Wenk Sylvain Family Blog

Yogi firsts

2010-11-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving brought Yogi's first Monopoly game! We went to Michele's and played games with "the boys," Michele's nephew Max, and his two friends Mun and Eugene, all of whom are from Australia, and are staying with Michele for the next 3 months, and their swim coach, Megan.

Yogi made a pumpkin cheesecake with ginger snap crust.

We all had a great time. Now we're full, and we're going to bed!

The Army Men Dilemma

2010-11-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

Yogi has been lobbying for army men. He played with them at a friend's house...well, okay...at OUR grown-up friend's house...and now he wants them badly. So he's pleaded with us to consider it. So we did.

After much discussion, as we were both very torn, we told him that he could have army men on 3 conditions:
1. He'd have to pay for them himself.
2. They can't be used as a precedent for bringing more toy guns into the house.
3. He has to study Ghandi and MLK and write a 1 page essay on non-violent conflict resolution.

His reply: "So...I just have to write like a hippie?"

As long as it's Dylan, son.

A sad day

2010-09-05T22:22:00.001-07:00

Our 14 year old doggie Sam passed away at home tonight.

Yogi is on the phone talking with his best friend Trip about what happened and how he feels. He said "Life is just an amazement of sad and happy things."

Welcome to the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commi...

2010-05-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

More Yogi Remarks

2010-03-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

A few days ago..."Soup is good for your innards!"

And today we were having a discussion about the fact that we think some websites are inappropriate for kids because they're unmonitored and it's possible for kids to see disturbing images on them.

"Like what?" he asked. "Like a naked lady?"

"Things like that. Or worse," replied John.

Without missing a beat he asked, "What's worse than a naked lady?!"

Pretty funny, but only until you start thinking about the kinds of things kids get exposed to these days that we as parents have so little control over. Billboards, for example. I've seen the most disturbing billboards in LA. And so has my little boy.

And of course later I had to have another conversation about the fact that there's nothing wrong with naked people, but that sometimes how they're pictured is disturbing.

Parenting can be so complicated!

The kinds of questions Yogi is asking these days

2009-12-13T14:25:00.001-08:00

"How can my ass be wise?"

"Why are all the dogs attacking me with their noses?" followed by a gleeful giggle.

Santa Claus

2009-11-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Yogi and his friend Martin were talking in the back seat. Martin asked Yogi if he believed in Santa Claus. This is a sensitive topic for Yogi because in April he caught us preparing for Easter and thus - in his mind - 'ruined all the holidays' for himself. He has expressed in the past that believing in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny gave him a 'warm feeling' that he no longer has and that he longs for.

I know, the kid is amazing.

So Yogi doesn't want to take away that belief from anyone else and so he treads carefully when the topic comes up.

Martin is a year older than Yogi so it was probably safe.

Okay, enough background. This is what Yogi said.

"I think Santa Claus is a warm feeling. He's like the spirit of Christmas you know? The spirit of generosity and the spirit of kindness."

My heart was in my throat. How could this child have such a beautiful, poetic understanding? Then he said:

"He's also the spirit of gingerbread people."

So there ya go.

New vocabulary

2009-11-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

Last week Yogi told me his friend Xander was a "girl magnet" and that Asher and Keller had tried to cure Xander, which seemed to work for a while, but the effect wore off. So apparently Xander is still a "girl magnet" which is a potential problem when you're eight.

He is full of interesting and funny stuff like this these days.

Last night at Therese's birthday party we were teasing him about being nutty or something like that and he yelled, "I need my medical records!" (He knew I'd been working on getting his medical records transferred from his old pediatrician to Kaiser.)

He still loves speaking in accents, and last night he was working on mumbling in French, British and American southern accents.

He's also been getting really good about talking about his feelings about being teased at school (by his "friends" who are going through their own stuff and can be pretty mean as a result.)

Today we talked about Santa Claus. He's in this murky place where I think he knows Santa isn't real, but is trying to figure out the implications of coming right out and saying that. Last Easter when he got his first big hit of the possibility that Santa isn't a physical being he told John he'd lost that "warm feeling" about the holidays and was sad about that. Geeze! I think I remember those kinds of feelings as a kid, but I never talked about them.

Nothing brings me as much joy as how fun, funny, unexpected and thoughtful Yogi is.

Yogi is 8

2009-09-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Yogi's birthday on Friday with a full day of activities.

John cheffed up a breakfast of peanut waffles with whipped cream which was shared by Yogi, John, me and G-Pa, who is visiting. (G-Ma was in St. Louis visiting (great) Gramma.)

After that we decided to open presents and Yogi got showered with LEGO and games for Wii and his Nintendo DS.

We played games for the rest of the morning, and then went to Bucaneer Bay in La Mirada.Bucaneer Bay is not quite a water park, but among other things it's got 3 great tube slides (one is a sort of free fall that we all braved) and a lazy river you can navigate with intertubes. Our friends Apollo (the kid) and Xander (the dad) were there so we met up with them and lots of getting-away-from-the-monster games ensued on the lazy river, with occasional forays over to the slides.

After we closed down the water park we went for dinner at Yogi's restaurant of choice, Homegirl Cafe. The food was exquisite, and after dessert Yogi and Apollo became volunteer busboys and cleared our table. The staff was very sweet and generous, and Yogi got a card and a birthday brownie which blew his little culinary mind ("Mom! This chocolate!! It's so intense!")

The next day, Yogi got his first stitches when he backed into a floor lamp which cracked (the glass sconce hit the window framing) and rained down on him causing 2 lacerations in his scalp and one on his knee. It was a pretty bloody scene, but when all the blood was cleaned up and our jangled nerves calmed, the wounds didn't seem so severe. To be safe we called the triage nurse at Kaiser and she said to bring him in for a look. So we went off to the emergency room and Yogi ended up with a stitch in his head and one on his knee. He was so scared, and so, so brave. I've never had the chance to see him display such courage and it was truly amazing. First were the shots of lidocane. He was talking and talking and trying to get the whole process to slow down, but we were in the ER so it was hard to put the breaks on things. He said to the doctor "Don't stitch me right now, I need some time to calm myself!" and he'd put his hands together and close his eyes and do deep breathing, all this amidst tears and sobs. The lidocane was administered, one in the head wound and one in the knee wound, and he held so still while he gripped my hand and wept. Soon it was time for the knee stitch which turned out to be not so bad after the lidocane. When it was done I said "It actually looks pretty cool." He bent forward and peered at his knee and proclaimed urgently, "No! That's not cool! It's not cool!" He wasn't yet ready to marvel at medical science and the healing power of the body at that point. Then the doctor told him he couldn't move his head when he was being stitched. He was especially scared of having his head stitched because he thought it would hurt more than the knee because it was so close to his brain. He was in position with his head on the pillow, and suddenly said, "I really want to move my head, I really want to move my head! Wait! Can I just move my head around first?" The doctor consented and Yogi shook his little head around and around as fast as he could, again while sobbing, and it was amazing and cute at the same time. He was so good at talking about his fear and communicating what he needed to do in order to feel more comfortable. From his bedside manner, it was clear that the doctor had never encountered a young patient who was able to articulate so much about his experience. When Yogi shaken for a bit the doctor said it was time, so he put his head on the pillow and the operation was over in 2 minutes.

He spent Sunday and Monday recuperating - no swimming, no baths. But Apollo ended up coming over Sunday night and they were racing around as they usually do so my motherly fears were able to calm even more, which was a relief.

So that is how 8 started for Robert Yogi Wenk Sylvain: Fun, exciting, scary, triumphant. It was such a privilege to share it with him.

Trip for President

2009-07-12T09:20:00.002-07:00

Yogi and Trip are talking on the phone right now about Trip being President when he grows up.

"Trip!" said Yogi. "You can't make all the rules! I know more about Congress than you do!"

Question of the day part 2

2009-06-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

"How are angels different from those flying babies with bows and arrows?"

Question of the day

2009-06-24T17:07:00.000-07:00

"Daddy, why do you have to open your mouth to talk, but not to chew?"

Yogi just asked "What is claustrophobic?"

2009-05-08T19:29:00.001-07:00

"Does it mean being afraid of Santa?"

Happy Easter! New videos and pictures! Fencing and more...

2009-04-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

Finally, new videos and pictures of son #1!

Here he is at fencing class:

Yogi said to me that in fencing you're supposed to hold the tip of your sword up so you don't accidentally hurt someone.

"It's the way of the blade," he said.

Click the link below to watch more on the family YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/sylvainfamily

And some great pictures...

Yogi loves to play with the PhotoBooth app on the computer. This is a self-portrait:

Glasses were a gift from Granny Deb:

Yogi and John are writing a book together about a boy named Bobby Blinx. Here they are working on the first draft on a Sunday afternoon:

We have endless photos so...Coming Soon: A Flickr account to make perusal easier!

2009-01-01T02:43:00.000-08:00

New Years Eve 08

We have two family traditions for New Years. One is a New Years Day Brunch which we have been doing for 4 or 5 years and which we are really looking forward to. Then we have a new years eve ritual that we stole/invented/cobbled together last year. It goes like this:

We bath
We write down things we want to give up for the new year
We take turns smudging the house with sage as we ring a bell 108 times to dismiss the 108 human weaknesses.

This year John is giving up Selfishness, Procrastination and Lazyness and Impatience. Shelley is giving up Impatience, Reasons for not exercising and meditation, things and clutter and perfectionism.

Yogi did this for the first time this year (giving rise to some impatience in John!) and he said he wanted to give up:

Anger
Impatience
Agitation
War and Destruction
Pain (for other people and me)
Selfishness
Buying Things I don't need

Cool!!!

We've had a couple trips to the snow and Shelley and Yogi made a ginger bread house that collapsed under the snow. Vids and story coming soon..

Right Shelley?

The family that votes together

2008-11-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

Well we all went to the polls together, Shelley, John and Yogi and we all voted.

Well Yogi didn't vote and he's a little upset about that. Trying to explain why he can't vote yet was difficult. It really doesn't make much sense that kids have no vote. Yogi will be paying for George W. Bush's policies for a long time.

After we came home I said to Yogi: "I want you to remember this day. It's an important day in American history."

He said: "Of course I remember this day. It's today!"

Thank you G-Pa - Yogi loves Lego Batman for Wii

2008-10-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

Tooth Care

2008-09-13T19:29:00.001-07:00

School Starts!

2008-09-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

Yogi started his 5th year at Play Mountain Place Tuesday (his 2nd in Primary Group in Mountain Yard.)

The pics below are from his first year (2004) and his 2nd year.

Ready for Little Nursery. The first day ever!

First year of Big Nursery.

Yogi's first visit to the dentist

2008-09-03T17:12:00.001-07:00

Yogi went to the dentist today for the first time. He's on the phone right now with Granny Deb, telling her about it. "It's not a he...and she's very nice."

He got his teeth cleaned, x-rays taken (no cavities,) and his back teeth sealed to prevent decay.

Yogi's birthday is coming

2008-08-31T11:50:00.001-07:00

Yogi is going to be 7 next week! Hard to believe. It feels like it's gone by so fast, although looking back over pictures I guess we've had 7 years full of good times.

Over the past year Yogi has really become a boy with hardly any trace of toddlerhood left. He's into Pokemon and Wii games, boogie boarding and playing with his DS, swimming and Jinenkan. He's moved from Playmobil to Lego, now that he can build things out of the millions of small pieces that only look like the picture on the box for about 10 seconds (after hours of frustrating construction for John!) He and John are on the last few books of the Harry Potter series, after which they'll see the movies which have been banned until the book-reading is completed.

Other books he's been listening to on CD include the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Chronicles of Narnia, Redwall and others in that series, Eragon and Eldest, Castles in the Sky, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and many others. He loves stories and can listen for hours. His ability to focus is fierce. He still doesn't read, but is definitely showing signs of being close. However he resists being taught, so we have to slip reading tutorial in when he's not looking! He's good at math - can do simple addition and subtraction in his head.

He's articulate and outspoken. He's not shy about shouting, "Mommy!" (Or whoever else is close by...) "A little help here?" And he says funny stuff all the time. I still find it hard to believe that he's my kid sometimes. He just seems like an amazing creature that came from some kind of magic place!

Alienor Has Arrived

2008-08-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

Yogi's friend Alienor has dodged the hurricanes and arrived in Dominica.

Saying goodbye to Alienor

2008-08-24T21:23:00.001-07:00

Yogi's dear friend Alienor Mendiburu moved to Dominica in the West Indies yesterday. Alienor and her family moved to Los Angeles from Paris, and she came to Play Mountain Place when she was about 5. Yogi met her in House Group when he was 5 years old and Alienor was 6.

Saying goodbye was very hard. Both Yogi and Trip wanted kisses on the lips, but Alienor (being the smart girl she is) would only kiss on the cheek.

Here they are in the back of Fabienne's fab*fab convertible.

Finally it was really time to say goodbye.

We will all miss Alienor, who is very special. And we'll miss Fabienne, Bernard and Lupin, too.

But we know we can visit them in the Caribbean, and eventually in other wonderful places as well!

Yogi in costume

2008-08-24T21:00:00.001-07:00

Yogi is very game to dress up. He and I recently went to the thrift store to put together an Indiana Jones costume for him.

Yogi and his best friend Trip at the end of Yogi's Indiana Jones birthday party.

Yogi attended Asher's disco-costume birthday party dressed as an American Indian. Our friend Michele made this costume for Yogi for last Halloween.

But will he learn to wipe?

2008-08-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

Yogi and I were sitting on the couch this morning watching Mythbusters. I glanced up at him and he wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and got that I-wasn't-doing-anything-I-shoudn't-be-doing look on his face.

"Yogi!" I said. "Are you playing with your spit?" (Playing with spit bubbles is a gross thing he's been doing for a couple months now, and he knows I think it's disgusting.)

He broke out in a smile, and I said with a laugh, "You're so weird and gross!"

He cracked another tiny smile and then said, "I'm a kid."

A pause, and then he concluded, still smiling, "I think I'll grow out of it."

Great Weekend

2008-08-18T17:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Yogi's birthday party. We had it early because his best friends Alienor and Trip will be out of the country starting next weekend. Trip is going to Sweden where his father is from for 3 weeks and Alienor is moving to Dominica with her family. More on that later.

So we set up an amazing Indiana Jones party with an adventure/treasure hunt that was a huge hit with the kids. Shelley really did an amazing job (with lots of help from Hope and John and Thelma...Sam gave moral support) putting the party together and despite some moments of stress for the grown-ups a great time was had by all.

One of the presents that Yogi got was a boogie board so with this present in hand we went to the beach on Sunday.

After boogie boarding for two hours in the amazing surf (Yogi is a natural - like his dad he loves everything about the water) father and son built a pretty cool sand castle just ahead of the incoming surf. The castle withstood the onslaught for quite a while but inevitably fell to the encoaching tide.

On the way home, to top off an eventful day, Yogi lost his tooth!

That night, Mom and Dad were so tired they almost forgot to let the tooth fairy know about the tooth...if you know what we mean.

Thank You Alienor

2008-08-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

Yogi and Alienor decided to play a trick on John, and spent last night making a "present" with the appropriately decorated card for him.

We didn't catch the unwrapping, but we got John on camera enjoying his present!

Yogi learns about women

2008-06-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

Overheard in the back of the car (they're playing with Scooby Doo magnets):

Yogi: "Why do you get to decide where the skull goes, missy?!"

Alienor: "Because I'm smart."

John Started New Job, Yogi Hits Home Run

2008-04-16T19:21:00.001-07:00

John started working this week at Blitz Interactive which is an interactive agency. He's working on some cool things involving Naked Juice, FX shows and something that rhymes with Jar Bores.

Yogi started playing T Ball last month. I am experimenting with a new tool so I haven't actually checked to see if Shelley has blogged about this already but T Ball is hilarious. Yogi hit a home run his first time up at bat because he just didn't stop running. He passed one of his teammates at 2nd base.

Overheard

2008-01-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

Trip: Do you love Sponge Bob, Yogi?

Yogi: No.

Trip: You don't? Why not? He's so cool!

Yogi: I like him. I like Sponge Bob. But I don't love him. I don't want to marry him.

Smooth operator

2008-01-16T21:12:00.000-08:00

While we were sledding, Yogi asked if we could get some hot cocoa. We'd gotten some on the way up to Snow Valley, so I said no, that one hot chocolate was enough. "But mom!" he said, "I really want hot chocolate. I think it would be so romantic."

Don't know where he gets this stuff.

California Weekend

2008-01-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we spent a few hours on Saturday at the beach building sand castles (actually we built the Shire, Rivendell, Mordor, Isengard and Minas Tirith out of sand). Then on Sunday we drove up to Big Bear and had a wonderful time sledding and making a snowman at Snow Valley.

Amazing place.

The downside is that I seriously injured my tailbone on the bumpy sledding run but it was totally worth it.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-11T08:22:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Lots of swag for everyone. Yogi's pile literally almost fell over on him at one point.

We created a New Years ritual mash-up by writing up three limiting beliefs and burning them (new age) and then we (Shelley, Hope, Gramma and I) took turns smudging the house (various traditions) as the others sat and rang a meditation bell 108 times to keep away the 108 human weaknesses (Japanese buddhist).

One New Year Day we had our annual pancake party and a bunch of folks came over and ate and talked and had a merry old time.

Two Dogs Fighting

2007-12-15T23:15:00.000-08:00

Yogi went to Jinenkan this morning and learned balance. He got a sticker that says "balance." I think about all that I've learned, and what stickers I might receive.

Another milestone: He saw two dogs fighting. "Look - they're stuck together!" And they were. Then they pulled apart, and Yogi exclaimed, "What the..? What was that??"

I explained that the large angry looking thing the dog was now licking was his penis, and that it had been inside the other dog and that was called mating and that's how dogs make puppies.

"You know the Special Hug?" (This was the limited explanation we'd given before about how people make babies.) "Well, that's how dogs to the Special Hug."

"What about humans?"

I explained that humans mostly do it lying down, in a bed for example.

"Do they get stuck together?"

I reassured him that they did not. This seemed to be enough of an explanation for him.

And that's how Yogi had his first real introduction to sex and reproduction.

Yogi Meditates

2007-10-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

Yogi has meditated with us occasionally in the morning when he is up at that time. He lasts about 20 seconds, which, if you think about it, is probably more than enough for a six year old consciousness. He's probably meditating all the time in a way.

Yesterday he told me about meditating at school.

He said he was meditating in a blue barrel in the yard. But it was noisy, and it got too hot, so he go out.

Today in my parent mail box at school was a sign that I guess he'd had posted on the barrel. It read, "Yogi is in here. Please, check him before make any sounds. He is meditating."

Moles

2007-10-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

Yogi and I were discussing beauty marks.

"They're really just moles," I said, "but people call them beauty marks."

"Do I have handsome marks?" he asked.

Yogi learns Risk

2007-10-03T18:46:00.000-07:00

When I picked him up from school today, Yogi informed me that he started his first game of Risk today. He's playing with teacher Nitai and another kid named Noah.

Yay!

Yogi's first dig

2007-09-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yogi got an excavation kit from the Page Museum at the La Brea tar pits for his birthday. He used most of his free time yesterday to excavate, and has freed all the bones.

He also made his first movie. He shot some tests with his new video camera, and then made a Totoro movie, which consisted of me moving and doing voices for and manipulating some figures he made out of the wax from Laughing Cow cheese while he shot. He's made Totoro, a baby, a boat, a baby bottle and a maraca. We added in a mini monster from one of his toy sets, and that's what the adventure consisted of. He then asked for me to put The Chronicles of Narnia DVD on, and spent the rest of his time before bed shooting the TV playing the DVD. I mentioned video piracy, but he seemed disinterested, preoccupied as he was with shooting.

Yogi words

2007-09-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

I'm always impressed with Yogi's use of language. Lately he's been incorporating made-up words. Two that I like especially:

"Oh, mayonnaise!" for dismay.
"Darnicles!" for disappointment.

Today is his first day in Mountain Yard. He is more excited than scared now. At the end of last year he was concerned about kids hitting in mountain yard. But he seems to have resolved that.

His birthday party last Saturday was lots of fun! A dolphin jumper, the big blow up pool and make-your-own treasure boxes kept everybody entertained. We had water melon and ice cream cake from Ben & Jerry's (Yogi selected Half Baked and Banana Splits ice creams, which made for a very complex combo!) Present were Yogi's best friends Trip and Alienor, Keller, Jordan, Oliver, Annika, Julien (all from Play mountain Place,) Brennen and his little sister Gwen (neighbors.)

I can't believe he's six. He's so amazing, funny, smart, compassionate, thoughtful...and so much more. Since the day he was born, I've felt privileged to know him.

Happy Birthday Yogi

2007-09-06T05:54:00.000-07:00

Now we are six.

Time sure flies when you're having fun.

I have so much to say, so much love and admiration for this little boy of mine, that I am actually at a loss as to what to say.

We need more pictures!

So here's the news: Yogi is going to Disneyland today with Jonathan. That should be pretty great. I wish I was going with them.

Yogi turned 6 yesterday

2007-09-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe. Six years old. Like the Winnie the Pooh story.

Here's how Yogi's day went:
Woke up and had family breakfast, complete with home made granola scones he and John whipped up.

Went to his childcare (park day with Rose) where they made him a birthday banner and had banana splits in honor of the occasion. (They also made an excursion to Denny's, which was not part of the birthday festivities, but contributed to the tummy ache later in the day.)

Picked up by G-Ma and went to the Hawiian restaurant for shave ice.

Met Mom at his favorite restaurant, Mrs. Garcia's in Culver City, for tamales and flan. Opened his gifts from G-Ma (Lord of the Rings audio book and digital video camera.)

As we were leaving the restaurant a stranger stopped us to tell me how beautiful my necklace was - a necklace that Yogi had made. She and Yogi got into "a big talk" about it, as Yogi later recalled.

Got into his mom's car and discovered a present from Rose.

Opened the present at home (two different kinds of launching planes, one a rubber band type and the other spring loaded, and a big box of Kinnex, which are kind of like tinker toys.)

Played with all these new toys with Mommy and Daddy until bedtime.

Daddy read Merlin while Yogi and Mommy fell asleep in Yogi's bed.

What a good birthday day!

The Kid Party is on Saturday. There will be our big blow up pool and a dolphin jumper. He asked for a pirate or Spider Man jumper, which they didn't have, so I hope dolphins work.

We don't know what we're going to get for his birthday yet, partly because he has so much already.

Kate's Wedding

2007-08-28T05:48:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a week in Portland Maine visiting with family and seeing my sister get married by the side of a river in Gardiner. It was wonderful (if a bit humid).

Kate asked me (John) to read a poem and Yogi was the ring bearer. Yogi was the ring bearer for Rob Wenk's wedding a few months ago but during that ceremony the best man forgot to give Yogi the rings so he never got to bear the rings (he said that he "un-beared the rings"). Yogi was disappointed by that and was very excited to have another chance to be a ringbearer. He took the job very seriously and commented on a number of occasions about how important he was. In fact on the way home he said that the only reason we went to Maine was so that he could bear the rings!

So we went to the rehearsal and the plan was for Yogi to follow his cousin Susanna (the flower girl) down a hill to the spot where Clint (Kate's fiance) and Clint's brother Todd (the best man) were waiting with the officiant. Yogi had the rings on a ring pillow that Kate had made for our wedding 10 years before. Todd was to untie the rings from the pillow and the ceremony was to continue.

When the wedding happened, Todd and Clint shifted over to the right as the procession arrived. Yogi thought they were walking away from him and had forgotten their cues so he said "Excuse Me!" very loudly. Very, very funny.

Yogi gets along incredibly well with his cousins Suzanna and Johnny who are one year older and one year younger than he respectively. Shelley and I get along incredibly well with my brother Rob and his wife Sue so a good time was had by all.

I must say that the Portland Children's Museum is the best Children's Museum I have ever seen in my life. Every inch is filled with fun, engaging stuff for kids of all ages. Yogi, Suzanna and Johnny spent 6 hours there and didn't even come close to getting bored.

Fun at the Beach

2007-08-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

For the past three (or four) weeks we have been spending Saturday afternoons at the beach and its been extraordinary. The water is warm and the waves are big. John has rediscovered body surfing and is wondering why he hasn't been swimming in the ocean every week since we moved here. Yogi loves to play in the waves and his water skills are strong enough for him to have a really great time in the waves.

This is the new thing to document, by the way. Before about two weeks ago, any time Yogi went in the water he would be holding on to John or Shelley (or vice versa). As of now Yogi is independent in the waves. He LOVES the water (just like his Dad did) and loves to fight and ride the waves.

The other thing we do down at the beach is build sand castles. We have an impressive array of sand toys and we always make at least one sandcastle. What we do depends on the state of the tide. If it is coming in we are working idealistically against an implacable enemy who is bound to destroy our castle eventually. If it is going out we can create dams and elaborate moat structures.

On Sunday afternoons we have been going to Stoner Pool which is also great. Yogi really loves swimming.

Yogi is almost six!

More things that Yogi said

2007-05-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

I have trouble keeping up with my effort to record the things that Yogi says that amuse and delight us. But here's a good one.

The other day we were at Gramma's house. Gramma lives in San Diego, and so we bring our dog Sam so he won't be alone. But Sam was not feeling too well this last visit due to a flea bite (he's allergic.) We were returning to Gramma's house to drop off my uncle before going shopping and I said to Yogi that I just wanted to run in to make sure that Sam hadn't done anything bad.

He thought about this for a moment, and then said, "What, like kill the cat?"

This reminds me of a post that my mom has to make...

The Typical Post

2007-03-05T18:15:00.000-08:00

Completely insane that its been five months since the last post to this blog. Time flies.

The Beauty and the Ugliness

2006-10-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

I am looking out the window of my office as the golden, magic hour sunlight hits the mountains and the few clouds and the palm trees and the ugly ugly buildings.

This place is very beautiful but it is marred by so much (SO MUCH) man made ugliness it boggles the mind.

Now I am not at all one of those people that thinks that all ugliness is man made or that man made stuff is all ugly. It's just that something about Los Angeles encourages or allows or generally leads builders to create shit ugly buidings that last about 15 years rather than beautiful buildings that last forever.

Even the new Cathedral looks like crap. The Getty is crap. There are nice buildings here but 98% is crap.

That's all for today.

"All are divine, but some don't know it yet!"

2006-10-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

"All are divine, but some don't know it yet!"

Just bumping along browsing other blogs I came across this brand new one and was touched and intrigued by what it was saying about education and children and the intersection of the two.

Commitment

2006-10-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

I have this obsession with conciousness.

Maybe obsession is too strong a word, maybe facination.

Maybe that's the wrong word. I mean I certainly find the topic facinating but at the same time it makes me nauseous. To look inside my own mind and my own sense of myself with my own mind and sense of myself is dizzying. I mean its so very very strange that I exist. When I say I don't mean the body that you see. That is completely unbelievable as well but what I mean is the continous silent, multilayered, multitracked monologue that is me.

Isn't it weird?

The reason it came up was I was sitting down to write a little bloggy blog and didn't have anything to blog about but I made a commitment to myself to write a little bloggy blog everyday. That made me think about commitment. Like promises and stuff like that. Where do those things live? I mean they live in the realm of language, right? We make them up and then they live in our minds as if they are real. Yet they can't be measured and weighed like a car or an apple or a lion.

So they don't have any objective reality.

They are made of the stuff of dreams.

Nothingness or maybe chemical electrical patterns in our brains.

Yet these things - commitments, promises, ideals - make more of a difference than lions and tigers and bears nowadays. More and more we live in a world that is filled with things but what is really important and moving is the ideas behind those thing.

At least that's what I believe.

Perhaps that's why I'm a big supporter of the First Amendment and I'm not so hot on the Second.

Dorky Dads

2006-10-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

I was hanging out with Yogi a few weeks ago, playing with him and getting as excited and enthusiastic about something as he was (which is pretty darn excited and enthusiastic) when it hit me. I was acting like a dork.

Now I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the way I was acting (and continue to act). I believe that its appropriate to relate to children as they relate to you and one of the many gifts that children give is their wonder and enthusiasm. Cliched and mushy as that sounds it is true. The world is fresh and new in the eyes of a child and when you experience the world that way, or are reminded to at least try, the whole experience of living is transformed.

But then it backfires on you.

Usually.

What I realized was that my enthusiasm and excitement, traits that I (by all reports) had myself at the age of five, were re-developed for Yogi. Before he was born I was cool. Not nasty, pessimistic cool but pretty cool nonetheless. Now here I was acting like a big goofball.

The irony is that the person who will most likely be most embarrassed and distainful of my newly developed dorkiness is Yogi. In about 6 or 7 years, maybe sooner, he will wish that I was as cool as I used to be. By then I will be so used to being a dad that it won't be possible for me to reform and any attempts at reaquiring coolness will be seen as pathetic by my young tween.

Oh well.

Yogi's First Poem

2006-07-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

Wow - time does fly, doesn't it??

A lot has happened since our last post.

Last night, we (Yogi, John, Mom and I) were watching the Disney movie version of Little House on the Prairie. It was a scene in which Caroline called Charles a poet. Yogi turned to me and said, "Tell me if this is a poem." Then he recited the following:

I love you, I love you,
The sun shines bright
Be cozy in your bed
And have a nice day and a nice night.

So let the record show that Yogi Sylvain wrote his first poem at the age of 4 years and 10 months, on July 9, 2006.

Further proof that my son is a magnificent genius. (No pressure.)

Hello!

2004-09-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

This is a test of our new blog!