(I was looking through the videos I've accumulated and came across this one. It was easy enough to edit, so here it is!)
There's an assembly every Monday morning at Makena's school. At the end of last year the band played this song. It quickly became one of Makena's favorite songs and subsequently one of Kessler's. The ever obliging daddy ripped it to CD so we could enjoy it while in the car! : )
Monday, March 28, 2011
What happened was..
Kessler was in a big Christmas concert back in December. It was 3 hours long; every kid performed the entire 3 hours. It was absolutely adorable, but required a lot of editing. It will take me hours to find software and edit it and since I hadn't finished my immigration paperwork or our 2009 taxes, I decided I'd better put it on the back burner. And unfortunately, I have a very difficult time updating the blog out of sequence. One of my quirks, I guess. Anyway, it makes me quite sad to think of all the things that didn't make it to the blog during that time. And even though the immigration paperwork is done (pending with immigration), 2009 AND 2010 taxes are done--I still feel inundated with responsibilities.
I've decided that's no excuse. You see, a few weeks ago we went to Tasmania for Mark's best friend's father's funeral. It was an amazing funeral, as odd as that sounds. They spoke a lot about Barry. They played several of his favorite songs, all country--which was quite appropriate for a funeral. One of the speakers was Mark's friend, Barry's son. Among other things, he talked about how his father always remembered everything. He recently found out that this was because he kept a journal and would frequently go back and reread what he had written. I only met Barry once, maybe twice. But from the stories Mark told about him (and the eulogies) he's not the kind of guy you'd peg for having a diary. It made me realize that if a hardcore guy like Barry cherished his memories so much to write them down and read them, then everyone should do it. Then I remembered that I had been doing that with my blog--and I also remembered the joy of going back and reading the stories, stories that would have otherwise been forgotten.
So, here I am.. setting aside my quirk to move forward with the help of Barry. Thanks, mate.
It's been almost 10 months since we landed in Melbourne. I can't believe it's been that long--yet, I also can't believe it hasn't been longer! Makena is back in Prep again. Since she started halfway through last year and just barely met the birthday cut off to start prep anyway, we decided it was best to let her have the whole experience. It was a tough decision because she had so many wonderful friends. We weren't counting on that when we rationalized that holding her back might be the likely outcome when we enrolled her. Regardless, she's doing so well. I'm so proud of her for being able to roll with all that has been thrown at her. She's just such an easy going, happy kid. I hope she stays that way!!
Kessler is going to Rainbow 2 days a week. We dropped him down from 5 days because it was just so expensive, $1800 a month!! He's going to a regular Kinder program as well called St. Mary's by everyone but Kessler--he calls it Saints Mary or the "blue gate school". He only goes there 2 days a week for just 3 hours a day. The council (government) offers these kinder programs. They are quite cheap, relatively speaking, and the kids will generally move up to primary school with some friends. It's just a block and a half away. He loves it; I'm not exactly sure why. But, as we walk up to the door he clinches his hands together and says, "I'm so excited!"
Makena and Kessler are both taking swim lessons. Makena LOVES to swim. Kessler does too, except when he's in class. Then it can go either way. Makena also just started taking piano lessons. This is offered at her school. She and one of her friends from class take the lessons together. She's really enjoying them so far!
Kessler is all about dinosaurs these days. Nothing I write here will give that sentence justice. A few weeks ago he was watching a Dinosaur documentary--clearly not aimed at 3 year olds. Later he retrieved his dinosaur encyclopedia (again, not targeted toward the toddler demographic)--and found one of the dinosaurs featured in the documentary. There are hundreds of dinosaurs in this book and honestly, they all look nearly the same--but he's able to distinguish between them. He remembers their names, no matter how many syllables. He'll go to a random page and tell me that that particular dinosaur is a carnivore. At first I assumed he was just guessing correctly--but when I asked him how he knew he explained that he had to be a carnivore because of his teeth and his talons then he explained to me that the dinosaur on the adjacent page was a herbivore because of his neck and lack of talons. I kind of felt like an idiot after that.
He's graduated from simply roaring to.. well.. roaring like a dinosaur--I can't even begin to spell it phonetically. Let's just say it's quite realistic--so much so that we have to tell him off all the time because he's scaring other kids. Incidentally, he's still quite the chic-magnet, despite this. He and Polina are going strong.
That's enough for now! I'll write more later!!
I've decided that's no excuse. You see, a few weeks ago we went to Tasmania for Mark's best friend's father's funeral. It was an amazing funeral, as odd as that sounds. They spoke a lot about Barry. They played several of his favorite songs, all country--which was quite appropriate for a funeral. One of the speakers was Mark's friend, Barry's son. Among other things, he talked about how his father always remembered everything. He recently found out that this was because he kept a journal and would frequently go back and reread what he had written. I only met Barry once, maybe twice. But from the stories Mark told about him (and the eulogies) he's not the kind of guy you'd peg for having a diary. It made me realize that if a hardcore guy like Barry cherished his memories so much to write them down and read them, then everyone should do it. Then I remembered that I had been doing that with my blog--and I also remembered the joy of going back and reading the stories, stories that would have otherwise been forgotten.
So, here I am.. setting aside my quirk to move forward with the help of Barry. Thanks, mate.
It's been almost 10 months since we landed in Melbourne. I can't believe it's been that long--yet, I also can't believe it hasn't been longer! Makena is back in Prep again. Since she started halfway through last year and just barely met the birthday cut off to start prep anyway, we decided it was best to let her have the whole experience. It was a tough decision because she had so many wonderful friends. We weren't counting on that when we rationalized that holding her back might be the likely outcome when we enrolled her. Regardless, she's doing so well. I'm so proud of her for being able to roll with all that has been thrown at her. She's just such an easy going, happy kid. I hope she stays that way!!
Kessler is going to Rainbow 2 days a week. We dropped him down from 5 days because it was just so expensive, $1800 a month!! He's going to a regular Kinder program as well called St. Mary's by everyone but Kessler--he calls it Saints Mary or the "blue gate school". He only goes there 2 days a week for just 3 hours a day. The council (government) offers these kinder programs. They are quite cheap, relatively speaking, and the kids will generally move up to primary school with some friends. It's just a block and a half away. He loves it; I'm not exactly sure why. But, as we walk up to the door he clinches his hands together and says, "I'm so excited!"
Makena and Kessler are both taking swim lessons. Makena LOVES to swim. Kessler does too, except when he's in class. Then it can go either way. Makena also just started taking piano lessons. This is offered at her school. She and one of her friends from class take the lessons together. She's really enjoying them so far!
Kessler is all about dinosaurs these days. Nothing I write here will give that sentence justice. A few weeks ago he was watching a Dinosaur documentary--clearly not aimed at 3 year olds. Later he retrieved his dinosaur encyclopedia (again, not targeted toward the toddler demographic)--and found one of the dinosaurs featured in the documentary. There are hundreds of dinosaurs in this book and honestly, they all look nearly the same--but he's able to distinguish between them. He remembers their names, no matter how many syllables. He'll go to a random page and tell me that that particular dinosaur is a carnivore. At first I assumed he was just guessing correctly--but when I asked him how he knew he explained that he had to be a carnivore because of his teeth and his talons then he explained to me that the dinosaur on the adjacent page was a herbivore because of his neck and lack of talons. I kind of felt like an idiot after that.
He's graduated from simply roaring to.. well.. roaring like a dinosaur--I can't even begin to spell it phonetically. Let's just say it's quite realistic--so much so that we have to tell him off all the time because he's scaring other kids. Incidentally, he's still quite the chic-magnet, despite this. He and Polina are going strong.
That's enough for now! I'll write more later!!
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