Vancouver adventures summer 2010

So here we are in Vancouver having "friend intensives" so that the kids and I both get a large dosage of peer fun. Today we went with Kate and Liam to the new Hillcrest pool right by the Nat Bailey stadium. It was totally fantastic. The new pool is in a beautiful building with interesting architecture, lot of natural light and so many things to have fun with. Since the kids are both avid swimmers it was perfect. We got to the pool just after 11 in the AM and we left at 3 (i was the only one who really wanted to leave!). Now in that time we did have a lunch break out on the lawn beside the outdoor pool and our lunch time was extended when Liam went missing and the whole pool was evacuated to find him. The announcement was that a parent had been lost and that a child "Liam", 7 years old, dark hair, blue suit need to find his parent. He eventually appeared from somewhere because he had heard his name on the speakers and indeed he didn't know where his Mom was!!
The biggest hit for the kids was the "river" part of the big kid activity pool. It is in the picture- the dark blue backward C is where the river is. It pushes you through the water in a big circle and it is really fun and a bit crazy when the 10-13 year old boys show up with their day-camp after lunch. Meems and Ams loved going in the river riding a "water horse" (pool noodle between the legs) and they were both really great at balancing on it. Meems is not tall enough to touch in the river but she still has no fear about these things. Ami was really really really into jumping into the pool. This is a major break-through for him and he did it over and over again. I wish that i had a picture of the joy on his face at the pool. just beautiful. This place makes me want to move back to Vancouver right now!! Plus move into this 'hood.
After the pool we went back to K and L's place for more playing and then dinner. The kids were totally subdued after the pool experience and played very nicely.

in brief (as i know that more and more things to post will crop up)...
yesterday we went to spend the day with Louise and her kids. we spent the morning in the house with lots of fun play and great visiting for the Mums. We made a great lunch and all the kids were super eaters. I went at lunch time to inspect our Turner Street house's new paint job and to pay the painter. The house looks super snazzy. the garden, not so much. It is a jungle (even more than when i was doing the gardening) and there are fences that need major repair/replacement . . . . a bit concerning. ..
after lunch we headed out to Pandora Park to go to the wading pool. Much fun was had by all.
in the late afternoon we headed over to AnneMarie and Dave's house for dinner. Lyra was super excited to have Ams and Meems around to play with. After dinner we jammed in their garage! Dave has all the gear to do a big jam- keyboards, guitar, bass, drum kit and mini drum kit!! Ami was so pleased to see such a thing and took to it right away. I think we have a mini drum kit in our future!
very late night for the kids but SO worth it!

Xtracycle

I can't believe that i haven't posted our Xtracycle video yet. I was waiting because I wanted to fix something in this version. However, I have decided that I'd better just post this so everyone can see it (in its flawed state!) and get on with my perfectionist life.

MacElfert Xtracycle Peapod LT Adventures from Martin Elfert on Vimeo.

what is new...?

I feel like I am so overdue in writing in here that it is way too daunting a task to undertake. However, I will persevere!
i taught my 5th Anat Baniel floor class (Transformational Movement Lesson) this evening in Classroom C at CDSP. It is cosy with a gas fireplace and oil heater and there is space enough for more than 10 to comfortably lie down. My class size is dwindling from a remarkable 10 people on the first night. I think the end of term has something to do with it. Everyone is cramming to get their last papers in as Friday is their last day. I have been transcribing lessons from the DVDs that I bought, using transcriptions from our classes at the training and also using a book called "Singing with your whole self". It takes quite a bit of work to do it but it is very worthwhile because I am starting to understand it more and more- both teaching it and in my own practice.

Today I had a fabulous day with a big chunk of this morning doing TMLs on DVD and singing in-between. I really felt like i was "getting somewhere" with it all. To have a relatively long time to spend on doing things for myself (and not being on the computer) is really awesome.

On Sunday we went and got a Christmas Tree!! We bought it from Home Depot in Emeryville which meant that it was a good price and it was one-stop shopping (stand and wreath for the door). We ended up going to a potluck at The COG (cooperative grocery store) which was fun and tasty. There was live music and Martin commented that it was just like a concert at the cultch. The audience was exactly the same (folkies around the world...) Our Christmas tree spent the night relaxing on our back porch and we put it up after Ami got home from school on Monday. It has made our livingroom seem quite fancy some how. Nothing like twinkle-lights to upscale your place!

Ami has been introduced to the candy of Christmas (canes, bon-bons) and is loving it! His bus driver gave him a couple of mini candy-canes and he now wants to know if there are bigger ones. I said yes there were and so he is now on a mission to get a big candy cane!

I started writing this post a couple of days ago so the days are getting all mixed up...

Today Miriam and I made cookies with our friends Sylvia and Alexandra (and baby Johanna). It was exhausting and we didn't even make the dough! Sylvia brought 6 pounds of sugar cookie dough and we rolled it out, cut it up, baked it, decorated them, and then packaged them. I was a very grumpy Mum by the end. Luckily we had lunch in the middle which did buoy my spirits! It was something else. I was all ready to dive into making some cookies that I can eat but I think I will now give it a few days to get re-inspired!

labour day holiday

We wanted to do more camping (after our Big Sur adventure.. post will be forthcoming...) before school started again but we didn't plan early enough to get a camping spot at one of the many local campgrounds/state parks/forestry campsites for labour day weekend. We wanted to camp with our neighbours Betsy and Eddie and their daughter Ruby but they were hesitant to make the adventure too big as Ruby had never been camping before and has always slept in her own room etc etc. In the end we decided to have a Labour Day family adventure at one of the many parks here in the East Bay. Eddie discovered that we could rent a boat on 4 of the water reserves around here. We chose the closest one (Lake Chabot) which is just east of Oakland (about 20 minute drive from here). We decided to invite Katie and Mary Anne along to make it more fun! There was no way to reserve a boat so we set out nice and early to snag ourselves a "patio boat"! (sorry I didn't manage to take a picture of it...) When we arrived it seemed as though there were lots of people already enjoying the outdoors but we were lucky to get one of the last boats available. The website had said that these boats could take 8 people or 1200 lbs so we thought we would be amply safe with 9 people -3 under 40 lbs! Unfortunately they insisted on the 8 people rule so we were forced to rent a canoe as well. In the end this was a GREAT fortune! Once we got out on the water we just hitched the canoe to the PBoat and carried on with all of us enjoying the cushions! Besides the canoe just being really fun to go in, it was rather essential for our 4 hour cruise up and down the reservoir. It meant that we could go ashore as the water level was too low to dock the patio boat!
The reservoir was lovely and quiet as all the boats run on electricity or muscle power. Really a wonderfully calm day.
Another happy piece of luck was that it was "free fishing" day! We had intended to fish and pay for the privilege but we didn't need too!! We rented 2 fishing poles which was enough for everyone who wanted to get their fill of casting and reeling. No wildlife was harmed or even tempted by our lures. . .


We all brought ample food for the day so we had a big feast on board. Eddie was a little disappointed not to go real camping as he was unable to use his fold-out camping KITCHEN! I am disappointed too because i didn't get to SEE Eddie's fold-out camping KITCHEN!! Maybe at another time. . .
By the end of our time on the boat we were ready to do other things or have naps etc so it was quite overwhelming when we got back to the dock to experience the numbers and the sound of the masses of people who came to Lake Chabot while we were busy cruising its waters! We decided to find a nice spot to hang out some more in our courtyard back home!!

Miriam's accomplishments

I forgot to mention the things that Mimi has mastered these days or just things that are new which she (and We!) are excited about.

#1 No Diapers!! No wet beds!!! just a simple trip to the biffy before the adults go to bed and- presto- our girl has grown up and we aren't buying or washing diapers!!! yippeeeee!!!!

#2 moved to a cute toddler bed- She was MOST pleased about this. I think she was royally tired of sleeping in the play-pen bed that she has been in since we moved to Berkeley. I am super happy because it means that we have one less bed in their room!

#3 necklace beading
This girl has amazing ability to do fine motor skills and she loves it too.

Miriam's days

Mimi's first day of school at the Orange House (pictured here!!)

Miriam has been very busy these days! She started "school" at the Orange House the day before Ami went to Kindergarten so she had a head start with education this fall!! She is loving going to Daycare/preschool and the Orange house is a particularly lovely place and vibe. They always play nice music (including Suzuki book 1!) and they are very loving and responsive to the kids. It really feels like Mimi is at somebody else's home and that she gets to do stuff there that I don't think to do with her here. On Friday Helen (the woman who runs the business) said that she had a great time gluing! She always is glad to see me but also really jazzed about her experience. She wants to go there every day!
Mimi attends the Orange House with Ruby Gonzales (who also lives in the Nichols Apartments with us). We walk 1/2 a block to get there! Ruby is always stylishly dressed and very put-together and Mimi doesn't always leave the house quite like that! This photo is from their first day and I am not sure that Mimi wanted to have a picture together with Ruby! It is good for them to go together because they are the only girls! Helen tells me that if a childcare situation does not have a gender balance policy that boys far our-number girls... interesting...

Now that school has started up again at CDSP, I have resumed my childcare swaps with Sylvia. This year I get to look after her 2 girls and she looks after Mimi. Mimi and Alexandra seem to be getting along very well as you can see by these photos!


Although Sylvia is a dancer she has never encouraged Alexandra to be interested in dance and especially in ballet. Alexandra has other ideas!!!! And now Miriam seems to want to do pink ballerina things too! I just love this photo of them and Miriam's body and leg shape, her socks.. etc...
I am having fun looking after Alexandra's baby sister Johanna who was born at the beginning of June. She is super sweet and very forgiving and it is fun to have someone so little to hold and then be able to give them back!

Here is Mimi on our camping trip. By this point we were with our friends from All Souls Parish and we were so dusty (perhaps you can see it in the air..) it was quite unbelievable! Ami and Mimi really loved camping and we hope to do more of it in the near future.

This is Mimi singing a little song on an amazing beach on our Big Sur camping adventure.
Mimi is LOVING her new sandals that Gran sent for her!
She is showing signs of being a BIG character and loving a good joke and being an altogether awesome gal.

Amiel's first day of school

Today started earlier than usual with a wake-up rooster crowing at 6:30. There was a school bus to catch at 7:45!
As the alarm didn't seem to have much effect on our little scholar we had to employ the wake-up rattle-snake to rouse his weary bones! Miriam would have slept through the whole thing if we hadn't muscled her awake as well. A spiffy outfit of tan shorts, a short-sleeved shirt (one we got in Portland this past summer), and mismatched socks was chosen for the momentous day. Ami ate a "green egg" (kiwi fruit) and a piece of homemade toast to start his day and we headed out the door at 7:30 to walk up the hill to the school bus stop situated at Cedar and Le Roy. The entourage up the hill consisted of Amiel, Martin, Katie, Mary Anne, and a very sleepy Miriam. I decided to drive to the bus-stop in case our boy decided that he wasn't ready to ride the bus alone this morning and because I planned to meet him at his school when his bus arrived. Our new neighbours Lynne and Oryah came with me. Oryah is also enrolled at Washington in grade 2. The whole troupe of us waited at the appointed corner and it wasn't long before the great big yellow school bus came around the corner and down the hill. Without nary and ounce of fear (or even a look back to his nervous support group!) Ami boarded that bus and strode down the aisle to find a seat for himself. The bus had only a handful of kids on it and the bus driver was willing to take Oryah on the bus even though she isn't yet registered as a rider. Oryah is a very sweet girl and she got on and sat with our little boy!
After the bus departed we all looked at each other and confirmed that all of us were really not sure that he would be willing to go on the bus this morning. It is hard to gauge what makes him nervous but this was one thing we were all worried about. Then Lynne and I drove down to the school to await the bus...
We found a couple with a baby who had done exactly the same thing as us with their kindergartener daughter so we stood awaiting the bus arrival together. I'm not sure that we need have been there as the kids were greeted by the principal Rita Kimbell. She meets the bus kids every day and scurries them off to the school yard.

As you can see Ami managed to forget his backpack on the bus so we got to have our first lesson in not forgetting things! Luckily we noticed its absence when the bus was still sitting at the stop!
Ami and I made our way into the school yard where we found out that he was assigned to Ms Kessel's class. This is an arbitrary class list as there are 4 Kindergarten classes at Washington and the 4 teachers get to rotate around the classrooms for the first 3 days before they "balance" the classes" and finalize the class list. I hope that he gets to be in a classroom that is not in the basement.
Here he is about to go into his classroom from the school yard.Here he is on his chosen square (if there were a yellow one I'm sure that he would have picked it!)

The teacher told a story and then read a story (Miss Bindergarten gets ready for Kindergarten) and Ami was one of the students to offer some tidbit of his own experience during the telling. The parents were invited to be in the classroom for about 10 minutes and then we were dismissed (kicked-out) to go to the library to have coffee and Q & A with the principal and some PTA members.

So after that Lynne and I came home...
It was fairly strange to not have him around all day. Miriam (who was hanging out with Katie and Mary Anne while I was busy at the school) is such a different person and she happily plays with her toys and busies herself so easily that it feels somehow that I am not really parenting her. The house is quiet and restful without our boy.
Miriam and Martin and I hung out and it didn't seem too long before I started worrying about picking up the boy from the bus stop. It was an early release day today so the kids ended school at 1:30. Mimi and I went to wait for the bus at about 1:50 (since it is about a 10 minute drive...) but little Ams was the last off the bus and the only rider at 2:20 when he finally made it to Cedar and Le Roy. He looked a bit shell shocked, hot and tired and in the style of every child who goes to school did not have much to say about school when asked...

The report from the first day

Me: what was your favourite part?
Amiel: All of it - except the sunny part.

Things I have learned about the first day of school

He had snack (breakfast) provided by the school of a small bag of "Gorilla Munch" cereal, milk and the "worst peach in the world"!
He didn't eat all of his lunch (but he ate it when he got home!)
He played outside, read books, built things with blocks and legos, and met 2 other kindergarten teachers (Ms Wash -and the easy to remember- Miss Mimi!)
All in all he had a great day and wants to go back for more tomorrow. I will report on anything else I find out!!

I am amazed that I managed to make it though 5+ years as the principal care giver without giving up entirely. I am excited for Ami and his learning and new experiences and I hope that what I have provided for his life education will stand him in good stead and keep him safe.