c'est finis

please update!

visit our new blog home here. this is the last post for quatro. over and out.

a new home

changes are coming soon to this blog. i am in the process of changing the url. please stay tuned.

play group

emma and i headed over the park this morning to meet up for cross point's first organized play group. though it was quite chilly, there was plenty of sun to go around.

with her growing sense of independence, emma insisted that she do everything "self."

"can mommy help push you in the swing?"

"no. self." [wiggling frantically to get the swing to move]

then comes the "aargghhhh, uhhhh, grrrr" because she can't swing by herself yet. i then attempt to push her, on the sly, only to be caught (aww, nuts!).

"uhhh...nooooo....self!" [more wiggling]

"okay, self. you're doing it yourself." i resign to the fact that there's no helping her. but i do manage to get her going, secretly, without her noticing. and baby is happy once more.

new and improved

the kids and youth section of the library is finally open!

tyler went there yesterday to do homework in the homework room. they also offer a free program called homework er for school age kids. he really enjoys going to the library, and he seems to like the independence from doing homework in a place that he picks out on his own.




























then there is also an impressive learning space called the librainium, created by the burgeon group, for young kids to explore. so many things to touch, feel and do. emma loved it.




















still more construction to be completed, but the finished "product" is just beyond the horizon.

mother's day

today, we dedicated our daughter to god at church, promising to bring her up (and tyler too) according to his word. what a perfect start to mother's day. then, i received a wonderful and encouraging home-made card from tyler. his words helped me realize that the small things i do for him that i think are often taken for granted are in fact noticed and remembered. i also received a creative haiku card from my dear husband, who sometimes doesn't even need to use words to tell me how much he cares. amazing.

when i was younger, i remember asking my mom, "what do you want for mother's day?"

every year it was the same answer, "just your love and affection."

doesn't help me much does it? but now i understand. because on mother's day that's all i want from my children (and husband). not stuff to substitute for their love and affection. just their love and affection. that's enough for me.

to all the mamas i know: may you be showered with love and affection, today and everyday!

mini road trip

after teaching this morning, my dear family picked me up from work and we jetted down to mamaw's house for a visit. ed and shannon were there with their 2 kiddies, geddy and sophia, who are just about 5 months older than emma. the weather was pleasant. we spent most of the afternoon outside eating home pizza and enjoying each other's company.

the three little cousins really hit it off, especially after emma shared her teddy grahams with the twins. how can you not make a friend when food is involved? sophia was especially fond of tyler and liked to follow him around. tyler did a great job keeping an eye on the little ones, and was always sure to rope them back in if they strayed too far. there was plenty of open space to roam and explore, and i think all the kids really enjoyed that.












there was so much room in fact that aaron and tyler decided to do this little number a couple of times.


and finally, proof that kids don't need anything fancy to keep them happy. just a land rover with leather seats, and plenty of opportunity to climb around.

bunches of flowers

friday we went to the library's family weekend wonder program again, but this time ben and gram came along. the theme was body talk so they read a couple of books involving body parts and movement, and learned to sign the happy birthday song. i have to say, the craft this week was mostly my handy-work since it involved a lot of cutting and pasting. nonetheless, emma was still very proud of what she "made."

more sibling sillies

when the sun begins to set, the sillies come out!

sometimes technology is not so good

what's up with this? i briefly looked through the 60 page list of products, and there's a lot of antibacterial items that contain the nano-silver along with a couple of items from sharper image. when technology turns into risky business, potentially harming us and the environment, then i say scrap it.

one more blurb. this one is about whole foods. i think aaron will appreciate this one. now there's finally more reasons (aside from 1 rude employee and that they sell a lot of over-priced stuff) NOT to shop at whole foods.

seattle connection

2 seattle connections in 1 week.

1. yesterday, a friend of mine set-up a meeting with another gal who she found was from the seattle area. like me, she has a 10 year old boy and an 18 mos. old daughter, and the family moved here for her husband's job. we hit it off, and enjoyed reminiscing about the emerald city. since living here, i haven't met anyone else who had relocated here from seattle so it's pretty neat to find someone with the same connection.

2. this saturday, studio 11 is offering a workshop with kt neihoff which i would love to take. neihoff is a fairly well-known choreographer in seattle, co-founded velocity dance center, and artistic director of lingo dance theater. i've only taken her class once, but have taken a number of classes at velocity while i was in seattle. i missed her company's performance at cpt, but hopefully they'll return again. it sounds like she has connections in the cleveland area.

monkey see, monkey do

after watching mama vacuum, here is emma doing the same. not only is she enjoying herself "playing" vacuum, she is developing her hand-eye coordination and learning some essential life skills. plus, once she has mastered the art of vacuuming, i won't have to do it anymore.

love and laundry detergent

i've known aaron for 7 years. we know each other like the back of our own hands. or so we thought...

i grew up using liquid laundry detergent, and it wasn't until i married aaron that i switched to powder. why? because he used powder. every time we ran out, i would go and buy more powder detergent because that's what i thought he preferred. you see, i was doing it out of love, even though i personally preferred liquid. years passed and i kept buying more powder detergent. until today. in my attempt to be a more frugal shopper, i decided to make the switch back to my beloved liquid detergent, because it was a dollar cheaper than using the powder. in my head, i had already planned an argument for the liquid detergent in case aaron disagreed with my decision. it turns out the argument was not necessary. today, we discovered that both of us preferred liquid. he had used powder only because it was what his roommate bought-LOL!. we never said anything to each other, because both of us thought the other preferred the powder. and to think that something so trivial as laundry detergent would be a symbol of our love for each other. how romantic.

indians baseball

after a few days of rain, the weather was perfect for a day out to progressive field. the family, including aunt corrie, aunt jenna and uncle jon, took the train downtown and met up with other cross pointers to watch the indians battle it out against the kansas city royals. emma seemed fascinated with the train ride, enjoying the scenery go by. being her first baseball game, emma did better than we expected. of course, there were lots of things to look at, and plenty of people she knew who helped keep her occupied. i gave her a brief play-by-play to help her understand the game better, but i don't think it all quite sunk in. we took a 6th inning walk-break to find the play area so emma could burn off some energy. since it was kid's day today, tyler and emma both got free indians t-shirts. i'll help emma wear hers for now.






































on other non-baseball related news, tyler shared one of his memory verses in front of everybody in church today. we are so very proud of him.

i am a robot

this morning we went to the library to try out their *free* weekend wonders program. the program seems geared toward a wide age range though it seems mostly appropriate for younger children 2 years through maybe 2nd grade. what's nice is that if you're a parent with more than one child, this program is something the whole family can enjoy. our teacher, mr. T, engaged the kids for a full hour of stories, songs, crafts and educational activities. emma lasted only about 30 minutes or so before she was ready for a change of scenery. but that's okay. she seemed to enjoy mr. T's story-telling style and definitely enjoyed putting together this super-reflective, out of this world, space robot.

making the grade

dioramas. remeber those? i used to love making dioramas. this diorama was created by tyler for his book report on frindle. the best part about this project was not the super A grade he received from his teacher. in fact, the best part was that he put this project together by himself. alone. with no help from me. none. not even a little. he came up with everything himself. and he looked like he had fun doing it. too bad school doesn't use hands-on projects as their primary way of teaching. then maybe tyler would think school is fun all the time.

a different way of learning

the state of ohio offers the option for you to enroll your children in a k-12 virtual school (like this one for example), at no charge. kind of like college distance learning but for school kids. the school even supplies you with a computer for the student to use, and all the necessary teaching resources for the school year. i'm very intrigued, because i like the idea of homeschooling but not sure if i can do it alone. it seems that a virtual school would allow you to homeschool in some sense, but with guidance(?). has anyone in ohio (or another state) tried the eSchool approach?

under the weather

washed out. lethargic. colorless lips. emma did not start out too well this morning. phlegm from her stuffy nose had settled into her lungs, and now that it was finally starting to unsettle it decided to make its escape up her esophagus and out her mouth. not all at once (is that a good thing?). but intermittently, warned beforehand by painful grunting and screaming. she was in super snuggle mode with us all morning. being that she's not really a snuggly kind of gal, we knew something was wrong. then she decided the floor was much more comfortable to lay on than us. the next thing we knew she was passed out. on the floor. for almost an hour. like so....



































then, like magic, she was perfectly fine after she woke. rosy cheeks, pink lips, and plenty to talk about.