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Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Get Caught Reading, Writing, and Chessing

Aidan, Julia,

You both have long had a love for books. And now that you're really gaining some literacy skillz, it's even more fun to watch!



Julia, you are excelling at reading at levels well beyond your years! You're reading chapter books and reading signs wherever we go. Joking around one day, Aidan said he was going to put you in the garbage. Without missing a beat, you said back to him "If you throw me in the garbage, who's gonna read to you?"



You have really been reading to Aidan quite a lot lately! And even working on your British accent for 'Charlie and Lola' books.

Aidan, you are slowly but surely overcoming your challenges with reading. You have the interest in books, and have had that for years. You can get lost in a book, a find it book, a comic book, for hours and hours, just quietly studying. But lately, you have really had piqued curiosity in reading the words too, and you're getting better and better day by day.



In fact, just the other day you came out of your room with a little book in hand and said, "Hey Mom, do you want me to read this to you?" Of course she did! And you read it perfectly, and even went ahead and told us the moral of the story afterwards!



We will continue to read to you as long as you want us to; It actually brings me a lot of joy...even if I have to hide the "Jerry Seinfeld Halloween" book from time to time. But, it brings me even more joy to see both of you literally expanding the world around you by reading!

So, read on!




In addition, this summer the two of you have been pursing some additional academic pursuits with great interest too:





Writing in Cursive (Julia you are begging for "more letters more lettters!")



...and playing Chess (Aidan, you absolutely love playing chess and have learned to set the board up all by yourself. You woke up one morning and must have been dreaming about the game "Dad...what if we take Julia's kings with our pawn...would that work?"



Thursday, May 31, 2018

The Window Display and The Young Man

Aidan- you, me, and Julia went out to dinner one night.

I parked next to the Popsicle shop in the shade so we could leave from the dessert place after dinner (and so the car would be nice and cool).

We had to walk to the restaurant and on the way, we passed a lingerie store. Complete with a big window display featuring a summer selection of the types of wares they sell at a lingerie store.

I didn't think anything of it as we passed, and neither did Julia.

But we noticed you weren't with us.

We turned around.

You had stopped dead in your tracks in front of the lingerie store window. You were smiling, mouth open, eyes blinking in amazement.

Oh no...I thought! No way!

So I did what any good Dad would do...I took out my phone.


"Oh my god!" you exclaimed...stunned at what you were seeing. "I don't believe it!"

You were frozen to the ground, just staring smilingly at the window.

"What is it, Aidan?" I asked.

And what you said made my day...made my year...I haven't laughed so hard while being so relieved and surprised in a long time. I'm still laughing about it. My co-workers loved it. Mommy thought it was hilarious.

Because you replied so earnestly about the source of your astonishment.

"Look..." you said...." a BEACH-BALL! They have a beach-ball in the store! A BEACH-BALL!"

My jaw hit the ground. 

I had to look again. Yup. There it was. A beach-ball. 



Who would have guessed?

I love your innocence and your bemusement! 

I'm not sure if you were covering your tracks or not... but let's go with 'beach-ball' for now!

And that's what we did. The tacos for dinner were great! The walk back to Popsicles went off without a hitch or a second look at the beach ball store. 

And the popsicles were sweet, just like the company!





Saturday, May 26, 2018

Sweet Tooth Hotel

Your Aunt Sham is kind of a big deal in the art world here in Dallas, and she happened to score you guys (and us) some exclusive tickets to a majorly cool art installation which she contributed to. 


It's called Sweet Tooth Hotel- and your Auntie wanted to experience the candy-themed hotel with both of you by her side! 


Isn't that Sweet?


So you dressed up- one Pikachu and one Princess- and we headed downtown to check in for a sugar-induced visit to the Sweet Tooth Hotel with your Aunt!






The trip to the museum started out with you guys snoozing in the car! It was 7:30 pm and you'd already had a long Saturday!


But then we arrived downtown, met up with Aunt Sham, Yaya, and Baba, and went to check in to the Hotel!


You got special keys to unlock special surprises, and we got to explore the rooms  all by ourselves! There was even a secret room you accessed by crawling through a refrigerator door!






















We checked out, and went home, with some sugar still on our tongues and minds.

The next morning, Julia, you woke up saying "I can't stop thinking about walking through that refrigerator into the stuffed animal room!"

Friday, May 4, 2018

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Leaving you guys when I have to go on a work trip or when Mommy and I have a very rare 'Grown Up Only' trip is always difficult.

In May, I did both...back to back...and preparing to leave you guys for the longest time I've ever been away from you (2 whole weeks) was very very difficult.

The days leading up to my departure were not filled with sadness, but with a smattering of the amazing, adventurous types of awesomeness you guys normally fill our lives with. It made it that much harder to leave...and a million times sweeter to come home!

The days were filled with artwork 





 ...playing outside in the beautiful spring weather..



...journeying outside in the not-so beautiful spring weather...




...and on the day of my departure...bracing for goodbye with hugs, and mementos, and selfies for the long journey ahead. 





...and even more backyard adventures....

On my way out the door, you each gave me a talisman to hold on to...to bring with me on my trip so that I could have a piece of you with me. You said if I missed you, I could just hold the rocks. I told you that when I held the rocks, you could maybe feel me hugging you.

It worked! Whenever I missed you, I held the rocks; and you said you felt my hugs!


Mommy and I had a wonderful time in Australia! And we were SO thrilled to be back with you and get back to the normal day-to-day adventures with our two favorite people