Ma boite a dinner

Charlie's favorite passtime these days is cutting out toys from catalogs and gluing them onto paper as a list for Santa Clause.

This morning he came running over with a lunch box with the a star wars ship on it. He was very appologetic, saying that he was sorry but with this lunch box he was going to stay at school all day since he was going to have lunch with him.

He said Owen stays all day at school as well and that he'd be real sad because he would miss me a lot but in the end he was determined it was school all day for him.

I did explain that I was at the "bureau" anyways during the day but I'm sure Mom would miss him.

Now, back to playing...Hullabalo

Bumped into this bit of info today

I was looking up a domain I registered. Look at the dates and you'll see Charlie could have been an Ann ;-)


Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ANNBOYLE.COM
Created on: 16-Dec-04
Expires on: 16-Dec-08
Last Updated on: 14-Dec-07

Visite avec Mémère en Floride

Wow, it was the first time on a flight where we felt we didn't need to entertain Charlie the whole route. He's matured to the point where he looks after himself for the most part and watches movies and plays card games but really a totally new way of travelling now. He's really changed.

What keeps him busy for a surprising amount of time is the airplane emergency exit instructions. He studies it very carefully.

We no longer bring the car seat on now as well and either check it in at the luggage or on the way home we did it at the gate check since he was asleep in it and we didn't need to get him out until the final security check.

Even though the aircraft was full to capacity it still didn't feel too busy and there was no traffic to the aiport in Tampa nor at the Chicago end. Strange, but welcomed.

We had a great time at Busch gardens but I'd say Charlie and the pool is the highlight. He just couldn't get enough of it.

Of course, he was sad leaving Pitou and after this visit it sure is reinforcing the fact that we need a dog. He things they are "très mignon".

He had a blast and will need a day to recouperate for sure, as we all will!

Happy Birthday Eileen!

Parent Teacher Interview

On as rencontré Sarah et Béatrice aujourdui pour quinze minutes. C'était vite mais elles ont dis que Charles est académique et très structurer et discipliner.

Clothes

I know where he got these habbits from but man oh man, he is one stubborn irishman (frenchman?). In the morning he must choose his own clothes. And of course he usually changes at least 3 times before the time he's off to school. Sometimes other pijamas, or another set of shorts and shirts and usually tries to match any color t-shirt I have on. Eventually he does get something closer to his school uniform colors....yup the french flag colors (or is it the us flag colors?)

Anyways, any morning where you're wondering where Charlie is is typically because he's in his closet drawers and going through choices of what he would like to put on. But beware do not tell him what to wear!

Charlie's first Warren Miller movie

This years' Warren Miller movie was appropriately named "Children of Winter". We got 2 tickets for the 6PM show at Park West. With Charlie in toe we thought we could get him excited about skiing since we are planning a ski trip in the new year and let him see some of the great scenes that only Warren's team can capture.

Well it turns out that the movie is just a bit too loud for Charlie. The music is great but too loud and even though the scenes are generally very cool to watch he just couldn't take it for long.

Eileen took him out to the front for a while as there was a foozball table out there. Now that he loved!

We left early from the movie which was a bit of a bummer but, again, with this high definition movies now they look totally amazing. Some great filming these guys do and they have the right type of MTV and discussion mix that make the movie unique and fun.

Well its the start of what we hope will be a long tradition for Charlie and maybe next year we'll stay for longer.

On a side note: it look like a skier died during the filming of this movie. I thought it was more of a recurring thing but it turns out this is the first one for a Warren Miller movie. I guess many of the movies I'd seen over the years the movies did tribute deaths of well known skiiers but none were deaths during the film of the movie like this guy Billy Poole.

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Cottonwood Canyon was near were I used to live while I lived in Utah.

Week off school

Charlie has this week off school. Not sure why but its a good break.

We were up at Whitewater for the weekend with Tante TT. The weather was cold and very windy so ended up sitting in the hot tub pretty much the whole time we were there.

Yesterday, he skated backwards for the first time on his own and was quite proud of that. I didn't see it but he's getting better all the time. He even practices some of his moves at home of crossing over his feet moving sideways one over the other.

It's halloween on Friday and his buzz lightyear costume so far has been great. He wore it last Wednesday for the 1/2 day of school and had a blast. His friend Owen was superman and Soloman was spiderman. A good time for sure.

Pumpkins and School Pictures

Sunday we went to the apple orchard in Hobart Indiana with the Wilsons, Sienna, Noah and Hal and Josée. Weather was great and of course the GPS is still wrong like last year.

Anyways, we ate so many apples that i was almost sick of them. Delicious though. They are getting ready to do some major renovations there as well as they are building out a welcome center. The currrent one is way too busy and small.

We all managed to get bitten by mosquitoes. there were no shortages of them in the orchards.
Charlie even got one dead smack on his forehead. The funniest part of that is that he had school pictures on Monday. That along with a stye in his eye he was a sight for sore eyes ;-) pun intended.

Anyways, that made for some interesting pictures and a nervous Eileen the next day.

Today, Eileen joined 6 other Moms and the 2 teachers to visit a pumpkin farm with the class. Charlie's buddy, owen, were the 2 Eileen was responsible for and sounded like a lot of fun. They even fell asleep on each other on the bus on the way home.

Sounds like they had a good time.

Today Charlie was too tired to go to skating lessons though. Bummer.

Swimming Skating and School

School is getting easier especially since the weather is so great in the morning. This means we get quality play time outside playing soccer, football, hockey , baseball and basketball. As soon as we can we jump outside and play which makes getting dressed easy and after a while of playing much easier to take a break and jump into the van to get off to school. With drink in hand he has no complaints.

Also, I think he's having a good time at school as well and has a few pals. Although, he really refuses to talk about school, you can ask him as many times as you want and he usually ignores the question or just doesn't even look at you, as if you weren't even talking.

Rarely does he say anything about school at all. We do know what he is doing at school since the schedule is online and the teachers keep us informed with a few emails a day these days about everything that is going on.

We even got a seperate email from the teacher describing how Charlie is doing and behaving. Things are great. We think his favorite class is gym since he does talk about the trampolines occasionally. And if you hint about classes he had during the day, say music, the most he'll do is just nod his head that he had that class.

Eileen and Charlie are off around 8:15 a.m. every day and he's there for until 11:45a.m. After that Eileen has his afternoons busy with activities. This week they met friends at a park, he started swimming classes and skating on Tuesdays.

He's getting real good at skating and since its just down the block from my work, I hop over there and watch him. He doesn't want to skate in reverse yet but forward he's doing really well. He's one of the smallest of his group, which is the medium group. There's a beginners and a more advanced group on the rink at the same time and he's in the middle.

He likes it alot and we typically go across the street to the diner for dinner afterwards.

His favorite part is of course the fact that they hand out suckers at the end and the young ones all like up for that.

Swimming today he did really well. The class is only 2 other kids and is done through the park district so its heavily subsidized. I think it was only $50 for 8 weeks.

The part he doesn't like is dunking his head. He made it known that he really didn't want to do it but I think through peer pressure it happened anyways. When I got home though he was excited to tell me how much fun he had.

We don't get much time at night anymore since he isn't napping during the day which means by 7 he's in bed and most often alseep. He typically gets a good 12 hours as well with a pee break in the middle of the night (depending on how much liquid intake before bed, of course).

Le Weekend...

Ah yes, Charlie is starting to learn that Saturdays are a good thing. He didn't have to get up and ready right away and he could lounge around in his pyjamas and take it easy.

It was a rainy day and we took it easy in the morning and putzed around the house. We went out to sportsmart and got his first golf set, left handed one at that. Turns out that even though he's right handed he shoots hockey and golf like a lefty.

Sportsmart had a left handed set from Jack Nicholson on clearance, complete with 9 irons, hat and covers for the clubs. The back had shoulder straps and he put that on and bumped into everything at the store. He's ready to go out to the driving range with Dad now!

We found the driving range just a few miles up north along the lake and for a large bucket of 100 balls its $13 and enough activity for him to wear him out. He loves it, but heck, who wouldn't when you don't have to pick the balls up ;-)

P.S. No idea why the French call it Le Weekend...we know it as La fin de semaine...weird.

Charlie's 4th day of School

Charlie started lycée francais last Thursday. So far so good. Today he was warming up to the other kids in the class and explained how he talked to another boy in the class but the girl he was with after class, holding her hand coming down the stairs to meet Mommy spoke english.

Mornings are still a bit of a battle to get him going and dressed but I think after a few weeks the new routine will kick in.

Of course, that is supposed to get easier.

In the afternoon he was off to skating lessons. He did well and he's now in the intermediate group and learning a lot. Eileen got some videos so I'll have to post them.

Hockey finished

Charlie went to 5 classes and 2 Saturday's of skating.

Today was his last class and he was completely good on his feet. He was super proud when he realized he could actually turn around on his skates. He showed me a few times. Good stuff.

His slap shots still are half and half with him ending up on the ice but really he has good control skating now.

He actually got into a real hockey game and he loved it. He did really well and managed to chase around the puck like everyone else. Of course, if it got busy around him he was off his feet but overall he held his own really well.

The distraction of the hockey puck makes him a better skater for sure. He can also glide on his skates too. Big progress for sure.

When he was tired he just headed for the boards and wanted to go home. We then moved over to the other side of the rink where we just skated around and played with the pucks in a more relaxed environment. He had a blast and was sweating up a storm.

After the session Eileen, Charlie and I went to potbelly's before heading home to play a little more in the back with the other kids.

Notre Père

Notre Père

Notre Père qui es aux cieux,
que ton Nom soit sanctifié,
que ton règne vienne,
que ta volonté soit faite sur la terre comme au ciel.
Donne-nous aujourd'hui notre pain de ce jour.
Pardonne-nous nos offenses,
comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés.
Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,
mais délivre nous du mal.

Amen
________________________________________

Je vous salue Marie

Je vous salue, Marie pleine de grâces;
le Seigneur est avec vous.
Vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes et Jésus,
le fruit de vos entrailles, est béni.
Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu,
priez pour nous pauvres pécheurs,
maintenant et à l'heure de notre mort.

Amen.

Saturday morning skate

Charlie and I went alone Saturday morning for the 10:30 a.m. public skate. We got there a bit early which meant we had the ice pretty much to ourselves for the first 20 minutes or so.

Charlie adapted well without Mom holding his other hand. He was able skate alone from red line to redline with falling only once at the half way marker, which I think when he made it that far figured he'd better just fall.

He's skating much faster this time but rely's on my hand to keep him up but he's quite able to do it on his own at this point, he just doensn't realize it yet.

He wasn't too disappointed that they wouldn't let him bring his hockey stick on and had fun just skating around and watching everyone else just wizz by him.

One little girl was always trying to encourage him but he was pretty shy.

By the time we left the rink was very busy. Coach Charlie was there and so was Coach Katty. We missed last wednesday's class since Charlie had caught my cold. He's better now but I still have a bit of it left over.

Skating Take 4

Charlie loves his hockey stick so much that he no longer even wants to consider the red skating helper bar. This is the second time without Eileen there and for me second time I get to play around on the ice with him.

Charlie loves to watch the other boys and girls. They were going from one end of the ice to the other with 3 or 4 still on bars. Charlie was too slow to keep up so we just did our own thing to the side.

He could do from red line to red line with about 3 falls. He was very excited when he was gliding on the ice and would make sure that I was looking when he got a bit of speed. He could feel it and liked it. Of course, too fast means he'd fall unless he was distracted. He loved it with pucks around and usually with a slapshot he'd hit the ice as well.

He left the boards alone though and kept both hands on his hockey stick. Also, at this point he could get up off the ice in seconds really and it was pretty easy.

Before I jumped on the ice one of the other coaches was working with Charlie and when I was on the side putting on my skates I saw him come off the ice and was wondering what he was doing. Turns out that Charlie got off the ice at a door on the other end of the rink and walked over to me to see when I was coming on the ice to be with him. Funny.

This was the first time they grouped the two classes into one. Coach Katie, one of the 2 coaches wasn't here this week. For some unknown reason though putting the 2 seperate classes together they had 3 coaches working the crowds. There is all various levels of skating going on and typically they have the two seperate classes to keep the super beginners together with coach katie and coach charlie and the other two coaches (don't know their names) with the kids that could do skating exercies.

Charlie really is doing well and the milestone now is that he's quite able to stand on his own and "walk" skate around without falling at all. When he starts to "glide" skate is when his feet seperate or he falls to slow down. All in all though I'd say a few more hours of work and he'll be whipping around with the rest of the older kids.

This class is technically for 4 years and older but when we registered they said 3 was fine so in actual fact he's almost the smallest kid there (3 girls are smaller).

There's one teanager as well whose following along the class and he's a beginner as well and seems to follow with the kids but of course tripple their size. Strange he's there but he must be a coaches friend. He loves to hit the puck around mainly when not doing the exercises to the side of the rest of the kids.

Wednesdays between 5:45pm to 6:45pm is a bit late for Charlie but its not too bad. We are also now in the habit to go to Potbelly's afterwards for a sandwich and salad and milkshake.

Of course, on his salad he always asks to remove the artichokes (don't think he knows what they are but he's repeated Eileen) and today was was first time he had strawberry shake (he's a vanilla guy at heart).

Charlie's first dentist appointment

- 9 a.m. with teeth full of pancake.
- dr. grace
- charlie did well.
- funniest statement was charlie telling us to tell the doctor that we won't be needing tools.
- everything not warm because covered in plastic.
- charlie wore sun glasses at one point
- little boy before charlie had problems
- lots of paperwork for nothing
- charlie has white spots that were start of cavities
- needs to rince with mouthwash

3rd Time on Skates

Yesterday was Charlie's 3rd hockey class. Don't think it should be called a class since its really just ice time. There's no drills or anthing just about 6 kids (1 girl in the bunch too) that are trying to stand on skates and move around.

Today Charlie stepped onto the ice for the first time with his hockey stick. This stick must be magic since he didn't ask for nor even want the skating bar. Once on the ice he just wanted to hit the pucks.

To me this was amazing (Eileen didn't come this time). He was able to pull himself up off the ice immediately as well. He'd only used the bar in the past and now, we had practiced how to get up at home, and he was able to put the motion together to get up on his own. The first 3 or 4 times he did it I was excited be on all. But of course he'd done it a good 20 or 30 times thoughout the hour so he was just plain good at it by the end.

He did manage to walk a little on the ice but he's better at short steps so you have to make sure the puck is close to him.

Coach Charlie did pass the puck with him and he did really really well. He didn't fall with slapshots and he was extremely stable on his feet. Coach Charlie asked if he was 4 1/2 years old and said, nope, he was 3. Turns out that Coach Charlie started skating at 4 and 1/2 so that's why he thought he was around that age.

Coach Charlie is a young man, and after asking if I was speaking polish to Charlie then commented how Charlie was a natural at this stuff. They passed the puck back and forth and charlie was able to reach out and was surpisingly good as long as he was focused on the puck not thinking of himself.

Trying to skate across the rink was more fun. First the motivation is typically to get to the penalty box. He loves that thing (is this a foreshadowing?).

But getting a bit of speed is scaring him so he tends to fall 10 feet after take-off. Still he's a pro at getting up so really he's able to do it. He's very comfortible for having only spent 3 hours on the ice so far.

It's kinda late in the day at 5:45 to 6:45 pm and he gets darn hungry at the end but he does love talking to the other boys and the coach as much as he can while he's out there.

I brought my skates and I did get out onto the rink as well. That made it more fun for me as well so I didn't have to just watch from the sidelines but rather I could skate around him. I never helped him up since that would be cheating and I can see that letting him do the whole thing on his own makes him much more independant faster.

Hockey night in Chicago

His first hockey class was fun. He started off without being able to even walk in his skates off the bench when we first put them on. He was some excited though.

The skates were from the neighbours and fit just fine. Their son, Nicolas had outgrown them.

Once he got on the ice he was holding on to those metal bars that he really leaned on. The coach, coach Charlie believe it or not, was encouraging Charlie to look up and pitter patter his feet.

I think what was funnier was us on the sidelines. Eileen and I were way more excited than Charlie himself. When he fell onto the ice I saw Eileen wanting to lurch onto the ice to help him. He even looked over at us but as we encouraged him on to get up he simply swam over to his glove that fell off then back to the bar and pulled himself up. That was the single most important step of the day, except for getting on the ice which absolutely was not a problem at all since Charlie just about lurched on immediately since putting on the skates.

Knowing that he could get himself back up with a big deal for him and from then on whenever he fell he really never looked back at us again.

He did great.

Eventually we moved to the other side of the rink and opened the door and had him go back and forth to each side of the rink. This got him propelling forward a bit, still a struggle but really at this point the basics where in place to just keep doing it over and over until he gets the feel of it.

Yes, he was exhausted as it was very late in the day and he was hungry too. But he plugged away and asked the coach where the nets were and if he could have hockey stick. Of course, he couldn't even stand up properly but the hockey stick in his mind was key to being able to score goals.

After about 45 minutes he was tired and ready to go so we had him say thanks to the two coaches then walked off the ice. The funny part was that he actually walked out on his own in the skates. He had developed enough independance that he no longer needed us to hold him and he realized he could walk in those skates easily on his own.

That was a moment.

He did great and best of all Mom did great. To me that was the best entertainment was watching Eileen.

Next, golf.

The next morning after the hockey charlie did complain about soareness in his back. Clearly from how he worked his different muscles during the practice.

Jeux Francais

Canne a Peche

http://www.poissonrouge.com/abcfrancais/index.html

http://www.alapetiteecole.com/jeux_en_ligne/le_poulet

http://pbskids.org/caillou_french/games/dresscaillou

Choupi

TeleQuebec

TOUPTY

Jeux Pour Enfant

D'autre

http://pbskids.org/

www.nickjr.com

http://www.thomasandfriends.com/usa/games_strength.asp

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Sa fet longtemps que je voulait ecrire que Charles maintenant c'est prononcier sait R. J'avais peur qu'il ne le fera jamais. Sa pris du temps, mes finalement, je dirait environ 3 mois maintenant qui'll peu le dire. Se mois dernier je dirait qu'il est tres bon as sa maintenant.

Shadow of vacation

Sitting at the dinner table Charlie had a cup of water by his side. For no reason, he dipped his fingers in the water and did a sign of the cross with it. Now that was funny.

Penalty Box

Not sure at what point Charlie noticed but whenever he's tired and needs a break, he grabs his hockey stick points it upwards and places it inbetween his legs. He then tells everyone that he's in the penalty box...we'll at least until he catches his breath.

Oh Come Eileen Dougherty

Christmas may well be past but whenever we decide to sing Charlie inevitably steers us to his favorite song these days..one he calls "oh come eileen dougherty".

Turns out you have to listen carefully but it's really "O Com All ye Faithful" but his favorite part is O come, let us adore him which done slowly can end up with Dougherty...well...at least he thinks so!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eLDvM7eSq0


O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

O Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing all that hear in heaven God's holy word.
Give to our Father glory in the Highest;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Skating in Chicago

Pretty much 10 years I've been in Chicago and it was the first time we've been skating here. Actually, it was the first time for all 3 of us!

We went to Millenium park and strutted our stuff. It was the first time Eileen's been on her skates (yes, they're old and don't actually fit anymore) for many many years. Charlie loved it and after 30 minutes or so we all got called off the ice so the zamboni could clean the ice. Now thats as exciting as skating in itself.

We had front row seats to the zamboni and Charlie loved watching every minute of it. The folks around us where entertained by his strap on double skates but everyone was excited to get back on the ice.

After the zamboni was amazing, no snow and very slippery ice, go figure. We bummed around on the ice for a while then went to the closest pizza place for dinner. It was a great time out and he slept like a log that night!

B O Y L E

Out of the clear blue the other day Charlie starting spelling his last name in French. It caught us a bit off guard since it was completely unexpected but he just started repeating it. Funny but more so to Eileen since I've been saying it while juggling in the bath so I'm not surprised he knew it just surprised he said it.

It's funny since I don't think he gets that its his name but it just shows you how much of a sponge he is.

Matt found a link for us to watch some French hockey with Charlie (http://www.rds.ca/video/) . The first time we sat down and listed to it tonight together he looked at me and said, Papa, c'est en Francais!

Funny, since he's still very interested in hockey, but it might have something to do with owning 1/2 dozen hockey sticks scattered around the house.

He Shoots He Scores

OK. Since the trip to Canada he's been unrelentless with Hockey. Even despite the fact that we went to the doctor yesterday and found out he had a double ear infection its still Hockey time all the time.

The net is either in the Kitchen or in the hall way upstairs. But there's always plenty of balls and hockey sticks around to have him keep asking to play.

When he's in net he literally sits in the net and simply deflects the ball and he always reaches out to tap the ball even if it takes a full sprawl onto the floor ahead of him.

He has a funny move he always uses and its exactly like Derek's fall down to the ground as he reaches for the ball or dives in for the save. It's the exact same style and you could tell he was playing very close attention to the boys when he was playing in Mona's basement.

The two important words we are learning right now end up being translation words which isn't good in my mind (since now he's translating rather than thinking it) but they are Pieuvre for the Octopos - because I kept forgetting I just teach him and he never forgets; and rondelle de hockey which is of course the Puck. We found that one while watching the start of Toy Story where there's a puck in it that Mr. Potato addresses at the start of the movie.

The only thing we stop for is when it's time to play swords (I use the hockey stick and he uses the real pirate sword from one of his Christmas toys). That one is probably only entertaining because I use the hockey stick as my sword!

Charlie catches the Allan flu

The hockey flue that is!!!

Wow, all Charlie wants to do is play hockey! He learnt all the slick moves from Derek and he tries them out all the time.

First thing in the morning he wants to wear his hockey shirt (although, I'm sure the Allan's wouldn't like the fact that its a Toronto Maple Leafs shirt!).

He just loves setting up the goals with anything anywhere and goes for it. He has a little puck handling trick and a lot of the time he dives into the puck, which looks a lot like the fancy moves Derek would pull on us when we played in his basement.

It's especially funny since he is loaded with new toys from Christmas and whenever we go anywhere he carries his hockey stick.

A few times now he comes running up to us with part of his new train track set in his hand. It's the curved section so looks a bit like a hockey stick. Of course, that's what he's doing, shooting and "SCORING" with his train track and a ball. Pretty funny.

Going to bed he wants to play hockey and first thing in the morning he brings the sticks to Daddy to play. Now that's the Allan flu!!!