Tyler’s got the right idea – this is the way to enjoy Summer. We’re off on Tuesday for a house-hunting trip in the Bay Area and after all the fun this weekend, we have changed our plans to to a hotel that includes a pool.
Tag: kids
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Expensive Tastes
Julia, who often sleeps between us, woke up this morning and let us know her breakfast wishes.
“I’m hungry. I want sushi.”
Yikes.
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Back “home”
We made it back to rainy New Jersey late yesterday. Before unpacking, we let some of our neighbors know that we’re planning on pulling up stakes to move to San Francisco. It really starts to hit home when you tell families that you’ve been sharing your lives with that you’re going to be pulling away.
After unpacking and eating take away Chinese, we finally hit the sack around 11 pm. Jet lag set in on the kids with first Julia, then Tyler making their way to our bedroom for some company. After several attempts of telling them to try and get some sleep, at 4 am Izumi turned over to see both Tyler & Julia, quiet as can be, side-by-side between us in bed, staring straight up at the ceiling, eyes wide open. We finally gave up at 5 am and got up to fix some breakfast.
Julia just came by and said to me, “How’ya doin’” in a perfect New Jersey twang, I think it’s time for us to move on.
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Little “t”
Encho-sensei I’m in Tokyo for the week catching up with the family who has been here for the past month and a half. Earlier in the year, Izumi negotiated with a local kindergarten to see if we could send Tyler (5) to their school for June and July while Japanese schools are still session. I had gone to a Japanese kindergarten when I was Tyler’s age and it did a world of good for my ability to pronounce Japanese so the logic was that it would help Tyler as well.
To a large part, it’s been successful. Tyler has fit right in and learned a little Japanese to boot. I’ll post pictures when I return and can upload them from my camera. He’s off today for a two night trip to the mountains to pick blueberries with his classmates which is a wonderful way to finish out his experience.
The school is affiliated with a Christian church in Denenchofu, about 15 minutes away by car. For the past two mornings, I’ve been walking Tyler to school after getting dropped off halfway by Izumi’s mom on her way to work. Tyler leads the way, explaining all the things he sees on the way to school. As we approached the school on Monday, he pointed down the road to his school, signposted by the, little “t” as he described it. It took a while for me to figure out what he was talking about but then I saw it. The little “t” he was talking about was the Cross, up on top of the building. I had internalized the symbol so much I didn’t see it for what it is, a little “t.”
Tyler with his Japanese school teacher -
Tyler’s Dinosaur
Three things came together to bring this picture online.
- Tyler had the idea to draw a picture of a dinosaur
- my parents had to buy a digital camera
- my parents had to learn how to upload & email a photo
Success!
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Class Self Portraits
Finally got around to scanning in Tyler’s class self-portraits that were given out at his graduation ceremony. Wonderful to see how each child depicts himself. Jack’s got spiky hair, Amber and Natalie chose to accentuate their long eyelashes, Brooke has curley hair, and Jake a big, happy smile. The expressions are great too – Laila is a little coy but has a sincere gaze, Kelly is a bit crafty, Lianna is looking sideways at something and Kirsten is just plain glad to be here. Tyler always leaves out the pupils in all his drawings of people and for this self-portrait, he did something weird with his hair and took special care to include his nostrils.
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Questions
Izumi and the kids are away in Japan for a month so Tyler could attend the last few weeks of Japanese kindergarten and hopefully pick up some of the language – a bit of an experiment. Before he left he asked me why things get smaller when they move further away into the distance. Good question – I had to think about that one for a bit. My answer was that if they didn’t get smaller, they wouldn’t fit.
Any other ideas?
UPDATE: Mie put the question to Dr. Hal
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Memorial Day Parade
All the kids on the block entered as the “East Franklin Wheelers” in this year’s Memorial Day Parade. The usual suspects showed up, the couple on the bicycle built for two, the Pennington, Hopewell, and Titusville fire brigades, several troops of Brownies, Cub Scouts, tractors, classic cars, and the Delaware Valley PT Cruiser club.
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Pig Roast
Yesterday, the Cirullo’s held their annual Pig Roast. They grew up in the area and the Pig Roast is an excuse to bring all their far-flung friends back together for a day long gathering interspersed with games of Quoits, a raffle drawing featuring “expensed” corporate giveaways [Merrill Lynch T-Shirt, Mettler Toledo swiss army knives] and many mugs of beer. More kids this year than last so the late-night crowd was only a few. I turned in early but we could hear the clanking of the Quoits on their pins late into the night . . . the sounds of Summer.