Wow, so I didn't realise how much time had actually expired since the last post. I perused some of our friends and travelmate's blogs and thought "okay I need to post since it's been awhile."
So, I'm listening to Sarah Brightman and Schiller (a German electronic/trance group) while mama and Autumn sleep, putting addresses into a new file, and working on an Adobe After Effects project for my classes. Okay...the other stuff is in between this posting...and after it's done.
Things have been going alright thus far. With the big mess in the financial markets it's gotten a bit hairy and uncertain with things, but we trudge on and do what we can. I have much left to do with the foundation (base) courses for my MultiMedia cert. but I'm hell-bent on getting this done and getting something going. I'm also working out getting our website going for displaying and selling some of our photography. This has been something G has wanted to do for a while now and we're not getting any younger (a fact I notice everytime I look in the mirror and see multitudes of grey hair on head an in beard...) so I'm doing what I need to do to help get it started. Once again, this financial crisis couldn't have come at a worse time...but what do you do, yeah?!
Anyhoo...
Autumn is doing well with Mandarin. The class is fun and she loves Ms. Lu, the teacher. Between that and watching 'Ni Hao, KaiLan!' she's really getting a good grasp on things. She and I continually try to work on words and phrases when we can. She's pretty much got counting out 1-5 (sometimes having trouble with remembering 4) and is moving towards getting 6-10 added to that. She's nailed down some colours: red, blue, green, yellow, pink; and loves the part in the class where all the kids make a circle, hold hands, and sing in Mandarin. Her fave songs so far are 'Good Morning, Teacher!' sung to the tune of happy birthday...and 'Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Feet.' (yes, feet because toes in Mandarin doesn't fit into the song quite right.)
I love the moments here lately where she's taken to singing out loud around the house and at the store when we're grocery shopping. We do our grocery shopping on the way home after class and today she's belting out "Zao Shang Hao LiaoShi!" while I'm chuckling and telling her "heng hao!" (good job!)
She's a great helper and shopper. She'll get an item we need and either put it in the cart or hand it to me. I'll tell her "xie xie Autumn" and receive "bu ke qi!" in return....great job kiddo! Today I tried to sneak something past her and failed....which is actually good. She was looking at cereal and I started down the aisle to go to the next one. I get all the way down the aisle and shout out "guolai!" which is like "come with me" "follow me" or something to that effect. This is used in 'Ni Hao, KaiLan' alot but I wasn't sure if she had figured out what it meant yet and I have never told her. Silly me. Just after I spoke that she turns and comes running down the aisle saying "wait for me...wait for me Daddy!!!"
As far as her regular entry pre-school days go, Mama reports that the teacher says she doing very well. She also reports however, that ms. Autumn is having a few more tantrums than she would like (although having none is the best!). The problem is that she is so restless and full of energy...she figures things out quickly...helps out the teacher sometimes and helps some of her friends with things...and then gets bored (teacher's assessment). She has been having fits mostly over not getting to do what she wants and not being able to wait to do something or wait her turn. I fear that she's going to have this issue as she gets into true pre-school and kindergarten the next couple of years. She's very much like this at home with us as well. She bores very easily and quickly and then gets upset that sometimes she doesn't get to do what she wants and/or gets to do/have things exactly when she wants to. Obviously mama and daddy have some planning to do. Besides all this, she is amazing and never ceases to give us moments where we are like "how old are you??!!" or times where we can only just look at each other and shake our heads.
*mama and daddy are preparing dinner and I ask her what she would like to eat since we're having steak and potatoes which are not on Autumn's "I like to eat..." list. She turns and goes to the freezer, pulls out a kid's dinner, hands it to me and says..."I think I'll have this...can you cook this for me daddy?" Of course I say yes and turn the box over to the front to see what she chose. Almost immediately Autumn says matter-of-factly "the directions are on the back! you need to turn it over and read them!" and as I look at her like "what the..." and laugh while turning the box over, she says" yes right there!" I stop and look at her and ask "how old are you?!" "three!" "no, really, how old are you?!" "ummmm..." and then I get a big grin.
* we have I, Robot on and Autumn walks in while I am watching the scene where the robots are jumping all over Will Smith's car and finally cause him to crash. Autumn says "what are those robots doing? awww he crashed!" "yes he did." "awww is he okay?" I say, "yes he's okay but he's alittle hurt still." this is the part where he climbs out of the car and stumbles around a bit. "why does he have blood on him?" "because he got alittle hurt in the car crash hon." "oh, because he wasn't buckled in." I have to think for a moment and then I say, "exactly!". smart chickie. :)
We leave for a few days vacation on the 2nd. Two weeks. We're headed to Vegas for a couple of days then the real trip which gets us up to Bryce Canyon and then back down to Zion National Park. Autumn is excited to see the fountains at Bellagio however since mama has showed her video and photos. "the water is dancing...that is sooo pretty." she says.
I think Autumn will enjoy the time in Bryce and Zion as well. We suspect that we might get into some snow at Bryce and we should get some awesome fall colours on the trees in Zion. I mention this now because the way things have been going, I probably won't find the time to post until after we get back. I'll definitely have some photos to share though which will make up for the lack of posting. hehe :)
One last note before I go...Autumn still apparently has this thing about not liking Santa Claus and not wanting him to bring presents at Christmas. When we ask her who she wants to bring presents then her reply is....ready?..... the Easter Bunny. "huh?!" I always say. "the Easter Bunny doesn't do that sweetie he just does the whole Easter eggs and candy thing when it is springtime." I will tell her. "But I don't want Santa to come I want the Easter Bunny to bring presents." One time mama tells her "the Easter Bunny hibernates in the winter." Okay, what?! all this time I didn't know this and thought bears hibernated and not rabbits. Of course mama was being funny in the way she usually is. We did have to tell Autumn that bunnies don't hibernate so she doesn't start believing they do. Very important thing to do considering how we all know the ways of a 3-year old mind. Especially one that picks up things as quickly as this particular one does. :)
So, I'm listening to Sarah Brightman and Schiller (a German electronic/trance group) while mama and Autumn sleep, putting addresses into a new file, and working on an Adobe After Effects project for my classes. Okay...the other stuff is in between this posting...and after it's done.
Things have been going alright thus far. With the big mess in the financial markets it's gotten a bit hairy and uncertain with things, but we trudge on and do what we can. I have much left to do with the foundation (base) courses for my MultiMedia cert. but I'm hell-bent on getting this done and getting something going. I'm also working out getting our website going for displaying and selling some of our photography. This has been something G has wanted to do for a while now and we're not getting any younger (a fact I notice everytime I look in the mirror and see multitudes of grey hair on head an in beard...) so I'm doing what I need to do to help get it started. Once again, this financial crisis couldn't have come at a worse time...but what do you do, yeah?!
Anyhoo...
Autumn is doing well with Mandarin. The class is fun and she loves Ms. Lu, the teacher. Between that and watching 'Ni Hao, KaiLan!' she's really getting a good grasp on things. She and I continually try to work on words and phrases when we can. She's pretty much got counting out 1-5 (sometimes having trouble with remembering 4) and is moving towards getting 6-10 added to that. She's nailed down some colours: red, blue, green, yellow, pink; and loves the part in the class where all the kids make a circle, hold hands, and sing in Mandarin. Her fave songs so far are 'Good Morning, Teacher!' sung to the tune of happy birthday...and 'Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Feet.' (yes, feet because toes in Mandarin doesn't fit into the song quite right.)
I love the moments here lately where she's taken to singing out loud around the house and at the store when we're grocery shopping. We do our grocery shopping on the way home after class and today she's belting out "Zao Shang Hao LiaoShi!" while I'm chuckling and telling her "heng hao!" (good job!)
She's a great helper and shopper. She'll get an item we need and either put it in the cart or hand it to me. I'll tell her "xie xie Autumn" and receive "bu ke qi!" in return....great job kiddo! Today I tried to sneak something past her and failed....which is actually good. She was looking at cereal and I started down the aisle to go to the next one. I get all the way down the aisle and shout out "guolai!" which is like "come with me" "follow me" or something to that effect. This is used in 'Ni Hao, KaiLan' alot but I wasn't sure if she had figured out what it meant yet and I have never told her. Silly me. Just after I spoke that she turns and comes running down the aisle saying "wait for me...wait for me Daddy!!!"
As far as her regular entry pre-school days go, Mama reports that the teacher says she doing very well. She also reports however, that ms. Autumn is having a few more tantrums than she would like (although having none is the best!). The problem is that she is so restless and full of energy...she figures things out quickly...helps out the teacher sometimes and helps some of her friends with things...and then gets bored (teacher's assessment). She has been having fits mostly over not getting to do what she wants and not being able to wait to do something or wait her turn. I fear that she's going to have this issue as she gets into true pre-school and kindergarten the next couple of years. She's very much like this at home with us as well. She bores very easily and quickly and then gets upset that sometimes she doesn't get to do what she wants and/or gets to do/have things exactly when she wants to. Obviously mama and daddy have some planning to do. Besides all this, she is amazing and never ceases to give us moments where we are like "how old are you??!!" or times where we can only just look at each other and shake our heads.
*mama and daddy are preparing dinner and I ask her what she would like to eat since we're having steak and potatoes which are not on Autumn's "I like to eat..." list. She turns and goes to the freezer, pulls out a kid's dinner, hands it to me and says..."I think I'll have this...can you cook this for me daddy?" Of course I say yes and turn the box over to the front to see what she chose. Almost immediately Autumn says matter-of-factly "the directions are on the back! you need to turn it over and read them!" and as I look at her like "what the..." and laugh while turning the box over, she says" yes right there!" I stop and look at her and ask "how old are you?!" "three!" "no, really, how old are you?!" "ummmm..." and then I get a big grin.
* we have I, Robot on and Autumn walks in while I am watching the scene where the robots are jumping all over Will Smith's car and finally cause him to crash. Autumn says "what are those robots doing? awww he crashed!" "yes he did." "awww is he okay?" I say, "yes he's okay but he's alittle hurt still." this is the part where he climbs out of the car and stumbles around a bit. "why does he have blood on him?" "because he got alittle hurt in the car crash hon." "oh, because he wasn't buckled in." I have to think for a moment and then I say, "exactly!". smart chickie. :)
We leave for a few days vacation on the 2nd. Two weeks. We're headed to Vegas for a couple of days then the real trip which gets us up to Bryce Canyon and then back down to Zion National Park. Autumn is excited to see the fountains at Bellagio however since mama has showed her video and photos. "the water is dancing...that is sooo pretty." she says.
I think Autumn will enjoy the time in Bryce and Zion as well. We suspect that we might get into some snow at Bryce and we should get some awesome fall colours on the trees in Zion. I mention this now because the way things have been going, I probably won't find the time to post until after we get back. I'll definitely have some photos to share though which will make up for the lack of posting. hehe :)
One last note before I go...Autumn still apparently has this thing about not liking Santa Claus and not wanting him to bring presents at Christmas. When we ask her who she wants to bring presents then her reply is....ready?..... the Easter Bunny. "huh?!" I always say. "the Easter Bunny doesn't do that sweetie he just does the whole Easter eggs and candy thing when it is springtime." I will tell her. "But I don't want Santa to come I want the Easter Bunny to bring presents." One time mama tells her "the Easter Bunny hibernates in the winter." Okay, what?! all this time I didn't know this and thought bears hibernated and not rabbits. Of course mama was being funny in the way she usually is. We did have to tell Autumn that bunnies don't hibernate so she doesn't start believing they do. Very important thing to do considering how we all know the ways of a 3-year old mind. Especially one that picks up things as quickly as this particular one does. :)
"do you want some water daddy?" (a day out at the zoo) 
not so good at shadow puppets, but adorable none-the-less...
this is a prime example of what happens when you have a busy day and didn't want to take a nap. time of day: 5pm. lasted: until about 10pm and then back to sleep for the rest of the night.
nothing good can come of this...
1 comment:
Such a smart cookie!! It was good to see an update and read all that is happening in the world of Autumn.
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