March madness

We're doing pretty well. Caleb stayed home from school today, he seems to have been hit with a stomach bug that's going around. He also stayed home two weeks ago because of a bad asthma attack that started Tuesday night and continued into Wednesday morning (but in general we've had a pretty easy cold and flu season this year).

Last week I met with Caleb's teacher for his second report card conference (Larry was out of town). He continues to do very well in school. He's now reading above the level he should be at by the end of the year. His writing is average; his teacher says he tends to rush and does better when he doesn't, so we're working on that. His teacher also says he's a role model in class. We're extremely proud.

Caleb lost another tooth last week, the third in just over two weeks (and a total of five). He looks a bit like a jack-o-lantern now, and he's getting quite rich off the Tooth Fairy. Here's a favorite story of mine: After he lost his third tooth, he told me that his school friend said that his (Caleb's) mother was the Tooth Fairy and he (Caleb) wanted to know if that was true. I hemmed and hawed a bit and finally said that it was. Apparently he was just testing me, because he said, "No you're not Mommy!" I was glad he didn't believe me.

Alana had a growth spurt recently and has actually grown out of some of her pants. She had a second haircut today. She's somewhat over her obsession with Dora the Explorer, though she still likes her a lot; for good or ill, she's more likely to ask to watch the things that Caleb likes -- Spiderman and Star Wars and Scooby Doo. She still copies everything that Caleb's doing -- recently we had dinner at a restaurant where Larry knew the manager, who came over to the table to say Hi. He shook Caleb's hand and of course was a bit surprised when Alana stuck her hand out, insisting on her own handshake.

Here's a closeup shot of Alana that Larry took:



Alana coloring in the hotel room in Syracuse:



Caleb's current gap-tooth smile:



The battle that Caleb set up in the hotel room with available items:

The luggage arrived - HURRAH!!!

March 6, 2006

In plenty of time for tonight's party. Thank goodness!!!!!!

We spent the afternoon going up the nearby gondola to the *top* of the mountain, and walked up a long stairway to take us even higher. Even more amazing views, if possible, including our hotel nestled below us. Larry's napping (he was up early -- not adjusted to time change, which is Mountain Time). I may go window shopping at the many shops in the hotel, since there's no pressure to buy the things I thought I was going to *need*.

Trip update -- disaster!

March 6, 2006

Yes, you read that right. 24 hours into it and only one thing has gone right (more on that later). The first leg of our journey was a flight to Minneapolis, with a connection to Calgary. Before we boarded the plane, we were told that our plane would be making a fueling stop on the way, in Milwaukee. Needless to say, we missed our connecting flight (by about 10 minutes!). So they booked us on an additional leg, to Salt Lake City. That left late, but we actually made our connection to Calgary, with mere minutes to spare. Of course our luggage wasn't so lucky (seems like a lot of folks here are in the same boat). Thankfully, they gave us company t-shirts in our "goodie bag" when we arrived, so we have something to wear today, but the formal dinner/dance is tonight and I have nothing -- no dress, no stockings, no shoes, no jewelry, no makeup. Larry found someone who can loan me a dress (I haven't seen it yet), but I'm really hoping that our luggage arrives.

Now for the one thing that went right. We didn't ge to the hotel until almost 9 p.m. (we expected to arrive around 4 in the afternoon), and we figured dinner was long over. But to our great (pleasant) surprise, they had just gotten through the salad course, so we had a great dinner.

Our room is small, but the view is spectacular. We can see over the hotel into the valley below, a small river and the mountains behind, unbelievable. They almost look fake, they're so gorgeous. The weather is great too, not too cold (not much snow either, which was a surprise).

Overall, once we've gotten settled, we're looking forward to a great trip. Who needs fresh clothes anyway???

Caleb school update

August 4, 2005

Things went very well last night. The skills test only lasted about 10 minutes. Caleb identified his letters and numbers and counted some blocks. As expected, I was told he wasn't quite up to standard writing some of his upper and lower case letters ("w" was mentioned, along with a few others).

They did not request that he attend the school-sponsored sessions prior to kindergarten, just suggested that he practice at home. He played with a boy who will be in his class, while I got lists of uniform companies and school supplies. I can't believe he'll be starting in just a few weeks!

Larry starts new job

Larry is quitting his job today. He starts with a new restaurant chain, Texas Roadhouse, on August 3. They have this owner-operator gig that's too good to pass up. He'll be training in Boston for two months (August and September) and then working in one of the Pennsylvania stores for maybe 6 months (there are two stores within 30 minutes of our house). Sometime in late winter/early spring, he'll start working in upstate NY, helping to open one or more stores. Where *we* will actually be assigned is not yet known, though it will definitely be in upstate NY. They already have stores in Buffalo, Binghamton and Syracuse, so it won't be any of those. They're considering 7 sites around the state, including Albany (which would get my vote -- I could get a really cool job there, working in the government or even for a lobbying organization).

Hopefully we'll find out exactly where we're going toward the end of the year. We wouldn't move until next summer.

Welcome February

We went to a birthday party on Sunday and Caleb was so cute -- when the hostess thanked him for coming he said, "It was my pleasure." The birthday girl's mother was completely charmed. I've said that to him a couple of times when he's thanked me for something -- he's quite the little sponge (but I have to be careful because he picks up the bad as well as the good).

Sunday afternoon I took Caleb to see "A Year with Frog and Toad" at a localtheater company (Alana stayed home with Larry). I thought the tickets were too expensive, but I'd heard great things about the show, and what's the point of living in a city if you don't take advantage of this stuff once in a while??? The show was really nice. The sets and staging were wonderful and so were the costumes, and the actors had amazing singing voices. I think Caleb really enjoyed it, though I thought a couple of the songs were boring (you could hear the audience getting restless). But that's a small complaint. The actors were in the lobby at the end of the show to talk to the kids and Caleb very solemnly told the woman who played "Mouse" that his favorite part was when they grew flowers in the garden (it was very cleverly done with lights).

The three of us (Caleb, Alana and I) went to the Academy of Natural Sciences on Saturday afternoon and spent almost two hours in the interactive section upstairs (they call it "Outside In"). Caleb had a great time and Alana crawled all over and tried to climb on things and got very mad when I wouldn't let her splash in the goldfish pond. They got to pet a bunch of animals, including a bunny, a guinea pig, a snake and two turtles. It was a great way to spend a cold afternoon. (We joined earlier this year when Matthew was visiting and we took all three kids and found out that for about $20 more than it would have cost that day we could join for the whole year.)

EXTRA BONUS GOOD NEWS: Alana was scheduled to get her cast removed on February 22, but yesterday we moved it up a week, so her cast comes off February 15. Hurrah!

Alana update

January 17, 2005

I just wanted to send a little progress report on Alana. She's doing great, really getting around well, crawling some and even climbing again (up onto chairs and of course up the stairs). She didn't sleep well the first couple nights, but seems fine now. On top of her little accident, she has four teeth coming in on top, both eye teeth and two molars, so they're making her uncomfortable too. She gets her "permanent" cast tomorrow (Tuesday). We'll send a new photo of that! Attached is a photo of Alana playing with her new xylophone that Grandma Bobbie got for her. Also attached is a photo of Caleb with his "army" of megazords and dinosaurs.