The Move

We moved! It was one of the worst moves I have ever done. I don't want to go into details, but the tenant at the new house was not out when we painted, moved in and cleaned. He finally moved out two days after we were living in the house. And he did NO cleaning before leaving. Enough thinking about that!

Kris and I painted some of the rooms in the new home. Several of mine friends helped us pack. And I had a great group of friends that helped us move everything in.Charis did a good job entertaining herself while we painted the new house and cleaned the old house. She colored, played with her sticker book, sang, and rested on the floor. She seemed a little sad at times, but several times said "I like my new room!"

The last night at the old house, she sang and danced around her room. As you can see we did not pack her room until the night before the move - so that it would be less distributive to her.The sad part for me was having to paint over the wall that we used to measure her growth. We got lots of pictures, measured every date, and even transferred the marks onto something else - so that we can make a new growth chart.

We Love You!

Gardening at our new home

We are moving in a few weeks to a house about 6 blocks from where we live now. The backyard is very promising for a good vegetable garden. But it is getting late in the season here, so today Charis and I went over to the house to clean up a couple of beds and maybe plant a few tomatoes and peas.

It is going to be a bit of work to weed and clean up the back yard but it will be really great when I am finished. I started by weeding and Charis removed some leaves and dug holes.
Charis ate lunch on our soon to be porch, while I continued weeding.
We had fun running around, exploring the garden, finding bugs and playing in the empty garden shed.
Then we planted the peas.
And finally we planted the tomato plants.

Dancing Chica

We love our dancing Chica.

Breathing Treatments

Charis has been sick and it always takes her a long time to get over the coughing. So after talking with her doctor we decided to pull out her nebulizer from when she was 3 months old.
We have done three treatments with just water no medicine.
Here is a glimpse back to Feburary of 2006, the first time Charis needed the nebulizer, only she had to use it and needed medicine back then.

Accepted to School!

Charis was accepted to her new school!!!

Charis had an interview with the school that both Kris and I really want her to go to for elementary school. They want to see how she interacts with the teacher and with the room. She was a little quite - which is to be expected I guess, but very out of character.
It was not a test and there were no right answers but Kris and I were beaming with pride when she did well with the "work projects". Ms. Melanie showed Charis around the room and then had Charis go on a color hunt. First, they matched all the colors.
Then they found things around the room that matched the tile colors. It also showed us how great Ms. Melanie was with recognizing how Charis was organizing, thinking and processing. And even though her room would never show it, Charis does really appreciate order.
Next, they did a sorting project, and played with a puzzle. I was also very proud of Kris and myself, after introducing Charis to Ms. Melanie and the tour, we both sat and observed without saying one word to Charis. Then Ms. Melanie said without a doubt that she would love to have Charis in her class next year!!!
Charis could not leave though without making a little snack in the kid sized kitchen.

We are so excited about this new school and would love for Charis to get to go! We have submitted the scholarship application and would appreciate prayers that we would receive a good scholarship.

Our little Lilo

Charis ask really nicely several times to wear her Lilo costume (from last Halloween) to school today. I could not think of a good reason not to so I let her wear some of it - but not the grass skirt because it falls apart easily.She was so excited and her teachers loved seeing her dressed up again. I love letting her just be a kid whenever possible and remembering that unless there is a good reason not to that she can dress however she wants.

Kite Festival

The Kite festival is an Austin tradition and has become one of our family traditions, so when I realized that Kris would be out of town during it I was sadden. But I invited Meagan and Elias to come with us and we had a great time.Meagan pushed the stroller with both kids in it down the hill (and back up at the end), the kids played and we chatted. Once we got there, I gave Elias an extra kite of ours and we got out Charis' kite. And for a little while we were all flying the two kids kites. We had a lot of fun!Then Charis wanted to eat and spent the next hour and a half (what felt like forever) sitting in the stroller, eating and watching all the kites. Meagan and I laughed several times that Charis was still eating her cheese pasta!
But Meagan, Elias and I kept flying our kites. I even got my kite out for a little while. Then I spent a little time with both of the kids blowing bubbles. I have discovered that all kids love bubbles and it was definitely true for these two.Before leaving I did get Charis excited again about flying her kite and we got it up pretty high. We enjoyed the festival and were honored that Meagan and Elias came with us.