Anna's Half-Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Anna's 4 1/2 birthday at school (as I've written before, those summer kids aren't left out in the cold...they get a half-birthday observance).

Anna held the Earth globe and walked around the sun four and a half times while I read off two milestones from each year of her life. The first two years, of course, I made my best guess (sit up and crawl for the first year, for example).

Afterward, they sang "Happy Half Birthday To You" and clapped four times and snapped once. Then she came and sat by us while she told the class some of her favorite things from a sheet we'd filled out the night before. She remembered everything, too. Her favorites at the moment: Color — Red; Food — Chocolate Ice Cream; Things She Likes To Do — Write Letters and Go Swimming With Dad; What She Wants To Be When She Grows Up — A Doctor (last year I remember she said teacher and princess!).

Then she walked around the circle and showed her peers some pictures of her we'd taped to the form.

Little Experimenter

Alexander's been a little ambitious in the experimentation lab (AKA the bathroom) today.

As soon as he got home from school he decided to see what would happen if he took a pee pee in the bathtub. I was happy to show him what would happen. At least he aimed for the drain.

Then, after the nap I'm not sure he ever took, he decided to see what would happen if he put his head inside the toilet! What's going on with this boy today?

When I asked him why the top of his hair was wet, he didn't hestitate to tell me it had something to do with the potty. Of course, he didn't have a good reason for sticking his head in the toilet water. "I don't know," he said so innocently with big eyes, as if he hadn't done any wrong in the world. I literally had to turn around and have him stare at the back of my head a couple times so he wouldn't see me laughing.

YeeHa!

We took the children to the stock show two weekends ago now. They petted kiddie-sized animals before we happened upon a mechanical bucking bull. The children perched atop some saddles and watched other kids ride, then we offered them the chance. Anna was willing to try. Alexander not so much: "No, I think I might fall down. I wouldn't love that." The guy operating the bull promised to go very slow for the really small kids, so we let Anna take a ride. Look how good she did! (Alexander still didn't want to ride the bull, even after seeing Anna having fun and not falling off.)

School Work Night

On Tuesday night parents gathered at the Montessori school and took on the role of students. The children played teachers and gave us lessons on various learning activities that they tackle on a daily basis. A lot of the learning activities are considered life skills, such as pouring. There are many pouring activities, including one shown here in which Anna transfers liquid from one small cup to another with a ladle. A lot of activities sharpen fine motor skills. Children get to pick what they're going to do each day. In case you couldn't tell, Alexander is observing how oil and water interact one of the pictures. New activities are rotated in regularly, and teachers also pull students aside to work one on one or in small groups on other sorts of lessons. They've been learning a lot about composers lately and have come home telling me all about Beethoven and his hearing loss! Teachers also work one on one with students on more academic activities, as well.

Since mid fall I've been volunteering one morning a week, so I get to observe a lot of what's going on, which I love. Since the beginning of the year I've been working exclusively with kindergarteners on a book they're each writing. They're even going to have a book reading at the end of the year at Border's. How exciting is that! On Tuesday, one especially animated boy was so excited as we talked through exactly how his story would go. With a gigantic smile on his face he said "This is going better than I planned!" His story is about one of his school friends turning into a ghost by a mad scientist. And he and another friend, as well as the police, will somehow swoop down into a forested ghost house to rescue him with special potion.

Little Roy and Little Dale

In honor of some big traditional stock and rodeo event going on here for two weeks, the children were allowed to dress like cowboys and cowgirls at school today. This is extremely unusual for their school. I don't recall any other dress-up days since we've been at the school. Then again, we were gone down to Louisiana for an extended period this time last year. Anyway, Alexander got to wear his full cowboy get-up that he received for Christmas. Sadly, Anna had to go in makeshift regalia. I did the best I could with pigtails, button-up shirt and one of my old bandanas and tried to talk up her cowgirl presentation. I think she was cool with it. All the little cowgirls and cowboys were so darn cute running around on the playground when it came time to pick them up from school.

In other kid news, there's been a lot of chatter lately about friends and sleepovers and parties and going over to people's houses to play and people coming to our house to play. Mostly all from Anna. I guess she heard about sleepovers from someone at school. I know I haven't introduced that idea to her. But aren't they too young for all this? Yesterday afternoon after a gymnastics make-up class we'd attended, some little girl she'd just met came up to her and asked her to play (right then and there). Then Anna invited her over to our house to play. She's growing up so fast!

Seven Years of Marriage

We've been married for seven years today! 02-02-02. Pretty clever, huh? Actually, we were planning a winter wedding and were looking at several dates within the span of a few months there. It just so happened that this date fell on a Saturday. And it just so happened that this was the "anniversary" of when we began seeing each other (six years prior to that), as well. So it all worked out.

It seems like just yesterday when we married in Chesterton, Indiana, just outside of Chicago where we'd been living for about four years at that time. I would consider it a simple candlelight ceremony at the Methodist church before a big bash at a nearby hotel/banquet spa. At the ceremony I surprised Michael by serenading him with "I've Got a Crush on You." I'd been planning behind the scenes with our so amazing Frank Sinatra-style singer who offered me the music sans lyrics. We were lucky enough to have so many of our friends and family come from such far distances, including my old roommates and friends from my early days at the Lake Charles newspaper. By then, two were in New York City and one was in Phoenix. (The next day after the wedding, they all rode together in a limousine rock-star-style to their airports in Chicago!)

Michael and I took the limo into Chicago that night (the reception went by sooo fast for us), stayed at the lovely Drake Hotel and then flew out the next morning for two weeks in Europe. We first stayed on the Isle of Wight where his mum grew up and even visited Tony and his wife Maureen there (In high school Michael lived with them for six months and went to school there on an unofficial exchange student sort of deal. The Gales were friends with his mom growing up. ... We just spoke with Tony two days ago:) Michael showed me Beldornie Tower, the gigantic home where his mom and her big family grew up right on the beach. I knocked on the door, but thankfully (probably) no-one answered! Then after a few days we went into London where we stayed for several nights and enjoyed lovely evenings with Uncle Bob and Aunt Rita (even attending a football/soccer match with them); and we also hung out with cousin Jonathan. Uncle Bob and Aunt Rita just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last weekend. We surprised them with a telephone call in the middle of their anniversary party:) Then we called Jonathan the following day. It was so great to catch up with you, Jonathan! Of course we went around to all the London sites, as well. We also witnessed a car-pedestrian accident and had to give statements to the bobbies (police). Always look before crossing busy London streets, even if you have the go-ahead light! It appeared the couple was more stunned than hurt badly. After London we flew to Dublin, rented a car and embarked on a cross-country driving tour of gorgeous, lush Ireland. What a fun adventure it was to navigate the teeny little roads in the opposite lanes than we're used to. In Ireland, we drove to the Cliffs of Moher, slept in a castle, visited the Waterford crystal factory, and drank lots of Guinness and Smithwicks and Black-and-Tans before making our way back into Dublin, where we ditched the car and plopped ourselves for a few more nights. What great memories.

Maybe it seems time has passed so quickly because many changes have happened in the past seven years. Let's see, we've moved twice for starters, to upstate New York and now to the Black Hills of South Dakota. They are both equally, yet differently, gorgeous places to live and work. And the biggest change to our family dynamics, of course, is that we've adopted two young children from Russia. It is still so awesome to think about how much God has blessed us.

I remember our pastor asked us when we had our pre-marriage counseling what we thought the biggest difference would be in our lives when we got married (as opposed to living with each other). I remember wondering if this was a trick question, because I guess that's just how my mind works. But when he said "commitment" of course that made sense. That's always stuck with me. I guess I'm starting to get all philosophical now, and certainly glossing over things, but I often think if couples had the benefit of this sort of counseling — and of course understand what commitment means and follow through with it — that maybe our country would not have a 50 percent (or is it higher now?) divorce rate.

Michael has opened up my life in so many ways. We've always thought of our life together as an adventure and with us as a team in every aspect of our lives. I've always said that he thinks big. But he's not just a dreamer. He makes things happen!

I love you, "sweetie pie"!

Here are some photos from 02.02.02. Some were actually taken with black-and-white film (I didn't "doctor" them on the computer). I really wanted some artsy-off-the-cuff style photos. And I was pretty clear about wanting old-fashioned film instead of digital. I just thought they'd be sharper and would last longer. Unfortunately you lose some of that clarity when you have to scan them. But here they are.