Back to School

Another year at Pacific Horizons School has begun. Emma is in the 6th grade! Wow, I can remember being in 6th grade and thinking how mature and wise I was, especially compared to those unrefined 5th graders.

After some unhappy times, things are looking up for Emma at school. She has a new teacher, Mrs. Peck, who has a background in fisheries biology and art. She is experienced and very energetic, two qualities that had been lacking in Emma's former teacher.

Emma came home from the first day of school and told me that her day was "excellent" and she has been full of smiles every afternoon since. I am hopeful that we will get through the year with less tears, but I am sure there will always be days when Emma has girl drama to report. I'm just hoping for less of it this year.

Reading good

We have always taken reading seriously. Literacy and grammar are big topics around our house. For those of you that are not already members, I highly reccomend checking out the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar at http://spogg.org/. Given that I am plugging a grammer website it should come as no surprize that we are all avid writers and readers. In fact the worst punishment that we can impose on Emma is taking away her reading time before bed.

So it should come as no surprise that we are starting Ona off early...

I would also like to point out that Melanie has about 12 blogs backlogged. She has been very busy teaching our 3 month old daughter how to read. So all you stateside folks should not fret, there are more blog entries and pictures coming. I invite you all to visit the SPOGG website and see if you can find the mistakes in this post!

Birthday at the Beach

Emma wanted to celebrate her 11th birthday with a trip to the beach. The night before we had lots of fun making cupcakes. Emma is becoming very adept at using the frosting tips. I am impressed as this is not an easy task, especially in our climate. The frosting melts almost as quickly as you get it on the cupcake! Emma chose to spend her day at the beach in Sa'ilele. It is a beautiful village and one of my favorite features is how the road turns to sand as you drive through the coconut trees (check out a previous post for more pictures of Sa'ilele). Always the hostess, Emma was happy to pass out cupcakes to all of our friends.Although they are everywhere here, I still get a kick out of seeing hermit crabs on the beach. Emma used to keep these as pets in Michigan when she was 6 and 7 years old! We enjoyed beach combing and I helped Emma add to her beach glass collection.Emma got some great gifts. Not many toys this year - clothes, shoes, cool pens, music and other 11-year-old must haves. It was a wonderful day. Thanks to Emma for coming up with a great way to celebrate her birthday.

Ona Lily -- 3 months old

Newborns are amazing with their tiny parts, but I really get into babies once they hit that 3 month mark. Ona has become very interactive lately. She makes lots of noises and it seems we may have another talkative girl on our hands. She is also grabbing for toys and even holding soft ones. Ona doesn't go in for shots this month so I don't have a weight to report, but it is pretty obvious that she is gaining lots. I love my chubby baby.She blows lots of bubbles. She is really losing her hair now and I find little silky hairs all over me and the house. Hmm, drooling and shedding... it is almost like having a dog. We wonder if Ona may grow up to be a circus freak as she can't seem to fall asleep unless she is in an extremely contorted position. It just doesn't look right, but when we try to straighten her neck, she wakes right up! Although she enjoys her crazy sleeping positions, Ona is actually holding her head quite steady now.

Back to the Governor's Mansion

It was finally Emma's turn to be invited to the Governor's mansion... along with a couple hundred other kids. While not an intimate dinner affair with the leader of American Samoa, Emma was very happy to get to see the mansion. The day was for children who had participated in a sport funded through the First Lady's program to promote healthy kids. Emma went with her fellow swimmers. Everyone got to wear cool visitor badges. Ona slept through the whole tour until the very last part when the First Lady greeted us in the library. Mary Ann was excited to meet Ona (she had already met Emma at an event) as I was pregnant during our previous visits to the mansion, but Ona chose that moment to start screaming. Unfortunately, Em was not feeling very well this day. She toughed it out through the tour of the mansion, but ended up throwing up in the Governor's fale. We discreetly cleaned up and left. Emma felt bad, but we told her it would make quite the story someday that she puked in the leader of the country's guest house!

Happy Swiss Independence Day

Along with many other restrictions during pregnancy, I had to give up scuba diving. I didn't mind for awhile as I was avoiding the ocean anyways. Many pregnant women develop strange aversions, often of certain foods, but not me... I ended up with a beach aversion! I hated the sun, the sand, the salt. Not a good thing when one lives on an island, but by the time Ona was born I was really missing it.

I was plotting to go scuba diving 5 or 6 weeks postpartum while my mother-in-law was here and willing to babysit. Because of the c-section I ended up having to wait a lot longer to get back in the water. One day my friend Markus asked me when I would be diving again so I arbitrarily responded with August 1st. Being Swiss, he told me that August 1 happened to be Swiss Independence Day so it was decided that we would celebrate his heritage and go for a dive that day.

It was a beautiful day and Markus and I headed for the usual dive spot of Faga'alu. Although not the best dive on the island, it is close to home and work and an easy shore entry. Especially after the good diving in the Manu'a Islands last year, I had grown tired of this less than stellar dive site. It's amazing how a year-long diving hiatus changes your perspective! Markus and I got into the water and I was amazed by everything I saw! The visibility didn't even seem that bad as it often does on this dive in the outer harbor area. I saw several anemones with clownfish. Clownfish are very territorial and it is amusing to watch them defend their home. Several of the anemones had little clownfish families on them, complete with tiny babies. Maybe I just have babies on the brain, but it was quite adorable.We don't always see many schools of fish here so I was very excited when a school of about 50 or 60 moorish idols and schooling bannerfish swam around me. Towards the end of the dive, a hawksbill turtle swam by! Anytime I see a sea turtle I am thrilled.I'm sure it had a lot to do with the fact that I haven't dove in so long, but this dive seemed very magical to me! Carol and I are going on another dive already tomorrow.