our week and schools

So I really need to start taking notes on what I do in the beginning of the week because I cannot remember anything that happened on Monday. I just asked Brian and he cannot remember either. So I will start with Tuesday.

Caleb is really improving in his swim lessons! He will kick his legs, paddle his arms, splash, jump (well step) in the pool to me, go under water, and this week he attempted to blow bubbles. He opened his mouth and then spit out the water. It is amazing how he is progressing in just 2 months! He is also opening up more in lessons and actually has surpassed one of the kids in the class. I am a proud mommy!

On Wednesday we ran errands. We got Caleb's hair cut, which was shorter than I wanted, but the hairdresser was so nervous that I did not want to say anything. I could tell she did not really want to cut his hair, but we were already there and Caleb was being so good, so we went ahead with it.

Thursday we went to the library and then to the parks. In the library he kept saying carp, carp! I forget that other people can't understand him and had to explain that he was excited about going to the park. On an unrelated note, Caleb started saying "home" this week :) Although it comes out more like "ome"! I guess he thinks this is his home now.

Friday we went to the zoo. It was pretty crowded since schools are out on holiday - more on that later. But Caleb was so excited about running around, he did not seem to notice.

Yesterday we went to a new park. It was on a lake and had a train. One of the things we really love about Canberra is all the parks. We received a book on all the parks when we arrived and have just been going to a different one each week or so. It is so wonderful that we can get outside and Caleb can enjoy himself. Then we got Turkish for dinner. It is easily our favorite restaurant. Friday night we had really crappy chinese. It is frustrating that it is hard to find good food to get take away.

Today we went to church and then did some spring cleaning. This is a really exciting week. Wednesday Brian leaves for bangkok for a conference and Caleb and I are flying out to meet him on Friday. We are going to stay in Bangkok until the following Wednesday and then we are going to Phuket. I am really excited about seeing Thailand! I am nervous about flying with Caleb all day alone, We leave around 2pm and don't arrive in Bangkok until 11pm (3am Canberra time). The bangkok flight is 9 hours. Hopefully Caleb will sleep some!

Before I mentioned about how schools are on holiday now. I have learned a little about the schools here. They are year round. The school year starts in February. They have 4 semesters that are 10 weeks each and then have 2 weeks off in between each semester except for Christmas when they have 6 weeks off. They do not start preschool until 4 years old, where you can go 2 days from 9-3 or 4- 1/2 days. We would like Caleb to start at 3 years old like in the States, just 2 1/2 days a week, so hopefully we can find some places that do that. You can drop out of school at 16, which is pretty accepted here. You can also apply for welfare when you drop out of school at 16, which seems strange to me. But I think most people that drop out at 16 either go to a trade school or find a job. I like the year round school idea. Especially for Spanish teaching, it is always frustrating when I am teaching Spanish 1B or 2 and I have to spend almost the entire 1st quarter re-teaching what the kids have learned the year before. I think that if there was less time between semesters the kids would remember more. It is interesting learning about the school systems in other countries!

We hope you have a great week! We love and miss you all!