SOOTC

That is, straight out of the camera.  They haven't been lightroomed yet!  Sigh.

We are in hot, muggy Texas, awaiting the arrival of Leta and Tim's baby girl... waiting... waiting...

To keep cool and pass the time, the kids and I have been doing a whole lot of water play.

Hair cut

We ran into an English speaker at the playground today.  It went something like this:
"And what's your name?"
"Eliot.  And I have a fuzzy head."

And while we're on the topic of crazy things 3 year olds say...

At dinner a few nights ago, completely out of the blue, Eliot turned to me and said, "Mommy, let's throw Ivy in the garbage."  So much for sibling bonding.  I kept a straight face and told him it wasn't a nice thing to say.  But I think Daddy rolling around on the ground in hysterics may have detracted from the lesson. 

 

Card with a view

We finally got a break in the weather today.  We went over to the fields and played cars and soccer for a long time, and Eliot and I even took our shoes off! 

Stop bothering me, I'm reading.

Another rainy day, so we did a whole lot of this today. 

It's going to rain this weekend...

But today has been a nice sunny day so far.

I hate kids.

Well, not my own.  Not even all kids, just most of them.  Actually, I'm not really sure what percentage of kids I hate, but a significant portion fall into this category. 

Let me preface this by saying kids to mean, dumb things all the time, mine included.  This is not the first or last time one of my kids has gotten knocked down on the playground, though up until now it has been by accident or in an evenly matched scuffle.  However, my kids usually have the shame to hide, lie, or apologize immediately when they pull a stunt they know is wrong and are called on it.

Today at the playground, some little four year old hellion walked up to Ivy, grabbed her by the arm, and yanked her down to the ground, then started climbing up the slide like nothing had happened. 

I was on top of that kid before I realized I had stood up. 

I had hold of him by the arm while he tried to escape, and in my best French said something like, "What the hell are you doing???"

No answer, just continued trying to escape my grasp.  I was about to give him a good hard shake when I remembered that if you shake someone else's kid, that's technically assault.  (If you shake your own kid, it's just parenting)  So I asked "WHERE IS THIS CHILD'S MOTHER?"

A woman detached herself form the group of people busy not watching thier own kids and came running over.

At this point, I do have to admit that she apologized and tried hard to get her own kid to apologize.  Instead, he called me, Ivy, and his mom various colorful names, attempted to hit his mom, and did just about everything but spit in her face trying to escape.  She then told him they were going in, and started packing their things.

Eliot was apparently totally traumatized by the events, as he would no longer leave my side to go play, so we took off on a walk. 

We passed by the playground about 20 minutes later, and I can't say I was surprised to see that the little hellion was not inside, but still playing out in the playground while his mom talked with her friends. 

I'm guessing she was saying something like "Gee, I just can't do anything with him.  He never listens to me.  I try and try to discipline him, but he's just too strong willed."

If you can't see me right now, just know that I am rolling my eyes.

Going out to the playground after Eliot's preschool is great- there are a group of wonderful kids and moms who get along well together and who watch their kids.  But when we go out in the afternoons... it's rolling the dice.  I think we'll be going on nature walks from now on. 





 

Playing with composition

I'm in trouble.

Every once in a while, Frederic gets a little out of hand.  He starts to think that this is "our" blog.  He makes irrational demands that I put certain pictures up on the blog.  Because I am a wonderful and caring person, I usually acquiesce.

But last weekend, I forgot.  I got all caught up in my bird pictures that I forgot about that day's big event:  Eliot and Ivy had their first ride on a peddle boat.  We rented a pedalo and went out on the lake for a half hour.  Eliot was enthralled... Ivy less so.  Probably because I refused to let her out of the back pack and walk off the edge of the boat.  Maybe when the water is a bit warmer...
Les voila :

 

And this is a picture of Eliot with one of the numerous log carvings along our stretch of the lake.  After a family meeting, we've decided this snake's name is Saruman.  

Bubbles

If you are wondering how many pictures I had to take of Eliot blowing bubbles to get two I was willing to put on my blog, the answer is 167.  Seriously.

Down at the Fountain

Ludotheque

Eliot, Ivy, and I went on an adventure yesterday and discovered an easily-accessible ludotheque.  A ludotheque is like a toy library.  For a very nominal fee, each kid can borrow two toys for up to three weeks at a time.  I am so, so happy to have found this.  It will be nice to change things up without needing to purchase new toys and... dare I say it... waste a bunch of natural resources to make something that's only going to get played with for a couple of weeks anyway.   Thankfully, most of the toys available are wooden and don't have on/off switches! 

Bad news: they close for school holidays.  Sigh. 

What he said, what I heard, what we both understood...

Apparently these are all totally different things.

Eliot is a big fan of "Finding Nemo", and so today he said to me, "Mommy, I'm a scuba diver!" and then proceeded to swim around the living room. 

I went about my normal business of thinking deep and thought provoking thoughts while laying on the couch with my eyes closed.  A few minutes later, Eliot came up to me with a toy shovel and started scraping it along my leg.  Then he did the same thing to Ivy, as well as several toys. 

I asked him what he was doing and he said "Scooping."
"Why are you scooping?"
"Mommy, I already TOLD you.  I'm a SCOOP DIVER!"

Well, duh.

Cupcakes

Eliot figured out early on that frosting cupcakes for later was way less efficient than licking the spatula now.

 

Daddy!

The kids were soooo glad to be home with daddy!  Today we went out for some fresh air and had a nice afternoon in the hazy sunshine. 

I'm working on creating a flikr account for hosting my photos, but am still trying to figure out how flikr, blogger, and facebook all come together into a system that does not require multiple hours per day to update.  Hmmmm.

Easter Eggs!

I was so excited this year to dye eggs with Eliot for the first time!  It was even more fun than planned, and no permenant stains!  Eliot is so careful and meticulous, but his toddler exuberence still comes through... two eggs were harmed during the process.  I kept running back and forth from behind the camera to Eliot's side... loved every minute.  And the best thing about having so many grandparents is that we'll be doing it all again tomorrow!  These eggs were boiled by my mom (Nana), dyed by Eliot and me (Mommy!), and will be made into Devilied Eggs Sunday by my grandmother (GG).  I like the intergenerational shot.  Another extremely fun thing to photograph due to all the colors and excitement and happiness shared.

This week in pictures

This is just a bit of what we did this week. HIghlights included a trip to the park with my brother and Haf and Anne and Michael, the local pre-school carnival complete with face painting, and a trip to the zoo.