We don't have a lot to report on this week: school started (for Dan and I) and aside from the usual first-week-of school business, not much happened on that front.
Andrew starts kindergarten next week--so you can expect pictures from the first day of school. And Evelyn's little preschool class starts on Monday. Unfortunately, their school times don't overlap at all--but I suppose it will be good for both of them to get some one-on-one mom time.
Actually, what I wanted to post about were some things the kids have done recently that I want to remember. (And I'm discovering that if I don't write things down, I don't remember). I should warn casual readers that most of this is for our family record--and some of it sounds a lot like the effusions of a proud mom--so if that kind of thing doesn't work for you, you probably want to stop now.
Evelyn has recently refined her obsession with my arm. Where most normal kids make an attachment to a blanket, or a stuffed toy, (or an ugly doll, in Andrew's case), Evelyn never has. Instead, for a long time, she's liked to stroke the arm of whomever was putting her to bed. And (fortunately or unfortunately), the feel of human skin isn't easy to duplicate. In the last couple of months, however, she's gone from wanting to stroke someone's arm to wanting to touch this one mole I have on my left arm. It's not a big mole--more like a big freckle that sticks out a little--but Evelyn insists on rubbing it. She's been known to grab my arm across my body if she's on the wrong side of it. And it even has a name now: "Moley." Lovely, I know. This morning, she came and snuggled in bed with me for a while. When I suggested we get up, she said, "Okay, I touched Moley long enough. I need to get up."
Andrew has been a pleasure to watch come into his own these last few weeks and months. It's a strangely proud feeling, as a parent, to watch your child master certain milestones. Walking and talking were all exciting, but as an avid bibliophile, nothing so far has prepared me for the thrill of watching my child read. His reading has been getting better all summer--he surprised his kindergarten teacher during the assessment by reading the little booklet she was showing him--but even I have been surprised by him. This last week, he picked up one of the Magic Tree House books at the library. He read a couple of chapters to me, but then he spent long stretches of time sitting in the couch reading to himself: a sight guaranteed to warm the heart of any book-lover. I'm not sure that he understands every word he reads, but I was impressed by his perseverance. And he understood enough at the end to tell me what the book was about. He also likes reading in bed at night--in fact, sometimes when I come in to give him a hug, he more or less ignores me to read his book. I can't feel hurt by that--it reminds me too much of how I am when I'm engrossed in a book.
Andrew's also been doing well with math. A few months ago we gave him a small allowance ($.50 a week) figuring that this would help him learn some rudimentary math and help him appreciate how much things cost. I don't think we anticipated what would happen. He's been sort of obsessed by money (which I think I've mentioned before), especially with counting his money. As a result, the other day he was able to put all his pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters in stacks of tens and four (for the quarters) and count all his money--up to $16 dollars. And he floored my friend (who watched him for me while I was teaching) with a simple question about time. He wanted to know when her kids would get home from school. She told him school was out at 3:30. It was then 2:36. Andrew said, "Okay, so there's sixty minutes in an hour, and it's 2:36 now, so they'll be home in 54 minutes." I guess that's not exactly typical reasoning for a kid who hasn't started kindergarten yet. It's a good thing he still has lost to learn on the social and fine-motor skills front.
I realize this sounds a lot like bragging--and maybe it is, a little--except that I can't take credit for a lot of it. It's just Andrew, doing his thing. I suppose every parent thinks their child is smart (at least at first)--but I have to admit it is nice to have outside confirmation. At the annual science department dinner last week, Dan ran into the other kindergarten teacher (the one who's in our ward, but won't be teaching Andrew's class), and she said that she was sorry she wouldn't have "brilliant" Andrew in her class. (Her word, not mine.) I guess Andrew's teacher had said something to her.
At any rate, we're excited about the new adventure of a new school year. We'll have more to say next week, I'm sure.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
mini-vacation
Several of our readers came out of the woodwork this past week to complain that I hadn't posted last week. First of all, I was gratified that so many people actually cared! But I can't really apologize--we were on vacation, so I decided I didn't have to post.
On Thursday, August 11, after Dan and I got grades in for summer term, and after the kid's swim lessons (and my doctor's appointment--and before you ask, no, I'm not pregnant), we headed out on the road. We drove an hour and a half or so to Bryce canyon, rode the shuttle through the park, and disembarked at the spot recommended to us by the park worker at the entrance. She recommended walking the rim trail between two different shuttle spots because, she said, there was a fence along the trail there (a must for small children). Unfortunately, I think she got the spot wrong, because there wasn't a fence where we were. Luckily, the kids were pretty good about holding our hands when the trail got too close to the edge.
Also unfortunately, we have no pictures, so you'll have to envision a brilliant blue sky and a vast field of colored hoo-doos (the name for the funny looking rock spikes that fill Bryce Canyon). I thought I'd left the camera in the car; I discovered after we left that the camera was actually in the backpack we brought with us. Oops.
Bryce Canyon was also incredibly crowded--mostly with foreign tourists (I heard French and German for sure, not sure about some of the other languages). We left after finishing our rim walk and drove further up the road to Torrey, just outside Capitol Reef.
Dan was set on going to Cafe Diablo for dinner and aimed to get us there right around 5. It worked, too. We were some of their first customers, although, of course, the outside patio (where we were sitting) gradually filled up while we were there. For those of you who aren't familiar with this restaurant, it's run during the summers by a NYC trained chef (who operates a restaurant in Park City during winter months). The food is amazing--especially for such a small town. It's also very expensive, which is why we don't go there more often (that, and the distance). We ordered an appetizer of empanadas with black beans, then I ordered a pecan-crusted chicken and Dan had smoked Turkey with this amazing blue corn cake thing. The kids had quesadillas (nothing fancy, but the tortillas tasted home-made). Then, of course, we had to order dessert. They make their own ice cream on the premises and serve them on these lovely thin almond cookie bowls. Dan and I also shared this chocolate nut torte--and yes, it was as good (better!) than it sounds.
The next morning, we took the kids deep into Capitol Reef. We left around 7, which didn't seem particularly early, but we didn't see anyone else until we were leaving the park almost 2 hours later.
The "hike" we picked wasn't exactly a hike (we got turned around a little), but we walked down one of the dirt roads with the kids for a half a mile or so (which is about as much as they can handle at this point). And the scenery, both as we walked and as we drove along the "scenic highway", was spectacular.
We got into the canyon just as the sun was coming up, as you can tell from the pictures.
After our hike, we went back to the hotel and tried to swim, but the pool was outdoors and pretty cold. So we bundled the kids inside, gave them a warm bath, then packed up and checked out. We stopped by the Petroglyphs inside Capitol Reef before leaving.
We passed through several small Utah towns on our way up North (some of them were so small that it was hard for me to imagine how anyone makes a living there--the landscape was so very dry and desolate in parts that farming, even ranching, seems kind of unthinkable). After having lunch at a pretty decent little restaurant in Hanksville (you could tell it was popular because, just after we ordered, a whole group of girls showed up--probably nearly 20 in all--and the length of the line didn't deter anyone from lining up behind them), we headed north again. Around 1, we pulled off the highway to check out Goblin Valley, which, despite having nearly 40 combined years of living in Utah, neither Dan nor I had ever seen.
It was beautiful, but, given the time of day, it was also blazingly hot. We only spent 30 minutes or so exploring around, and that was enough to make us start feeling dehydrated. (After we left, I think we drained a water bottle each).
We spent that Friday evening in Price and had dinner at a little greek restaurant (the Greek Streak?) downtown. The next morning, we headed up to my parents' house, where a cousins party was in full swing. We spent the morning with my sister and her kids, and my brother Jared and his kids (and their spouses, of course!). The kids had a lot of fun running around together, as always.
Sunday, we drove up to SLC where my cousin Traven was set to report from his mission to Chile. He gave a good report, but my favorite part of the meeting was my aunt Tera's talk--her talk was full of stories of my grandfather, who wasn't able to serve a mission because of WWII (after he came back home, his mother refused to let him leave again, although he wanted to go on a mission). She explained how, even though he hadn't been a full-time missionary, his life was full of missionary service. She told stories of the many people whose lives had been touched, even transformed, by my grandfather. Some of the stories were familiar, some were new to me. But they all made me feel close to my grandfather and to mourn, a little, that my children don't know my grandfather.
After the homecoming (and the inevitable reception afterward), we spent the late afternoon/early evening with Sarah and her family, who graciously fed us dinner.
Monday morning, we stopped by Jeni's house on our way out of town to give our kids even more cousin time (they loved it). We got home Monday afternoon, just in time for me to attend the Shakespeare Festival's Midsummer Night's Dream with my book group--and a surprise attendance by Ally Condie, of Matched fame, whose sister is the main driving force in our book group. Having met Ally a couple of times now, I can only say that, if I ever write a national best-seller (a big IF at this point), I hope I'm as nice and unassuming as she is.
The week was full--if not so exciting--of faculty meetings for Dan (and a couple that I had to attend on Friday).
To liven things up, Wednesday night we took the kids to see the Greenshow for the festival. As luck would have it, it was the same performance we'd already seen. The kids seemed to enjoy it more this time--and so did we. I think it was partly because we sat close to the front so there wasn't as much room for the kids to roam, so they were better behaved.
It might also have been because we discovered that Evelyn's swim teacher (who taught both of the 2 week sessions she attended) was IN the Greenshow. He's second from the left in this picture. I think Evelyn liked watching someone she knew.
Random shot of the kids' towers (Andrew built most of them, but I think Evelyn contributed one of the front ones). Of course, two seconds later my mini-godzillas had destroyed all of them.
Sorry if this post reads so much like a list--I'm trying to cover a lot of information quickly! At this point, I'm less concerned about literary quality than accuracy.
Thursday night I met for the first time with my writer's group, Joy and Tasha. I think this will be good motivation for all of us to keep writing--plus, it's just fun to have some adult girl time.
On Friday, in between my college and department meetings, we took Andrew for his kindergarten assessment. His teacher, Mrs. Ekker, seems really nice and enthusiastic. She took Andrew aside for the assessment portion and had him identify shapes, count numbers, identify letters of the alphabet, etc. She had a little book and asked him about where you start to read, which direction you read (assessing general familiarity with the book) and seemed a little surprised when Andrew, after answering her questions, read the entire book to her unprompted. I'm sure he's not the first kindergartener to know how to read, but he certainly didn't seem to have any problems with the assessment (except, of course, for his fine motor skills and persistent tendency to reverse 2s, 3s, and 4s . . . all of this is apparently pretty normal for his age). Now, we just have to wait another week for kindergarten to actually start!
Yesterday was Andrew's first soccer game of the fall season. I'm just happy that I don't have to coach this time around! Andrew did really well--he scored the team's only non-accidental goal (the first goal was a throw-in that rolled into the goal box, the second goal was scored by the opposite team. Of course, Andrew's team also scored a goal for their opponents, so I guess it's only fair). And he was also the only person on his team who was consistently aware of where the ball was. Not that I would tell him any of this--he's got a big enough head about his soccer skills as it is (like all kids his age, I think, he doesn't have a very accurate assessment of his abilities). But it was fun to watch him. I have no idea where he got his competitive streak from. (I'm kidding, of course.)
I loved this shot because this is pretty much how Andrew plays soccer--fearlessly and aggressively. Now we have to start working on sharing the ball with his teammates (and maybe being a little less aggressive).
After the game, we headed south to the condo, where Bubby, Poppy, Sarah and crew were congregated. Actually, we went to the condo to plug in my cell phone (which we discovered, as we were walking out the door, was dead) so that we could actually call the others and find out where they were. They were at the splash park, and we joined them forthwith.
After the kids had splashed for a while, we took them on the newly installed carousel (I think we posted about this a couple of weeks ago too). Dan took lots of pictures (some of them blurry, one of them a pretty decent shot of the man behind us making a strange face at the camera), these were my favorites.
Maggie loved the carousel and waved with wild abandon at everyone she recognized (Dan and Poppy on one side; her dad and grandma and grandpa Wells on the other side).
Here, you can see me, Evelyn, Lydia, and Bubby riding behind us.
Last night, to cap off a busy Saturday, we went to Todd Petersen's 42nd birthday. Apparently, he's been looking forward to this birthday since he was 16 and read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the first time and learned that "42" was the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. In any case, the grown-ups had fun talking with one another and the kids had fun running around together.
On Thursday, August 11, after Dan and I got grades in for summer term, and after the kid's swim lessons (and my doctor's appointment--and before you ask, no, I'm not pregnant), we headed out on the road. We drove an hour and a half or so to Bryce canyon, rode the shuttle through the park, and disembarked at the spot recommended to us by the park worker at the entrance. She recommended walking the rim trail between two different shuttle spots because, she said, there was a fence along the trail there (a must for small children). Unfortunately, I think she got the spot wrong, because there wasn't a fence where we were. Luckily, the kids were pretty good about holding our hands when the trail got too close to the edge.
Also unfortunately, we have no pictures, so you'll have to envision a brilliant blue sky and a vast field of colored hoo-doos (the name for the funny looking rock spikes that fill Bryce Canyon). I thought I'd left the camera in the car; I discovered after we left that the camera was actually in the backpack we brought with us. Oops.
Bryce Canyon was also incredibly crowded--mostly with foreign tourists (I heard French and German for sure, not sure about some of the other languages). We left after finishing our rim walk and drove further up the road to Torrey, just outside Capitol Reef.
Dan was set on going to Cafe Diablo for dinner and aimed to get us there right around 5. It worked, too. We were some of their first customers, although, of course, the outside patio (where we were sitting) gradually filled up while we were there. For those of you who aren't familiar with this restaurant, it's run during the summers by a NYC trained chef (who operates a restaurant in Park City during winter months). The food is amazing--especially for such a small town. It's also very expensive, which is why we don't go there more often (that, and the distance). We ordered an appetizer of empanadas with black beans, then I ordered a pecan-crusted chicken and Dan had smoked Turkey with this amazing blue corn cake thing. The kids had quesadillas (nothing fancy, but the tortillas tasted home-made). Then, of course, we had to order dessert. They make their own ice cream on the premises and serve them on these lovely thin almond cookie bowls. Dan and I also shared this chocolate nut torte--and yes, it was as good (better!) than it sounds.
The next morning, we took the kids deep into Capitol Reef. We left around 7, which didn't seem particularly early, but we didn't see anyone else until we were leaving the park almost 2 hours later.
The "hike" we picked wasn't exactly a hike (we got turned around a little), but we walked down one of the dirt roads with the kids for a half a mile or so (which is about as much as they can handle at this point). And the scenery, both as we walked and as we drove along the "scenic highway", was spectacular.
We got into the canyon just as the sun was coming up, as you can tell from the pictures.
After our hike, we went back to the hotel and tried to swim, but the pool was outdoors and pretty cold. So we bundled the kids inside, gave them a warm bath, then packed up and checked out. We stopped by the Petroglyphs inside Capitol Reef before leaving.
We passed through several small Utah towns on our way up North (some of them were so small that it was hard for me to imagine how anyone makes a living there--the landscape was so very dry and desolate in parts that farming, even ranching, seems kind of unthinkable). After having lunch at a pretty decent little restaurant in Hanksville (you could tell it was popular because, just after we ordered, a whole group of girls showed up--probably nearly 20 in all--and the length of the line didn't deter anyone from lining up behind them), we headed north again. Around 1, we pulled off the highway to check out Goblin Valley, which, despite having nearly 40 combined years of living in Utah, neither Dan nor I had ever seen.
It was beautiful, but, given the time of day, it was also blazingly hot. We only spent 30 minutes or so exploring around, and that was enough to make us start feeling dehydrated. (After we left, I think we drained a water bottle each).
We spent that Friday evening in Price and had dinner at a little greek restaurant (the Greek Streak?) downtown. The next morning, we headed up to my parents' house, where a cousins party was in full swing. We spent the morning with my sister and her kids, and my brother Jared and his kids (and their spouses, of course!). The kids had a lot of fun running around together, as always.
Sunday, we drove up to SLC where my cousin Traven was set to report from his mission to Chile. He gave a good report, but my favorite part of the meeting was my aunt Tera's talk--her talk was full of stories of my grandfather, who wasn't able to serve a mission because of WWII (after he came back home, his mother refused to let him leave again, although he wanted to go on a mission). She explained how, even though he hadn't been a full-time missionary, his life was full of missionary service. She told stories of the many people whose lives had been touched, even transformed, by my grandfather. Some of the stories were familiar, some were new to me. But they all made me feel close to my grandfather and to mourn, a little, that my children don't know my grandfather.
After the homecoming (and the inevitable reception afterward), we spent the late afternoon/early evening with Sarah and her family, who graciously fed us dinner.
Monday morning, we stopped by Jeni's house on our way out of town to give our kids even more cousin time (they loved it). We got home Monday afternoon, just in time for me to attend the Shakespeare Festival's Midsummer Night's Dream with my book group--and a surprise attendance by Ally Condie, of Matched fame, whose sister is the main driving force in our book group. Having met Ally a couple of times now, I can only say that, if I ever write a national best-seller (a big IF at this point), I hope I'm as nice and unassuming as she is.
The week was full--if not so exciting--of faculty meetings for Dan (and a couple that I had to attend on Friday).
To liven things up, Wednesday night we took the kids to see the Greenshow for the festival. As luck would have it, it was the same performance we'd already seen. The kids seemed to enjoy it more this time--and so did we. I think it was partly because we sat close to the front so there wasn't as much room for the kids to roam, so they were better behaved.
It might also have been because we discovered that Evelyn's swim teacher (who taught both of the 2 week sessions she attended) was IN the Greenshow. He's second from the left in this picture. I think Evelyn liked watching someone she knew.
Random shot of the kids' towers (Andrew built most of them, but I think Evelyn contributed one of the front ones). Of course, two seconds later my mini-godzillas had destroyed all of them.
Sorry if this post reads so much like a list--I'm trying to cover a lot of information quickly! At this point, I'm less concerned about literary quality than accuracy.
Thursday night I met for the first time with my writer's group, Joy and Tasha. I think this will be good motivation for all of us to keep writing--plus, it's just fun to have some adult girl time.
On Friday, in between my college and department meetings, we took Andrew for his kindergarten assessment. His teacher, Mrs. Ekker, seems really nice and enthusiastic. She took Andrew aside for the assessment portion and had him identify shapes, count numbers, identify letters of the alphabet, etc. She had a little book and asked him about where you start to read, which direction you read (assessing general familiarity with the book) and seemed a little surprised when Andrew, after answering her questions, read the entire book to her unprompted. I'm sure he's not the first kindergartener to know how to read, but he certainly didn't seem to have any problems with the assessment (except, of course, for his fine motor skills and persistent tendency to reverse 2s, 3s, and 4s . . . all of this is apparently pretty normal for his age). Now, we just have to wait another week for kindergarten to actually start!
Yesterday was Andrew's first soccer game of the fall season. I'm just happy that I don't have to coach this time around! Andrew did really well--he scored the team's only non-accidental goal (the first goal was a throw-in that rolled into the goal box, the second goal was scored by the opposite team. Of course, Andrew's team also scored a goal for their opponents, so I guess it's only fair). And he was also the only person on his team who was consistently aware of where the ball was. Not that I would tell him any of this--he's got a big enough head about his soccer skills as it is (like all kids his age, I think, he doesn't have a very accurate assessment of his abilities). But it was fun to watch him. I have no idea where he got his competitive streak from. (I'm kidding, of course.)
I loved this shot because this is pretty much how Andrew plays soccer--fearlessly and aggressively. Now we have to start working on sharing the ball with his teammates (and maybe being a little less aggressive).
After the game, we headed south to the condo, where Bubby, Poppy, Sarah and crew were congregated. Actually, we went to the condo to plug in my cell phone (which we discovered, as we were walking out the door, was dead) so that we could actually call the others and find out where they were. They were at the splash park, and we joined them forthwith.
After the kids had splashed for a while, we took them on the newly installed carousel (I think we posted about this a couple of weeks ago too). Dan took lots of pictures (some of them blurry, one of them a pretty decent shot of the man behind us making a strange face at the camera), these were my favorites.
Maggie loved the carousel and waved with wild abandon at everyone she recognized (Dan and Poppy on one side; her dad and grandma and grandpa Wells on the other side).
Here, you can see me, Evelyn, Lydia, and Bubby riding behind us.
Last night, to cap off a busy Saturday, we went to Todd Petersen's 42nd birthday. Apparently, he's been looking forward to this birthday since he was 16 and read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the first time and learned that "42" was the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. In any case, the grown-ups had fun talking with one another and the kids had fun running around together.
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Sunday, August 07, 2011
some pictures this time!
This has been a quiet week, which is a good thing, I think. The kids have had swimming lessons almost every day; Dan continues to work long hours on his summer class (only two more days!); and Andrew continues to be vigilant in reporting any and all summer produce from our garden. Despite neglecting it for a month or more in May and June, we actually have a few things that survived. We were thrilled to find that instead of two zucchini plants, we actually had a cucumber plant and a zucchini plant, both of which are thriving. The raspberries are doing well, and the plums are coming on beautifully. It also looks like we'll have some peaches, eggplants, and possibly some peppers in the next few weeks. It's fun to see how excited Andrew gets--even if he only reluctantly eats the actual produce (well, raspberries excepted, of course).
On Friday of this week we went to the "lake" (a man-made pond behind the aquatic center) with some friends. I thought the water was too cold, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.
We also finally discovered who Andrew's kindergarten teacher is. (One of the teachers in my ward told me they'd post the kindergarten class lists on the door of the school, so I've been checking religiously. On Wednesday, the lists were finally up.) Andrew's new teacher is Mrs. Ekker. I've heard good things about her, but Andrew wasn't so thrilled about this, since most of his friends are in Mrs. Wood's class--and Mrs. Wood is in our ward, and in the primary, so Andrew was really hoping he'd be in her class. In fact, he sat down on the grass and cried for a while after he found out. He seems okay with it now--and I imagine he'll be better about it after he meets his teacher.
Since I don't have a lot of other news, I thought I'd finally post the pictures we've been hoarding the last three weeks or so.
The kids in their Sunday clothes:
The buffalo (excuse me, American bison) that we saw just outside Dan's cousin Jon's place two weeks ago.
Some pictures from the 24th of July parade:
Evelyn makes me laugh. She was dancing to the music just before this particular shot: can you tell?
A Chinese dragon--part of a "float" (we use the term loosely here) for some sort of international arts exchange program.
The "haka." Poppy tells us Bubby can do a mean haka, but she wouldn't (strangely enough) perform one then.
And finally, Dan's birthday cake, a particularly rich German chocolate cake. Unfortunately, I didn't know that Bubby had ordered a DQ cake when I made this, so I ended up sending it to work with Dan, since we couldn't eat it on our own. (We tried to get the neighbors to help, but Alisa is off chocolate because it upsets the baby and Todd doesn't like coconut, so . . .) Needless to say, it was very good--if rich!
On Friday of this week we went to the "lake" (a man-made pond behind the aquatic center) with some friends. I thought the water was too cold, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.
We also finally discovered who Andrew's kindergarten teacher is. (One of the teachers in my ward told me they'd post the kindergarten class lists on the door of the school, so I've been checking religiously. On Wednesday, the lists were finally up.) Andrew's new teacher is Mrs. Ekker. I've heard good things about her, but Andrew wasn't so thrilled about this, since most of his friends are in Mrs. Wood's class--and Mrs. Wood is in our ward, and in the primary, so Andrew was really hoping he'd be in her class. In fact, he sat down on the grass and cried for a while after he found out. He seems okay with it now--and I imagine he'll be better about it after he meets his teacher.Since I don't have a lot of other news, I thought I'd finally post the pictures we've been hoarding the last three weeks or so.
The kids in their Sunday clothes:
The buffalo (excuse me, American bison) that we saw just outside Dan's cousin Jon's place two weeks ago.
Some pictures from the 24th of July parade:
Evelyn makes me laugh. She was dancing to the music just before this particular shot: can you tell?
A Chinese dragon--part of a "float" (we use the term loosely here) for some sort of international arts exchange program.
The "haka." Poppy tells us Bubby can do a mean haka, but she wouldn't (strangely enough) perform one then.
And finally, Dan's birthday cake, a particularly rich German chocolate cake. Unfortunately, I didn't know that Bubby had ordered a DQ cake when I made this, so I ended up sending it to work with Dan, since we couldn't eat it on our own. (We tried to get the neighbors to help, but Alisa is off chocolate because it upsets the baby and Todd doesn't like coconut, so . . .) Needless to say, it was very good--if rich!
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