SPL's Blog

   
 

more photos added!

Another fun month for SPL.  We’ve seen some old friends, found out others have added to their families (congrats Debbie and Oswaldo, Eugene and Katie, and Emily, Scott and Katie!), gone to many activities, and said adios/zi jien to summer.

Late in August, we caught up with my old MIT friends, Gowri, Paul, and their almost 7 year old son CSG for BBQ at their house in Palo Alto.  We hadn’t seen them for awhile and they were amazed at both how verbal Sam is and how good at basketball :-).  They are also expecting a baby in December so we’re looking forward to meeting her.

We took a trip to the Children’s Discovery Museum late in August as our Mandarin music class was on a 5 week hiatus.  We hadn’t been there in a number of months either and it was fun to watch how SPL engaged with different exhibits than before.  He loved the bubbles exhibit, in particular and before he didn’t have the attention span for it.  They also had a traveling show about Clifford that was great for SPL– big bones to move around, trucks that he could climb into, mail to deliver, and a restaurant owned by someone of the same name :-).  He spent most of his time in the restaurant making lunch for everyone.  We even ran into some friends: Skylar from preschool and an MIT friend, Danny Su, and his family.

The newest thing for us is that I’m going to back to work as a mentor teacher 20-25 hours a week.  So one of our foci this month has getting SPL ready for our new schedule.  Late in August,  we started with a Friday morning meeting and then we ramped up each week until we had our first full week Sept. 10th.  SPL loves his babysitter and she had some availability as her other family (our next door neighbors) have a daughter who’s almost 7 and won’t be needing as much babysitting time.  That worked out great for us as it makes for a more seamless transition.  SPL is adjusting like a champ — and I have noticed we’re reading more "mom themed" books: Are you My Mother?, Owl Babies, and Is Your Mama a Llama?.

John had a big trip to China during Labor Day week — got invited to the World Economic Forum in Dalian.  If you haven’t seen his blog, he has some interesting posts here, and here.  He met some interesting people including Tom Friedman of the NY Times, Rebecca McKinnon (formerly of CNN), and even had drinks with a former astronaut,  J. M. Linenger. 

That week was also a super busy one for us to with my work schedule ramping up and preschool starting too. Labor Day Monday,  we went to the Santa Cruz beach with my sister and her family.  This was SPL’s first time to play in the Pacific Ocean and with the strong tides, it was fun and a bit scary at times.  He especially loved digging in the sand and had the coolest and biggest shovel on the beach (all the other kids were trying to borrow it :-).  He also had a blast with his

First day of school also happened Labor Day week: we have a new teacher this year but are attending the same preschool we went to last year: Preschool Family in Palo Alto.  Teacher Judy welcomed us on Wednesday with an open house and we got to see some of our old pals from last year’s class and play in the "old play yard."  SPL had his typical difficult time leaving (read: 45 mins to get out of there) as he was having so much fun in the new play yard too.  Class is a bit more structured this year than last and it’s amazing to see how much more aware SPL is of all the toys and the kids this year.  Last year we spent the first 3 months outside playing by ourselves.  In contrast, this year we were inside the entire time and playing with or near other kids 🙂

And closing out the Labor Day week on Saturday we went to SPL’s cousins’ KAR and EVR’s soccer game.  It was a lot of fun to watch them play together on the same team: EVR was offense and KAR was goalie while we were there.  Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for the team, the Yellow Jacket’s (K and E’s team name) were so far ahead that didn’t get any challenges to her goal-keeping abilities.  EVR  had a as a forward though and we got to see her score

SPL, always wanting to be in the thick of things, decided to run out onto the field at one point (while I was down @ the goal end taking photos of KAR:-).  I turned around to see him making a dash and the other parents laughing while Uncle Scott ran after him and scooped him up 🙂

My favorite thing though has to be that I taught him the old "there’s something on your shirt" joke — and he took to it immediately!  We have plans to unleash it on our unsuspecting preschool classmates and their parents in the not-too-distant future (once we get to know them a little better :-).

Oh, and some garden news — SPL picked our first heirloom tomato this month too!  And then he surprised me the next day as we went to the garden and he had incorporated the words "heirloom tomato" into his vocabulary 🙂

A couple of favorites to close out my post:
— favorite book is now his Dora story book (thanks Austen, Lori and Al)
—  favorite game is lining up the "trash cans (any box he has or any toy bin) along the 2 steps that connect our playroom to our TV room (it’s his "curb").  Often I play the part of the trash truck and come and make the pick ups (sound effects included :-).

As far as words go — he continues to learn and repeat everything, especially if we say something new.    I’ve given him "Oh Dang!" among others (no swear words yet — I’m sure that will come). 
I’ll also hear him say "I’m in the kitchen, mama" or  "I’m in my room…" when I haven’t seen him in a couple of minutes.

oh, and another "SPL original" — he’s started asking me to sing (read: make up/improvise) songs based on whatever theme comes to his mind  :-).  First it was color songs (green to start, then red, then yellow, then blue — and then purple which is where I drew the line).  then it was animal songs: elephant and dog.  And then it was "giants" — as in trash dumpsters.  We sing them every night — I feel like I’m Wayne Brady on the old Whose Line show :-).  The trick is remembering the lyrics and tune night to night, nap to nap.

Sometimes I say "I don’t know that song" — like the snails song :-/.

And on the independence front, he’s now getting into the car and his car seat by himself.

It’s fall again — hard to believe!  Time marches on as my dad’s mom was so fond of saying.