Practicing...

Off to school...

We just sent off Adam to his first day of Kindergarten this morning and I have to admit that I have mixed emotions about this.

On one hand, I will be glad that the boys are not spending as much time together because they drive each other crazy after a while and Adam knows how to provoke and aggravate Antoine and make him scream  but on the other hand, I won't spend a lot of time with Adam anymore and the idea to not have him around me much and hear his joyful personality as much makes me sad...

Adam is soooo excited and has been saying for the last few days:
"I cannot wait for school to start!!".
When I went to wake him up this morning he was already awake and welcomed me with a huge grin and a big hug when I told him:
"Today is the BIG day!"

He followed his new morning routine perfectly without getting distracted, which is quite unusual for him... He had a mission: getting ready to go to school!!

Here are a few shots that we took on the way to take the bus... I love my cute boy!

I am sure Antoine is going to miss his big brother...

Adam Makes His Life Plan (or, the first 25 years at least)

(Written by Mark)

Adam is often pensive and reflective in the evening after he has said goodnight to his little brother and it is time to go to bed.  When I go in to say goodnight to him, often I lie down on his bed with him and we have our serious conversations.  

Tonight we had a long conversation.  It is worth writing about, if only for our own records...but you might get a kick out of it.

It started out talking about school--which he is SO excited to begin on Tuesday.  I explained to him that it is an important new chapter in his life, that he will be going to school for many years to come once it starts.  He asked how many grades there are -- he already knew up to 6th grade, but then I explained that it goes clear up to 12th.  He asked how old he would be then, and I told him 12th grade would start when he is 17.  

He wanted to know what happens after that.  I explained that smart people like him usually go to a university after that...that he would attend "university" for one year, then he would go on his mission.  He asked how he would know where to go on his mission and I explained that God would tell the prophet, and the prophet would call him to serve where God said he should go.  

I explained that a mission lasts two years.  He wanted to know how many months that is, and when I told him 24, he was not convinced...I guess I knew the answer a little too fast.  So I named the months while he counted them, and he discovered that one year is indeed 12 months, and when you go through them a second time, it is 24 months.  Having settled that important question, he asked what happens next.  

So I told him that after his mission he would go back to university.  He wanted to know when he would get married.  I told him "that depends.  Getting married is not like going to school or on a mission...there is no set time for it."  We dwelt on this topic at length; I explained that he would get married when he was ready and when he had found the perfect girl for him. 

He wanted to know how to know who is the perfect girl for him.  Actually, what he said is, "what if I pick the girl who is perfect for me, but then she changes and she isn't perfect anymore, and we can't change it [meaning that one can't get a divorce]?"  I said, "that is why it is very important to choose the right girl to marry."  That wasn't enough of an answer, so we continued.  "When you are sixteen" I said, "you start to go out with girls and you learn everything you can about them so that you can understand them and know what kind of girl is perfect for you.  For example, you might think a really pretty girl is perfect but then find out that she isn't.  On the other hand, you might find a girl who is not very pretty but has a lot of faith in Jesus and a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and you might decide she is a better choice."  Well, that was out of the question for Adam.  No, she has to dress up pretty--like when they go out or go to visit other people in their houses.  He wants both -- a girl who has faith in Jesus and a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but one who also dresses pretty too. 

Next, he wanted to know when I would be a grandpa.  I explained again, as I have tried on many such occasions in the past, that I will become a grandpa when he has his first child and becomes a dad.  This is really a hard concept for him to grasp, but tonight I think I may have made some headway.  He insisted, so again I said, "well, that depends on when you get married."  He again asked how old he will be when he gets married, and I explained for at least the third time in the conversation that he will get married when he is ready and has found the perfect girl for him.  

So we started working with numbers.  When he gets off his mission he will be 21.  He has at least another 3 years, minimum, of university and possibly more, depending on what he wants to do for work.  If he wants to be a doctor, he will be in university for a total of 8 (actually, it's more than that, but I didn't want to overwhelm him); if he wants to be a lawyer like me, it would be 7 years.  So sometime while he is in "university" he will get married, so starting at 21,  he could possibly get married then, or at 22, 23, 24, etc. to 29--I stopped at 29.  After he started getting the idea, he announced (perhaps as a hypothetical, although it was not clear) that he will get married at 23.  "So then how old will you be when you become a grandpa?" he inquired again.

"Well," I said, "you will probably wait at least a year or two before you start your family, so I would guess that the earliest you would have your first baby is 25...which would make me 58 when I become a grandpa."  He smiled a big smile; he was happy to finally have a definitive answer to the grandpa question.  

That seemed like as good a place to stop the conversation as any.  Adam had the answers he wanted for the night.  So with two goodnight kisses (the first one being more of a wet zoupert--and I insisted on a better one) I rolled over to roll out of his bed, but his bed is too small and the edge arrived too quickly and I fell off the bed and banged into the nightstand, which Adam thought was just hilarious.  He had a good laugh at my expense and then we said goodnight. 

Thus our cute little smarty pants planned out the first quarter of his life (with some help from me) and gave some thought about what kind of girl he wants to marry, all in an evening's conversation at five years old...two days before starting kindergarten!

Celebration!

We decided to end up the summer with a family pool pizza party and enjoy the pool with Mark one last time!

Here are a few shots of Mark having fun with the boys, playing sharks and alligators as well as each of us savoring our delicious pizzas...

It was actually a lot more fun than it looks on the pictures (see Antoine saying "No...!", whining and giving me an attitude?....) but our boys are into this phase when they do not want us to take pictures of them (have they been overdosed?...). Oh well...

Summer at the pool...

Adam and Antoine had a blast at the pool this summer... and made a lot of progress:

Adam learned how to swim on his own with a few hints from Mark and loves jumping off the diving board and swimming back to the side without his floaties.

Antoine went from being not really sure about the big pool to jumping into the 8-foot area without any help!

We have two little brave boys!

Don't you love these goggles on Adam? =)

Starting with this week!...

It has been wonderful the last two days to enjoy a 70-75 degree weather after a very hot summer (we have spent a lot of time at the pool - post will come soon)!

Today my friend Sharon and I decided to meet at the park to let the children have fun at the playground... and they did... Here are the boys with their friends Taryn and Meg.

Here is Adam's new hobby...

He is spending hours working on his activity book and loves it! Yesterday, he started right after Mark left for work and was very quiet sitting at the table. At 11:30am he came to me and said: "Mom, I haven't eaten breakfast!!..."

I guess he is ready for Kindergarten!! =)

In the meantime, Antoine was super good playing with his train set...

... and his new slide that we had picked from the curbside the night before!

A couple of days ago, we surprised Antoine with a new Lightning McQueen bike (new at least for him... someone recently gave it to us) and he was so proud to have his own bike like his brother!

Inconsistancy...

I read my friends' blogs on a regular basis and tell myself that I need to get back into mine... and don't take the time to write again because it has been so long and I don't know where to start... but the problem does not solve itself, instead it only gets worse as time goes by...

I NEED to start writing and posting again because our boys are growing and changing and I am going to forget all the beautiful things that my life is filled with at this time...

I want to record the cute things the boys say and do so I can remember forever these special years as little boys...

I am encouraged and enlightened by all of you who write on a regular basis your own stories and feelings and make me want to do better...

Great intentions and resolutions are in my heart and I just need to act upon these desires...

News and pictures coming soon!

So much personality...

Mark and I have said many times that Adam would be quite comfortable on stage in High school plays... What do you think? =)

Adam's turn!

I was not as lucky this time at JC Penney as they did not give me access online to all the pictures of the session... so we just have the pictures that I ordered but it turns out that these are about the only pictures where Adam was having decent smiles... I think Adam did not feel like taking pictures that day!!

My favorites are the first two! He looks so grown up all of a sudden!

Our cute 21 month old boy...

I went this morning to JC Penney Studio to have Antoine's pictures taken now that his skin is much better and these are the thumbnails that I got online following our session... The quality is not the best on these small prints due to the low resolution but it allows you to see the many expression that our sweet boy has...

Beautiful Fall...

The sun was out today as we came home and it seemed like it was a perfect moment to catch the beautiful colors of the leaves and the smiles of our cute boys...

Fall Family FUN...

How embarrassed am I to start this post after being silent for almost 6 months... I guess it is never too late...

My reason for not writing anything was "I have so much to catch up and so many pictures I want to sort to post my favorites..." Well, it did not get better but I have decided that I need to move on with the present and maybe I will go backward afterwards...

We have been enjoying the Fall weather (besides the last four days where it has been raining constantly) by going out every day to playgrounds, parks and meeting with friends.

We have also spent a lot of time in front of our yard and the boys have had so much fun playing with their newly purchased scooters, tricycles and cars (thank goodness for consignment sales and Craigslist!)

Adam loved our Burke Lake outing to the fishing pier and had his second experience fishing (his first one being at Myrtle Beach last April)... and he caught a fish! He was so proud of himself but also would not get close to the fish at all! It took a lot of talking on our part for him to stand by the fish to take the picture!

Adam and Antoine are obsessed with firetrucks, police, taxis, garbage trucks, motorcycles and buses... Each time we are in the car driving somewhere we all play the game "who is the first who will see...".

So a couple of weeks ago we went to the Firestation open house and the boys had a blast... They were able to go into the trucks, ambulances, and police cars and pretend they were driving them, got their blood pressure checked and loved being around firemen and police officers...

Rock Creek Park Horse Stables

The boys and I met Lisa Crawford and her girls at the Rock Creek park (a beautiful and huge park/forest in D.C) to visit the Nature Center (which was closed) and the Horse Stables. Adam and Claire had a blast watching the dozens of horses...

Antoine loves animals (he follows dogs who are walked on our street) and was very happy to be so close to the horses too but I could tell that he was glad however to be

in my arms... =)

A beautiful day for a fun picnic among the trees...

Sunday afternoon at the playground...

We started teaching Adam how to swing by himself and he is beginning to get it (I was going to send videos but it doesn't seem to be loading...I am still learning!) but we think it will take practice for him to swing high on his own!!

We had a good time as a family and enjoyed being together, watching Antoine discover the slide and Adam rolling down the hill... It reminded me that life is full of simple and joyful moments...

A beautiful day at the park...

When we saw Saturday morning how wonderful the weather was, we wanted to take advantage of it and do something outdoors... We called our friends Robert and Kristin and made plans to meet at a new park and have a picnic together... The temperature was ideal and the place was perfect! We chilled, played with the kids and enjoyed our last minute picnic together... I like to say that life is full of simple joyful moments and Saturday was one of those...

Antoine is not used to going outside yet since we have been "forced" to stay indoors for the last 5 months... He stayed mostly at the same spot the whole time and observed everyone around him... He was just so adorable that I could not stop taken pictures of him!!