Elliot rides a bike

Elliot has been working at learning to ride a bike. We got him a green bike Christmas last year, I think. Or was it his birthday? Anywho, it is still too big for him. Tate has a smaller bike and has grown taller than Elliot. So they trade bikes and Elliot is doing really well with Tate's.

A message to Aunty Amanda

To Amanda, busy at school and toga parties, who wished Simon Arrrrrrie Ashton a happy international-talk-like-a-pirate-day, here are some pictures, which do not include Simon but do include Pirates.

Meanwhile...

Simon continues to grow up. He says please and thankyou. He loves playing bowling and hockey and his favourite books include The Chocolate Chippo Hippo.

While his brother is at school on Fridays, his mom has been taking him to the Reading Time and the Cloverdale Library and he is really beginning to enjoy that a lot.

He is also doing better in the nursery at church and now only cries part of the time.

Elliot Skating

He had his first new skating lesson today, and we were both quite worried that it would be a disaster. I was so worried, in fact, that I double booked myself and went to my hockey pool draft. Which left Andrea alone with the two kids. Yes, I can hear the boos over the internet now. Boooooo!
Well, it went very well. I now have Steven Stamkos on my team.
Pardon me?
Oh, you don't care about my hockey team? You want to hear how skating went?
Mmmm okay.

Skating went very very well. He stood on his skates and walked on his skates. Mom says he looked like a pro.

I know it was only his first lesson, but we are feeling much better about things right now.
If you remember, he didn't enjoy his earlier classes at all and spent most of his time sitting on his cold bum with tears streaming down his face.

Sorry, no pictures.

Elliot at school

Things are progressing nicely at Cloverdale Mini Rec Centre Preschool. Elliot is making friends (something his father was never particularly good at) and his teacher has congratulated Andrea on raising a very well behaved boy. He listens to the teacher, is quiet during class, plays politely with the other kids. Of course this left us wondering why he has so much trouble doing those same things at home. But mostly we are very proud of him. Here are some of his pieces of art which he has done at school and brought home.

Potatohead Conference

School Project Two

In this self-portrait, Elliot is wearing his green shirt from the Calgary Zoo complete with the orange tiger in the middle of it. You'll notice some consistencies with his earlier portrait of his own head. He put a freckle on this one himself because it was so funny the first time.

Simon likes to do the following things:

-Play bowling with our plastic bowling set. He set them up in a fairly random order at random distances from each other. Then he steps back about three paces, says "ready.......go!" and throws the bowling ball at the pins. Then he says "almoooost" and tries again.

-Board games. He certainly doesn't understand the concepts yet but he loves to have Elliot's board games brought down, opened up and set up.

-Eat food. Whenever a meal is ready it is often a battle to get Elliot to the table but Simon yells out "meeeeeeee!!" and runs to his seat. He devours plates full of noodles, fruit, bell peppers, cheese sandwiches, broccoli and nearly anything else.

-Copy words. He is copying almost every word his mom and dad say.

-Playing with his Aunty Shelley. So far, she seems to be the clear favourite aunt. Though Amanda moving so very very far away may have played a part in his decision.

-Shopping. He loves to say "Shopping" and he loves to do shopping.

-Watch Bob the Builder. I guess he has been caught in the same craze most other boys have been caught in.

Exclusive!!

Elliot's first preschool artwork. A self portrait with the help of a mirror. He had another good day at school today. Simon was jealous and wanted to stay for school too.

The black freckle beside his eye to the right was added by his friend Noah. Noah thought it would be really funny.

Elliot's first day at school

Elliot did very well this morning getting ready. We were out the door on time and made it to school early. I waited in the van with Simon and Tate while Andrea took him in and got him settled. I watched as all the parents filed out, one or two at a time. I wasn't surprised that Andrea wasn't among the first to leave. But she ended up in there for nearly an hour as Elliot panicked a bit.

Then a girl offered to play with him. "I'm not ready to be your friend yet because this is the first day and I'm just getting to know everyone but I will play with you." She said.

Then Elliot was okay.

Afterwards he told us all about the day and it apparently went very well. He is excited to go back on Friday. He is quite fascinated by the fact that there are two girls with the same name in his class.

A salute to Hoisin Sauce

Yeah, Elliot loves Hoisin Sauce. He has it as a dipping sauce for his french fries, has his veggie-dogs glazed with it and will dip his fingers into it and then lick said fingers.
Today he attempted to bring it to a new level. He asked us to drain the milk from his sippy cup at supper and fill it with the sweet and salty oriental sauce you read about earlier.
We said no.

Q and A on Cookie

There have been many questions asked on this new character in our story named Cookie.

Here are anwers as provided by Elliot and myself.

Q: Is Cookie the man who lived in the dining room light that Elliot refered to many years ago?
-Aunty Amanda

A: No. That man has never been identified and he hasn't been heard from since we switched to LED bulbs in that room. He may have moved.

Q: Where does Cookie stand on the issue of Rep by Pop as opposed to the First-Past-The-Post system currently used in Canadian politics?
- Darcy McDoogle

A: He is a traditionalist and is resistant to change.

Q: Does Elliot have other friends name Puppy and Monkey?
-Aunty Amanda

A: No, these are simply two other exclamations he uses to show certain emotions.

If there are any other questions, let me know and I'll see if I can get answers for you.

Can anyone see into alternate dimensions?

Many months ago we registered for the Wind and Tide preschool program for Elliot. Even though I had registered about two and a half minutes after registration opened, Elliot was placed on a gigantic waiting list. So we looked elsewhere, found a nice little pre-school, got to know the teacher and watched Elliot fall head-over-heels in love with the little brick building in the heart of downtown Cloverdale.
Fast forward to today. Two days before his first day at his new school, having trained him for getting ready in the mornings, having driven by the school countless times at his request so he could gaze upon the lovely equipment in their playground, wander through the windows with his imagination dreaming up what fabulous lessons and activities he would be engaging in, we receive a phone message.
After returning from our trip to Walmart/Old Navy/McDonalds we came home to hear a voice on our answering service ask us if we are still interested in having Elliot in Wind and Tide starting a week from today in a location about twenty five minutes from our home.
Suddenly we were left with a tremendous decision to make, a decision we had settled with not having to make many months ago.
It made for a stressful afternoon.
We poured over every possible Pro and Con.
Then we asked Elliot.
Elliot said no.
I miss how easy childhood was.
We turned Wind and Tide down, for now at least. And his first day of school remains two days from now.

Monday morning at the Ashton household

Elliot, Simon and I had breakfast. Elliot told me much more about Cookie. For instance, Cookie still has olympic coverage on his television news. He also has birds that live in Africa, in the part where it doesn't rain.

Simon spent most of his breakfast counting things like his fingers, apple slices and eventually toes.