Well wow

Well wow. It's been around 7 months since I posted on Elijah's blog. I'm not trying to hide the fact that I'm the worst blogger in the world. I am. I do have some excuses, but I'll spare you for the most part. After many requests, I've finally put aside a bit of time to update The Elijah Chronicles.

Elijah is now in 'Year 3' of primary school and turned 7 in August. He's fabulous at reading, subtracting, multiplying, counting money and giving change, learning science (lots of dinosaurs), learned about all different religions, English history (Vikings, Celts, Romans) computer work, the list goes on. His favorite subject is ICT which is basically computer stuff. Since his first year in school, he's wanted to be a 3-D movie and video game designer when he grows up and it hasn't changed yet. He's in swimming lessons and we'll probably start him in Judo or something like that in the near future.

His best friend is still James Bates, but the love/hate thing is really starting to come out this year. They're getting to be bigger boys and play fight a lot, and have even had one 'real' fight with name calling and hair pulling and everything. Oh boys. We nipped that in the bud right away, hopefully there won't be much more of the real fighting.

Some of his other friends from school are Harry, Alfie and Jasmine. School is from 8:45 - 3pm every day, and he has after school clubs throughout the year (this year there's 'Growing Club' where they plant a garden, 'ICT Club' - his favorite, and he had a go at Basketball during the first term, but I really don't think sports is gonna be his thang).

His reading skills are amazing these days - right now he's reading the full version of Charlotte's Web. He reads before bed and can usually get through a 150-page book in a few weeks.

If you haven't heard (and one of the reasons for my lack of posting) - Elijah is going to be a big brother. He's VERY excited and can't wait to be the best big brother in the world. Whenever he prays at night he asks God to "bless our bump", haha. He said he'll even help out fetching diapers and bottles and things when Mama needs help. He thinks it's a girl and wants to name her Martha (what in the world?), and if it does happen to be a boy, he likes the names 'Henry the Eighth' and Bill. Sorry Elijah, don't think we'll be using your name suggestions!

He's still only lost his 2 middle bottom teeth (lost them 15 months ago) - I think he's the only one in his class without a mouth full of huge teeth! His top right tooth is just now starting to get loose, so expect a totally different looking little boy in the near future.

Elijah was a devil for Halloween this year, though every year Halloween gets more and more lame in England (it was pretty lame to begin with). Paul and Elijah went trick or treating and in about an hour they only got candy from 4 or 5 houses. Thank goodness Elijah doesn't know any different and thought it was AWESOME anyways! Next year we're planning on coming to the States for Halloween so he can experience a 'real' one. There was a school party for the kids at the Village Hall where they got to dress up and eat candy and dance - so that was fun for him.

Not too much else new - we're moving into a new house so Elijah gets to help design his new room. I'll post pictures of what he chooses (and what we agree to!), though we're moving into another house while we fix up the new house - so probably won't be in the new one 'til March or so.

I uploaded a bunch of pictures in September - if you haven't seen them, here they are:




We haven't done much of anything exciting since school started, so I don't have many new ones to post (not enough for an album), but here are some of the few I've taken:

Elijah playing on a thingamabobbin.





























Skeleton face paint at a local food festival.














Showing off his 2 big boy teeth.














We went on a weekend break to a villa in the Cotswolds - Elijah's was livin' it up...relaxin' watching a DVD.















The owner of the villa took us out on his canal boat - Elijah was pretty excited!














































And here are a couple of videos:

Elijah's mom is a slacker

I know, I know - can't keep up with anything, can I?

Sorry for the lack of everything. For now, here's some new pictures of Elijah!

The last few months

Sir Knight Elijah

Last week was half term for Elijah (school vacation) - a whole week to sleep in (yeah right), play video games, and do fun stuff with Mama! He had a sleepover with James and Sam on Tuesday night - that was great fun for all the kiddos. They had Happy Meals for dinner, tore up Elijah's room, and got to stay up late watching Bionicle - a perfect night for little boys.

The rest of the week was pretty low-key, it's been freeeeezing cold, and even snowed enough to shut the roads down at one point. We got about 10 inches, with 3-ft snowdrifts right before half term, more than enough to build a snowman and a fort!














Friday, Elijah and Paul's Mum & I went to Bodiam Castle on the East Kent & Sussex Railway - the train was an old fashioned steam train, of course Elijah LOVED it. Elijah had so much fun at the castle - he got to dress up like a 'real' knight, all the lords and ladies called him 'Sir Knight', which made him feel extra special. The castle was mostly a carcass, so he got to run around and explore all the little nooks and crannies.














As usual, after a week at home, he was looking forward to going back to school on Monday. He took took spelling tests this week and got 5 out of 5 on both. Here's his little spelling book so you can see what words he's been learning, and what he has to study for this coming week.


















One of his literacy subjects in school is learning how to write a story in order, using things like "first I...", "next I...", "then...", and "finally...". For his homework this weekend, he had to write about his day on Friday, so we left him to it with no help at all, and this is what he did.














Pretty good for having no help! If you can't read it all, it's supposed to say, "First I get woken up by my alarm. Next I get out of bed and get dressed then I played for a little while. After that I had breakfast then I went to school. I did some morning work and then we had assembly. After that we had play time then we did work again and then we had lunch. Then we had another play time in a little while we did more work. Finally it was home time. After that I played Monsters vs Aliens on the Wii then it was bed time."

Last week at dinner he randomly came out with, "Mama, Shiva uses his fork to destroy people!" After a bit of prodding, we found out Elijah has been learning about Hinduism at school. He'll be learning about all different religions, and seems to find it quite interesting.

I'll leave you now with the newest selection of photos from our trip to Bodiam Castle (and a few of playing in the snow). As always, leave comments if you have a spare minute - he does read them!

February 27th, 2010

Tour of Elijah's Room

Elijah would like to show everyone his room.

And his shirt that looks kind of like Sandman.

And his sa-weet dance moves.

Welcome to The Elijah Chronicles!

I thought it was about time I started a blog just for Elijah - to keep everyone updated with what's going on in his regular everyday life.

Check out all of Elijah's newest videos on the right (opens up in YouTube), and I'll be posting any new pictures at the bottom of each blog post. You can even see what the weather's like in Folkestone. Fun fun!

So, where do I begin...

Elijah is in "Year 2" at Capel Le Ferne Primary School (you can see his school's website HERE if you're interested). Year 2 is the equivalent of between 2nd and 3rd grade in the US. In England, Primary School is 6 years, so until age 10 for Elijah. After that he'll move onto Secondary School - which is for 5 years (years 7-11). He'll either go into 'regular' secondary school, or can test to get into grammar school - the posh version of secondary school (and supposedly a much better education).

After Year 11 (when Elijah is just about 16), he has the choice of continuing school for 2 more years, going to college, or starting work, so quite a bit younger than the US. Anyways, that's the basics about school here.

So far in Year 2, he's been improving his reading & writing; adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplying & fractions; learning complex 2-d and 3-d shapes (pyramids, prisms, octagons, etc); learning the computer; and all sorts of other various things! Here are a few pictures of his classroom (he's in the top left photo): Elijah's Classroom.

Here are some samples of his homework this year:

His best friend is still James Bates, who he met in playschool when he was 3 years old. They've been best buddies ever since - here's a pic of them together at Elijah's 6th birthday party.

They're both into Ben 10 and Transformers, and looooove video games. Elijah just beat Monsters vs Aliens on the Wii, and plays a game called Zack & Wiki, which is a strategy puzzle game, and I have to say, he's more clever than I am on some of the levels! He's only allowed to play them on weekends - it's a special privilege, and yes, I've already heard, "but so-and-so gets to play video games every single day...", though he's said it more like he's stating an interesting fact rather than a complaint. We'll see how long that lasts!

Elijah would like me to introduce you to our new cat (if you haven't heard, our first kitty (JabbaYiaYia) got hit by a car on Halloween, and sadly had to be put down). Elijah seemed pretty ok with the whole thing at the time. About 6 weeks after she died, Elijah's babysitter Laura called us to see if we wanted to rehome a stray that had been found in a shed in Dover (the next town over). We gave it a thought and went down to see her, and couldn't resist her fluffiness! Her name is Mimi (but really Meemers or Method Meow to me. Becca & Ward suggested Double-Fluffies, which slips out every now and then when I'm talking to her in my obnoxious kitty voice). Here she is in all her flurffy glory.

It's nice having a cat in the house again, but she surely has a vicious side. She's about 9 years old from what the vet's can guess, so who knows what life was like pre-Martins. Elijah can't touch her unless she goes up to him. It's hard work to stay away from her cause she's just so stinkin' fluffy, but she's prone to attack when bothered, or when she's hungry, or when she's sleeping, or playing, or walking around. Elijah's a bit sad about this because he could abuse our old kitty as much as he wanted and she loved him. He told me the other day that he misses the old kitty "cause she wasn't mean". Awwww. We're hoping Mimi improves more over time - she already has since she arrived, but the mean streak still comes out at least 47 times a day.

So now I will end blog post #1 with a personal message from Elijah (typed by him):

"I have to do work evry day but I do not mind. The day me and james met each other was a long time agoe."

There ya have it! A profound statement from the coolest 6-year-old evah.

Click the picture below for a photo album of Elijah from the last 4 months or so, and please leave comments on the blog - Elijah would love to read them!

Elijah - August 2009-January 2010