Oregon and Keiki Steps

well, I think Emi is having a nice summer!  This is her and cousins Anna and Joe.  Cute trio!  My summer has been a busy one, trying to keep Charlie occupied while Emi and Aaron were gone.  I also had the plan to repaint Emi's room when she was gone, and the bathroom needed some freshening up.  Let's just say that for ten days I don't think I sat down once.  Or if I did, it was to put together a puzzle with Charlie or read him a story.  The end result is a nice looking bathroom and Emi's room looks very bright.  She chose the paint colors and I have to admit that it was hard for me to stand there in Home Depot with the paint swatches and say, "Mix up these two colors, please."  One wall is this bright pink, the other three are a color saturated blue/green.  I was tempted to tone down the colors, but after the paint is on the walls I have to say that her choices were great!  Way more bright and colorful that I would normally pick, but pretty inspiring.

The other big news is that Charlie started what is called Keiki Steps.  For two weeks he is in kindergarten, from 8 to 12:30.  It's a free program offered for kids that are entering school for the first time, kids that were home with caretakers and new to the whole school experience.  Charlie loves it.  He was so ready and it was pretty obvious that this was what he was waiting for.  Yesterday afternoon the growth and feeling of confidence was very visible.  He was relieved that he didn't have to do any reading, which he was afraid of.  He announced, "Guess what?  I didn't have to learn anything!"  This after a big day of learning how to act in line, push in chairs, go to lunch in the cafeteria, follow teacher instructions... I told him that I think kindergarten will be like that.  He'll learn a lot and a lot of the time it won't feel like learning.  He was also very impressed with the fact that he had cornbread for lunch.

Friday Emi comes home with her Grandma Judy.  Judy will visit for a week and a half, which will be fun for all of us!