Katrina was ALL set this morning to raid the pantry. No half-baked plan here.
Another not-so-half-baked plan was to go to the park this morning, for an all-years Las Madres park date. The skies had their own ideas, and drizzled on us for a while, but it cleared up just enough so that we weren't actively getting wet. It was chilly though; I was cold, and increasingly concerned that Katrina was underdressed. The weather kept away most of the moms who'd planned to come, leaving only a few of us die-hards (uh-huh, yeah, that's me, the park die-hard).
Katrina has had very little park time as compared to her brothers, so it was a nice treat -- for me, really! -- to take her on a weekend. She was grouchy before we left, but she "warmed" (brr) right up when we arrived: cruising along stone walls, sitting and playing in sand, looking at the sky. I didn't get a photo of her in the swing with Julian pushing her; probably because swing shots are hard to get, and I was too busy yapping anyway.
Don't be fooled by these photos of her standing, 'cause that's all she was doing: standing. No walking. No crawling, either, which presented a problem when I got tired of holding her hands to walk her around. She still wanted to "walk" and let me -- and the rest of Santa Clara County -- know in no uncertain terms of her disapproval when I dared depart from her prescribed activity.
Meantime, Dylan very happily, and athletically, crawled around the grass, the wood chips, up steps and down slides, rubber hills, stairs, having a grand old time. He's clearly very comfortable with parks, as he goes to them a whole lot more (~guilt~).
I'd have taken more photos of the boys, but they were busy with Gina and Andrew and Gavin and Cassie playing a game of keep-away from the grownups. Any time one of us approached, camera in hand, they'd burst from their "hiding" spot, shrieking with laughter, and run away.
Julian's always glad to play with Cassie, though today he got the bonus of Cassie's dad too, who, for some reason I missed, he followed around like a puppy dog "helping" track down the other kids.
Katrina was ready to go before the boys were, but she discovered this little tree sprig and that bought another 10 minutes or so. She was tired and grouchy and went straight down for a nap when we got home.
Despite the blustery weather, and all the park time, the boys spent the much of afternoon playing out back!
Dave got Gabriel's birthday piano today .... but after talking about it, we decided not to make it a birthday present after all. As it is, certain gifts they must share: books, CDs, DVDs. The latter two especially: you can't *not* share music or a movie. The piano...well, if it's "Gabriel's", does that mean that if Julian takes piano lessons, he has to get one of his own too? What if Gabriel loses interest and Julian doesn't? What about Katrina in a few years? At this premature stage of their musical careers, it doesn't make sense to designate something like a piano as belonging to one child. Pianos in particular are family sorts of instruments. So, I rephrase: we have a new family practice piano, just a little electronic one with 61 keys, but adequate enough to start simple group lessons if the boys are so inclined.
Just for fun, I tried to show Gabriel and Julian how to do a simple scale, and right away their differing personalities revealed themselves. Gabriel resisted instruction, claiming he already knew how, wanting to do it his own way, though he did make a decent effort. Julian, who'd just watched Gabriel's "lesson," was much more open to suggestion, welcomes the guidance, and is more anxious to please. Also, his finger coordination is better; he could summon his 4th and 5th fingers separately, whereas Gabriel's smaller fingers are more like mine (which are practically glued together). But Gabriel is the one banging away at the little piano all the time; he's long since mastered all the songs in the little songbook, and now is experimenting with things like playing a song with two notes in unison with two fingers. Gabriel is more likely to actually practice and take on the hard work of learning an instrument, and might actually listen to guidance from someone other than Mom. With Julian, it's a social event; for Gabriel, it's a technical one.
But this piano fancy has all come about during rainy times that have ruled out BMXing. Let's see if music can survive beautiful weather and the call of the hills!
1/20/08
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