Since Summer break is over ~ I'm ready for fall...

There is something I love about each season but Fall is my favorite. I love the beginning of school, cooler temperatures (at some point!), leaves changing colors and Fall activities.

Andrew has had a great first two weeks of school. We went to curriculum night this week and his teacher was asked how the children go about getting a special "gold note" reward. She gave an example of a little boy who had been extra kind to one of his classmates. Afterwards she told me that it was Andrew and she said he is the most kind child she has ever had in her 12 years of teaching. How sweet is that? Now we just need to work on handwriting...

This week we've had our church consignment sale that I help with every year and I've been preparing my classroom for school resuming next week. Anslee's had to be in the nursery a lot. She cries every time I drop her off (which breaks my heart) but when I pick her up she's having so much fun she doesn't want to leave. She starts going to Tina's four days a week on Monday.

Guess who found the markers...

The Hulk

Anslee may be every bit as tough as the Hulk. She loves walking around with these hands on and smashing everything in sight. We may need to get more princess, rainbow and unicorn toys...

When Anslee gets mad at me because I won't let her do something, she runs up to me saying "ouch" and pinches me. I can't decide if she is warning me by saying ouch first or if she is just eagerly anticipating my response to the pain she is going to inflict. She looks so funny and cute while doing it that I have to make myself not laugh. Needless to say she now is visiting "time out" a couple of times a day.

Nation to Launch Monitoring of Birth Gender Ratios

China's government is to begin monitoring of gender ratios among newborn babies and the efficiency of measures against the sex imbalance later this year, said an official in Beijing on Wednesday.

Vice Minister of the State Commission for Population and Family Planning (SCPFP) Zhao Baige said SCPFP and Ministry of Health officials would be dispatched around the country to undertake surveys.

More than 60 expert teams had already started evaluations of gender ratios and trends, and a survey of the implementation of the government's "Care for Girls" program, initiated in 2003.

In China, especially in rural areas, sons are traditionally preferred to daughters, which has resulted in many prospective parents electing to have an abortion if tests show the fetus to be a girl.

As a result, there are 119 boys born for every 100 girls in China, much higher than a global ratio of 102 to 107 boys for every 100 girls.

The "Care for Girls" program, covering 24 counties in 24 provinces, aims to educate the public, farmers in particular, on gender equality, and to promote the social status of women, while cracking down on fetus gender identification and selective abortion for non-medical purposes.

The program will be promoted across the country this year.

As part of the program, the SCPFP has initiated a competition on knowledge of the program in villages, towns, counties, cities and provinces from July to November.

(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2006)

First Day of School 2006

Andrew's bus stop

Waaaah! This summer went by so quickly. It was so nice being laid back and not worrying so much about schedules.

We went to sneak peak last week to meet Andrew's teacher and see his classroom. I can tell he is going to love his teacher. We looked at the class list and didn't recognize any names. It is amazing out of the 22 children in his class last year and the 10 first graders in our neighborhood that there is not one child he knows in his class.

On Monday when he got off the bus he said he had a great first day and said "First grade is the best grade ever!"

All day Anslee kept saying "DrewDrew" and looking for him. She was asleep when he left for school and taking a nap when he got home. She was so happy to see him when she woke up.

T

I love the mascots for the 2008 summer olympics in Beijing. They are called the Friendlies. I got the green one for Andrew when we were in China. Now I wish I'd brought home all five. It seems like so much more thought was put into these compared to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic mascot. I think Atlanta should win the "most ridiculous Olympic mascot ever" award. It was called Izzy derived from "What is it?". Who thought that was a good idea??
You can see the mascots better on the official Beijing 2008 website.
Like the Five Olympic Rings from which they draw their color and inspiration, Fuwa will serve as the Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace--and blessings from China--to children all over the world.
Designed to express the playful qualities of five little children who form an intimate circle of friends, Fuwa also embody the natural characteristics of four of China's most popular animals--the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow--and the Olympic Flame.
Each of Fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name--a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow.
When you put their names together--Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni--they say "Welcome to Beijing," offering a warm invitation that reflects the mission of Fuwa as young ambassadors for the Olympic Games.

T

My sister inspires me. She has the most beautiful gardens and grows everything imaginable. I want to be able to go into my yard and pick my food instead of going to the grocery store!

Going to the grocery store is one of my least favorite chores (ok, along with doing dishes, laundry, vaccuming, cleaning bathrooms, dusting, well I can't think of one I love) ~ especially when two little ones are with me. Yesterday I went to the store and saw someone elses grocery list left in the cart. I thought for a second about ditching my list and using this one. If I hadn't planned out my menu for the week and taken the time to make my own list, I might have.

Sometime towards the end of the school year Andrew brought home a bean plant he had sprouted. He was so proud of it. We decided to plant it in a planter on the deck and now it is HUGE. It is even growing beans now. I'm not sure we'll get enough to feed the family but we can each have one or two...

He also decided to grow basil and cilantro. I loved looking up recipes to use them in. We used the basil the most. There is nothing better than fresh basil. Andrew loved putting it in our homemade spaghetti sauce. (pictured above) We also made a roasted potato, tomato, garlic, basil dish that was yummy.

The herbs all died when we were on vacation so now we just have our beans to look forward to. If someone has a suggestion on how to cook 12 beans that would be great.

Terri

What'll ya have?!

Anslee finally had her first trip to the Varsity. Can you believe we waited this long? We met my mom and dad there before they took Andrew to my sister's house.

Our table was loaded with food (my family takes food SERIOUSLY). We had chili slaw dogs, chili burgers, fries, onion rings, P.C. on ice and frosted oranges and ate every single thing.

What Makes The Varsity So Special?

(found on their website)
It's the Worlds Largest Drive-In Our Downtown Atlanta location is on more than two acres and can accommodate 600 cars and over 800 people inside. On days when the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets are playing a home game, over 30,000 people visit The Varsity.

Legendary Volume Two miles of hot dogs, a ton of onions, 2500 pounds of potatoes, 5000 fried pies and 300 gallons of chili are made from scratch daily.
Only the Best IngredientsFrank Gordy insisted on the freshest of all ingredients and three to six deliveries per day are routine. When asked what he did with leftovers, he replied "We don't have any."

Car Hops! Identifying cars by number has always been an integral part of the Varsity Drive-In system. "Curb men" would sing and dance their way to fame. The most famous of our car hops was a man named Flossy Mae, who sang the menu to customers for over 50 years. Well known TV and Movie star Nipsy Russell also got his start at The Varsity as car hop #46.

T

Anslee's 18 month checkup

Went great yesterday. She didn't get as upset as usual about the shots. Usually she cries for about an hour afterwards. Today she only cried for a few minutes.

Her height is in the 50%
Weight is 10-25%

The doctor asked lots of questions...
Can she feed herself? yep, with a spoon or fork
Does she help dress herself? yes
Can she run? all the time
Can she go up and down stairs? Yes, but now she refuses to crawl up or down. She walks by holding onto the spindles and alternating feet. (which some of my 4 year olds in Preschool don't do)
How many words does she say? Well, she tries any word we tell her but she says about 50 words by herself... The doctor was suprised and said 50? I said everyone might not understand her but the words that she says we can understand what she is telling us. So I made a list of the words that she knows and are easily understood. They are:
Dada ~ eyes ~ please ~ stairs
Mama ~ nose ~ dress ~ car
Drewdrew ~ ears ~ milk ~ yogurt
baby ~ mouth ~ grapes ~ eat
nitenite ~ puppy ~ Nana ~ up
byebye ~ hi ~ fish ~ bath
shoes ~ down ~ sit ~ dog
diaper ~ pretty ~ outside ~ grass
pool ~ beach ~ foot ~ Mike
light ~ fan ~ poopoo ~ hair
done ~ off ~ peepee ~ bellybutton
ouch ~ me ~ that ~ thank you
welcome ~ okay ~ kiss
She calls Buster "arf". At the beach it sounded like she was calling my mom "gamma" (grandmommy).
She didn't hear English for the first 10 months of her life and now she is saying 5o words!!

At 18 months I think Andrew had 3 words : mama, dada and clock :-)

Anslee is obsessed with shoes right now. She wants them on all the time. It doesn't matter whose they are. Getting her out of her crib this morning she was saying "mama, shoes!"

Can you stand this bragging post?! I'm sure it's annoying, but I'm just so proud of her!!
T

Family

My Mom and Dad picked Andrew up on Thursday and they spent the night with my sister and her family for two nights and then we all met up at the beach.



Andrew and Cuyler are waiting for a bedtime story.
Anslee seems unsure of her uncle in this picture but by the time he left, she adored him!

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together." Erma Bombeck


Keith makes a great low country boil.

Famous in the Low Country of Georgia and South Carolina. This boil is done best on an outdoor cooker. It has sausage, shrimp, crab, potatoes and corn for an all-in-one pot all-you-can-eat buffet.

Rosemary Beach

We had a blast on vacation this last week. Rosemary Beach was just so beautiful! We played on the beach, found tons of shells, swam out to the sandbar and built sand castles. When we were tired of being sandy and salty we would head to the pool, ride bikes or eat.
Anslee's first look at the ocean. She wasn't scared and enjoyed playing in it for a little while. In the morning before we went outside she would point to the door and say either pool or beach. Now when she see's pictures of fish or fish on tv she points to them and says "eyes". She says fish like "ish". I think she just now is realizing how many things have eyes like she does.
Having fun in the ocean. Andrew would've been happy to stay in the ocean all day (just like his mom!). He loved swiming with one of us to the sandbar. We alsocollected shells and coquinas. At night he watched Shark week on the discovery channel. They had a show about the bull shark attacks when we were in Destin either last year or the year before. Luckily it didn't scare him although we wouldn't let him swim very far from us.
We had so much fun. It's always sad leaving the beach...
Thanks Mom and Dad for such a wonderful vacation!!
T