Life with Lotus Maria and Lucian Stone

We have had two disastrous Santa visits with Lotus. Last year we didn't even make it to Santa's lap. She waited in line to see Santa, but in the end she lost it and we had to run off. I mean I can't really blame her, we tell her to beware of strangers and then we push her towards an older gentleman she doesn't know and say sit on his lap and smile.

This year I suggested we send him a letter, but as the idea of Santa became clearer she decided that she wanted to tell him face to face her Christmas wants. And since her list was so sweet I really wanted her to be able to tell him.

We went to the mall mid-week so there was no line and she just hopped up on his lap and told Santa that she wanted a rocking chair, a baby bottle and a tiny Clifford the red dog doll. She then smiled sweetly and we got this awesome photo.

Later on I realized we hadn't really told Lotus the full Santa story when my friend Laurie asked Lotus where Santa lived and she responded "The mall." Obviously there were a few blanks Nate and I needed to fill in.

After the chaos of the day before Thanksgiving Nate and I looked forward to a much calmer Thanksgiving Day. Luckily I had made dinner reservations for the Pearl's and I have to say I think this was the smartest thing I have ever done in my entire life. I booked us a table at our favorite hotel/resort/ interesting eatery, Edgefield. They had a Thanksgiving buffet, which was perfect. It's hard to satisfy us all during the holidays. Everyone but my dad is a vegetarian, or I guess pescatarian these days, but if there is not turkey Poppa Art is not a happy camper. The whole event was great, the girls all got along, it was nice without being stuffy, lots of families so we weren't the only ones trying to keep our kids in their seats, we were able to get Kaiya and Lotus with in moments of sitting downs and they had really good food. It was so good that Nate even said "let's do this every year." And you know that is saying a lot if you have ever heard how he was traumatized the first Thanksgiving he spent with my family.

Nate, Lotus and I went up to Portland for Turkey Day last week. One of the great advantages of an economy in shambles is the Thanksgiving travel was stress-free. Even my hated SFO airport was quite quiet. Everyone who works there was still rude and totally inefficient, so that hasn't changed. Thank God the shock would be too much for me to handle.

We arrived in Portland on Tuesday night, which was also Kaiya's 5th birthday. We, sadly, arrived too late to celebrate with her that night, but we had plans to take her shopping the next day. My dad picked us up and Lotus was so excited to see her Poppa Art. Though admittedly she was more excited to see Kaiya. Which proved a problem that night when she was too wound up to sleep. So our first night in our favorite hotel proved to be a long one.

The next day we got up early, basically because Lotus got us up with "ARE WE GOING TO SEE KAIYA!!" We told her not until the afternoon, but time is still a bit of an abstract concept to our energetic three year old. So all day long she asked, "Are we going to get Kaiaya, NOW!!" We had plans to visit some friends of Nate's and then pick Kaiya up mid-day and go shopping and then hit the indoor pool at our hotel. Those were the plans, but fate intervened. On our way to pick up Kaiya we got a flat tire in our rental car. We had rented this hideous mini-van so I could try and avoid having to be in a car with my dad behind the wheel. The problem with said car was that they did everything in their power to put the spare in the most impossible to reach location, so we had to get AAA to change the tire. Which I just have to say really bugs me. I mean statistically women/ mothers buy minivans so this just seems really dangerous and an obvious omission in knowing your consumer demographic. I can change a tire, but I need to be able to get the tire to change it. The spare time was under the car. You unlatched the spare inside the car, but you had to slide under the car to get it out. Okay, so if I was alone, pregnant and with a three year old in the car by the side of the road how would that work? Let's say it was night. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. This was of course a Dodge which is owned by Chrysler. Chrysler which is one of the now infamous Big Three, I mean seriously do we want to bail out idiots who makes cars like these. Any wonder why they are in such serious trouble. Okay, so I digressed a bit.

By the time we got back on the road an hour and a half later pre-Thanksgiving traffic was awful and it took us an hour and half to go a distance that should have taken 30 minutes. Kaiya was really fantastic, she was so excited about seeing Lotus that she was okay with us rescheduling her shopping trip, which I have to say I'm not sure I would have been so understanding. We now had to race back to the rental car place and exchange the car before they closed for the holiday. The same traffic we hit on the way to pick up Kaiya was now going the opposite direction. So we made it, barely. In the end it all work out. Even though the girls were stuck in the car forever they entertained themselves and were just happy to see one another. We met up with the rest of my family for pizza and then we all hit the pool. It was a long first day, but seeing Lotus and Kaiya together makes it worth it!

So for those of you who didn't catch it in my political rant blog, the Stanton-Pearl clan is growing. This time in my belly, because why do anything the same twice. We found out we are having a boy, which comes as no great shock since I think there has only been one girl Stanton born in many generations. He is healthy and now that I am done being sick as hell all is well. Lotus can't wait to "boss him around".

After last years Halloween fiasco (see January 2008 to review) I was considering ignoring to whole end of October event. Sadly my daughter has gotten too clever for this charade and she knew something was coming up, but she was also apprehensive as well. See Halloween is scary and strangely enough a three year old does not like all the scary monsters and ghosts. This adds an element of fear for Nate and I, since we have just gotten over a particularly bad sleep disorder spell with Lotus. We were both terrified that all the Halloween decorations would send Ms. Lotus back to the very bad place of no-sleep.

So I was kind of torn what to do. Lotus has really gotten into playing dress up, especially with all the horrid pink princess dresses that she got for her birthday, so I wanted her to have the dress up Halloween experience, but I also didn't want her terrified. In the end I didn't think I could get away with just boycotting trick or treating.

Another option was presented to us through her school, but it also made me nervous. Lotus goes to a Waldorf School and I feel like I am still navigating all the rules of the Waldorf lifestyle. I also don't like rules and it is in my nature to recoil when there are too many boundaries. Nevertheless the main Waldorf School was having a Fairy Walk on Halloween night, I had no idea what a Fairy Walk was, but all of Lotus' class was going and I do like the families in our school so I signed us up as well. As we got closer the event we got the list of rules, the main one being no characters from the media. Lotus had her heart set of wearing one of her DISNEY princess dresses. I did not see this going well. I do have an issue with this aspect of the Waldorf philosophy. Even though I understand that the media has way too much influence on children's imagination, I feel like I am stifling Lotus' creativity if I dictate what she can or can not wear. I came to a compromise with Lotus and myself, if she wanted to wear the non-commercial fairy outfit that she had we would go to the Waldorf School Fairy Walk and if she donned the Sleeping Beauty costume we would trick or treat in our neighborhood at non-scary houses.

As fate would have it she chose the fairy outfit and we joined her classmates at the main Waldorf campus in Pacific Heights. And I have got to tell you am I glad we did. All my nervousness was for nothing. First off their were a few kids in Disney Princess Costumes with the label covered up, so I felt like there is some wiggle room and I can live with rules if there is room for interpretation.






Second, Lotus loves her classmates and they were all so cute hanging out together. Lastly, the walk itself was amazing. I am so sad they didn't let us take photographs inside. The school took groups of kids through the campus that was decorated in various Fairy Tales with older kids and adults acting out the stories. It was entirely magical and made me realize what a special experience the Waldorf school creates both in the classroom and outside.



























In the end Lotus had a wonderful Halloween and she got to wear her Disney Princess costume a couple days later at the annual Pixar kiddie Parade.