When Dad's Away the Girls Go Out to Play

October was a month marked by a lot of missing daddy time. He was off to Jakarta for volleyball. Then back. Then off to Tioman. Then back. Then off to Bangkok. Somewhere in there mommy decided that, with a four day weekend available and no hubby, why not indulge in a weekend in Langkawi with the girls. So, while daddy was off doing professional conference meeting stuff all day long, the girls made their way to the island (along with 12 other teachers, we are told) and enjoyed the time with friends young and old. Though there is no photographic evidence of this, daddy was told that his girls even went up in a helicopter for 5-10 minutes, flying over the beach at a low altitude!  All the girls mentioned just how fun that was and no one mentioned the word "scared" so we're counting that as a big success. 

On the ground there was lots of moving around from one place to the next, visiting with people who would otherwise be just down the street. It seems that the change of scenery brought out the discovery and fun in people. Down by the beach the girls met up with friends and classmates and enjoyed their time until they had to return home. They flew back just as daddy was arriving as well, and walked into the door only 30 minutes apart. Daddy was happy to be back and done with all the traveling. The girls were happy he was back but wished they were traveling more. It's all relative. :-)

Baptism by Capoeira!

For about a year now Irini has been taking classes of capoeira. An athletic and heavily tattooed Brazilian man comes our way and spends about an hour working with the little ones (between 4 and 6 years old) working on their kicks, their handstands, their flips, the moves and vocabulary. The start was slow as the kids started from zero going in a direction that no adult watching understood, but slowly, and definitely steadily, the time and experience added up and brought with it a level of skill that was mildly impressive by October. 

By the end of the month the girls (Irini's friend Tara is in the class too) were told that it was time for their first "batizado" (i.e. baptism). It would be across town and involve a good number of kids from a whole bunch of different capoeira groups across town. Off we went!

When we got there the hubbub was hard to overcome. The turnout was higher than expected and the number of kids and instructors was pretty overwhelming too. Irini's first reluctance to even change into our capoeira clothing began to change and finally she changed and participated in the whole group activities. When the children were called up, by group, to "do their thing" though, Irini would have none of this "doing stuff in public view" and so she stayed behind with mommy, daddy and sister as Tara marched out and went through the process involving a whole bunch of bending down and high kicks and moving to' and fro'. For those new to the concept it was an interesting mix of awkward breakdancing and some form of modern tango. 

The day ended with tantrums. We were there far too long but at least we got some indian dinner out of it. The car ride back was rather quiet. Daddy snuck a peak in the rear view mirror. The girls were out within minutes.  

Learning to be a Fish

In the time it's taken us to catch up with at least one blog post a good deal has happened. It seems like it's coming at us faster than we can keep up so that all we have is the pictures that trigger a recollection of things that seem like years ago but were, in reality, just weeks away.

Irini finished her first semester of swimming this week. Her first set of lessons went very well and she was just one three students who was able to perform all the skills within just a couple weeks of the beginning of class. She enjoyed it and didn't mind (thankfully!) about the little checklist that her teacher carried around from time to time. 

Swimming day brought with it a happy wake up each morning but also a little bonus for her as almost all the days either mommy or daddy (mostly daddy) was able to come and help out.  It also gave him a chance to re-live his physical education teaching days and gave him a break from that office job. 

Irini spent her time working on front and back stroke kicks (though the teacher didn't call them that) and in making bubbles under water and diving down into the water to catch things and all than fun stuff that water brings with it!  She wasn't always perfect but she was always happy, and that make swimming lessons with her class that much more fun to visit.  Whatever will we do now that swimming is over until January?  Well, thankfully, she loves PE too!