I asked Peyton if she saw Robert and Ashlyn on the field trip today. She told me no. I told her that Robert was supposed to be a chaperone. Julie and I had wondered how that would go down, since it would be the first over-lapping field trip for the girls. Peyton repeatedly told me she did not see Ashlyn 1) on the bus, 2) in the jumper area, or 3) at lunch. My curiosity was getting the best of me, so I texted Julie when I got to the stadium. I couldn’t wait! Peyton even said, “Well, what did she say?” Julie texted back that Ashlyn was NOT at the field trip! Peyton immediately told me, “SEE! I’m not lying. I’m serious!” I love it when she’s says I’m serious, because she usually means it. And when I don’t believe her, she starts laughing, and says “I’m serious,” then it’s hard for me to take her seriously. This is the third fact that I’ve had proven correct. I guess I should just start believing her. She’s not given me a reason not to so far!
Busy Day
Today was Brandon’s last day at camp. I woke up later, having stayed up too late from my caffeine high. That meant no early AM exercising, though I’d gone the night before. I’d stayed up making the teacher’s cards for our farewell.
The morning sped along, as Peyton had a field trip. She kept reminding me to give her socks to wear so she could bounce around. We got her to school with a few minutes to spare for breakfast. I took a few pictures of her with Ms Darla. Though she is not one of her teachers, she’s been a constant in the morning for the breakfast crew. We used to have Ms Christine for our breakfast teacher, and when she left, I was worried who would take her place. It’s so much easier having a friendly face in the morning, and dealing with whatever comes our way. Most mornings were great, but every once in awhile, we’d get a hiccup. Ms. Darla would roll with it and take over if needed. Brandon and I went to the field. He did some work in the car before I dropped him off with the team. I headed to get my teeth cleaned, and then headed to the gym. I got my 5 miles in, showered up, ate my lunch, and then had a massage! I was turning in my credited massage from our new member challenge that we’d completed. We had to make a certain number of appearances to events, and I was a slave-driver, getting Dave to complete his so I could enjoy the benefits (He doesn’t like being touched, so he wasn’t interested in the massage!) I got a $50 store credit for myself to use. After I was done, I ran an errand for Dave next door, then I headed to get Peyton. They were asleep still, having gone down later than usual from their field trip. Sydney’s mom had sent me an email with the group – Sydney, Daxton and Peyton. I thanked Syd’s mom for helping with Peyton today. Finally, she got up, and she helped me deliver her gifts. I wasn’t sure if she’d get shy and not do it, but sure enough, she was happy to help! I got the teachers mugs with their initials, and a coffee gift certificate, in addition to the cards that Peyton signed, with her kinder cap and gown picture thrown in. She was first introduced to the school at 7 months, when Brandon started. Now, she is on the verge of kindergarten! We headed to get Brandon, who wanted to stay the whole time today, as they were in the batting cages. Dave headed over there, too, so he could see what they were up to. We ended up beating him, but it looked like Brandon was ready to go. I took him, while Peyton went with Dave. We all met back at home; Brandon changed, then we headed to Art in the Park. There was a kid’s play about Raggedy Ann and Andy, and the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees. We picked up sandwiches for the boys and salads for the girls (Peyton’d eaten 3 slices of pizza plus juice, so I was cutting her back on dinner carbs.) Brandon recognized a few school kids. Both kids were fascinated once the play started. We could barely hear, but they knew the characters. Dave totally tuned out, and was on his phone most of the time, but the kids paid attention. We walked around a bit in downtown, to the beer store, and after picking up something for us to both enjoy after hours, we went home. The kids ate more salad, and then showered up. They were in bed by 845 pm; later than usual, but we’re heading into our weekend!
Here are the pics…she didn’t want to take a pic in the AM unless Brandon was in it…
Imagine; B flat; Misha!
Well, I thought Peyton wasn’t imaginative like Brandon. She proved me wrong! While we were walking to piano, she named me some of her animals. I took note when we got home. She even lined them up, and introduced me to them all. When I asked, she provided me the spellings. She was very specific, so I had to provide my own phonics to be able to sound it out appropriately.
Cow = Mookie
Gecko = Lili (Lee-lee)
Seahorse = Fifi
Bear = Effie
Snowman = Chilly (Okay, so NOT original)
Unicorn = Mina
Big Dog = Katie
Bear = Nico
White bunny = Fle (flea)
Baby boy bear lovie, which she took to FA when she was 0-2 = Ryan
Rabbit = McKamly (mick – CAM – lee)
Turtle = Michael
Lobster = Jordan
JP Morgan bear = Michael Jordan (longstanding name)
Baby doll = Caile (Cal-ee)
Orange bear = Len
Pink bunny = Lenney (Lennie)
Mermaid = Merina (my favorite name! at first, I thought it was Marina, which would be suitable because she’s a mermaid, but when she spelled her name, MER-ina, that made sense, too!)
Dave wants to quiz her and see if she is consistent.
Here is the pano of her line up:
with the individual pictures:
Brandon went first for his piano lesson last week, so I walked with Peyton first today. She ate dinner quickly (food I’d brought home from lunch). I was still so full from lunch, I didn’t eat when I got home. We walked the half-mile, half-running, since we left a bit later than usual. Peyton is gaining more endurance, as she jogged along with me, even keeping a conversation, talking about her animals. The key to her running is to keep her distracted. We made it with a few minutes to spare. I was telling her about the possibility of a piano recital, and she didn’t say no. She did well practicing her songs with the teacher, and she was learning some new songs, even transposing. She was playing in F major, and she “found” the B flat. The teacher was amazed! She asked her how she knew it was B flat that she needed to play! She asked her if she’d played the song before (she shook her head). She just kept kicking her feet under the bench, like a dog wagging it’s tail when it’s done a trick correctly. She also surprised the teacher by sight reading the second half of “Baa Baa Black Sheep”, asking her if she’d played it at home. She shook her head again. She breezed through one of the songs that Brandon had been assigned and played last week. She was reading it the first time, but knew the melody. I used to learn by ear training, and was to have listened to tapes (tapes! hah) endlessly but I never thought it would help. Apparently it does! I told the teacher that Peyton must know the song well, even though she’s never “seen” it because she’s heard it. The teacher agreed that the second ones probably pick things up more quickly. With 5 minutes left, Brandon and Dave came in. The dog greeted Brandon, which he was thrilled to see! Dave figured out the dog’s name is Harry. The dog always stretches out, and plops down in front of Brandon when he comes to say “hi”. Dave had brought Brandon’s glove to play catch, so he wanted me to walk home with Peyton so she wouldn’t distract him. She didn’t want to go, but I convinced her that she could play in the park for 5 minutes. So, we walked through the park to get to our house. Here, she got up on the structure. Here she is training for American Ninja Warrior. I think she has a legit shot 
When Dave came home, he said that Brandon also picked out B flat when he was transposing his song, while playing in the key of F major. The piano teacher was amazed that both kids came up with the correct note. She wondered how they knew! I hope we can keep up what they’ve been doing once school starts! It will be a challenge for sure.
Peyton told me that Tyler was in Hawaii this week. I wasn’t sure if I believed her, but his mom works in my office, and I hadn’t seen her all week. I asked one of her coworkers in her department, and she confirmed that Tyler and his family were in Hawaii! Bingo! Then, I got an email from Misha’s mom saying that they moved into our area, and that Misha would be enrolled in CC. It wasn’t a guarantee, since she was registering late, but definitely, they would be there next year as first graders. Peyton was telling me all week how she and Misha would be in kinder together. I’d picked up Brandon first today, and I was so excited about the news, I told him first. The first thing he told me was, “So Peyton WAS right, Mommy!” like he believed in her the whole time. I told him, “Yes, she was.” Hopefully she gets to stay. I won’t worry at all if Peyton has at least one good friend at school to start out with. In addition to the other kids she’s met already from t-ball and the other little brothers and sisters (mostly sisters) from Brandon’s friends and CDC. She has made her own friends at the Club, as she saw another in the parking lot yesterday and waved at her! Her mom and I just said hi, and we figured the kids had met in the kids’ club. That’s at least 2 girls she knows, in addition to the counselor/teacher.
After all the junk eaten today, I went to the gym to run it off. I was highly caffeinated, and I ran 3 miles, walked 1.7 miles, in addition to the 1.3 miles I did with Peyton, after walking through and around the school while she did her “workouts”. This 100 mile challenge is definitely living up to its name!
Observant!
I’ve never really paid attention to how closely the kids pay attention. Dave has a rental car for a recall fix on his car. Peyton saw it in the driveway (you can’t miss it, as it’s bright red!). She ran into the house, saying “I’m going to go ask Dave!” She barged into the house and said, “Did you crash another car!?” Then she asked about the “roof rails”. Dave wondered how she picked up on those things above anything else about the car. Today while we were driving up and down El Camino, Brandon suddenly said, “Hey, Mommy, the Passat is missing the ” T”.” I looked at the car ahead of me and sure enough, there was a “Passa” in front of me 
Eye ball
Today, I was dropping Brandon off at baseball camp, but first, we dropped Peyton off. Brandon and I had about an hour to kill, but he started to complain about his eye hurting. Of course, we were in the front of the stadium when he told me this. I looked, and saw a small white fleck in his eye ball. I tried to swipe at it, but he kept dodging me. I finally put his head on the headrest between the front seats, and I tried to get it out. He couldn’t move, as I’d pinned him down. It didn’t work either. He was tearing, and trying to get it out himself, but nothing worked. I called the advice nurse, who put me through 10 minutes of questioning, only to tell me that I needed to call the ophthalmology department by 830 am. Really? Does a kid know what “mild”, “moderate” and “severe” are? I almost just handed him the phone to answer the questions she was asking me on his own. I was basically translating for him to answer the questions. I waited until 830 am, then called the ophthalmology department as instructed. Then, I was told I needed a referral from his PCP. REALLY?! Now, I know why patients get so frustrated with “the system”, and getting the run around. SO…I call back to the advice nurse to get the doctor a message to send a referral. I’m then told that I need to make an appointment, but FIRST, I have to provide my phone numbers and information. She’d stopped the verification process because my home phone number wasn’t the one I’d mentioned (just my own and Dave’s cell numbers, as they’re used more often). I then interrupted her and told her it was my second time calling, and that I’d already gone through the phone verification, and that all the numbers were legit. She quickly made the appointment, as I was taking Brandon’s bag out of my trunk, and getting him off to his camp. But the appointment wasn’t until tomorrow! After I’d dropped Brandon off (because of course he was fine to go play ball), I called Dave to have him help through his insurance. He’d wanted one today as he’d thought Brandon would scratch his eyeball out! He found a few appointments, and he got me one by 325 pm. That meant an early day for me, so I took a shorter lunch. I left by 230 pm, rushing to get to the stadium, only to run into traffic! UGH! Construction on the road was backing up traffic only 2 miles out from the stadium. I found my way around the backup, driving back the other way, and circumventing the bottleneck. I picked him up right at 3 pm, and then headed up to PA. I asked Dave to call them to let them know I’d be 5-10 minutes late. Luckily, there was no traffic, and I found a parking spot right in front of the elevator to our building. Dave had given me a heads up since I’m not familiar with the campus. We were taken back right away. The optometrist did an eye exam, and then fluorescein drops were administered. She did see some corneal abrasion, and also a small circular scratch that may have been the fleck that I’d seen. The fleck was no longer there. She noted some allergies in both of the eyes, as well. No stye, which I’d also thought I’d seen. She rx’d some antibiotic eye drops, to put into his eye four times daily. I told her that won’t happen for the next 3 days, 3 times a day will be what we can do, then I can increase it after Friday. She said if that was the best we could do, then that would have to do. Brandon has always been good about reminding us about the drops. Dave was stuck in traffic, so I went to get Peyton, too. We had a neighborhood night out today at the school, so Dave picked up some pizzas for us to bring there. It took Dave a lot longer, so when we got home, I was going to give the kids a pass on their piano homework, but both of them wanted to play! Reverse psychology! I didn’t sit with them, but they self-regulated their pieces. Both are starting to count in their heads and out loud, so that’s helping them with their rhythm. When Dave came home, Brandon was not sitting in the visual path to the door, but while doing work, he said, “Daddy’s home.” Seriously, this kid has Daddy radar. He’s had it since we lived in the condo and would hear Dave’s footsteps coming down the corridor, even when I couldn’t! I’d asked him how he knew, and he just said, “I knew he was home!” I looked up and saw his shadow pass by the front window. He totally knew!
We headed over with our pizzas. We signed in, got our nametags, and our raffle tickets. The kids went to play on the structure, and we met some of Peyton’s future classmates, too. The firetruck and police men (one of the dads from CDC) were there. They were promoting neighborhood awareness and safety, and getting to know the neighbors. We ate dinner, and then the kids played while we waited for the raffle. It turns out we won the hot yoga free passes as well as a discounted membership for the yoga shop close to home. Looks like I’ll get to try it out! We headed home, where the kids showered up, and then we all convened in Brandon’s room to read more Percy Jackson. Our goal is to finish reading the book, then watch the movies. We’ll get around to it eventually! I headed to the gym, and got more mileage in, while Dave is stuck on a DVR’d show. He finished GoT, so he’s replacing it, but with a show I’m not that interested in.
Houses
Dave had touched up some of our walls, with old paint, and now it looks like someone used white-out all over all walls. We went to the model homes to look at color schemes. While we were leaving, Brandon told us, “Wouldn’t it be funny if I lived here, and you lived there (pointing to our house now)?” Dave responded, “Um, ya, ‘funny’. REAL funny.” While we were driving by the homes today, Peyton said, “Let’s go there! I like the new houses!”
Artistes
Today, we headed out without knowing where we were going. Apparently, Dave had an agenda, but the rest of us were not privy to the information. We headed to the site of Brandon’s first baseball camp this summer. We were going to check out the museum on campus, which hosts a kid’s event every Sunday. We walked around a bit, but Brandon was hungry. Dave took him to the café, while I walked around with Peyton. We were looking at Rodin’s sculptures, and she was really interested! We read all the titles, and some of the captions. I discussed with her what we were seeing, and what she thought about what she was seeing. We saw “Three Shades” twice; once outside, and she recognized the smaller version inside. We looked at two kids who were either hugging or fighting. I told her it reminded me of Brandon and her. There was another sculpture depicting two kids, one holding another out of fear of a lizard. She pointed out the lizard! I hadn’t even seen it. There was another with a lion, with a banner which read “garde bien”, and she read it from the sash at the base of the lion. She wanted to come show Dave what we were seeing, so we headed back into the café. It was at this time, seeing Brandon eating a hot dog, that she wanted one, too. I went to get her one, along with a beet salad for me. We waited a short while for the food to arrive, and the whole place filled up! The kids remember being here when we went to the game last year. We ate in the same area outside, and then used the potties inside. Peyton had a few of my beets, but didn’t finish all of her pasta salad. Brandon took care of it for her. We signed up for the kids’ activities, and then we had 30 minutes before that started. There was a kid’s tour, but Dave didn’t want to take it, so he headed outside to wait. I asked Peyton if she was interested, and she said she was, so we headed back in. We got there just as the group had convened. We were in front of the “Thinker” that we looked at earlier. We headed upstairs to learn more about abstract art. The docent had the kids sit in front of the still life paintings upstairs, but Peyton preferred to stay with me. I, too, sat, and she was happy to listen. I texted Dave that he should join us, as it was pretty interesting. Right as I’d done this, I saw him coming around the corner. He’d already been making his way back. I flagged him down, and returned to the talk. At one point, Peyton leaned in to me and said, “I’m tired.” I encouraged her to keep going, as the art part was coming up. We headed back downstairs and were lead to a special studio downstairs. Each kid took a seat, and all listened to the next docent’s talk. There was a sheet of paper in front of each child, with pastels and watercolors, and the kids were going to create their own abstract art! Brandon got started, and then Peyton looked at his paper to copy! Talk about art imitating art! They finished up their pieces, and then received a frame to put the completed works of art. We walked back to the car with their art in hand, through the university. We walked another 3 miles today (in addition to what we walked yesterday). Peyton was struggling, trying to make it back to the car. She was sent up to nap, while Brandon did more work before practice today. Here are their works of art!
Tomato Convert
They say you have to introduce a food to a kid multiple times before they will accept it. For Brandon, that’s maybe 1-2 times. For Peyton, this was true about tomatoes! We were given a bag of cherry tomatoes from the piano teacher’s husband to take home. Peyton asked for some the next day, and had about a half-dozen. We were eating them last night, and she wanted half of the rest (gracious enough to share with me). And, Dave had made nachos for dinner, and he bought a mild chunky salsa. Peyton wanted to know if it was spicy, and Dave told her no. He told her to just try a little bit, and she nodded and said, “MMM, it’s good, may I have some more?” The four of us almost finished the entire container of salsa! That would never have happened a year ago. She’s definitely turned a corner! She even ate her two slices last week in her In N Out burger. Success!
Evening Stroll
So, I joined an online run/walk group to complete 100 miles in the month of August. We’d been cleaning and working all day, so we didn’t get a chance to get out. Dave snuck out to get groceries; I didn’t even know he’d left! Peyton was napping, and Brandon and I holed ourselves up in the guest room to read Percy Jackson together while she did. I assumed Dave was home, and when Peyton came in after her nap, we went into the kitchen for a snack. I opened the fridge, and it was magic! So after dinner at home, we headed out in the car. We parked in downtown LA, then we walked to WF for ice cream! I walked mostly with Peyton, since I know how she operates. She dragged a bit, and without a treat, it was harder to motivate her. She stopped a few times, but she trudged on. We played adding games, word games, and riddles. We finally made it, and it was a little over 1.5 miles there. I was excited for the monthly flavor, sweet corn and berries, while Dave opted for mint. The kids got apples as they are still dessert-free. They know not to ask, and we reminded them why they were eating apples instead of eating with us. I was afraid Peyton wouldn’t make it back, but this time, we headed out first instead of trailing. She even ran a bit, trying to get away from Brandon. I held onto her hand tightly to make sure she didn’t fall down. She was giggling and turning around, too, so it was for the best. We got far enough away from Brandon, who had to stop because he got tired quickly. She was worried about him catching us, but his giggling always gave him away. I told her we had to walk fast so we could have a girl conversation. We ended up talking about her favorite restaurant, the kids in her class she wanted in our hypothetical chaperone group, and whatever random talk I could make to take her mind off of walking. She actually made better time on the way back than we did on the way there. I told Dave the apple must have given her energy! We walked 3.5 miles total, as we’d walked around shopping for cocktail supplies. Our friends from Singapore sent some alcohol (three huge bottles) to thank Dave for taking the chef out a few months ago. We came home and got the kids to bed before I went and ran another 3.5. After the run, I got the drink that Dave made – a mojito with mint from the next door neighbor’s garden (it comes through the fence). I gulped it down, and then asked if there was even alcohol in it. Dave was concerned that I’d taken a shot and didn’t savor it. It was refreshing! I get to post the mileage on the FB group, and the admin tallies up the miles for the month. It coincides with the half I’m training for, and since it includes walking, I hope to complete the challenge.
Cheers!
Creative Writing
I found a worksheet I’d printed out last year for Brandon, but since he was already working on something today, I gave it to Peyton. Here is what she did…
She is half my child (home work and table manners), and half Dave’s child (iPad, baseball) 
for sure!
The “unicorn” she is referring to is her stuffed animal, Magic, a beanie baby Dave got at McD’s when we stopped at In N Out, since they don’t have toys there. She’s not totally living in fantasyland 