Author Archives: Vale

Goodbye to Booker

24 Aug 2012

We had to say goodbye to Booker this morning. He was 13 1/2 years old. We called him the Gold Standard of Dogs.

He was with us when we got married, saw us have 3 children, and helped us when we lost Ava to cancer. He helped our cat Cairo pick fights, but not finish them. He partnered with his brother Hoot for everything: walks, tug-of-wars, begging shenanigans. He especially loved his papa, Chief.

Booker was a country dog living in the city. He patrolled sidewalks, and fetched the paper. He politely declined the endeavors of strangers. We taught him fun tricks: G.I. Joe, Bang bang, and The cookie on the nose. Our friends teased us when we brought him with us everywhere: work, the beach, the lacrosse field, AT&T park, dinner parties, road trips. When he got older, he took himself for walks in Golden Gate Park. (yeah, not our favorite, and how on Earth he crossed Oak street we’ll never know.) He swam and fetched like he was born to it. He loved it. He even swam in the Eel river with us less than two weeks ago. I loved swimming next to him, and racing him for the stick.

Booker was the best dog, ever.
We joked that this was a good thing, because I might get rid of him if he were any less. The truth is I loved him, Everyone loved him, and we always will.
No one lives forever, and I am going to focus on what a gift his long life was.

Lucy at Laurel Hill

22 Aug 2012


One word: YAY!

Today was Lucy’s first day at Laurel Hill. It went really well. Honestly, we didn’t have any doubts. Well, maybe, one, about how we chose to send her for afternoons (1 to 4, M-F) and what will happen to her nap. Today the nap happened in the car on the way home, which was fine. But I need to back up!

I’d forgotten about how many little rituals and details that come with Laurel Hill, and how Lucy doesn’t know any of it yet. How potentially overwhelming! For example, where to put your stuff, when to go where, where you can / can’t go, whether you need shoes, or need to remove you shoes (dome/playhouse). “Group meeting time” will come to mean something to Lucy, but today I think it all whizzed by in a flash.

She met Kaile (pronounced Ki-lee), who is sort of like her homeroom teacher. Her cubby is in Yellow room, and Kaile is the yellow room teacher in the afternoons. But she also got to meet Sally, Inga (♥), Ann, Maria, Collette, etc! They are all Sooooo nice. Off the charts nice. Like, nicer than I could ever be on my best day. It’s good to be a kid at Laurel Hill.

I was wondering how the first little bit of playtime would go, and what Lucy would do. There is a lot of choice. So much to discover. I don’t know if it was fate that caught her eye, or if she searched them out, but just as I was re-hanging a fallen jacket, Lucy shouts out, and hold up her arms in display: Scissors!!!

She has been proclaiming all summer that she would “use scissors at Laurel Hill”. A mantra that she made up for herself? I’ve enforced a no-scissors rule at home, but we all encouraged the scissors plan for Laurel Hill. It was Fun to see her jam over to the scissors table, and start practicing. She owned it for a good 15 minutes.


(Photo taking isn’t really encouraged, so I wasn’t allowed to go into full paparazzi mode. My shots suffer a bit from being on the DL)

What else. She played with some farm toys, she used the potties, she played in the sand, we read books. She really liked Yellow room’s playhouse. They have a play kitchen, dolls, dress-up, and a great ladder to more space up high. Lucy put on a cape. A sassy little girl told her That’s Not how you wear it. Lucy’s eyes got wide. My eyes got wide. I didn’t know what to say. I think I ended up saying, “That wasn’t a very nice thing to say”. The moment passed. Lucy made no effort to adjust the cape.

At a certain point my job was to work in the kitchen. I leaned in to Lucy’s ear as she was playing and I said, “I gotta leave for a bit”. She kept playing.
Ta-da!

At the end of the day Lucy was tired. She yawned really big at group meeting time. But no melt downs, and she even VOLUNTEERED, to Kaile, to sing a song. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (I suppose that’s the one that’s in her wheelhouse.) We were all sitting on the rug together. I mean, it wasn’t a case of ‘who knows twinkle twinkle’, – it was Lucy saying, “I can sing a song”, and Kaile saying, what song would you like to sing? I was super proud.

More photos after the jump…
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Oscar the Second Grader

20 Aug 2012

Off to a good start! I like his teacher a lot (that’s her in the photos – Prudence). Drop off is in the upper yard – and if you didn’t know – that’s kind of a big deal. I haven’t checked out the classroom yet (it’s off limits to parents until ‘back to school night’). We got Tamir in our class again, so that’s fun. Oscar reports everything is great. His seat is by the water fountain, “so if I get thirsty, it’s easy.” Here’s to a happy, hydrated year.


(They both picked out their outfits, entirely. I will try to have some sway tomorrow, on Lucy’s first day.)


Big hellos


Tamir!


Jacob in the A’s hat.


See ya after school!


No worries


Enzo the 5th grader! Last year at Clarendon!


Sweet Kiera sent over apple cookies – in time to make the morning lunchbox! Can you stand it?


Yum!

—Stand by for Laurel Hill Nursery School – starts tomorrow – 1 to 4pm daily.—

Family Camping Trip

19 Aug 2012

We all drove north on the 101 to a little campsite in Myer’s Flat, along the South fork of the Eel river.

Nanu and Chief scouted the site ahead of time, and chose it for it’s awesome swimming, which couldn’t be closer to the campsite unless we pitched tents on the riverbed. It was lovely! We all fell head over heels in love with our cute shade tree. (Anyone know what kind of tree that was?) Also, it’s just far enough from the Bay Area that it wasn’t as crowded as some of the other places in consideration. The sights and smells kept bringing me back to my childhood. (We even caught a frog, and a lizard that Lucy named Sue.)

We pitched our tents during the daylight, and Nanu came up at night with Mark, who had to work late.
Due to a super unfortunate scheduling snafu, Alex had baseball playoffs and had to miss the trip. We tried to re-assure ourselves that there can be many more trips, with lots of Alex time. Still, Al, you were Greatly missed!!

It was a short trip, cut even shorter by me. :( We were planning to stay til Monday, but I wimped out. Temps reached the hundreds, and the idea of packing and driving home solo convinced me to go back with Mark on Sunday afternoon. Had it only been 85, things may have been different. That’s my story. (also, for the record, the ‘Tent Olympics’ were taxing. I need one that’s “palatial”.)
Still, I’m ready to go again…
D’oh — school starts tomorrow…

Also worth noting – Cole’s camera broke, (!!) early on, and so the photos that are ‘standing in’ were taken by our assortment of iPhones and aging point-n-shoots.
eh. I didn’t bring my camera – the car was too full! Plus, we were all relaxing, and no pressure to take pictures was nice. This slideshow came together in spite almost no effort.

Thank you Kiera for the great music suggestion. Thanks C+K, Madie, and Nanu for contributing photos.

enjoy the show.

https://oscarandlucy.com/wp-content/slideshows/2012/camp2012/

ps yes, I realize I spelled Myers wrong – I’ll fix it tomorrow!
xxoo

Ice Cream Date

16 Aug 2012

We finally got over to the ‘Ice Cream Bar’ on Cole, just below Carl. So Cute! Shelly and I actually made a date on the calendar. Isn’t that how all important stuff gets done? Also, we got to decide what was the best time to let our kids load up on ice cream. (1pm.)


Lucy managed the high-stool/big-ice-cream combo well. Thankfully the place was pretty empty.


The menu was huge, and filled with all kinds of weird stuff too. I played it safe with the Cherry soda (YUM). And I helped Lucy of course. The chocolate fudge sauce brought me back! I’ll experiment more next time. Anyone want to make a date?

http://theicecreambarsf.com/