Rather than see this as a belated new year’s greeting, we prefer to view it as right on time to welcome in a new day. On MLK’s birthday and with the inauguration upon us, we reflect on the past and share hope for the future.
It has been another extraordinary year of growth and change for the children. Dylan made what felt like a monumental leap from pre-school to kindergarten. He spent half the summer in day camp, taking field trips, swimming and playing board and card games with older kids, with whom he was enamored. He hit the ground running at Buena Vista Elementary School, where the Spanish he knows from years with our caregiver Mirian exploded into confident speech in his Spanish immersion classroom. It’s been amazing to watch him really read, make new friends, and pick up the bad habits of fifth graders. Outside of school, he made the jump from soccer practice to playing in real games and has continued to amaze us with his ability and with how he supports his teammates. Dylan also started practicing the Brazilian martial art, capoeira, which is a perfect channel for his abundance of kinetic energy and concentration. And for the holidays, we fulfilled his newest passion and got him a skateboard. Something tells us that the teen years come more quickly than one might think.
For Adela, this year brought out her love for music, dance, mermaids, princesses, and Spiderman. Yes, that’s right, Spiderman. When she wasn’t “webbing” us, she was usually dressing up in dance costumes and orchestrating complex scenarios for her stuffed animals. She started full-time pre-school this year, although, unlike her older brother, she’d much prefer to spend the day in our playroom than head out to school. When “I don’t want to go to school” is followed by “I want what I want because I want it,” we know we’re in for a long morning. Adela also started dance classes with “Teacher Stephanie” in the fall and we were all thrilled by her first dance concert, where she was a graceful butterfly. Despite a touch of stage fright, she has taken to it and we can’t wait for the next concert. Beyond school and dance, she has started the three-year-old birthday circuit and we are adjusting to having competing social calendars. When Dylan’s events compete with Adela’s events, parent exercise time goes out the window.
Jeannette continues to thrive at Envision Schools, relishing the accomplishments of students and colleagues and delighting in culminating events such as student exhibitions of learning, graduation portfolio defenses, and of course, graduations. In July, she moved to an 80% schedule with a day off each week to volunteer in Dylan’s kindergarten class, play with Adela, and train for the AIDS LifeCycle 2009. She’ll be riding 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles from May 31 to June 6 to support the fight against HIV/AIDS and is honored by the support from family and friends as she trains and fundraises for the cause. Please visit www.tofighthiv.org/goto/JRL! A conference in D.C. allowed Jeannette to take Adela for celebrating out east with lots of family and fun. A weekend trip to Point Reyes with girlfriends was a welcome respite at the end of a busy school year, and a trip to Nantuket with far-flung college classmates was a fabulous reunion. Jeannette fêted Mirian Vasquez in New York City in appreciation of her five years+ of tremendous care for Dylan and Adela, visiting some Héberts and touring our hearts out. Another mother/daughter trip east in November allowed us to visit friends and family, especially “Baby Cole” Nelson LaFors born in October! So many things are welcome constants: involvement with the Bethany Church community, keeping up with bookclub, enjoying time with friends and taking advantage of the Bay Area with Matt and the kids!
Matt ended the year by making a major professional transition, leaving The James Irvine Foundation and striking out on his own as a consultant. He is excited by the prospect of getting closer to the work of creating educational opportunity for underserved youth. He is building a portfolio of clients — including school districts, non-profits, and foundations — with a focus on issues of leadership, teacher quality, performance management and building pathways for young people to college and career. Consulting has freed up time in his schedule to take on more local volunteer work, including active involvement in the Partners in School Innovation board, assuming the chair of the Parents for Public Schools San Francisco board, and joining the Buena Vista school governance team. Teaching Stanford graduate students was exhilarating, so Matt is doing it again this winter. But, perhaps the three highlights of the year were winning a soccer championship in the adult league, attending his 20th high school reunion, and surprising Kathy Cone in New York for her big birthday.
Our family travels were limited again this year, with the whole family only leaving California three times! The first of those was a long weekend in Steamboat Springs, Colorado with Grandma and Grandpa. The trip, along with two weekends with friends in Tahoe, was Dylan’s chance to shine as a skier — he even went down an intermediate run and happily spent entire days in ski school. The second big trip took us East for the annual Kelefors beach confab, the usual wonderful gathering of all cousins — Nico, Max, Sam, Lulu, Jonah, and Claire — and their attendant adults. We ended the year with our first international travel in several years. We went to Oaxaca, Mexico and were joined for part of the time by Grandma and Grandpa LaFors. The kids already blogged about this trip but here’s our take: it was a magical place and one to which we fully expect to return. The smell of chocolate in the market, the edgy sounds of modern Mexican folk music in the cafes, the kindness of parents and children in the parks, the weight of ancient and very modern history, the vibrancy of the art and the stunning vistas of mountains and valleys. All of it reminded us of what we love about Latin America and about being outside of our own culture and frame of reference. It was poignant to see all of it through the eyes of children: their daring in trying new foods; their ease with the language; and their energy in walking mountain trails, Zapotec pyramids, and city streets. On our way home, we rang out the year just as we began it — with a trip to a Southern California theme park. In January, it was Legoland (where we met Felicia, Jeff, Ellie & Frances) and the San Diego Zoo (with friends Mark, Yuki & Lisbon). In December, it was Disneyland, where Dylan got to battle Darth Maul as a Jedi apprentice and Adela took in the stories of her favorite Princesses (that is, all of them).
At home, we enjoyed hosting friends from near and far. Mimi and Pop-Pop (and then later Pop-Pop alone) came to shower their love on the kids. Kathy, Dana & Dan Cone came by, as did the Kassissieh clan, Jason Friedman (who heads off today for the Sudan with Medecins Sans Frontiers), Karen Hebert and Felicia Yu and Jeff Liter. We had Thanksgiving at home and were blessed to spend it with Dominic and Solomon Bannister and Mayee Yap.
We hope that this year we will see, or at least hear from, all of you. As President Obama takes office tomorrow (!), we hope that this new year brings us all peace and a renewed determination to make the world a bit better. As Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “Let us realize that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Peace and love,
Jeannette, Matt, Dylan and Adela