Thursday, December 22, 2011

Sweet Sophia

Sophia is just finishing her first semester as a first grader and she LOVES it! She was recently selected for a Mandarin competition and although she did not prevail as the overall winner, we were so proud of how much she practiced and her incredible poise in front of a large crowd.

Sophia is delighted to have Grandma living 2 miles from us (new development that happened in July) and is longing for Nanny and Opah to move here too. In the meantime, she is a feisty six year old, opinionated, intelligent and full of love, at times, tempestuous and, above all and at all times, ALL GIRL!

Kinder Keenan

Yup, Keenan is in Kindergarten (well private Kinder as he missed the cut off by two weeks). He is doing great, loves to read, LOVES dinosaurs and everything National Geographic. We are not sure if he will be in the Mandarin Immersion program for first grade next year or will have to repeat Kinder, but we believe that, somehow, it will all work out. In the meantime, in the past six months, he has had endured three staples in the head (fell on a chair when he was playing with Sophia), a few more bouts of pneumonia, a test for Cystic Fibrosis (which was thankfully negative) and various other ailments. But at the moment, anyway, he is doing just fine. Funny, exceptionally bright, insightful, perceptive, and often mercurial (and not always in a good way), that is our Keenan in a nutshell. When I think of Keenan, I think of a line from Seabiscuit, "when the the little guy doesn't know he is a little guy, he can do great things." Never a boring moment around this little boy.

Halloween time 2011






Two cooks

Sophia is my Christmas cookie apprentice and she is an amazing helper. She has more than earned her very own pink spatula!

Pancakes with Santa Claus

In our community, we have the opportunity to have breakfast with Santa Claus. The kids had a blast and nearly ate their weight in pancakes. Notice that Keenan has picked up the habit of putting his hands in his pockets, ala Daddy. Funny thing when nurture overtakes nature.





Christmas time in the desert....


I know, I know, I just looked at the date of my last post, where the heck have I been? Time flies, and lately, it has been flying at light speed for me. Everyone in our family is doing just fine, with a few blips here and there, just like everyone else.....but all in all, we are doing fine in the desert that I love so much.