Merry Santa Yeil!

Holiday rush

I know. He's growing up and you are missing it! I am too. Believe me.
It's happening so fast!
I swear he was only saying two or maybe three words at Thanksgiving.
Now, it's abstract sentences. "Baby Luna, where? Sleep. Wake up!"

I'm testing some new hardware, and looks like I can't include photos
in this email. Cheap. More soon!

Zapped from Somewhere.

Up a little early

Keet is 2!!

Keet and Mama on the Birthday Day

My little 2 year old is anything but terrible.
I figure, when you are 2, your birthday should be memorable. So we celebrated it 3 times!

First we celebrated while "Papa Perro" was in town. Papa had to leave the morning of Keet's birthday, so we did an eve celebration just before.

Nana on Keet's Birthday Eve's Party

 

Papa with Mama and Keet

Papa had a long weekend with us here in Fairbanks. We kept a pretty simple schedule with a few meals outside, but most of the time we hung out at home and visited. Papa left the morning of Keet's birthday, so he was able to celebrate with us the night before and morning of.

The following weekend we had a birthday party for Keet, with about 8 kids and 15 adults. It was a very fun event for all! I made a big bowl of Mac and Cheese (for kids and adults) as well as a fresh pumpkin rasin cake with cream cheese icing. Yum!

From Keet: The Unoffical Story

Florian (a week younger than Keet), Emma (3) and the birthday boy.

Keet and Emma go way back. Remember this one?

Last spring from Heather's baby shower. At Keet's party the two were like glue.

Mr. Two - Birthday Morning

Pretending

Today Keet handed me a phone case for a mobile phone. No phone inside. I started to talk on it, and told him it was Akka and passed him the phone. He said "Hello! Yeah Good! Fun! Bye" and hung up.
Da-ka in in California ("airplane Mackiki" - Keet reminds me he's with MacKenzie). He'll be giving an artist talk at UC Davis tomorrow with his Uncle Larry McNeil.

This picture reveals my true parenting skills. Just in time for Halloween!

Where is Keet-O?

 

We went to the Quyana Nights at the Alaska Federation of Natives on Thursday night, and guess who ended up in the paper on Sunday. This is an invitational dance, so everyone is invited to join in. 

Where is Keet?

One last nod to Fall- Cheese and a Moose

Fall was beautiful, but over already. We've had snow on the ground since 10/10/10. I managed to film a bit of the first snow, and will upload that soon to the One Day on Earth film project.

School is crazy busy as always, and Keet seems to have adjusted to being away from us 36 hours a week. Of course, I was reading a "parenting" book yesterday that said I SHOULD feel guilty about being away from my toddler when I could be staying at home instead. Thanks La Leche Leauge!

We're in the market for a new daycare setup, as Miss Nicole is expecting baby #4 in April! Great for her, but not so great for Keet. We'll find something suitable, but it makes the work challenge even harder.

The days are darker, but we have a new Happy Light, so maybe that will make the change less shocking to the system. Plus, Hawaii awaits! THANK YOU TOOTH FAIRY!!!

Nana!

Keet and Nana

Snow

He's Famous...

From:	Julian Hibbard

Dear Da-ka-xeen and Maya, 

I wanted to write and express my joy and appreciation 

at seeing the video you posted of Paul reading his ABC's on YouTube. Your son looks 

adorable and the footage absolutely captivated me.  I hope you don't mind but I created

a link to it on my website and shared the information with my publisher who also 

posted a link on their blog - 

http://markbattypublisher.com/blog/baby-reading-noir-a-z/ 

Thank you for purchasing my book and sharing such a special moment. 

Fairbanks, Alaska looks like a wonderful environment for Paul to grow up in and

I wish you all a life of much love and happiness together. 

Best wishes, 

Julian

http://www.julianhibbard.com

Gorgeous Fall Walk

Snack on the Mountain

Mother and Son - Fall 2010

Keet and I enjoyed a long walk a few weeks ago, and I took these photos then. The weather has turned to winter winds, the leaves are mostly gone from the tree tops. We spent the weekend tightening up the loose ends in the "yarden" and are we're mostly ready for the snow to fly. It's not quite October!

Freezer if full of salmon, moose, and locally raised beef, berries from the mountains, and vegetables from the garden. Plus the case of HOT Hatch Green Chili that I special ordered from our local grocery store and roasted earlier this fall! I'm certainly not the best gardner in the area, but I am glad to report that Keet likes to eat Kale fresh off the plant.

The boy is talking up a storm, and knows his ABCs for sure. His Tlingit pronunciation is rather impressive as well as we still only are allowed to listen to "Gaaw Songs" in the car.

"the boys"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nicole
Date: Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 11:14 AM
Subject: Fw: "the boys"
To: Maya

They were so cute sitting next to each other talking on the phone I just had to get a picture and send it your way!

Drumming on the Mountianside

Click on the video itself to watch it compressed for slower connections.

More Wickersham Dome photos

Wickersham Dome photos

Hiked up Wichersham dome with Heather, Matt, and Lucy this past weekend. What a beautiful day we had! I'm still a bit sore after the five hours with Keet in the backpack, but it was a blast!

Here are some of the photos that Heather took.

She wrote me:

Hiya,

That was so much fun yesterday! Thanks for a delicious and healthy dinner too :o)

Mmmmmbeer.

I'm sending all the photos (big file size) though some are not as great as others...that way you can decide which you'd like to keep.

See you soon,

:o)

Heather

ABC's

For about 2 weeks now Keet has been reading his ABC's. He is doing capital letters mostly, and from sign language too. He usually quits around T-U-V but gets the rest no problem.

I think he's brilliant. The book Da-ka and Keet are reading is the Noir A-Z that Daka picked up at the International Center for Photography in NYC shortly after Keet was born. It's a little over (all) of our heads, but we get the ABC part!

Tanana valley fair

We went to the fair this weekend, and had a lot of fun parading around and seeing the animals. They sure grow em big up here!

Fishy Fish

Fishing with Ron was a blast today. Da-ka worked on the house, but Keet and I headed out in the 1962 boat that Ron brought up with him from Cali up the Alaska highway years and years ago.

Ron was once my yoga student. I nicknamed him "Guruji". Students are teachers usually! We had a lot of fun at Birch lake, about 30 miles south of North Pole.

Sweet ride

Steady Captain Keet!

We went trolling for trout, and caught one rainbow. Then another one on the way home, after a light rain!

Naptime on the the boat. Slept for an hour!

Ready to Fish!

Back at Ron's house for Fish dinner

Playdate in the Sun!

Magali and Florian have the most beautiful place. You can visit Florian here: http://www.florianphilip.com/

Keet is one week older than Florian, but he is MUCH faster!

They have the dogteam, and the sunshine and an amazing blueberry patch!
We had such a blast. Thanks for the photos Magali!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Magali Philip
Date: Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 8:39 AM
Subject: PHOTOS
To: Maya

<<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>> <<...>>

THANKS FOR YOUR VISIT IT SAW SO GOOD TO SEE BOTH OF YOU

Love

Magali & Florian

Emah's Visit!

What a wonderful time we had with Emah's visit to Alaska. Too short, too fast. Too much RAIN! Oh well, the sun of course is shining today. Some great times were had including going to the World Eskimo Indian Olympics, seeing some of the Golden Days events (in the rain), playing at the park, having a family BBQ with friends, and even visiting Chena Lakes.

Keet said his first full sentance while Emah was here to witness:

"I love Puffs!" Smart boy. He's also got most of his ABC's down already. Amazing.

From Keet: The Unoffical Story

From Keet: The Unoffical Story

From Keet: The Unoffical Story

From Keet: The Unoffical Story

From Keet: The Unoffical Story

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/32HeNieqxldx-2ZqbZ8Fyw?feat=directlink