More soccer

Of course there was soccer. Julien enjoyed showing off his ability to his grandparents. He also enjoyed being a "tickle monster" and tickling his teammates.

Kathy and Rick were in town this last weekend. We had a surprisingly relaxed weekend, considering the work strain we are all currently under. Richard is in the throws of applying for academic jobs which is particularly stressful. We are suddenly realizing that we might move away from Bloomington.

New glasses

I have new glasses. Sebastian broke my last pair by ripping them off my face during a tantrum. Hopefully my new glasses are stronger.

Dalai Lama

Before I begin my posts on this last weekend, I need to post about my experience today. On the way to my fitness class at lunch I was suddenly among the throngs of Buddhist monks and other spiritual people waiting outside the IU Auditorium. The Dalai Lama is in Bloomington and is conducting a three day educational program at the IU auditorium, and I walked into the middle of the crowd. The bomb squad and state police were there too. I saw them carefully scanning everyone as they entered the building.

Why is the Dalai Lama in Bloomington, you might ask? His brother, Professor Norbu, lives here. The Dalai Lama will be in town for six days.

I wondered, "what am I doing going to exercise class when all these people around me are searching for spiritual enlightenment?"

Baking with Transformers

Soccer net

Sebastian had fun too, playing with the net of the soccer goal and kicking balls. Finally, he fell asleep in my arms.

Saturday Soccer

This last Saturday Julien's soccer club held a soccer tournament, called the Kohl's Cup. It seems crazy at this age, but Julien loved it. They played three short games, with breaks in between. Our coach couldn't make it (she was running a city Latino Festival), so the parents played musical coaches to see who was it . . . we manged to escape the responsibility. After the first game Jun's dad, Andre, started coaching, and he was amazing! He was concerned that the kids wouldn't be able to understand him because of his Brazilian accent, but no worries. Mostly he repeated "look at the ball, look at the ball, look at the ball!" Oddly, not having a coach really brought the families of the team together, and we all enjoyed ourselves. It end up there is another kid on the team (Diego) whose parents had a home birth with the same midwife. Not only that, but she looks after kids of a friend of mine. Small world. Very different community than T-ball.

By the end of the game Julien was climbing up on Andre back and hugging him with enthusiasm.

Solar System

Julien and I made a solar system as decoration for his birthday party. We like it so well we are leaving it up.

Sebastian amuses himself

Sebastian loves to read to himself. He will sit down by the book shelf and look at book after book. And, of course, he also will bring a book over and ask us to read it to him. Particularly, if we are busy reading to Julien.

Rocket

At Julien's birthday party everyone received a flying torpedo bungee rocket. Sebastian loved watching the kids (and adults) shoot them off. Later, he tried it out himself. We were impressed how well he figured out the concept.

Presents

It is amazing how quickly presents can be opened! Now Julien has lots of new books to read, music to listen to and toys to play with. And there are lots of tiny pieces for Sebastian to put into his mouth.

Cake

The most hectic moment of the party was the serving of the birthday cake. Maybe it was the noise makers.

Content

They all gathered together on the steps to eat their candy.

Sebastian figures it out

As soon as the big kids were done with the pinata, Sebastian went for the bat and started trying to swing it at the, now empty, pinata. Clearly, he understood the concept.

Pinata

Julien decided that he wanted to be blind-folded this year for the whacking of the pinata. We tried that the first go round and then let the kids have at it. The pinata was very hard to destroy. I finally had to tear the back end of it to help it break open.

Wave

Sebastian had as much fun as the big kids. Here you can see him sitting next to his friend Max.

The balloons take off

Grandmum Kathy sent Julien a bunch of amazing silver balloons for his birthday. Everybody loved them...although perhaps too much. It was hard to resist banging them around. Durring the rocket ship game a couple kids burst open the small sand bag that was tethering the balloons to earth. As they took off into the sky, Julien burst out crying. We all stopped and stared as the balloons lifted off into space. Gretchen (seen here in the lavender shirt) said "don't worry Julien you will get some more balloons next year" and gave Julien a big kiss. It was really sweet. Later I also noticed that she was wearing the soccer ring that she recieved on Julien's cupcake at school. Julien has talked quite a bit about Gretchen. And I can see why. Not only was she very sweet, but she also knew more about space than any of the other kids. She told me all about the different planets and their moons.

Blast-off

One of the games I led was a rocketship blast-off game. The kids pretended to get in a rocketship (marked off by balloons) and then I would count down 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 blast-off! and we would pretend to fly to each of the planets. When we would land I would describe a quality of the planet and we would all follow my directions (ie on Venus there are lots of volcanoes, so when we are on the planet we jump around and explode!). As Richard pointed out, really it was a modern dance improvisation game. The kids loved it.

Party!

When Julien woke up in the morning his temperature was within the normal range (in other words very slightly elevated), so we decided to have the party. The temperature outside, however, was not normal. We had record high temperatures in the 90s. Julien had a chill morning playing with his toys and having books read to him. Michelle, our babysitter, came a couple hours early to help out with our set up. I have never been so prepared for a birthday party!

Julien greeted each kid (13 in total) with a space mission sticker and they all played outside until everyone arrived. Then we moved inside for a craft- silver flying saucers! In these photos you can see Julien talking to one of his best friends, Cedic, and his older brother, Josh. They are Julien's buddies on the bus. Their mom is from France and thier dad was an English major in college and is now finishing up law school.

Fever

The next day Julien seemed out of sorts. Tired, complainy, not into playing soccer... Late afternoon when he was curled up on the couch it occurred to me to take his temperature. It was almost 101!

Big crisis moment, do we cancel or postpone the birthday party? What to do!

We pampered Julien and then took his temperature again at bed time and it had gone down to 99 with no medicine. So we figured if he doesn't have a temperature in the morning then we are on!

Julien turns six

Julien turned six on Friday. We brought in cupcakes to school, each adorned with a soccer ring. Big thrill. When Julien came off the bus that afternoon he was wearing a large golden crown that his teacher had given him. He looked very proud. When I asked him what his favorite thing was all day, his answer was, "holding hands with the line leader."

We let Julien choose where he wanted to go for dinner for his birthday and he chose Cheese Burger in Paradise. We gave him a camera for his birthday and he took these photos at the restaurant (except the photo of him drinking a fancy drink). Julien's meal ended with a plate of chocolate nachos (sounds disgusting, but they were much better than you would expect) brought to our table by a hord of clapping wait staff. Julien wasn't sure what to think. Fun, but slightly alarming. Sebastian laughed.

Julien was happy to return home to play with his new presents, especially the playmobil roman tent set and the space shuttle.

March Fourth Marching Band

Not only did the March Fourth Marching Band play a wildly creative show at the end of the night, they also marched through the streets of the festival several times. They had great energy. I can't imagine walking on stilts that much in one evening!

Lotus Festival

This last weekend we hired a babysitter and went out to the Lotus Festival, a yearly world music festival. We stayed out till midnight, the latest we have stayed out since Sebastian was born. It was a fabulous evening! We saw three of the fifteen or so bands that evening. We started with Amazones, a women's African drumming ensemble who played astoundingly complex rhythms. Then we saw the 17 Hippies, who played polka influenced music with a 17 piece band that included a banjo and mandolin. I danced like crazy! We finished the evening with the March Fourth Marching Band, a post punk circus influenced marching band with stilt walkers. It was a fun mix.

Adorable

Sebastian loves crawling into Julien's bed when I am putting him to bed at night. The three of us usually turn off the lights and lie down all snuggled together under Julien's covers. Julien and I talk about school, upcoming events or I tell stories about when I was little. Sebastian usually nurses, but sometimes he rolls around on his brother instead.

Ada

Kevin and Lane had a baby! And isn't she adorable. Sebastian was never as little as baby Ada. We brought them dinner yesterday (a Tuscan bean salad, baguette and ice cream) and discovered that Sebastian's former nanny, Anna lives across the street. Julien was happy to to see her son, Jack.

I held Ada for several minutes. She is so tiny and sweet. Their dog, Zoe seems both jealous and protective. He ate a bite of Sebastian's graham cracker, which made Sebastian cry. Poor Zoe was then relegated to the other room and Sebastian ate his graham cracker in peace.

Julien runs like the wind

Julien's obsession with Brazil continues...

Jun's mother brought Julien a Brazil soccer jersey! Julien was, of course, thrilled. We have had to wash frequent loads of laundry so he can wear it several times a week.

Real football player

When Julien plays football at home he always wears his knight's helmet. Recently he decided that it needed a mouth guard, so he made one out of felt and embroidery thread. He was quite proud of it. When he put it on the first time he looked at me and said, "do I look like a real football player, mommy?" To which I responded, "Oh yeah, you really look like a football player now!"

Skinned knee

Last week Julien came home with a skinned knee. He explained the incident and said that he went to the nurses office. To which I replied, "the nurse must know you well by now, you've been there so often." He replied "no, this was the first time I really went to the nurses office." He looked at me a moment to see how I would respond...at least once a week Julien tells me that he was injured and had to go to the nurses office to wash up, including the first day of school! This time he had a slip from the nurses office so I knew it was official. I'm still not certain, did someone take him into the nurses office to wash up the other times, or was it all imaginary? Probably imaginary.