Cruising Along

I keep thinking there has to be more to report on, but really…there isn’t. We have not gone anywhere (I know, shocking as that may be) and haven’t really done anything out of the ordinary either. We had a great family weekend full of a swim meet, a birthday party, time at the pool and pajamas til 12pm on Sunday. Pretty exciting, eh?

So, instead of detailed descriptions of our adventurous across Asia, this time you are getting detailed descriptions of our, sometimes, mundane lives. Now, I have a history of TMI, which makes Curt’s wince when I write at times, so I have agreed to stay clear of the three major subjects I am forbidden to write about; sex, politics and religion. I will save those for Facebook!

As most of my readers (grandparents) are anxious to hear about, I will start with the kiddos. Aleah had her first swim meet of the season on Saturday. Sadly, she has had a cold for a few weeks and it has gravitated to her lungs, so she isn’t in the best place for winning medals. She did try hard and beat at least one personal best time (for some reason her time didn’t immediately come up on the board, so we are waiting to hear what her times were on a few races). Toughest part with her, is she has lost her will to compete, to try hard and the struggle with things. This isn’t just with swimming. It’s with reading, math, swimming…anything she sees potential failure in. Her more common complaint/request is “What are we going to do that’s fun today?” She is making us nuts. If she isn’t talking back she’s whining or breaking into tears over something trivial. Everything is an issue. We are exhausted by it. She seemed to get better for a few weeks, but now is slipping a little again.

The school has a new policy of no homework. What the heck is that about. Somewhere they read homework (when done as repetition) doesn’t make a real impact on the education of children. ARGH! Even if they are right, we aren’t so sure we like the idea. We lose track of what she is doing in school and we have no way of judging whether she is good at any particular subject or struggling in another. So, we (I tend to be the ringleader here) have been creating homework projects for both the kids to do a few nights a week. To be honest, the repetition is good for Aleah and it’s a nice way to work with her more one on one. She may grump initially, but seems full of pride when she finishes. We will be keeping this up, it keeps her from watching tv anyhow!

Ellery…oh our Elle Belle. She is finding her groove quite nicely in Kindergarten. It took her a few weeks to find her niche, but I think she’s there now. She is in the opposite place Aleah is in. She LOVES to have homework (of course she doesn’t have any either from school) and comes up with great ideas on ways she can make something fun into learning. For instance, she wanted to cut our pictures from magazines so I suggested to pick the two letters she was practicing at school last week and cut out pictures of things that started with those letters. “That’s what I was going to say, mom!” Apparently, we think alike! Not only that, but she loves sounding out words and trying to spell them. Phonetically, she is on target! It’s so interesting to see how vastly different the girls are in their learning and the distinct advantages second-borns have after listening and learning while their older sibling goes through it all. Elle is a sponge! She has always wanted to sit and watch Aleah read and now she wants to work hard to be able to do what Aleah does. She has immediate competition, which challenges her to do better. Of course, there is dark side to competition between siblings, but that’s for another blog entry.  Currently, we are working on her “responsibility” factor. I am ready to give away gold coins if she can remember her lunch box and her water bottle every day! She’s still easily distracted and heads to get ready for bed only to find her on the floor naked playing with a puzzle. We will never quite be able to understand her thought process, but it’s pretty funny (and admittedly irritating) to watch!

Our little J-bird! He has found his voice for sure. He squeals and squawks constantly and it’s rather intolerable most of the time. Throws is sippy cup down with all his might only to say “Uh-Uh” (because he can’t get the Oh sound down). Apparently, moms really are invisible as he will seek Curt out when asked where “Dada” is, but he stares blankly when asked where “momma” is. Poor, pathetic me…and the guilt I feel when I am away too long. Screw it, I am going out all week just to spite him…Really though, he is still all smiles and very engaging. He entertains people with his strange need to bend over onto his head and gives others his famous squinty-eyed smile. I am working on his ability to play alone. He seems to need constant entertainment (but it could be all the yaya’s here at his beck and call when I am not home) and just wants to walk back and forth around the condo. No real purpose most of the time, just wanders.

Curt and I, well, we are fine. We squeeze in time for dates and work on locating a few minutes to chat. Last week was a slower week for Curt after all the craziness he did have going on for awhile. It was a wonderful week for that matter and we were excited to get so much time with him. This week I will plan for fall break in Taipei and maybe a quick weekend in Bohol before that. The homesickness was pretty bad last week, but I am pulling through. I promise to post pics next time!