Little Change Maker

One day Irini announced that "we wrote a letter to Mr. Busk [the principal] to plant trees". Daddy was thrilled. Before the end of the same day he was on the phone with a local nursery to establish what kind of trees would be the best fit for the playground spaces at the school. Irini's class wrote 80 letter in total, along with survey results (of grade 1 students asking them if they felt more trees would be beneficial), a map of the space with proposed new tree locations and temperature readings to prove that tree shade actually brings the temperature in the playground down. This is the kind of stuff that daddy loves to see at school, and in fact his job is largely related to getting these types of student change makers going. But this one had nothing to do with him. It was grassroots. It seems it all stemed from a few students who complained about the heat, and then it went from there. Above is Irini's letter to the principal... her part in changing the world for the better. By the way, within three weeks the grade 1 playground welcomed seven new trees, with students watching the planting being done (the trees were big) and being proud of their efforts as advocacy for social and environmental change.

Amalia's Song

Amalia had been seen, in the library and in her classroom, practicing a song with her classmates. Daddy had been there by chance on day and saw her from the back. She was unaware that he was there until later on that evening. It turned out she, they, were practicing for the parent appreciation lunch!  It was a bit difficult to work out whether mommy or daddy would be able to make it with their schedule but finally daddy managed to salvage the situation. But just the night before Amalia had a little trantrum, like four year olds tend to do sometimes. She declared that no one was to come to her show. In fact, she was boycotting it altogether. "I'm not singing!" she said, followed by an even more stern, "I'm not going!" Mommy and daddy decided not to address it and hope that the mind would be changed in the morning. 

By the morning, and as the sun said hello to our living room, we were all back up. Amalia was putting on her dress (free dress for the occasion) and happily turned to munching her breakfast. Daddy asked how she was doing and she gave him a smile and said, "you have to sit right in the middle so I can see you". Daddy was happy the yesterday's conversation was forgotten and promised that he would be as close to the singing as he could. 

Later in the morning he found his way to the front tables, sat down to enjoy the show and waited. Amalia's class was the third to present and as they entered he was happy to see that she was positioned just a few feet away!  The distance, however, was distracting to our little one who kept changing pose and either smiling at daddy or trying to look away. When the song came up she seemed to be just a tad behind the rest of the crowd, focused on her circumstance. Finally the song was over. Applause and camera flashes everywhere. The parents rushed up for photos of their specific children and, finally, the little stars existed, stage right.  

Regardless of her ups and downs, the distance to the stage and the distraction of a daddy obviously too close to our little performer, she did great and, of course, we love her completely!

Growing... Moving!

The girls are steadily growing into beautiful young ladies. With that comes the element of their increasing physical strength, coordination and stamina.  They are gravitating to things like swimming (or playing in the water), capoeira, trampolining, biking or gymnastics. Amalia is also showing an affinity to ball sports (much to daddy's delight!). Sometimes, during "down" moments they are found searching Youtube for video clips of girls demonstrating stretching exercises and proper technique for gymnastics and then they follow up on their own learning. A wall handstand here. I spit attempt there. Perhaps a flip over the sofa. 

How beautiful to watch them grow and how wonderful to see what they can accomplish. The often laugh at daddy when he can't do half of what they are doing. His splits, for example, leave much to be desired.  His handstands likewise. 

But when he and mommy take one look at the girls and see what the videos below show, they can't help but find it fascinating just how much they can do. Pride and joy ooze.  We love you!

Getting Some 'Green'

We live in a big city where the average person's favorite pass time is shopping. It's a beautiful place, relatively modern (despite its issues with organization and/or pollution). Finding one's way around on foot is pretty tricky between the humidity and the lack of sidewalks. But thankfull one doesn't have to go far to find a natural bit to walk around and explore. Just in front of our house - perhaps 15 meters from our front door - is a walkway around a small lake. Every once in a while we head out that, just to look around (perhaps we'll see the monitor lizard moseying around or the fish popping up to see what's happening) and stretch the legs. Or sometimes we venture a bit further to natural spaces. Often that happens with friends. We always get sweaty. We're always trying to keep the mosquitos away. We're always thirsty. We're always happy to return to a cooler home and perhaps a shower. But strangely, we're always happy to be "out there" taking walks and hiking hikes and playing in the streams and such. It's good to have some variety. Perhaps bit more of this nature stuff would be good though. :-)