The Legend of Lobo

Tonight we went to one of our favorite local Vietnamese restaurants, Miss Saigon. We’ve been eating here for years and we always walk away happy. They have this awesome fountain in the store (with fish!) that Logan has always been fascinated with. It took a long time but I finally brought my camera to take a shot of it. Here is Logan proudly brandishing his chopsticks.

Yesterday we all went to Lemos Farm, a really fun family park near Half Moon Bay. We took along Logan’s good friend, Isa. They rode ponies, went on a hay ride, did a “train” tour of a ghost town, fed and petted goats, and jumped in bouncy houses. It was exhausting and a ton of fun.

Logan just finished up a fantastic week at the Fairyland Pirate Camp. He had an absolute blast the entire time and always came home exhausted and happy. They ended with a series of pirate plays that the kids themselves wrote. Logan played a pirate and had a big scene fighting off an evil captain.

Logan with Ms. Mazy, his transitional kindergarten (TK) teacher at Manzanita Seed elementary. Logan has had a great year in her class; he’s learned a lot and developed many new skills. We are very grateful that he had the chance to work with her…there is nothing better than a great teacher.

With all the construction finished around Lake Merritt, it has become a really wonderful place to walk. And the longer days makes it easier for us to take hikes. It’s the perfect way to tire Logan out before bed!

It was open cockpit day at the Oakland Aviation Museum today! We went along with Gavin’s entire family and everyone had fun. There was a band, a group of roller derby grrlz, and a fun cosplay group dressed as GI Joe and Cobra. Fun was had by all!

A while back, Janet got Logan these rain boots. It was getting wet out more often and we didn’t want him to ruin his shoes. But it turned out that he really loved to wear them, pretty much all the time. He wears them to school and when we go out anywhere…as you can see in the photo, they’ve become scuffed up from his energetic play. Ironically, they haven’t seen much water.

Logan is learning some wonderful values at Manzanita SEED.  Tonight while we were snuggling in bed, I asked him, “What do you think makes a good person?”

Logan said, “A good person has compassion.”

Me: “What is compassion?”

Logan: “You have compassion when someone needs help and you help them.  And when someone is sick, you give them a hug and put a washcloth on their head.   And if they’re sitting alone and feeling sad you have compassion and say, “Come play with me!”

He thought for a minute and added, “And it’s compassion when you share your snacks.”

It’s wonderful to see how much Logan is enjoying getting to know his classmates. He is highly social, and each afternoon he gives me a briefing on the kids in Miss Mazy’s Hearts. “David has a new backpack,” “Isa says pepperoni is yucky!” and “Jayden really likes to boogie down!” (this was ascertained during a classroom music exercise).

He’s also learning to read, write, identify shapes, and do things I never got around to teaching him at home, like make a macaroni necklace. And his Spanish vocabulary is growing by the day. He can count higher in Spanish now than in English, and he’s learned the months of the year in Spanish long before even thinking about them in English. I stumbled over his new knowledge when I heard him singing to himself, “Enero, Febrero, Marzo, Abril…” It’s heart-warming to hear Spanish at home. My father would have been happy and proud.

I’m thrilled that Logan is growing academically. But by far his favorite subject is people. He’s very curious about his teacher and classmates. He wants to know about their interests and lives, and he asks countless questions about them. A nice, unexpected bonus is that his interest in his friends is helping him to learn. A few days ago, while practicing writing at home, he held up a sheet of paper covered with letters carefully drawn in crayon. I was stunned when he asked, “Is this how you spell Alexandre?” It was!

Another year, another Halloween. Unlike the others, however, this year Logan really got into it. The entire day was a blast for him. He started with a super fun dance celebration at school, bopping along with all the other kids in his pirate outfit. When the sun went down, Logan and I joined Nanako and her parents for a trick-or-treating tour of the neighborhood. After a slow start, we wandered deeper into the bowels of the community, which quickly became infested with superheroes, princesses, and adorable monsters of every kind. It was, for me, a wonderful surprise to see so many families out and about, oftentimes in large clusters. Several houses really went all out and created wonderfully spooky destinations for the kids. Logan was initially a little shy and tentative, but by the fourth house he was bounding up and saying “trick or treat” with glee holding out his bag that eventually became heavy with goodies. Afterwards, Logan capped off the evening watching a Curious George Halloween movie with Nanako at her place. In all, this was a very successful holiday that I’m sure will form a foundation for his future love of all things Halloween.

Another East Bay Mini Maker Faire has come and gone. This is our fourth and certainly best Maker Faire in terms of Logan’s enjoyment. This is the first year that he has really been able to engage with numerous exhibits and events. For instance, The Crucible had an exhibit where you can step on pressure mats and make fire shoot up from gas canisters. After a little nervousness, Logan really got into making the flames erupt. Of course, it was no surprise that his favorite was the Lego Jeep. He was very serious about making an artful contribution to the jeep and he spent quite some time on his projects. The coolest thing that Janet and I saw was a kid who created and programmed a Lego robot to solve a Rubik’s Cube; I messed one up pretty good and it solved it in under two minutes. Up front there was a wonderful recreation of a working R2D2 which Logan was fascinated by but felt too shy to approach. In all it was another great and tiring day at the Maker Faire!

Logan started school today!  He’s in Miss Mazy’s transitional kindergarten (TK) class at Manzanita SEED Elementary School. We’re so excited that he has this chance for a pre-school year on an elementary school campus, before starting the high-stakes rigors of kindergarten.

I worried it would be hard for him to switch from free-range kid to sedentary student, but he loves the classroom. He did get loose after lunch and was found negotiating with the cafeteria lady for a second veggie burrito. I guess he feels right at home.

It’s a happy/sad day for me.  My little boy is growing up, and our long, full days together are over. Five years have flown past in an instant, and I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself.  At the same time, I’m excited for Logan. He had a hard time when I left this morning (as did most of the kids), but soon he will be making friends, learning new things, and having big-kid adventures.

Miss Mazy asked the parents to fill out a survey describing our kids, their abilities, and their challenges.  The last question asked what we hoped our child would learn this year. There are so many big steps ahead: reading, writing, basic math, etc.  But I just wrote, “I  hope Logan learns to love school.”  If that happens, this year will be a true blessing.

Logan had a wonderful 5th birthday!  He’s finally old enough to understand parties and not get too overwhelmed by the activity and attention. We haven’t had the best track record with birthday celebrations so far, but this one was huge fun, and we’re all thrilled with how well the party went.

We set up camp in shady Frog Park and left hours later, exhausted but happy. Logan didn’t stop running and laughing for more than 30 seconds.  Ash managed to coax him into wearing half of a pirate costume (which doesn’t sound like a big deal unless you know Logan’s obstinacy regarding clothes).  We made pirate gift bags for all the kids, with hats, inflatable swords, and cups personalized with Ash’s drawings.  The children had a ball running around in their costumes and whacking each other with puffy swords.  There was much whooping and swashbuckling, with surprisingly few tears. And there was pirate golf!

Ash and I enjoyed relaxing and talking with the parents, a rare treat.  We see the adults when we drop off or pick up our kids, or share news on facebook, but we don’t often slow down and stay in one place long enough for a real in-depth conversation. I’ve taken for granted that these folks are part of our daily lives, but that’s changing. We’ve known some of the Lotus Bloom families for three years now, and it’s been a special privilege to watch the children grow up with Logan. Cyrus and Darwin were tiny babies when we first met them, and now they’re the most active of the bunch. Noah has become a tall, handsome boy. Gavin has grown into a happy, curious four year-old. And smart, mature Princess Kaya is somehow able to lead them all, even though she’s still the youngest.

Several of the children start school next Monday when Logan does, so we were marking that major milestone, too. We all committed to getting together regularly, now that our children are going off in different directions. It’s almost impossible to believe the big day is just a week away.  Five is going to be a very special year, and we’ll remember this birthday always.

Janet’s thoughts on this big day: Logan was born on August 16, 2009. It was the worst day of my life. He took his first breath three months too soon and weighed only 2.5 pounds. We feared he’d be blind or brain-damaged. I didn’t get to see or hold him for nearly two days. 

But we were blessed with expert and caring nurses, especially Lillian and Sara.  And fathomless, unearned good fortune. Logan slowly began to grow, and a few months later he even started to thrive. After a year of constant medical attention, he seemed almost like a normal baby, just a bit small and delayed. He was slow to sit up, crawl, walk, and talk. But gradually he caught up. By his third year the therapists were getting bored with him, and we put down our constant worry.

Today Logan is five. He is tall for his age and often mistaken for older. He is stubborn. Independent. Loving. He sees in the dark and remembers everything. He is a joyful, quirky, candy-loving, pirate-obsessed, absolute miracle. Happy birthday to my beautiful big-little boy.

Ash’s thoughts: Today my son is five years old! When I think of that little 2.5lb creature struggling to breathe, it seems amazing to see him grown into a healthy, tall, willful, fun, independent kid. And he’s starting school in a couple of weeks! I love watching him grow up…it’s a great adventure. And right now, that adventure includes an obsession with pirates and Legos. Arrr!

This summer we started a tradition of sunset family walks around Lake Merritt. During the days closest to the solstice these walks are after dinner, when the whole town seems to be in a relaxed, contemplative mood. Ash takes photos of the evening sky and we have some fine conversations during these strolls.  We talk about the water birds we see — pelicans, egrets, herons, and cormorants. Or about the different boats out on the lake at twilight — quick racing sculls, two romantic restaurant gondolas that barely seem to move, and for the past few weeks a beautiful white sailboat moored by the steps at 18th Street. Sometimes we talk about how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful, friendly place.

Logan has started to understand that our neighborhood is a special place in our city of Oakland, which is in the very big state of California.  He is beginning to grasp his place in the world — where we live, where our families live, and how far it is between these these places. And he is getting an inkling of the scale of things.  Tonight as we walked around Lake Merritt he looked into the golden sky and and asked, “Is the earth moving?” When I said yes, the earth is always moving through space, he said, “The earth is a giant spaceship!”  A few minutes later we were talking about the relative size of the lake compared to a creek and to the ocean.  He said, “The ocean is giant!  The ocean is the king of water!”