Our Life, The Universe, and Everything

a quick post...

So last Tuesday the 19th, I registered Autumn for kindergarten. That's right...kindergarten. YIKES!! Has my baby girl already gotten old enough to be going to kindergarten?!

She's been in a pre-school program this year so far and an entry level (or as I say..PRE-PRE) pre-school the year before. So what's the big deal? Well I guess it's just the realization that she's going to be 5 in September and entering kindergaten. Since school starts mid to late August she'll actually have started before she turns five, but you know what I mean. Crazy. I don't know how other places do it, but in our school district, you have to register at the first of the year of the year they're entering kindergarten so they know how many children from the particular school's "home-school" territory will be attending so they know how many kids from outside they can enroll.

Autumn is definitely looking forward to going to "real" school although she's already started saying she's alittle nervous about it. Understandable, but with the personality she has...once she gets over the initial newness of everything, she'll be fine and get along well. Mommy and Daddy it seems will probably still be trying to figure out where time went to. :)

Everything else is going well. We're actually looking forward to spring (sooner than later) and getting out and hiking, biking, and spending time at the nearby lake and park. Our new goal this spring is finally getting Autumn over her fear of riding her bike (she fell over a few times last year...yes even with training wheels...and she's not wanted to try it again). She's doing well with most everything else though. She loves dancing around, playing games, spending time with her (local) grandma and grandpa, going to "Chinese school" at the JCCC, colouring and painting, etc. We've gone on almost 5 months now of her going to bed in her own bed without a single fuss or anything. It's been sooooooooooooo great. :)

Okay so my quick post wasn't so quick...oh well. Enjoy the pics. I took them a week ago and I think they are some of the better ones I've taken of Autumn in a little while...if I don't say so myself. hehe!

Until next time...

Happy 3 Year Family/Gotcha/Metcha Day!

In another "hard to believe" moment...

It's been three years ago today that we were in ChongQing and were handed a very beautiful, scared, withdrawn little baby girl. Now we are celebrating this anniversary with a gorgeous, outgoing, precocious 4-year old spicy-girl! She has been and continues to be the light of our lives. She never ceases to amaze and amuse us!

Here's to all of our travelmates who share this wonderful anniversary with us!

crazy 8's and a crazy Autumn

we ended up with around 19 inches of snow when this storm was done.

So Autumn has been trying to learn a few card games. We taught her how to play crazy 8's which is rather fun and she's doing alright with that. We also thought we'd teach her Go Fish, however that has proven to be quite the endeavor. She gets the general idea of how to play, but between not really knowing to check all her cards when asked for one...or deciding that she really doesn't want to give away any of the cards, it makes for a frustrating time. We try to explain that when she doesn't play the game by the rules (i.e. holding onto cards) that it's not right or fair and is called cheating. It's taking some time, but she's slowly getting it. Another game we got to play as a family is Monopoly Jr. She's really good at it and totally understands that one. She regularly wins. Of course when she gets older I'm going to teach her the regular Monopoly game which I love and then "it's on!". hehe.

Halloween proved to be a very fun time as we went over to out friends Jeff and Val's place and Autumn got to trick-or-treat with her little co-hort Malia. I just can't get over how much alike those two act and man do they love spending time together. We took them around the neighbourhood and watched as they went from these timid and quiet little girls to loud, screaming "trick or treat" before even reaching the porches spicy girls. Afterwards we had dinner and the girls got to play and have fun. I took some video of them being particularly silly and hope to post that soon. It's sooooo funny!

We went to a neat place call Mr. Biggs today. It has bowling, miniature golf, pool, arcade games, go-carts, etc. Autumn played her first round of miniature golf. She's been playing the Wii Sports golf for a bit now, but this was her first time trying it with a club and ball for real. It was fun to watch and fun trying to teach her how to do it. Mom and I bowled a couple of games...something we hadn't done in a long time. We saw that they had these ramp things that little kids and disabled people could use to bowl with so next time we'll let Autumn in on the bowling action too.

Autumn's doing well in both her Pre-K and JCCC school. In fact she's already been talking about going to kindergarten next year. Due mostly to the fact that a few of her friends started kindergarten this fall I'm sure. She's really been working hard at counting and some simple addition and subtraction (the Monopoly Jr helps with that). She's still working at trying to sound out words and is doing okay at recognising words that we read to her and trying to remember them when she sees them. It's so weird to watch this develop because obviously we can't remember when we were that young and trying to figure out how to read. It's also pretty neat and fun...especially when she gets close to getting it right or does gets it right.

In other thoughts...it's hard to believe that the end of the year is coming. We just passed the 3 year anni of her referral and in just over a month, 3 years since we first saw and held her in ChongQing. It's also quite hard to believe that another Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the bend.

Well, enjoy the photos and I hope to post more soon!

cutie time!

Just a few pics (more to follow soon).

Autumn's definitely looking forward to Halloween where she's dressing up like a devil princess and her friend Malia is going to be a panda from what we hear. AR's looking forward to having fun and "not being so scared" when we all go trick-or-treating. I'm definitely taking my camera then!

Today was 'Picture Day' at JCCC so I'll have a few pics I took myself of Autumn in her adorable outfit she wore.

two peas

...in a pod

and two sweet peas as well. These two are quite the pair. They giggle, talk alike, crack each other up, you name it. And...now they're in the same JCCC class together (Sorry Ms. Lu!!!)

This pic was taken at the Wildlife Experience. It's a place in south Denver that really is more for kids than adults. It teaches kids about different parts of the world and what kinds of animals, fishes, etc live there.

Obviously I knew exactly what they were thinking/saying when I took this photo. Hehe!