It Literally Felt Like Christmas!

For about 5 minutes. We were lucky enough to be able to snag the Ambassadors house up in Puncak for the weekend before Christmas. We invited our friends, the Beerman's to come up with us. We had been told it is actually quite 'cool' (literally and figuratively), but we really weren't sure what to expect. On the way up the fog had settled in near the upper part of the mountain, and at one point I rolled down the window and exclaimed "It's COLD!" We then proceeded to roll down all the windows and blare our Christmas music. The people who live up on the mountain are always burning fires to stay warm and so it smelled Christmasy too! The kids were like "it's cold! Can we roll up the windows now?!" and Tanner and I were like "No way, this is the closest it is going to get to winter right now so we are going to enjoy it!"

It was actually very beautiful up there and we just had a blast staying up late playing games with friends and have the air be cool and clean outside! We also did another trip to Taman Safari since all of us can't really seem to get enough of the place. I only wish I had pictures to share but our camera broke in Bali on the last day so we didn't have one. It was a perfect little getaway just before Christmas.

Decorating for Christmas

When you live in 90 degree weather year round, it is a little more difficult to get into the Christmas spirit. But after we returned from Bali, I was determined to get our Christmas stuff out so it would at least feel like Christmas...inside. My friend Kelly came back with us to have more dental work done, and we did so much in a week! How can it NOT feel like Christmas with this cutie around trying to eat the light bulbs?

Clark's Progress Report

We have been really happy with Clark's school and he is doing great. They had their first progress report the end of November and I was totally shocked when I saw how extensive the report was. It was 5 pages of Socialization, Language, Sensorial, Math, Computer, Pre-writing/writing, Art, Manipulations, Music, Practical Life, Physical Education, Science, and Social Science evaluations. It was awesome and I can only imagine how long it took his teacher to fill this thing out for each of her 10 kids. They pretty much have Clark pegged, which is no surprise since what you see is what you get with Clark. There is no wondering or guessing about what is going on in his head because he just lays it all out there for ya. I enjoyed the comments made by his teacher, who is Indonesian. My random thoughts and comments are in parentheses:

Clark is an active child (ya think?). Academically he is a good and a fast learner, for example when he was taught about math for addition and place value, the teacher just taught him twice and Clark quickly understood it. Clark has very good memory ability (yeah like he always remembers when I last got mad about something...awesome). He often thinks rationally, if there is something that he thinks is irrational, he will protest against it (Mom, I should only have to go to bed if I am tired...and I'm not). For example, one of his friends said that he was a spider, and for Clark it is nonsense so he told his friend that he was not a spider and this caused a quarrel. (Is it bad that I actually think Clark was just picking a fight with this kid? Clark does imaginative play ALL the time, so I am not quite sure what that is about, although I do think Clark generally thinks pretty rationally...gets it from his dad). Clark is not able to accept being defeated in a game or activity (gets it from his Mom...sorry). He does not want to get the role of the antagonist in a drama class i.e. Troll in the Bill Goats Gruff. (Dude, I'm with Clark. Who wants to be the troll yo?) These disappointments will cause anger and tears. We're working with him on handling disappointments. (We just tell him to man up at home. Is that....not...good?) Clark is basically a good child at heart (Yes, yes he is...shhh...he gets it from his mom ;-), he can make Rebecca laugh by making funny faces to her and he makes her happy (gets it from his dad).

(Rebecca is a girl in his class who has downs syndrome.)

I have started teaching Clark to read, and the teachers at school suggested putting him in an after school class that will help him learn since they felt he was really ready for it and I declined because I just really want to be the one to teach my child how to read. We have a great time with it and he is doing really well. I don't worry at all about him academically starting school next year. For Clark it will always be the socialization aspect that we will have to keep an eye on. He is so full of life and fun, but it can be a little (or a lot) 'in your face' at times (I have no idea where he gets that from ;-). But the teachers say all the kids get along great now after the first month or two adjustment period.

Clark also had his end of year school play the beginning of December. It wasn't Christmas themed, but it was darling and the kids were all super cute. Clark got to play a bird and the human king (there was a bird king too). I also got pegged by the teachers to be a part of a traditional Indonesian welcome dance that three of the teachers were going to perform at the beginning of the performance. It was actually a lot of fun, and my neighbor video taped the whole thing and then proceeded to show it to half my neighbors, without me being there and not ever having seen it. Nice eh? I am still trying to get a copy from her and if I do, I will have to view it first before I decide whether I want it on the blog!