The Chiarello Family

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012!  I hope that everyone enjoyed the holiday season and that your new year is off to a happy and healthy start.

Star Wars and Legos were some of the themes of this year's Christmas and Tinsae was very pleased with Santa's deliveries as you can tell from the picture above.  We've also watched Cars 2 about  10 times in the last 10 days.

We spent New Year's Eve with some of Tinsae's friends from school and went to Bruno's 6th birthday party in the afternoon and then spent the evening at Taven's house playing Wii, Angry Birds, and having a dance party in their living room.  Despite cramming all that fun into one day, both Tinsae and I were home and asleep before midnight.

I didn't make any major resolutions this year other than the standard "lose weight/exercise more" along with every other person on the planet but I also hope to spend more time this year reading before bed to wind down at the end of the day.  

Back in 2004, I started keeping a list of every book that I read and it is always fun to look back at that list and see what books caught my eye from year to year.  I've averaged 23.5 books a year (high of 40 in '06, low of 11 in '09) and I finished 2011 with 24 books.  Hopefully this year that number will increase a bit with my new resolution.

With that being said, here are the Top 5 books that I would rank from my list that I completed last year (in no particular order):

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Hidden Empire by Orson Scott Card

Divine Justice by David Baldacci

I think Tinsae's Top 5 included anything from the Lego City collection.

The Polar Express

We spent last Thursday night on The Polar Express train that departs from Utica and it is quickly becoming a family tradition.  Tinsae was very excited to be on board with Mommy and Daddy and it was a fun evening.  After our 45 minute trek up to "The North Pole", we watched Santa present the first gift of Christmas to one of the passengers and then he hopped on board to spend time with each child on the ride home.  

Santa liked Tinsae's festive pajamas and pointed at his likeness and said, "Who's that handsome dude?"  And when Tinsae said that he wanted Lego Ninjago for Christmas, Santa responded, "Oh that's fun.  I have that and play with it all the time."  There were lots of smiles, laughs, caroling, and of course, hot chocolate and cookies.  We even had to stop the train and honk the horns and flash the lights because there were some "caribou" blocking the tracks on the way home!

Christmas is Coming

Only 2 more weeks to go and Tinsae is getting excited.  We put up our tree last weekend and Tinsae and I were singing Christmas Carols at the top of our lungs which he thought was very funny.  We also decorated a Gingerbread Man and right now the poor guy is without his head and one arm already.  Tinsae has a LEGO advent calendar at both my house and Kristi's house and he's been enjoying having a little project to put together first thing in the morning before heading out to school or starting his day.

Tinsae has also started playing in the Hamilton Hoops league for kids and is having fun learning about basketball with some of the other kindergarten kids in town.  He thinks it's like gym class and is spending equal amounts of time learning to dribble, shoot, play defense, and pass but also squeezing in some dancing and sliding on the gym floor in between drills.  Most importantly, he's really having fun and enjoying it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tinsae got his first report card sent home earlier this week and there were no surprises.  Some improvement needed in the areas of coloring and drawing, but exceeding all kindergarten expectations in the areas of social development, consideration, responsibility, problem solving, expressing ideas, etc.

Two Thanksgiving projects came home this week that are worth mentioning.  The first one had a cornucopia that he colored and then had to write words that he was thankful for on the fruit coming out of it.  He wrote Mom, Dad, World.  I asked him why he chose those words and he said, "The world because it is where we live and it gives us food.  Mom and Dad because they get me toys sometimes and give me lots of good food."  And then as a follow-up he added, "And Mom and Dad also give me love and kisses and hugs."  Very sweet.

Then today another project came home with a picture he drew on it.  I asked him what it was and he said it was a picture of his school.  Underneath are the words "I am thankful for" and I'm guessing the kids were asked to complete the sentence and write whatever they wanted and to try and spell it themselves.  Tinsae wrote, "Sqol andtheome."  I asked him tonight what he wrote and he said "School and the army."  When I asked him why he chose those things, he said, "because I learn lots of good things in class and because the army protects us and fights for us.  I'm going to be in the army someday."

Needless to say, we all have lots to be thankful for but not a day goes by when I'm not thankful that Tinsae is here in our lives.  Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

 

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Halloween!

Say hello to Tinsae the "SWAT Sheriff"!  That's the exact words for what he wanted to be for Halloween?!?  So he wore a policeman t-shirt, this winter coat with SWAT letters attached, a police hat, and carried handcuffs and a laser gun.  He couldn't have been happier.  We went Trick or Treating with his friend, Taven, from school and it was a great night.

Tinsae continues to excel in school and it is amazing to see how quickly he is learning new words, showing an interest in reading/writing, counting syllables, trying to spell and sound out words.  When I picked him up on Friday afternoon, one of the first things that he said to me on the ride home was, "Dad, I am SO excited for Monday.  We are going to be starting Writing Workshop and it is going to be awesome."

Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

That's what little boys are made of.

Tinsae is certainly becoming quite a little boy.  Coming home with all sorts of stuff that he picks up from the boys on the schoolyard or from riding the bus.  And he says that his favorite parts of school are the bus, recess, and gym class.  Yesterday he was asking me questions about R2D2 and C3PO and all he ever wants to do is ride bikes or his scooter on the village green.

He's also been learning a lot though and his writing and reading are improving tremendously.  It really is amazing to see the changes and progress from week to week.  He has made great progress in his writing and coloring (finally learning to stay in between the lines) and the best part about it is that he is very proud of it all.  I think he is really enjoying school.

He obviously is tuned into music also and was telling me all about how he listens to Guster with mom.  And the other day I was randomly whistling "Someone like you" in the kitchen and he said, "Hey, I know that song!" and skeptical Daddy said "Oh really, huh, what is it?" and he confidently said, "Adele."

I've been traveling a lot for work but will try to put some more frequent updates on the site.  

Kindergarten Kid

Tuesday was Tinsae's first day of kindergarten and words cannot explain how proud he made his mom and dad feel.  I can honestly say that on the morning of the first day of school, it might have been the happiest I have ever seen him.  

He woke up at Kristi's house and was very excited for his big day.  He wanted to wash his hands and brush his teeth and kept saying in the car, "I'm so excited for kindergarten today!"  He also wanted to bring his favorite stuffed animal, Baby Piggy, in the car with him so she could see him go to kindergarten.  Kristi helped him board the bus at the high school and then I waited for him at the elementary school to take some pictures and see him go to his class.

He practically ran/jumped off the school bus to get into the building and was so proud of his new sneakers, backpack, nametag and said, "I'm so big now" when we walked down the hallway to his classroom (which he could have done all by himself he said.)

Other funny things he said were "I made a new friend on the bus - not Grayson - somebody else new" and "Daddy, you can take another picture if you want."  School has been tiring him out and he was falling asleep in the car on a few evenings after getting picked up from his day care where he goes after school.  They definitely miss him him at his day care and one of the teachers told us that "he was a model student and always led the class" which was good to hear.

On the way to school on the second day, he told Kristi, "I don't think I want to go to kindergarten today" and when she asked why he said, "It's not what I expected...all we do is WORK WORK WORK!"  Haha.  Welcome to the next 13-17 years of your life, Tinsae.

He's already had gym class, art class, library and gets to see some of his friends in other classes when they have recess.  I got a good laugh when I asked him what his favorite part of kindergarten is and he said, "Riding on the bus."

He also apparently doesn't need/want Kristi to stand on the bus line with him anymore and has said things like, "Mom, I think I'm going to wait alone here with Jack today.  You can go to your classroom."

All grown up and independent!

Summer Vacation

Tinsae and I had a great week at TLV this summer up in New London, NH.  The first half of the week was a little wet from the inches of rain that fell from the sky, but the second half was perfect.  I was able to play some golf, Tinsae had fun with Nana, Grandpa, Uncle Greg, and some new friends that he made.

One of the highlights was when we went fishing (or more appropriately, "catching") for the first time in both Kidder Brook and standing on a small dock in Little Lake Sunapee.  There were a ton of little 3 inch fish swimming around but then Tinsae hooked this 12 inch bass that came out of nowhere and almost broke his little plastic fishing rod.

Here's a picture of him proudly standing next to his first catch along with Megan's boyfriend, Chris, who was his coach and teacher for the day as well as new buddy.

Three Years Ago

Sunday was the 3 year anniversary of the Chiarello kidney transplant.  It feels like it was just yesterday and also a very long time ago all at the same time.

The Tinsae version of the story is "Mommy was sick and Daddy gave her one of his kidneys to make her all better.  Mommy now has 3 and Daddy only has 1."

Everyone is healthy and Kristi is actually in Boston as we speak at an annual checkup at MGH.

It will never cease to amaze me that a procedure like this is even possible - let alone that I was a donor - and how simple it is to give the "Gift of Life." 

Every one of us has the power to donate life.  Register as an organ and tissue donor today!