Chris and I attended Anya's parent-teacher conference last night. Overall, Anya is doing very well. At or above level in all areas and always up for challenges. Her teacher says she enthusiastically participates in class discussions (always wants her opinion heard), collaborates well with everyone in small group activities (other kids want to work with her), and is a natural leader. However, she still rushes through work sometimes and isn't good about checking it before turning in. She just assumes it's correct and gets annoyed when it's not. She also gets frustrated if things don't come quickly to her. Her teacher has been helping her by reminding to her check her work and giving opportunities to do things again with more effort. When she puts in effort, the quality of her work is excellent.
Her teacher is also throwing back problems (social or otherwise) at Anya for her to solve, and she has made a lot of progress this way. Much less of a "reporter" and more of a problem solver since the beginning of the year. Anya is a bright and capable kid and her teacher is making sure she works to her potential all-around.
One of the projects the kids did was an autobiography/self-portrait. They did everything on their own, from editing to typing and printing. Here is Anya's. They will be doing another similar project at the end of the year, so it will be interesting to see how her work evolves over the course of the school year:
And here's a map Anya created for a class activity, complete with a key. Carkeek Park.
I cannot believe she's 8 already. Eight seems like such a big kid age. But here we are.
I just read through the birthday post from last year and there are really only a few changes from last year.
School: She is absolutely thriving, academically and socially. Last year, she took some time to form solid friendships and mainly wanted to hang out with just one friend, as well as play chase with the boys. She branched out toward the end of the school year and now it seems she's friends with everyone. She plays with most of the kids in her class and likes all of them, no enemies or "frenemys". Anya is comfortable and confident around her classmates and on the playground.
Academically, she is also confident. She is learning up a storm and her teacher says Anya is always up for any challenges thrown at her. All that hard work on spelling last year has paid off. She regularly earns her "challenge words" (difficult, bonus words when the assigned words are already mastered) each week and has the tools in her belt to make informed guesses on how new words should be spelled. Second grade common core math is sometimes confusing (especially to us adults), but she works and makes sense of it. The only academic negative is her personality trait (inherited from her mother) of being "type A" and very hard on herself if she doesn't do as good a job at something as she thinks she should (be it understanding something instantly or the results of rushing and overlooking something). And she has a difficult time asking for help if she needs it. Her teacher is helping her with that as best she can.
Our family is so happy we chose her school and community. It is wonderful all-around. One new development is that she decided on her own to get baptized and subsequently go through First Communion and First Reconciliation with her classmates. Baptism is next Saturday and will be a small, private ceremony. It's not too surprising she would make this decision, being at a Catholic school. We support her in this. However, I do find it funny that she now says she wants to be a saint when she grows up (in addition to being a herpetologist), modeled after St. Francis. More power to her, but saintly behavior starts at home and I'd sure love to see more of it. :-)
Other interests are pretty much the same: animals and nature. Climbing. Running around. She loves to feed the crows and has befriended one she's named Hungry Mungry. He hangs around the house, sometimes peeks into the windows, squawking at us. And occasionally flies with us as we walk to school -- especially if she is carrying peanuts. He's taken to swooping down and coming very close to me these days (actually bumped me twice), I presume to say hi and ask for handouts. He lets Anya get within about 3 or 4 feet of him. We like having him around. The dogs, though, not so much.
Activity-wise, she has taken more of an interest in soccer than she did in previous years. I wouldn't say it's her favorite, but she likes it well-enough, and playing a team sport is good for her. She also did cross-country again. I think if she can get over side stitches and learn some breathing techniques, she'll get into it. She said she came in first place (in her age group) in the school Slurpee Run. Obviously food-motivated like her momma. So maybe if I tie a doughnut to a string and keep it in front of her, she'll keep running. Rock climbing (especially bouldering), she loves. Also loves fishing about as much as Chris, which is very boring for me. Still little interest in things I like to do, such as cooking, sewing, generally making things with my hands. So it's difficult to bond over activities sometimes. In this regard, she's definitely Chris's daughter. Hiking is one we can all enjoy, though, pretty much always.
Favorite foods are the same (chicken and bread salad, spaghetti and meatballs, pumpkin-cinnamon-swirl bread). I don't know her favorite song (will put it here if she has one). Favorite movie/books have to be Harry Potter anything. TV shows: she's been watching Garfield and Pokemon, still liked Wild Kratts.
On a side note, we are going through a major kitchen remodel right now and I have breast cancer. I'll be starting chemo soon. So we are living in the basement and things are generally unsettled. She seems to be handling everything well so far, but I imagine there will be some signs of stress. We try to keep her schedule the same and be open (yet age-appropriate) with everything that's going on. So far, so good. We may write a separate post about it sometime.
Anya started her first day of second grade on Tuesday.
She wasn't nervous at all and was very much looking forward to her first day, meeting her teacher, and seeing classmates. She also gussied up (= brushed her hair several times) for a boy in her class.
She has a new teacher this year and so far, so good. Anya was pretty bummed, though, that the second grade and first grade classrooms switched this year -- so she's in the same classroom as last year. This means cubbies instead of lockers, which she was really looking forward to and "it's not fair that the first graders get lockers and we get cubbies. We're being treated like Kindergartners." It's now Friday and I think she's more or less over the injustice of it.
I'm a room parent this year, which is supposedly a pretty work-heavy job. We'll see. So far, it's consisted of a few meetings and a handful of emails. Not too bad. Since I'm a wee bit Type-A, it's a good position for me.
Just like last year, CYO athletics starts pretty much right away. Yesterday was the first soccer practice. Chris is coaching the kids again and the first game is in a few weeks. Anya wants to try cross country again and that starts in 1.5 weeks, but it's a very short season. Some other activities will make for a busy Autumn.
Anya really does amazing things with animals. This post is simply to capture some of these things so that, when we're all older, we don't lose the memory and tell her these things never happened.
The tale of Blackie the Cricket (as told (mostly) by Anya)
My friend Eva was keeping a lizard at her house. Her name was Banana. Banana eats crickets but she needed small crickets to eat so I had to take home the big ones. Champion, Blackie, Stripe, and Snow (a.k.a Walking Exoskeleton). Snow died, but I still have three. I went to my Grandma and Grandpa's house, and of course I brought my crickets. I was on the deck holding Blackie. I accidentally dropped Blackie, and he went between the cracks in the deck. I started crying.
[Dad takes over the narrative here]
Anya was sitting on the deck bemoaning her fate and crying over the loss of Blackie the cricket, which was far and away her favorite of the bunch. I sat down next to her, put my arm around her and said, that, no she probably would never see Blackie again, and that I was very sorry for her loss.
[Anya interjects] My Grandpa said that we could put out some food and he might come out from under the deck but I said, no, he'd already eaten. And Blackie must have liked me because he came out of the deck and crawled up my knee! I was so happy!
[Dad]
I was truly amazed. The Cricket really did climb out of the nice dark safety under the deck into Anya's lap as she sat there crying.
A tale of two frogs
We spend a lot of time at Magnuson Park where Anya is fond of chasing frogs snakes and harassing the beavers.
The other day Amy and Anya were walking around the park looking for critters. Because of the drought this year, frogs in particular have been hard to come by. But Anya happened to look into a culvert with a steel grate over it and noticed a couple of frogs down there.
[Anya takes over]
...And I really wanted one. So I grabbed a piece of grass that was really long, and I bent it into something that looked like a fishing hook. I put it down there, and soon enough there was a frog sitting on it. I pulled it out and voila! I put it in a mud puddle. The end.
Bass on bare Brass
On several occasions, Anya has told me, "Watch this dad I'm gonna catch a fish with a bare hook!" Still every time she says it, I find my self incredulous saying, "Anya, you're not going to catch anything with a bare hook." And every time she proves me wrong. Last week end, yet again, she managed to land a bass or two on a bare hook.
Hungry Mungry the Crow
And of course we shouldn't forget Hungry Mungry Anya's pet crow. There's nothing particularly special about this relationship as far as I can tell. Anya gives Mr. Mungry free vittles and he appreciates it. He comes by and caws at her through the living room window, and she gives him food and caws back. Loudly.
Much of our beloved family live on the Eastern seaboard. This includes most of Amy's family, Chris' older brother Brian's family, and every single one of Anya's cousins. Because Anya is an only child, her cousins occupy a special, almost sibling-like, place in her multi-chambered heart adjacent to all critters slimy and small.
So in an ambitious effort to see as many cousins, grandparents, swimming pools, woodland creatures, BBQ joints and Eastern states as possible during Chris' protracted vacation time (eBay is much more stingy then Microsoft in this regard) we boarded a plane and headed East.
One more wonderful twist, Eloise (of Great Wolf Lodge and St. Catherine's School fame) has grand parents who happen to live a mere 20 minutes from Anya's Grandparents in South Carolina, so she tagged along for the flight.
Due to our early departure on July 4th we had Eloise sleep over. Which was great until the sounds of girl giggling and a dog trying frantically trying to escape from their room awoke us around midnight. This filled Amy and Chris with dread about flying with them come morning.
As it turned out, both kids were remarkably awesome during travel, especially considering their complete lack of sleep the night before.
Anya and Eloise about to get on the plane at SeaTac. Not bad for 4 hours of sleep.
The girls FINALLY pass out on our 20 minute hop between Charlotte and Greenville.
First night Eloise stayed with Anya at Dondon and Grangie's new place in Boiling Springs. Toads were discovered early on and so the toad hunt commenced.
The girls digging around for toads
Anya with one of many captive toads (I'm sure she caught at least 7)
Here is their naturalist base on the porch, note the "Step 1: Get worms" which was how they were luring toads from their hidy holes.
After a night of fireworks, fireflies, toads, and good food. We all traveled to Lois and Ernie's place for a fantastic lunch and some swimming.
Here we see the girls near the giant vat of green hair dye they had been swimming in all day.
The next day, Dondon loaded up the boat and all the gear to take Anya and Chris fishing.
Fun fact: In the Boiling Springs Walmart there is literally an entire aisle 5 shelves high with ammunition you can impulse buy, but the bait worms? Locked up tight and you have to get a clerk to help you retrieve them.
Anyway the fisher folk piled onto Dondon's boat and had a long hot day of not really catching many fish (Don landed 3, Anya and Chris nary a one). So of course they all decided to go out again near sun down to similar effect. Anya did catch another toad while Don and Chris secured the boat to the trailer, so it wasn't a complete loss.
While we never caught this fish, it was remarkably huge. We guesstimated it at 10 lbs. It was just hanging out on the surface for about 5 minutes.
One of Don's fish being thrown back. One was a walleye which was strange. Not sure if it was this one.
Anya's had enough, but the men folk fish on!
In the end, we caught no fish in the evening, but the sunset over the lake was beautiful.
Next, we headed off to Charlotte to stay with Don and Koby and Alivia, where fireflies were chased, baby birds harassed, and pools swum. We went to Grandma and Grandpa B's place to hang out, and had a nice dinner at a Mexican place with Matt, Heidi, Grandma and Grandpa.
The next morning we were off to Discovery Place (science center) where the critters are all kept safe behind glass from the likes of Anya.
Birds nest located in a folded tarp on a deck chair behind Alivia's house. You can just make out the tips of the 4 eggs in this shot.
Next Day there was one less egg, but one hungry chick.
Anya and Alivia walking hand-in-hand at the park n' ride to go to Discovery Place.
That evening we hooked up with Amy's old best friend Erin and her family for Pizza in Ballantyne. A great meal with good folks. Anya got bored and wanted to look for bugs. She found some cicadas and fire flies, to chase. The following were likely highlights for her:
Alex (Erin's daughter) informed Anya that she monitored a Pokemon-themed Minecraft server. Anya was star-struck.
Anya was literally laying down on the sidewalk out side of the pizza joint doing something unsupervised. A family walked up and the mom asked Anya where her mommy was (we were just on the other side of the plate glass window) The woman's face was suddenly overrun with a look of complete disgust, she gathered up her children and walked away. We later asked Anya what she was doing and she told us, "Oh, nothing, just feeding bugs to the spiders." And that's the kid in a nut shell.
Here's some more images of the variously harassed creatures and critters who encounter Anya on her march across the Carolinas.
Thumb-sized Cicada in the manicured "forest" near the strip mall were we had pizza with Erin and her family.
True to form, Anya found a stink bug in a small green strip near Alivia's place.
Ostensibly, the whole purpose of this trip was to have a nice family reunion in the mountains around Asheville. The place Amy and Angie chose was completely awesome. Not only were the amenities pretty nice and quaint, with rocking chairs and fans on porches overlooking a beautiful forest, stream and pond, but it had everything a kid, or a troupe of kid-like adults could want.
The was hiking near by, the pond was stocked with trout, there was a game room, and horse shoes, several playgrounds and, (joy of joys!) a water balloon battle fields with special water-balloon sized spigots and complementary balloons.
We were in the woods so there were no cars to worry about, so we dowsed her with deet and sunscreen and let her hunt for critters to her heart's content. Anya was in heaven.
Circling the trout farm in search of fish, or frogs, or salamanders.
A pretty blue dress and a Solo cup is all this girl needs to hunt for salamanders and newts.
See?..
Solo cups also work for catching fireflies. Whenever critters don't run away from her, or die of fright on the spot, Anya yells, "See? They like me!"
This particular varmint (Freddy the squirrel) did like her. It's amazing the effect a little gray matter in addition to a simple spinal cord can have on inter-species relations, especially in the presence of unlimited free peanuts.
An inch worm on the hiking trail during a water break.
Luna moth.
A clutch of tadpoles and polliwogs retrieved from a stagnant fountain.
This video does a pretty good job of showing the water balloon battle ground, and the fact that our kids no nothing about muskets at 7 paces.
And her we see Koby helping the girls hunt for bugs and tadpoles.
After two days playing around at the Willow Winds Cabin it was time to say our tearful good-byes to Amy's side of the family and head north to Virginia to see Brian, Tara, Mia, and Cole.
Here we see Anya straddling the double yellow Tennessee/Virginia state line on State Street in Bristol where we stopped for lunch. (Tennessee is on the right, Virginia on the left)
We stayed the night at the Hotel Roanoke. This is a very well-appointed grand hotel from back in the day. Anya said, "Wow, its a castle!"
But most importantly, it had a pool.
The next day we arrived at Mia and Cole's place, and headed for a local play ground. Much fun was had by all.
Anya finally had a mammal to harass, and harass Cooper she did. They even made a Super Cooper movie to celebrate Cooper's prowess and defeating Duckly (the evil).
After much detailed discussion of Harry Potter, and more messing with Cooper, we all headed out to the Museum of Natural History. As per usual, Anya was thrilled by the butterflies so we spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get them to land on us.
Here is Anya's first acquisition.
Anya and aunt Tara have matching hair pieces
And no trip to anywhere would be complete without a trip to a pool, so here is the final shot of Anya on vacation: leaping fearlessly into the pool near Mia and Cole's place.
It was a fantastic trip. Anya held it together until we arrived back in Seattle. At that point, she started to cry and say that she missed all her cousins and wanted to go back. Amy currently has it in her mind that she wants to move to Asheville to get closer to all her family. Chris will require some convincing to say the least.
Here is our Travel map so that Anya's future acolytes can re-walk the route as a pilgrimage to her epic voyage of critters, cousins, swimming pools, and BBQ.
I happened upon this extremely cute video of Anya. This is her packing so that she and Liam could run away together during our trip to Suncadia in January.
As it turns out, Liam and Anya are headed up to the woods again this weekend so the timing is apropos.
If you are wondering how the story ends, Liam and Anya didn't run away. They tried to pitch a tent in the snow as the sun was going down. Jeff and I drank beer on the porch and watched them. Once they got cold and realized we weren't going to help them, they gave up and decided to try again next year, armed with the experience that only failure can provide.
Well, we made it to summer. Anya survived first grade and her first year at St. C's.
The school year started out a little rough for her, which was expected. It was a pretty big adjustment. She had initially made one close friend/"frenemy" and then took some time to branch out and try to get to know the other kids. She got along with most kids and played with many on the playground, but was mostly interested in having a "bestie". We had lots of playdates too try to speed up the process. By midyear, she branched out somewhat, and by the end of the year, I'd say she really blossomed socially. She seems to be well-liked by her classmates and loves school.
Academically, it was a good year. Lot of learning and she was up to the challenges. Having a wonderful teacher and assistants didn't hurt, either. She went from being a somewhat poor speller (in comparison to her peers) to earning "challenge words" regularly. It's not something that comes naturally to her, but she was motivated to work hard at it and reaped the rewards. What a great lesson for her.
All in all, Chris and I feel like the move to St. C's was a great choice for Anya - and us. It's a wonderful community. The teachers and staff are great. Everyone knows her, from the preschoolers to the eighth graders. And there's no fear of the "big kids". They are friends to her and look out for her. In fact, the other month some third graders witnessed someone being somewhat unkind to Anya on the playground. They stepped in, took Anya aside and let her know she didn't need to deal with that treatment. And they talked to the other child to stop the behavior -- all in a very mature way. I'm really grateful that she's in that kind of environment.
And now we've got summer ahead of us. A few weeks of lowkey days with playdates and parks and whatever we feel like doing. Then we're off to the east coast for a bit, then camps and the rest of summer will likely zoom by.
A few pictures from our Lake Kachess visit over Memorial Day weekend. Our friends just bought a cute, little (perfect) cabin there and invited us to stay. A good weekend, too short.
Anya started taking weekly piano lessons about two months ago. Up until very recently, she expressed pretty much zero interest in any instrument - even though we've various ones laying around the house for her to pick up since she was a baby. We've had the old piano for several years, and it was a shame it hadn't gotten much use.
It took her good friend Eva taking piano lessons to spark her interest. I found a coupon for a few introductory lessons to give it a try, not expecting much. Anya was instantly crazy about her instructor, Sophia, though, and seems to have taken to it. She likes to practice often and so far seems to love it. I love hearing her play.
Here's a little clip of her playing last night. Not too shabby for 7 or 8 lessons.
Anya's school is on Spring Break this week. We decided to stay in town for a few reasons 1) Chris doesn't get much vacation at his new job and we're using most of it for our NC trip this summer 2) we're saving up to do a major remodel of our kitchen and a trip now would cut into those funds.
Unfortunately, all of Anya's school friends are out of town this week and public school friends aren't on Spring Break until next week. So, it's been a quiet, mom-kid week.
Monday, we went to Carkeek Park for the entire morning. We played on the beach and collected rocks (for the next round to go in the rock tumbler) until we could no longer stand the icy wind. Then we took a long hike through the woods and then ended up back at the playground. Out to lunch and then to another local park.
Tuesday, we headed to Woodinville for a few errands and then went to St. Edward State Park. I love that place. After a good hour of hide and seek at the (awesome) playground, we took a trail through the woods down to the water and hung out for awhile. Roaring Mouse late afternoon, with a play date and dinner here with her new friend, Owen.
Wednesday, we walked to Froula Park, then down to Roosevelt Square, had lunch, and then walked to Cowen Park. Bummer that the zipline (which was the whole reason we went there) was either out for repair or stolen. Probably stolen, considering. Kiddo played for awhile and then we walked the Ravenna Park trail home. She socialized over the fence for most of the afternoon with our next-door neighbors and after dinner we headed to the Fremont Troll for a short time to let Anya climb around.
Anya channeling her inner Japanese tourist
Thursday, we took the bus down to the UW with the intention of having a picnic under a blooming cherry tree in the Quad. Unfortunately, the trees were past bloom (sad Anya), but we still had a picnic. It was a gorgeous day and some classes were being held on the grass, so it was fun for me to listen in on them. Anya climbed many a cherry tree and we wandered (Anya ran) around campus for quite awhile. We eventually walked up to the Burke Museum and spent about an hour there. On a whim, we decided to walk home from there instead of wait for a bus. I was pretty amazed at what a trooper Anya was. She enjoyed the walk, no complaints (except to note that the bottoms of her heels were feeling hot). We stopped at Vios for a well-earned treat and continued home. I expected her to fall asleep from exhaustion, but she ended up staying up late (overtired, perhaps).
Today, we drove out to Bellevue to have lunch with Chris. Anya and I walked around Bellevue Square for a bit and she was entranced by the Lego Store and a Rubix Cube at another store. I ended up buying the game Simon, with fond memories of playing it as a kid. After walking back with Chris to his office, Anya and I walked over to the downtown park and she played (with real elementary-aged kids since they are on Spring Break on that side of the lake!) for quite awhile. Eventually, we headed back across the bridge. This evening, she's going to Moonpaper Tent for a few hours while Chris and I get a short date night.
This week was surprisingly fun and I've enjoyed all the walks and connecting with the kiddo.I wish there were more kids around for her to play with (probably not as much as she wished for it), but it was still a nice week.
Last weekend, we went on whirlwind weekend trip to NC to attend Matt and Heidi's wedding. Chris and Anya both had important jobs: Chris officiated and Anya was the ring bearer.
This was a special trip for a few reasons: 1) the wedding and 2) because we hadn't seen family in awhile and this was the first time all of my siblings/step-siblings (on my dad's side) and our children were together. It's the first time we met Leo, Oliver and Bennett, and baby Leslie.
We stayed over at Don, Koby and Alivia's Friday. Anya and Alivia were so happy to see each other after 2 years and they were instantly buddies again .
reading together
Saturday, wedding day, went pretty smoothly. Chris and Anya did their jobs well and the wedding was lovely.
aww...
I love this picture
wedding party
After the reception, all the kids (plus Dad and Angie) headed over to Don and Koby's for more visiting and a family play date. Matt and Heidi eventually came by as well, but sadly, the littlest ones had to go to bed and they missed the visit. It was great to see everyone that was there.
circle of cousins
The next morning, we got up early and headed to the airport. Look who we ran into there! Their flight to their honeymoon cruise took off at the same time as ours, so we all visited for awhile over (a terrible) breakfast until we had to part ways.
We can't wait until July when everyone gets together again for a much longer visit.
