Kelly's Weblog

Cold pizza: so satisfying to find in the fridge when one is searching for suppertime inspiration!

Twittering, Pinging...see what happens on a rainy day?

Conversation between AJ and Jamie in back seat of car, as reported by Paul:

AJ: Jamie, do you know what happened when I was a baby? Mummy crashed the car into an ICEBERG when I was in it!

Jamie: No she didn't. She slipped on an icy road and crashed the car.

AJ: Oh, yeah. And she got lots of scrapes but I didn't make fun of her because I didn't know how to talk yet.

Merry Christmas!

Here is our annual Golding family happenings summary. If the newsbytes below fail to satisfy, come to New York. Our basement playroom-cum-guest-room awaits! See the sights, go out on the town, and stay with us in darkest Brooklyn and we will catch up in detail! We’d love to see you.

Our house and garden are in pretty fine shape at last. A couple of small Japanese maples are settling in and ivy has consented to grow up a part of the stockade fencing in the back garden, and the boys spent hours on the play structure this spring, summer and early fall. Over the summer, we had Jamie’s room redone in part: we replaced his old built-in bookshelves with new modular shelving that yields much more storage. His sleigh bed was passed down to AJ, who welcomed it with joy, and was replaced with a new loft bed with a desk underneath. Jamie is blissful sleeping up high, and does all his homework at his own desk. AJ says he is looking forward to starting Grade 1 and getting his own “new room”!

We followed what has become our usual summer travel pattern. Kelly and the boys spent July in Kemptville at Kelly’s parents’ home, enjoying hours of outdoor play every day and spending time with “the Old Gampa”, Kelly’s grandfather, who is now living there as well. Jamie made great strides in swimming and, in the last few days of our stay, shed the training wheels from his bike and vanished into the distance. AJ earned his first swimming badge and spent hours zooming on his LikeABike, which he’d mastered in the spring. In late August Paul joined us for another outstanding stay with his mother Jane in South Zeal, Devon. There were berries to pick, apples to throw into the stream, tidal pools and ruined castles to explore, tors to climb, and one of the world’s best playgrounds in nearby Okehampton in which to while away the odd hour.

Jamie (6) graduated from Kindergarten in June and is well into Grade 1 at P.S. 185. He’s coming to terms with the increased responsibility he’s being asked to shoulder. He continues to do homework with enthusiasm, is reading more readily every day, and likes to do math problems and play with number concepts. Currently he’s wrestling with the idea of negative numbers.

AJ (4) is in full-time pre-Kindergarten and delights his teachers with his enthusiastic and very verbal contributions to class discussions. AJ is our young naturalist. He works in the garden with Mama Jane whenever he can, attended a young gardeners’ class at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this fall, has a seed-growing experiment underway that his mother is trying not to kill, and can identify more plants on sight than either of his parents. He has started to write and spell words, read part of “Hop on Pop” aloud recently, and has lost none of his pleasure in craft projects.

Paul and Kelly (and Jamie!) received their green cards this fall. Paul started a new job as General Counsel at Citi Infrastructure Investors, and has spent a great deal of weekend time on market and playground excursions with the boys this year, discovering that Jamie on his bike makes an excellent pace-car for running! Kelly is having fun singing with Choral Chameleon, a new professional choral ensemble in Manhattan. She co-edits the PTA newsletter, offers a music class at AJ’s preschool, and has been involved in event management for a local concert series.

That’s our news for 2008. We’re on Facebook; Kelly’s family blog at www.baxtergolding.com sometimes has new material, and you can always reach us by email: paulwgolding@hotmail.com or kelly@baxtergolding.com. All our very best for 2009!

Hallowe'en! A scary ghost... 
...a Wattersonian pumpkin... 
...and a mighty knight! 

Three photos taken from the same location, on a walking route from Belstone to Sticklepath in Devon. Click on each image to see a larger version.

 
2008: Jamie is 5 1/2 and AJ is nearly 4.
 
2007: Daddy taking the photo. Jamie is 4 1/2 and AJ is nearly 3.
 
2006: Daddy back in the US. Jamie is 3 1/2 and AJ is nearly 2.

We had a pretty good flight to Bristol yesterday. The kids were so tired by the time the plane lifted, an hour and a half late at 10:30pm, that they fell asleep very quickly. And we had no hitches on the arrival end: got our bags and the rental car smoothly. If the M5 had cooperated, we'd have been at Jane's place before 1pm. Still, 3pm wasn't terrible.

Jamie and AJ have settled in here very quickly; both remember a lot about the place from their last visit. Today we did the classic Belstone-to-Sticklepath walk. Both kids managed to flood their rubber boots before we even left Jane's house, so keeping feet dry wasn't really a concern; mud was everywhere in any case. This has been a very wet summer in the West Country, I gather. We were happy to see our old friend the water wheel at Sticklepath, and very happy to play in the garden of the Devonshire Inn and, better yet, in the stream. There's a pile of wet, muddy clothing in the washing machine...first of many, I'm conjecturing. Soon I must wake AJ (and Paul!) from nap...and maybe I'll make tea.

See some pictures of our trip here. I'll add to the album as we get other fun photos.

Me: I hear a certain amount of quiet in here. Could it be that there's some good eating going on?

J: Well, it's really loud in our minds!