First day of school. Jan took Anya and Liya to SCDS. (Their first trip to the same school at the same time since they were in Megumi over three years ago!) Anya and Daddy took Liya to Ms. Leunow’s class first and helped her hang up her backpack and coat. Ms. Leunow gave Anya a big hug. Liya settled into to do some drawing for choice time. Anya led Jan down the hall to her new 1st grade class room with Ms. Amos. The desks in the room were grouped into sets of four. In Anya’s group there are also Hazel, Noah, and newcomer Owen. Anya also settled in quickly, so all was well.
Afterward Liya said that she enjoyed seeing Anya at recess time. Anya said she had fun playing “Giant Fruits” with Jane and others, a game in which they pretended giant fruits were rolling after them.
Sabriya enjoyed our street’s annual block party.
When Jan took Anya and Liya to school this morning, Liya said she wanted to try getting dropped off instead of having him come inside with them. They hopped out, put on their backpacks, and Anya led the way up the stairs. They both looked like such big girls!
Bree is finally beginning to speak! Granted, it’s baby language so it’s very contextual.
These days Bree says:
ba! ba! ba! for “ball” or Mandarin for “Daddy”
ki! ki! and then kicks the aforementioned ball.
nanana for banana
All in all, very cute. But where is the mamamama?!? Angela is feeling left out.
This morning Jan took Liya for a real bike ride around Seward Park. Liya’s getting more confident in her biking and made her own way with no help from Jan. Now that she can manage on her own, her bike is looking a little small–she has to pump her little legs up and down like mad as she’s moving along. It was a sunny morning, and we stopped for a nice snack at the bench by the little log cabin house on the eastern side. When we finished, Liya announced that she was hot and tired.
Ute and Roy Tellini visited today. In the early afternoon, Jan picked them up at their downtown hotel, and brought them back to our house. We hung around for a bit, then went for a long walk in the Arboretum. We walked all the way across the wetlands to the MOHAI and back. We stopped at one point to look for a geocache, which Anya found. (We looked for another at the MOHAI but didn’t find it.) Mom met us back at our house, we grilled up a big dinner for everyone. Angela created a nice dessert of grilled peaches and vanilla ice cream.
Kitty Cat. Bree is really trying to talk. Today she said, “Gheedee dah!” which is the closest she can come to “Kitty cat” as far as I can tell.
Stealth walker? I have heard that Bree walks. We see evidence of movement from point A to B without crawling in between. But so far, no witness of Bree actually walking without help. I’m reminded of her stealth rolling over days…
Jan saw Sabriya take some steps! She was in the master bathroom, and just took a couple of steps before sitting back down and smiling, but at least we’ve now actually seen her take steps.
5 steps! Bree took 5 steps for our cleaning lady Nga. I was checking email and missed it. Stupid computer.
Liya said some funny things today.
We saw Brenda’s car full of flowers. We imagined that the flowers were frustrated no one was driving them anywhere, and maybe they’d prefer to take the bus instead. Liya: “On the Flower Bus, the seats are vases.”
Later: “If houses were people, the windows would be pockets, and the doors would be feet.” This was followed by giggling.
Jan, Liya, and Sabriya went geocaching in Seward Park today. We were looking for one cache, “Seward Stroll” (GCMT9P), in the middle of the forest. The woods there really feel like they’re out in the wilderness! Liya did a good job helping Jan guess which trails to take. When we got near the cache, Liya asked to be the one to find it. Jan read her the final hint: “tall hollow stump”. The stump was easy enough to find, and there was a big hole in the side of it. Some big pieces of bark were piled conspicuously inside. Liya was reluctant to put her hand in the stump, and told Jan to do it, then changed her mind and lifted up the biggest piece of bark. “There it is!” Liya was very happy and proud to have found it. We’d forgotten to bring a toy to trade, so we just left our names in the log book.
grapes! Bree continues to discover new words. Today at breakfast she was very excited to see the purple round sweet fruit being cut up and offered for her consumption. “Gape! Gape! Gape!” she yelled out. Angela was so excited she called up Jan and then her mom. Bree of course did not repeat the word despite much coaxing.
whistling. Bree can’t talk, but every once in a while, I hear a whistling sound…can babies whistle before they can talk?!?