Monday, December 30, 2013

Holiday Break...

There it is. Christmas has come and gone.
I told Maman this morning that I was hoping tomorrow was Christmas Eve and not New Year's Eve. I certainly was counting the days and for the big day and I got to have it twice.

But my first gift was that my sister came for a visit. I was SO excited. And, as you know if you read this blog, my way of showing my excitement once the person is actually in front of me, is to act weird and hide. Lilian is very cute though and they were all cooing over her while I was doing the background entertainment.

It was a fun day and I even got my first present with Tina, Casey and Lilian:

Soon enough it was the 23rd and it was the day Santa was visiting me in Oregon since he knew I would not be home on the 25th.
I had fun presents: Uncle Dan's gift had arrived and here it is:
This is very fun... although I did not play much with it yet because the adults seem to take a hold of it before i have a chance. And since they are better than me at it, I am a little intimidated to try right now. Papa has a record of 60 in a row! See him in the video below...

The one gift Santa gave to me is really cool... Papa loves it too and he has been helping me build great structures with it:





Then came the time to hit the road and fly to Grandpa and Grandma's place in AZ. And yes, Santa also delivered there. Quite an amazing guy if you ask me.
And since i have been mainly well behaved ( hum, hum) all year long, he got me what I wanted: check it out:
 The books: Merci Papi et Mamie!



And my most favorite: Lego Brickmaster...
But you can see all that in the little video below...



Grandma made great food for us during our stay and we enjoyed a lot of great meals. Yummy! I of course chose mealtime to show my best behavior. You know what I am talking about right? The kind of behavior that lands you on the floor for thoughtful thinking and reflection. That kind.

But if was also a lot of fun and thanks to a fabulous December weather, we were mainly outside  enjoying the views.

There is even a little video with our adventures...


It was hard to come back to grey Oregon after all that sun; Maman was sure right to enjoy it while she could. She spent our first day back cooking: 5 hours = 11 meals...


And to end this post, here is a video showing a Bop It competition between me and Dad and a Moneky bar competition... Although the later was not much of a competition since Papa could not do it. He said it was too low, but hey, he could admit he could not. Anyway, I was mighty proud because it's the first time I am able to make it to the end of the bars.
I hope you enjoy my goofy signature moves at the end of my performances. That's all for now.

Happy New Year to all!



Friday, November 29, 2013

What I am thankful for in November

Around this time of the year, people seem to want to know what I am thankful for and whenever  I give an answer, it does not seem to make people happy.

See, I entered this Turkeython race on turkey day and on my number bib I was supposed to write down what I was thankful for. This is what I wanted to write:
- Nothing.
That one did not meet any approval. So I came up with:
- Toilets.
Can you believe that it was rejected too, even after I exclaimed with my arms open wide how important toilets were and how without toilets there would be p....  everywhere? Ok, Ok, I got censored here. 
So I thought more about it and since I had just had a nice and healthy bowl of cereal, I said:
- Cereal.
I also added:
- Schools.
Yep, the kid who exclaimed out loud in class last Friday "I CANNOT STAND school anymore!", the one whose teacher told him to then leave and who looked at her with an incredulous smile and a "Really?" statement; that one, ME. 
Because, see, I ended up staying. There is a lot about schools that I would change, but they are still places for learning and I like learning, just not when I am asked to learn.

So Turkeython it was. It was the shortest race on Earth but I think that I might try a longer race next time.
Here are some pics and a clip of me crossing the line:


I am also thankful for books. Books are the places I evade into when I am bored at school, when I get near any book at anytime of the day as a matter of fact. If I go to the library, I devour the new books beginning one chapter book after the other. I binge on books. * Edited the day after the post was written: this last day of November, I actually spent 3 hours naked in my bedroom reading...

I am thankful for Lego. At home, I like to mainly undo what I have done with my Lego and then try to redo some of them. My problem: even if the piece I am looking for is as big as an elephant, it still feels like I am looking for a needle in a haystack. Luckily, my Super Lego Finder friends come to the rescue; yes, my parents are the master at finding the pieces for me. 
At school I take a Lego creator class and on that one, I have to figure out all by myself so, I do.

I wish I could say that I am thankful for tablets and computers but quite frankly, I would be thankful if only I got unlimited amount of time to use them. This 45 minutes per day is a joke. If you add to it that it's the first thing that goes out the window if I am not respectful, I can tell you that some weeks feel like a drought in the screen time department. 

I guess I should be thankful that this leaves me enough time to do other things and to learn new skills.
Take knitting: how many 6 years old ask to learn how to knit? I did.
I tend to have big visions of things before I even tried them. I wanted to knit things for my Raccoon: a hat, pants, a sweater. I was excited. Then I tried it. Granted, we started with pencil because we could not find the needles.
It was harder than I thought. So my plan changed to making a blanket or a pillow for Raccoon. The next day Maman found her needles but they were a tad too big and thin.
Look at the video, I was really trying though, despite all my stitches escaping...


We went to the store the next day and got bamboo needles just my size... and I really, really did not want to get my picture taken... and my tongue is in the way for you to see that I lost a second tooth!


I also went to the movie to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.
Maman got free tickets and we got to have a private projection! Yeap, nobody else in the theater but us! Can you see my head?


I will end today with my joke of the day... This is a joke I like to say. Maman thought it would be funny to add to it but in the end, she was sorry she did that:
ME: "How do you catch a squirrel?.... Act like a nut!
MAMAN: "How do you catch a Papa?.... Act like a bike!
ME: "How do you catch a Maman? ....... Act like a computer!"

We all got a good laugh out of that one...

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Halloween

I started Halloween countdown a week before October 31st.
Do you think I was EX-CI-TED during that entire countdown week? I was!
And then it was there. It finally was the day.
I woke up early. I got my make up done. I was giving directions to Maman: "Put more grey shadow here... more red coming out of the nose... darker eyebrows".  Boy, she had a hard time getting it just right.

But 7:00am, here I was, ready for the morning Vampire goes to school.
I pretty much ended up wiping my entire make up on, hum, well, I don't know but by the end of the day my costume was back in the bag and the vampire was gone.
But back home, it was time to carve  the crazy looking pumpkin with screws on the side of its head and it was time for make up time... again.
Then it was time to greet my preys. I began pacing outside, smelling the blood, ready to sink in my teeth.
And then they came, and our 150 candy bars disappeared


 Fun night, it was, fun night it was... I even got to grab 7 candy bars from the basket and I threw some wrappers in those big kids pillow cases. Ahahaha!

Hey, I think I bit too hard and somebody must have my tooth in their neck...
And what is that? I, ME, MOI could have actually gone trick or treating? You were waiting for me to ask? You have been wondering for the past 6 years why I never asked?
I DID NOT KNOW I COULD. But you bet I have already made plan with Papa on which street I'll go up and down next year. I am even planning on multiple costumes to go back to same houses.
I have to make up for all those lost years...


Sunday, October 27, 2013

Fall break

Two months have passed since I last told you about me and just like that we went from Summer to Fall.
Two months in 1st grade already and i am doing quite good. Sure I don't have to work too hard since the bulk of 1st grade is about reading and well, I read chapter books now, so I don't have much to learn in that area. I still find it not very appealing to write though. I have tons of ideas, my imagination is running on non-stop but putting it down on paper = painful. Not because I cannot spell but the process gets me tired before i even begin.
As for homework, that stuff is way too easy and I am taking ownership of it and doing it on my own. The prospect of staying at recess the next day to do it is also a good motivator I must say.

I have began taking judo classes. I ma not quite sure I am cut for any type of classes. I tried swim class, gymnastic class, basket ball class and could not wait for all those sessions to be done. I am already counting down the number of judo sessions left!
On the other hand, I am also doing a Lego creator class: now, sign me up for more of those because I love it!

Papa took me to a Lego Fest a few weeks ago and boy, that was fun. I just don't get why the Ps are not willing to buy me all the Legos in the World. I am sure trying to do more chores to pay for it on my own but at a rate of 10 cents for setting the table for dinner or making the dinner salads , I am not going to get any set any time soon.


This is week 8 of the school year which means that I am on VA-CA-TION! Ok, well when I am typing this it is actually the last day of my break. Saaaaad...

The weather was absolutely fantastic: take Summer weather with the colors of Fall and you have a pretty good idea of our weather this week. Although, if it had been for me, I would have spent my days inside playing games on the tablet, reading books, making Lego constructions and playing board games. But my Ps have this idea that the outdoors are good for me. Sure when they pry me out of the indoors, I do have fun out there but I still prefer games!

So here is a recap of my week

SUNDAY
We drove South to go see my baby sister Lilian. She is a month and a half and this was my first time seeing her. I usually can care less about babies but I was quite interested in knowing her. We spent 9 months in the same cozy place so we sure share a bond. OK, I do make a face on that one because I don't like posing for pictures.

I even got to hold her and although that felt weird, I was very gentle. But I quickly lost interest because her P's bought me a present: A Star Wars Angry Birds Jenga! How cool is that!
While Maman was cooing over Lilian I played with Lilian's dad with that cool game.
MONDAY
Maman began her cooking marathon during the week-end and cooked some more on Monday. But the weather being so nice, we put the bikes in and on the car and off we went to Willamette Park.

It was so warm I needed to refresh in the fountain and there was a super cool rainbow I tried to catch!

TUESDAY

If I don't get to go to OMSI during my breaks, it is not a real break. So of course, we went and as usual I had plenty of fun there just running around trying all kind of buttons and learning some Sciences along the way. I really like the bridge building station and I am beginning to understand the relationship between the number and width of trusses needed to make a solid bridge.





WEDNESDAY


Maman had to go to school ( yeap, she cannot help it, even during her break!) so she dropped me off at my friend's Juliette and we made crêpes for breakfast. YUM-MY!
After lunch Maman and I explored a nice park we have up the hill from our house and we played in the sun. I got plenty of exercise.



THURSDAY

Papa took some days off and to Bend we drove and relaxed in the hot sun in the afternoon.
I also found the game of RISK in a drawer of the house and even if it said for kids 10+, I still wanted a go at it. Oh, I loved that game. Getting territories and getting full control of continents was very much fun. I was good at strategies and, just like in Monopoly, took a lot of risks and it paid off.
Maman just wished that the game would not be about war but more about how many countries you are able to help along the way...

FRIDAY

Another beautiful day and after another long game of RISK, we took our bikes and rode the beautiful Shelvin Park trail. The only problem: it is slightly uphill the whole way so there was a burst of energy on my part for the first 10 minutes, followed by a lot of whining and a lot of "Are we there yet?" We still rode for an hour before heading back which required no pedaling at all from the adults and no whining on my part since it was easy peasy lemon squeezy!

At night, my friend Grant had an Halloween party at his school so I gladly joined in for the fun games and prizes that came with and I even got a tatoo.


SATURDAY

Papa took me to the parks in the morning so that Maman could work ( Pfff). We found this pirate park where you have to go a treasure hunt and that was pretty cool.


And after another lunch on the deck, we went for a 2 hour walk along the Deschutes River Trail. Great colors again.


We ended the day at a restaurant with our friends and I got to make my own pizza and have a chocolate chip cookie. There is no better end to a vacation than that right?



See you in a 7 to 8 weeks...