Mystery Solved!

For almost two years Matthew has insisted on wearing long sleeves with a preference for pictures over stripes. He also likes pants and not shorts. It has made shopping for him very easy. I just have to make sure to have enough long sleeves on hand in February to last until August when they start selling them in the stores again. The sales in January always help with this.

We never questioned his steadfast penchant for full coverage, even on the hottest days. We just supposed that kids have various things they get stuck on.

A recent visit to the doctor finally unveiled the possible science behind Matthew's clothing selection. He has been experiencing eczema for several months. We have been trying all sorts of creams, lotions, ointments, body washes, and bath regimens.

The term eczema is broadly applied to a range of persistent skin conditions. These include dryness and recurring skin rashes. Matthew has experienced both, but our biggest concern lately is the dryness and the itching that results. He has been itching all over all the time. Our doctor sat down with us this week and explained why this is happening to him and how we can help make him the most comfortable.

We learned that skin cells are shaped like a hexagon and fit together nice and tight. Matthew has inherited a gene (on the chromosome that also includes genes for other allergies) that forms his skin cells with flares on the corners of the hexagon. This means that his skin cells don't fit together nice and tight and moisture can evaporate causing dry skin and itching. The doctor explained various things we can do to help him, including the use of long sleeves and pants (when temps are not too hot)!!! Apparently, when skin cells are formed this way, it doesn't feel desirable to have air flow over them.

That's it! That explains so much. However, the science doesn't explain why he prefers pictures!

To Infinity And Beyond!

For Halloween this year Matthew decided to dress up as Buz Lightyear and Madeleine picked out a poodle costume. She had originally wanted to be a frog, but it proved difficult to locate one in her size. She seemed equally as happy about the poodle once she saw it in the store.

She still has her birthday to fulfill her froggy dreams. She's been asking for a frog cake ever since she spotted one in a recipe book over the summer when we were looking up ideas for Matthew's birthday. She often reminds us about it. We'll see what happens come January.

Matthew has wanted to be Buz Lightyear ever since last Halloween when 2 friends at school had it. His love of the Toy Story movies has kept his dream fresh over the year. It was unfortunate when we found out that the Disney Online store was out of stock on his size. Thank you Ebay! We found one NWT (new with tags) for half the price (plus shipping) AND we won the bidding. There's a button on the wings that makes them light up. I thought it was SUPER cool on Halloween night to have the wings light up as he ran to each house.

His costume came in the mail a week before Halloween. He put it on and wouldn't take it off. I asked him to take it off when we went for a trip to the store. It's hard for his skin to breath with it on, so I thought it would be a good break. As soon as we came home he put it right back on. He even fell asleep with it on while I was reading to Madeleine. I took it off and changed him into PJ's. Next morning, he put it back on right away. His imagination was full speed as he rattled off all the things the toy Buz says when you push the buttons..."to infinity and beyond", "space ranger to the rescue", and he loved pushing the "laser button" and imitating the sound. There were lots of blast off spitting sounds too with his arms up in the air.

All in all, it was a really fun Halloween. The party and parade at the school was great. They all took an instrument and made music as they marched around the block. Older people at home during the day came out to see them and some waved from the windows. Madeleine kept up with the best of them when hitting the pinata. And trick/treating at night with the whole family was really sweet. In the past, 5 houses was enough. This year we hit nearly every house on our street. The kids loved all the decorations and music that were displayed and it was fun to chit chat with some of our neighbors.

Pain

Marc is probably pained from his lack of sleep lately (see previous post). Coincidentally, he recently worked on Pain, a game for Playstation 3.

Last month he flew down to LA to record David Hasselhoff sing the feature song for the game and record the band. He came back and mixed it in the Sony studios here in the Bay Area. The Hoff is currently a judge on America's Got Talent and is also known for starring on Bay Watch in the '80's and 90's.

Sony got the rights to the song Do You Really Want To Hurt Me, originally done by Culture Club. Seems like the perfect song for a game called Pain.

The trailer recently came out for the game and includes a snippet of the song, which will be available as a download. Check it out.

Lovers Park

There is so much to write about...a week of fun during a visit from my dad, delightful visits with friends, the school walk-a-thon, a new school the kids have been visiting. The list is endless.

Life has been good, but busy, especially the last several weeks. Marc has had the opportunity to mix a new album for Kasabian, a band that's HUGE in England but no one knows here. He's had the best time mixing, with so many great songs, but it means working at his Sony job during the day and going straight to work on the new CD after and working until 3 or 5am and then doing it all over each day, plus working Saturday's. Kasabian's label is Sony BMG, so he's inadvertently been working for Sony about 20 hours a day. He's tired, I'm tired and we all miss each other. He finally finished in the wee hours this morning and we're so pleased to have him home again.

Now that life is starting to get back to normal, I need to muster up my memory of a sweet story that happened several weeks ago. I can't go without journaling it. I definitely want to remember it when I'm old. It's a story about Matthew.

We go to parks all the time and usually Matthew likes to play by himself or with Madeleine and me. One day we were at the park and a girl kept trying to get his attention. He ignored her but took note of it and asked me "boys don't play with girls, right?" I told him "it's okay to play with girls. I know at school that boys and girls tend to play separately...however, I recently heard that your very good friend Max has been making friends with girls at school". He seemed impressed by this fact and trotted along.

Next thing I know he's playing with two little girls and having a grand time floating all over the playground doing this and that. At some point, one of the girls leaves and Matthew is left to play with one remaining girl. I walked over and talked to them and found out her name, Bianca. Immediately Matthew gets starry eyed and says, "Bianca...Willie Wonka...Mom, I love her name!" He loved her name and loved playing with her. It was getting on towards dinner time. I was really tired and hungry, yet I couldn't bear to end things.

Finally, Bianca's mom broke the hard news and told Bianca is was time to go home. They both looked devastated. They realized that their poetic moment was over. Bianca started crying and followed her mom. Matthew stood and watched with his whole body melting in sadness. I told him he should run after her and say good-bye and and tell her that he had fun playing with her. He ran towards her and when he caught up he nudged her arm to get her attention and told her exactly what I suggested. She turned and looked with tears streaming down her sweet little face and then came a smile with the words "I liked playing with you too". She continued to follow her mom and went out the gate. He blew kisses to her and yelled "I'll miss you". She returned the air borne kisses and yelled "I'll miss you too". I said to the mom, "I think Matthew really liked playing with your daughter today" and she agreed that they got on well. I wanted to exchange numbers so that they could play again, but there was an awkwardness because, ironically, it was the first time we'd had a chance to speak to each other. They kept walking and Matthew watched for a few seconds before he lowered his head and sadly walked back to where Madeleine was playing.

As I watched, I noticed that Bianca and her mother had turned right at the end of the path, which led them back to the corner where we were headed. There was a hill there, so I told Matthew to look up so he could see Bianca again. Excitement filled his body and he yelled towards her "bye Bianca". She blew kisses back one last time and ran to keep pace with her mom. He blew two more kisses toward her back and looked longingly as she faded along the path into the trees. He glanced back at me and seemed surprised that I was watching. He had been caught up in a world all his own. For some reason he felt the need to reassure me and said "Mom, don't worry, I still love you more" and then he went back to climbing. I melted.

Words

For the last 5 years I've listened to all kinds of kids music. I think I've heard it all. I even helped make some when we did the CD for the school. I actually like a lot of it and can sometimes be found listening to it when the kids aren't in the car.

In the last week or so, I've found myself longing for tunes of my own. You know, some really good driving music. I've started surfing the channels and finding some things I like, while attempting to stop on songs that seem to have decent lyrics.

Yesterday I was listening to a nice little single by Gwen Stefani, which I thought was completely innocuous, until Matthew said, "Mom, those words in the song, that's not something our family says, right?" I was just driving and not really thinking about the words, so I asked sheepishly, "What do you mean?" And then he and Madeleine both chimed into the next part, "Hey baby, hey baby, hey!" Oops!!! It didn't sound so great coming out of their little mouths. So, we changed the song.

Today we were driving to the dentist. I was trying to be careful about our song choices. And then wammo...oops, I did it again (I couldn't help myself on the Britney reference)! We're driving along and Matthew says to me, "Mommy, our family doesn't make people bleed do we?" I was really caught by surprise. I listened closer and the lyrics talked about a girl missing someone and having a bleeding heart. I explained this phrase to Matthew and changed the song again.

As we got closer to the dentist another song came on...a really fun one for everyone. I turned it up and we all sang together..."Get down. Boogie oogie oogie oogie. Get down. Boogie oogie oogie oogie!" At long last, family music! Although I did have to clarify the "get down" phrase as it relates to dancing. Madeleine was really cute too. Her version was "Get Down. Yoogie yoogie yoogie yoogie".

Marc had a similar experience with words and meanings over the weekend. He had a football game on in the background while he was working in the studio. The kids were hanging out down there with him. Marc didn't even think Matthew was listening to the game, but at one point Matthew asked, "Dad, why did those guys have to go on a time out? What did they do wrong?"

Marc didn't come out of the week unscathed by lyrical debacle either. Searching for car amusement, and lacking an in car dual DVD system, Marc decided to teach the kids the song - 100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. I remember singing that when I was little. I always imagined teaching this one to them when they were around 10 or 12. I was slightly surprised when he started into the song, but Matthew quickly straightened Marc out. He said, "Dad, it's 100 bottles of juice on the wall. That's how we sing it at school, Dad!" In my head I thought..."Yeah, Dad! Let's stick to good wholesome lyrics...like I do."

Hadron Collider

Perhaps you've already seen the coverage, but I think this new Hadron Collider is something else. Today's test run was successful...see article. In the months to come it should be interesting to see what they learn and how old hypothesis are challenged.

I also love the physics student that visited the Hadron Collider and got permission to take footage of her and her friends dancing around to a rap song she made...follow the link.

It was especially fun to see Madeleine trying to imitate the dance moves as she watched the video on youtube.

Finger Paint

It's a little messy, but really fun to use finger paints with the kids. When I first bought finger paints I was surprised at the cost. It was about $15 for all 4 primary colors and the bottles really weren't that big. I found myself becoming a little stingy with the allocation every time the kids asked for more paint for more pictures. I didn't want to use up all the paint in 1 sitting.

The preschool has lots of art supplies to choose from when it's your turn to put something together, yet no finger paint. I'd bring it myself, but it would cost a small fortune to bring enough paint for 24 kids.

So, I was really excited to find a recipe for finger paint that I could make at home. And the ingredients are simple...flour, water and food coloring. The heat makes the concoction thicken up. It's basically like colored gravy. The texture is inviting and you can determine how dark/light you want the color. Once made, it can be refrigerated and used later.

I made 3 colors in all and also cooked up spaghetti and rigatoni noodles for making designs in the paint. I brought them to the school and it was a big success. They had a blast!

Easy Finger paint

Ingredients

2 cups white flour
2 cups water
food coloring

Directions

Put water into a large pan over med/high heat. Slowly add the flour while stirring. Continue until thick. Then divide into smaller bowls and add food coloring. That's it!

Big Enough!

On our way back from Tahoe, we stopped at the Nut Tree and let the kids go on rides. When we got to the bumper cars, Madeleine and I had to sit it out, since she was a wee bit too small. She was good natured about the whole thing and helped me root on Marc and Matthew as they crashed into cars and walls.

Since then, she finds every opportunity to let us know she's big enough for the bumper cars now. When she sits on the big potty I often tell her, "Oh Madeleine you're such a big girl now. See, you're too big to fall in the potty (her fear)." She always follows up with "big enough to ride the bumper cars!" A big grin across her face.

When I try to pick her up and she's really heavy I'm often led to say "You're getting SO big these days!" She doesn't miss a beat, and reiterates her entitlement "big enough to ride the bumper cars!"

I'm always amused by her bumper car fascination and determination to be "big enough". Yesterday was the funniest one of all. We were walking hand in hand and she noticed our shadows. She pointed to each of us on the side walk and said "Mommy and Madeleine". She took her pointer finger out again and said "Big and big enough!" She tipped her head back, put on her huge grin and added "big enough to ride the bumper cars!!!" Marc and Matthew were a few strides behind us and joined us in a big belly laugh.