Father's Day Weekend in SoCal – Part 1 of 3

Thursday, June 15th
Frank and I took a mid-afternoon flight down to the Orange County airport to spend Father's Day weekend with Dan, Carrie, Vivian, and Lillian. Dan picked us up right after work and we hit the ground running. He drove us immediately to pick up Vivian from her preschool. The facility is part of a lake association swim club and so has a sandy beach and water right outside her classroom. My kids' preschool never looked like this.

The classrooms within were bright and airy and the preschool looked like a happy place.

After picking up three-year-old Vivian, we drove to get one-year-old Lillian from her daycare provider's home, and then on to Pump It Up for Vivian's end of the school year party. Pump It Up is an indoor playground with all sorts of inflated climbing and bouncing and sliding structures. What cacophony when a party is in session there!

Put this number of kids in it and it is not at all quiet and peaceful. The pose for this photograph was one fleeting moment of commanded sitting. Vivian is in the nearest seat in the second row, wearing a red dress, hands folded angelically in her lap. Frank is seated in a chair in the far back in the center, wearing a green shirt.

I climbed into one of the tumbling barrels to roll around with Vivian. Look closely and you can see barely see one of her legs poking out to the side from behind my butt. On second thought, maybe you do not want to look too closely. Aside from getting a bit nauseous, I now have this very flattering photo of us in action that Frank took to commemorate the occasion.

As long as mom and dad were not in her line of vision, Lillian was very happy to be held by Grandma.

After about an hour-and-a-half of playtime, a dinner of pizza and cookies was served in the party room at Pump It Up. Once refueled, we dropped by Dan and Carrie's house to pick up our mode of transportation. Dan had delayed selling his truck until after our visit so we would not have to rent a vehicle. That night, before bedtime, we squeezed in unpacking the gifts that I had stuffed into mine and Grandpa's suitcases. There was a puzzle in a tin for Vivian and a Hickory Dickory Dock finger puppet mouse book, intended for Lillian but which Vivian took an interest in reading it to her little sister. There was a fairy outfit for Vivian.

For Lillian there was a small giraffe by Early Learning Centre, the size of a toddler's hand, whose joints made appealing clicking sounds. Lillian also got a roly-poly owl toy by Kid O Wobbles, baby fist sized that tilted and swayed like those vintage Weebles™. Remember? "Weebles™ wobble but they don't fall down." You can see more Weebles™ and childhood memories in my toy memorabilia post from 3/23/17.

I am somewhat bemused that the giraffe has already gone on vacation with Lillian and her family and has visited a winery riding in her daddy's shirt pocket.

In the suitcase there were also a Lil' Red doll for Lillian and a mermaid doll for Vivian to complement the dolls they each had already received.

After gift opening, the kids were whisked up to bed. Once they were both tucked in, we drove off to our hotel, located about a mile from their home. There was to be no sleeping in for us on Friday morning. We were scheduled to babysit Vivian while Dan and Carrie were at work since her preschool was closed for the day.

Friday, June 16th

Knowing we would want a bit of time to recover from traveling and partying, Frank and I asked that Vivian be dropped off at our hotel in the morning rather than us being at their house bright and early. We took Vivian to breakfast at the hotel. Going through the buffet line she was very conservative and selective. She did ask first thing if they had apple juice so we made sure she got that. She picked scrambled eggs, cheese, milk, and yogurt but turned down any muffins or buns. I wonder if the Southern California influenced lo-carb craze has affected her decisions. She is a very wise three-year old. She is a big fruit eater at home but I guess in this venue she wanted mostly high protein options.

Vivian chose for us to eat outside next to the water feature in the courtyard. Luckily blueberry is her favorite flavor for yogurt, since it was the only option available. Oddly enough the hotel offers only one flavor per day, although it does rotate what that flavor is from day to day.

After breakfast we walked the long hotel corridors and rode the elevator up to our room. Vivian, of course, got to press all the buttons. Well, almost all. At one point Frank absentmindedly pushed the button first. All of sudden her face was crestfallen and she was trying soooo hard to be brave and not cry. A couple extra trips to different floors with her in full button control mode seem to console her and avoid the potential meltdown. Thank goodness. I still remember Dan in his toddler years sobbing and throwing a tantrum for 45 minutes because I forgot to let him open the front door with the key when we came home from grocery shopping. In his case though, with my arms laden with bags, I relocked the door and handed him the keys to no avail. He sobbed. "But it's not the same!" I was relieved that history was not going to repeat itself with his daughter. Once in the room Vivian absorbed herself in doing a new Red Riding Hood puzzle that we had brought down for her. It came in a matching tin and had 35 pieces. Every time she linked two pieces together she exclaimed with pride, "I made a match!"

We planned to spend the rest of the morning and the afternoon at Dan and Carrie's house. Because of car seat logistics, I opted to walk the one-mile distance with Vivian in her stroller while Frank went separately with the truck. Frank walked part of the way with me first, to be sure of the route and assess the steepness of the streets with the stroller, before he returned to our hotel to fetch the vehicle. The day promised to be a real scorcher, but there was a breeze and we left sufficiently before noon that the heat had not climbed to an intolerable level.

Once at her house Vivian asked to change into her fairy costume. She dance and twirled in it for Frank and me.

"Grandma take a picture of us!" she insisted. This little girl knows all about selfies and videos and poses. She was also very amenable to taking off her fairy dress before she ate anything.

When it was lunchtime, I let Vivian pick her menu and her plate. The plate had a snowman on it. Christmas in June. Why not? One food item was string cheese which I think she usually unwraps, bites off, and chews. "Do you know why it is called string cheese? Let Grandma show you a fun way to eat it." It took her a few practice pinches to get each sliver started, but she concentrated and mastered it.

Yum. Vivian liked this new way of eating it.

After lunch was nap time. Vivian went to sleep willingly and without a hitch. Ahh! It was the first time since we left Livermore that Frank and I had had a breather. When she (and Frank) woke I played my melodica birthday present from Frank, while Vivian danced with graceful ballerina footsteps and arm motions to the tune Beauty and the Beast.

She also tried her hand at blowing through the tube and fingering the keyboard. (See also birthday post dated 6/21/17.)

At the end of the afternoon Dan called and asked that we get Vivian dressed in a nice outfit for the preschool graduation that evening. Wow! I got to pick what she wore? I felt privileged and trusted. Vivian's class was continuing, not graduating, but the entire school was part of a musical performance for the parents.

The kids really did a great job on a rather ambitious set of songs. Number Rock was very cute and the kids were engaged and enthusiastic with the beat. You can hear a version of the song on YouTube. I had never heard it before. Likewise ABC Rock was new to me but of course YouTube has a version of ABC Rock also. The letter verses were fine but the kids really got into singing the chorus. "OH BOY". Watching them go through all the motions of Bear Hunt brought many a laugh from the audience. I was very impressed with how much they had all memorized.

After singing there were refreshments of cookies, cakes, muffins, pastries, and punch. The seats were vacated quickly but I will admit the singers still filed out in order. Just very, very fast!

When the program was over, and we had consumed all those sweets, we went out to dinner at a local Italian restaurant called Peppinos. Vivian and Lillian had no problem at all with carbs there practically inhaling the bread and pasta. Lillian is very tiny for her age but, man, can she eat! She is a bottomless pit! It is a joy to watch, alleviating so much of the worry from her required surgery for intestinal rerouting at one day old. The story of her birth was told in my post for 5/26/16.

Outside the restaurant Vivian again wanted me to take her picture. Why she had to hug this fire hydrant is beyond me, but there you have it. Do not try to fathom the mind of a three year old. Sparkly pink shoes I can understand, but a fire hydrant...?

Returning back to Dan's place, the girls went to bed pretty smoothly with goodnight hugs and kisses. Dan had to hang out with Lillian for a bit near her crib. At bedtime she is a daddy's girl. Afterwards Dan came downstairs and Frank and I visited with him for a short while, hearing about his work projects, in particular a renovation of the lobby of the Grand Californian Hotel at the Disney Resort in Anaheim. Then we drove back to our hotel for the night. Tomorrow would be event packed and we knew we'd better catch our sleep while we could.