Lots of things to celebrate around here: books, sounds, ink and apples being the operative concepts in our lives these day.
Books: We are celebrating Alma's entry into reading. In her classroom, she just graduated to reading BOB books. Her excitement in this news was exactly as one could expect from one completely obsessed with books finding that soon she will be reading them on her own: complete and utter joy. She is beyond proud of this accomplishments. It has been a long road of learning sounds for our determined little reader. We are so proud of her.
Sounds: James is also doing well in school. He has a huge list of friends he likes to recite and the other week joined in a game of musical chairs. (side note: This game in particular seems to be an important game in the school, which demonstrates a willingness to join in. Alma has yet to play because, as she happily lets us know, she enjoys watching. I love the lack of shaming for making one's own decisions in these matters.) James is also celebrating the discovery of beginning sounds of words. He will gladly, without prompting -- tell you the first sound of almost any word spoken. Also, he has made quick progress of learning his numbers from 1-9, mostly by relating them to trains. It sounds like this when he is counting along with the numerals: one Thomas, two Edward, three Henry, four Gordon, five James, .... We are very proud of the sweet little boy we are raising.
Ink: Joshua "added a new piece to his collection" (that's tattoo talk for getting more ink). For Valentine's Day, I set Joshua up with an appointment with Courtenay (Court) Long, a childhood friend of mine from Carlisle who happens to be a tattoo artist here in Bethlehem, for an appointment to get a long awaited for next piece. Joshua was delighted to add a lily for Alma (based on her middle name of Kateri, for St. Kateri, the "Lily of the Mohawks") and an anchor for James (his middle name)/Joshua's father Jim who was in the navy. It is very badass. Court did a terrific job and is an amazing artist. A photo of the tattoo on his actual arm will come shortly; but for now, here is the artist's preliminary sketch.
Apples: I am celebrating teaching at the community college where I work part-time. It's been fun to get to know some of the students (in the Grants Office, I'm rather removed from that side of things). The class seems to be going well and we all seem to be enjoying ourselves so it has been a really good experience. Nothing I want to do full time or every semester at this point; but a great opportunity I wouldn't mind repeating.
