Three Bedroom in Palm Springs

I love vacations. If I can get off of work for a few days (or more) and spend time away with my family and friends, count me in. I have taken my fair share of vacation over the years. I intend to continue in that tradition; much to my employer’s chagrin. But what is life without a getaway?

The Sorem family has plenty of trips planned already for this year. It is a big state travel year. We are vacationing in California a couple of times (Bay Area in May, September and December), we're off to Port Aransas, Texas in June and we'll be cruising Alaska (and visiting relatives in Seattle) in August. We are also planning for a Robin and Evan (no kids) trip sometime late in 2006 or early in 2007 as well. But we have not figured out where to go yet. Regardless, it is going to be a very fun and busy year!

The past two weeks were "Spring Break" for Andrew. While he is only going to preschool three days a week from 9am until 1pm, it is still a pretty significant portion of his activities. Spring Break is also an incredible misnomer for parents. It is hardly a break. The break for us happened when he went back to school.

Last Friday around noontime, we headed off to Palm Springs for a four day weekend. We had booked a "one bedroom suite" at the Westin Mission Hills Villas in Rancho Mirage. We had some general plans to go to the Children's Museum of the Desert, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and the World's Largest Dinosaurs in Cabazon and Outlet Mall in Desert Hills. Of course we also wanted to get in some sleeping, relaxing and pool time (waterslide included).

The one bedroom suite is a misnomer. For us, it was a three bedroom suite. There was the master bedroom with the Queen size Heavenly Bed. Robin and I claimed that. There was the kitchen/dining room/living room (really all one big room) with the sofa sleeper. Andrew got that. And then there was the water closet with just enough room to accommodate a Graco Pack 'n Play. Noah got that. Three bedrooms.

Of course this posed some interesting issues for us after putting Noah to sleep in the water closet. Noah is not a sound sleeper. Frequently he will wake up from random Andrew noises after we lay him down for the night and prior to Andrew going down. Because of this, we were not willing to try going into the bathroom, using the facilities, sneaking out. He would hear us and wake up. If you have children you probably are like us and will do everything in the known universe to make sure your child continues to sleep once you put them down for the night.

Given this scenario, we had to plan ahead. No liquids after 8pm. That worked fine for the adults, but not so great for Master Andrew. Andrew usually uses the restroom one or two times during the course of the night. The solution: Trash-O-Potty!! We did use a hotel provided trash can liner. Andrew was a little hesitant at first, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly. And guess who got cleanup duty. That's right…yours truly.

With our cozy three bedrooms and that issue solved, we set off to enjoy our trip, family time, and activities.

On Saturday morning, we headed out to the Children's Museum. The highlight of the museum is an old style Volkswagen Beetle just waiting for the kids to put on a smock and booties, grab a paintbrush and coat it with paint. For those of you who have known me for a long time, you will appreciate that this appeared to be an ORANGE VW Bug. Oddly, this orange bug had no dents.

Andrew jumped right in and started painting away on the car. I think the only way this could have been any better is if the paint were GREEN. No such luck. But he was clearly enjoying himself very much. Noah got stuck watching. We didn't need a kid EATING paint.

But Noah got his turn with a VW Bug too. He attacked this little toy one with such vigor that I think I should start investing in Volkswagen -- these kids love VW's.

We then headed over to the pretend pizza parlor for some lunch. Andrew started making up a pizza for us. He was not a huge fan of the hat, but he got used to it and it looked so very cute on him. He was doing a good job finding just the right ingredients for his pizza. He started with dough, then sauce and then the toppings -- pepperoni and black olives. Both of which are staple foods for him.

But something was still missing. And then in an instant, it came to him. GREEN stuff. He poured ever single one of them on to his pizza. We missed the picture of his big smile after he finished covering the pizza in this stuff. I still have no idea what it was intended to depict (it was much to lime green in color to be bell peppers)!

After we finished making pizza, it was time for a little pretend shopping. Andrew found his cart and headed around the store looking for important items. He happened upon the produce and then proceeded to put EVERY SINGLE PIECE of plastic fruit and vegetable into his cart. There was this nice 7 year old girl who was reshelving items after other kids made their "purchases." She would reshelf the plastic fruit and vegetables. But right after she put them back, Andrew dutifully put them into his cart. He finally and proudly got every single piece into his cart and headed over to checkout.

Kindly asked, he worked with the little girl to put every piece back when he was done.

On Sunday, we climbed a mountain -- with a little help from the world's largest rotating tramcars. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is an amazing trip. You start out at about 2,000 feet and travel up the side of Mt. San Jacinto to 8,516 feet. Noah was not much for the ride, but Andrew really enjoyed going over each of the towers (where the tram really swayed). When we got to the top, we took a few pictures of us and the pretty scenery.

We went on a little hike down a steep hill and by a little mountain stream. Andrew and Noah had a blast gathering pinecones and then tossing them into the stream. And Noah actually liked touching the snow this time around.

Noah gathered pinecones for Andrew (Noah is wearing his cool knit cap from Jennifer Marshall under his hood). Andrew had his green cap on too.

The best news of the day was that Andrew was tossing those pinecones pretty well and he was throwing them lefty!

The hike back up the hill was not so much fun. For starters, the elevation is 8200 feet -- the air is very thin up there. We had to hike from the bottom of the stream up to the Upper Tramway Terminal. I had Noah in the Kelty backpack with our camera bag attached to it (heavy because we have a Canon EOS 20D and three lenses). Robin got the worse end of the deal though; she had a backpack with our "essentials" in it and had to carry Andrew (weighing in at 36 pounds without clothing) about 3/4 of the time on the way up the hill. The trek is probably only a quarter to half mile or so, but at that altitude and with that weight, it was tough. We made it, barely.

After our mountain adventure, we headed back to the resort for Noah to get a little nap and for me and Andrew to do some swimming at the pool. Before we put Noah down, we headed to the pool so that Robin could take a few pictures of me and Andrew at the pool. The pool had this super waterslide and Robin caught us as we hit the end of the slide and jumped into the receiving pool.

Andrew also enjoyed jumping from the side of the pool into the water (and my waiting arms). He is seriously enjoying his swimming class and becoming much more comfortable in the water.

Andrew and I had a lot of fun in the pool area. In addition to the slide and jumping into my arms in the big pool, he really enjoyed splashing around in the little pool (1 foot deep).

Sunday night we went over to Palm Desert to enjoy dinner at the Tommy Bahama Cafe. We highly recommend the food and the ambiance. I LOVED the coconut shrimp and the crab bisque. And my amber ale was not half bad either. Robin had a very tasty lava flow (Pina Colada with strawberry sauce) and some fantastic scallops. The boys, for the most part, behaved pretty well and enjoyed some gourmet chicken strips. We convinced some guy to take a picture of all of us on the stairs of the Tommy Bahama (purveyor of island lifestyles) store leading up to the cafe.

Sunday morning we headed over to Cabazon for the dinosaur visit. The two dinosaurs, an Apatosaurus (Dinny) and a Tyrannosaurs Rex (Mr. Rex), are huge. We climbed on them, took too many pictures of them and visited a little store inside the belly of Dinny.

This is Mr. Rex - Andrew is Down by His Bottom Right Toe

Andrew Walking up Mr. Rex's Long Tail

Noah as Raptor Bait!

It was a truly memorable trip. We'll definitely venture back to the desert for another vacation. But we have a couple more bridges to cross before we get back.....

Easter at the Sorems - Green Eggs and Lamb

Andrew LOVES Green. Andrew LOVES Volkswagen Bugs. Often we will be driving in the car and Andrew will exclaim from the back seat "Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy -- there is a Green (insert any other color as well here) Bug!" A few weeks back, Robin found an Easter Egg with a clear plastic top that held a miniature green convertible Volkswagen Bug. It was like someone at the toy factory had Andrew in mind; it was Andrew's dream gift for Easter. So, we bought it and we put it in his Easter basket.

ANDREW LOVED IT. I think he likes it more than he likes keys. This is serious.

Easter was wonderful at the Sorem house. We had a family breakfast of cheese eggs and matzo brie (matzo soaked with egg and water and fried in a frying pan and topped with sugar (or salt depending upon preference) - it tastes kind of like French toast). We then guided the boys outside for some pictures with their Easter baskets. Andrew sweetly (at our urging) took Noah's hand and walked him outside; it was really cute. Robin had made up the baskets with a few gifts (including the green VW Bug). And of course, we took pictures!

Andrew Escorting Noah to the Easter Baskets

Noah and Andrew and Their Easter Baskets

Noah and Andrew on Our Swinging Bench

The Family on Easter (Thanks to Karla Lyon for Dropping by to Take this Picture)

The special Easter shirts that Robin purchased for the boys have a little embroidered Dauschund on them. Howard and Stacy Rosenbaum (Uncle Howard and Aunt Stacy) have a little miniature dauschund puppy named Frank (mentioned in a previous post). Andrew saw the shirt and asked us right away if the embroidery was "like Frank." We said yes and now this is his "Frank shirt."

After our picture escapades, we laid the boys down for their naps and told them that we thought there would be an egg hunt after their naps as we had heard the Easter Bunny was in the neighborhood. When Andrew woke up he REALLY REALLY wanted to see the Easter Bunny. We told him that we heard some noise out in the front yard and we went out there to see, but we just missed the Easter Bunny. This made Andrew a little cranky. But . . . we got him back after we told him that there were lots of eggs hidden in the front yard. We had ourselves an egg hunt! Andrew had lots of fun (he wanted more eggs ("lots more eggs") when we were done). Noah was adorable romping around holding an egg in each hand.

But Where is the Purple Egg Andrew?

Noah Loves His Eggs

Ah - Ha - He Found it!

For dinner, we had rack of lamb. Since Robin does not eat pork (not Kosher!), we created a tradition of having lamb on Easter. Of course, we also had some of Robin's chicken soup with matzo balls. Easter with matzo ball soup; it's a Sorem/Rosenbaum family thing!

Master Noah Masters Drooling

Our Andrew on Easter Sunday

Why is This Post Different Than All Other Posts?

On all other posts, I will discuss any manner of issues, on this post, I will only discuss Passover. If you understand the colloqy, you probably know something about Passover. I will provide some important facts about the holiday, but if you want a more complete discussion, by someone who is probably Jewish, I suggest that you visit this Passover website.

In short, Passover is the celebration of the Jews exodus from Egypt. Young Moses, before he went to Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, led the Jews out of enslavement in Egypt by Pharaoh Raamses II. Every year, for eight days, Jews celebrate by remembering their ancestors who were enslaved in Egypt, recounting the story, eating special foods (Matzo, Bitter Herbs, Egg and Charoset) and sharing time with family and friends.

The first two nights of Passover are special Seder dinners. At our house, we (Robin) cook all day and make some pretty outstanding foods. At dinnertime (it is supposed to be after the sun sets, but due to the bump up of daylight savings time and the fact that we have young kids, we start a little earlier), we all gather around the dinner table, read the Passover story, drink 4 glasses of wine (this is a very good part), and eat a TON of food. Our usual menu consists of: parsley and salt water, matzo, bitter herbs (horseradish), charoset (apples, wine, cinnamon and walnuts), egg and salt water, melon, more wine, chicken soup with matzo balls, turkey or chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, a little more wine and cake with strawberries. We usually try to start around 6 or 6:30pm and usually do not finish until 9 or 9:30pm. It is a long meal. But the food is FANTASTIC. You have not lived until you've had some of Robin's chicken soup with matzo balls. It's wonderful.

This year, as usual, we had lots of company. On the first night of Passover, we had our nuclear family, Sam Rosenbaum (aka Papa), Lynn Armour (Andrew's preschool teacher from last year and our friend), the Devine Family (Abby, Johnny, Ansley (Andrew's age) and Halle (20 months)) and the Patel Family (Brigitte, Mayank, Annika (Andrew's age) and Lena (Noah's age)). The house was crazy! I think the highlight of the night, other than the great meal, was watching Andrew, Annika and Ansley while they watched "Little Einsteins." In that show, there is a rocket ship (brilliantly named -- Rocket), that takes off when "everybody" claps their hands down on their legs a bunch of times and then puts their hands in the air. Below are two pictures of the 3 kids blasting off!


On the second night of Passover, we had our nuclear family and Papa again, and we also had Lynn Armour, Greg Thedell (Lynn's boyfriend) and the Devine girls (a very nice last minute addition). We had invited the Pollock Family (Theresa, Tony, Nathan and Lauren) and the Katz Family (Matt, Kristen, Annie and Lucy), but Tony had his wisdom teeth out (ouch) that day and the Katzs were not feeling well (according to Kristen, Annie had a "double ear infection" -- double ouch). Regardless, it was another very enjoyable (albeit quieter) night. Andrew did a very good job reciting the four questions with Robin (the youngest person at the Seder recites the questions -- see sample question as the title of this post).

Below are a couple more pictures from our Passover celebration . . . .

Andrew Reading the Haggadah with Robin (That's Not His Wine!)

Holiday Candles Burning Low

Multiple Disc Car DVD Player?

Andrew has a way of making his own rules. We've now had our Honda Odyssey for several months. One of its really neat features is that it has a multiple disc CD player with a single spot for loading in the CD's. Even better is that the loading point is inset behind a fold down LCD screen for the navigation system and rear view backup camera. This makes it a little harder for Andrew to get to. Just a little.

The Honda also has a DVD player with a flip down LCD screen just behind the driver and passenger seats (viewable by passengers in the second and third rows). Our intent has been to use this for the boys only on longer trips -- at least an hour or so drive. So far it has worked out perfectly. Interestingly, Andrew is generally not willing to sit through a movie at home as he finds other things too tempting. When he is strapped into his carseat though, there is nothing he would rather do than watch a movie. So we have actually used this opportunity to introduce new things to him. So far he has watched The Complete Guide to the U.S. Constitution, The Civil War and Highlights of the Travel Channel (or maybe it was just Toy Story, Toy Story II, Little Einsteins and Monsters, Inc.).

Last week Robin was preparing to take Andrew to his new swim class (he loves swim). In order to get things ready and avoid toy displacement, we often buckle the boys into the car and then head back into the house to pack up or pick up remaining items before heading out. So Robin got both boys all buckled into the car and then scurried around getting everything else ready. When Robin returned to the car, Andrew had unbuckled himself and was in the front seat of the car (this happens sometimes as he really really really likes to be in the front of the car). Fortunately, he rarely unbuckles Noah too. I arrived home minutes after Robin got Andrew back in his carseat. I jumped out of my car and into the Honda and we were headed off to swim class.

When we are driving, the boys often want to listen to either "music class" (a series of 10 CD's from a music class they take) or "school" (a CD made by Andrew's preschool teachers last year). Andrew asked if we could listen to music class and so Robin tried to call up the CD on the car stereo. No luck. She then tried to call up one of the other CD's. Again, no luck. Robin then tried ejecting the CD's from the player. No luck again. We both then start to look around the car for the CD's, but we cannot find them anywhere.

Then Robin looks back at Andrew and asks "Andrew, did you touch the CD player." Of course he says "No." Which we know means that he did. After a few more times asking, he confesses. I then realize that the screen for the DVD player has been flipped down. So I press the eject button on the DVD player. The DVD player starts to emit this crazy clicking sound. I immediately bend my head to look at the DVD player and realize that the disc in the player cannot eject because it is being blocked by at least one additional disc that have been jammed into the player. Now I'm concerned.

I ask Robin how many CD's were in the CD player. She says that there were three. I'm thinking, great, now we get to pay $250 to replace a DVD player that we use once or twice a month. I love the player, but . . . . We turn on the radio and continue heading towards swim.

Robin and I continue the interrogation of Andrew on the way to swim. He finally confesses that he put all three CD's into the DVD player. Perhaps he was planning on watching a movie marathon while Robin got his milk. I don't know. Regardless, this is better than when he tried to put quarters into Nana and Grampster's jukebox (errrr stereo) in his car. That CD player still doesn't work! But Nana and Grampster got an iPod out of it (now our holiday presents just go to fix our kid's mistakes -- lovely).

We look around, but there is nothing in the car to try and pull out the CD's from the DVD player. After we get home from swim, I run upstairs, grab a couple pairs of tweezers and head back down to try and remove the offending CD's. I pull on the first CD. Two CD's come out together. I press eject; the third CD comes out. Great, the CD's are out, but does the DVD player work? I run inside and grab a DVD (I think it was The Complete Guide to the U.S. Constitution) and head back out to the car to try it out. It works. Thank goodness.

Andrew has now been advised for the 20th time that Robin and I are NOT WILLING to let him touch the CD player in the car. We'll see . . . If he doesn't touch that though, I am sure there is something else lurking right around the corner that we haven't thought of yet.

This entire episode was also a prime opportunity for me and Robin to practice our parenting skills that we learned at our Redirecting Children's Behavior (RCB) class we have been taking for the prior five weeks. The motto for the class is "World Peace Begins in the Home". Our teacher was Susie Walton. She is the ex-wife of the former UCLA and NBA star, Bill Walton, and the mother of four boys, all of whom played college basketball, Adam (LSU), Nathan (Princeton), Luke (University of Arizona - now LA Lakers), Christopher (San Diego State). It was very entertaining to hear Susie talk about her boys (6 foot 8 inch men between the ages of 24 and 30). While we have a long way to go, the class helped us in two key areas: (1) Robin and I have become much better able to keep our emotions in check most of the time and (2) we now have much better tools to help address the root problems causing Andrew to act out. If you must know, Andrew is a power child and we routinely find ourselves in power struggles with him. Of course, Robin and I are both power people too, so it should come as no surprise that he is a power kid. Andrew is a wonderful boy. But he's cursed. He's my kid. He has an incredible knack for seeking out and pressing people's buttons. It is a great power; it just needs to be harnessed.

Needless to say, the DVD incident was not one of our shining parental moments. Susie would not be proud. But we will live for peace another day.

Yes . . . More Family Pictures

At the time of Noah's First Birthday, we had most of our immediate families out in San Diego. My sister, Karin, could not make it. But we made up for that, as you will see below (once Karin alters the photo with a picture of her face, we'll post that too)! When families are in town, we make appointments at Picture People. They give out appointments in 20 minute time slots. So, we booked 3 appointments. We spent a little over an hour smiling and trying to position everyone just so. We then spent a bunch of money on one of each picture. Then we scanned them into jpg files with our cool new photo scanner.

I am bound to come up with a cool story to tell in the next couple of weeks, but for now, here are the results of our efforts (smiling, positioning, etc.):

Noah Walks (He Started Just Before His Birthday and is Catching on Fast - Look Out!)

Andrew and Noah - See Guys, You Were Friends Once

The Rosenbaum Family - Stacy, Howard, Sam, Robin, Evan, Andrew and Noah (Howard is Only About 6 Inches Taller Than I am when he Kneels!)

Thanks for Slouching Howard!

Papa and the Boys

Uncle Howard, Aunt Stacy and the Boys

The Sorem Family (Sans Karin) - Charmy, Richard, Robin, Evan, Andrew and Noah

Karin "the plate" Sorem and Her Relatives

Nana, Grampster and the Boys

Just Us - All Done!

Cardiff By The Sea

As advertised in the recent post Just Some Pictures of Noah, we had family pictures taken over at Cardiff State Beach a few weeks back. We have the pictures back and we LOVE them. There were over 140 of them to choose from. Below are our top picks. We hope you enjoy them!

Andrew by the Rocks

Noah by the Rocks

Check Out the Big Smile on Noah

Hang Loose Andrew - He Says "Surf's Up!" When he Does the Sign

Andrew and Noah "On the Rocks"- This is One of Our Favorites

The Family

Running Boy!

Come Walk With Me . . .

A Little Light Walking

Beautiful Evening

Look at the Camera and Say Cheese

High in the Sky!

Sorems at Sunset

My Favorite . . .

Colevault and Bush or Chimp

Everybody needs a little direction on the web. Allow me to direct you to a couple of interesting sites that you may not know about.

Peter Cole is an old friend of mine through Pierre Chew (I think I met Peter back in 1994). He actually ended up marrying another friend of mine, Susan Park (Cole), a friend of mine through Theresa Pollock and Jennifer Marshall (I think I met Susan back in 1990 or 1991). Well, Pete started up a blog called Colevault. Peter is significantly more computer savvy than most. On his blog, you can view hundreds of archived pictures of his little guy, Justin Cole. You can sign up for an RSS feed to permit you to receive content updates -- that way he doesn't have to email you every time there is an update (ahem!). You can also listen to music that he has on his iPod on something called radio.blog. I'm listening to Psychadelic Furs' Heartbreak Beat right now thanks to Pete. For those of us who are happy to figure out how to hit the send button on email, this all sounds impossible. No matter. The guts of Colevault is Pete's writing, which is fantastic. Give it a look.

The second site, Bush or Chimp, is a website dedicated to comparisons of our current president and various chimps. My personal favorite picture (if you don't have time to peruse the website full of fun photos) is below. I happen to think George is significantly more harmful to our planet than the chimps, but whatever you might think, the site is funny. Thanks to Pierre Chew for passing this one along!

I don't want to kiss George or the chimp, but if I had to pick, I'd go with Bobo (this is a special tribute to Rob Hassimi) . . .