Mazama yet Again

 We again ventured to the end of the earth for a week of skiing with the Corvalis Crew.  It was perfection.  The older kids have taken off on their skis and it is awesome to watch. 

This year Carolina  exposed Elizabeth to her knitting addiction. Cute to see the older ones knitting together.

 The younger boys had their moments together and are figuring out play.

 Sledding was tons of fun for the little and big kids.

 The big boys built an epic sledding hill in the back yard.  The angle of the hill follows the straight down trajectory of the sled below.  The hill is basically a straight drop off a retaining wall.

 Not everyone was thrilled about the sledding.

Valentine

 Having our kids go to Chinese school they never really did Valentines Day.  We forgot what a big deal Valentines Day is as a kid but we were certainly reminded. Elizabeth was thrilled for a week and could barely contain herself.  Making the cards for all her friends was so sweet.  Jeff was able to attend the class party and snapped quite a few adorable shots.

 She LOVES her teacher who is perhaps one of the most delightful, true and engaging individuals I have ever met.

Nap Time

OK can you play where is Henry??  Can you find him.  And another thing.... who doesn't wish they had a nap time at work each day.  How civilized for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fqC_MTkjyY&feature=youtu.be

Might have to cut and paste this into your browser to make the video work.

MLK

On the drive home this week Elizabeth says 'Moomm??' in the way I know that she is very much thinking through something. 

Mom.  Life is not fair.

      Why is it not fair.

Well a long time ago, not as long ago as the dinosaurs but long ago, people who were black had to sit at the back of the bus.  Did you know about this?

      Yes.  Life is sometimes not fair.  It was very wrong that these were the rules.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a hero.  Did you know that mom.

      Yes he was.  That is why we remember him and how he helped us make life more fair.

There have been quite a few other comments the past week as she has learned about our MLK holiday and remembrance.  It is important we learn about our history and remember.  It is also poignant to watch her learn that life is just not fair sometimes.

Clouds in Seattle, Sun in the Mountains!

Guess who had her first day down hill skiing experience.  She did great and was able to make wedges down the hill.  Keep in mind there is little control at this point but she is figuring it out and most importantly had a great time.  Actually begged to keep skiing even after her lesson was over.  I was happy to oblige for sure.

 It helped that we went with Maeve and Shauna and that it is killing Elizabeth that Maeve can do the big lift.  Motivation helps.  It will be so fun when they are on level playing fields and we can all ski together.  Oh and yes one day I will have her carry her own skis but now the sled is king.  Right now I am still in the marketing phase of skiing and need to keep it fun.  Once fun then I will work her for sure.

Of course tonight when going to bed she whined that skiing was hard and sometimes scary and she didn't want to do it again and only wanted to cross country ski.  Alas we will see what she says in the morning.  Sleep changes perceptions for sure.  Just cross country skiing doesn't sound that bad either!

January

 Pops came to visit and Henry loved showing off his walking and his scuttlebug bike (gift from pops).  Henry has been racing through the house on that thing and is happy to run you over if in the way.

We have notoriously late walkers with both kiddos not walking until 17 months.  Henry didn't take off until a couple days prior to Pop's arrival but this made it especially fun for the visit.  Henry has been quite proud of his new skill and will puff out his chest with pride as he strolls across the room.

 Elizabeth was thrilled to put on quite a few performances for Pops and Henry was game enough to also dress up.  She also had a great time taking Pops to school to again meet her teacher.

 It was sweet also to see how Henry has warmed up to Pops.  I don't know if he remembers all of the visits from Pops but I think maybe so as he is very happy to spend time in his arms reading books or giving kisses.  Henry is sort of a reserved dude at times and doesn't go to everyone.  It is very sweet to see them bonding!  Makes me miss my mom but very grateful that I get to still have my dad to share my kids with.

Snow

The last day of school before the break there was snow.  It all melted by 930 am but not to fear.  We were out there by seven and stayed until it melted.  Now if we could just get some freakin' snow in the mountains for some skiing!!

GOPR0100 from kathleen mcgregor on Vimeo.

Flow and find your joy

Aunt Laura came to visit.  I can't even begin to say how excited I was to have her come for a visit.  We rented a place in the mountains.  Super awesome place at a lodge and with a pool.  I was psyched to just be, relax and enjoy my kids with my sister.  Not often I get to share my life with just her.

I wanted to make it special for her since the Christian was coming to visit the Jews.  I had some gifts, some sweets and even a stocking.  There are no photos here of the stocking.  There are no photos here of the mountains.  That is cause we were only there for maybe 14 hours and made a very hasty retreat back home.  We left in our wake a room full of 'sickie' (as Elizabeth calls it).  We will spare the details.

The poor little dude had it bad enough that he bought himself a visit to the ER for IV fluids after four days of 'sickie'.  He eventually recovered nicely.  Elizabeth and Jeff were only down for about 12 hours.  Laura and I were spared unless you consider the mega clean up duty and then no one was spared.

I was sad for a bit of time that we didn't get this great trip with Auntie Laurla.  Disappointment is really about expectations.  You expect things to go a certain way and then when they don't there creeps in the sad disappointment.  I am working on this awareness and was able to let these expectations go after a bit of time and really embrace the different trip with her.  This is not easy for me but if you let life and kids teach you then you learn to just flow and find your joy.  We laughed a ton, the kids recovered, the adults recovered, there was some sun, there was the park, there was the Nutcracker and it was nice.  Not the nice I had expected but its own different joyful nice. 

Now and one year ago!

Kids really let you see how time flies.  The first four photos are from last weekend.  The last four are from a year ago.  It goes so fast.  It is funny to me that in the photos from 2012 he always looks surprised. 

Baltimore and Vancouver

 Not a lot of photos lately but we have been busy.  Went to Baltimore for Thanksgivikkuh.  Great to have the Speert cousins together.  The traveling was a challenge as it is with any 15 month old but he rallied.  Elizabeth was also a trooper.  She was sick in the middle of one night and asked Jeff to open the curtain so she could look outside cause it would help her feel better.  She thought it was like in the car when you are car sick.  Bless her.  The kids are really great little travelers.  I think all of our camping adventures have provided them with the flexibility.

We also had parent teacher conferences this month.  I asked Elizabeth if there was anything she wanted us to talk about with her teacher.  She said that she doesn't like the lock down drills.  It broke my heart to hear this especially once I heard why.  She said the kids all have to get down and be very quiet so 'they don't hear us.  Mom who is they?'.  That really broke my heart.  Needless to say the teacher and I were both in tears talking about the implications of this needed drill.  Many discussion have followed with our sweet E.  We love her school and especially her teacher but it is tough.

We returned from Baltimore and felt a bit bad realizing that Henry had three teeth come in during that week.  Umm no wonder he was so clingy and a bit needy.  He has just recently started to walk but still prefers his scoot and crawl.  His words are exploding which is so fun but also frustrating cause he gets MAD when you don't understand what he is trying to communicate.

Today we just returned from a weekend in Vancouver.  Jeff and I both love that city.  We went for Jeff's office party.  Elizabeth was such a delight to have along.  She has really learned how to join in on conversations and has such sweet stories to share. 

Life and Performances

At the McSpeert household we currently have limited use of the oven.  Please see below for reasoning. I forgot how quickly toddlers can destroy a house.  He is a little hurricane leaving drawers open and contents strewed though out the room.

 Lately E has enjoyed reading to Henry which is phenomenally sweet.

 He Ling, one of the teachers from YuChai, asked a few of the kids if they would like to perform a poem in a Chinese cultural even.  We all said yes without asking enough questions.  It ended up being quite a few late nights and practices some distance from home.  Keep in mind I think 5 miles is quite some distance.  We don't really leave our hood much.

 I was actually dreading the day as she was spent and there were two performance at 2pm and 6pm.  In the end it was an amazing experience.  The performance was in downtown Bellevue and the kids opened the two hour cultural event reciting a poem and doing a little dance while May, one of their teachers, played a traditional Chinese instrument.

 Elizabeth loved every moment and it didn't faze her that there were 200+ people in the audience.  It is interesting to see the things she is nervous/anxious about and the things she is not.  Performing on a stage in front of hundreds of people causes her nothing but joy.  Save us all but she is made to perform.  She was able to very quickly memorize the poem, the movements and when it was all over she asked if we were going to do this every weekend.

 It was great to have her together again with her YuChai school friends and especially with her teacher.

 Below is her teacher He Ling (who was a professional Opera Singer in China) along with her daughter May.  We are so lucky to have found met these wonderful people.

Halloween Tradition

 We did Halloween with Lila again this year.  Henry happily wore Elizabeth's old costume and was fascinated by all the kids out trick or treating.

 Elizabeth was a witch at school but changed into some dress up clothes for the evening outing.  Lila was a Ninja.

 Two blocks from us is a crazy Halloween street with hundreds of kids.  It was fun this year to recognize so many other families from school.

 It is very funny to me how much Elizabeth does not really care about the candy.  Don't get me wrong she loves a treat but mostly she just wants to play trick or treating.

 Photos below are Lila and E from Halloween pasts.  It brings me such joy that these little sweet girls are still such good friends.  I think it will serve them well in years to come to have this friendship outside of their school social circles.