December 2010

Friends

There was some jetlag after Thailand. It was easy to get up in the morning, but not so easy to stay awake in the afternoon.  The day after we got back, Daniel went to school all day – then he insisted that he be allowed to go buy some Bakugan with money from Farmor.  He made it to the store and home, but then fell asleep on the bench in the laundry room before he even got his shoes off. 

 

Once everyone caught up on their sleep, December got busy.  There was an elaborate Christmas concert at the Presbyterian church that Grandma Babe invited us to.  There were camels, and pageantry, and crafts and storytelling.  The concert itself was promising, but with no naps, both Daniel and Rachel made it clear that they’d rather be somewhere else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rachel went skating for the first time (Daniel had been earlier), and she had a great time with that.  Later, we all went roller skating, which was initially frustrating for the kids, but Daniel had enough fun with it that he persevered, and by the end of it, he could skate some on his own. So there was a follow-on trip with friends.

 

Rachel’s school had an end-of-semester program, and there were several nice songs.  I have some video of the event and once I render and post it, you’ll see why I was able to brag that “my kid can sing faster than yours” to the other parents…   She did great, though – and it’s clear that the preschool program is rewarding to her and that her teachers love her.

 

 

 

 

 

For the first time in 458 years, there was a full lunar eclipse on the solstice.  And we were lucky enough to have a clear sky for the event.  It was pretty amazing – the pictures don’t really do it justice, but we got the full red moon in the western sky, right above Orion.  Very nice – we woke the kids up to see it, and while Rachel mumbled a bit and went back to sleep quickly, Daniel thought it was neat, and stayed up/out for long enough to see the gradual end of the eclipse.

 

 

We wandered over to the local store to pick up a Christmas tree, then carried it home and decorated it.  Daniel helped Eric bake some of the traditional cookies from Norway/Sweden, and both kids got to decorate cookies over several days.  The UPS and Fedex guys showed up on a regular basis delivering packages, and finally, it was almost Christmas.

Rachel picked out a remote controlled car for Daniel and Daniel picked out a battery-operated dog for Rachel.  They were supposed to keep the gifts a secret, but they were so excited that they just couldn’t help but tell each other. Anida happened to catch the moment when Rachel found out she was getting the dog, and apparently she flopped onto her back and kicked her legs in the air while giggling like crazy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When asked what they wanted to get Anida for Christmas, the suggestions ranged from “A box of Jell-O” to “a new ipod”, but eventually turned into making her some drawings.  Eric got decorated underwear that is sure to result in some raised eyebrows if he ever gets into an accident while wearing it.

 

The night before Christmas, they each got to open one present each.  Predictably, Daniel chose the Remote-controlled car, while Rachel opened the Dog from Daniel.  When we put batteries in Daniel’s gift, it didn’t work at all, and he was pretty sad about that.  However, a quick trip down to Radio Shack and it was exchanged for a slightly different model.  Which also didn’t work… Until Eric tried a different set of batteries and discovered that it’d been the supposedly-new duracells that were to blame the whole time.  Props to Daniel for dealing with the disappointment in a mature way.

 

Christmas morning was great fun.  The kids woke early, but not too early and went down to see what Santa had brought.  Rachel loved her dog, her scooter,  costume,  puzzles, Legos and books while Daniel really got a kick out of the Spiderman outfit, the Legos and the Star Wars toys.

 

 

 

It was a beautiful day, so after breakfast, the party quickly moved outside where the scooter and RC car were put to good use in the cul-de-sac.   We’ve had no snow so far this winter so even throught these were “summer” toys, they got immediate use.

 

And then later that day, Aunt Erin Steven and cousin Chloe came to town.   Daniel and Rachel have had a lot of fun playing with Chloe, and are – as I type this – at the “Zoo lights” exhibit with her – which is why I’ve had time to post the blog updated. 

 

We’ve had a fabulous 2010, and hope that all of you are well. Best wishes for 2011.   I might get a video posting in before new years, but if not – Happy New Year.

 

(and yes, my resolution is to be more timely with the updates)

 

Love, ADRE.

November 2010

Friends

We know that the first 2 weeks in November happened – we just don’t have any photographic evidence for it – so this posting should more accurately be titled “Thailand 2010”. 

We booked this trip almost a year ago, and had been looking forward to it ever since.  Daniel definitely remembered quite a bit from his last trip in 2008, while Rachel’s memories were much vaguer, and largely influenced by the pictures she’s seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So right around November 15th, we jumped on an early-morning flight to San Francisco, then caught flights onward to Hong Kong, Bangkok and (after a night in an airport hotel) Phuket.  It’s a long way there from Denver – 24 hours of travelling, but the kids are superstars.  Cathay Pacific turns out to be a very kid-friendly airline, with great entertainment and goodie bags for children.  The kids meals were apparently constructed on the theory that “put everything on there, and they’ll find something they like” – if fully consumed, each meal would probably have been 4,000 calories.

 

And so, for a little over two weeks, our lives revolved around the pool, the ocean and the beach.  And it was great.   Daniel spent so much time with his snorkeling mask and fins on that I wasn’t sure I’d ever get a picture of his face. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farmor and Grandpa were there too, of course.  And for the first 4-5 days, we were also joined by our friends Juliet, Andy, Declan and Fiona from Denver.  Declan is a year older than Daniel, and the boys had fun hanging out together.  Last time we were here, Daniel enjoyed looking at all of the frogs, and this time he figured out that he could pick them up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caffeinated beverages are not on the approved list, which has left Daniel thinking of “Coke” as this highly desirable forbidden fruit.  So, when we turned our backs for a second at the Loi Krathong celebration, he saw his chance to order a coke from a waiter, and had this monstrously large grin on his face when he actually got to taste it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day we took a speedboat tour to the Phi Phi islands, visited Monkey Beach and did some snorkeling.  Daniel thought it was amazingly cool to swim around and look at the fish, coral and other sea life. Every few seconds he’d stop, yank out his snorkel and yell “Papa, did you SEE that?”   Rachel and Anida found a different methodology – Rachel rode on Anida’s back while she swam across the coral, and when there was something interesting under them, she’d have Rachel peak down into the water to see it.   And that was “cool”.    Every time the kids found a treasure on the beach – whether it was a leaf, a crab or a shell, they wanted it photographed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were elephants of course.  Lucky and Lily came by a couple of times every day, and we got to feed them and ride them.  Daniel had homework, so there was some reading and he also wrote a sentence or two in his journal on most days.  Grandpa celebrated his birthday again, and Eric and Anida ran the “Fun Run 6k” in association with the triathlon (which we did NOT participate in).  Good food and drink, wonderful surroundings, good people and family to hang out with – this is an excellent bi-annual tradition that we hope to repeat for thanksgiving of  2012.

 

 

 

And then it was back from Phuket to Bangkok to Hong Kong to San Francisco to Denver.  Kids were awesome as always – no drama – just went with the flow.  It’s a rare flight we take when someone doesn’t approach us afterwards to tell us how impressed they were with Daniel and Rachel’s behavior.

 

And that was November.  It was a very good month.

 

Love, ADRE.

October 2010

 

Friends

Friends? 

Anyone there?

Yoo Hoo?

 

 

 

It’s a new all-time record for a delayed blog posting, and although the title says October 2010, you all know that this didn’t really get written until after Christmas.  Sorry.  Stuff happened – and we didn’t take the time to stop and write down what was going on.  So tonight is the night – we’ll cover off the highlights from the last 9 weeks in three posts. 

 

I’d promised an update on Rachel in my last posting, and the really big development this fall is that she’s matured enormously from a social perspective.  She’d been a little shy and withdrawn, particularly at school and around kids she didn’t know.  Now, however – it’s like she found a big pile of confidence.  She'll engage other kids at the playground, she’s the social center of her preschool class, and she’ll say what she means and disagree with her brother. 

 

One by one, the “Rachel-isms” are also disappearing, and since this is the closest thing we have to a permanent record – the two that we didn’t want to forget about are:

“Aminals.”  For some reason, Rachel swapped the M and N for well over a year.

“I am not TIE-WED” – Rachel still uses W in many places where conventional wisdom would suggest an R, but they are gradually disappearing.

And one that showed up this fall was the statement: “Who could not like ice cream?” with “Ice Cream” substituted for many other things that she couldn’t believe weren’t universally loved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rachel has been going to gymnastics once/week all fall, and has great balance.  She seems to really enjoy herself there.  And though I can’t seem to find any pictures from swim lessons, she’s been doing very well there too.  By the end of the fall term, she could swim somewhat unassisted between platforms in the pool, and will be starting next term at “Level 4”, which we’re all happy about.

And she’s our little artist.  To show all of the variations of her work would require many, many pictures.  Suffice it to say that she’ll draw/paint/stamp/sticker/glue/sprinkle with great enthusiasm several times a day, and that she can go through art supplies like no-one else. 

Recently, she’s started focusing a little more on coloring in the lines, and the idea that something “looks like” something.  But the abstract period is not over – it’s been supplemented.

 

So then there was the rest of October.  I last posted on the 18th, and we were getting ready for Haloween.  Before that happened, we had a couple of truly gorgeous weekends, and the kids played in the leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As previously disclosed – Daniel went out as “Captain Rex” while Rachel and Anida were cats.  For once it was a nice, warm evening, and we trolled around a couple of blocks in the neighborhood collecting way too much candy.  The kids took turns ringing doorbells, had a good time with it.

We had decided to let them eat as much candy as they wanted to, with the idea that the rest would get thrown away.  The latter part of the plan didn’t happen, but Daniel did get to discover that too much of a good thing might not feel so good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that takes us to the end of October around here.

 

Love,

ADRE