Finding Balance in San Francisco

My Santa Promise

A few weeks ago the kids and I were at the Y and the people at the front desk breezily mentioned that Santa would be coming to visit the Y on December 17th at 10am.  We smiled and nodded... and then magically that date and time were burned into my 5 year old's brain.  

We've been talking about Santa coming to the Y for weeks, and I did agree that we could go see him.  Then yesterday was scheduled to be a really busy day at work for me and I had every intention of blowing off visiting Santa at the Y and catching him somewhere else instead.

Well.

Quinn excitedly mentioned unprompted at breakfast that it was December 17th, then pointed to the calendar and cheerfully noted that at 10am Santa was coming to the Y.  I sighed and explained about my meetings and that I might not be able to make it in time and that we could see Santa a different time- but the look on his face when he said in disbelief "what!?" drove it home that I needed to try my darndest keep my promise.

This was one of those times, one of those moments among all the other moments when it really mattered that I not blow off what was originally a casual commitment to my kid.  December 17th at 10 o'clock was when Santa was going to be at the Y, and though I'd not written it in blood, I'd promised that we'd see him- meetings notwithstanding. 

On the drive to school, Quinn was full of ideas about how I could get out of my meetings. Finally he settled on the concept of me just simply telling everyone that I could answer the rest of their questions tomorrow because I needed to go and see Santa.  I told him I'd try my best to do just that.

Happily, I made it work. 

Ho Ho Ho.  The pride I felt was immense.  We stayed a grand total of about 5 minutes with Santa, but those were important, trust-building minutes. Quinn's eyes really lit up when he saw me standing there at his school- he even let out a "yes!" accompanied by a little hop- and I felt like a a shining beacon of a promise keeper.

I'm sure there will be times in the future when I disappoint him, but for now I'm still on top of the world.

Happy Haunting in San Francisco

Halloween roared into our lives this year

and it's been almost a week of celebrations.

Photo above is a chocolate-drunk Quinn with his line partner, Eduardo, at the school Halloween fair.

As has been our tradition for the past 5 years or so, we met up with the Taylor brothers for trick or treating on Halloween night, kicking off the evening with a playdate/dinner in the Presidio at the Taylor's home.

Ry and I got into the dress-up action this year, too.

we love to trick or treat through the mansions of Presidio Heights- many houses decorated to the nines and great candy

the boys were pleased with their haul at the end of the night, and a great time was had by all.

That bowl there with the spider is for the "Switch Witch, " who gets almost all of the candy and replaces it with a present for each trick-or-treater, to be found the next morning.  I'm a big fan of the Switch Witch.

Oh, and I should say R.I.P. to our fish Dino, who didn't live through Halloween night.  I guess he gave up the ghost.

Quinn's birthday week is over!

Quinn is officially 5.

Quite the week of celebrations. We had a birthday party for him Sunday-

Complete with bouncy house

Quinn's 5th birthday- bouncy house shenanigans from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

Quinn's 5th birthday- more bouncy house fun from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

and light saber duels

It's a great thing to have a birthday party, and also exhausting. The Mighty Quinn seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself, as did Jordan and friends and family we had over, and that definitely put a smile on our faces.

Quinn's birthday party- Moeller brothers from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

Now we're in good standing for another 6 months, when Jordan will expect a partay for his 4th. At the end of the party, I felt a bit like one of our small guests:

Bhutan and the "gold medal"

We just got a care package from Nana, which included t-shirts from Bhutan. Both boys wanted to wear their shirts from "The Land of the Peaceful Dragon" today

and we're (mommy is, anyway) excited about Quinn's soccer season ending... good memories, yet also nice to not have every Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning tied up with soccer. I wonder how much different Quinn will be during next year's soccer season. It does seem like the boys change so much each year at this point.

The boys are particularly excited about the medals- here's a surprised looking Quinn with his pal Will, showing off their soccer medals, and then a bunch of boys from Quinn's class, examining their new hardware

The days feel shorter and colder- fall is fully underway. Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner... and then Christmas will be here before we know it.

Welcome Baby Danica!

We're just back from visiting Danica Dvorak, born one week ago today (on 9/17/08) to proud parents Meg and Chris and big brother Owen. The next 3 photos from the hospital last week:

Congratulations Dvorak family!

Heido and baby Zak and Jordan and I really loved seeing the little lady, who seems to have an utterly fabulous disposition already, like her pretty mom.

While Heido and I loved up Danica, Jordan was smitten with Owen's great collection of Star Wars action figures and with Owen's grandma's cute dog, Ivan.

but eventually he came around to check out the new babe

It was also the first time we'd seen the Dvorak's beautiful new home

A lovely way to spend a Wednesday morning.