creations, everything from swords to aliens to an octopus and a cornucopia basket. When Brett's a famous Las Vegas performer someday, Lucie and Ryan will have to say that they knew him back when he knocked the socks off the guests at their fourth birthday party.

The second highlight -- the individual cakes -- were discussed and discussed long before the day of the party. Lucie went with a lavender princess cake from local Gayle's Bakery, a vanilla genoise, whipped cream and marzipan delight that was a favorite at Aunt Rach's childhood parties. Ryan went with a mint chip ice cream cake (his favorite flavor) with Bob the Builder and orange frosting. Not only did they enjoy their own cakes, but they also took generous samplings of their twin's cakes, making for a perfect combination of mint chip and purple frosting. Yum.

As seen in this last picture, Lucie was still enjoying her cake (second or third helping? I forget) long into the party, and even had to stop for bites during a balloon sword fight/wrestle match with Uncle Jason. Now that's the sign of a good party.

p.s. Lucie and Ryan's birthday crowns were handmade by my dear friend, Amey. The kids loved them and barely took them off all week -- so special and sweet and thoughtful.

Dinnertime Conversations With Lucie

Lucie continues to crack us up at the dinner table — here's two sample conversations from this past week:

Me: "Lucie, what was your favorite part of today?"
Lucie: "Well, we went to our park and we saw people working in a manhole. When can me and Ryan go in a manhole?"

Megan: "Lucie, when you are on the playground at preschool and have to go to potty, where do you go?"
Lucie: "We go to the bathroom in our classroom because it is the only one that shares with the playground. Today, while I was peeing, a boy came in."
Megan: "What did you do?"
Lucie: "Well, I had to say 'hi'."