The Budding Photographer

So my mother asked me to share some of the photos Daniel took by himself in Williamsburg using our small camera -- here they are vozinha!  It's nice to see things from his perspective... Not bad for a 3 year old, right? :-)

2010-2011 Pre-School Photos

We just recieved Daniel's 2010-2011 pre-school photos, taken in April, just before he left his previous school. What a cute 3 year old he is; he looks so grown up! They were really able to get him to pose and smile!

They gave us a free print of his class photo and I took a photo of it for you to see (hence the poor quality). Daniel remembered all his teachers and most of his friends. Thank God it didn't make him feel sad seeing them again. Though he often still talks about "Owi","Julian" and other friends, he is very happy at his new pre-school (in fact, tomorrow he is going on his first field trip to the Zoo alone (sans Jonny and I) with his class -- yikes!)

Mini-Vacation Part II: Williamsburg

Williamsburg...What can I say? I want to go back! Not only to that special part of the country which we really like, but to the special time we had with our friends Chris, Corinne and their precious daughters Ella (age 5) and Sadie (9 months old). We really enjoyed every minute of our long weekend there. And one of the highlights was that Ella and Daniel "fell in love" with one another and really enjoyed each other's company. By the end of the trip, they wanted to be together all the time. It was so cute and wonderful! The photos below do a great job in telling the story of our vacation-weekend...

Going for walks...



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Watching golf...



Corinne adoring baby Sadie and enjoying every  moment of having a baby again...



My oldest friend since being in the U.S. -- soon to be 8 years!

When Sadie ate, she did the cutest thing with her mouth!

Daniel just had a blast!

We loved holding Sadie...

Daniel wanted to hold her too but she wasn't as thrilled...

Enjoying Colonial Williamsburg...

Daniel was allowed to use our smaller camera for the first time and just loved it!

Our family...



Parade...

They needed help with some of the walking...

First time in the pool this year!!!

A cook out by the master chef overlooking the beautiful scenery...

Beauty all around us...

Daniel loved playing with the bubbles in the nightly jacuzzi bath...

Since Corinne went to college at William and Mary, she gave us a tour of the campus and old buildings...

Baby Sadie looking very regal...

Perfect weather and lots of love...

Playing "catch" was/is a favorite!

Look at this!

Chris. What an awesome dad!

It was sad saying good-bye. Ella said to me: "I want to go wherever you go and be with you all the time." And I replied: "You are with me wherever I go. You know why? Because you are in my heart, right in here, and so you are always with me."



Can you see why I want to go back?

At least now, we have these beautiful memories...

Video Of Daniel: Children's Museum In Charlottesville

This short video shows so much of his character at age 3: bossiness, imaginary play (mainly around firefighters), love of climbing ladders, energy and excitement!

Mini-Vacation Part 1: Charlottesville

We are back from our mini-vacation and to our normal busy routine -- except for Jonny's night classes since he still has 1 and 1/2 weeks off until the summer semester starts.

We had a lovely time away! How we wish we didn't have to come back so soon!

Jonny and Daniel joined me in Charlottesville for the last 2 days of my work meeting and we had fun sharing the hotel room and exploring the town. I also loved showing Daniel off to my colleagues who all thought he was very cute. I always said, "I agree with you, he is cute!" :-)

Here are some photos of the first part of our mini-vacation:

Daniel loved playing inside his suitcase while I tried to get it packed before I left...


It was so wonderful to be reunited again. And Daniel really expressed that he was happy to see me again. He kept saying over and over "I'm so glad to see you!" and was very cuddly!

Jonny really needed a haircut so we decided to go and get his haircut at the local barber. When we got there, Daniel said: I want my haircut too! I want to go first! This came as a HUGE surprise since I have always cut his hair. But since he was so determined, we said yes and he seemed to enjoy his first ever haircutting experience outside of our home. He enjoyed it and really did a great job at sitting still. And the people there were so friendly and had worked there since the mid 70s. It had a really nice small town feel. 

It turned out that one of the customers at the barber was a firefighter. And Daniel went up to him and said: "Excuse me. Are you a firefighter?" And the man said: "Yes, do you want to see my car?" And oh boy, we had a very happy boy!

The next day while I was at the meeting, Jonny took Daniel to a children's museum which Daniel absolutely loved! He even got to dress up as a NASA pilot.

We had dinner with Linfeng, an old colleague of Jonny's from Hopkins that now lives in Charlottesville. Not a great picture of us, but it is a good reminder of our time together. 

After dinner, Linfeng took us to see University of Virginia's campus -- it was beautiful!

And Daniel, of course, took the opportunity to run around the historical buildings.

More soon on Part 2...