Yosemite Day 2

I just realized I never actually posted this. So even though it's not timely, at least it's public :)

The next day the snow was done snowing. We could actually see the mountains that had been right on top of us. We could see a waterfall from just outside our door.

This is a different waterfall. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE.

 We went ice skating in the shadow of Half Dome. They have a fire pit next to the rink and sell you s'mores packages. Pro tip: be the third family to do s'mores. The kits easily make enough for 10 people and we wound up sharing ours.

I cannot say enough good things about Yosemite. It was beautiful. The people there were unfailingly nice and friendly, reminding me of summer camps I went to as a child. Everyone we ran into was happy to have snowball fights, build snowmen, share a seat on the bus. I will remember this for the rest of my life.

Well...

That really wasn't once a month, was it? But oh well. My mother is visiting my grandmother this week. She fell a week ago and was in the hospital getting checked out, and apparently she needs pictures of Austin, STAT.

How can I say no?

He really likes watching Pokemon now, and it comes on right before Dexter's Lab, which we are not recording for him, but the DVR always catches the intro. So he built Dexter's Lab out of legos. He included a light up remote control (in his left hand)

We did some sand art, with glue and colored sand. And he drew the Eiffel Tower. The weird thing is, he did this on Bastille Day, AND I DIDN'T EVEN TELL HIM.

I am very enamored of this library. It is attached to a playground. This is their first attempt at the climbing wall

And I also have something very special! An old movie that I've been working on for a while. 

Tune in tomorrow, when maybe it will be done uploading :(

We Meet Snow

The day we left for Yosemite, Austin and I both had colds. We wanted to leave at 10, to arrive before dark. We had laundry to do and had to stop on the way out to buy long underwear and gloves. We left around 2:30, which, in retrospect, seems like an accomplishment.

The day we left for Yosemite, the local automotive stores did not carry chains. So we had to stop for those too, but in Tracy, not San Jose. 

We were supposed to have all day Saturday to run these errands. We were supposed to leave Sunday. But as our weekend approached, I watched the weather reports predict snow. Then a lot of snow. All day. We didn't grow up with snow. I didn't want to drive up a narrow mountain pass in 5-8 inches of snow. So I changed our reservation to drive up Saturday. And this meant we ran a ton of errands and drove up in the dark, but it was so worth it to wake up to this:

Yosemite Sophie

Austin said it was the best vacation he ever had.

Bobcat!

We also took a field trip Sunday to the Awahnee Hotel. I've always wanted to see it because it's where they filmed The Shining.

Yup, it looks just like that.

We had brunch! Everyone was just shockingly nice.

When we were finishing up, the waiter brought each child a bag, with matching forest ranger duckies.

Come play with us...

Even the bus drivers and passengers on the bus were super nice, letting our kids sit when there was no room, playing games with them, pointing out coyotes as we drove through the park...

Of Minecraft and Little Men

I feel pretty lucky to be a parent at this time. Maybe no one else thinks like this, but I remember the first time the boy got a diaper rash and my brain suddenly reeled... "how did people deal with this 100 years ago??" We had a bag of goodies from the hospital with all sorts of cool modern things, like a nasal bulb, baby nail clippers, diaper cream... we didn't even have to buy these things.

After the first year, I came away convinced that babies used to be just disgusting creatures who probably screamed all the time because their butts hurt and there was always junk in their nose. This doesn't even get into the awesomeness of 24 hour nurse helplines, the internet and vaccines.

But I digress. This story is about a much more recent development. Our son discovered Minecraft. At first, he liked to watch Youtube videos of players who basically hosted their own shows. His favorite was Stampycat, a very wholesome, English player who liked to eat virtual cakes with his friends. Eventually, we got him the pocket version which you can play on the iPad. It wasn't on the network, so we weren't worried he would meet pedophiles or constantly get mugged by internet strangers. And he was good at it! It's basically like digital legos. You can play in two modes: survival mode means you have to create your own buildings and weapons and monsters come out at night to fight you. Creative mode lets you fly and you can spawn monsters and other animals, but they're calmer and you really can't die and you don't have to go hunting for resources: all the materials you might need are just in your inventory in infinite amounts.

And it's actually impressing the hell out of me to watch him build. He picked it up really fast and he loves to make things in this expansive, boxy world. And we work hard to make sure that he's not using a ton of screen time, but it feels like Minecraft is creative enough and engaging enough that we can justify a lot of time with it.

Except.

    Except.

         Except...

He kind of likes to murder animals while he plays.

I'm not talking about hunting animals to get materials to build or food. I'm talking about how, in an utterly peaceful world, where nothing is hunting or hurting him, he'll suddenly spawn a couple dozen virtual squid to die in a meadow. The other day, I heard the strangest sound. I leaned forward and he was hatching cats from eggs (that's how it works), in a cave full of lava pools that he was herding them into. The sound was a hundred or so digital ocelots crying out. And this made me feel all weird. How hard do you come down on a kid who seems perfectly sweet and loves animals unless they're part of this imaginary world where he's essentially a god?

Naturally, I took to the internet, and googled "five year old likes to torture minecraft animals". 

It always comforts me when google successfully fills in these worries I'm having with my kids. It's like, ok, there's a few thousand other parents with kids who are doing exactly the same thing. It's comforting, really.

Not much advice though. I kind of like the angry sheep god idea. I don't really think it's a productive road to go down, chastising him for hurting imaginary things. So much of pretend play is based around fighting, whether as a superhero or a knight or as Steve (the avatar available to beginning Minecraft players). Why should I freak out over him killing fake animals if I don't worry about him killing fake super villains instead of giving them their due process rights?

This all happened a few months ago, so there's actually been a new development: we got him the real Minecraft for Christmas. So this means he can play on a much bigger screen, and it's the full version, not just the pocket version. We still don't let him play on the network. But he has been begging us to play with him. A week ago he wanted to watch me kill the Ender Dragon, so I did. And then he wanted to play with me, exploring together. And it was fun, once I got the hang of the controls. Sometimes he would accidentally hit me while we were wandering together, and he would apologize.

And then, he murdered me and took all my stuff.

New Year

Woo. Last year was a doozy. I would have written more about it, but I find that as the kids age, it becomes harder to figure out what kinds of things I can share here. I'm also short on time and positivity, and I don't want to just complain or rant about things.

On the other hand, I am so grateful for the posts I've made in the past. Going back over the years to see how the kids are growing and changing is magical. It helps me keep perspective instead of getting caught up in the grind of daily struggles. It helps me remember that some things will not be hard forever. Some easy things will get harder. And I will be sorry if I don't take a few moments to record what things are like right now.

So, let's have some resolutions. This is the first one. I even made it on the first and everything:

In 2016, I will draw more with my kids #2016 #artmatters #drawingwithkids #newyearsresolution pic.twitter.com/vVP7YEzrXT

— bright strangely (@brightstrangely) January 1, 2016

#2 I will post here more regularly. I think I should be able to manage once a month.

#3 I will draw more. I had not realized how much it improved my mood to draw a little bit. Inktober was a welcome return to myself. It wasn't just good for me, but it also allowed my kids to see me doing something personal, instead of just mom things all the time. And sometimes they drew with me, leading to resolution #1. Doing something for myself wound up becoming an activity for them too.

There are so many ways being a parent changes you. And part of raising children is learning how to recover yourself, once your kids have reached an age where they don't need you quite so much. It's nice to see them as little people. And this past year was intense, but really really good too.

Let's hope next year is even better <3