Up to date

Since my last post, so much has happened! we have been so busy that I don't know where to start.

Ethan started first grade in the Mandarin Chinese immersion program. He is doing fantastic and has adapted very well to a new school, new language and has made new friends. He also joined the chess club at his previous school and really likes playing every week. He already had a tournament and did well for a first timer. Needless to say I am very proud of him! At my first parent teacher conference his teacher, Li Lao Shi, told me he is doing extremely well, he is even a translator in her class! He also has an English teacher who  said that his work was high quality and is a super reader!

Heidi started preschool and just loves it. She goes twice a week and wishes she could go more often. She is totally into couponing and helps me clip all my coupons. She is also learning all the Chinese words that Ethan teaches her and of course is a super mom to Kailey. Now that Ethan is gone all day long she is doing much more with Gavin. She reads books to all of us but mostly to Kailey and Gavin.

Gavin is a handful. He has a really deep voice and is hilarious to hear him scold Heidi while pointing his finger at her and frowning his eyebrows saying "don't hut me!" He turned two a couple of weeks ago and got a slide that he just loves. He is such a busy buddy that each morning he goes straight to his toys instead of having breakfast.

Gavin loves anything with sugar in it. He seems to have syrup running through his veins! These are pictures of his second birthday.

Kailey is doing really well. She is doing everything that she is supposed to at the right times. She is all smiles and even laughter at times. In September she was blessed by David and we had a lot of family over. We also had our first, of many, Buddy Walks ( a fundraiser for the Down Sydrome Foundation in Utah). She is in the early intervention program already and it has been really good to have the therapist come to our house periodically.

Kailey was a Hot Chili Pepper for Halloween and did not like the costume at all!

David took the kids trick or treating and asked them what the most important rule was, the kids replied that they needed to be safe, to walk on sidewalks, etc.. and Dave said NO! the most important rule is to let Dad choose whatever candy he wants from each bag! As all of you know, he loves candy and I think that Halloween is probable his favorite holiday!

Learning Fun

Heidi’s first day of preschool was Thursday. I signed her up that same morning and in the afternoon she attended her first day of class. She will be going twice a week for two and half hours. I was thrilled to see her being so comfortable, so confident and so excited to learn and be part of the class. When I picked Heidi up she was very happy. She pulled from her backpack her newly made craft. She told me she sang three songs. Her teacher is Miss Cari. Heidi is attending the same preschool that Ethan attended a couple of years ago. She is in the blue room, the same classroom that Ethan had.

Ethan attended a two week program that was kind of a Chinese boot camp, an introduction to Mandarin Chinese and its culture. His last day was Friday morning. His class had a performance of song, theater and Tai Chi. He sang a couple of songs in Chinese and was selected to perform some Tai Chi. He did great! In the short time the program laste he learned several colors, numbers and animals and also the characters for some numbers. He has taught Heidi the colors so they now play I spy in the car and say the colors in mandarin.

Ethan and Heidi are teaching Gavin how to fly onto pillows on the floor. They had a great time, it was fun to watch them until Dave came by and asked them to put everything back in its place, they looked at him and told him that I thought it was a great game they were playing. He could not believe I knew what they were doing and had not stopped them.

Toothless

Ethan’s front teeth have been a little loose so we expected them to fall out soon. Yesterday I noticed that one of them had turned to a brown color so Dave told me that the tooth had died and it needed to be pulled out. So David decided to take things into his own hands and play dentist. I heard some crying, shouting, yelling and gnashing of teeth and the tooth did not come out! So it took Dave a couple of hours to gain Ethan’s confidence to let him pull the tooth out. Ethan did let Dave pull the tooth out and there was a lot of crying. Glenda the tooth fairy did come by and picked Ethan’s tooth and left a little cash for him.