Floating Upstream: dry winter nuggets, part I: in pictures

We've been consumed with talk about potential and possibilities lately. The potential of a different kind of education; the possibility of buying a home; the many and various ways in which we could live our present lives, alternative lives, future lives. I'm finding it hard but necessary at the end of each day to sit down, take a deep breath, and recap what truly matters: our connection to each other and the joy of work that is, above all, play.

Since there is no way recap the past few weeks, spent deep in ~~boring~~ adult conversations and multiple trips all over the Bay to look at houses, I will limit myself to stuff they say and a very long series of photographs--in two parts, to keep Blogger from crashing. That way, I can resume normal programming next week.

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Stuff They Say

Raya: Were you guys friends you grew up?
Mom: No, we didn't even know each other.
Raya: And when you grew up, you married each other!

I don't remember the exact scenario, but it must have been an instance of my prodding Sava to finish a meal.
Sava: Mommy, I think you'd rather be doing work than be a police officer at the kitchen table.
Righty-o, my dear son.

Raya: Mama, I enjoy being a person.
Mom: What do you enjoy about being a person?
Raya: It's nice. You can feel the sun. There's nice clothes.
Mom: What else?
Raya: Making new friends.
Mom: Who is your newest friend?
Raya: Emma.
For the record, Emma is the blond elfish child who just moved from LA and who greets Raya every Tuesday and Thursday morning at school by an elaborate ritual of squealing, kissing, and hand-holding. Between her and Katie, who comes MWF, Raya has a full set of "best friends" at school. She is bummed every single weekend that she can't go to school. Her parents are bummed that she doesn't find them adequately interesting.

Bob sent Raya a Valentine gift and then asked me to ask her if she would be his Valentine. I am pretty sure she did not understand what the question meant, but her face spread in a wide smile and she said through giggles:
Yes, but I can't come to him in an envelope!

Sava is learning about personification at school. We talked at home about it, listing the commonsense stuff like the wind howling, the sun smiling, etc. Then he thought for a few seconds and said:
Mama, you know how I say I don't like eggs, and you say, "But eggs like you!" That's personification.
My little analyst.

As everyone in the world know by now, we have a record drought here in California. Everything is in desperate need of moisture. The pictures above and below were taken at Alviso Marina in January, when normally the path is flanked by green grass and blossoming flowers.

We got a bit of rain this past week, but it is not nearly enough to make up for the months of brilliant sunshine.

Here's hoping for a wet March.

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Going way back when, a few photos from Christmas. The kids loved watching the trains, again and again, on a famed Mountain View street where a train-loving dude sets this up every single year.

Some people decorate in unusual style.

The same people also dine in unusual style.

Raya got a dollhouse from Santa. She's been lukewarm towards it, with brief spurts of enthusiasm. Interesting for a girl who loves her dolls.

Sava got one of those electric-circuit thingamajigs. Fascinating for a day, but once you make it, the thrill is mostly gone, even with remote control. Which is why giving kids a pile of dirt and some shovels and building blocks serves a much better purpose on the entertainment-per-hour value scale.

Around Christmas and again recently, we also got to spend time with lovely Noe.

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We haven't hiked every weekend over the past two months, but we have done or best given the time constraints. At Edgewood with Heidi and Levi.

It's hard to believe that these two have known each other since they were a few months old.

Gaps between the teeth might be one of my favorite things about age seven.

I think he might need a wife beater.

I'm always, compulsively reading parenting books. Sibling play--unobstructed, spontaneous, joyous--is presumed good according to the latest research.

Our kids are mostly good at that. They're also good at, when the mood is right, occupying themselves alone.

She's growing.

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At Palo Alto Baylands with the little monthly hiking club we lead.

She chooses her outfits at all times.

Her boyfriends, too.

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At Junipero Serra in San Bruno with school friends.

Possibly the best view of the Bay from a playground, including the runway at SFO.

Complete with the most enormous slide I have ever seen. I refused to try it, but both kids did, and Sava and his friends loved it.

Here again: wearing a summer dress in January (in part because it is warm, and in part because she is crazy).

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At Seal Point in San Mateo with Auntie Michelle, Noe, and Daphne.

I marvel at the fact that he has gone from being the boy who always watched others from the edge of playgrounds to one who actively searches for (and finds!) friends.

Also, how strange is it to find a boy at a playground doing the Rainbow Loom, serving as a magnet for all other boys aged 7-13? Not strange at all. It is the new norm.