Updates about Andrew – Page 3 – Dotzour Family.com

May 21, 2011May 16, 2011

Kids, mud, and the Wisconsin River

While we were at Jack’s the kid’s favorite part was hanging out down by the banks of the Wisconsin River. The river is really high and in this segment has gone over its banks a bit, creating a nice shallow area. An area that the kids would come to find was a great swimming/mud hole.

Love these two little nature explorers!

Tiny spring leaves glowing in the light.

As they waded it, I warned them that they’d get their boots full of water if they went out too far. Moments later, their boots filled with water.

Looking across the river.

Andrew took about 50 pictures of Sylvie just standing there. I told him that he really didn’t have to keep pressing the shutter because she wasn’t really changing what she was doing. “I can’t help it!” he said. “She’s just SO CUTE!” I know the feeling, Buddy.

Sylv gets her hands muddy. I encourage her to wipe them off on the grass instead of on me.

The the kids pulled off their waterlogged boots, attempted to roll up their pants, and marched around in the mud.

Back at Jack’s they hosed down their feet in the sauna.

Later in the day, we headed back to the water. This time, Andrew and Sylvie didn’t mess around. They both stripped down and started splashing in the water. I love these three images:)

Running in the water!

Oh be still my heart. My two naked kiddos on the river.

Around this time, Andrew got cold. He rinsed off in the water and put his clothes back on. Sylvie, on the other hand, started going for the full-body mud experience.

This photo below is Terry’s favorite. The look she’s giving me amidst all the mud really is kinda spectacular.

Nothing like mud!

This is one happy, mud-covered girl.

While Sylvie indulged her muddiness, Andrew gathered flowers for me.

Thanks, my boy, for the Mother’s Day bouquet!

May 16, 2011May 11, 2011

Post-concert portraits

After Andrew’s music concert, I took some pictures of the kids in the soft evening light with my long lens. I’m filled with love when I look at these sweet faces!

Have I mentioned recently that I’d love to freeze both these little people right where they are?

Brother and sister – good friend!

She cracks me up.

Alivia was in the concert too (it was a first grade/kindergarten concert), so we all walked home together. The kids hid behind this tree. We were completely fooled as to their location.

Here’s a couple sweet images of Alivia. Can’t believe what a grown up girl she’s becoming!

Have fun!

~Althea

May 15, 2011May 11, 2011

Andrew’s first concert

On May 2, Andrew had his first school concert. He was really looking forward to it, and even told me he wanted to wear his “fancy” clothes. I took a video if anyone wants to watch. Just Sylvia and I attended this year, but afterwards I heard from several people that they would like to attend future concerts. Andrew should have an early May concert again next year – I think I’ll get the date at the beginning of the school year, and I’ll share it then.

Here he is up on stage while they are setting up. The girl to his left is his locker partner, and the boy in front of him in the top picture is his bestest buddy.

Here’s one of his two music teachers. They put together a great program, with a selection of music from all over the world. LOVE it!

Andrew’s school – Nuestro Mundo – is a K-5 charter school and is housed in the Frank Allis school building along with Frank Allis Elementary. The two schools share the “special” teachers – gym, art, library, computers, and music. This concert was a combination of the three Nuestro Mundo kindergarten classes and the Frank Allis kindergarten classes. Here’s the Frank Allis principle Julie Frentz introducing the kindergarten and first grader’s concert – Julie seems like a dynamic and kind person:)

Here’s all the adorable kindergarten kiddos.

Here’s Andrew’s teacher, Javier Bolivar, giving the introduction en Español.

Although we were sitting kinda far back, Andrew had a laser view of us and sang much of the concert right to me. So sweet!

Oh these kids! Too much:)

They sang several songs with sign language, and the first grade concert also incorporated a scarf dance and a traditional Afgan game into the concert. I love the diversity! So did Andrew.

Hard to believe that we’re in the age of performances. Andrew hasn’t taken part in sports teams or dance classes before, so this was the first time he’s performed for us. He was so happy with himself. Go Andrew!

May 13, 2011May 11, 2011

Carousel fun

It was a cold and windy day when we met up with Jessica, Celia, and Eli and Seth, Nida, and Nola to hang out at the zoo. Bryan had been planning to kayak that morning, but the white caps on the lake sent him back home, so he joined us too. We all got to see the baby lion cub – Leo Pold. So cute!

While we were riding the carousal, I had fun taking photos of the Klabough, Taapken, and Dotzour kids.

Here’s CC Jane, riding all by herself!

And there’s Jessica with her adorable niece, Nola.

Despite the appearance, Sylvia was actually having a good time.

Here’s Nola’s big sister, Nida. She’s such a sweetheart and will be in Sylvia’s preschool class this fall.

Darling Nida.

Eli John. I miss this kid! With the boys in full-day kindergarten, I don’t see E much. Hopefully that’ll change this summer!

Andrew riding a jaguar.

Here’s Seth (Jessica’s brother) taking pics of Nida.

Here’s me, riding a cassowary, taking a picture of myself (harder to time than one might think!).

There’s Jessica, Nola, and Celia.

Andrew’s looking less than totally enthused.

Buddies hug.

Cute Eli!

Thanks for a fun morning together, guys! Looking forward to seeing you together a lot more as the weather warms and school’s out!

May 11, 2011

Freeze powder

My mom used to say that the baby gift she most wanted to give to new parents is a little vial of “freeze powder.” So at those times when life is so sweet that it almost hurts, you can freeze the passing of time and just keep those little babies their current age for an indefinite period of time. I would have frozen my babes at around 7 or nine months. And I would most definitely freeze them right now.

Spring has finally finally come to Wisconsin. We went from weather in the 50s to weather in the high 80s. The grass is green. Our yard is a carpet of violets. The cherry and magnolia trees are a profusion of pink. The maple trees are transitioning from their sprigs of light green flowers to their tiny, bright green leaves. I pulled our hammock out of storage yesterday and curled up on it in the afternoon with a couple girls…reading stories and swaying in the soft breeze.

So I’d like to freeze May for at least a couple months. More than that, though, I’d like to freeze Andrew and Sylvia right here at 3 and 3/12 years old and at 5 and 10/12 years old. While we certainly have moments of angst, sadness, and hair-rending, in general, these two kids are sweet beyond belief. They’re playing together with energy and delight. I wake up to the sound of their collective giggling. I have to pull Andrew out of Sylvia’s room at night, because he snuck in “just to read her one last book.”

Andrew is so inquisitive and smart. It’s a true delight to explore the world with him. Sylvia is in an emotional place of increased stability and calm. She’s delightful and conversational. I love the way her limbs fold up on my lap. I love the way her breath smells and that when her tears fall think and hot down her cheeks, I can make things better. I love her sense of style, the way she spins and jumps and shrieks with mirth. From this vantage point, I feel grateful for the sometimes-trials of parenting as I feel an inner expansiveness borne through the combustion that can be children.

I’ve assembled a collection of some of my favorite images of the kids below. So many adorable moments in just the last few weeks.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons I like photography so much. Since freeze powder is in short supply, these images we take and share and hold are our best alternative.

Thanks to Jessica for taking these pics of me and Sylv.

I feel so lucky that I can be at home with the kids and spend many sweet hours in their company. Enjoy some little Dotzour silliness.

May 10, 2011May 4, 2011

The coming of spring – Easter hike

I’d only been on antibiotics for a day, but those magic pills made such a difference! While I still had some signs of strep – a very sore throat, but the dizzy, achy, sick feeling had pretty much gone away. I was happy and relieved to be able to join in the Easter Day activities:)

After we got home from Terry’s we played outside for a while. Sylvie’s loving her trike.

Spooky and Bowser are enjoying a breath of fresh air. Bowser’s weight is up to 9.5 lbs, so he’s no longer emaciated and dropping. They still are eating some very expensive hypoallergenic food (rabbit), but other than that, he’s also off his extensive meds. Hope he’s better…whatever it was that was causing the problem!

Sylvie brought some of the eggs outside and was having fun re-hiding them.

Cute girl!

In the afternoon, we headed out to Cherokee Marsh. We decided to see if we could find any dragons. Little, friendly dragons, not much bigger than a bird. Andrew brought along his bug catcher net for dragon catching.

Activity 1: jumping off a stump.

Big ‘ole Andrew strong and brave.

Kids skipping toward the water, hoping perhaps to find a water dragon. Would they be blue? Better look hard, they’ll flash by before you can see!

Hmm, what do you think scratched away at this tree trunk? A deer? A beaver? A dragon?

I love this picture! Two kids, exploring the world.

Cherokee Marsh in April. Bryan has been kayaking around here and really enjoys it.

Kids running down a forest path in the spring.

Some spring ephemerals are blooming. Anyone know what this one is? Anne?

Moss and fresh leaves. Sylvie stopped in her tracks when she saw this bright patch of beautiful moss.

Girl in the woods.

Heading down the hill. I was happy we didn’t run into any ticks on this outing. Or maybe Bryan did find one. But no ticks that dug in…

The spring peepers (teeny tiny frogs…see a photo and hear their song here) were peeping their hearts out in a pond. The noise was like a roar. We sat for a long time on the board walk, listening for the peepers and looking for a glimpse of one.

Sylvie was quite amused by using sticks to dig around in the water for dead vegetation.

Andrew, meanwhile, used his bug/dragon catching net as a pond scum catcher.

A Canada Goose was nesting nearby. Bryan’s pointing it out to Sylvie.

Not much better than spending time outdoors together as a family.

No dragons were found on this trip (although Andrew thought he saw a flash of shimmering gold). We’ll try again soon…

Before getting back into the cars, we did the obligatory playtime on the big rocks by the parking lot.

Brown-eyed Andrew

I was admiring Andrew’s beautiful baby teeth (I don’t tell him they are baby teeth, or he would probably not be too pleased). Not too long, and he’ll have one, two, four, eight big teeth filling that little mouth. I treasure his sweet five-year-old smile.

He thought he could stop me from tickling and photographing him. Nope!

So glad I have these images of my little boy filled with mirth!

April 13, 2011April 10, 2011

Young at Art

Andrew has a piece of his art hanging in Madison’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. We got a notice about that in the mail, and I sort of assumed that he had contributed to a mural or some collaborative piece of art. So it was surprising and exciting to visit the museum a week ago and see instead one of his pieces framed and hanging on the wall.

The Young at Art exhibit runs at MMoCA through May 15th. Here’s an article from the Badger Herald. What a cool project and a great way to promote and celebrate creativity!

According to MMoCA’s website, “In preparing for the exhibition, each of Madison’s public school art teachers is invited to submit up to three works created by his or her students.” It’s really cool that Andrew’s work was chosen! Stop by to see the free exhibit if you’re in Madison this next month. There’s some pretty amazing pieces on display.

April 9, 2011April 3, 2011

Spring mud cake

The weather is finally warming up! All it took was getting up to above 40 (I think it was 46 degrees), and my kids were barefoot and then shirtless. It is so nice to be playing outdoors again!!

After school, Alivia and Rayna came over to play. The four kids were busily running around the yard, riding bikes in the driveway, and then they disappeared to the backyard where they were all hard at work on a major project. I went to investigate with my camera in hand.

Here’s the two big kids. They are just so cute together!

They were making a cake out of mud and mulch and grass and some pieces of blue construction paper and a sprinkle of sugar from the kitchen.

Adding some grassy touches…

A final stir –

And voilá! The first mud cake of the season.

I look forward to many more!

April 5, 2011April 3, 2011

Visit to St. Paul & Kyle’s project

The weekend of March 25, we drove up to St. Paul. My childhood friend, Katie, was getting married, and as a big bonus, we also got to spend the weekend with Maretta and Kyle. Here we are in their home.

And here’s the happy couple:)

Kyle is a PhD student in astrophysics at the University of Minnesota. He’s been working on an experiment since he was an undergrad, and it sounds like it’s making strides toward the finish line. EBEX (see Wikkepedia article here or one with pictures here) is a super-special telescope that Kyle’s team has been engineering. Their plan is to attach the telescope to a stratospheric balloon and launch it in Antarctica. The data it gathers should give the scientists information about background microwave radiation that may help them determine how fast the universe is expanding and what the universe might have looked at soon after the Big Bang. At least, that’s my take on it. Kyle, feel free to correct me!

On Tuesday last week, Kyle and his team took off for Palestine, Texas, where they are working at NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility where they will be integrating their equipment with the balloon in preparation for the big flight from Antarctica. One of Kyle’s teammates is writing a blog about their work he’s also posting pictures here. The duration of this phase of the project is unknown. It could be months. So my sister’s a little sad this week with her hubby gone, perhaps for months. Hopefully evening Google chats and spinning will sustain her:) Good luck on this amazing project, Kyle!

While we were visiting Maretta and Kyle last weekend, I loved watching Maretta and Andrew snuggle and play. I’ll leave you with a few cute pictures to bring a smile.

April 2, 2011March 25, 2011

Yahtzee Dotzour

My dear son Andrew is rather obsessed with the game Yahtzee. Early in the morning or late at night, I hear the roll of the dice as he flies through his games. Bryan recently gathered up all his score cards and counted them, and he’s played over 200 games in the last months.

As far as a game obsession, Yahtzee is great. He’s getting so fast at adding up the dice…I’ll admit it…he’s faster than me:)

Yesterday for the first time, he totaled up the columns of numbers in his head (61 on the top, so no bonus). Up until now, he’s relied on an adult or his cash register calculator to find his totals. I think it’s safe to say that this boy has Bryan/LuAnn’s mind for numbers:)

Good thing this game can be played solitaire!

I have an ongoing urge to enter all his scores into Excel so I can graph his results. Curious what kind of curve we’d see. However, the urge to do this is countered by my urge to do things that are useful/beautiful/productive. If anyone wants to do some data entry, I’ve got the sheets!

And feel free to offer to play a game with Andrew Yahtzee Dotzour.