Thursday, February 25, 2010

Over a week's worth of updates

Wow, how have my loyal blog readers survived without any updates for one week?
The reason there were no updates from Friday through Sunday was because Brian and I packed Addie and Benjamin up and drove to a water park in Massachusetts. Onkteb, Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda met us there and played all day on Saturday. It was a really nice time. I don't have any pictures from inside the water park. I do have a few which I'll post later from pre-water park festivities. Two funny stories from there. Jeremy bought underwater cameras for our use at the park. Each kid got to use one and they were stoked to capture everything. Addie took her first picture and then stood staring at the camera. She waited and waited. Then she exclaimed that the camera must be broken, because she can't see the picture. Apparently her non-LCD screen wasn't working. It was just a sign of the times for us, because it's probably the first time she dealt with a non-digital camera. She would be even more shocked to learn that Uncle Jeremy had to drop those cameras off for the film to be developed. Imagine that?! When Addie was arguing that her camera was broken, Ben knew exactly why... "It only works underwater, Addie." So cute.
This week has been spent like so many other weeks nowadays. Puzzles are very popular, as is coloring. The Ah-lympics (as Ben pronounces it) are on every night. Ben enjoys the risky sports and frequently tells me "I want me and Addie to do that." Whenever he sees a crash or a spill, he tells me, "that's dangerous. I wouldn't do that."
Tuesday began this session of swim lessons, which were fantastic. I really am impressed by how much they have learned in that last six week session. Now both are completely content, if not ecstatic, to have their heads under water. This week they both successfully floated on their backs unassisted. After lessons is family swim, which we participated in. Ben spent the whole time jumping off the side of the pool into the water and then swimming with his head under water for long periods of time. Very exciting. By the end of it, he was looking a little like a drowned rat, with glazed eyes and the look of not feeling too well. I think he gulped a lot of pool water, which is never a pretty thing. Now I am wondering if he's not actually holding his breath underwater, but perhaps is just gulping away under there.
Addie is really into spelling words right now. She gets it, in a major way. She'll even be like, "Ask me how to spell cat. C-A-T. There. Cat" and then she starts with the next three or four letter word. It's funny because as much as she understands the phonics of the letters and in her head can sound them out, when she's actually reading words she's at about a 50% success rate right now. Just interesting how two different parts of a child's brain have to be able to click at the same time to have it all work.
We got notice that she was accepted at a bilingual charter school for kindergarten!! She'll be in a dual-language immersion program, where 1/2 of her classes are in Spanish and the other 1/2 are in English. The student body is made up of 50% native English speakers and 50% native Spanish speakers. This is a really cool experience and program. Research has shown when children start in kindergarten, within six years they are completely bilingual, biliterate and bicultural. Pretty awesome, right? The second best part of it, she has a uniform to wear!! And it gets Addie out of having to attend her feeder pattern school, which I said there was no way I was sending her there. So all around, hooray!
We're having yet another major snow storm starting today through tomorrow. Prediction 8-12 inches of snow. Really. Um, don't we live in Delaware? Not cool. Not cool at all.

2 comments:

Linny said...

Wow - quite the update! Congrats on getting Addie into the bilingual school!

The water park sounds FUN! Glad you had a good time!

Sorry to hear you're getting yet another storm.

Miss Nay said...

Finally I have was having withdraw pangs! Miss you much and glad things are moving along! Cool about school! And the snow thing -- I am so over this winter... bring on spring and Addie's birthday party! Love you all and hugs!