September/October update

It has been more than two months since Ray started elementary school.
We had our first parent teacher meeting on 10/10. The feedback was great. Mom and dad got a chance to see Ray's work in school. We knew those homework but there were a lot of in-school works we didn't see.
Ray's reading made so much progress. Belli, Nanthan, and Ray formed a small reading club. There were two weekly assignments for them. Ray seems to enjoy school life very much. Ordering his own lunch in school kitchen is an exciting thing to him.
Ray made a pal with another Ray in grade three. We knew it through the interview notes they made.
Chess club has been going well, thanks to dad's insistence to Ray's finishing chess worksheet.
Swimming was going very strong. We joined in YMCA for in-door swimming as weather in Austin finally started cooling down. There was a swimming team for older kids in YMCA. Ray should be qualified for making a team. Right now, dad still enjoys and is confident with being Ray's coach. Average three practices per week. Ten laps for 25 yards pool per practices. Butterfly arm is out of water now. We just bought a pair of flippers for kicking practices. Ray's breathing manage was fairly good. His heart rate was just moderate after a full lap. He is ready for having more laps. The motivation for weekday swimming was ipod touch game on the way plus hot chocolate in YMCA. Weekends waterscape is attractive enough for Ray and Tony. BTW, Tony passed adult pool swimming test as well. He is so proud that he has his own little green rubber band.
Violin class set our Saturday schedule. Tony managed to be his company sitting in the same classroom. Mom did a great job for weekday small private class and parent orchestra. Hanging around UT feels great.
Sunday morning soccer game really boosted up Ray's confidence in team sports. We registered Ray into a basketball team in YMCA for this coming spring.
Ray got a WII for his birthday. Honestly, WII really needs some changes to be competitive.
OK. When school started, life is getting a little busier.

Twin wish

Ray talked to mom in private.
"I wish Tony and I are twins", Ray said.
"Why?"
"So we can do everything together." Ray wished.
Certainly Ray wasn't thinking about he would lose half of toy fights.

Remind which guy in Dragon ball?

Answer: Go-ku.

A fresh K-student

Ray has been in Brushy Creek Elementary Kindergarten for two weeks. He liked it a lot. It was quite a bit change for everyone's life.
The first day was something. Everyone woke up at 6:40am and left house at 7:15am. We walked to school as it was just two blocks away. Our neighbor kids are taking photos in front of their doors. A tradition for the start of every school year.
We walked to school and sent Ray to his classroom. Starting from tomorrow, Ray will stay in cafeteria first, then the whole class walked into their classroom altogether.
Ray got a straight 'super' stickers in his home communication folder from his teacher.Each sticker means a kid has a good day in school.
Dad was greeted by another teacher passing by in a morning with 'You got a very smart boy'. Dad thought that was an equivalent to 'Good morning' in school. But he still asked Ray.
"Do you know her?"
"Yes, she asked me a lot of questions. I got most of them right. A few of them wrong. She said I did a good job."
"OK. Way to go."
Mom and Dad managed to keep half hour swimming daily for Ray and Tony. We need to make sure Ray goes to his bed before 9:00pm. So it is a little tight. Ray's teacher, Ms. Taylor has started assigning some books for reading. Ray was a little pumped up by it. Dad gave Ray a notebook to write down the names of the books he finished up. That night he inked five book names in it. The next two nights, zero. It is pretty much a tiger head, snake tail. But we have to admit that Ray's interest in reading growed a lot. Ray made a friend, Nathan on the first day. Ray said he played a lot with him. We met Nathan's family at Waterloo icy house in a family gathering organized by school parent teacher association (PTA). Nathan's parents said Nathan was very excited that Ray's in his class too. Good to have some friends around.
Austin is still three digits hot. Dad is so glad to find out Brushy creek has a indoor gym for P. E. class. Somehow it wasn't shown to us in the school tour night.
One thing worth mentioning is Ray's violin lesson is about to start. Mom and dad already had training on Suzuki method. What is amazing is that the philosophy of Dr. Suzuki fits dad's pretty well, kinda contradicting to mom's. So...well, let's talk about something else.
Ray's free style is almost there. Butterfly is the lst one to conquer.
Here are the goals for this school year we noted down in the school communication letter,
1. Get into Nitro swimming team (require four swimming styles, but we are almost there)
2. Develop a good interest in violin (Might be tough, as Ray has already been talking about playing instrument is boring and it is not necessary for every kid)
3. Have a happy and productive Kindergarten year!

Antie Clare's community Sugar Land

Houston zoo 2

Houston zoo

Aaron back in town

Olson Meadow Park and an update for last month

It has been a while since my blog was updated last time. Too much has been going on that dad couldn't squeeze enough time for it. Our Olson meadow park just renovated soccer fields. It looks awesome.
OK. Let's start from Ray's swimming. We are so spoiled with Texas summer warm pool water, which essentially feels like a spa. We almost go swimming every day. Ray's breast stroke is fairly competitive now. Free style is still a little bit struggling. Back stroke comes naturally. Butterfly scratches a little surface. Every day, four laps of breast stroke, four laps of free style, one lap of back stroke, one lap of butterfly. Then it is play time. Let's see if Ray could join Nitro team this fall. It requires all four styles passes.
Sunday soccer is going strong. Coach Gang Li relocated back to China for a job change. But the system he created is still functioning well. We got big player Daniel, who really spiced up our game. Now it is really competitive and hard to score.
Our turtle passed away. She has been sick for a while. We could tell from her behavior change. She was not interested in food any more. She was buried in our backyard.
To reward Ray's excellent soccer field performance, dad took Ray to a creek to catch some fish. Actually the reward came ad hoc, right after the game, so we didn't have any tools prepared. Dad managed to catch a little mellow with his bare hands and settled it in a disposable water bottle. Be specific, Tony's water bottle. Ray caught a tadpole with that bottle, purely with unbelievable luck. It sounded like a perfect ending. Here came Tony, who had to hold his bottle as it is HIS bottle. Then here came Ray: You can hold your bottle, but you can not watch my fish. Wow, it sounded so familiar with Ba Yi Baron and Afanti story.
Ray has been doing great in his Kindergarden class. Teacher said Ray was one of the few kids who had a smooth transition to K-class. Ray often bragged at home that he and someone were the only kids who earned free play time today. Well, he must be doing all right.
Tony really hated nap time, which could be as bas as an excuse that he didn't want to go school. These days, we couldn't be late for school as Ray's K-teacher put a big sign in front door to show CLASS STARTS AT 8:30AM. ON TIME. Every morning it is a little bit rushing. Tony became a real piece of work every morning these days.
Aaron came back in town. Big deal. We need to address this respectively.
Ray started having field trips in this K-class. One time to cedar creek zoo. Twice swimming in an elementary school per week. Mom was fortunate to be the only parent accompanying them to zoo with teachers. It was a great trip.
Somehow Pokemon came back to Ray's life as a key note. It has something to do with Aaron's return.
Oh, well. Another big news was Ray was admitted by UT kids string program. Ray was put into waiting list since he was a few months old. Now we got in. Tony might be in at an earlier age thanks to be Ray's sibling. We can either choose cello or violin. As popular as violin is, we can not say no to it. This is an outstanding programm. It is lucky to be part of it. Well, this also put an end on our route to piano.
The fig tree in our neighbor's backyard is quite a grower. It started having serious fruiting this year. The figs falling down to the ground were completely ripen and tasted so well, if you could get them before ants and birds.
Overall, it is a busy summer start. Oh, my, how many days more than 100? Just a summer start?

Schlitterbahn award

Ray received his award for performing on stage. Tony took a free ride in both performing and playing in Schlitterbahn.
Ray can enjoy almost every adventure over there. Tony kept awake till 7:30pm to take his nap.
This summer is hot and dry. The sun is pretty active this year. We go swimming almost every day. Ray made some remarkable progress on his frog style. Tony can pretty much be on his own in the pool. Dad's new half hour swimming practice and half hour whatever water fun policy worked out pretty well.
To save some time in weekdays, we bought a 10 feet diameter inflatable water tank and set it up in our back yard. When dad got home late, we don't have to go to community pool for water fun.

Pre-enter Kindergarden

BCMS started an elementary class this summer. Ray joined this first class.
After the first day, mom asked Ray how he likes the school. Ray said he liked it because he could take more challenging works.
Ray made some progress on swimming. Frog style started looking like frog style now.

Summer is here

Ray almost got all full scores in parent teacher meeting. The only thing seems to need to improve is getting school on time, which certainly was mom and dad's fault. There are a lot of compliments on how Ray did in school. Pretty much like a perfect role model. Dad and mom never got such a compliment in their childhoods. Way to go!
We started shopping a piano for Ray but no result came yet.
Ray's soccer game was getting more and more intense and so was the fun.
We got a new 18" bike for Ray as the old 16" was broken.
We made a trip to Houston to visit Auntie Clare and see their newly-purchased house. It was a great neighborhood. We visited Houston zoo and had a good evening family soccer game in Auntie's neighborhood soccer field. Now we don't need to worry about disturbing anyone while we played Kinec in Auntie's house.

Color sense

Ray and Tony were playing games at home. They were pretending being Santa's as they were having Christmas hats on.
Then Ray made a comment to Mom and Dad:"I am the Santa. Tony is a Brown Santa." Ray certainly did not miss the fact Tony has a darker skin like dad. So Tony is crowned as a brown Santa.

Barton creek trail hiking

Mom was the photographer.

Barton spring creek trail

It was spring so mom decided to have a hiking for whole family. Dad convinced mom to take someplace close. So we ended up with someplace really close. It was right next to dad's office. Barton spring creek trail. Tony and Ray pretty much finished hiking themselves from 360 car access to Gus Frue car access. Tony needed a little help. We saw a bunch of people doing cliff climbing along the way. And there was no water but a dried up creekbed. Then it came dad's turn to get car for everyone at Gus Frue car access. Dad's calculation was it would take less than half hour to get it as it was only 3 miles to get back to the car from street. Well, big mistake! Huge! First of all, it was hill, not track field. Secondly, it was not Bo at twenty something. When dad was telling kids story about carving the boat for sword (刻舟求剑）, even dad didn't believe the story was real. But now he was just making the same mistake. Tsk, tsk! OK, it was a pretty good way for weight loss. He lost three pounds for this run!
Well, does Ray look like a serious hiker!

我们的祖国是花园

BCMS school spring photoshot

The photographer was pretty good. Mom watched how he dealt with kids. He is a natural smile generator. No cheese for kids at this age, as it often got over-smiles. Instead, he talked a bunch of silly things to kids. Then here came naturtal smiles. Also he probably cropped out Tony's shoes, as Tony was with a pair of sneakers. We all loved this one.

Moving along

Four years ago, when we moved in our house. George, a neighbor kid 5 years old, came over to ask if we had kids of his age. Ray was just 17 months old.

Time was moving along. Recently, Ray and George are becoming buddies these days. Tony certainly was around like a shadow.

Brushy Creek elementary school tour

BCES had an open house today. Dad and mom didn't bring Ray in the beginning, but changed mind to pick him up from BCMS. Just want to gave him some exciting experience. Looking forward to something good happen is usually more fun than when it really happens. We registered Ray and had a tour. Ray was impressed with the stage in the dining hall. Staff are friendly. We are all looking forward to seeing Ray getting into Kindergarden.

Teacher change

Ray's class lead teacher, Miss Kanaberi went back to India. Her family has been in U.S for a long time. Now they got a good opportunity to go back to work and live in hometown. The new teacher happened to be an American born India, Miss Ameta. Ray likes his new teacher a lot.

Ray' first text reading

Last night, Ray finishes his first text reading, 'Can you see what I see'. Tis should be credited to Ray's M- school doing a great job. Mom and Dad didn't put much effort into teaching Ray words and phonics. It just came as a pleasant natural outcome. Ray was pretty excited about that too. He insisted to read it one more time at bedding time.

We got snow this year

Santa got to be there

Ray got some gifts this Chrismas, but none of them from Santa. We were out in Taos so dad even did not bother to put up Chrismas tree. One day, Ray was playing outside with George. "What did you get from Santa this year?" George asked. "Nothing", Ray replied. Then Ray came home talking to mom. "I know why we didn't get gift from Santa this year. Because we didn't set up our Chrismas tree and didn't leave milk and cookie for Santa." "next time, if we wer not at home, let us leave milk and cookie, and leave a note to Santa. Santa, please leave gift under the tree."

Kid's trick

Ray:"You are my servant, Tony?"
Tony:"What?" Tony was so into his own business.
"I said you are my servant." Ray said.
"No, I am not your servant." Tony replied with some confusion.
"But you said yes." Ray smiled with a smirk.

Lego land in NASA center

NASA space center

Ray and Tony like to build stuff.
There was a Sunday morning. Ray and Tony were playing in closet. Tony kept rolling the closet door handle so evetntually the handle felt off. Tony was a little worried. Ray picked it up and figured out how to install it back.
"I am bob the builder. That is why I am wearing bob the builder," Ray proudly claimed as he was dressed with a bob the builder fleece.
"That's why I can always count on you." Tony happlily flattered, with a nice relief.

NASA space center's mini lego land

We went to Houston to visit NASA space center. Dad had been there ten years ago. Now the center setting changed quite a bit. It added a bunch of stuff interesting to Kids so that a family with kids can spend a whole day there without getting bored.
Now that Auntie Clare lives in Houston, we will often visit them.

approaching Kinect

The first facial expression of Ray and Tony's when they saw Xbox Kinect in Auntie's apartment.

Dad saved a promise

One the way to Taos, dad promised that we were gonna make a snowman this time. It was true that we didn't need to worry that there was snow or not. It's just hard to believe that we didn't get a chance to make a snowman while we spent three whole days in Taos Ski valley skiing. The truth was Ray and Tony stayed in Ski school and mom and dad stayed in Rugeli and Strawberry, learning skiing all day long. Here came the last day, we had to leave early for driving back home.
One the way home, dad saw a scenary stop and luckily he made a stop. This was the best place we could ever stop on the way to fulfill dad's promise. It was not a big snowman. The snow was a little bit too dry to make a snow ball. But we still got a frosty snowman for Ray and Tony. The mountain view was great and this snowman was lucky.

A white Chrismas this year in NM