Birthdays

I found a couple pictures from Allison’s birthday circle at school – again video is available for on-demand viewing at home. The rest of the pictures appear to be elsewhere (fingers crossed!)

As always, last weekend was a flurry of activity. The kids spent one morning playing with their next door neighbor. We took them to the nearby park to play and eat sandwiches, when the ice cream truck showed up! This was a first for Katherine and Allison, so we indulged a bit. The kids had their rocket ship and bubble gum popsicles and listened to the ice cream music. (This was perhaps the first time I had ever heard the theme to “Love Story” played by an ice cream truck. Same for Jingle Bells.) The kids scooted on Razors, and then we handed the kids over to Grandma and Grandpa Bush for a playdate with them and their cousins. They had a great time – and Steve and I headed out to watch Star Trek. (We loved the movie.)

On Sunday we made the rounds at Trilogy. We biked over to the Bushes, had a snack, then to my mom’s for yet another snack. Fed and happy, we headed home on our bikes. The ride home involves a nice little hill (maybe 5-6% grade?) that goes from my mom’s house to the Clubhouse. Katherine was very focused. We talked about reaching the US Flag at the top of the hill without stopping. Katherine slowly pedaled up the hill in her easiest gear and finally made it. She was even fine after she accidentally brushed a pole and fell over near the Clubhouse. Katherine is making a lot of progress these days with her biking.

Another source of excitement and investment continues to be our goldfish tank. Most recently, Steve and I came very close to dumping our algae eater into Puget Sound. Somehow in the process of cleaning the tank, the eater evaded Steve and his net. He got pumped thru the siphon into a huge can that we used to capture the dirty water. We carried the can to our driveway and slowly began to pour the water towards the road. Thankfully, we found the very freaked out fish just in the nick of time. He’s now hiding in our tank.

Our tank also experienced some sort of weird bloom, which resulted in one of the goldfish sort of swimming on its side. We flushed it and prompted replaced it with a small goldfish from Petco for …. $0.13. To prevent future algae growth and such, we also bought a larger filter and a variety of other implements/conditioners to keep the tank healthy….$100+. Total cost of goldfish ownership continues to climb…

We did have some unfortunate news yesterday – Great Grandpa Vasvary is in the hospital and not doing very well. We talked about it with the kids, who remember him from our last visit to SoCal. We’re holding good thoughts for him and the family.

Time has flown this year. I can’t believe there are only three more weeks of school.

Allison is now Four!

We woke up on Saturday to Allison rushing into our room, “Get up. It’s my birthday today!” We celebrated with an inflatable party with other small friends, then dinner at Grandma Chang’s house.

Allison’s most prized gift was something Katherine never had…a Trek 6-speed Trailer Bike. We bought this several weeks ago at Gregg’s in Bellevue. Allison *just barely* reaches the pedals, to which we added 3 inch blocks. This means that Steve does the vast majority of work, as Allison spins the pedals around and provides commentary to the rest of us. (The trailer bike is attached to Steve’s old Trek Allez road bike.) Our preference was to buy the Burley Trailer Bike, since this is supposed to have a more stable riding experience (less torque due to attachment mechanism). But, even with the blocks, Allison had at least another 2 inches to go before she could reach the pedals.

For our first ride, we went through Redmond Ridge and to Grandma Chang’s house in Trilogy. Round trip was close to 10 miles. I rode with Katherine. Steve rode / towed Allison on the Trailer bike. She loved the experience. Even with the wind and cold, she held on and had a great time. As a matter of fact, she turned around almost entirely to talk to Katherine and me. At this point, I yelled to her, “Allison, face forward and look in front of you.” She yelled back, “All I see is Daddy’s bottom!” We almost all fell off our bikes.

What’s very exciting for us is that we can now ride together as a family. Steve and I can ride at a very slow but reasonable pace (e.g. with our regular bike shoes and pedals). Katherine can haul on her 20″ 6-speed bike – averaging 10 mph today going to QFC with Dad. She can even go up steep hills in gear 1. The kids debate which gear they should be in, which is pretty funny to listen to, “Katherine, I’m on 3!!” And, everyone has a great time.

Allison also received a Razor scooter from the Bushes. She practiced all weekend. I found her dragging her scooter up the next door neighbor’s driveway (steep incline of course), and then scooting down as fast as she could. She’s quite the daredevil.

We also celebrated her birthday at school with the Montessori birthday circle. This was probably the highlight of the year for her. According to her teacher, she asked at every circle that day, “Is this my birthday circle?” Well, Steve, Patty and I finally showed up at 2:10 to find everyone seated nicely at circle waiting for us. Allison ran and turned off the light. Then she took the globe, stood by the month of May near the candle and walked around the sun four times. She handed out goodie bags and was thrilled that Katherine could participate as well.

Other developmental milestones:

– Allison is making progress with her reading. She can sound out simple phonetic words, and she recognizes simple sight words. We’ve started the 100 book reading board for her, just as we did for Katherine this year. When I asked Katherine if she wanted to participate, she told me, “I’m good. No thanks.”
– Katherine has really expanded her horizons at school the last couple months. She weaved her own purse, learned to jump rope and went on simple hikes around the neighborhood with her class. She brought home the core of a tree branch that she had drilled a hole in (and strung onto a necklace.) She told me all about sitting down to get more force on the hand drill and using a vice to hold the branch. Most importantly, she’s established herself socially and seems much more relaxed at school and home – which is great!

Allison learned an interesting lesson in consumerism last week at the Eton School Book Fair. Every year the school puts on a book fair, which raises funds for the library. Well, I told the kids they could bring a little bit of $ to school (just $6 a piece) from their allowance and savings to spend after school. We talked about the rules:

– don’t bring the $ to the fair during the day when the class visits the fair.
– wait for mom to arrive at 3PM, so we can decide what to buy.
– no returns, no exchanges! (school rules)

Well, Katherine listened. She knew exactly what she wanted and waited until I got to school. Allison confessed, “I didn’t listen to the rules. I bought two books with my 6 dollars.” Well, first I was pretty surprised that she could actually afford two books. Then, I was even more surprised when she told me that she bought a book that she already had! Anyway, she told me, “next year, I’ll listen to the rules.” She got so excited and caught up in the excitement, and learned a valuable lesson – wait and plan before spending money!

Both girls are turning into Lego fiends. Steve went shopping and got Allison a City Coast Guard boat, life guard station kit,etc. Katherine went heads down and put everything together without much help. Allison required more guidance, which was to be expected. Now both girls have Lego boats that they take into bath. Our master bath has turned into a lifeguard station – Legos everywhere!