USA Day

Had a good time in Santa Paula for the 4th of July.  Tri-tip, grilling, and good family fun.  Combined Batstone Kwon and Wintz fun.

Grilled zuccini, and delicious tri-tip!!

Dramatic re-enactment of gopher hole snafu.

Bill and Kathy Bat.  Celebrated Kathy's birthday.

Pacifist Ian and his military son.

Cute couple.  Daniel and Susie

My class...and Judah in my class...in a box.

Takeoff!

On the way to Minnesota.  June 2011.

Judah Cool

My students like to play with Judah.

Thanks Cousin Katherine!

My cousin Katherine is a budding photographer and always takes some great photos of Judah and Ella.

Umm...where is the battery charger to our camera?

Got a new camera!

We have a digital camera again! Yay! Here is a small taste of Christmas pics. Wade's before and after robe pictures. Ella opening the gift she asked for. Oma and Opa opening something they didn't ask for. Susie and Judah. More pictures to come.

Just more pictures

Judah loves tractors!

The Wade Olson clan

Ella the Composer

Ella was singing the other day:

You can do
Anthing you want to
Gepetto, Jesus
he can help you...

Miracle at Centennial

So, a history teacher was gonna be moved to another school, due to low enrollment. Not only does this affect him (of course), but all the other history teachers. They were going to have to get rid of a psychology course (which had been promised for 2 years), and anthropology, combine multiple classes to make some over 45, reduce the # of honors classes, etc. It was not pretty. An amazing teacher, named Ms. Chiang, talked to her psychology class. All of those students loved the class and were devastated it was disappearing. So, they all brainstormed and consulted the one student who is on the school board. That night 17 of them showed up at the school board meeting, waiting hours to talk (Chiang had made multiple trips to get many of them there). The school board promised to follow up. Guess what? They actually did! THE NEXT DAY they showed up at Centennial. The seniors had staged a walk-out, culminating in the main quad. The Board brought everyone into the gym and talked out their concerns. Students even came to other classes to find out what other issues students were having. The final result - the history teacher got to stay! No major, crazy changes were to be made. It's a miracle! Nice to know good things can happen when people care, and adults and students work together.
- Erin

Ellaism

We gave Ella a "Pillow Pet" for her birthday (she's 5)
She said "It exploded my brain."
Erin: "you mean it blew your mind?"
Ella: "Yeah, it blew my mind right out of my ear!"
I guess that's good. :-)

Medium Sized Momma

Ella: I read in a book that you were a medium sized Momma.
Erin: Oh really? Where did you read that?
Ian: (snickering)
Ella: I read it in a book, that the daddy was a big daddy, the momma was medium, and the baby was small.
Erin: Oh, is that from Goldilocks?
Ella: Yeah.

Ella again

Ella: Daddy can I have a snack?
Ian: No, we're going to have lunch soon.
Ella: Can I have a pre-lunch?

Juda-isms! First time.

Our favorite Juda-ism is "why-ee". He often says it after we say something to him. I don't think he knows what it means, but he says it at opportune moments.

He also added a very innocent sounding "whaaat"? Whenever we sound mad or yell at him.

Eater, I mean easter at the Olsons

We just had easter at the Olsons', with pinapple glazed ham, scallopped potatoes, apple walnut salad, fruit salad, deviled eggs, wine, martinellis, key lime pie, and strawberry shortcake. There was some sort of easter egg hunt with the cousins (Natalie, Ella, Judah, and Micah (sort of)), but you can tell what I was interested in.

halloween 2009

Fairy ballerina, and pumpkin

Lil' Scottie and Judah Boo

My little brother and my little son.

Frog and Fairy Birthday

Here are a few images from the "Frog and Fairy Birthday Party". We had fun.

Update

Okaaaay, so we are kind of switching again. I (ian) taught ESL this summer at a private school, and I was going to switch back to homemaker extraordinaire, but I got a call from my former boss in Torrance Adult School, and they wanted me to teach for about 16 hrs/wk in the morning. The night before, Erin and I had been talking about the fact that it would only be worth working if I worked in the morning (while Ella is in preschool), if I worked at a site closer to home, and if I worked for Torrance Adult School. I didn't think I would get a call because of the recent cutbacks. But lo and behold, I got what I wanted!
We will have to put Judah in day care for 4 hours a day. That will be the 1st time we've done that, so we're a little unsure about it. It is difficult to find good day care that is not too expensive.

Erin is back teaching at Centennial High School in Compton. She is teaching reading again, and not doing too much admin stuff (although she still is doing some). She is glad to be back with students again. That's the haps.

Sorry, more Ella

While watching Judah getting changed: "Daddy I think he has a bigger one than yours."
(I'll leave that one to your imagination)

Mama's smarter than Daddy, but Daddy's stronger than Mama, and God is smarter and stronger than everybody."

"Mama is sometimes silly, but I still love her."

Ellaisms

At breakfast: "I'm a rice-crispy girl. I'm a hungry little caterpillar!"

In the car:
Aunt Susie: "You're a goofball."
Ella: I'm not a goofball, I'm an animal."
Aunt Susie: "What kind of animal are you?"
Are you a lion? A sheep? A cow?
Ella: I'm a princess!

In the car: Judah: "Waaa!"
Ella: "Judah! Be quiet!"
Waaah!
Be quiet!
Waaaooh!
Judah! I'm right here!

A la playa

Judah has 4 teeth right now. 2 more are pushing in on top. It makes his smile look really different. Here he is enjoying the beach in summertime!

Wade Jr.

Here's Wade's baby picture. He won a beautiful baby contest (but he says there were only 2 babies in the contest and the other was pretty dang ugly).

So... does Judah look like Wade?

Wade Jr.

Everyone says that Judah gets his good looks from Opa Wade. He definitely didn't get them from me.

If it drinks like a dog...

We have been dog sitting sometimes for a great dog named Barney. The kids love it. The other day I went to the grocery store with Ella and gave her a sample drink. She was lapping at it like a dog. I said, "Ella don't lick it, drink it." and she said, "That's what dogs do." I told her she wasn't a dog and she laughed and drank it.

Preschool!

Our little fairy is in preschool now. She LOVES it. I really like the class. She goes for 3 hours in the afternoon so we have kind of retired the afternoon nap thing. I am mourning that, but she seems okay. I have a little more energy during the day, from fewer demands for my attention.

Sittin' Bull

Judah's sitting now, we are not in a hurry to teach him to crawl, but he's starting to grab for things and roll around on his fat tummy. He's getting restless.

Cheekies

This picture was given to us by Aunt Susie. Judah is fatter than Ella ever was. We love it. The other day Ella said, "Judah and Mama and you have a big booty, but I have a skinny booty."

Update

So. I am now home dad again. I am teaching at night in Torrance for 12 hours a week. Erin is back at Centennial High teaching reading for 3 periods and being the resident reading specialist and reading coach. Pray for my patience with Ella and internal motivation. :-) It's nice to have a job 3 nights a week to keep me sane.

We are also trying to put Ella in some kind of preschool situation, even if only for a few days. She is itching to go. "preschool" is a constant part of her vocabulary and she often is in some kind of imaginary world called preschool where she goes and learns new things, makes friends that we've never heard of and does fun stuff. She has some close friends that are already in preschool.

Kissmass

Grammie and Ella

Uncle Chris and Ella

Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta tickle.

Sister Susie and Judah

We had a spread out Christmas. We had Olson Christmas before Christmas, Batstone Christmas on Christmas Day, and Wintz Christmas (my mom's parents) after Christmas. It was a lot of Christmas. Then we went out to Phoenix and celebrated the new year with Erin's friends from college. It was uber-fun. Now we're back and I (Ian) will be the home dad, Erin is going back to work at Centennial High in Compton, and I will be working at night with Torrance Adult School supervising online learning for English as a Second language. We both start the 5th.

Cousin Natalie.

Tummy Talk

Ella: "My tummy says he's hungry."
Tummy:(voiced by Ella) "mmmm... thank you Ella"
Me: "Are you talking to your tummy?"
Ella: "Yeah, he says he likes the yogurt"

Halloween ESL

I am teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) almost full time now. I work in the morning for Torrance Adult School, and drive to Redondo Beach for work at a private language school called EF language school. I love my job. We got to have costumes and parties for Halloween. It's lots of fun.