December

December naturally revolved around the winter and the holiday season. We started the month off with writing a letter to Santa (just to see...). The letter reads, "Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like a nin tendo DS a ninja sword and a scooter. I hav bn a good boy this year. Juma Beckham 2008"




The note was successful: not only did Juma get all three things he asked for (though two of them from grandparents, not Santa), but he also got a note back in the mail from the North Pole (via the USPS), signed Santa.


On Winter Solstice, we lit a fire to mark the shortest day/longest night of the year, and made goals for the new year. And roast some marshmallows. 'Cause who can resist?




Our Christmas tree was up almost all month long. Justin cut the tree down himself at a tree farm (video is coming...). It crowded the apartment a little bit, but it was nice to have that pine smell and the festive decorations and lights for weeks.





We also made new stockings, since Juma's been surviving off an undecorated one all these years.



We spent Christmas day just the three of us, which was quiet, but lovely. We also got to video chat with our families, which was great.

We also had lots of snow this month, and went sledding. Juma spends hours and hours outside with his friends, bundled up against the cold and wet, conquering mountains of snow, chipping away at ice, or pretending they are prisoners whose job it is to shovel and carve away at the snow piles. Ah, to be six.

November catch-up

I finally downloaded some pictures from my phone...

For Thanksgiving, we ate at some friends' house, but since we'd already bought our own turkey, we had a Thanksgiving-repeat on Friday. We cooked our very own turkey for the very first time. It was delicious, and the leftovers lasted way. too. long.











Also in November, Juma continued to be the cool kid that he is. Here he is

making the most of bath time:




playing chess at the library with a classmate:




and exploring space at a science museum:

merry Christmas!

five down, one to go

I finished my semester! Just one to go until I graduate.

I turned in my last final paper at 5:00:09pm. Nine seconds late. Meh.

ugh...finals

Almost done...


Almost. Done.

Here's Juma tying his shoe for the first time by himself:

busy

busy, busy, busy.

The last two days, I haven't been home from morning to evening. So here's a picture to tide you over until I can really write.

thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went to some friends' house, and while Juma played with their son, we chatted and ate goose, lamb, and ham, but no turkey...So we're cooking one today.

breakfast

Juma must be having a growth spurt. This morning, he gobbled up four (small) pancakes, then asked for an English muffin. He ate that whole thing. Then he wandered back into the kitchen, and looked in the freezer.

"You want more?!?!" I asked, incredulous.

He looked at me and smiled.

"You ate all those pancakes?"

"Yes," he said.

"And the whole English muffin?" I continued.

"Yep."

"And you're still hungry?"

Big smile.

"Want a toaster strudel?"

Bigger smile.

I know that amount of food is normal from some boys his age, but this is Juma The Slowest Eater in the World. It's like pulling teeth to get him to finish anything.


As he was eating, I heard him call me from the other room. I turned the corner, wondering what he could possibly want now, and asked, "Yes, hon'?"

"I see that you haven't eaten any breakfast. You should get yourself an English muffin or something."

And that's when my heart melted like butter.

kid movies

We took Juma to two movies recently, Madagascar 2 and Bolt. They were both cute, funny, and had nice stories.

By far, our favorite part of Bolt, by unanimous vote, was the hamster, Rhino.



Check out the extended clip on yahoo to see him in all his AWESOMENESS.

I'm off to New York City today to check out a PhD program at Columbia. I'm excited and a bit nervous.

i couldn't let the week go out...

...without expressing my joy at the historic election season we just witnessed.

I know I have many different political opinions with many of my readers, and I do not want to get into a political discussion here on the blog. I keep this blog so family and friends can keep up, not to express my political opinions. However, regardless of what one thinks of president-elect Obama and his platforms, I can't let this election season slip by without acknowledging it.

The United States has, for the first time, elected an African-American president, and I am proud that we finally advanced enough beyond our ugly history with regards to race-relations to be able make such a historic stride.

I am glad Juma gets to grow up in an America where the color of one's skin means much, much less than it did in previous generations. I will always remember where I was when I found out Obama won, and how Juma gave me a gigantic hug when he found out. There are still miles to go (I see this every day in school when I study health disparities, for example), but this is a huge step.

recent events

Juma's aunt Andria reminded me that I hadn't reported on Halloween yet. So here you go.

Juma was Commander Fox, a clone trooper (from the recent cartoon The Clone Wars):




I didn't dress up, but took the opportunity to do my hair crazy:



Justin helped Juma carve a pumpkin (read: Justin carved a pumpkin for Juma) to go with Juma's costume:




Also, Juma's pet fish, Lampy Lamp died one Saturday morning. We took him our to the Amistad Memorial on the sound and had a mini-funeral. This is the same place we "buried" his other pet fish, Nemo, a few years ago. That death was rather hard on Juma, and he was upset about this one, too, but also quite practical. For example, when I suggested we say some words to remember Lampy Lamp, Juma asked, "Why? Fish die, and their bodies return to the earth. It's just what happens, Mom."





The very same day, we caught and kept a garter snake we found while hiking a few miles north of here. Juma named his new pet Sam. And the fish tank where Lampy Lamp used to live? Now full of food-fish for Sam.




We also went camping and enjoyed the mild weather and fall leaves:





Juma bought a "fossil block," a block of plaster of paris with five fossils hidden inside. So far, he's found a shark tooth and a sand dollar.

voting

eagerly awaiting election results...

Juma's school adventures

Last week, Juma's school had an International Day celebration, where each class, K through 3, performed on stage, highlighting a certain country. Juma's class had Japan, and performed the Coal Miner's Dance; a classmate's mother taught it to them.

Right before the dance, Juma surprised us and played the xylophone in front of the whole school! We didn't know he had such good rhythm--he was perfect.



Sorry the picture is blurry, but it's the best one of the dance: Look for Juma with his Japanese headband and (Sarah's) white shirt. (The kids were told to wear white shirts, and the only one we could find was mine. Then it turned out most of the kids didn't wear white anyway. Oh well.)



Today, the mayor held a Halloween Parade, but made the theme Go Green! Juma's class dressed up in newspaper hats and carried placards with reminders to recycle.





They marched downtown, and his class spontaneously started chanting, Recyle! Recycle!

report card

Juma brought home his first report card of first grade, and he did awesome (of course he did!). He got perfect marks on math, and while his reading level is expected to be at a 6 right now, it's at a 14. His behavioral marks were also perfect, and we are very proud of him. Way to go Juma!

We decided this deserved a reward, so we let him watch Walking with Dinosaurs, a movie we'd been holding on to as a reward for general good behavior at home (measured by filling up his "sticker chart"). When we told him he could watch the movie, he got the biggest grin on his face and exclaimed, "Thank you! Thank you! Oh, I love you! I love you so much! I'm so excited!"

stage 5: Texas & Lousiana

From New Mexico, we drove into the big desert of western Texas, dipping south into El Paso. We'd planned to drive into Cuidad Juarez across the border into Mexico--Justin's grandma was born there. But we decided trying to get back through with all the stuff in our car--it was packed to the gills--might be a problem at border patrol. So we contented ourselves with looking across the street at Mexico instead.

It didn't look much different than El Paso, really.

Driving on through the empty parts of Texas, we decided to head a little north toward the Dallas/Fort Worth area, 'cause, you know, why not?

No, really, Justin has an aunt who lives there, and her youngest child is a boy Juma's age (but a head taller). We spent the night there, and let Juma and Justin's young cousin, Jake, play the next morning until Jake had to go to his first day of kindergarten. Again, we didn't take any pictures of this stage of the trip. Don't know what we were thinking...

So on to the next day, when we drove down into Louisiana and stopped somewhere in the middle to camp where it was hot and humid and green, everything the South is supposed to be in August.



Then it was south to New Orleans, a city we've always wanted to visit, and pretty much gave us our first incentive to drive 2000 extra miles through the country to get from California to Connecticut. So we couldn't miss it.






We just had time for lunch, though, as we wanted to make it to the panhandle of Florida that night. We picked a place with classic Creole fare, and ordered crawfish etoufee and fried alligator. Yum. (I was wimpy and ordered salmon, but I did try the other dishes.)

Here's the alligator: Juma devoured it.

stage 4: the southwest

The next bit of our car trip across the country brought us from Phoenix, where we stayed with some family friends, to somewhere near Las Cruces, New Mexico, where we camped. Somehow, we completely failed to take any pictures where we camped that night, but it was a nifty little place in the shadow of some great rock formations, set amid numerous desert plants. We got there just in time to set up the tent before dark. Which is true of most of our camping on that trip.

Update: Just kidding. Justin did snap a picture with his phone at the campsite. Here's me, in the morning, all sleepy-eyed and bed-headed and in my pj's.




Of course, southern Arizona is characterized by its many amazing saguaro catci, found only in the Sonoran desert (never mind that Texas often uses it as as symbol of that state, even though there are none to be found that far east). We stopped at a truck stop just to take this picture:




Somewhere in there (but it's all becoming a blur to me: the west was a hot, dry blur, and the east was a wet, green blur, but still, all a blur) we saw some absolutely awesome ancient cliff dwellings, made by Native Americans about 1000 years ago. This dwelling was five stories high, and the bottom story was at least a couple hundred feet off the ground. Totally astounding that people could do that, so long ago.

working

Here at the Beckham house we are excited that Justin got a full-time job, working for a package delivery company. (Not sure how that works on actually naming employers. This is a private site, but still...)

It's been tough with him gone all day, and it will only get worse as we get closer to the holiday season. He's been training all week, and today was his first day out on a real route in a real delivery truck. Unfortunately, it was also a very rainy day, and the brown coat the issued him didn't have a hood...hmm. Hope he didn't get too soaked (he's still at work).

stage 3: the middle of Arizona

After the Grand Canyon, we took the long way (the only way) up and around, almost all the way back up to Utah to get around that big-freakin' canyon and across the river:






We took all day to make a six-hour drive to Phoenix, because there were just so many cool natural and Native American sites to see on the way. One place we stopped on the Navajo Reservation there were dinosaur tracks in the red rock:




Juma was in heaven. We also stopped at a couple sites with 1000 year-old ruins from Native American populations who thrived in this desert for centuries:

the case of the missing car

Last night, Justin tied on his shoes, packed up his sports bag, and headed out to play basketball with some friends. I didn't expect him back for a couple hours. But a couple minutes later, he walked back in...

"Sarah," he asked, "Did you move the car?"

Realizing the implications of that question (either we are really, really forgetful about where we park, or the crime rate in this town finally got to us personally), and was reluctant to answer, "No...Did you?"

"We parked it right outside, right?" he continued.

"Yes." But a case of a whole car gone missing takes some time to settle in, and my brain wasn't ready to accept the suspected truth. "And you put the club on it last night, right?"

"Yes."

We started to go through all the possibilities. Housing sometimes tows cars for not having the right sticker, but we just put ours on a few days ago...We weren't parked illegally or in the way of snowplows (no snow yet!), so they wouldn't've towed it for that...Could it be?...Stolen?

Now, we don't use our car that often. We use our feet, bikes, and buses to get around town. But for a weekend away, or to shop for non-grocery items (we get our groceries delivered), it is pretty much essential. Still, to have the car stolen--UGH. It's a violation of our right to property.

And we like that car. It's taken us on two cross-country trips; it has a ever-so cool rack recently installed on the top; and when we call it a grandma car, we mean it affectionately: It actually was owned by Justin's grandma.

Just look at our trusty, faithful, cool car, here serving us well in Lousiana:




Naughty words ran through my head.

After standing outside staring at the parking lot, which didn't magically bring back our car, we went inside to call the cops.

The cops informed us that, thankfully, our car had not been stolen, it was just impounded after all. By the tax department. Apparently, our property tax statement had gone to our old address, and we never got it...And since it was due two and a half months ago, the city saw fit to impound it. ("Failure to receive a notice is not a reason to fail to pay taxes.")

And get this--the tax department stays open until 10pm. What government office stays open until 10pm? The kind that tows your cars, I guess. So Justin (my hero) rode his bike downtown, paid the taxes and overdue fee, then rode to the car lot and got the car back for another hefty fee. Sheesh.

But at least we have our car again.

stage 2: Grand Canyon

We said good-bye to our families in Utah and headed south down 89 to the Arizona and the Grand Canyon. None of us had seen the Canyon, so we were excited. On the way, we stopped at Fremont Indian State Park



and saw some amazing petroglyphs (carvings in the rock) and pictographs (paint on the rocks). None of which you can see in this picture unless you click on it to see the bigger version:




In the evening we made it to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It was amazing and gorgeous, and a little scary. Parents of a budding scientist that we are, we took the chance to talk geology, the power of water on rocks, geologic time, and in which layers exactly could trilobites and sharks be found. (Juma's on a trilobite and shark kick lately.)

school

By the way, both Juma and I started school last week, so we've been busy. (Justin is very busy applying for jobs and getting the house unpacked and in order.)

Juma is thoroughly enjoying first grade (yes, first grade already!) and has kids in his class he already knew from before, so that helped a lot. We got him into the school we wanted him in (it's not just a matter of going to the local neighborhood school here), and it's within walking/biking distance, so we've been getting lots of exercise.

As for me, I write my first paper tomorrow, and am trying to find time to learn Arabic, read two scholarly books a week, write the occasional paper, work on my thesis, and still be a good mommy and wife. And not go insane through all of that. So far, so good. But it hasn't even been a week yet.

stage 1: Utah

Our trip started out with a long day's drive from California to Utah, but we had the time to stop out in the middle of the salt flats west of Salt Lake and write our initials with rocks:




The first overnight stop on our two-week road trip across the country was Utah, where all of my family and some of Justin's family live. There, Juma had a great time playing with cousins, such as the day we went rock climbing (except for the whole part when Juma has a complete melt-down five-minutes in):




and the day Juma "flew" a helicopter at a children's museum, with cousin Mariah:




We also did a little fishing in Provo Canyon (no luck actually catching anything):




and, along with a bunch of cousins, rode ponies at the petting zoo:




There was also the party for my sister, Jody's, recent marriage, where Juma got to play with all of his Wilson cousins--especially the two boys his age, Ammon and Ethan:




And, of course, he got to act his age with his closest cousin, Ammon: