Here are the May highlights:
- Kids help carry breakfast to “mama” on mother’s day
- Lilah performs at piano recital
- Luke gets his annual portraits
- Lilah showcases her work at school open house: cat drawing, cow drawing, and horse model
- Entire family gets together for Memorial Day festivities
Mother’s Day
For the second year in a row, the kids helped make their mom breakfast on mother’s day. I relegated them to orange squeezing duty for mom’s freshly squeezed orange juice, while I worked on pancakes, fruit cups, bacon, coffee and other assorted breakfast goodies. Once I had everything ready, the kids carried the breakfast tray into the bedroom where Cathy happily awaited their arrival. I’m sure glad I didn’t have any juice or coffee on the tray, as I remember the tray being fumbled at one point. Nothing major, but it would have been a big deal had liquids been involved — that’s for sure.
Lilah
This month seems to have been the talent showcase month for Lilah. At Lilah’s school open house we had the opportunity to see a wide range of her work which included the drawings I mentioned above, a book titled “Saving Unnie,” the three dimensional model of a horse, and a PowerPoint presentation about the things she likes. My head was spinning from all the activity the kids had done in less than a year. I really loved the “Saving Unnie” book as not only did Lilah write the the story, but also matched her narrative with her own illustrations. The story itself is very sweet, although it begins with the sinister wicked witch capturing Unnie (a unicorn) and putting him in a cage. The story’s protagonist then sets out on a quest to find a good fairy and come up with a plan to turn the evil witch into a nice one and set Unnie free. And all, of course, ends happily ever after.
At her piano recital, Lilah demonstrated that she has now added singing to her repertoire. She sang the song Alouette and did a great job of accompanying her voice with the piano. After her recital was over, I asked her to go up on stage so I could take a quick picture of her. But instead of obliging me, she said that we first had to ask her instructor for permission. So after tracking her down and getting the requisite approval, Lilah got on the stage and I took this shot. Lilah loves to be conscientious and does not like it when people do not follow the rules. In addition to the piano recital, this trait of hers became evident a few weeks ago when she noticed a dead animal on the side of the road. Here’s the conversation we had:
Lilah: Why do people drive so fast?
Dad: Because sometimes they’re in hurry.
Lilah: But when they drive too fast they hit animals.
A bit more back and forth followed and then Lilah came up with the conclusion that when she grows up she will be a helicopter pilot. That way, when she sees people driving to fast she will lasso their vehicles with a special rope from her helicopter that will pull them back so that they don’t hit unsuspecting animals. Very sweet.
Luke
Luke is doing well. He’s not so into talking to adults these days, but I think it’s because he doesn’t always know how to respond. I can see the gears moving when adults ask him questions, but the words don’t always come quickly enough, so often times he just gives one word answers or offers an “I don’t know” shrug of the shoulders. However, this does not mean he’s not into talking because if you see him with his friends he’s just a natural chatterbox full of ideas of what he and his friends should do. He also continues to be a good negotiator when it comes to him wanting something: a toy, candy, a trip to Target just “to look” as he says. He’s also plenty loud, especially when Lilah pushes his buttons and makes him mad.
We finally got Luke’s 5-year portraits taken. As you can see by his portrait shots, he had a good time posing for pictures this year, cooperating nicely with the photographer in the process. I even got inspired by the shoot and began doing my digital SLR camera comparison research for like the one hundredth time. The camera the guy at the studio used was a Canon 30D with a 28-105mm lens. The newer model of this camera — the Canon 40D — is one of the cameras I’ve been looking at along with the Nikon D80. Both cameras are good and will take excellent portrait pictures, but the Canon is just a tad bit better and pricier too. So we’ll see if I end up buying one or not. For now, it’s okay to dream.
I think this is the year I finally sign Luke up for AYSO. My friend Gene has convinced me to become his assistant coach so that we can hang out twice a week and our boys can play together on the same team. Even though it’s a bit of a time commitment, I think it’s worth it and look forward to doing it in the fall. Luke is also into the idea so we’ll see how it goes.
That’s it for this month’s recap. More next month…