Child Well-Being Report Card

The U.S. got an F on UNICEF's (For every child, health, education, protection, equality - Advance humanity) "An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries" report card. Socialist countries that offer universal health care ranked highest which didn't surprise me, but I was curious to know what exactly constitutes child well-being and why was the U.S. ranked so poorly.

"Well-being" means everything: eating regular meals together with familes and talking regularly with their parents, receiving full courses of immunizations, literacy at age 15, percentage of young people who find their peers 'kind and helpful' (the U.S. had low marks here), percentage of children who eat fruit at breakfast, percentage of children who say they feel 'lonely, awkward and out of place', percentage who get daily exercise.

So drug use, teen pregnancy, obsesity, mean bullying peers, self aware lonely kids, kids without health insurance, high school drop outs -- all did the U.S. in. It makes me want to move to Amsterdam. Or Stockholm.

Child well-being at its highest in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. There is no strong or consistent relationship between per capita GDP and child well-being. The Czech Republic, for example, achieves a higher overall rank for child well-being than several much wealthier European countries.

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_38299.html

5 Things You May Not Know About Me

I'm usually a lurker on other people's blogs - I visit a handful of blogs weekly but I rarely leave comments. So I was surprised when I saw my name on Kerilyn's blog - challenging me to do a meme - 5 unique things about me. The pressure! It's a good exercise though. I've gotten to know Kerilyn better, I had no idea she's a Middle Eastern history buff and a map fanatic.

Here is my list:

1. I once caught a thief breaking into a car outside my work in San Francisco and blurted out, "You shouldn't do that." He looked at me in disbelief for a second then grabbed a briefcase and laptop and ran off down an alley. Someone called the police and they came immediately. The police whisked me into the front seat of the patrol car and took me on a high speed tour of the neighborhood (I remember laughing inappropriately). We actually found him a few blocks away. He was easy to spot -- baseball cap, big mop of curly red hair, wearing a blue jumpsuit. I slid down in the car afraid he would see me. They arrested him and took him away in another car.

2. When I pass by streetlights at night - it seems like 4 out of 5 times the lights turn off. Danny says he never notices that happening to him. Is it just me? Does this happen to everyone?

3. I regularly fly in my dreams. I'm usually aware I'm flying, concentrating on keeping myself above the ground. It's not free and easy flying. It's a whole body experience, flying over houses and cars at night when the air is wet and heavy.

4. I'm obsessed with medical histories and narratives. I devour any medical article in the New Yorker immediately. I was in a used bookstore the other day and I was amazed that I had read nearly every book in their medical section (it was just a shelf long though). Mary Roach's Stiff. Atul Gawande's Complications. The Great Influenza. The Plauge. Leper Colony. Ebola. The Hot Zone. The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat. Phantoms in the Brain. Oliver Sacks. How the Mind Works.

5. I vividly remember a few nightmares from my early childhood. Both are probably sad comments on the impact of television on my life. In one dream I'm terrified as I'm locked in Carpeteria, the carpet warehouse, for the night. In my other dream I'm chased by the Michelin Man - who is supposed to be what? A cute marshmallow character? A stack of fluffy white tires? I don't get it, he's very, very frightening. He's a dreadful mummy.

Ok so I'm supposed to tag 5 more people to do this meme. Bessie - you're it. Anyone else? I dare these non-bloggers: Sheila, Mom, Roberta and Britta send me your lists!

Teaching Positive Thinking / Success Mindset

I heard this story on NPR this morning and it drove home the importance of emotionally coaching Elliot through school.

A new study in the scientific journal Child Development shows that if you teach students that their intelligence can grow and increase, they do better in school.

"Other children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole life," she says. "You can learn. You can stretch. You can keep mastering new things."

"If we gave students a growth mindset, if we taught them how to think about their intelligence, would that benefit their grades?" Dweck wondered.

So, about 100 seventh graders, all doing poorly in math, were randomly assigned to workshops on good study skills. One workshop gave lessons on how to study well. The other taught about the expanding nature of intelligence and the brain.

The students in the latter group "learned that the brain actually forms new connections every time you learn something new, and that over time, this makes you smarter."

Basically, the students were given a mini-neuroscience course on how the brain works. By the end of the semester, the group of kids who had been taught that the brain can grow smarter, had significantly better math grades than the other group.

"When they studied, they thought about those neurons forming new connections," Dweck says. "When they worked hard in school, they actually visualized how their brain was growing."

Dweck says this new mindset changed the kids' attitude toward learning and their willingness to put forth effort. Duke University psychologist, Steven Asher, agrees. Teaching children that they're in charge of their own intellectual growth motivates a child to work hard, he says.

"If you think about a child who's coping with an especially challenging task, I don't think there's anything better in the world than that child hearing from a parent or from a teacher the words, 'You'll get there.' And that, I think, is the spirit of what this is about."

Dweck's latest book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, gives parents and teachers specific ways to teach the growth mindset of intelligence to children. A new study in the scientific journal Child Development shows that if you teach students that their intelligence can grow and increase, they do better in school.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Asher loves this song, so I'm forcing myself to learn it. I had no idea it was such a long complicated song. This poor woman, she really has to prove herself.



Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme
Without no seams nor needlework
Then she'll be a true love of mine
Tell her to find me an acre of land
Parsely, sage, rosemary, & thyme
Between the salt water and the sea strand
Then she'll be a true love of mine
Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather
Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme
And to gather it all in a bunch of heather
Then she'll be a true love of mine
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

Cabeza y hombros pierna y pies, pierna y pies

Asher's school requires the parents to lead "small group activities" for 4-5 kids during the second half of the year. I've got to come up with 9 lessons. Activities can be very simple - finding leaves on a walk, cutting string, singing songs, pouring water, washing a chair etc. I'm going to try to teach them to sing "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" in Spanish.

Cabeza y hombros pierna y pies
Cabeza y hombros pierna y pies
Ojos orejas boca una nariz
Cabeza y hombros pierna y pies.

I tripped over myself a million times learning the song, it was harder than I thought, but now I think I've got it. We'll see if I can get the kiddos to do it. Elliot picked it up. Asher thought it was funny.

During my research, I found a good resource for children's songs and nursery rhymes from around the world:
http://www.mamalisa.com/world/

I also found this great site that has videos of children around the world singing "Frere Jacques" in their native languages. Asher thought it was fascinating.

Election Day - Voting to Fund Local Schools

It's election day and there are only two issues on the ballot unfortunately and both are Seattle school funding measures. Should we give money to repair old school buildings? Should we renew a $397 million dollar operations levy? No one expects a large voter turn out.

In Washington, our schools are forced to rely levies to help pay for the "extras," those non-essential things like teacher salaries, librarians, special education and books. In Seattle 24 percent of the operating budget comes from that 397 million dollar levy.

In the Seattle PI, someone wrote in to say:
"Why should I vote for the Seattle schools levies? I didn't feel the need to populate the earth with children. I don't care about your kids or your schools or anybody else's kids for that matter."

This kind of thing makes me want to rip my hair out. No sense of community, civic pride, responsibility, short sighted. Unbelievable.

I like these responses to that question best:
"I have no idea how to reply to something like that. State-funded public education is in the state constitution, so perhaps "kidless" needs to find a state more in tune with his "me first" beliefs. I confess, I have never met anyone whose views could be construed as anti-education, based on costs. What next, police and fire protection by auction? If you can't outbid your neighbor, your house burns while his is saved?"

and

"Wait until that uneducated kid becomes an unemployable adult who will in short order become incorrigible criminal and subsequently an irredeemable felon. School kid = $7000/annum to educate. Felon = $60,000/annum to imprison. Do the math. You can pay now or pay later. Your choice."

Lunchbox Saga

When Elliot lost his bumblebee mini backpack/lunchbox in December, we looked in lost and found but it had disappeared into a black hole in his elementary school. So we bought him a replacement Star Wars "May the Force Be With You" vinyl lunchbox - Thermos brand. Inside the lunchbox a note claimed that it had no traces of lead - a reference to the lawsuits filed by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) against makers and retailers of soft vinyl lunch boxes that can expose children to harmful levels of lead. Of course he loved the Star Wars lunchbox and never lost it.

Last week, I left his lunchbox on the kitchen table with food in it and discovered in the morning that something (a raccoon? a tiger? a Norwegian rat!!!!) had ripped open the vinyl siding and shredded the zipper and gorged on the rotting food inside. Sadly, the force was not with the lunchbox, it did not survive the vicious attack. Needless to say I was disturbed, I shrieked a few times in disbelief. Bad mommy, I made things much worse. Elliot was really traumatized. We left the house and went to whole foods for breakfast. We called rodent control later that day. We hadn't closed up a few holes inside the house after the remodel and that's how they got in, but that's another story. So now I'm on the hunt for lunchboxes again.

I don't think I'm going to go the vinyl route again. In Mothering Magazine they recommended avoiding the following three plastics:
#3 (PVC/phthalates; hormone disrupters)
#6 (polystyrene/styrene; human carcinogen)
#7 (polycarbonate/bisphenol-A; hormone disruptor)

Here are my two front runners for new lunchboxes:

Cool Tote
Cool Tote Lunch Bags are free from lead, and the lining is made of nylon which is very safe. As you may know, nylon is even used to make toothbrush bristles. We choose nylon because it is much more durable than vinyl, and it is easy to wipe clean every day so there is no buildup of bacteria from left over lunch materials.

Asiana West Junior Lunchbox
Insulated construction designed to keep warm foods warm and cold foods cold. These stylish, lightweight, compact containers are built tough and great for meals on the go, or for general-purpose storage for just about whatever you might want to use them for. Great for children’s school meals and snacks. Available in 3 bright colors, each with a removable compartment divider. 7” x 5” x 3”. - $17.95 each

Aesop's Fables

I've been reading Aesop's Fables to the boys lately. Elliot spots the lazy and greedy characters in The Dog and the Shadow, The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg and The Grasshopper and the Ants from a mile away. "He should have been happy with what he had," Elliot sighs and shakes his head after the completion of a fable. The dog and the man wanted more, grabbed for it and lost everything. The grasshopper smugly thought he wouldn't have to prepare for winter as the ants were doing. He gets it. You don't get something for nothing, and when you do, just be thankful. (that sounds a bit harsh though - just be grateful you're not living on the street, kid).

Now if we could get him to apply that knowledge to his own life. Just because Asher slept in our bed last night, it doesn't mean we love him more. Yes, it appears that Asher received a millimeter more of juice in his cup, but you'll live, right? To Elliot, the grass is nearly always greener in Asher's realm -- which segues into "I never get what I want" lament. I can't get no satisfaction. It will dawn on him someday that he doesn't need more, or something better. Right?

Facts about Aesop from Wikipedia:
The place of Aesop's birth was and still is disputed: Thrace, Phrygia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Samos, Athens, Sardis and Amorium all claimed the honour. According to the sparse information gathered about him from references to him in several Greek works (he was mentioned by Aristophanes, Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle), Aesop was a slave for someone called Xanthus (Ιάδμων), who resided on the island of Samos. Aesop must have been freed, for he conducted the public defence of a certain Samian demagogue (Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 20). He subsequently lived at the court of Croesus, where he met Solon, and dined in the company of the Seven Sages of Greece with Periander at Corinth.

According to the historian Herodotus, Aesop met with a violent death at the hands of the inhabitants of Delphi, though the cause was not stated. Various suggestions were made by later writers, such as his insulting sarcasms, the embezzlement of money entrusted to him by Croesus for distribution at Delphi, and his alleged sacrilege of a silver cup. A pestilence that ensued was blamed on his execution, and the Delphians declared their willingness to make compensation, which, in default of a nearer connection, was claimed by Iadmon, grandson of Aesop's former master.

Popular stories surrounding Aesop were assembled in a vita prefixed to a collection of fables under his name, compiled by Maximus Planudes, a fourteenth-century monk. He was by tradition extremely ugly and deformed, which is the sole basis for making a grotesque marble figure in the Villa Albani, Rome, a "portrait of Aesop". This biography had actually existed a century before Planudes. It appeared in a thirteenth century manuscript found in Florence. However, according to another Greek historian Plutarch's account of the symposium of the Seven Sages, at which Aesop was a guest, there were many jests on his former servile status, but nothing derogatory was said about his personal appearance. Aesop's deformity was further disputed by the Athenians, who erected in his honour a noble statue by the sculptor Lysippus.

Olympic Sculpture Park

Last weekend the Seattle Art Museum opened the Olympic Sculpture Park on the waterfront downtown. The kids and I went to the extremely packed grand opening - a shindig sponsored by Target - and raced around the park. At the entrance, the kids were enthralled by a team of men taking chain saws to ice and sculpting a huge orca-fantasm-in-the-arctic-waves creation. We enjoyed the free hot cocoa dispensed by Target employees who wore the canisters on their backs. And the endless Target swag - stuffed animals, bags, umbrellas....

The red Alexander Calder "Eagle" sculpture is the most striking piece in the park. Kids were dancing around it, shrieking and patting it. A great way for them to experience art. However, they had a docent standing there saying "please don't touch" the sculpture. I don't see how this can hold up. It's absurd, it's a steel outdoor sculpture, little hands would ocassionally drift across it or pat it, but they couldn't hurt it. If a kid was banging a toy or something on it, that makes sense, but I don't see how they can expect people not to touch it.

Anyway, the waterfront park area is beautiful, a huge grassy area and beach look like great summer picnic spots. I got really stressed out by the massive swarm of boys crawling over the huge jagged rocks and splintery beachwood hills on the beach. I tried to hold Asher back, but he was determined to join in the boy fest and I had to chapperone. The boys loved it, especially the trains that run right beside the park every 1/2 hour. Another good place for a boy adventure.

Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children School

This morning on NPR I heard this story about a children's circus school in Afghanistan where the kids learn how to do standard circus stuff like juggling and acrobatics, but also skills such as computer science, embroidery, radio production, and how to recognize and avoid land mines. I love the future forward, optimistic focus on education and children. We'll have to go see them in 2008. Here is a link to their site: Afghan Mini Mobile Circus for Children

From the NPR story

Founder David Mason says when they take their show on the road, it's to educate as much as to entertain. They teach life-saving subjects, like how to recognize and avoid land mines, or the importance of washing hands.

He took his life savings and went to Pakistan in early 2002. But no aid agency would sponsor him. He says they wanted to build clinics and schools. The idea of a circus just didn't fly.

The 14 Afghan teachers and performers who work for the circus are paid a modest $200 per month. About half of them travel across Afghanistan to perform in provincial schools. Mason says it's too dangerous to let the students travel.

But the children do perform overseas. Fariya's brother recently returned from Japan. Their sister, Parisa, went to Germany and Denmark. A trip to California is planned in 2008.

Q & A with Elliot

Q: If you could be any age, how old would you be?
A: I would be 13 years old.

Q: How would your life be different if you were 13?
A: I would buy stuff you don't want me to buy, like the skeleton in the cage. I'd buy 95 bayonettes. [This is in reference to some toys he wanted before Halloweeen. His memory is both a cause for alarm and pride. I hope his comment isn't prescient.]

Q: What kind of clothes would you wear?
A: I'd wear sports clothes, athletic pants. I like sports.

Q: What sports would you play?
A: I'd play football.

Q: That's it? No swimming? No baseball? No soccer?
A: Just football. I like to tackle people.

Q: What music would you listen to?
A: Pirate's music. Captain Jack Sparrow.

Q: Would you play any instruments?
A: I'd play jazz. I'd be in a jazz band and play two instruments, the saxophone and the trumpet. I'd play When the Saints Come Marching In on the trumpet.

Q: What would you do to make the world a better place?
A: I would save the panda bears and give them more bamboo to eat. I wouldn't let anybody cut down the best trees in the world. I want everybody to have a very nice home.

Snowing in Seattle

Another snow day! No school, no work. Fun, fun, fun. We woke up to 2 inches of snow and it continued throughout the morning. Elliot and I walked up to Zoka to get a pastry and coffee then spent an hour sledding down the hill on 58th street.

A Winter Story by Elliot Bremson

Snow, snow falling down, a girl catches a snowflake with her open mouth. The old man almost hits a little dog with his shovel.

A girl toppled a boy and smashed snow in his face. The strongest kid is named Nicky. He has red hair.

The winter birds ate the seeds Nicky gave to them. Flying in the air for three stories for you and me. The snow is beautiful. I like this snowflake over here, it looks like glass. Rain turns into snow. Nicky gave the birds lots of food, some were black dotted and yellow on top.

Nicky took time off with his own toys, the snow came. He was scared when his father tried to open the door, the door was frozen. Nobody could help them. Even though the snow goes away, he played in the snow in winter.

Fun fun for you and me. We go where we want to go. Snow snow, this is the best time of year. Snow snow let it fall. Even though I don't declare I'm at my winter fair. This is fun oh lots of things, we get to go ice skating on the winter swimming pool. I get to see water in the ice. This is a poem from 1985.

Parenting Resolutions

From Go to Your Room!: Consequences That Teach by Shari Steelsmith.

• Respond to your children more calmly. I make the point in my book, Go to Your Room!: Consequences That Teach, that your discipline has a much higher chance of succeeding if you do it without yelling, exasperated lecturing, or crying. Becoming emotional only tells your child that you’ve lost control—and given it to him or her. If you can discipline calmly, even dispassionately, you will dramatically increase your odds of success. Make use of deep breathing, time-outs (for yourself), and other relaxation techniques to help you keep a rein on your emotions. Planning ahead for what guidance technique you will use when the misbehavior appears again is also very useful for maintaining calm.
  
  
• Limit your child’s exposure to “screens.” This is a constant battle at my house— making sure the “screen time” doesn’t creep up past the day’s limit. Studies tell us that the less time a child spends watching TV, playing on the computer or X-box, or otherwise entertaining himself with screens, the better his achievement in school and his cooperation at home. When kids don’t use screens, they do things like read, play outside, ride bikes and participate in other wholesome activities.
  
  
• Have regular family dinners. I know, you’re thinking, “Duh.” But with all the extra-curricular activities in which we allow our children to participate, family dinnertime is often a casualty. It’s easy to let this get out of hand. Remember, families who have dinner together regularly have a much higher percentage of healthy, well-adjusted children. Kids need predictable time to talk with their parents about their day, the opportunity to help with family chores (preparing food and doing dishes), and the opportunity to eat homemade food. Dashing through a fast-food drive-through and eating chicken nuggets on the way to practice is no substitute for a real family dinner.
  
  
• Read a new parenting book. Okay, this is a little bit of a commercial here, but be aware that there are constantly new, good parenting titles available on the market. If your bookshelf just has an old copy of Dr. Spock and a pregnancy manual collecting dust, then it’s definitely time to update your collection. Personally, I have three new books on my desk that I’m anxious to start—one on talking with your children about sex, one on challenging behaviors, and one on parenting proactively. There is a wealth of information available on this very website in the form of articles—all for free. So read something new and put a little wind in your sails.

Reflections on Chrismukkah

Does Hanukkah get the short end of the winter holiday stick? Of course, how can it compete with the Christmas machine? Elliot said to me, "Mom, since I'm both Christian and Jewish, can we have some decorations at our house? Maybe we can put candy canes in our back yard." Ha! I love it.

He's right, we're out of the mainstream. He wants the big splash of giant evergreen trees and candy colored holiday lights. We don't celebrate Christmas at our house. We have no tree, no lights etc. We have a red winterberry wreath, but apparently that doesn't count. Not celebrating Christmas (at this point in their lives) is really the biggest Jewish identity builder our kids can have. I don't identify with Christianity and never have, so Christmas in my family is really just a winter family gathering. Hanukkah is our winter family gathering. I don't feel the need to have a tree or decorate. I'm sure Elliot will get it someday.

I love Jewish culture, I signed up to keep it alive and pass on that Jewish history / tradition / identity to our children as much we can in our crazy mixed up world. Since I was raised without any religious affiliation and neither were my parents or grandparents (philosophically/spiritually, certain aspects of paganism, renewal judaism, buddhism and unitarianism appeal to me) I like the feeling of having an actual religious cultural calendar (although we don't belong to a temple currently and I'll never be Jewish). We observe passover, the high holidays and hanukkah. The boys do occasional shabbat dinners with their grandparents.

Bessie asked me how do you get your Jewish husband to participate in Hanukkah? Having Grandma and Grandpa near helps. But we we read Hanukkah bedtime stories. We have a Hanukkah party every year and we light the menorah nightly (or we try to, it doesn't always work out). After several years of giving small presents for 8 days and dealing with Elliot crying every night because he wanted more, we decided to do the one big night of presents route (much more successful). I would like us to do one night of volunteering next year as well.

We do the Christmas thing with my family every other year and that's enough. I wonder if Elliot will miss it next year. I feel like I buy just as many presents either way, but it feels just a bit more sane. I have to be careful about how I pitch our LA Christmas, I caught myself saying, "Wait until we get to LA you'll get a lot of presents there." If we really want them to have a Jewish identity we'll have to join a temple.

Chrismukkah according to Wikipedia, has many meanings: the commercialization of Hanukkah, the hybrid holiday of Christmas and Hanukkah in interfaith heritage households, Christmas as celebrated by a Jewish household, and an ironic alternative winter holiday such as Festivus.

Ice Skating on New Year's Eve

Goodbye 2006. We spent the last day of the year ice skating at an outdoor rink with the boys and had a blast. Elliot was a natural. He wants to take ice skating lessons now. Who knew he had such great balance and strength?

Asher was frustrated by his inability to race around as usual, but he enjoyed being pulled around the rink by mom and dad. My arms feel like they're going to fall off now.

Films We Saw + Liked in 2006

It's amazing I even have a list, considering I haven't seen more than a handful of films in the theater this year. The list would have been very slim if Netflix wasn't in my life. I do have standards, I won't put everything on the list. I saw The Queen recently and although I enjoyed it and Helen Mirren inhabited the role admirably, the story didn't transcend TV movie status. I liked Little Miss Sunshine and Thank You for Smoking, but I couldn't put them on my list either, they were problematic and didn't stay with me.

I'm looking forward to seeing: Duck Season, Inland Empire, Half Nelson, Heart of Gold, The Painted Veil, Marie Antoinette, Iraq in Fragments, A Prairie Home Companion, An Inconvenient Truth, Jonestown... Everyone seems to be crazy about Pan's Labyrinth which looks like a high brow horror movie.

My Top 4 Films of 2006

1. The Science of Sleep
I love underdogs, the genius and beauty of this film was unappreciated by the critics and misunderstood by all, but Danny and I found it to be the most original, emotionally complex stories this year.

2. Borat
Brutal satire that hits it right on the nose and made me howl with laughter.

3. Little Children
I expected LC to be a smug / campy parable about hypocrisy and self indulgence, but it really surprised me with its sharp look at adults who are in various stages of arrested development. Each character was stuck in some corner of childhood, morally complex, no judgment, well unified.

4. Scanner Darkly
Still vivid since I saw it last summer, I was pulled in to this universe and saturated for hours after the film ended.

Other Top 10 Lists
Salon.com Best Movies of 2006 List
Metacritic.com 2006 Film Critic Top Ten Lists

Disneyland

We were lucky enough to get free tickets to Disneyland this year (Thanks Chris!) so we thought it was about time for Asher to experience the Magic Kingdom. Michael, Britta and Grandma joined the crew and we had a surprisingly smooth trip, sans major breakdowns and tears.

Asher loved It's a Small World and all musical aspects of the park. Elliot was tall enough to go on all rides (how did that happen?) but we kept it mellow. He wasn't sure about Pirates of the Caribbean so we skipped it. We met another 5 year old boy at Tom Sawyer's Island (which is going to close soon) and they became fast friends running around the island caves and toured the rest of the park with us.

I made everyone eat in the French Quarter right next to some singing pirates so Elliot got a taste of the pirates experience. We saw Captain Jack Sparrow, Elliot's latest obsession. The menu at the cafe was disturbing, deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and deep fried grueyere cheese sandwhiches are just as bad as they sound. It took us forever to be served but the kids were entertained.

I think we left a minimal impact on the park, Grandma bought the boys pirates shirts and Elliot had to have a huge set of iron jailer's keys.

Here are my tips for visiting Disneyland:

1. Bring extra snacks and water
2. Eating at the theme restaurants is tolerable only if there is live entertainment
3. Don't go on ToonTown with a 3 year old (it's too scary)
4. Keep sugar consumption low (we had churros and salt water taffy - that was more than enough)

Los Angeles in December

As we exited the plane at Burbank, Elliot felt the mild air and shouted, "It's not cold at all! I'm free! I'm free!" It was actually fairly cold, but he was ready for a break from the Seattle chill.
Palm trees, birds of paradise, brown hills, traffic jams, deep afternoon shadows and thunder storms, our Los Angeles.

It's a Hanukkah Miracle!

Thursday night at 10pm we lost power. From my bed we could see pink sparks flying from the blown transformers down the street. The wind rattled our windows, whipped anything loose into the air and snapped pine trees in half. It was hard to sleep with such drama going on around us, it sounded like pieces of metal were falling on our house.

Friday morning we found out school was closed and we had no power. Our house was 55 degrees. We showered in candlelight and got breakfast at a cafe that had power. As luck would have it my work had power, business as usual. Danny and the kids went to see Charlotte's Web and stayed out of the house.

The power was restored by 2. We were very lucky. Many of my coworkers still didn't have power by nightfall and it was projected that it might take anywhere from 2 to 10 days until power was fully restored. We celebrated the first night of Hanukkah on schedule. We used birthday candles in the menorah, but it did the trick. Happy Hanukkah!