Farewell Cecilia

It’s been one heck of a year. The year began with Amanda recovering from surgery. Then Amanda travelled to California to visit her aunt who is fighting cancer. Keep up the good fight Beverly. A few weeks ago a windsurfing friend Daniel Silipo died off the coast of Blyth beach, one of our favorite places to go. Daniel was the kindest and friendliest person I have met. I am still not that good of a windsurfer but he didn’t mind sailing with me.

 

Then I had a midlife crisis and convinced Quoc to throw a kegger party. So we threw the kegger, had a great midlife crisis and had him do an upside down stand on the keg (a.k.a. keg stand) while drinking beer. A few weeks after that he had a major hole in his stomach, had to have surgery and three long touch-and-go weeks in the hospital. He is still recovering but it was pretty scary for some length of time there.

 

Tonight, my mom called and our dog Cecilia who she has been taking care of since we left for Germany in 2004 was not able to move her front feet, and was vomiting throught the night. My mom said she held Cecilia all night long like a baby. Cecilia cannot hear anymore but mom talked to her through the night. Amanda and I wish that we could have been there. Now Cecilia is convulsing in the hospital and the best thing for her is to let her go.

 

She was the friendliest dog I’ve met. Amanda got her when I was starting my PhD as our first child (to help us to prepare for later having children) and I think to keep us both company. Amanda had seen her at the pound and we went to see if she would make a good dog. We took her to the outside play area and she found a hole in the fence and took off. We thought this dog is not ever coming back. We called after her and although she was running away from us she did a roundabout and ran just as quickly back to us. She loved to run. We knew then and there we were all made for each other.

 

We lived next to a park with a large grassy area. I’ll never forget one day when Amanda and I stood at the corners and one of us would call Cecilia. As soon as she heard her name she would bolt through the field throwing grass in her wake. I loved watching her barrel towards me with grass flying everywhere. Then she would knock me over and kiss me. I would not have a friendlier welcome for years until the kids would start to greet me as I came home from work.

 

Cecilia also kept my grandmother company while she was alive. She kept my mom company, and I think mom now realizes how much that meant to both of them. My son Julian used to walk her with grandma and my daughter Maya loved cuddling her although she is allergic to dogs. Years ago, before we lost Kristopher and Joseph (Al’s boys) they used to run with her and the other dogs at the Presley family ranch.

 

Looking back now, Ceclia touched so many of us and we didn’t even know it at the time. Farewell good dog. Sleep now, rest.

over the hill

We're at the Ranch in California. Amanda and I are sitting under a tree watching the kids play in the trailer where we are staying. They are playing with their cousin Clint and they seem to have found a sign that says "Over the Hill". Julian came out of the trailer with the sign and waved it around saying "we are an Amtrak train, we are ready to go. We are going to go over a bunch of hills". Funny that a 7, 5 and 4 year old are holding up an Over the Hill sign without any idea of what it means to the rest of us.

Bikes, Farts, Stabilizers and Funniest Girl

Two weeks ago we go the kids new bicycles since they were outgrowing the old ones. Maya has been on Julian's old pedal-less "Laufrad" bike from Germany which means walking bike. The bike was great for Julian because it taught him how to balance on two wheels. Then when we bought him a new bike with stabilizers, he had them on for a day and then asked me to remove them. He then wobbled a bit with me stabilizing him before he was off and riding.

Nearly the same things happened with Maya. Yesterday she asked for her stabilizers to be removed. We wobbled with her a bit. Then she was off, riding on her own. She was so proud when she could stop the bike and not fall off that she would shoot her fists into the air and scream "Woooooo". She's really the funniest girl.

Today mamma sent Julian and me to Stockton to ride in a big bike event for kids. It was great. We got to ride around the river front with hundreds of other kids and their parents. Then we saw some races. It was like being at the Tour de France. Julian loved it. Stockton also has its own man-made white water rapids park. They divert some of the water coming off of the river dam, run it through some diversions that make the water speed up, then the water is piped up to the original level using Archimedes screws.

Anyhow, before we left for Stockton we dropped the girls off at a birthday party. They were going to go to two birthday parties. As Maya left the car, she was a bit upset about something earlier in the morning. I don't remember what it was. Anyhow, Julian said good-bye. Maya said, "Julian, I hope your teeth don't wobble off". Who says things like that? Maya even when crabby ends up being incredibly funny, often without trying.

I'll tell you about a couple of other things, to show you how fun packed our days are.

When we were in the bathroom tonight brushing teeth, Maya decided to sing "sailing" over and over again, with a smirked up face (one eyebrow elevated) and waving her arms imitating the sea. That made me think of the Beyond the sea song, so I started to sing it in the crooniest voice I have. Not that I know the words or anything, so it sounded like this:

"Beyond the sea, somewhere ..... waiting ... (with feeling) .... for .....ME; my mother stands with OPEN ARRRRRRMMMMMS and watches the ships as they go SAILLLLLLL ING." When we got to the sailing part, I smirked up my face, raised an eyebrow and we both waved our arms imitating the sea. Two goof balls sharing 50% of our genes.

Ok, here's the last Maya story for today. When it is time to get into pajamas, the kids like it if I shoot off they socks, shirt and pants. This started many years ago when as babies, they didn't much like the clothes/pajamas changing routine and this trick made it more fun for them (and less of a chore for me). This means that I take the tips of the clothes and when they aren't expecting it I shoot them off "Poooff" the socks fly off. However, trying to shoot off the short, the undies almost flew off too. Maya and Julian thought this was hilarious. We all laughed. Maya found it especially funny then when the biggest fart was made by the smallest girl I know, we were rolling. I'd never laughed so much in my life. Reminded me of the time Aunt Beverly and Grandma Bette laughed so hard together that .... well, never mind.

The kids are the sunshine in our lives. They make us laugh many many many times a day. In a place that gets as little sunshine as England, we thank God that we are blessed with two sparks of life.

Good night.

Floods, Fires, Bikes and Dad's Shoes

Well it's been a weird sort of summer, weather-wise, across the world. Two weeks ago my mom was bragging that Colorado was so warm and sunny (80+ degrees). Now Colorado Springs is on fire. We have the water to put out the fire. Last Thursday was the big flood of 2012 in Newcastle. There was a flash flood that flooded many parts of the city. I was recovering from wiping out on a wet turn with my road bike the Sunday before, but had fortunately managed to be able to ride my bike to work. Cars and public transportation was at a standstill because of uncrossable parts of roads with cars being stuck in the water. Our thoughts go out to everyone who has been affected.

The previous weekend, we went to pick up a helmet for a boy who was turning 2 years old. We picked up new bikes for Maya and Julian along the way. Maya's bike is sky blue and has flowers on it. When we assembled it a bumble bee landed on the flowers. It thought the pictures were realistic I guess. Julian has a spider bike. A proper bike with 10 gears. Fancy stuff. Yet, he misses how fast his little bike goes. So as I am writing this he is zipping along on his old bike. New bikes, old bikes.

Julian is no longer wearing my shirts every day. Just every now and again. Right now he has this obsession with my shoes. So he's riding on his old bike with my running shoes that are way oversize on him. Love the kids. They are so cute and funny. May they always be so (at least in my mind).

Swear words: Oh oh

Tonight I was reading Captain Underpants to the kids at bedtime. On one of the pages the story read "The captain shut up the space station's doors", or something like that. Maya said that it was not ok for me to say "shut up" or "stupid" that they were bad words. She also said that there is another word "fug" that was bad. I said oh, well we shouldn't say bad words. She said that her friends (I'll change the names to maintain their anonymity) Lolly and Sally said the bad words quietly in class so that the teacher wouldn't hear them, but that she and her friend Becky didn't.

I asked her why they said these bad words and she said because the girls didn't want to be "sensible". I didn't know what else to do or say so I just changed the topic and kept reading the story. Sheesh. You kind of know this day would come. But you're still surprised when it does.

Wearing Dad's Clothes

Julian has been wearing my clothes for pajamas the last week. It doesn't bother him that two of him would fit in the clothes. I wonder how long he'll be wearing my baggy clothes before he fills them completely.

Also Julian is missing two of his milk teeth. He doesn't want to give them to the tooth fairy. Instead he wants to keep them in a little box.

Maya is reading a lot more and really getting into it. I read the kids a story every night. We bounce around from Tintin books to Shel Silverstein poems to Winnie the Pooh book (the original). That's what's on our reading list these days.

If you have kids go read to them. If you don't then go read to yourself.

Sunny Weekend in Newcastle

No post this weekend.

Dada International, American Culture and Losing that Accent

Three or so things to tell you about today:

Julian and I had talked about building an airport on top of his train table. We went with Julian to the hardware store a couple of weeks back and started to work on it. It was fun using the drill and stuff, but also a lot of work. So when we had the table put together and we started painting it with Maya I decided to name it D.I.A. Not Denver International Airport, but Dada International. I figured if it was going to be so much work the least I could do is name it after me, the old guy getting grayer slower and considerably less good looking each day. Here are some pictures of the airport. Two runways, a yellow flower, and astroturf in the middle. We bought enough astroturf to cover a trailer park and only used a little strip to put in the middle of his airport. What the heck do we do with all the left over astroturf?

Here are some pics of the D.I.A. and the kids wearing my shirts and shoes.

Amanda has been feeling home sick. We watched the Super Bowl and I think she thought it would have been great if we had organised a party. Next year. For now we need to soak in some more American Culture. I think Laura and Jeremy (or Uncle Germany as the kids call him) are feeling a bit home sick too. The poopy weather doesn’t help.

We’ve asked Maya and Julian where they feel they’re from. Both said they felt they are German. This is from two kids with a British accent, born from an American mom and a dad who is from who knows where (like the kids I would say I’m Bulgarian because I was born there but not sure Bulgaria would claim me).

Was getting my haircut yesterday from a nice lady. She said a lot of Brits watched the SuperBowl. She told me some things I had missed like how some singer had flipped off the audience during Madonna’s show.

The lady asked me if I would lose my American accent. I thought about it, thought about how my dad still has his. No, I probably won’t lose it.

Conquering Mount Fear and Praying to God

I've been writing so much stuff lately I haven't had a chance to write fun things like this.
Julian has had lots of trouble in swim class getting his head in the water. We'd look at the other kids in class and they were like fish, unafraid of the water. We even tried telling him that we would go to Hawaii if he would put his head under water. How else is he supposed to see the fish? Not much worked and it didn't help that we didn't have enough money to go to Hawaii over the holidays.

But he's probably been working on it because today he conquered Mount Fear. He was swimming under water with his goggles on. Trying to keep under as long as his breath would last. Too bad we still can't afford to go to Hawaii. He's ready.

So we all get to climb our own mountain of fear. Julian at least somehow had been thinking about how to conquer it and then one day with leaps and bounds he made a lot of progress very quickly.

As for Maya she's as lovely and fiesty as ever. She's not afraid of anything, so I have a different story about her. Tonight we were looking at pictures on the laptop computer while they were getting ready for sleep. Somehow Julian and I upset her so she said.

"I'm going to tell God on you two". "Dear God, Julian and Dada are being mean to me. Amen".

Above are some pictures you might like.