A little bit more about miss lila

• Her nicknames are still Ya Ya, and Ho Ho, though occasionally "The Ho" is used and I am not quite sure what to do about it. She can now say "Lila" and if you ask her, she'll tell you her name is "Lila B." Strong enunciation on the Ls.
• She loves the ipad games that talk back to you. Somehow she picked up the phrase "You ARE DA BEST." She gets up super close to the talking fairy or the taking cat and yells it into the ipad. Thus they repeat it back to her. Occasionally she yells "I am Da Best!" When the cat or fairy inevitably says the same thing back to her, she gets upset and starts arguing with it. "No you not the best, I da best." This continues until she complains to me "Mommy it say I not da best. It say "I da best."" And I quietly count my blessings that she is a younger sibling in the school process. (Lila, if you are reading this someday...I am TOTALLY KIDDING!! You are a genius!)
• When Andrew takes her out of the sleep sack in the morning he exclaims "You're free! Your're free!" She responds "No, I two."
• If she wants me to hold her, which is almost all the time, it is "Hode you!" She is starting to really kill my back and shoulders, but I can't resist her (though I could do without the hand she tries to stick down my shirt EVERY TIME).
• She's a big consoler --"It's ok." Or, if she asks for something, no matter how big or small, and I say no, I hear a sweet little "Ok."
• Of course, sometimes she will fight for it. "One time?" with her holding up one lil' finger.
• She still stands over her sisters at bedtime and demands "Cwy, Charwotte, Cwy!" "Cwy, Dywan, Cwy!" to get them to beg for big hugs and kisses.
• Her favorite game is hide and seek. She will run up and say with passion "Hide and seek! You count!" And she runs off to hide, then yells at you as your look for her "I right here! I behind the couch!" And when you find her? "That good hiding place, right?"
• She shrugs her shoulders a lot. It is awesome.
• "I cold. I need my bathroom" She means bathrobe, and oh how I wish C and D didn't insist on correcting her.
• She likes to sing songs C and D taught her, including "Allouette jonti allouette" and "Puff the magic dragon", although she also likes Willie and Mumford and Sons.
• She calls jeans "Daddy Pants" and she always wants to wear them.
• On Friday nights when I put her to bed she'll say to me "Mommy, are you eherhizing tomorrow? Then I call for Daddy!"
• "Dios mio!" has been heard from her once or twice.
• "Scoot me my up!" means scoot me up to the table.
• She engages in her own version of the "Chris Farley show." It starts with "Remember that time..." One of her classics happens every time we go to Target-- she'll say "Remember the time we went to Target and I fell out of the cart? It was terrible." Or this past week it has been "Remember what happened to Deborah? (C and D's teacher) A fly went into her throat!"

That Sound You Hear is Your Uncle Screaming from Texas

C, D, and Sam were having a discussion in Utah.

C: “Sam do you think Santa is poor?”

S: “I don’t know. Why do you ask?”

C: “Well he makes and gives everyone gifts, but no one gives him anything. How does he have any money? He must be poor.”

D: “No, I don’t think he is poor." (big pause) "I think the government pays him. “

(A little context before you think we have gone off the big government deep end: the day before we had been discussing NASA and the girls wanted to know who paid astronauts….)

"School Could Use Girls Like C and D"

C and D got into the only private school we had decided we would choose over moving to the 'burbs and going public. We are thrilled and freaked out all at the same time. It was the first school we visited a few years ago and from the moment we stepped onto the campus we both had a feeling it was the place for them. No other school gave us that feeling (I visited 10+). We put our best feet forward, many factors played in our favor this year, and C and D were offered spots.

There are, of course, tradeoffs. Besides the obvious financial, we are not moving closer to Carmel and the airport, and our kids will have to take a bus to school (but isn't there something cool about bussing across the GG bridge to get to school?) And we will eventually move further from many friends who already seem to live too far away. And I feel like I just let down my city by forgoing public school.

But for now we don't have to move which is a big relief. And until proven wrong we think our kids are going to love the school. Given the hellish process that is getting into a public or private school in SF, we feel incredibly lucky that we got two spots and we have the ability to send them.

More than anything I learned a lot in the process. I learned that any choice we had was going to be vastly better than what many American kids get today, and for this I am both grateful and guilty. I learned that there are amazing things happening at public and private schools today, as well as some troubling things at both. I learned that when you ask C to write "as many numbers as you feel like" in a school assessment she will choose to write "2, 4, and 5" because "that was just what i felt like writing." (D heard it as "write as many numbers as you can" FYI (she claims she got to 23, though writing numbers is not in their wheelhouse yet) and no, this was not at the school they will be attending). And I learned that on things like this A and I make a good team.

Night Out

Last night andrew and I went to a charity gala here in SF. It was quite the scene. Sadly, I didn't get a single decent picture of how we look all cleaned up. But it was fun.