At SeaTac on the way to Vegas

Letter to Santa

letter to Santa

Zoe's class wrote a letter to Santa (Pere Noel) .... and this morning we prepared to walk with her class to put the letters in the mailbox.. I put on Zoe's running shoes, due to the long walk and promise of sun... but she looked at me funny and got our her rain boots... she said, "Mom, I need to wear my boots, we are going to the north pole."

I told her that was too far away, and we should let the post office handle it.

she was a bit perplexed...

Dying

For some reason Zoe locked onto dying tonight as she was going to bed... She cried and cried and said she was afraid of dying.... Something about remembrance day came up, about people going to war and she said she did not want to die in a war.  Then she said she was afraid of her Daddy dying in a war... "doesn't he have a military uniform? I saw it in a picture."

Wow... Hard stuff to help her process... Hard to let her talk it out... I just wanted to make it go away... But I did keep her talking until she was done... Then helped her to think of happy things...  I hope it sticks...

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    
"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."
Chinese Proverb

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Amy Ashurst Gooch               http://www.csc.uvic.ca/~agooch
Assistant Professor                 amy.a.gooch at gmail.com
Computer Science                    amygooch at uvic.ca
University of Victoria              agooch at cs.uvic.ca             


   (250)-483-5941    (Canada)
   (801)-649-3923    (SLC Virtual)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ProD Nov

ProD day Novemenber
18 Evie tries her hardest to copy.JPG (image/jpeg) 310K
 13 Skating on carpet is far less scary.JPG (image/jpeg) 277K
 14 Messing around with Evie.JPG (image/jpeg) 325K
 15 Belly laughing with Evie.JPG (image/jpeg) 284K
 16 Evie is about to get hiccups.JPG (image/jpeg) 275K
 17 Blowing games for Evie.JPG (image/jpeg) 300K

Photos - 2nd e-mail

Photos including a ProD day

12 Zoe asks for a photo to show her pink top.JPG (image/jpeg) 246K
 7 Helping out with baking.JPG (image/jpeg) 283K
 8 I could just take a little taste.JPG (image/jpeg) 298K
 9 I know she said no eating but.....JPG (image/jpeg) 282K
 10 Peer pressure...or just plain mischief.JPG (image/jpeg) 274K
 11 The ladies hit the make up.JPG (image/jpeg) 317K

is it true (commercials)

Zoe was listening the radio in the car as we were heading to pick up Finn.. and she heard a radio's commercial.. the kind where you do A, get a chance at a trip to Jamaica... and Zoe asked (demanded), "Is it true"?   She really, really wanted it to be true, that the "you can win a trip" was meant for her...  I forget how desensitized we are to the "you" part of advertising.. Zoe really thought they were talking to her.

shot

Yesterday at noon I got a call from Zoe's school.. she had cut her hand on the fence and they wanted to make sure she had her tetanus shot up to date... she was due for her 5 year old shots, so after school Bruce took her.  She was amazingly brave.. did well (unlike the last shot which too her a year to get over... she would whine -> hypercry anytime we got near the doctor's office)...  she was quite sore today.. the cut was a scratch, but they were worried about the fence none the less.

keeping up the tylenol...

Skip it

Zoe is in love with "skip it"... She usually borrows one at school, and now finally has her own...

She played last night before dinner, after dinner in the moonlight, and again before school...

Halloween

We had a very busy day... Finn went to Evie's and Zoe went to school.. Andrea took her crew (with Finn) to downtown Oak Bay.. a quaint little business street where the businesses hand  out candy from 3-5.. it was nice to be out during the day light hours...  Luckily she got to dress Finn..  

From

Zoe Bruce and I got dressed in my office at work

From Photos

Zoe was really worried about the black hair,  because Wonder Woman has black hair.. so I bought one of those cans of spray color.. what a mess!
but we did cover the top of her head... and my hands trying to smooth her hair down..

 Then we zoomed down to met them at Starbucks.  Zoe was very nervous.. and didn't want to get out of the car.. I think her system gets overloaded with nervous/excited and sometimes she can't differentiate between the two.. but once our feet hit the street and we started filling the bag with candy, she was in her element.

From Photos

From Photos

Zoe and Finn are in love with superheros, so this year's theme was in the queue months and months ago.
I have been grabbing super hero movies.. they watch the 2009 Wonder Woman all the time
we have several books and read them at night...  Finn was Thor and Zoe Wonderwoman.
Knowing my Zoe and her need to keep pure to character, I did manage to get tights on her, but no shirt.. thankfully the capes worked..

We also meet up with her two best friends:

From Photos

From Photos

We tried some Trick-or-Treating on the way back

From Photos

At 5 we went to Asha/Kirsten's house and was spoiled by delicious real spanish omelets made by Sabine (I need to learn to make), pizza, and loads of candy.  After fueled up, Zoe, Asha, Claire with Lise headed out the door.. too impatient to wait for us and we lost them... Bruce Finn and I went door-to-door but only caught sight of them once, but they were really far out. 

 We just did the trick-or-treating (Finn Bruce and I) ... At one house, Finn found a tire swing.. it was so cool to see him swinging with his wings flying..

From Photos

and then on the way back towards the bon-fire at Oak Bay Firestation, Finn tripped.. I picked him up, took him for one more door of candy, and then on the way out I feel, sprung my ankle, scrapped my knee, nearly landing on top of Finn with him in my arms, but cradled him and he didn't get hurt more... we were kind of getting tired, so we headed to the bon fire.. Finn got to hold the fire hose ... three times...

From Photos

From Photos

then we went back to Asha/Kirsten's and tried to get our sugar coated kids back out the door to home... after a long bath to get Zoe's hair back to blonde ... Zoe was asleep by 9, Finn 9:30...  (and both up at 6:45am!)

prehalloween

Every morning for the past month, the subject of Halloween has come up..

Finn would wake up most mornings and say: "It is Halloween day!!!"

Last night Zoe was so excited (nervous), she slept in her black clothes (it was only wear black and orange to school today)

she didn't have any orange so I had to make a pumpkin to put on her shirt

then my sewing machine freaked out.. I had to attach it with double stick tape and a few hand stitches

my first major sewing project was a triumph however

I made the kids capes to keep them warm

found this great red with shiny star crepe material

 then backed it with red polar fleece

 I made the cape from scratch, making it up as I went

 it worked great

 

ProD Day

Finn and Zoe.jpg (image/jpeg) 324K

 11 Going crazy.jpg (image/jpeg) 264K

12 More pretend play later on.jpg (image/jpeg) 265K

13 The weather lets up for 20 mins.jpg (image/jpeg) 339K

How Zoe spent another ProD day

Popcorn....yummy.jpg (image/jpeg) 331K

 6 Finns impressed...not sure about Evie though.jpg (image/jpeg) 294K

 7 Playing families on pro D day.jpg (image/jpeg) 252K

 8 Evie and Finn are concerned when the bid girls join in.jpg (image/jpeg) 256K

 9 Craft time.jpg (image/jpeg) 318K

morning from Zoe

I go into to shut Zoe's door this morning at 7am, thinking she was going to sleep a little longer, and she creaks, "Mom, what are you doing here".. I mumble something and then say "what are you doing here?" and she says, "I'm still hibernating"

then later I ask her where she put the hair brush, and she says, "did you check the kitchen counter" and I say yes, I already checked there; then I ask again, "where else do you think it could be?" (I saw her with it last night)... she says back, "I don't  know.  I took it on the tour of the house, it could be any where.  You should check every room."

Happy Halloween!

Re: update from Harrisburg

Mikah,
thanks for the update... how busy you guys are...! congrats on the
job.. it is an exhausting processing (moving, kids, new jobs)... you
are to be commended!

things here are finally moving smoothly for fall.. it was an
adjustment getting all of our goals and schedules aligned (I get up at
6:30, get ready, get kids ready, we all head out the door at 8:20..
drop off Zoe, then Bruce, then Finn, then I get to work)... I have
Nanny-Annie picking up Zoe three days a week and they walk to my
office, then we go get Finn when I finish teaching.

The app is out! It is on a slow start.. it take a bit to get
something like this on Apple's first page, but we are doing everything
we can.
We are prepping changes to ToonPaint (the previous app), and gearing
up for the next two..

Finneas is no longer a toddler.. a real, stick-wielding, girl chasing,
charming, cheeky boy... he loves to play on his own.. talking all the
while.. loves to snuggle with and battle Zoe. He and his girlfriend
Evie are nearly inseparable... so cute together, just like an old
married couple.
see the blog: finneasgooch.blogspot.com

Zoe is really into Kindergarten, already knows over a 100 words and
French and just this week I've witnessed several instances of her
preferring French over English..(mostly counting).. I expect by
Christmas this will be huge. She can count to 29, knows her alphabet,
many colors, and phrases.. (Can I go to the bathroom? I forgot. Can
I go to the drinking fountain? and a few songs...) She is learning
letter by letter... sounding out words and writing them. She is
dressing like a girl ready to learn.. picking out completely matching,
well organized, weather appropriate clothes... (wow!) She has a bunch
of new friends who greet each other with big hugs. We have three
birthday parties to go to in the next two weekends.

we are off to the pumpkin patch for our annual pilgrimage on a hayride
and train ride...

Have a lovely fall weekend!

Love Amy & family

On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 8:34 AM, Mikah Simmons <formikah@msn.com> wrote:
> Hello all.
>
> Well we are slowly getting back to some routines at home after our trip to
> SLC followed by our trip to the Outerbanks. It is nice to be home. Ty is
> getting back to a better sleep schedule which is good for the whole family!
> Ty is busy working on his inch worm crawl. We have to watch him all the
> time, keep the door to the basement closed, hide all electrical cords, etc.
> He seems a much happier person now that he is able to get around on his own
> a bit. He is now eating all types of baby food and one of his favorites is
> peas.
>
> Tice had his first day off since our vacation yesterday. We got a lot done
> around the house including an attempt to rid ourselves of the skunks that
> are living under our shed. Hopefully our interventions will end in success!
> Tice made Korean BBQ short ribs with roasted veggies for dinner. I'm going
> to try to show him up tonight with a cornbread stuffed meatloaf. Wish me
> luck. We had our sitter, Jane, come for a few hours so we could have a date
> night at the movies. We saw Moneyball. Excellent movie, very slow, all about
> baseball, great underlying message. That being said I wouldn't recommend it
> to anyone who doesn't LOVE baseball and/or doesn't swoon at the site of Brad
> Pitt.
>
> I finally got a job. What a stressful process. I will working per diem in
> the same ER where Tice is a resident (should be interesting). I applied for
> positions at 3 hospitals. This was the only one who gave me a call. It is a
> great position where I can pick and choose the shifts that I want to work,
> so when Tice has a day off, or I can find a sitter, I can make some $$$. The
> only drawback is 2 full weeks (40 hr/week) of orientation. That means the
> little guy is headed to daycare. I sure will miss him. We are going to take
> the next few weeks and have him go a few hours a day. Hopefully this will
> help both of us transition into those 2 - 40 hr. weeks. I start November
> 7th.
>
> As most of you have probably heard, we're not going to be able to make it to
> SLC for Christmas. Tice will only have 5 days off and that seems too short a
> time to put in the effort and $ to make the trip. Tice has a couple of weeks
> off in the spring, one in March and one in Aprill, so we will probably make
> the trek then.
>
> My Mom is doing better. She is now eating 700 calories a day. That is a 200
> calorie/day improvement from a couple of months ago. Her weight and energy
> are slowly returning. She is still being followed by a gastroenterologist,
> and gynecologic oncologist, and a gerneral surgeon. She is still on IV
> therapy 14 hours a day. Her companion friend Scott will be returning to
> Oregon for about 3 weeks beginning Nov. 5th, so if any of you were willing
> to check in on her or give her a call during that time it would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
> Taylor and Robert are doing well in school and seem pretty happy right now.
> We are hoping to have Robert here for Thanksgiving, and Taylor will be home
> for Christmas.
>
> Ty and I are off to Wildwood Park for a nature walk. It is cool and sunny
> here today, definitely jacket weather, and the rain will return in a couple
> of days... I hope you all are having a great weekend.
>
> Love, Mikah
>

Mom, did you pee blood? How Cool!

--warning, the title tells all---

This morning, while I was relishing staying in bed (not sleeping-in
mind you, staying in bed), Zoe comes into our room in search of the
bathroom...and yells... 'Mom, did you pee blood"

I said, sheepishly, "yes"
She responds, "How cool!"

Back story:
about a week or so ago, Zoe went to the ladies room at work (Nanny
picks her up 3 days a week and brings her to work), and yelled,
"ooooh, mom, this toilet has blood in it"

I proceeded to tell her that it was okay, and that every woman bled
once a month, it was normal, she would some day, and it was part of
the process that made it possible for women to have kids.

She obviously thought hard about it, but didn't ask too many questions.

The next day in the car, she asked me...out of the blue, "When was the
last time you pee'd blood?" I told her it was a while ago and that I
would be due any day now. She asked a bunch more, trying to get me to
give her a last date... and then finally settled on, "Well, when you
pee blood next time, will you let me know?"

For Zoë's birthday party at school

growing up

A bit ago, Bruce and I found some link on stages of development.. and there was some quote about girls being 57% of their adult height at 3 year of age... finding some number back in my email, Zoe was about 40inches.. translating to an adult height of 5'10" (not surprising for a Gooch Girl ;)

It just reminds me of all the milestones Zoe has hit.. .

Just before turning 5, she suddenly went to having to be dragged to bath kicking and screaming to submerging up over her ears, just recently over her eyes, and deciding she was ready to swim at the pool under water. Two weeks ago, she did just that, with goggles on, she swam underwater for an hour.. learning to push off walls, dive to the bottom to fetch rings.. amazing how fast things are changing. She also loves the shower (which we call waterfall)..

She is also really into the learning part of school, mostly revolving around language. She is also a perfectionist... an over achiever. She got together with her friends Asha and Claire from preschool and there were several moments of hysterics by one of them... one thing I remember Zoe saying: "But I want to be the one who knows the most".. she meant french.. they are all in French immersion. they were so competitive together.

More to it: Zoe has homework.. her sounds book, part of learning through Jolly Phonics... the book comes with the letters, sounds, a few practice words.. starting with "s".. Zoe is to practice writing, doing the actions, and then draw something... these are all her strong suits, especially the draw something.. but there isn't much room, and both times we have worked on this (once after school when she was very tired, and the next first thing in the morning before school) she would end up sobbing and we'd just have to put it away because she was worried she was doing it wrong, or it wasn't right, or it wasn't enough.. I had to ask the teacher to take extra time to explain her expectations and tell Zoe she was doing it right... We'll see if it worked.

This weekend she has spent quite a lot of time drawing.. it is amazing how much she has changed. She does color in the lines (as she is expected in school) and has a good sense of colors that go together. She now draws faces and colors them with "skin" color". She has started asking me to cut out shapes and she assembles them.. first it was wonder woman, picking out different sheets of paper as needed to make the pieces of the outfits. Today a Christmas elf.

She also spent a lot of time playing with the markers that have faces.. each of them in a role.. grandma, mom, dad, little brother, sisters, etc... a whole story..

she has also spent time writing... the number 3, 4, 5...

she has about 100 words in french in her vocabulary... counts to 29 (skipping some, but this too has changed fast... she now counts to 14 without error)

she always wants more...

we've bought a book with extra worksheets and she is practicing more letters, colors, etc. "I love homework!" she says.

She is also a caring sister.. played well with Finn for 2 hours.. with only a little skuttle here and there... they found twin shirts from the preschool.. and both wore them to be twins.

I am so proud and excited to watch her grow... an amazing adventure.

Ride in car wit goggles

First pro-d day...!

Zoe spent her first pro-d day with Andrea and the girls and Finn...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Monday, September 19, 2011
Subject: Phew!
To: Amy - Finn's mummy <amygooch@uvic.ca>


What a busy day!
 
The kids seemed to have fun today - never a dull moment! Playing in their rooms, berry picking, playing in the garden, a quick Backyardigans episode, dress-up and reading time in Megan's room.....I hope everyone sleeps well tonight!
 
Sending some pics from today......they had such a weird lunch today......apple and walnut cake, vanilla yogurt, salmon lox, blackberries and sugar candies also! I didn't fancy the mix myself, but there didn't seem to be many leftovers - wouldn't like to think of it all mashed around in their stomachs. At least it was balanced (?!).....hope Finn and Evie's diapers are not too horrible when they next explode!
 
Have a good night - see you tomorrow,
A



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    
"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."
Chinese Proverb

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Amy Ashurst Gooch               http://www.csc.uvic.ca/~agooch
Assistant Professor                 amy.a.gooch at gmail.com
Computer Science                    amygooch at uvic.ca
University of Victoria              agooch at cs.uvic.ca             


   (250)-483-5941    (Canada)
   (801)-649-3923    (SLC Virtual)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First days and week of school

Zoe's kindergarten started last Wednesday with a one hour, parents attending open house... we met both teachers, played in the classroom, etc.  Thursday was Zoe's first full day (only half the students there, other half on Friday)... started with parents in the classroom, dropping off supplies, etc.  Then a little teary goodbye and she had her first day.  Unfortunately there was a little mess up on timing and she was picked up from the office after school by her Dad, but she has handled it much better than I estimated.  

Monday Bruce dropped her off, and I did Tuesday and Wednesday.  This morning she said she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to go to school, but really didn't put up much of a squabble, lined up with her class mates and walked into the building in her kind of carefree skipping way.  I think she really has been longing for the repeatability and challenge of school and it won't be long before she really wants it and misses it on her days off.

The challenge with this is the same with any new schedule.. getting who does what when.  Added to that I'm teaching at pick up.. it has been more stressful a change for the parents than the kid.  But we will adapt and it will work out.

I'm impressed with how fast she is pickup new words... garcon and fille were the first,  more French to come.

 

Zoe's 5th birthday party

Zoe's birthday party went really well... the weather was moderate.. sort of warm.. we had a bouncy castle (for 24 hours), and based up on my email invitation, everyone came with their swimsuits on and it didn't take long before we set up warm pools of water, a sprinkler, and they had a blast.  

Kids ate tons of cake and icecream (although I will say I had twice as much cake as we needed).. and they had great fun.

The pinata worked out perfectly.. Zoe started it... it went through everyone.. the last girl Emily hit it hard enough it the rope broke... and it got a bit broken.  Her 7 year old brother also gave it some good hits.. then we gave Zoe the last couple, took off her blindfold and it wasn't long before candy was everywhere.  Pictures to come.

Quick, look before another earthquake hits the princess castle

Just posted pictures of zoe's cake on her blog...

I learned a lot over the past two days, but as a result my princess castle suffered two disasters, one includes the fridge shelf falling on it

Now my princess friends wonder if the castle will survive until tomorrows party...

Sent from my iPhone

Piñata start. Bottom

Piñata start ... Front/top

Zoe art: profile

This is the first time I have seen Zoe draw a face in profile... One eye

Kissing

We just bought Zoe and Finn new costumes at Costco.  Zoe got a new mermaid costume and Finn a centurion, which he calls a mighty knight.  They changed before we got out of the parking lot.  Zoe started in on how they needed to practice, and this apparently meant practice kissing... Which they did the whole way home... It was so darn cute!  Pics from bruce's cell soon...

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    
"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."
Chinese Proverb

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Amy Ashurst Gooch               http://www.csc.uvic.ca/~agooch
Assistant Professor                 amy.a.gooch at gmail.com
Computer Science                    amygooch at uvic.ca
University of Victoria              agooch at cs.uvic.ca             


   (250)-483-5941    (Canada)
   (801)-649-3923    (SLC Virtual)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

quotes and things from the week

As part of dance camp week, Lise (Claire's mom) picked up both girls and took them back for a play. Lise told me a few things:

She asked Zoe if she knew her phone number, she said, "No, but you can call my mom and ask her"

She without hesitation just started floating and swimming on her back in their pool.

Lise describes Zoe as fearless.. willing to try anything; it is great to hear such things about my beautiful warrior princess.

first dance recital

Zoe finished her first dance camp (9-2, for a week)... and loved it.. I asked her after the first day what she thought and she said, "It was marvelous". Today she had her recital.. videos up soon.
The first routine was ballet, then tap, then jazz (to the tune of "walk like a dinosaur").. and finally a shortened version of Annie's "Hard knock life". It was pretty clear to me, that Jazz is probably Zoe's favorite.. but when I asked her what was her favorite, she wouldn't make a strong statement. when I asked her which should would want to do as a class, she told me I could pick.
It was clear that performing is one of her things, she never looked nervous or anxious.. she quite enjoyed it.

today

the day backwards...

Zoe and Finn are now in the backyard playing their favorite new game:
"Now you yell from there..." where they climb somewhere, and yell as
loud as they can, then the next person goes... right before that Zoe
went outside and yelled, "Nana! Grandpa!"... they left today after
spending time watching the kids on their own for 4 days while we were
at SIGGRAPH.. the kids really enjoyed their grandparents... I just
heard Zoe yell for Grandpa again.

previous to that Zoe was playing yoga instructor... at some point I
was to be a blade of grass... laying low, then put my bum in the air
and then leap forward and growl at my neighbor... I'm guessing that
came from Dance class today. She had her first day of Dance camp was
a raving success... "it was marvelous" as she said.. they did Ballet,
Tap, Jazz, Song and Dance (Hard knock life from Annie)... she did it
with her friend Claire.. it was great.

Finn had a 3 hour nap today, he's not been eating much, drinking lots
of milk, wanting to nurse often, I hope it passes quickly. I wish I
could attribute it to our walk around the Beaver Lake Ponds, but since
I carried him most of the way,... I think he's got a bit of a cold
brewing.

Finn noticed that Grandpa wasn't around about 11am... the two of them
got on so well.. finally Finn had someone to toss him around as much
as he likes.. (video to go up soon)

When we dropped Zoe off, Finn was the one who had a hard time. He did
not want to leave Zoe, wanted to stay with her. Perhaps in two years
they will do the camp together. They are both natural theatre majors
in the making.

Look what I drew!

Here's what I drew on Glow Draw!

Get Glow Draw at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=364873934&mt=8. It's FREE!

Zoe at Andrea's

15 Assault course.JPG (image/jpeg) 282K
11...and after.JPG (image/jpeg) 301K
12 Making a bridge.JPG (image/jpeg) 284K
13 Fishing.JPG (image/jpeg) 294K
14 Surfing.JPG (image/jpeg) 289K