Milestones

Two huge milestones happened last week. First is that Ashton lost her first tooth.


The toothfairy came through with 3 gold dollar coins which was a big hit.

This tooth had been putting up a good fight actually with the permanent tooth underneath coming in behind it a bit so there was no surprise when it finally came out.

Our other big event was the apparent end of the Lovey blanket.



Last week when Bob was out of town Jacqueline told me to sleep with her blanket "you take it mommy". The first night I didn't think much of that and just took it with me. When the next day she told me she wanted to be like Ashton and sleep with a regular blanket I realized that we might actually be at the end of our devotion to the Lovey.


I have to be honest I was taken completely by surprise and I'm not sure how I feel about this. I guess I just have to trust her that "it's time" although I'm giving it a few more weeks before I put them up with the keepsake box just in case.

Thought I'd include some file footage of the blanket in action.

Summer Fun

Summer has already been a lot of fun for the girls. Fireworks displays, BBQs, Swim lessons and all around fun. Jani got this incredible snap at the beach last week so thought I should include it. Really can't believe how big they are getting!

This photo is a final crash of Jacqueline at a 3rd of July party. She had been doing the bounce house all evening after a long day at the pool with swim lessons and then fireworks show. About 10pm she finally had to call it quits as she literally was ready to collapse. The real cool part of all of this is that she is finally big enough to just give up vs. getting too weepy when she's so tired.

All in all an incredible summer and we haven't even had our big trip to New York yet. Jacqueline has her last week of pre-school next week. Can't believe July is over. Wow.

Economics from a six year old

Last week on the way to swim lessons Ashton gave Bob and I a great lesson in Economics from the point of view of a six year old. I will attempt to recreate the conversation from memory so I might not have this exactly right but I think you'll get the point.

Meg: Where did you get that?

Ashton: The dollar store.

Meg : I'm surprised dollar stores still exist. Are things really still a dollar?

Ashton: [gushing animated voice] Oh yes! Everything in the store is a dollar, which is really great since you always know exactly what it is going to cost. You see, in some stores things might be $3.00 or $5.00 or $10.00 so it's hard to know how much it costs but at the DOLLAR store you know exactly what it costs and you can buy it because it's only one dollar.

Meg: I see. That *is* nice. But I wonder how they make any money selling everything for a dollar.

Ashton: oh they make a LOT of money because so many people want to buy things for a dollar!

Meg: but what if the things they are selling cost them $2.00, what would happen then?

Ashton: well, that wouldn't happen, because everything there is ONE dollar, so you see..

Meg: Yes, I do see....

[short pause]

Ashton: Well, it might take them longer to make money, but they would make a lot of money, because, you see, they sell everything for one dollar and that's so great.

Bob and Meg: You are so right Ashton, that *is* really great.

Meg to Bob: I really need to remember to blog that.

[end conversation]

So there you have it -- it might take them longer but they have themselves an outstanding business model that is well within the grasp of any enterprising six year old.

Meg's birthday at the Sheltor Network

To celebrate my birthday this year we did a team event at the Shelter Network. A local organization that provides assistance to people who need transitional housing.


Here is our group photo.

We do a few of these kinds of volunteer events each year and I find them very rewarding and grounding. I thought it would be a nice thing to do for the birthday celebration. It felt especially appropriate to be giving back this year with so many families struggling in this economy.

This time our job was to paint the lobby, hallways and conference rooms. These are important to the organization as this is where they receive donations and have meetings so it's an area they want to look fresh and nice. I'd like to say we achieved that goal, to be honest it was a close call as I don't think many of us are well suited for this kind of work ;-).
This year Ashton joined us and got good support from her Auntie Suzie who is an experienced painter. She especially enjoyed the taping job as the low spots were easy for her to help with.After the event, the team went for drinks where Bob and Jacqueline joined us for a cake. I strongly suggest considering doing a volunteer event on a special day, it really helps make you realize just how lucky you are.



Of course, since it's me I also had a beautiful (seriously) Judy cake as well later with the family.

Gilroy Gardens

The Bear's and the Carnecchia's took a day trip to the Gilroy gardens as a spur of the moment idea. It was mostly based upon the fact that the weather was expected to be a bit cooler and I had heard great things about the park for kids.

Dante (7), Ashton (6) and Jacqueline (4) were all about the perfect ages for this park as I expect after age 10 things start to get a bit boring. As it was Jacqueline had to talk Dante up a bit when they decided to sit out a roller coaster with me instead of going with the adults.

Jacqueline was really having a blast with the rides as there were a lot for her age. As you know, she especially likes the car ones (or in this case the fire truck). She made us wait a few times for this one.

Dante and Ashton enjoy being the big kids and attempted to ditch Jacqueline a few times but overall were pretty patient letting her join them. All in all a great day.

Jacqeuline sparkles and dances

Jacqueline was on a roll today. She had a playdate with our neighbor friend Sophie and then when that ended she asked me to read her a story. The book was a free Taco Bell (yup only the finest dining in the Bear family) one that mentioned a free song download. I got curious about the song since it was not an obvious tune (and I was expected to "sing along" with the book). I went to the den to download the song, which was a bit of an ompa number about a dancing bear.

Of course, she had to go get her own bear and make it dance.
Then, she had to put on her sparkle outfit to match the bear. After about two rounds of the song I remembered to video it for your very own enjoyment.

You will notice that she is dancing around her pants that she left of the floor in her rush to dress appropriately for the music. You have no idea how serious this kind of stuff is at 3. It's VERY important to dress the part.


Later the afternoon we were doing a family jacuzzi (we put some cold water in for the girls) and for some reason I told Jacqueline that she "blew me away". Her immediate response was to start blowing on me which took me a minute to figure out what she was doing.

And one final story.

As I was attempting to clean up the mess from the day I put on Dora. Those of you familiar with Dora know that it's a bit interactive. They were doing a part that required naming shapes. She got the circle right, called the triangle a diamond, got the square right, called the rectangle a line (which was actually fair) and then got the pentagon right (one I had to take a second to be sure about). I found that a perfect example of Jacqueline's intellect. Not to be underestimated at any level. Just when she makes you think she doesn't know any of her shapes, she comes out with pentagon.

Kinder Open House

Today was the first Open House I have attended as a parent. What a great time. The kids each published their own poems and read them into a microphone for all to hear. It was outstanding.





Jacqueline was on her best behavior too (this could not be said of all the siblings). She was quiet and clapped for each of the presenters on cue. I was very proud.


After the reading we went around the classroom and saw all the excellent projects, games and artwork that they have been doing. It was quite impressive. Then we saw the library and visited a few of the first grade classes to get a glimpse of next year.


I was also able to get a video of Ashton achieving one of her big goals this year -- getting across the monkey bars. I was so proud of her.




Great job Ashton! Your mom is very very proud of you.