I will talk about my gifts from Santa in a later post but I just wanted to share that Santa took time off from his super busy schedule to talk to me on the 24th.
Yes, that's right. Santa! We had been trying to talk to him for a while that day but were getting busy signals or automated messages.
Somehow, just as Papa had disappeared from the living room , the phone rung and, sure enough, it was Santa!
He sure is a silly old guy, as you will hear me say to him a few times. We had quite some fun on the phone. Maman recorded it all, that is until her battery was out of juice.
After hanging up, I told Maman that I love Santa and that I plan on talking to him again next year.
Enjoy!
PS: Since we could not hear what Santa was saying, Maman edited the video and cut the parts where I am listening to Santa...
What are you saying? This post should be about Christmas and not Thanksgiving?
Well, we are not known for being able to deliver the news on time lately and once again school is taking over our life, much to my chagrin.
I wish I liked school, but I really don't. Way too many rules and not enough of what I really love to do like read, do some research and play/experiment with objects and things.
I have very much been involved in our classroom inquiry about how to protect the environment and last week I suggested to my teacher that we should write to the President to get more people involved in helping. In the evening, I asked Maman to help me find the address for the President and here is what I want to tell him: we need to use less fossil fuels ( yes, I said that), people need to use less electricity and we should turn down the heat 1 degree in homes.
I asked Papa and Maman to do that in our home a few months ago after reading the Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge and Papa just showed me the energy bill that we received: it shows that for this first time during this period we are using less energy than our neighbors and less energy than last year.
I even had Maman turn off the light on the ceiling in her car; she said it did not quite save energy but I say every effort is important.
So this month was Papa's birthday and I even made him a card, which, if you know my aversion for anything with pen on paper, is quite an accomplishment. I wrote without help and I am getting quite good at spelling, hum, at least phonetically!
Soon, the end of the month came and we headed to Spokane to spend Thanksgiving with a little part of the family. Aunt Gail cooked a very nice dinner for us and my cousins and I had a lot of fun
The weather was cold but we still were able to have some fun outside... although the girls could not be convinced to join us on the beautiful hike along the river...
... but the next day we went for a scooter/ bike ride and I had fun with Ashley.
It was a lot of time on the road but it was good week-end together.
Since then, I have had a hard time with school limits... The P's have set up more positive and negative consequences but, to no avail. I could earn 50 cents a day for getting a positive report from school every day, but most days I am loosing that as well as my dessert or my story time.
This week, I had two GREAT days in a row at school and Maman asked me what I had done different. I told her " It was an accident." I don't quite get why she put her face in her hands at that point.
Well, I guess I need to try harder if I want to have at least one gift under the tree. Apparently Santa has dropped some here already but I have one that is already on hold until my birthday since, as part of the consequences, I am loosing my gifts one at a time... 10 more days of school until the break... 10 more chances to see my wish list disappear...
That's it for today. Enjoy the little video while I go play a game of checkers with Maman... I am getting quite good at it. Oh, and if it seems that I am always sticking my tongue out on the video, it's because I so enjoy being a goof ball!
We went for a walk in the woods with my class and we gathered a collection of twigs, branches and pine cones. I made a fox with my things. You like it?
It was finally time for a break and of course Maman had a lot of cooking to do but I helped quite a bit. One day I made cookies and Maman was my assistant. I read the recipe and told her what ingredients to get and I mixed it all together and voilà, delicious cookies.
Cooking is fun because you get to do math too and I like math. Maman kept doubling recipes and she would aks me to help figure out how much was needed; she was surprised when it said 1/2 a cup on a recipe and without hesitation I told her she needed 1 cup; or when it needed 100 grammes and I said she needed 200 grammes.
I even drew and wrote about what I did in my journal that I brought from school. And if you know me, you know it's quite something since I am not a fan of either drawing or writing.
Time off from school is always a good time to explore and do new things... Ok, roller skating is not a new thing but since I get to do it every 6 months, I am not making much progress yet. I still have fun though! And while everybody was gently wanting to hold Chipper the squirrel's paws, I worked at at keeping my balance to get close to his tail and pull on it really hard. Yes, I am not known for being very serious... more the goof ball variety.
But here is a little video that will show you that, indeed, balance on 4 wheels is not yet quite achieved on my part...
I was mainly excited about the second part of my week off. I was going to Mount St Helens to see the volcano AND I was going to Great Wolf Lodge to splash all day in the water.
I was so, so excited that for the first time ever I wanted to write without being prompted. I wrote the schedule of the first day and kept it close to me all day to make sure we were being on time.
It turned out that although I really wanted to see the volcano, the main fun at the mountain was the snow! You can see that in the little video...
We then headed to my most anticipated place: Great Wolf Lodge. And I did have a lot of fun there. The big slides were a little scary though... but the wave pool had to be my favorite thing!
We stayed a day and a half. Barely enough for me, nearly too much for the Ps. The place is crowded for sure and it's also super noisy. See for yourselves.
Soon enough it was time to go back to school. Maman had been quite busy making my Halloween costume and I bet that not many of you would have guessed what I wanted to be. See, I am into sciences and I have been enjoying the books of the Magic School bus, wanting to listen to the stories again and again. It's in the one of the human body that I learned all about White Blood Cells and that's why I wanted to be one. Guess what ? I saw nobody else at school with the same costume but sure got a lot of questions about mine.
On Halloween night, I have once again enjoyed giving out candies to the kids coming to our door. Since I am not asking to go trick or treating, the Ps are apparently fine with that and have never suggested that I actually could...
Anyway, I got quite a few comments on my costume and there were even some young teens going down the stairs asking themselves what White Blood Cells were. I guess I was an educational character.
While we were waiting for kids to come to the door, Maman was filling out her ballot and I kept asking questions about the measures she was trying to decide on. I would obviously give my opinion and at one point I exclaimed: "I hope there are more people reading and deciding for those new laws than people going trick or treating." Maman said that I was en route to being a great citizen with this kind of thinking. But enough talking, here is the video.
To end this Fall medley, I put pieces of me and some of the experiments I do alone or with the help of the Ps. I have many ideas on seeing how things work. Many of them are not practical they say, some of them are quite dangerous and for others I am learning that sometimes my best intentions fail.
Like sending a rocket in the air by lighting the string attached to the bottle/rocket hoping the burning would build enough pressure to send it flying: kids, it does not work and makes quite a melting mess out of the plastic bottle. But the fun is in trying, right?
Enjoy- signing off for now.
Noah
October, Fall...
After 3 months of being in shorts and t-shirts, yesterday marked the day when rain came back and it feels more like Fall.
It's time to do more things inside and I had fun at the Children's Museum today. And yes, my idea of fun is still to run around from one room to the other but I do stop once in while. One of my stop is always the clay room.
I like clay but I am also a big fan of dirt. 3 months of dry weather but I have no problem finding the tiniest puddle on the campus during recess. I usually spend my recess digging in it with my hands and shoes; I also sit in it and wipe my dirty hands on my t-shirts.
So it's quite often that I come back home with a different set of clothes than I had when I arrived in the morning.
Maman seems to not like this so much; one evening, when I came back with not one, but two sets of dirty clothes and muddy shoes, she decided that making me clean all of it might make me be more careful.
Soon enough, I was loving washing and scrubbing my shoes and clothes and when Maman told me that Mamie had done that a lot at wash houses when she was young, I wanted to know everything about wash houses and ended up really enjoying the Lavoir experience.
As for dirt, I still love it...
Enjoy the little clip.
Let's see, what happened? Oh yeah! It was back to school. I was not really looking forward to that day and I was not too happy to be back even if it was to go to Kindergarten.
Here is my not so happy self on the first day:
At least my two teachers were happy to see me. It's my 3rd year in a row having a woman and man teacher team.
It turns out that Kindergarten is not so bad and so far, I am being pretty nice... although my teacher told Maman last week that I was getting a little too comfortable.
When I am not at school, my favorite activity remains reading and since I now read pretty much every thing in French and in English, I spend even more time with my books.
So reading is not going to be my main challenge in Kindergarten, but drawing and writing will. I sure won't win any drawing contest but at least I now try to hold a pen for more than 2 seconds and I am beginning to make some progress:
I am also getting better at dribbling a ball since I began basket ball as part of an after-school program. See, I have no problem riding a bike, swimming, riding my scooter but I am not quite yet that coordinated with my hands.
I still go swimming but just with Maman; I told her this Saturday that I like her as a swim teacher... but that's probably because she lets me play 50 out of the 60 minutes we stay in the pool.
There it is for September. It has not been raining since mid-july and we are all enjoying this great weather.
Happy Fall to all of you.
Twenty weeks since the last video! Where does time go?
It's not like I suddenly stopped doing any of the shenanigans that seem to drive my parents bananas or that I somehow disappeared into the stratosphere... although, that might be my next mission!
No. You have to blame the Mom again.
But she finally decided to dig back into the overwhelming pile of pics and finally record what happened to me during the past 5 months. And since she managed to make 9 videos out of it all, you can imagine that I have not been bored.
A WEEK IN APRIL
Yes, April in Oregon... which explains the rain jacket and freezing temperatures. But I had fun exploring Smith Rock State Park with my friend Juliette and our moms. I also did more exploring of my favorite places during that last week off before school was to be over.
SPRING PROGRAM
Finally. The end of the school year. Yeah, I love school, especially if I don't have to follow directions or listen to the teacher lecturing me about spitting all over the recess ground. Adults forget that they have been kids: if you do not have access to water and you want to see how the chalk does when it's wet on the ground, you spit right? Or, you even pee because it makes a bigger waterfall and cool color mixes on the ground. Note: peeing on the recess ground gets you into big trouble.
So, they made me wear a bee costume and I was supposed to pollinate a flower, on stage, with 300 pairs of eyes looking at me. My teacher was worried. My parents were worried. But really, how hard is it to be a bee. I did good. See for yourselves.
END OF SPRING BEGINNING OF SUMMER MEDLEY
Maman had been promising for ever that I could have playdates but it never materialized. Too busy she said. Well maybe that's why I was also too busy to listen to her and Papa when they try to get my attention. But finally, Summer came and the playdates came along. 4 in the same week! Now, that was fun!
BIKE RIDING IN CANADA
On July 14, we filled up the car with my books and games and we headed North. There might have been a few more things than books and games but that's all that I needed.
After a brief stop to celebrate my cousin's birthday in Spokane, we were off to Canmore, Canada. One of the outdoor activity we did was riding our bikes. I guess we took those too. I had fund riding although I still need to develop some leg muscles to make it up little hills. Not quite ready for the Alpes d'Huez yet. I tell Papa that I want to lift his weights to get my muscles going but he does not let me. Too heavy he says. Well, duh, that's why I want to practice.
Anyway, we also found a cool cycle cross place and I loved the bumps!
WATER: GIVE IT TO ME AND I WILL HAVE FUN.
Summer is about warm weather and water. That's what I think. I made it to the pool in Canada 5 times and about as many with Maman in Portland. As for the rivers and lakes, there were so many during our hikes that it's no wonder I fell in it with my clothes on once... you'll see that later.
But water, the pool! I LOVE it! Papa made me jump high and do back flips and it was never enough.
I also got to put my body in the Pacific Ocean.
Let me tell you, between the rivers, the lakes and the Ocean, we are talking COLD, FREEZING water around the Northwest. Brrr... Did not prevent me from going in though.
HIKING IN CANADA
After nearly 5 years of being carried around during hikes, it was finally time for me to try to do it on my own two feet. Sure the parents chose length appropriate trails but I still did it and certainly enjoyed parts of it. There is so much to explore and play with: rocks, sticks, leaves, water etc. But the parents always seem to be on some kind of mission to get somewhere. Sure they humored me sometimes but do we really need to go to the end of the trail each time?
BECOMING A JUNIOR RANGER
Our second destination took us to Glacier National Park in Montana. I had already learned quite a bit about bears and plants in Canada, so I decided it would be great to become a Junior Ranger. I took this mission very seriously: filling in the 5 page-booklet, attending the talk by a Ranger and being able to tell facts. Well, I got sworn in and I am now a proud Junior Ranger. That evening and the next days, I made sure to let every one know I was one, stopping Rangers to chat with them and show them my badge, telling kids to not throw rocks or sticks and to quiet down for the animals. My badge had to be on my day shirts and night shirts, that's how serious this job is.
Maman had the idea of doing an interview so that I could explain all I know about the Park. I'll let you see for yourselves why we had to have 2 takes on that one!
HIKING IN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
Our best hikes were in Glacier. It is a beautiful place. My favorite hikes were:
- Avalanche Lake where I got to hide in tree trunks and where I nearly ran all the way down to catch Grandpa who I was told had the key of the car... it turned out they were all trying to make me walk faster. I sure slept well that afternoon after 4 miles hike.
-Hidden Lake. Sure we got to see plenty of animals but walking in the snow and throwing snowballs at my parents was the best. That snow thing is kind of cold even when the sun is hot. Weird.
- Marion Lake: the parents decided last minute to go on that one; the last hike of the vacation. It was supposed to be easy. They misread the terrain: 1800 feet elevation gain, 4.2 miles round trip and lush, super lush vegetation. So why is it my favorite? Because I fell in the Lake during the interview? No. Because it was quite an accomplishment? No. Because I ate tons of juicy huckleberries? YES, YES, YES.
BIRTHDAY DAY OR DAYS AS IT TURNS OUT...
I am not quite sure which day I was born anymore since I got to celebrate on so many dates: with my cousin first, then with Grandpa and Grandma, with Tina and with my friends.
And on the day of my birthday? I was stuck 14 hours in the car coming back home. And believe me, I was very, very, very HAPPY! I got to read and read, and read more. For the first 8 hours, that's all I did, alone in the back of the car. I also got to listen to books on CD. Love those! The Magic Tree House and Secrets of a Lab Rat were my favorite this time while the first prize went to the French comics called "Scrameustache"!
The party with my friends was about Space. See, I am kind of obsessed with Space: from building a rocket to get there, to sending you there if I am not happy with you ( that's for the parents), to wanting to explore every single planet out there, my brain is full of Space thinking and imagination. I promised the parents I'd take them there, in Space, before they die...
I was already reading and watching over and over again about the landing and walking on the moon, so when I heard that a Rover was being sent to Mars and that I might be able to witness the landing, I thought my head was going to explode. Since the parents did not want me to stay up until 10:30pm, Maman found a simulation movie of the whole deal. It's called "7 minutes of Terror". It has been 5 days now and I think I watched it 20 times and have asked millions of questions about it. Watch it, it's really cool!
So here you are, 20 weeks and 9 videos later.
I am super proud of being 5 and I am already thinking about being 10. I actually never stop thinking... and talking. My brain goes 1000 miles an hour and it is sometimes exhausting for the parents I am told. They love how inquisitive I am, they love my humor and amazing zest for life. They would like me to slow down in my head because dinner time takes over an hour that consists of me eating 1 minute and talking for 10 for the entire hour.
At 5, I love to read, I love legos and trains, I love Space and researching any subject including why the shot in my arm hurt ( did you know we have 3 layers of skin?). I love to swim, ride my bike, my scooter, play in the sand and did I mention reading?
What I don't like? Avocados and living at home with the parents: way too many rules and they make it very, very hard for me to get things my way all the time and I try to make it very, very hard for them to get things their way... They say they still love me a lot though... and i do too :)
Maman and I just have a week with no school. She says she cannot quite call it vacation since there was a non stop frenzy of cooking to fill up the freezer, of working on her preps for her 1st graders, on cleaning the house, on going to various appointments and of course, of spending a lot of fun time with me.
Follow me on my various adventures...
Day 1- We went to the mountain with the intention of putting me on skis. But it seemed like another billion people had the same idea so there was no parking to be found. None. I was disappointed but after learning that we would then go tubing, I got excited again. And it sure was fun to play in the snow.
Here are some pics and a video...
Day 2- There are no pictures of me cooking but I am beginning to be quite the helper in the kitchen. I love food, what can I say. Maman was making a vegetarian dish and she asked me to cut the onions and prepare the basil leaves. And you know how good those two things are: I tried about 1/4 cup of the onion and about 10 basil leaves. Yeap, I love cooking!
Oh, it's also the morning I finally got to eat like an ant. I have been asking forever and for some reason it was never the right time. So that morning I got to use my mandibles and I ate like an ant would. Well, not easy, I am telling you!
In the afternoon, Maman took me to my first movie theater experience. We went to see a beautiful move called "The secret world of Arrietty". You'd better check your basements: you might have little people in there. I told Maman that our little people, or borrowers, are in the walls.
Day 3 - It was the appointments and gym day for Maman. As for me, I did my favorite activity. See, when Maman tells me to get dressed, I usually spend the next hour or two in my room...not getting dressed! She usually finds me butt naked surrounded by a pile of books. I love them books!
Day 4- After cleaning the house, and yes I can vacuum too, it was board game day with Maman.
Here are a few of the games we played with.
Day 5- It was a very exciting day because Tina and Darren were coming for dinner. I was soooooo excited that I could not even fall asleep for my nap. We had fun and the wrestling got me all wound up; it was way passed my bedtime when I went to bed where Tina read me a story.
Day 6- Finally, a beautiful day. After a little stop at the gym where I usually stay at the club's daycare while Maman sweats on the machines, we headed to the park for a fun bike ride. Maman had to run after me.
I stopped for some fishing under the bridge but could not find any juicy worms so came back empty ended.
After a long nap, it was time for swimming. The last time you saw me swim was a year ago. Click here if you want to go see the difference. I have been stalling for a long time but finally I am making progress. I still spend a lot of my time being goofy! And, yeah, I am the one who decided to wave at Maman while swimming. I told her later I was not sure she could recognize me, what with being under the water and all.
Day 7- Maman was back at the gym so Papa took me to OMSI. I always love going there. I basically run around like a mad man trying to touch as many buttons as possible not really caring what they do, but I have fun!
Day 8- This was the last day of my fun week. And it ended well with my friend E's birthday party. We had fun in the bouncy houses and of course, pizza and cake sent me to heaven. It's funny how 90% of the kids had leftovers in their plates and were gone somewhere else. I ended up being the only one sitting and finishing every bite. As I told Maman who was asking if it was too much food for me, I told her that if somebody puts food in front of you, it's only polite to eat it...
Here you go. A full week worth of fun! And now it's back to school for 7 more weeks and you might not hear from me until Spring break. I'll leave you with a photo of me and Maman...
Well I have been 4 and a half for 2 full weeks now but, you know how it is around here: there never seem to be enough time in the day and even less for the blog.
But, here I am on my way to being 5 in less than 6 months and today, I wanted to share some of what makes me ME.
A typical day at home, you will find that after my big breakfast, I go upstairs with the intent of getting dressed. I usually get side tracked and my parents find me 2 hours later, usually butt naked, with my books all around me. I sometimes laugh out loud when reading. Yes, sometimes I laugh because of the pictures but also because of what I read. See, I began reading in French and in English and it's now much more fun to be with my books as I can figure out on my own what they are saying. I am certainly not fluent but I do manage to surprise my parents when I tell them what the story is about. The other day I was asking Maman why pollen can be bad for you; sure enough Maman found a documentary in my bedroom opened at a page that talked about how pollen can be bad for some people and causes allergies.
But, with or without reading myself, I LOVE books. I usually immerse myself into the storyline and become one of the main character. I become a "Schtroumpf"(or Smurf as you know them), or I am Calvin or Piccolo and so on. And then I always make Maman be one of the characters too. So it's not surprising to hear me call her "Grand Schtroumpf", or Hobbes, or Flûte. And I usually prefer if she calls me back with the name of the character I represent.
With Maman, we spend a lot of time in the car; an average of 1 hour and 15 minutes a day. We are soon going to have expired all the audio-books from the school library or from the town's library. I very much enjoy listening to all those stories. We have gone through all the Magic Tree house collection, Misses Piggle Wiggle, The mouse and the motorcycle, and many more in French.
And then, one day, Maman borrowed Piccolo, Saxo & Cie from the school's library. It's a French story and I fell totally in love with it. Actually I was quite obsessed with it. It has been a month now and I am still as emotional as the first time I heard the story when the main character is having a problem. I cry each time.
It was quite difficult for Maman to find the DVD that goes with the storyline as it was not available anymore. She finally found it on ebay and it came all the way from Thailand... For $11, it was worth the wait.
I also love the song and have been singing it non stop. But, if you want me to read for the camera or sing for the camera, you'd better be ready to bribe me. That's exactly what Maman had to do to get me to sing for you. She had to say that she would let me watch the Piccolo movie right after. Ah! I only share my talent for reward!
Well, that;s about it for today. My report card came home this week-end. Apparently, I don't mind reading but I find it extremely painful to hold a pen and write or draw... It looks like I have to make progress in those areas. Oh, and both my French and English teachers seem to think that I like to be silly and a joker a little bit too much. I say to them: life is too short to be taken seriously.
Enjoy the video!
Noah
What? The 2 weeks of vacation are already over?
Ok, I cannot really complain since I had tons of fun here at home and also at Grandpa and Grandma in Arizona.
And, despite the fact that I was told Santa might not be nice to me, he was! Luckily Grandma open the fire place doors and he was able to make it inside and drop fun presents for me and the family.
So here is the video of me opening my presents ( it's always a challenge), and me playing with my new cool toys!
We also had plenty of time to play and be outside during our stay. It was beautiful and sunny! And, since I don't get to see or play with trains much, we all went to a train park to ride a train and we went to the Community center to see more train models. I loved it! we even had a picnic there.
And then it was time to come back to rainy Oregon. Actually, it has been pretty dry for a while but of course our first 2 days back it was rain, rain and more rain.
Soon enough it was time to celebrate the new year and we had a blast at my friend's Juliette who was turning 6 on the eve of the new year. Great party and a lot of fun!
Happy, Happy New Year to all!
