Onward

Mika is enjoying Kindergarten. It was a bit of a shaky start, but she has made new friends and they help keep her motivated to attend and less anxious about being there 'alone'. Mika is a bit secretive about what happens at school - we have to drag information about the day from her, but she's starting to open up more. Her teacher had a word with me yesterday - Mika does not participate in class as much as the teacher would like. What can I say? The kid is interested in gym class and recess. I asked Mika if she would prefer english kindergarten instead of mandarin, but she says she loves learning chinese. I'm hoping that it's just a matter of Mika gaining confidence in herself with regards to a new language. I overhear her speaking mandarin to her brother and teaching him words and phrases. If I make my presence known, she clams up. Another theory I have is that she is more like me than I know and delights in driving her mother bonko. Admittedly, I did (do?) find it more than amusing to drive my mother batty. Hmmm....:)
Anyway, Mika has been heard counting in mandarin, teaching colours to Declan, saying Hello, Goodbye, Thank You, and others. She says she knows how to say quite a bit more, but is too shy to show us. So it goes...


The last half of summer was awesome! (It's still very summery here - kind of odd for dirty ol' Edmonton. Shouldn't we have snow by now or something?) The kids enjoyed days at the Fringe and what passes for a beach in Alberta. They launched rockets in the park with their cousins. We had various playdates around the city with some fantastic kids and parents. We met up with my friend Carmen and her son and husband. They blew through town on their way home to B.C. from a family reunion just north of here. I love Carm and her family - they rock. In the past decade, I have seen little of Carmen as she moved around the globe getting an education and helping those less fortunate. I hope we can get out to her place next summer.
We also finally got to meet our friends, Clan Briere/Machney, who we had only known online and via telephone prior. Wee Lochren and Declan loved playing with the nerf-esque rockets while Mika and Theya hit it off as we knew they would. Cutest little girls in the world! Chair and J are as lovely in person as they are via the internet. We're looking forward to more meetups!

Off to prep the kitchen - Mika will be home in an hour and wants to try her hand at making apple pie with the apples generously given to us from her cousins. The boys heard that Mika wanted to bake a pie, so they went out and picked her two bags of apples from their trees.