Quatro!

c'est finis

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:04:00 +0000

please update!

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

a new home

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:23:00 +0000

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

play group

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:51:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:35:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:09:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Sun, 11 May 2008 02:44:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Sun, 11 May 2008 02:34:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:48:00 +0000

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

sometimes technology is not so good

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:29:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:32:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:11:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:11:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:58:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:24:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:14:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:18:00 +0000

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

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:00:00 +0000

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.

yeah for food!

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:23:00 +0000

yeah! i just discovered this! i'm so excited about it. for you folks in my hood, check it out and consider supporting them. whether it be your time, your money, or participating in their initiatives. i'm especially excited that we have even more local food accessible in our area. i think i'm going to sign us up for a community supported agriculture (CSA) pgm. a CSA pgm. works similarly to pioneer organics (what we used to do in seattle) without the online shopping and home-delivery. and now that the pick up location is even more convenient, i don't see why we shouldn't give it a go. i'm sure i'll still be running to west-side market or the grocery store to fill in the gaps, but, hey, we're supporting our local community. for those not in my hood, check out this website and they can get you set up if you're interested in participating in a CSA pgm. oh, and let me know if you decided to try it out.

why buy local? check this out.

but then i came across this. buying food is so complicated, isn't it? aah...the true challenges of life.

new stuff

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:32:00 +0000

i just finished this onesie for one of tyler's teachers at school. they're throwing a surprise baby shower for him (no, he's not pregnant, but his wife is) and asked if any of the parents were interested in donating some items.

other new things...tyler's all new plastic bag holder for dog walkers who pick up their pet's poop. there's a miniature carabiner that can hook on your belt loop or, as shown in the photo below, to a purse. he decided to give his original to his gram, because they have 2 dogs and something like that would definitely come in handy.

a weekend of dining

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:35:00 +0000

we have had a weekend full of wonderful food. friday night, gram and pap invited us to dinner at diana's diner where we met their friend mary who was visiting for the weekend. may i just say that their kid's meatloaf is the PERFECT sized adult serving. i can't imagine how many slices i would get if i ordered the regular meatloaf. then saturday night, we had some tasty home-made spaghetti and meat sauce at alan and lindsey's, followed by super fudgy brownie and triple vanilla ice cream for dessert. we ate so much that we all went for a walk to help digest all that food. oren shared his new radio flyer wagon with emma and they looked adorable together (sorry no photo...but just imagine two cute tots sitting across each other cuddled under a blanket in a big red wagon). sunday, daniel and jessica invited us over for some burgers, hot dogs and ribs. it was the perfect day for a cook-out (again, sorry no photos). there were lots of kids there, so tyler had a good time running around. there were also a couple of uniquely named lawn games that were quite popular with the adults (and kids): hillbilly golf and cornhole. how can you resist playing with names like that? we had a great weekend, and are so thankful for the generous hospitality of our family and friends.

look what i found

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:11:00 +0000

messin' around on the net last night, and look what i found. i can't believe it's still up after all these years. isn't there an expiration? brings back memories of our gymnastics and synchronized swimming days (LOL...joke!).

on a side note, we had lunch with some friends today. i just can't wait until the weather really warms up and we can do weekly picnics at the park or weekly trips to the beach, barbeques, or something where we all can hang out and be outside. it's the end of hibernation season and time to see everyone again. did i mention i LOVE warm weather??

follow-up

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:20:00 +0000

i had my follow-up appt. with my midwife today. things look normal, and we have the green light to go in probably about a week. then we stopped by trader joe's on the east side for coffee and such. emma got to push her own cart. she pushes with such determination that a few times it looked as if she was ready to plow people down (this trader joe's has much narrower aisles...almost like the trader joe's in queen anne). she really liked being able to put things in her own cart. she even started loading it up with 3 tubs of some sort of cheese spread. too bad she couldn't pay for the stuff in her cart. now that would have been nice.

back to the park

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:48:00 +0000

the weather was lovely today. it just doesn't feel right to stay indoors when it's warm and sunny out, so of course we planned an outing. nothing big. sometimes we can just be outside in the backyard or the front yard. it doesn't matter. as long as we're outside (plus i have to get my tan on for bathing suit season...ha, ha). today we went to the park to play and have lunch with our friends melissa and layla. emma and layla did a lot of sliding, and both did great at getting to the top of as the slide on their own. then, we saw more friends arriving (some we have not seen in a long while). it turned out to be a big partay at the park. quite a pleasant surprise. i'm look forward to more days like today.

the joys of parenthood (and siblinghood??)

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:21:00 +0000

how long have we waited to hear her say this?

it just melts my heart, because it's too cute. we're also trying to teach her the sign for it, but she has a bit of trouble negotiating her fingers. the cutest is when she says good night to ty and says "i yuv yoo" back to him.

another year older...

herethereadventures@gmail.com (Prasti) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:34:00 +0000

beef ribs (aaron went to 3 places to find them), an ice cream cake and a brownie cake for my birthday...yum. plus, i got to share the day with todd who also had a birthday today! happy birthday to us.