The Chronicles of August

August has been an exciting month at the Bateman household. Jackson has started pre-school and is continuing to learn about the world around him at an alarming pace. His class has a pet bunny named Sam that he loves to watch eat celery (yes, a real bunny in their classroom!) Emily is now a communicating member of the family now that she has same basic words down as well as the ability to sign to help us understand what she wants. Milk, water, grapes, chicken, and several other useful signs help us to keep her from getting frustrated as her speech capabilities develop. Jackson is now reading, and loves to find new challenging words to conquer. Last night we walked out of the store to hear Jackson call out, "Hey look, Bank of America!" seeing the establishment on the other side of the parking lot. Not only has he mastered several of the games that he found on the computer, but we also investigated a cool project out of MIT called scratch that actually lets kids create their own animations and video games!

So Angel went to the parents meeting for Jackson's first soccer team, and somehow got roped into being the coach. I guess it makes sense seeing as how we live right near the practice field, Angel played varsity soccer in high school, and she knows a thing or two about working with kids :)

August has been a busy month for Dad with work picking up speed, travel sprinkled in, and the possibility of an international assignment soon. On top of that, I presented at my first conference, the Houston TechFest on August 25th. All of this preparation on top of a hectic work schedule and school starting back up for the kids has made us remember how easy we had it during the summer :)

Tonight we went to Dunn Bros. coffee here in Katy to watch our neighbor Hank rock out with a mix of original and cover music. It was hilarious to see Emily and Jackson jamming to the music. They had us rolling in laughter and seemed to be having a pretty darn good time themselves. Unfortunately, we didn't bring the camera along... next time.

So speaking of pictures, we've got a great snapfish album up. you can check it out here:

August 2007 Pics SnapFish Album

We also had a visit from Nana in August. She was amazed to see how much Emily had grown up since only a few months ago. The girls at Emily's day care tell us she is a natural born leader that helps to keep the class on task when it comes to cleaning up, etc. Despite her independent and strong-willed nature, Emily still loves and looks up to her big brother. She can be found imitating everything he does, including climbing up on the furniture even when mommy and daddy say no!


You'll notice in some of the pictures we had a great trip to the Houston Children's museum a few weeks ago. That place is pretty amazing and has lots of
interactive things for the kids to do. I think Jackson got a bigger kick out of most of the exhibits that Emily did, but she sure liked the pulley chair that Jackson and daddy pulled her up on. Jackson really liked fishing for the plastic duckies in a man-made concrete river outside in the "backyard" of the museum.

Where to Start?

OK, so I have had what hopes to be my largest lapse in activity on this blog. I can't say that I don't have adequate excuses that would surely draw an empathetic shoulder from you, but I'll spare you the details. Needless to say, it is time to once again start giving our amazing kids the proper historical accounts of their early years on this earth.


Emily

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So Emily is now 9 months old and this morning she started saying "Hi" to us. It was pretty adorable. Nana (Jolene) was in town from Utah and she was able to join in on the fun of watching Emily gleefully venture into the realm of speech. Emily was clearly amused with her ability to make everyone burst into laughter with a single syllable. Her cute little earrings accentuate her beautiful little face and the seven teeth she now has.


She has also developed some pretty darn good balance in her quest for that elusive first step. She has been able to stand up by herself without the aide of a table or any other stationary object. While standing, she isn't quite sure what to do with herself, but some claps to celebrate her accomplishments are always sure to draw smiles from even the most unemotional observers. If that doesn't get ya, then her touching vocalization of "mama", "dada", or "no, no, no" surely will.


We have started signing with Emily and she is picking up on the concept. She can sign for milk and usually does so to indicate when she is done eating. Since we have kept a pretty consistent schedule, she knows that it is food first -- then that white bottle she gets when she puts out her hand and motions as if she was milking a cow. Emily also has signs for more and ball under her belt. With repsect to food, Emily is pretty much eating anything we are. We'll still reserve her a nice portion of perfectly cubed pears or some Gerber oatmeal for breakfast, but she can chow down on just about anything that doesn't require an adult to think about Zantac.

 

Jackson

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Little man has sure progressed a long way since our last post. He is now reading, and not just consonant-vowel-consonant words like dog and cat. A few weeks ago Angel was getting some of her teaching supplies out of the attic (or more accurately I was getting), when she decided to show him a large colorfully ornamented "February" sign from her previous Kindergarten class at Pattison Elementary. "fuh".... "eh".... "buh"... ... FEBRUARY! It couldn't have taken the little genius more than 10 seconds to figure it out!


In addition to very concrete and measurable milestones, Jackson's understanding of the world around him has also progressed in amazing ways. He understands how to form sentences in multiple tenses, use proper pronouns, and has a great knack for connecting with people and sensing emotions in others. He has now tried sushi (thanks, Sushi Hana!), has an imaginary friend named Tiny, and is beginning to understand the days of the week and how to tell time.

 

Angel

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I can't miss this opportunity to congratulate my lovely wife Angel. She has recently taken her pricipal certifcation test after yet further surpassing me in graduate credentialship. She just interviewed with her school, Williams Elementary for a assitant principal position, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.


In addition to making professional strides, Angel has really done some amazing things at home in keeping the Bateman family on track. As mentioned earlier in this post, we have had some hurdles that have made life difficult in the past few months. I recently finished up an out-of-town project in Dallas that kept me away from home most of January. Angel held down the fort while she was juggling all of her own professional obligations. I still have no idea how she did it (I was only in Houston 5 days in January!), but I will always appreciate and be indebted to her for her ability to keep this family on track during what have been very, very, very difficult times.

 

Scott

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I recently grew a beard and my daughter still loved me. Eventually Angel and Jackson were OK with it, too :)


Click on the picture of Angel and I to get the skinny on our recent trip to Orlando:

Well, that is all for this post. I realize it is not enough to make-up for the past few months, especially since they included the holidays, however here are a few links to some pictures that may help to fill in some of the gaps:

Holidays 2006 SnapFish Album

Springtime 2007 SnapFish Album