earthsedge

This has been an eventful week for us. Chris finished his communications course and Aidan turned 18 months old. As a part of graduation for Chris’ school, we went with his classmates and staff to Lausanne by boat. Aidan loved eating in the nice dinning compartment and watching the water from the bow of the boat. It was also a special time for Chris and his classmates, as they thanked their staff and spent a little time together before everyone goes their separate ways.

We now have next week off, to relax a little and for Chris to get ready for the next course: a three month science and humanities school. After that, Chris just has to write a thesis and he’s finished with his degree. We’ll be writing more about what’s next sometime soon.

I am doing well. Last week was pretty busy for me. I helped to edit 9 research papers for the students in Chris’ class. It was a lot of late nights but so worth it to see people able to turn in high quality papers. It was also a good experience for me. I wouldn’t consider myself as a grammar guru, but after coaching the ESL students in that area, I have at least improved in my ability to spot grammar mistakes and help others write more polished papers.

And finally, it’s time for a little Aidan update! We are constantly amazed at how much he is changing and growing. Many of our co-workers have commented on how he’s changed, becoming more expressive and more talkative with the people here. And, of course, everyone knows how much he loves tractors; they are always willing to start up a conversation with him about his “great love”!

In addition to loving motorized vehicles of any size, Aidan is turning into a little fish. We have a real difficult time keeping him away from water. He loves splashing in pools or fountains but he’s even content to play with the sink faucet. On hot days, he can spend hours playing with buckets of water, splashing, spilling, drinking (nasty!), and wading in the water.

Aidan is also doing incredibly well with speaking. Many children his age have a vocabulary of 20 words or so; we’ve lost count, but it’s at least over a hundred. A few weeks ago, he began putting short sentences together. Some of the sentences that you might hear if you hang around him are:“Want a more, Maaa!” (“Ma” is his way of saying please); “I want cheese;” “Where’s Daddy?”; “Where’s tractor?”; and, “Go car!” (translation, “I want to go somewhere in a car.”). He’s still working on his pronunciation though. Instead of “boat” he says, “butt”; he prefers, “cracky” to “cracker” and sometimes likes to call his Daddy, “Da-dees.”

And finally, it should be said that Aidan got to ride on a tractor yesterday! He’s waited his whole life for this special event. He was very serious about it, sitting very carefully on Chris’ lap, but he did loosen up enough to play with the steering wheel and honk the horn. Here’s a few pictures from the last month.

The big moment:

Playing on the slide in Lausanne. Aidan loves to climb up and down.

On the boat, wearing his new John Deere vest from grandma:

Swinging:

Aidan’s routine is to wake up and lie on his back saying, “tractor” over and over again.

Eating cherries:

Lining up his tractors. Not quite as orderly as Edith and Emma!

Little hiker: