The tree is now in its third year. The tradition is to be seven years, if we can keep its pieces for that long. Marcela works away at an old lithograph or cuts the new holiday cards we have just finished. The weeks in which we hoped to slow down have continued to present us with more to do. Is it a busier life here in Florida? It is too early to tell. This week Noah's pre-school class put on a Christmas pageant. Ms. Daughtry, Noah's teacher pictured here, announced that this was the end of her 38th year as a pre-school teacher in this school. That makes her first graduating class two years older than I am.
Noah is in the center of the photograph, a little-dour faced in his reindeer antlers. He decided he did not want to be only friends with Elizabeth that morning. This had led to some bad feelings. That's Elizabeth to his right, who got her way, mostly. Noah is still full of interesting questions. This morning after he and Maxim had sung Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a couple of times, he asked me, "Daddy, how did they do that song?" "How did they what?" "How did the people make it?" He wanted to know how the song was written. "They made it up, like we sometimes make up songs." "Oh."
Yesterday I had to do some work on campus and they joined me so Marcela could have some time to do her own work. At first they did not wander very far, playing in their tent and wandering to the edge of a nearby pond. After a while I looked around and realized they were nowhere to be seen. I walked over to the pond, no sign of them. My heart sank as that instinctive parental panic sets in, I scanned the horizon. There they were. They had decided to climb
Mount Eckerd, a 40 foot pile of dredge material covered now in three years of successional growth. Later they disappeared into the Palm Hammock, a five acre successional hardwood forest on the west side of campus. Same situation, I worried and went after them. They were on the far side, following a transect ("We were following the pink flags, Daddy," Maxim told me matter-of-factly"). They came home exhausted and we had a barbeque with some of our new friends.
Maxim's school also had a holiday pageant. Maxim was the first candle of Hannukah. The kids sang almost a dozen songs and then all the kids and parents ate cake together. It is quite a crowd of five year olds. Maxim has many friends, but the kids are also still at an age where they bounce around and sort of recognize each other. Three girls sat together like friends for a few minutes when we started eating the brownies. After a few minutes one of them said, "What's your name?" "Dominique. What's your name?" "Amanda." "Hi." "Hi."
"What's your name?" "Maxim." "Hi, Maxim." "Hi." Later the three posed with Ms. Wester, Maxim's teacher. We watched video of the kids when they were younger. The are fascinated, we are amazed at the rapidity of their growth. Just yesterday, It seems, they were helpless babies. Now they wander fearlessly around the wilds of Eckerd College campus. How quickly they grow.
The tree is now in its third year. The tradition is to be seven years, if we can keep its pieces for that long. Marcela works away at an old lithograph or cuts the new holiday cards we have just finished. The weeks in which we hoped to slow down have continued to present us with more to do. Is it a busier life here in Florida? It is too early to tell. This week Noah's pre-school class put on a Christmas pageant. Ms. Daughtry, Noah's teacher pictured here, announced that this was the end of her 38th year as a pre-school teacher in this school. That makes her first graduating class two years older than I am.
Noah is in the center of the photograph, a little-dour faced in his reindeer antlers. He decided he did not want to be only friends with Elizabeth that morning. This had led to some bad feelings. That's Elizabeth to his right, who got her way, mostly. Noah is still full of interesting questions. This morning after he and Maxim had sung Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a couple of times, he asked me, "Daddy, how did they do that song?" "How did they what?" "How did the people make it?" He wanted to know how the song was written. "They made it up, like we sometimes make up songs." "Oh."
Yesterday I had to do some work on campus and they joined me so Marcela could have some time to do her own work. At first they did not wander very far, playing in their tent and wandering to the edge of a nearby pond. After a while I looked around and realized they were nowhere to be seen. I walked over to the pond, no sign of them. My heart sank as that instinctive parental panic sets in, I scanned the horizon. There they were. They had decided to climb
Mount Eckerd, a 40 foot pile of dredge material covered now in three years of successional growth. Later they disappeared into the Palm Hammock, a five acre successional hardwood forest on the west side of campus. Same situation, I worried and went after them. They were on the far side, following a transect ("We were following the pink flags, Daddy," Maxim told me matter-of-factly"). They came home exhausted and we had a barbeque with some of our new friends. 
Maxim's school also had a holiday pageant. Maxim was the first candle of Hannukah. The kids sang almost a dozen songs and then all the kids and parents ate cake together. It is quite a crowd of five year olds. Maxim has many friends, but the kids are also still at an age where they bounce around and sort of recognize each other. Three girls sat together like friends for a few minutes when we started eating the brownies. After a few minutes one of them said, "What's your name?" "Dominique. What's your name?" "Amanda." "Hi." "Hi." 
"What's your name?" "Maxim." "Hi, Maxim." "Hi." Later the three posed with Ms. Wester, Maxim's teacher. We watched video of the kids when they were younger. The are fascinated, we are amazed at the rapidity of their growth. Just yesterday, It seems, they were helpless babies. Now they wander fearlessly around the wilds of Eckerd College campus. How quickly they grow.
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