Christmas with the cousins

We spent the Saturday after the holiday with my family so the cousins could exchange gifts. The kids had a really great time.

Jaida playing magnetic dress-up dolls with cousin Mattie

The cousins ... Jaida (holding little cousin Ryli), Mattie and Jaxon

Christmas fun

Jaida is such a fun kid. Mostly because she really has this uncanny ability to temper her excitement .... most of the time. I think I have written before about the fact that it is hard to get Jaida really excited about something in advance. She just isn't that kind of kid. All of her responses are very measured and exact and well pragmatic for lack of a better term. However, every now and again the little kid sneaks out and she just can't hide her excitement. I love these times with her ... mostly because they are so rare (and difficult to achieve)!

Holiday silliness

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I love these two SO much!

Our gorgeous girl

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She makes my heart flutter a little bit.

Oh Christmas Tree

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It took some time on a frigid December afternoon but we finally found the perfect tree.

As far as Jaida is concerned

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this is THE Santa. All of the other mall Santas are simply Santa helpers. He certainly looks and acts the part so who am I to argue. Jaida decided that since there are SO many girls and boys that Santa has to remember that she would write him a note for him to keep as a reminder. After he finished reading her note he folded it neatly and placed it in his vest pocket for safe keeping.

Happy Holidays

Our BIG Girl

This is Jaida's school picture from Kindergarten ...

Soccer Player

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Jaida had a great soccer season this year!

Boo!!

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The kids dressed up as a Fairytale Witch and her little black cat this year for Halloween. They went trick or treating in their daycare providers neighborhood and had a blast.

The Fairytale Witch:

Point Look-Out

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Jaida and her little friend from school in the look-out in the middle of a HUGE corn maze. This was during the schools field trip to the pumpkin patch.

Wood Sprite

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We spent a day at the Hard Bargain Farm again this fall. Going to Octoberfest has become our annual tradition ... and a fun one at that. Lots of arts & crafts, hay rides and apple cider for the kids. Bavarian music troupe, beer and brats for the adults. All of this while hanging out in the deep woods. Just a lovely day all around!

A MOST excellent day for Americans

Work To Do

The day history will be made

hopefully! (not that I am superstitious or anything)

I can't wait to take Jaida to the polling place with me to vote. We have talked about this election and the importance of voting so much. This election coincided with the section on graphing that Jaida is doing in her math class so we have talked a lot about the different types of plots ... graphs, pie charts, line plots, scatter plots, etc and how they represent data. It has been great to print out the latest poll data and take it home to talk to Jaida about it and watch her face light up when she realizes on her own that as far as the polls go Obama is ahead.

Disgusting

I simply do not want my children living in the same world as these completely and totally ignorant and hate-filled people. From the responses you would think these people are members of some radical fringe political group. Nope, wrong .... just normal everyday hate filled people attending a McCain-Palin rally.

I want so much more for my kids than this. After your stomach settles please donate to the Obama campaign.

Our spur of the moment adventure

On Friday I received an email about a last minute Obama-Biden rally in Fredricksburg, VA. So on Saturday after Jaida played her soccer game we packed up and headed over to VA. I explained to the kids why we were going and Jaida was pretty excited about seeing the person that could potentially be the next President of the US. When we arrived we found a deli and had a nice lunch. After we were stuffed with food we started walking to the Mary Washington University campus where the rally would be held. We arrived several hours early and already the line to get into Ball Circle was about a mile long (I think it might have actually been even longer). We got in line and figured we would just play it by ear depending on the kids ability to hold it together. The kids did absolutely wonderfully ... we stood in line for several hours and during that time we played games like I spy, punch buggy, etc. Finally, volunteers started bringing tickets to the rally around ... this gave us a bit of hope that we were actually going to get in. However, there were so many people in line in front of us and people were still turning out in droves and getting in line behind us. From the turn-out I would have thought that we were in a deep blue state but not the case at all.

Finally, at about 3:30 the line started moving. We wound our way through the campus and really enjoyed seeing all the people and feeling such a sense of community with people we didn't even know. We talked a lot about the inherent differences in the Democratic and Republican parties with the kids. We also spoke about the specific differences in Obama and McCain with the kids. Jaida had a lot of good questions. As we kept winding our way through the campus there was such a buzz of excitement in the air. It was easy to tell that Jaida was picking up on it also because she kept asking if Obama was there yet. I have to say the entire event was pretty organized and everything went smoothly. We finally arrived at the security screening area and then made our way into the rally area. It was a lovely grassy area flanked on all sides by huge historic buildings .... quite pretty.

Unfortunately, the weather had been a bit iffy all day. At first it was really hot and humid and intensely sunny. Once we were in the rally area though the skies became more ominous. Because of security issues we were not allowed to have umbrellas, food or water inside the rally area (near the stage). Because of our hasty departure from the house that morning I didn't think to bring rain jackets, ponchos, or much of anything else with us. At about 5:00 (just as Obama was supposed to take the stage) the sky opened and it poured rain. Not a little rain .... a HUGE thunderstorm. There was no shelter so we just stood there and got wet with everyone else. Luckily, the kids thought it was pretty funny to be standing out in the rain ... they didn't seem to mind it one bit. The amazing thing was that no one left ... everyone just stuck it out. After about 30-40 minutes of rain it finally started to clear up ... a bit. At one point the sun came out and there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky ... Jaida thought this was pretty cool.

At a little after 6:00 Biden came out on stage and got the crowd all riled up. He gave his stump speech and talked a bit about the debate the night before. Then to tremendous roars of the crowd Obama started speaking. Shortly after speaking the skies opened up again and Obama stood there and gave his entire stump speech during a torrential downpour. We enjoyed hearing him speak. It was nice that this was his basic stump speech where he reinforced points I heard him make in other televised speeches but more than that he did tailor it a bit to the crowd. He talked about the debate the night before, he worked the lousy weather into what he was saying, and talked about turning VA blue from red. All in all it was a very inspiring night. Jaida was really feeding off the crowds excitement and was so insanely excited when she saw Obama come out on stage. Someone had given Jaida a blow-up Obama banner which she happily waved around when the crowd started cheering. I think Jaida & even Jax left the night feeling like this process is something they can be a bit more involved in which I think is so very important. A few pictures and a link to the speech below.


Jaida and Jax patiently waiting in line


The line to get into the rally from my spot in line



Jaida inside the rally...

One of the buildings near the rally area


The back side of the stage area


Jaida showing off her shirt


Jaida being a goof


A nice lady gave Jaida an inflatable banner thing to cheer with


Soaked after down pour number one


Senator Biden on stage


Senator Obama listening to Biden talk


Giving the stump speech during a torrential down pour

NOW Endorsement

For the first time since 1984 NOW (National Organization of Women) has endorsed a presidential candidate in the general election. Very important news for women everywhere.

Spoke to me

Anyone that knows me knows I am an Obama suporter. Now that that disclaimer is out of the way .... this video really spoke to me. Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gwqEneBKUs

Science Debate 2008

There are lots of issues to debate during this political season. Also many liberal and conservative sources for information. As a scientist that is married to a scientist Joe and I both believe strongly in scientific integrity and research based learning. There is a HUGE missing element to the current political debates and that is the discussion of the current state and future of scientific research in our country.

I would suggest the Science Debate 2008 website as a good jumping off point for finding out the views of our future political leaders on many relevant scientific issues.

Number 7

Jaida is playing big kid league soccer this year. She has been doing great during practice. She even has been playing goalie during many practices and she proudly will tell anyone that will listen that she even picks up the ball when it is yucky and when it looks like someone might kick her. ;)

When given the choice of what jersey number she wanted to be she looked at the list and picked number seven. I need to find out what went into this decision of hers. She always has a reason ... I need to find out waht made number seven so attractive to her.

Kindergarten!

My baby is in kindergarten! I had nightmares for the entire week before she started. Jaida, on the other hand, was practically vibrating out of her own skin with excitement at the prospects of being at the BIG school with the BIG kids. She loves her teacher, her classroom, her locker, her pink mailbox, walking in all.by.herself.every.single.day, the playground, taking her lunch to school, the science center, checking out books from the library and have I mentioned her teacher .... who happens to be quite young, bubbly, and energetic. It doesn't hurt matters that Jaida thinks she looks like her teacher (dark hair and eyes) and that her teacher has proclaimed PINK! as her all-time favorite color. It is all good!

Some pictures from Jaida's first day of school ...

Jaida enjoying her first day of school breakfast


Modeling her new big girl back pack


Standing outside her new big kid school


In the words of Jaida ... "I am mostly excited with a tiny bit of nervous"

The Beach

We had a great stay on Hatteras Island. Mostly we just relaxed. We hung out on the beach, ate ice cream, did a bit of sight seeing and visited Ocracoke Island. It was a very relaxing and fun trip. Some much needed down-time before the fall frenzy sets in.

A few pictures of Jaida ....

Sun, Sand and Margaritas

(Although the kids will not be enjoying the Margaritas)



We will be on a road trip .... More to come shortly

Reading and Piano

Jaida is doing amazingly well on both these fronts. With time being the limiting factor in us being able to practice these things with Jaida it seemed she was getting easily frustrated. And so were we. We were trying to practice two or three days a week for 20-30 minutes each time and that was simply too big a chunk of time in our already packed summer schedule. So we implemented our new practice everyday for just 5-10 minutes policy and it is so much easier on all of us. Jaida is thriving and is no longer frustrated and we feel that she is getting all the practice time in she needs at her age.

When we first get home from daycare I sit down with both kids with books. Jax has a book that talks to him when he pushes the buttons so he can *read* it by himself while I work with Jaida. Jaida can handle about three or four short stories at a time before she starts getting squirmy and losing her ability to concentrate. Because I want Jaida to do the reading I have started to steer away from the Dr. Seuss books and other longer beginning reader books. They are too long and we have a hard time making it all the way through. For this reason Jaida has been really flying through these books lately. They are perfect for her to read by herself with just the occasional assistance from me. The books are around 5-6 pages long. The words are short and rhyme. Also each set focuses on a set of letters or sounds so the concept is really reinforced. The thing I most love about them is all the words can be sounded out so it has really reinforced to Jaida that if she doesn't recognize a word immediately all she needs to do is sound it out. My only complaint is the stories are a bit boring (compared to Dr. Seuss or similar) and the drawings are pretty simple which is both good and bad. The good is it keeps Jaida focused on the words rather than the pictures but the bad is they don't really hold her attention for very long. The books that have really been great for many reasons are these ones. The books have a nice progression from simple short-vowel sounds simple consonant sounds, and beginning sight words and mostly three letter words to long-vowel sounds, blended consonant sounds, reinforce sight words and four and five letter words. Best of all the stories are funny and the pictures are colorful and very interesting. Many times while Jaida is reading she will look at the picture and say "I wonder what that is" and then she will say "let me keep reading and find out". I think the pictures are a great motivation tool. Another great motivation tool is the fact that the set comes with 10 short stories, a parents guide that talks about the sight words and suggestions on how to reinforce the concepts and a sheet of stickers that correspond to each of the ten books in the set (40 stickers). So each time Jaida completes a book on her own she gets to put the appropriate sticker inside the cover of the book. She totally loves this aspect of the books and I love that it means she will read each of these books 4 times on her own so that she can put all the stickers on the cover.
Jaida also loves the Dick and Jane books. For some reason this makes me so happy. I learned to read with Dick and Jane books. The stories are simple, pictures are cute and the repetition is great. This compilation of stories is really great because the first stories are very short - "See Spot Run" sort of sentences. As you make your way through the stories the sentences become longer, more complex words are added, punctuation is added and we start seeing things in quotes which has allowed me to talk to Jaida about following the story and telling me who is doing the speaking. After Jaida finishes a story I usually have her sit there and tell me what happened in the story in her own words just to reinforce that she not only needs to figure out the words while she is reading she needs to pay attention to what is actually happening in the story. Jaida is doing so well on the reading front.

After reading time which really only lasts about 15 minutes or so Jaida gets to play for a bit and then when Joe gets home she practices piano for 10 minutes or so. This has also worked out really well. Joe has really been working with Jaida on keeping good posture, hand placement and being able to hear the rhythm or beat. They also just really focus on mastering one page of her music book. She learns it and then plays it over and over again until she has it down. Then they start refining it with making sure she has the rhythm down and can do it from memory. I think it is helped Jaida to have a sense of accomplishment to be able to walk away knowing she just learned something from beginning to end and can do it well. She also is really really good at reading the music and following along in her music book. I am most amazed that while she is playing she has learned to look ahead to see what is coming next without losing her place. She is really doing well! She has a five week break from formal lessons due to vacations for everyone. I think Miss Denise is going to be pleasantly surprised when she sees how much progress Jaida has made. :)

Reflections

We don't talk about our own spirituality much. Let me clarify that … we talk about it with our children and between ourselves but for the most part avoid the subject altogether when talking with friends and extended family. I suppose there are several reasons for this. First, for us, religion/spirituality is a private matter. We have never felt the need to convert other people to our belief system. Also, most (if not all) of our friends and most definitely all of our extended family are much more socially/politically conservative than us. Joe and I are VERY liberal. Add to that the fact that we are both atheists it is just easier at times not to talk about any of it. Because of all of these reasons finding a spiritual path to follow has been difficult.

Joe and I were both raised in Christianity. I was raised as a Southern Baptist (although we only went to church a handful of times during my entire childhood). I would say it was more fear-based than anything … fear of going to hell, fear of not getting what I wanted because I was a sinner, etc. Very early on I realized I was not a believer and was not like everyone else around me. Joe was raised in a pretty vanilla non-denominational church. It wasn’t until after we had the kids that we talked about how we would raise them. Joe took a pretty anti-organized-religion stance while for me it was more important that our kids not be baptized into any one belief system. I wanted to give them all the knowledge and tools early on to allow them to choose their own faith when they got older. Or not. At first I thought it would be good enough to raise good, upstanding people. To teach them how to be helpful, empathetic, caring and to treat others as they would hope to be treated. Then I realized that I was searching for something more ... something was missing. We were missing that sense of community. We wanted to find a group of people that were like-minded. I wanted for my kids to never feel like outcasts due to what they believed. I never thought I would find that in any sort of organized religion. I use the word religion very lightly here.

After speaking to a couple of friends and doing some internet searches I discovered Unitarian Universalism.

It is not my desire to try and convert anyone. I just feel a need to talk about this and since it is my blog I guess I am entitled. After much reading about the UU faith, searches to find a local fellowship and attempts at convincing Joe to come with me just one time to try it out we have found our spiritual home. We feel so at home and quite honestly for the first time feel like we have surrounded ourselves with like-minded people rather than always feeling like the odd-duck or outsider because of our beliefs. We fondly refer to our church as the "hippie church". Although Joe has *issues* with the word "church" because it has such a loaded connotation, so we call it a fellowship. Either way it is a beautiful old building nestled in a thick grove of trees just outside of Washington DC. The building blends in with surrounding environment rather than standing out as something different from it. During the winter we are greeted by a roaring fire in the fireplace. During the spring and summer the light filters through the forest canopy and through the domed sky lights in the sanctuary in the most beautiful of ways. In the fall we have a gorgeous view out the sanctuary windows of the turning foliage. The building is spare, with a lovely sanctuary which contains absolutely no religious iconography. The decorations are minimal and usually consist of paintings by local artists and a beautiful hand painted tree of life which hangs on the back wall. Thanks to one lady there is always a lovely arrangement of items brought in from nature … anything from a vase of twigs artfully arranged to beautiful flower arrangements using flowers grown on the property or along the roadside sitting next to the alter. It always brightens my day.

We became members in 2006, slightly before Jax was born, after attending for nearly a year. Both of our kids had their dedication ceremony last year. The dedication had less to do with bringing the kids into the religion and more to do with the people of the congregation agreeing to watch over and guide the children on their path of learning to the best of their abilities. I've become involved in teaching the religious education classes (exploring all religions and beliefs of the world) for Jaida’s age group. We are part of a larger spiritual community now, but our children will be encouraged to work out their own belief system (believing in god or not) in a supportive, welcoming environment.

It was with great sadness and horror that I read about the shooting in at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church in Knoxville, TN. A gunman entered the crowded sanctuary and killed two people, injuring more, while children were performing "Annie." He was eventually subdued as he stopped to reload his 12-gauge shot gun. It appears that his reasons for killing were that he was upset at not being able to find a job and he hated the liberal movement. As someone on the internet pointed out, "...if you have people like, say, Malkin and Coulter out there spreading the idea that liberals should be shot, it kind of follows that someone's going to be crazy enough to take that seriously." Is it their fault? No. Did it happen that way? We don't know. But it does make me wonder.

Shot? For being liberal?

I think many UU’s are feeling a bit rattled. Our church just recently became an official Welcoming Congregation and proudly sports a sign declaring this on the front door. We also have signs out by the road which state that we are a free-thinking, tolerant, empathetic group of people and that all are welcome. Our church supports many liberal causes and there is no doubt about what the people who enter our church believe. It is a bit worrisome though seeing as we are not located in the most liberally progressive area.

The fact that the shooter chose a community of peace-loving, open-minded and loving-hearted people to "touch" with his evil act (a word the Reverend of the church used to describe the situation), is ironic in the saddest sense of the word. One quote (from the Reverend of the UU congregation in Woodstock, TN) that caught my eye yesterday is “We don’t want to leap to conclusions and need to wait for the investigation to unfold,” Larsen said. “But if this is another example of the fruit of bigotry, it will only encourage us to pursue more vigorously our Unitarian Universalist belief in ‘the inherit worth and dignity of every person’ and to pursue ‘justice, equity and compassion in human relations.’”

All innocent victims of senseless violence have a right to be acknowledged, but my heart is with that community today. My thoughts are with all those affected. I wish you peace.

Summer Fun

We find ourselves in the middle of summer. We have been spending lots of time at the pool. Jaida is now officially a swimmer! She can dog-paddle and tread-water efficiently at this point and is now learning to swim under water with her little goggles on. She leaps (flying-squirrel style) off the side of the pool in the deep end and then swims to either Joe or myself.

Jaida is also really enjoying being able to read and spends lots of time trying to figure/sound out words on her own. The Scholastic BOB books have been a great learning tool. She is now moving onto Dick and Jane stories and some Dr Seuss books.

Jaida is also really flourishing in her piano lessons and is now playing with both hands and reading music. She really has a good ear and recognizes when she has done well with something she is playing. The curriculum her music teacher is using is Music for Little Mozarts. It is really well written and progresses at a good pace. Most of all it is interesting and fun for Jaida. She loves the workbook that comes with the music lesson book. She also loves the little animal companions that come with the music lesson book. It really makes learning fun and seem less like learning which is great. Jaida loves her Mozart Mouse, Beethoven Bear and Clara Schuman Cat.

This is the summer where we are really seeing Jaida come into her own. So far this has been a great summer with Jaida. She is so easy and we have tons of fun as a family.

5 Year Well Child Check-Up

Jaida had her five year old check up yesterday. She is as healthy as can be ... but then again we already knew that. She is 41.25 inches tall and if she continues on her current growth curve she will be about 5'3" or 5'4" as an adult. That sounds just about right. She is also 38 pounds. So about 50% for weight and 30% for height.

Dr. Smith was asking Jaida all sorts of questions just to get a feel for her linguistic abilities and ability to comprehend more complex questions. Jaida sat there and had a very nice conversation with the doctor. She then showed him how she can read a book. He was very impressed and said I am going to really need to advocate for Jaida this year and get her working at a accelerated pace in school to keep her from getting bored.

Anyhow, a very good appointment overall.

A Bouncing Good Time

Jaida and Jaxon had their joint birthday bash on Saturday. This year we decided to have the party hosted outside of our house. We chose a play arena called Bounce About. It is a large warehouse that has several very large inflatable play areas ... a moon bounce, two obstacle courses, a large slide and smaller slide and then a contained moon bounce slide structure for the under three set. The kids ran and bounced for a solid hour. After that we had pizza and fruit and then strawberry short cake and ice cream. I think all the kids had a great time and were totally exhausted afterwards. Jaida invited several of her friends from dance, some friends from school, and then her best friends Jordyn and Peyton. Jax's little friend Faith also came. They all had a really good time.

Companionship

There are times having two kids feels like a tremendous amount of work. For instance getting them ready to go in the morning, getting them to share toys, getting them to agree on what they want to eat, etc. But these times are so overshadowed by the friendship we see blooming in our kids. While they still bicker on occasion and each seems to derive great pleasure from pestering the other they absolutely adore each other. It is so nice to see them getting to the age where they actively seek each other out for companionship. It is also really nice to see that they are both very protective of each other against those they perceive as outsiders. I know they will have times where they drift apart and then become close again but I hope this love they share as little ones stays with them forever.

Some pictures of our two little monkeys.

Hanging out at the Awakening statue at National Harbor


Climbing up the hill at the zoo


Sharing a sandwich, curb and some giggles at the zoo


Feeding the geese at the park


Showing us the daisies they picked while at the dog park


Playing a computer game


Enjoying a late afternoon popsicle. Look at how they squeezed themselves together.


I am going to post this on both kids blog to serve as a future reminder that once upon a time they really did like each other. :)