Grade One

Ami started Grade One on the day after Labour Day (or he started First Grade on the day after Labor Day!). When was arrived at Washington on our Xtracycle we were a little bit late and we encountered Ms Mimi as she was taking her class into the school. Ami was feeling a bit hesitant about the whole experience - arriving late (the other kids started on the Wednesday before), not knowing who his teacher was going to be. . .
Ms Mimi was very warm and welcoming to him and he was his usual "shy-at-first-greeting" self. Then she said "Ms Laurance is waiting for you"! He was so darling in his reaction. Under his breath I could hear him say "Just who I wanted!" He was full of smiles then.
Ms Laurance is the beautiful and elegant, always nice teacher who's room is next door to Ms Mimi's so the school routine really hasn't changed at all!
His first days and weeks were a little rocky as he was figuring out the dynamics of his class, the rules of the room, the expectations of the teacher etc. He wasn't so sure that he liked school all that much. Now things are looking up and he is quite happy with school and Ms Laurance.
In Grade One the students sit at little designated tables with other children (Ami sits with 3 other kids). Ms Laurance is very big into giving incentive rewards for homework done and other accomplishments. She is very successful with this! I am having trouble with the concept that homework would be required for grade one. It is very difficult to get him to do it and I hate being the person making him do something that I don't believe in. Grrrr. He says that he doesn't like math so I have been working on helping him to understand how important math is to being an engineer. I think his problem is that he finds what they are doing in math boring. . . .
Ami really likes the science teacher who comes to their class on Wednesdays. I haven't heard much about what they learn - all I've heard is that it is great!

Ami's reading is impressive. At the beginning of the year we were given a list of words that Grade Ones are supposed to practice so that will be able to read (sight reading- not figuring out the individual words) 75/80 words. Well Ami can already read them all. It makes me wonder if boredom will set in in school. . .
Ami stayed home from school today as he was feeling a little under the weather. He did agree to do some school work with me over the course of the day. It was quite fun really. If I had a curriculum I think we could probably do homeschooling but we would need a big group of other home schooled friends to play with. That wouldn't be so hard or so bad!!

Katie and I have decided to make sure that we do all the things we want to do in the Bay Area before graduation in May. To that end I think I will be taking Ami out of school maybe even one day a week to enrich our experience here.

Trip From BC to Berk

Well, it was a marathon.
Martin and I left Sorrento BC at 9 AM on Labour Day Saturday and set out for Vancouver. The drive was very nice and it was lovely to get to spend time together (alone) on the first leg of our big road trip. I learned from the last time that I traveled from the interior to the coast to check in regularly with the traffic report on News 1130. We knew that we had a really big day in front of us with our plans to drive right into Point Grey to pick up the kids at the Elfert's place. However our heart sank when we heard that the lineups at the borders were 3.5 hours at Peace Arch, 3+ hours at Pacific Truck Crossing and 1-2 hours in the valley. We determined that it would be best for us to do some double-backing so that we wouldn't have to wait for such an excruciatingly long time at the border. We arrived at the Elfert's at around 2:30 and by the time we packed all our earthly goods in the car... it was close to 4. I checked the traffic online and found that the wait at Peace Arch was 5-10 minutes and that the valley crossings were closer to 1-2 hours now. I guess everyone had the same idea as we had had!
Indeed there was no wait at the border at all and we breezed through and all our papers were in order. First stress alleviated. . . .

We drove south to a place called Marysville, north of Everett, where we stopped for dinner. We like to go to places that aren't big chains and we saw some signs for "Boondockers Cafe" along the highway that looked somewhat interesting. I imagined it would be an American-fare place but when we arrived and saw the menu and the proprietors we realized that we did much better than we had imagined. The lovely east-indian family who ran the place had indian food on the menu as a "special". We were delighted! The kids loved it and ate well. The hosts were impressed by our children's adventurous taste and we loved the low key atmosphere and ability to put on jammies and brush teeth before "bed". They gave the kids bubble-gum ice-cream for dessert! At the restaurant I was able to phone La Quinta in Portland to make a reservation for the night. We didn't reserve a hotel room in advance or even earlier in the day as we had no idea about how far we would be able to make it, or if we would have any issues at the border.
The kids slept well while we motored along and we made it to Portland by midnight.

In the morning we had breakfast in their breakfast room. It was pretty crappy but oh so convenient and it is really nice to be able to have pets in the hotel.

The Sunday is a bit of a blur for me now but we left at 9 AM and arrived at 11PM in Berkeley. We stopped for lunch around Medford (?) at a disappointing restaurant that didn't have any sort of fresh veggies unless it was a salad. . . . no such thing as carrot sticks or anything. I imagine all the food there comes on a big truck- pre-cut, pre-sliced, pre-cooked? We had a nice play at a local park We managed to go to the same restaurant for dinner in Redding as we had gone to on the way up to Canada in May. The Black Bear Diner. It is a little local chain- California and maybe into Oregon? The kids really like it because they have the option of getting breakfast for dinner!!!
We stopped at a drive-in cappuccino bar on our way out of town. It felt so civilized to order a really inexpensive and yet yummy coffee without getting out of our car.
One of the spectacular sights we saw was the sunset outside of Redding CA with the black 3D silhouettes of trees, layers of hills and incredibly orange skies.
I think that this night might have been Mimi's first time seeing stars. She was astounded to see them in the night sky out the windows of the car. "Mum, Look! Stars!!!"
We arrived back in Berk at 11, approaching from a different trajectory than usual-via Walnut Creek. Everyone was glad to be back home.

I am sorry to say that I have no pictures of any part of our trip... :(

where to start...

Best laid plans to rival Caitlin's blogging regimen seem to have been left by the side of the road... Perhaps it's because I have been fighting a number of things since getting back to Berkeley.

First, FLEAS. We arrived home from our marathon travel from BC (more on that in another post) to find our house totally infested with fleas. I have never ever seen anything so disgusting and disturbing. The poor cat was so unhappy and Bodhi followed suit within seconds of arrival...
clean-up/infestation removal has included various eco-friendly measures (excessive vacuuming, cleaning, carefully removing reams of fleas from pets and killing them individually) as well as the less eco-friendly measures such as chemically treating our house with Flea Fog. We had to remove ourselves and pets from the premises for 3-4 hours. Luckily that meant that we went up to have some quality time at Tilden Park- the kids and I picked black-berries and played with Ami's new walkie-talkies while Martin did his meditation homework! Then we got to go out for sushi at our favourite place "Jo-shu-ya". Now we are depending on Advantage (which was ridiculously expensive at the vet's) to work its magic but it means that our four footed friends are still bearing the brunt of the flea fight and I still feel them crawling on me whether or not they really are. . . .

Second, my computer, in connection with my feline roommate, seemed to understand my wishes that I would spend less time on it. Maggie managed to knock over a full glass of water on my keyboard which rendered it useless... I spent quite a few days figuring out how to type messages to people without using m, n, b, l, a or the space bar. It was a challenge that I was glad to see the end of. Thanks to a classmate of Martin I now have a cute wireless keyboard with a wireless mouse. I thought it might help with the clutter on my desk some how. It hasn't.

Third, I had do finish a transcription of a lecture by Anat Baniel from my last training. Always interesting, always time-consuming.

Fourth, my computer is full. I can't load all my pictures on it and i feel like blog posts should always have pictures (1000 words after all).

Fifth, my computer only has 1/2 a screen now. The right hand side has completely busted. It just doesn't invite me to spend any pleasure time at my desk. Martin is planning a trip to the Mac store tomorrow to see what he can do to get them to stand behind their product. It is only 3.5 years old. :(

Sixth, I was feeling daunted but now I've fixed that by starting to write so here goes. . . .

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!!