NH Thanksgiving 2009

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Les Miserables - I dreamed a dream....

Thankful For My Treasures

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton Wilder


Well, I am off to New Hampshire today for a week. I am looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with my family. Britany is flying in from USAFA and it will be so amazing to see her again and give her a big squeeze.

Despite the amount of travel I have done lately, it just doesn't seem to get any easier. It seems like there is always something to stress me out. This trip, I cannot find the battery charger for my camera. And me on a trip without a camera???? I know that I saw it when I unpacked from my last trip, but my mind was on so many things. I remember thinking to myself "you'd better put this someplace safe so you don't forget about it" and yep, no clue where it is.

I'm thinking I can probably borrow Charmaine's camera and just put my memory card in there and bring it back home. The way my brain has been lately, I'd better not lose that memory card!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! God Bless xoxoxo

GO FALCONS!!

Chinese School has begun.....

We had such a wonderful time at Chinese School yesterday! I was happy that Colin was able to join us. It is going to work out great that it is on Sunday, so he will be available to participate in the process.

They usually only allow one parent to stay, but since it was our first day, they let us both stay. Colin ended up leaving and walking around; talking with the principal who was also born in Hong Kong.

School is three hours long, but it is broken up into three different segments with snack and recess in between which makes it nice. The first segment the teacher reviews common words with them all together as a class before handing them each some individual work. There were 12 kids in his class yesterday. Christopher worked on writing the numbers 1, 2 and 3 (yi, er, san). At one point, he looked at me, smiled and said "I love Chinese School".

He will even get to bring a little lunch box for snack time and a back pack for his notebook with all of his work sheets. It is so adorable. It is great that at least one of us can stay because that eliminates any anxiety and just lets him get excited about it and look forward to going. He is already looking forward to going again and going shopping for his notebook and pencils and crayons.

I could tell by the last segment yesterday that it won't take too long and I will move to the back of the class rather than right next to him and then before I know it, he will be telling me that I don't need to stay. At least it will be on his terms though when he is ready to stay alone which will set my mind at ease.

He was so pleased when the teacher pointed to a bowl of rice and asked how to say it because he knows how to say rice in Chinese, so he was all smiles and very proud! He was shy of course at first, which made him very well behaved. When the teacher took him by the hand to lead him somewhere, he would turn around with this worried look to make sure that I was following, then I could see his relief as I smiled and gave him the big thumbs up. They did work sheets in the class room, sang songs in a big room with a stage and organ and then back to the classroom for more work sheets and coloring.

At the end of our last segment, he smiled and said "Dis is juss like First grade or Kindergarten or somethin" with a wide grin. I think this was a great idea!

My Montage 11/12/09 at OneTrueMedia.com

As Christopher's fourth birthday fast approaches, I thought it would be a good idea to start getting him involved in some activities again such as Art class at Gymboree. When I scheduled the preview class by phone, I was not told that it was a drop off class, so I was not prepared to leave him, nor had I attempted to prepare him that I might leave. I thought I would give it a try. I told him just to "try it" and if he didn't like it, we wouldn't do it again. I told him that I would watch him from the window and that he could see me. He was fine - until the teacher closed the door! Then, it was the saddest thing I have ever witnessed. With his elbows on the table, he placed his chin in the palms of his hands, squinted his eyes and cried this sad little cry. He was devastated. He just looked so helpless and sad. He was rubbing his fingers into his eyeballs and I said to myself "That's enough of this. It is not worth it and I am NOT ready for this".. I rescued him and we headed to the mall. I am just not ready to let go of my baby yet...

When I got home, I started working on this video as I poured over the thousands of photographs uploaded to my computer. I think I will have this made into a DVD and give it to Daddy for Christmas.

Warning: It is a long video...approx 20 minutes...

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