Japanese Camp

This week Matthew attended Japanese camp. For those of you who don't know, last Spring the school district chose to make Matthew's school their newest immersion school. They use a part time immersion where math and science are taught in the "target" language with reading and social studies taught in English. To help ease kids into the program the school offered this two day, half day language camp.

I should have anticipated it, but I hadn't realized that at the language camp the teachers would only be speaking Japanese. It is, afterall, the model. So, I hadn't prepared Matthew at all for the fact that his teacher, Michiko Sensei (I think that is what she's going by, Matthew is a little scarce on the details), would only be speaking Japanese.

I may have enjoyed myself a little too much (it had been a rough morning) as I watched Matthew being greeted by his teacher the first morning. He had a sort of deer-in-the-headlights look in his eyes combined with a nervous smile that seemed to say, "I have no idea what this lady is talking about." But, despite the initial shock, he really did enjoy himself. I've always had some difficulty piecing together a complete picture of his day at school from his scattered accounts and recollections, but I anticipate it's going to be even more tricky figuring out what he's doing when he doesn't know either. I had to chuckle when he reported about the first day, "First we did math, um, I think it was math." He got smarter about just telling the things that he did and not trying to guess at the subject that he was supposed to be learning.

We're so excited that he has the opportunity to be part of this program! It's going to be quite an adventurous year!

Sibling Love

Ward Campout

This weekend Jon and boys headed to Bainbridge Island for the annual ward campout. We've gone every year since we moved to Seattle, even if we didn't always sleep there. This year Jon decided to brave a night in a tent with the boys; Elyse and I choose to stay home and meet up with them the next morning.

Unfortunately, Jon was a little too occupied with the boys to snap any pictures. But he reported that the boys enjoyed roasting their hot dog dinner over the camp fire, playing on the swings and play structure, meeting the chickens and horses, making s'mores, eating cobbler, and sleeping (yes, they did actually sleep this year!) in the tent. Ironically, Jon more sleep that night than any other night in the previous six weeks . . . and definitely more sleep than I got that night at home with Elyse.

When Elyse and I arrived the next morning we joined the group in service project for a local family. The boys were pretty good helpers. I unfortunately wasn't able to do much work with Elyse strapped on. But I tried hard to be a good supervisor. After working hard, we headed back to the farm to play hard and eat lunch. The boys enjoyed more play time with friends before we had to pack up and head out. I didn't do a whole lot better at getting pictures, but I managed a few with my phone. I tried to not get shadowy shots, but failed miserably. I haven't had much practice shooting in sunlight!

More Elyse

Elyse is contentedly awake more and more these days:

Swinging . . . or at least sitting in the swing. These ones crack me up!
























































Tummy time
Could this really be comfortable?

Track Workout

I have this friend idol, Laurie. She's an amazing runner, oh and, mother of four. Where I choose to stick my kids in childcare at a gym while running on a treadmill, she does crazy things like running at ungodly hours and pushing a huge double stroller while maintaining a 7 minute mile. She's really an inspiration.

Well, Elyse has kind of put a snafu in my typical running routine. See, she can't go to childcare at the gym until she's three months old. So, I've been experimenting with getting my runs in other ways. Yesterday I took a page from Laurie's book and attempted a "track" workout. I loaded up the jogging stroller and they boys bikes and headed to the track near Grandmother Ruthie's house.

Matthew did great, lapping me several times.
Seth was less enthusiastic about riding. He took several breaks to pick flowers, draw in the dirt, and play with Grandmother Ruthie.
Elyse was perfect . . .
I was able to get in 3 miles. I would have been able to get in more if I weren't so darn slow. Baby steps. I'm sure it'll get better. Maybe the boys will get better at it too. At least until I can check Elyse into the kids klub at the gym in eight weeks. Not that I'm counting . . .

Elyse - One Month

We survived the first month! Thankfully, Elyse has gotten pretty good at eating. She still takes a LONG time to eat (even on the few occasions that Jon has bottle fed her), but that can be expected. I'm glad she's resolved her eating issues so they are nothing out of the ordinary anymore.

Aside from the initial struggles, she's really turned into a pretty good and easy baby, especially compared to our the boys as infants. She sleeps pretty well, except for lately, and has even started to have longer stretches of awake contentment.
(The last couple of days, she's decided that she doesn't like to sleep alone in her crib! Why sleep in the crib when you can be held by mom or dad all night?)

We haven't been the greatest at taking pictures, but the other day out on Grandmother's Ruthie's lawn I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of our little girl. We all think that she's pretty cute, unfortunately, the pictures don't due her justice. But, here are some collages anyway. By the way, while I was feeding and taking pictures of Elyse, both boys managed to end up chest deep in the lake with their clothes on.


In other news, Seth has been on quite a tear. I suppose it's his way of stealing attention, but, boy this kid is making me crazy. He's turned to drawing on walls, his face, toys, etc with markers; dropping more things in the fish tank; tackling, hitting, throwing things, and generally harassing Matthew; and being generally disobedient and mischievous. Everything that I have to feed or put Elyse to sleep I fear what Seth will do while I'm occupied. I'm sure things will get better, but all his craziness has prompted me to seriously consider everyday preschool for him in the fall. Of course, I'm sure that won't happen, but it's very tempting on those days where I spend most of the day "cleaning up his messes."

Outings

This week I've been more brave and better at getting out with the boys. Granted, most of our outings were to local parks and we didn't really do anything super adventurous, but it's a start.

Once when we went to "our" park we decided to bring along Sethie's ball and bat to hit some balls. I decided to take some video since I've been meaning to record Sethie swinging, since he tends to be even more consistent that Matthew at hitting.

Matthew wanted to try "real" baseball, without a tee. I was pretty impressed how well he did. Yes, the ball and bat are oversized, but honestly, I think that he's better hitting this way than off the tee. I'm also pretty proud of my recording-while-pitching-and-wearing-a-baby skills.



Later in the week we headed to another park. The boys have played often at this park, but this time they discovered that this spinning toy is much more fun with two.

Lastly, today with Jon's help, we headed for the first time this summer to the beach. We love the creek that runs down to the beach at this park; it's perfect for dam building and diverting water. The boys, including Jon, had a great time creating a meandering stream. In the baby carrier, Elyse didn't care much for me trying to help. So, I took pictures and enjoyed watching my boys experiment, build, and play.
I love the sand all over Matthew's face! (If it can been seen in the following pictures)Seth wanted a portrait to, even though his face wasn't nearly as sandy.

Baseball in the Park

More park outings on my own with three! I kind of impressed myself with my carrying a baby, pitching while recording video skills.

Brothers

We're managing to get out a little bit with our three kidlets.  Here are a few pictures from an outing to the "Seth's favorite park" (aka Sandal):