McG Kids

This weblog tracks my kids’ early years. Each entry is a snapshot from their childhood.

Please pardon any type-o’s, misstatements, or factual irregularities. This blog is written by an often dazed dad, normally after 11 pm when he should really be in bed if he had any sense. Even the basic quick edit is not a regular practice here.

Smashing Down the House

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Since making her gingerbread house around Claire’s birthday, Molly has been waiting to eat it.  But she doesn’t just want to pull off some stale gummy drops and eat them.  He plan has always been specifically to smash the house and then eat it, tasteless walls and all.  I am not sure why it was deemed necessary to smash the house, but I have always been curious if the walls of a gingerbread house are any good, so I thought sure, let’s do this.  We found out pretty quickly that the walls tasted very much like cardboard, but nobody’s stomach got upset eating them.  We ate just a little bit and tossed the rest in the trash.

Super Mario Sister

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Molly is super into Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS that she got from Santa for Christmas.  She got to level three all by herself and was very appreciative when I helped her get to level 4.  Somehow the Nintendo DS is the perfect handheld for Molly at this age.  There is no internet, no texting, no email.  Just fun, solid gameplay that she can handle.  Way to go, Santa!

Houston for the Holidays

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Kit and I worked out a pretty good Christmas schedule, where we had the girls in Austin with Kit and her parents on Christmas morning, and then I drove the girls to Houston on Christmas afternoon to see may parents for a few days.

The girls had not seen a lot of my parents lately.  My parents have been going through a number of medical issues for the last year of so, and while I had made many solo trips to see them and help them, I hadn’t brought the girls for those trips.  This time the girls got two spend two full days in Houston with them plus two partial days.  This is the longest they have spent in Houston in years!

We took advantage of our full days by finally getting to Galveston, which I had been trying to do almost as long as Claire has been alive!  We also hit the mall, in particular the American Girl store for Molly, and saw the 3D movie Sing.  Sing was a really sweet movie and way better than crap like Home Alone 2, which we watched at home with my parents.

The girls loved Pleasure Pier in Galveston.  My dad tagged along and mostly sat on benches while Claire, Molly, and I did rides.  We got there early and played on the beach in the fog for a couple of hours before it opened.  After Pleasure Pier, we went to Rainforest Cafe to live it up all the way.  We made fun of inconsistencies on the menu, such as Jurassic-themed chicken nuggets.  We also envisioned a Texas History themed restaurant, featuring Sam Houston’s Tennessee pulled pork and Santa Anna’s green enchiladas.  (So wrong!)  The we listened to the Anna Kendrick memoir, Scrappy Little Nobody, on the drive back to my parents’ house in Houston.  It had drugs and sex all over the place.  Talk about wrong!  We eventually turned it off and just drove quietly back to Houston.

Trail of Lights 2016, aka Death March 2016

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I took Claire and Molly over to the Trail of Lights just before Christmas this year.  I love the Trail of Lights in theory, but so far it always turns out to be an exhausting death march, even this year it was just a short walk from my place.  We waited through an extraordinarily long and fast line to get in and waited in an extraordinarily slow line for food at the Chi’ Lantro trailer, where we had to settle for kimchi fries instead of chicken wings.  The final insult was dessert at another trailer, where Molly and I got pretty good ice cream sandwiches, while Claire opted for the “warm chocolate brownie”, which turned out to be a cold chocolate cookie.  We got back home late and with our energy and senses utterly exhausted.  Still, I’m glad we made the effort, and at least it wasn’t cold the year.

Pertra and the Wolf

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I had planned to take Claire and Molly to a play called Petra and the Wolf at the State Theater today.  We ended up picking up Claire’s friend Emma to come along too.  Everything is more fun with friends!

The play was an adaptation of Peter and the Wolf, set in Texas and with a girl as the main character.  It was one of those plays with the giant life-sized puppets that people in black outfits drag across the floor.  It had no dialog and a really nice live soundtrack from the orchestra pit.  Pretty cool play.

Afterwards, we all went back to my place where I fed them beef stew and played with Molly with Claire and Emma hung out and mostly did Musically, a social music app that provides endless entertainment Claire’s circle of friends.

YMCArt

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Who buys their art at the YMCA?  I do!  They have a nice rotating curated selection at the Town Lake YMCA, and I went for it and bought a couple of really great pieces for a very reasonable price.  I also got a hug from the artist, who makes a point of giving out hugs to make people feel better.  Thanks!

Claire the Flapper

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Claire had a major role in the 5th grade musical play the year.

She was a flapper and got a brief solo singing part!  She sounded amazing and looked great in her flapper outfit.  She’s a natural flapper.  Way to go, Claire!

Here’s Claire with her friends Susie, Wolfie, and another girl whose name I forgot. (oops!)

First Grade Guide to Austin Restaurants

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Molly’s first grade class did the cutest assignment to hand out to the parents as a Christmas present.  Each kid in the class wrote a review of a restaurant they were familiar with.  Molly choose Chi’lantro, a regular favorite of ours.  Molly’s review followed the same format followed by most of the other kids.  “Chi’lantro is good.  The parking is okay…” etc.  But it was support sweet, and Molly had some good observations about Chi’lantro.  Way to go, first graders!  BTW, the most popular restaurant was P. Terry’s, which got several independent reviews.

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