Cavities, Parks, & St. Helena

On Friday, Miles had his 3rd trip to see his dentist (aka Aunty Cheryl) to fix his remaining 3 cavities. Last week, he did a good job having 1 cavity filled, according to Jus and Awts and his only complaint was that he didn't like the sleepy juice aka numbing medicine. We felt relieved that it went well, thinking it would be fine when we had to take him back to fix the other 3 cavities.

So anyway, Friday morning, Miles whined a bit about going in but didn't seem to have any problems after we prepped him all week about what procedure was happening. We also told him after his cavities were fixed we'd take him to Toys R Us (how desperate was I for his cooperation?!). According to Jus, Miles was cool and happy at first, ready for the work to be done.

While I sat in the waiting room after a few minutes at the office, I hear him crying to the top of his lungs. I tried to stay outside since he'd probably sense my nervousness (which is why Justin aka king of cool stayed w/ him inside). But Awts told me I should go see him. Miles pretty much panicked after he got the sleepy juice. He refused any more treatment and I was worried that he was traumatized! Jus told me that Miles firmly told him, "I'm never going to the dentist again!" Poor Aunty Cheryl asked Miles, "We're still cool after this right Miles?" She was pretty good at communicating with him different options. But he was so upset. We all agreed to try it another time--even though I felt highly doubtful he would set foot in the office again after that!

But while we were outside of the office, walking to the car, Miles was able to calm down a bit and remembering our deal, asked, "Are we just going home or are we going to Toys R Us?" And I replied, "The deal was that after your cavities were done, we'd take you." At that moment, I was anticipating another meltdown. (Poor kid! Am I a sadist or what?!) But instead, he paused for a second to think and said with a long sigh, "Okayyyy. I'll let Aunty Cheryl fix my cavities." And just like that, he bounced right back into the office, sat cooperatively and let Aunty Cheryl finish working on his teeth!

It was like night & day. I love how he is resilient! Thank God! And thank you Aunty Cheryl for being his dentist!!

After that exhausting morning, at least there was a sleep over with Darrien, including a a movie night at the park. We brought some water, musubi's to the park, blankets, and had popcorn. Braving the cold night was good experience to prep us for camping next week.

On Saturday,  Aunty Maritess organized a belated birthday picnic for Aunty Tintin @ St. Helena. It was a good thing we moved away from V.Sattui Winery and ended up at a park behind an abandoned outlet. We had the whole place to ourselves pretty much. Pretty funny seeing Miles, Darrien, and Zayden around each other! I mean, I'm aware that we are parents now but it's trippy thinking about the fact that they are 3rd generation. We can only imagine the things they will do together as they grow up together.

While we were munching on delicious sandwiches from Little Luca's, Miles and Darrien went off exploring the grounds. Next thing you know, Miles is yelling, "Everyone! Come here! It's a mushroom!!" 

(thanks for these pics Uncle Bob!)

That pretty much made his day. "I wanna be a mushroom guy, a mycologist," he tells his Aunty Tintin.
While we observed this lonesome mushroom, he noticed a little frog hopping around from underneath it. It was the tiniest frog we've ever seen. So we got a red cup and caught it.

After more exploring with Uncle Bob, the boys found a little lizard too! It's all been a little teaser to what we are preparing for next week with our family camping trip to Big Sur! We are pretty excited to do this and hopefully make this a yearly tradition.

94 Degrees in SF

Summer decided to show up to the Bay finally & triple digits arrived today, so Miles and I fled to SF for "cooler" weather (if you consider 94 degrees to be cooler). We spent the day with his Ninang Lea at China Beach with a picnic that consisted of AK Subs and had fun playing in the sand, getting our vitamin D on. Being in the presidio area really brought back good memories of when we use to live there--when Miles was just born. He was just so happy to hang out with his Aunty Lea, telling her all about the mushrooms and cactus/succulent plants he's been learning about in home school.

China beach is one of the more cutty beaches in SF. It was nice to just listen to the ocean and brown under the sun. Miles was busy screaming and running away from the tide, building a lake for his toy boat, and collecting shell fragments & rocks.

Today really was his day. It's as if the universe conspired to hook him up with his favorite things everywhere we went. We saw a dolphin swim by as we played in the sand. He found a big and small version of his favorite flat cactus plant--on Aunty Lea's block & at Fraiche (best froyo ever!). And on a night stroll with Aunty Lea and Wicket, he found a succulent branch that fell from a larger plant on the ground, asking "Can I keep it please?" That made his night! On top of this, a big coyote crossed the street as we were driving towards the Golden Gate bridge! During those years we lived in the Presidio, by the redwood forest & baker beach area, I never seen a coyote--even though there are Coyote Crossing signs everywhere. It was pretty amazing. I had to agree with Miles when he told me, "Today was a very special day. Everyday is good but today was so special mommy."

Street Smarts

Gramma quoted Miles, after being lost, going in circles at night time & noticing the same 2 guys standing in the dark:


Miles: Gramma, are those crackheads?
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A question for dad about SF streets:


Miles: Do crackheads only come out at night time?
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On the way home from Vegas, we passed a prison.


Mama Feelgood: Look Miles & Ro. There's the prison where they lock up bad guys that do bad things.


Miles: No, that's the prison that locks up Ro and his bad breath. His breath is so bad they have to put him in jail.
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Learning

It's August already! Hope everyone is enjoying summer. We have so many pictures to upload since Miles has been back with gramma & papa, we've been on a roadtrip to San Diego to Las Vegas and back. It's been so much fun, visiting family and meeting relatives he's never met before. And it feels really good to have him back home.

Since he's been back from Hawaii, his interest in fungi has grown and he asked me one night, "When are we gonna have homeschool? I want to still learn about the ocean but also about fungi...mushrooms!" Sounds like a plan to me. Kat, from my LFDV crew, is also a piano teacher. She told me about her approach to teaching piano. Instead of starting with the usual classical approach, she asks each student what they want to learn. One of her students was only interested in learning ABBA songs so--she told him to bring ABBA cds to class and they'd begin. That approach to teaching in general resonated with me, relating to how we've approached homeschool with Miles. Instead of us coming up with subjects to "teach" him, we roll with whatever it is that he's interested in. If he feels like doing art, he does art. If he feels like playing outside, we go outside. And now, we are going to learn more about these fun guys. Mushrooms.

(one of the pages from his Bug City book he made in March)

We took a Saturday trip to our local library to turn in his summer reading club book list and also to look up mushroom books. The librarian laughed when I told her, "Please make sure they are kid-friendly," cause as soon as the list pulled up on the computer screen, there were several Psychedelic mushroom guide books. Ha! Oh boy..So anyway, she was kind enough to lend us a reference book, making a special exception for Miles when she saw how excited he was to see just how many different types of shrooms were identified in that book.

Miles has also spent some time molding mushrooms of various shapes and sizes out of clay. "Look mom, this one looks like the mushrooms in the wood chips at our playground." And I told him, "Some of these wood chips must come from trees where mushrooms love to grow from..like parasites." Parasites are also another favorite subject of his (think it has to do with when I was studying for microbiology). I'm so glad he doesn't want to study about those.

Gramma was thoughtful enough to bring back some mushrooms from the grocery store the other night (and also a mushroom printed towel from Crate & Barrel :). He woke up this morning, learning that their was a surprise in the fridge. When he saw the brown mushrooms, he shrieked. Gramma suggested cutting them down the center to see what it looks like but Miles told her, "I don't want to hurt them or make them dead. They're alive."

I suggested to Miles, that we make a list of things he loves and would like to learn more about. He said after mushrooms, "I'll probably want to learn more about cactus and the different kinds."