This note is not in chronological order!
This Thanksgiving trip was awesome. I'm always very happy to be with all 4 of my siblings simultaneously, and now I have a separate, additional joy of seeing my step-siblings and Rocket. Sola and Harrison are very sweet kids and I spent as much time as possible with them over this long weekend.
Jill and I went with them to the playground most days. The first time Sola offered me a kiss if I would push her and Harrison on the tire swing. I figure that's a good deal. Also a good workout, which in no way negated the massive quantities of Thanksgiving/junk food I had all week, but whatever. Anyway, Harrison liked for me to watch him on the monkey bars. Another day Sola and I went on the "big kid" swings for a long time, just talking about her Girl Scouts troop and who knows what else. Sometimes she asks a lot of questions. It's very enjoyable.
I also got to accompany them to the library on the way home one day, which was very nostalgic. I've always loved libraries, including when I was a kid. I also loved being read bedtime stories, and I find nowadays I love listening to Jill read the kids bedtime stories.
That's another thing I got to do--Sola and Harrison share the fold-out bed in the living room when they're in town. One evening Jack and I sat by the fire listening to Jill read them a book about a clever little pig tricking a fox, and then a book about...Nuffle Bunny? Or something. And while they were cuddled up listening to her, Rocket kept going up to Jack, pointing to Jack's apple, and making the "more" hand signal. Jack would say "What do you say?" and Rocket would make the "please" hand signal, and then Jack gave him a piece of apple. Then Rocket would climb into the folded-out couch, climb out the other side, walk around the coffee table and the chair I was sitting in, back to Jack, and repeat. Rocket seems to like eating and then circling things.
On Saturday Dad, Jill, Jack and I took the kids to the Redwood Railway, which was a huge success. Harrison was especially excited to be there, and the place was great. Beautiful redwood scenery stretching almost as far as you could see, a steam engine with a great whistle, and young boys--maybe 12-ish?--collecting train tickets and oiling the tracks. You could tell they loved their jobs. How cool of a job would that be for a 12-year-old? Sola was concerned about the steep cliff drop that Dad kept insisting was coming up. She suspected he was lying but just wasn't entirely sure. I taught her to call him a "charlatan" and she liked that. Later we rode the train without Dad and made a devious plan to tell him that therewas a huge cliff and we jumped it and it was so much fun! She told him that and he clearly didn't expect it. It was pretty funny.
During one ride it was just Jack, Sola, Harrison and me, and I kept singing parts of this very cool version of the ABCs, and Harrison really liked that. After awhile it went from "I say 'A'!" to "I say 'Harrison'! I say 'Sola'! I say 'Pet pals'!" and whatever else the kids wanted to sing. They thought it was hilarious. I also showed them Mahna Mahna for the first time, and they loved it and watched it all weekend.
Another theme of this trip was chess. Sola was examining a chess game Neil and Everett had been playing and exclaimed that two pawns directly in front of each other were about to kill each other. So I explained that's not how pawns attack. And it went from there.
I taught her and Harrison together, but Harrison kept interrupting the instructions to ask when we could start playing. Ah well. I helped them play a full game against each other and it was filled with anticipation and anxiety and delight and heartbreak! In fact there was a point at which each of them was ready to cry and I had to pause the game. I turned to Harrison.
"Are you going to get upset?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay, then we aren't going to play anymore."
"No!"
"So are you going to get upset?"
"No!"
"Okay, good."
Then I turned to Sola.
"Are you going to get upset?"
"Well...I might be a little disappointed, but I'll be okay."
"Okay good."
Haha.
So they finished. Sola won, but Harrison seemed mollified by them shaking hands and saying "good game."
Harrison played one or two more games with Sola over the course of the trip, but he wasn't into it and didn't really understand. So I started playing Sola. It's tricky playing at the right level to where they are learning and you aren't just crushing them, but I think I got it. We discussed a lot of strategy and it was just completely delightful to watch her grasp the game more fully with each session. She wears everything on her face--intense focus, fear, surprise, mischief, everything!
However, she lacks the necessary killer instinct. Once I showed her the 6 places her knight could move: 4 places in which I could kill the knight, one place in which the knight was safe but useless, and one place in which the knight would take my pawn and fork my queen and rook. She chose the safe, useless spot. She said the knight was afraid and wanted to stay closer to its side.
Another time we traded queens. I killed her queen first. She apologized as she killed my queen. Haha. I said "You don't have to apologize, Sola--this is war!" She said "Yes, but we're step-sisters!"
During other times she would take captured pawns and pretend they were flying above the board, talking to the live pieces from heaven.
I decided to go ahead and drive up to SF after work last night (Monday) to hang out with them one more time, and Sola and I played two chess games. She seemed to be thinking very hard about the entire concept. She asked "Why do we have to kill the pieces? Why can't we just hurt them?" She went on to ask questions about real war, such as whether our soldiers keep white flags with them in case they don't want to fight. She was emphatic that if she ever had to be in a real war she would surrender right away. And that she'd rather be a teacher. Not sure where that came from.
I wanted her to win at least one game against me, lest she get down from losing repeatedly, but it was harder than I thought because she didn't want to hurt my king.
One final story: last night Rocket kept hiding behind Dad's office chair and peeking out at me. I would yell "BOO!" and he'd laugh really hard and do it 1-2 more times. After about the 3rd time he's squeal and run toward me, and then stand right in front of me and turn around facing away from me, prepared to be tickled. It was the funniest thing. I'd tickle him a bunch and he'd squeal with delight and wave his arms up and down and then he'd run back behind the chair and start over.
The end.
PS - I also had a great time visiting with my full-grown siblings. Julie and I especially got to talk when I drove her to the airport. Neil, Ellen, Everett and I stayed up to around 3am Saturday talking and laughing. It was great. The stories just aren't quite as adorable. Except Everett! *pinches cheek*
