A Week in the Life of the Metcalfs (Metcalves? I've never figured that out.)

It was a good week. Life started out okay -- Monday was hard, as Mondays are.

Everyone was a wee bit crabby so we just worked past it. Tuesday, the boys had yoga class after school (yep, yoga!). They were of course the only boys in the class and spent the entire time wrassling each other and gnawing on their toenails. After the class, I introduced myself to the teacher and explained our sitch -- two overactive boys, newly moved to mellow CA from frenetic New Jersey. She gravely nodded and said "Yes, this will be good for them." Honestly, I had expected her to be all "the karate classes are over there". We then went outside to the totally awesome playground and shook out some sillies. It was an awesome old center rec center -- teenagers playing basketball, teenagers hanging out in the hallways.

Wednesday Oscar has Chess Club! As I've said on Facebook, I've decided to try and make Oscar either a gigantic nerd (hello, your parents work in comics!) or an evil overlord. He really is a math genius. He got the highest math scores in his class in August. I'm not entirely sure that it's because all the scores here in CA are 100% based on multiple choice tests or whatever, but he really does seem to "get it" easier than most of his classmates (and his parents). Before you think I am getting all crazy mom, let me tell you that he has the handwriting of a serial killer. And yet I love him more than my luggage.

So I dropped Oscar off at Chess Club. And he's the only non-Indian kid there. So I have to text Mona and say dude! Oscar is the only non-Indian at chess club! And she gives me the very wise advice to befriend those people, because my baked ziti could result in a lot of kick ass reciprocal Indian dinners. We were at the awesome McCambridge Center, so we left Oscar with his new high-achieving pals and checked out the playgrounds. It's a really amazing facility -- tennis courts, pool, handball courts, baseball and soccer fields. An hour later we picked up Oscar and his chess coach said, "Oh, Oscar! He makes me laugh. We need to work on his strategy."

Yes, Crazy Chess Man. We need to work on his STRATEGY.

Between Oscar's whackadoodle Yoga teacher and his whackadoodle chess teacher, we might actually whip my kiddo into shape.

Every day I realize how much I love the government infrastructure here. Those classes I signed the kids up for? $38 for 12 classes. And each facility has an open gym with teenagers playing basketball (future babysitters!) and awesome playgrounds. We also spend a lot of time at our Burbank libraries. The children sections are well-stocked and lovingly-planned out. The adult section is so well organized that I was able to look up a book (this one) on the card catalog computer in the kids' section, while my little guys were playing on the Early Learning Computers next to me and my oldest was surly and reading a book on the couch because he lost computer privileges. I was then able to lead my tribe into the adult section and find the bok in less than a minute and then lead my posse to the checkout lane. Every week we take out a dozen books and three movies and one book for me.

Thursday! Lucy has her first day of school. She is in a Thursday-Friday class of 3yos, which means that 99% of her class is kids who have never been away from their folks, and many of them are the first kids, so the parents are Freaking. The. Funk. Out. Evan and I do our best to assuage the guilt of all the parents while our child grabs the hand of a sobbing kid and happily waltzes into the classroom away from all the freaked-out parents.

It's a great play-based school that is totally child-based. Lucy's class is 20 kids, but they have 4 teachers. They have a great messy classroom and then halfway through the day, they move out to the gigantic playground. It's a huge sandpit with water tables, bikes, jungle gyms made of tires, zip lines, ding-dong houses (Lucy's favorite!) bubbles, and a huge garden, complete with 4 free roaming chickens and a rooster.

Lucy is very happy there. She is a great example to the youngest kids at the school, since she has been through school before and never wants to leave. It's a bit of a drive from Burbank but I am happy to drive for good people and a good school.

On Friday, Oscar's bestie came over for a playdate. Arlo and Lucy were thrilled and proceeded to throw themselves at him for the next four hours.

Plans for this weekend: Farmer's Market with Oscar, cub scout Raingutter Regatta recruitment, and then Auntie JoJo and Dan the Dinosaur is taking the boys out to see The Lion King in 3D. What should Evan and I do with the Goose while the boys are gone? Sunday the Goose and I are going to her preschool's church service. I might be an atheist; but I recognize and respect the community that churches build, and I think that I might need some of that out here. Somewhere in there we need to work in the Weekend Ice Cream Tasting.