"Daddy doesn't work there anymore."

When my daughter first heard that I wouldn't be working down the street from our home in Vancouver, she started crying.  She "wanted me to be close".  Our office moving 12 miles away was too much for her little heart to handle the first time we visited the new office location.

Back in January of this year, our company was acquired by a much larger one based outside of the state of Washington.  A lot of things are new to my co-workers and I these days including a new CEO, a new name, new logo and a large amount of new peers to work alongside.

However, the move was a surprise.  The new company wanted to grow the business here in the Pacific Northwest and were very successful.  We brought on all kinds of new talent to the point of having two people to a desk.  We needed a new space and planned to move somewhere nearby in Vancouver.

But over the course of all the summertime decision-making, plans shifted and our company chose to cross the Glen Jackson Bridge and locate a few exits south of Vancouver in our much bigger neighbor of Portland, Oregon.  The new place will--for the first time--give us our own break room, kitchen and office bikes.  Even the drafters get a separate department with its own door.

Of course, that all comes with a price.  I no longer will be able to run over to my children's school 2 miles away to drop off that important paper.  I won't be going home for lunch two or three times a week when things are slow.  Running out the door 10 minutes before I have to be there may never happen again.  Yesterday we passed the old office location here in town like we do so often in our daily lives and explained what the trucks were doing outside and that daddy doesn't work there anymore.

Instead I'll be in line with the others waiting to cross the bridge. I'll be (im)patiently weaving my way through all the other fathers who can't wait to get home to their little girls and make sure they know that daddy's gonna be there to read you that homework book.  And I'll be thankful for that 16 months of time where life was a little simpler and I got to keep it closer to home.

Goodbye, Vancouver

Hello, Portland

Summer's annual disappearing trick

It happened again.  Summer vanished.  Now I write in the middle of October thinking of all the things we did and all the things we didn't.

In the Pacific Northwest, it's expected for everyone to live a whole year in four months before we run inside our houses for the October through May rain showers.  No doubt the Pacific Northwest's stretch from June to September is the greatest season on the face of the planet, but the beyond-capacity way we approach it seems to only allow enjoyment in retrospect.

The sun has stretched farther than ever this year, but I believe last night when it clouded over, we reached the crucial day.  Next week the weather descends into gray and will stay there.  While the sun was out we had some great memories (some of which I didn't share in my Vacation post).  I thought I'd share some here.

Panorama of the kids in Burnt Bridge Creek basin

14th anniversary: huge damage from Central Oregon wildfires

14th anniversary: Central Oregon smokey sunset

14th anniversary: outside our Silverton apartment

14th anniversary: Silver Creek Falls

14th Anniversary: Us at the Oregon Garden

14th anniversary: the doomed Buca in Seattle

/\ Kids learned to ride bikes 24 hours apart! \/

On our way to school

First day of 1st Grade

Clark County Fair (A-M and Elisha are up there)

Pig

Father's Day 2015

I'd been awake for about five seconds this morning when my two kids came running in my room and yelled "Happy Birthday" and threw a gift bag on my bed.  By the time I heard them say "let me help you with that, daddy!" they were already dumping the two shirts inside the bag on my head.  Then they ran out.

15 seconds later--as if dissatisfied with their sneak attack--they ran back in the room yelling, "SAY THANK YOU, DADDY!"  I did and I can truly say that I am very thankful this morning.

Just six Father's Days ago, my hopes of becoming a father seemed to be constantly getting place on hold, but now it's become normal life.  Now our kids have just finished kindergarten, they're in the middle of swimming lessons, they're off to vacation Bible school.  They live that awesome life that kids should live in every city, in every neighborhood and on every street and we want that for them.  We believe that the extraordinary that they bring to ordinary life will be what propels their future.

There really is no explanation of how your heart can expand to the place where you seem to live and breathe through somebody else.  Having little kids does that to you.  They're so trusting and dependent that every detail is carefully planned to make every day a success.  Every toy they own, meal they eat, song they sing has to get by me first.  It's almost like I live their life before they live it.

I enjoy being a father and even usually enjoy the meticulous decision-making process Anne-Marie and I go through to make all this stuff come together every week.  At the same time, I'm under no illusions about the season of life we're in.  Soon the kids will want to make all their own decisions and I might even let them sometimes.  The clock of inevitability is ticking on our dependents' dependency.  

So for now we'll soak it all in.  Father's Day will make itself special because it's a recognition of all that happens at home every single day.  And somehow we'll accept the fact that the greatest time in our kids' childhood is already marked on my calendar.  It's today.

School

When I was a kid you went to school when you turned six.  I'm sure you can imagine the shocked expression I had when the (literally) more educated generation after me told me that kids now go to school when they turn five.

I resisted the idea at first, but after consulting with my more temperate wife, we have decided to send our kids to kindergarten.

(What is kindergarten?  I have no idea.  I guess I thought it was just daycare but free.  I do know that I didn't do any kindergarten-type activities when I was five, and look how I turned out!)

Anyways, we decided to send our kids to kindergarten (after considering how I did indeed turn out and) because it's the de facto 1st grade these days.  The original hope was to homeschool the kids, but the health situation we've been facing over the past 2 1/2 years has caused us to decide against it.  The plans then switched to a private or church school.  That kinda fell apart in a hurry as well.

So the kids will be spending their 0th grade year at the local elementary school three blocks from our house.  We'll try again next year on the private school thing.

I'm promising that I won't go to my kids' classroom at random times, sit in the back and stare holes through the teacher so he/she knows my kids are my most precious treasure on the whole earth.  Yes, I promise not to do that more than a dozen times next week.

---

Along with school comes back-to-school shopping.  Or maybe it's not really back to school.  It's just school shopping.  Big things coming next week.

First time school shopping

What I liked in 2013 - Toca Boca (or, my 5-year-old has an iPhone)

You're not gonna believe this.  For Elisha's 5th birthday I got him an iPhone.

I know.

But before you unsubscribe from my blog and report me to Children's Services, hear me out.  What we actually got him was a broken iPhone.

Don't call the cops.

OK.  We have an old iPhone that doesn't actually have a phone in it anymore, just everything else.  Someone managed to burn out the cel antenna in it so it still has a camera, wi-fi and apps, but there's no ability to make phone calls.  A friend sold it to me some time ago.

I had it fixed up with a cool aftermarket green faceplate (like this one) and put it in a bulletproof rubber case and then in an iPhone box and then in wrapping paper and now you have a five-year-old with an iPhone.

Why did we get it for him, you ask?  Because the kids love the thousands of children's apps, books and games that are available for smartphones.  I like it because the apps are pretty inexpensive ($8 at most, usually $2 or even free) and it's easy to hide or put out of reach.  You see, the iPhone is a "special" toy.  You parents know the one.  It's the toy you only pull out on special occasions for a treat.  On some slow, rainy Washington day when the kids are driving you nuts, you tell the kids, "If you eat two broccolis, you can play for a little bit on the phone!"

Maybe that's not how you do it, but it is how we do it.  And the broccoli gets eaten and--just like finger paints and Play-Doh--the "phone" comes down from the top of the fridge (because that's where all parents put "special" toys) and we take turns playing games.  Every 15 minutes we switch who gets to play.  The rule is that the operator gets to play any game that's on the phone.

So, that required me as a dad to look up the best iPhone apps available for preschool kids.  What are the best iPhone apps available for preschool kids?  Apps by Toca Boca.

My kids love these games and would play them all day if I let them (I don't).  The company doesn't consider their apps to apps, but rather toys.  So there isn't a bunch of levels or time limits.  The idea is more just to allow the kids to use their imagination to make cool stuff happen.

Yes, this picture is of a phone game.

Trains pick up cargo, cars jump off ramps, sausage is boiled in pots and so on.  The Swedish digital design studio has worked very hard to construct their apps to look real and magical all at the same time.  For example, in Toca Builders (pictured) children use their imagination to operate wooden robots to construct, move and paint wooden blocks in gravity-defying configurations.  Toca Tailor allows a child to pick patterns and cuts for a customized "paper doll" of their own.  (You can imagine how Mariah loves that!)  At $2.99 down to $0.00, not a bad deal for a long car ride back to Oregon.  If you have an iPhone, a long drive and a preschooler, check it out.*

Maybe I'll do a top 20 list of preschooler apps in the future.

*Now, let me just say this.  We have a stack of books that are always available to the kids and we read those all the time.  Plus, we have a play structure outside that the kids love.  All that stuff is probably better for kids than so-called "screen time".  But hey, it's the Pacific Northwest and it rains all the time and so there are good reasons for a few games now and again.  Also, I'm not a huge believer in the idea of "educational" games or toys.  So much stuff that's really just entertainment for preschoolers like ours is sold as being educational.  My opinion on that is that if the kids like it, maybe it will help a little bit.  When I was a kid Sesame Street taught me more how to act like Cookie Monster than to spell.  Whatever.  Cookie Monster is still the greatest.

The cousins

Happy 3rd!

The end of ba-bas

So, potty training isn't really working around here.  The kids don't mind sitting on those nice blue and pink chairs Grandma got for them, but they really aren't interested in much else than sitting.  We've had a few victories in the last couple of months--and that's good--but it's not really clicking.

We reached a different milestone a couple of weeks ago, this one by accident.  Our dishwasher decided to destroy three out of the five bottles we had, causing us to have only one bottle for Elisha and one for Mariah.  That was fine because we have the Playtex kind with the inserts, which makes it pretty easy to maintain.  So at nap time and bed time we washed their bottle and filled it.  Then one of them lost their bottle.

We decided that it just wouldn't be fair to give a bottle to only one of them that night, so right then and there, we decided that there would be no more ba-bas for the kids.  After a week of the kids throwing fits twice a day, they don't even care anymore.  That means no more liners to buy and no more whole milk (soy fans don't hate).  Kinda miss using that whole milk in the mac & cheese, though...

Elisha Hums while he eats.

A lot of people have commented on Elisha humming while he eats. They always say, "You've gotta get a video of that!" Well, here it is.

He caught me in the middle of recording. "Go away, Daddy! Down the stairs!"

Celebrating Mariah's 2nd birthday

Happy 2nd Bithday, Mariah!

Winnie and the Bird: Mariah Sings

For the past six months Mariah has only known ONE song:

Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh
Chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff. Oh...
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh
Willy nilly silly old bear

In the event some other song would need to be sung, Mariah would just begin singing this song in its place.

Then for Christmas, Mariah got a Big Bird DVD.  This gave birth to Mariah's second song:



A few weeks ago both children began singing another song:



Don't your kids sing songs from the radio or Sunday School? I guess not.

Christmas 2010

Since it's been a month, I thought I would post a little about what happened at Christmas.

We decided that we would stay home this year.  So after all the parties and church events were over, we settled down in the house to enjoy a quiet Christmas together.  I guess it really wasn't that quiet.

Gifts were really low-key this year, but the kids had fun with it anyhow.  I think they're starting to understand that Christmas is a special day and that we are all going to have a lot of fun.  I don't think they understand anything about Jesus' birth yet.  We'll work on that over the next couple of years.

After a quiet couple of days leading up to Christmas, my brother Mike arrived in town with my mom and soon-to-be sister-in-law, Marie.  After eating several pounds of Chex Mix that night, we woke up early to take a trip downtown to the Seattle Children's Museum (resulting in what you see below).

Taking two toddlers on a road trip is exhausting, so we headed back to Pierce County for some good ol' Eye-talyan food.  It was great being together as a family.  Next stop: Fort Collins, Colorado for a summer wedding.

Daddy and Sissie

P1163127
Originally uploaded by eg2006

Growth blur

and welcome to 2011!  After a rare two-week layoff, I'm starting up at least a little more frequent blogging with these thoughts on my little girl.

Mariah will be two next month.  The kids are so close in age their growth seems to be in a constant game of leapfrog.  Sometimes the milestones they pass happen within days of each other.  Last summer, the kids started connecting two words, at least in a very simple, childlike way (i.e., bye-bye car, kitty ouchies).  Since then, the kids have grown into using three word phrases occasionally.

Earlier this week, as another train chugged past the crossing half a block away, Mariah was running around upstairs and said, "There's a train out there."  Don't know where that came from.  She followed it up with her normal two or three word ramblings: "Down the stairs." "Buddy wake up!" "Eat food."

Yesterday, I walked into the kitchen and Mariah walked up and said, "Daddy, did you take a shower?"  I had, in fact, just finished up with my (near) daily shower.  So I informed her she was correct.

Elisha is slightly behind his sister, but he's gotten to the point that he wants to take on any word.  And he wants to know!  I'm really loving the iPhone app that has the slideshow of a combination of animal names, sounds and pictures.  They want to flip through the pictures over and over and practice saying "alligator".

The huge leap forward was yesterday morning.  After two weeks of introducing the kids to their potty chairs, Mariah successfully used hers!  If you are or were the parents of small children, you'll know the significance of this.

In another two weeks, Elisha just might be shaving.  I guess this kind of underscores the reason I should blog more regularly.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Swinging

Elisha & Mariah: Home Forever

The short film about our adoption is FINALLY COMPLETE! Hope you enjoy.

Elisha & Mariah: Home Forever from Elijah Garcia on Vimeo.

Gotcha Day: 1 year later

This is a video of the day we became a family of four.

How to pronounce the names Elijah and Elisha

This must be one of the most important posts ever.

My name (Elijah) and my son's name (Elisha) are very similar in spelling and sound. This has been a point of confusion for a lot of people.

The names Elijah and Elisha are Jewish in origin. They were the names of two Old Testament prophets, Elijah being the mentor and Elisha his protege. So, you must realize, the names are pronounced much different by Americans today than they were by people speaking Ancient Hebrew around 700 BC.

Since the kids have come home, we've had people call both of us all kinds of names. And that's OK. I'm really not too picky about it. And, believe it or not, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce my name.

The pronunciation of Elijah has several variants:

ee-LYE-juh
ih-LYE-juh
uh-LYE-juh
and also
ee-LYE-zhuh ('zh' would be pronounced like 'Asia')
ih-LYE-zhuh
uh-LYE-zhuh

I tend to use the last one (uh-LYE-zhuh) when I'm lazy. From my reasearch, this is almost certainly incorrect, even though it's probably my choice how I want people to say my name. I'll try to be a little more disciplined and tighten it up to the pronunciation I prefer, either eh-LYE-zhuh or eh-LYE-juh. Hardly ever use the hard "ee" sound.

eh-LYE-zhuh?

A lot of this applies to Elisha* as well (i.e., ee-LYE-shuh, ih-LYE-shuh, uh-LYE-shuh as variants). I'm shooting for eh-LYE-shuh.

All of this is, of course, not that important to either of us. We really don't care what you call us, just don't call us late for--you know the rest.

eh-LYE-shuh?

Off to my left, your right, you'll see a poll that asks which pronunciation you prefer to use when you're slaughtering the pronunciation of my name. I gave the options of the four pronunciations I hear most. If I don't have yours, pick the closest one to your version. Maybe it will help me to know which direction to go with this.