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

Pumpkins….

 

Friends

There are THREE postings this evening, and in earlier posts (which, ironically, you’ll probably read AFTER you read this one), I promise to provide a general update on activities over the last couple of weeks. 

And then I discover that I can’t find the other camera.  And what to do?  I can either break my promise to post an update, wake someone up and ask where the camera is, or force you to suffer through a no-picture blog posting. 

The choice is easy… But I’ll try to make it up to you with this video of Daniel and Rachel describing their pumpkin masterpieces. 

For Daniel, it’s all about what’s happening at school, and things have been going really well, both socially and academically.  He’s making friends, and seems to be one of the more popular kids.  Playing “Star Wars” in the playground unites all of the boys, and recently we’ve started to hear that “girls are stinky”. 

He’s had his first set of assessments, and is doing well across the board, but is extremely strong in reading – as his teacher Mr. M says –> he can read anything, but doesn’t always comprehend what he’s read. That’s apparently normal, though, so we’re asking questions along the way to encourage him to think about it.

We’re back in swim lessons, and so far, it’s like something just ‘clicked’, because he’s been extremely focused and strong.  I’ll have to get some video, because words alone don’t do it justice.

Halloween is coming. Daniel will be “Captain Rex” from Star Wars.  Rachel – well, Rachel deserves a post all onto her own, but I’m going to write it when I’m less sleepy, and hopefully find some pictures.  Until then.  

Love, ADRE.  

It was the summer of the bicycles around here

Friends

In earlier posts, I’ve mentioned how much the kids have enjoyed their bikes this summer, and bragged about the 10-mile bike ride we took. 

The quality of this little video isn’t the highest, but I think it does a good job of capturing the fun that both Daniel and Rachel have when they’re out riding. 

Daniel has been into “Stunts” for a while now, and so you get to see him ride around with his feet on the steering wheel, etc.  Rachel’s tricks are less elaborate, but she’s having a great time being “Lightening McQueen” and racing around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you might imagine, it’s also been the summer of scrapes and bruises.

Bikes are ridden to school, to the store, to the playground.  We need to get or build some ramps for next summer, but I think the season is just about over now.

Oh, and that 10-mile ride?  Completely obliterated by our 17.2-mile trip to downtown Denver on Sunday.  It’s mostly flat, with a gentle downhill slope -losing 470 feet of total elevation going from here to Confluence park, and a fairly easy ride along good paths.  Daniel got a flat tire about 0.7 miles from REI, but was able to get there, and we had them fix him up with a thorn-resistant innertube while we ate lunch. Great attitude and listening, and a fun outing for all.  We took the light rail back home, though.

That’ll have to do for the bike update.  Now for a more general “what’s new around here” posting.

 

Love, ADRE.

Can you tell what’s changed?

Friends:

OK, take a quick glance at the two pictures below and see if you can figure out what’s different between them.

If you said: “Daniel seems to have lost his shirt!” then you are the master of the obvious. Congratulations.

Yes, we lost our first tooth last night, and we’re VERY excited about this. It had been loose for a little over a week, and was gradually getting wiggled looser and looser until, finally, it came out after dinner last night.

Under the pillow it went, and this morning, Daniel came into our room with a disappointed look: “The tooth fairy didn’t come…” which was more than a little surprising to the tooth fairy. So we convinced him to go back and look, and sure enough, he returned with the $1 coin held high.

There’s apparently some bragging rights at Kindergarten associated with losing your first tooth. It’s a status thing of sorts.

By dinner tonight, he was scheming to see if he could trick the tooth fairy into giving him more money by putting pictures of teeth under his pillow. His cleverness was admired, but he was cautioned that the tooth fairy might not be amused by being tricked… Ultimately, he decided it wasn’t worth risking the next $19 in semi-guaranteed funds on a get-rich-quick scheme.

The first photo, by the way, is Daniel’s official kindergarten picture. We got extras to share. The original has nicer colors than this scan, and if you’re reading this, you’re most likely going to be getting a copy in the mail anyway, so I wouldn’t bother trying to print it.

It’s another evening of multiple blog postings. Next up – a set of video that I’ve really been wanting to share.

Love, ADRE.

The “Other” Camera…

Come to find out, we do have pictures of Rachel’s first days at school.  Here she is exploring her new preschool room at Open House:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here she’s on her way to the first full day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and there were pictures of our family trip to Elitch Gardens (the local amusement park):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun in the fall

Friends

We’ve had a couple of fun weeks, just settling into the fall routine. 

Rachel started her pre-school (sorry, no pictures of that), and is loving her new teachers.  She goes twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays, and then on Tuesdays she’s been taking nastics (that would be gymnastics) and going to the library for story time.   We regularly have 20+ library books at home, and both kids have their own library cards, so that’s a good thing.

 

The picture is from a little backyard BBQ we had on Labor Day.  Nothing too fancy, just Harrison, Carly and Eli bringing their parents over for the afternoon.  This was also our first attempt at a pure “kids table” and it worked out pretty well.  We also went over to Grandma Babe’s place on Labor Day weekend for one last dip before they closed the pool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “Big” update since last time has got to be that we flew down to Texas the Friday after labor day to return to the Hyatt at Lost Pines.  You may remember that we had so much fun there in April with the Pasta family that we decided then and there to return for another visit with them.  

The resort really caters to families, with a nice kids-depth pool and beach, a water slide and a lazy river that you can float around in a tube.  Bikes to borrow, Disney movies outside at night and of course – S’mores every evening at their firepits.  We spent a lot of time in and around the pools. 

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel mastered snorkeling on this trip – a skill that we think he’ll really enjoy when we return to Thailand later this year.  He was zooming all over the pool with his head submerged.  Rachel is getting pretty close to swimming unassisted – she was bouncing off the bottom of the pool and occasionally planing out.  

Of course Sean (and his parents) was there as well, and it was fun to see them picking up the playing effortlessly.  We went into Austin on a couple of occasions for dinner, and also in an attempt to see the bats (world’s largest urban colony), but the yahoos at the “bat hotline” had listed the wrong bat time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all – just a great little vacation. Not so far away that you use up the weekend getting there and a great time with good friends once you’re there.

Daniel's still having  a good time at school.  He took class photos, did a couple of show-and-tells and has gotten into a good routine.  We’ve has our first encounter with the “fad” of the year – silly bandz.  Suddenly Daniel “had to have some” and was willing to spend his own money to get a few, so he’s part of the in-crowd again…

Swim lessons started today, and both kids had GREAT first lessons.  None of the hesitation or fear of a new teacher we’ve seen before.  The practice throughout the summer has really helped, and Daniel even got moved to a private class when it was clear he was outswimming the other kid.

And finally – we went to Miller farms yesterday and picked potatoes, onions, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, beans, beets, basil, dill, kohlrabi, leeks, celery, pumpkins and probably a couple of other things.  Probably about 100 lbs of produce we have to do something with. Kids had fun picking for a while, but it was probably a little too much, so they enjoyed getting to play a little after.  In previous years, we’ve gone in October to pick pumpkins and only the root vegetables were any good, so this was a nice change.  I might have a picture on my cellphone, but that’ll have to wait. 

Until next time.

Love, ADRE.