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By Janet, on July 30th, 2011
- Me with Grandma & Grandpa – September 2007
My maternal grandma passed away in May at the age of 89 1/2. She had lived in a nursing home for the past year as a result of Alzheimer’s. My last opportunity to visit her was in November 2010. It was a hard trip — I had to travel alone and spend my first nights away from my girls since they came home from the hospital, and Grandma wasn’t the same as I remembered her from years past — but I’m glad I was able to go.
By the time of my visit, the disease had already taken a significant toll. She was pretty much non-responsive and it was hard to know how much she was aware of what was going on around her. But one afternoon the visiting family got to reminiscing about days long gone and distant family members from generations older than me. It was interesting to listen to the stories from the past. Apparently Grandma must have thought so too because at one point she laughed out loud! Granted, she wasn’t really making a laughing sound, but the body language was all laughter. I’m glad I got to see that fleeting glimpse of amusement. When it was time for the final good-bye, I gave her a hug and told her I loved her. She returned the embrace and we just sat like that for some time — I didn’t want to leave that moment.
Grandma lived in Wichita, Kansas which meant opportunities to visit were somewhat rare. I remember from my childhood that our family vacations usually consisted of road trips to the midwest (Mom’s family was in Wichita, KS; Dad’s was in Carmi, IL). My sister and I would chase lightning bugs around the yard.
Grandma was a great baker and candy maker and there were always lots of special sugary treats — assorted cookies, muddy roads, peppernuts, sugar glazed pecans, fudge — and loaves of homemade bread. She enjoyed crafts too and I remember several sweaters she knitted for me and quilts she made for me. She was also known to crochet, paint landscapes, and other crafts. One of the most important lessons I remember learning from her is that you take a recipe or a pattern and go from it. The recipe/pattern is just a starting point. Use your own ideas and turn it into something special. Of course, I also learned that if you asked Grandma for a recipe you couldn’t just copy down what was in the recipe book. You had to talk to her about it because the written recipe was just the first version and it was usually helpful to know how she was currently making that delightful treat you wanted to imitate. I look forward to sharing my joy of crafts and baking with my girls in the coming years. And I may have to mix up a batch of Muddy Roads in Grandma’s memory.
Goodbye Grandma. I love you.
 Me and Grandma - November 2010
By Janet, on July 25th, 2011 Almost from the time they were born, the girls had to learn about taking turns and sharing. It’s been a necessity of life around our house. When one girl is getting a fresh diaper, the other is just going to have to wait a minute. Or when they both want to ride the same scooter somebody is going to have to go second. I’m pleased to say that they’re learning these lessons. Certainly there is sometimes grabbing and fussing when one girl wants to play with what Sister already has. But more and more frequently she’ll ask “Trade?” and offer something in exchange for the desired object. And the trade is usually agreed to sooner or later. Maybe it’s just me wearing my “Mom” hat, but I think these girls are definitely ahead of the curve when it comes to playing together. It’s hard to capture a picture of trading. But here are some recent favorites of the girls sharing. If you’ve read the other posts, you may have seen all these pics before but they’re still cute and in theme with this post so sit back and smile with me.
 See, if you open it up there's Kix inside.
 Tea party time.  What's in here?  Hold it steady while I pour.  Wanna smell?  Here - you forgot your sunglasses.
By Janet, on July 22nd, 2011 The girls’ vocabulary continues to expand and they’re learning new words daily. Their proficiency at communicating is also improving and they’ve come to the point where they realize when you don’t understand. When one of the girls names an object, Mommy or Daddy is expected to repeat it — perhaps just to ensure that we’ve understood, or perhaps to verify we’re paying attention. Their vocabulary has expanded beyond naming objects to include verbs such as walk, sit, run, and trade. One of their most frequently used words is currently “car.” Do you have any idea how many cars there are in the Bay Area? It’s rather comical when we go someplace because the girls will point out EVERY car they see. They will point and say “car car car” with increasing urgency and insistence until I repeat “car” back to them.
Another favorite is “bike.” A couple weeks ago we went to Graeagle for a week long vacation with Dan’s family. This was the longest car trip in quite a while and they gleefully pointed out every bicycle and motorcycle between here and there repeating “bike bike bike” over and over again. I considered getting tricycles for the girls’ second birthday. Then I was introduced to Balance Bikes. There are several different manufactures, but a balance bike is essentially a miniature toddler-sized bicycle with one significant difference — there are no pedals. Kids straddle the bike and use their feet to propel themselves along. They begin by walking along slowly, but they move faster and faster until they’re running and gliding along as their coordination and balance improve. The idea is for kids to learn how to balance and steer a bicycle without the use of training wheels. I was pretty intrigued. When I learned that their cousin has a balance bike we made arrangements for him to demonstrate for the girls. They were enchanted. So instead of trikes, the girls now have balance bikes.
And they like hats, so the helmets were pretty exciting gifts too.
 OooOOOooh, this will totally match my all outfits!  Groovy new hats After unwrapping the bikes, the girls quickly hopped on and began motoring through the house.
 Daddy, there's not really enough room in here for me to properly enjoy this... Then we were off to the park where they had room to roam.
 Carolyn  Elizabeth  Wait -- where are you going? It’ll be a while before the girls are ready to move up to full fledged pedal bicycles. In the meantime they’re enjoying themselves immensely.
By Janet, on July 15th, 2011 We took the girls in for their two year well baby visit a few weeks ago. At 21 pounds each, the girls have made their way up to the 6th percentile in weight (up from below the 5th percentile). While they may be small, they are decidedly happy and healthy little girls. And although I would not have wished for babies as small as ours were and are, it has greatly prolonged my ability to carry both of them at the same time. I still CAN carry both girls at the same time, but I’m doing it less and less.
Here are some of my favorite photos from June.
 Throwing rocks in the water is a new favorite activity.  "Snow" is one of their newest words. And they got to use it a lot on vacation this year.  Ah, the joys of reading the phone book  My turn!  Look what I found!  Vroom! Vroom!  They've discovered the joys of the "big girl" swings.  Doesn't she have a great smile?  They love story time. So do I.  They're becoming quite adept at climbing.
By Dan, on June 17th, 2011 I’ve owned some stock in a certain video game company for several years now. It does have some potential to really take off, I think, but for the last few years it hasn’t been doing much and so I’ve just been holding onto it. Then just recently, out of the blue, I got a phone call from someone claiming to be from my online investment firm, telling me that if I didn’t fill out a form or buy or sell something soon, the law would require them to report my account as “abandoned” and then the great state of California would basically seize all my funds from that account.
I was dumbfounded. How could that be legal? In fact, I just assumed that it couldn’t possibly be for real and that I was simply being made the target of some sort of scam. Well, it is legal, and it is a scam. I’ll explain…
Despite my initial gut feeling distrust of the guy on the phone, I decided to play along for a few minutes rather than just hang up. I discovered that I had indeed been sent an email about this (to an account I rarely check), and that email contained a link that I was supposed to click. When I examined the URL, it just looked like a bunch of gobbledy-gook, and it was not recognizably part of my online investment firm. My suspicion edged closer to certainty, and I did not click the link.
Later that day I got around to actually calling the company to report the suspicious call and email. But to my surprise, the person I spoke with confirmed everything the guy on the phone had told me. Apparently this is quite normal in the world of online stock trading! If an account has had no activity for just two or three years, the state arbitrarily assumes that the money has been abandoned and they grab it. Yes, there are ways to reclaim it again, but as you can imagine they sure as hell don’t make that easy, and there are almost certainly fees to pay. Two or three years?! I can understand that there are probably good and reasonable circumstances for this kind of thing, but I would have thought that the time frame would be more like forty years, or after the owner has died! I’m sorry, but two or three years is nowhere near long enough for money to be considered abandoned and “up for grabs”. Greedy government bastards. You have to hold it for at least one year to avoid getting screwed by the capital gains tax!
Oh, and the best part is that this practice is known as escheatment. It’s like they’re not even trying to disguise that this is nothing more than a shameless rip-off by the government! Err, I mean another shameless ripoff. Two or three years? Grrrrr…
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