A classic case of Mommy abandonment

My darling children will be taking a break from destroying the ambiance of European cities to visit Charleston and Indiana. They leave tomorrow with Eric...and couldn't be more excited! Eli keeps talking about how, "he gonna seep on a big boat ah his papaw! He also gonna wim on da boat and eat on da boat!" (He actually jumps, flaps his arms, pretends to swim, and usually falls down or runs into something while describing all of this...I guess you'd have to see it to appreciate it.) Ava told me today that she is going to have a picnic with Mimi, Papaw, and Grammy...I have not even tried to explain the logistical problems we would probably have with said picnic. All in all we are all so excited to see the Indiana (and SC) bunch! I will be arriving home on the 7th, but until then will be home alone. (So expect lots of blog entries about, um, me doing homework and spring cleaning...just kidding...I'll spare you!) Here are a couple pictures of our day! Enjoy!
Ava and Eli at the Ely pool. Their lips are completely blue!
Not only did one kid decide to leave her bed and sleep in the guest room, but the other could not sleep without her. I guess Eli figured that letting his sister sleep on top of him was better than sleeping alone! That's a pretty good brother! (And since I found evidence that Ava read to him while he fell asleep, let me just say, That's a pretty good sister too!

Our daily lessons

They say you should always learn something new everyday, so, for lack of better blog fodder, here are our life lessons de jour...
Ness: Roombas do not like Easter grass. Period.
Eric: While packing light is greatly appreciated, setting yourself up to only have one pair of pants for an entire week is not so palatable to the wife.
Ava: Whining is a quick way to get time out. (Yeah right! If she learns this lesson before she's 18, I will probably fall out from shock!) She is learning that Eli will go to bat over his turn at the computer...
Eli: Ear plugs are not food. They taste bad and if you decide to eat them anyway, you will get into trouble.

Since that was completely underwhelming...here are some consolation pictures to make visiting our site today somewhat worthwhile!
Little man loves his computer games. He counts to 12 in Spanish and is learning how to use the MAC, so this new obsession is not so bad, right? (Whatever helps me sleep at night, huh?)
He is dancing (and singing) to the music. Notice the coffee pot on the computer desk...we are down a transformer. (Apparently transformers don't like water...another life lesson...)
Ava braves the cold and rain to go look for "small things" with her "man flying glass".
Eli joins her for about 4.5 minutes. Poor kid should have been born to Panamanian or Hawaiian parents...he just hates the cold weather!
What do you think they are looking at...?

Why my house will never be in Better Homes...

Now I spend far less time than I should cleaning my house. I do have Bernie, and I think we might have some furniture polish somewhere...anyway...the kids were enjoying a rare moment of sunshine outside. I was trying to wash dishes, water plants, find the kitchen table, and start dinner all at once. I heard Eli whining about "Ma foot", but it didn't sound urgent, so I ignored it. Bad idea.
If you zoom in, you could probably see the mud all over the floor. Of course I (I mean Bernie) had just vacuumed. I quickly grabbed an old rag out of the trash, forgetting that I had just emptied my roomba (after throwing out the old rag). So now I have what can only be described as "Bernie guts" all over the kitchen, along with muddy footprints. Do they make Roombas that mop/clean milk off ceilings/provide psych evaluations on stressed mamas? They should.
"I tuck!...part 2"

Snow In Spring?!?! (AKA Happy Easter)

Well ... first of all let us say Happy Easter to everyone out there! Here at Casa Conderman we have had a wonderful day celebrating Easter Sunday. But it needs to be said that it certainly was not the day we had in mind. Every time I think that English weather has finally maxed out the crazy factor, the land serves up another dose of crazy. For example, here was the weather yesterday (the following is absolutely NOT being exaggerated!)
Time: 1500 hours - sunny
1530 hours - cloudy
1600 hours - sunny
1700 hours - see below


You just can't get used to anything here! It may be the one thing about the weather here that bothers me the most - the rapid, constant inconsistency! Well, by next morning, we woke up to Easter morning and it was still snowing! Sure, we go through all of Winter without even one fleck of snow or cold weather, and as soon as it becomes Spring we get nailed ... Oh, well. After our normal Sunday ritual (with an emphasis on it being Easter and all), the children started begging to go outside. They got dressed up in their fantastic ski clothes and hit the snow.

They had tons of fun out there. This, by the way, is Frosto the Snowman (that's not a typo). Yes he is wearing a Yankee had and Ness' scarf to stay warm. We also built him (not pictured) a snow house. Of course, to Eli and me it was a snow fort, but to Ava is was his home. All in all, I was so happy to get this weather and the children had 2 hours of tiring fun.

Later it was time to celebrate Easter. We had friends over for dinner and later had an egghunt outside. Note the weather.


Yes by this time the snow was all gone, the sun was shining, and the children were able to hunt the eggs outdoors. (Unfortunately, poor Frosto had already collapsed as his base had melted enough for him to topple over. Poor Ava was a little scarred from this experience!) Both Ava and Eli (and Logan - see other posts to know who he belongs to) had a great time searching all over the yard for their treats. Hyper children anyone? But still well worth it.

Luckily for us, they managed to control themselves long enough to take this wonderful picture. It really was a great day for everyone here. At the end of the day, both kids actually came to us to put them to bed. Actually, Ava didn't even do that - she just marched herself upstairs, brushed her teeth, and put herself to bed. Amen.

So ... again we here would like to wish all a Happy Easter and a Spring without snow.

cupcakes and stupid party tricks

So, I think I said (an entry or two ago) that The Little Man has been underrepresented lately. Besides eating like a hobbit (about 6 or 7 meals a day for you that have been sorely deprived of your JRR Tolkien), Eli has not had too many blogable moments. There was that afternoon, about a week ago, that I had one of my "lampoon Mommy" moments...and poor Eli was along. We had gone to pick up Ava from school, like we do everyday at 3pm. It was raining and I let Eli carry Ava's pink umbrella. He was very excited. We parked the car near the school and unloaded Eli and his pink umbrella. I should also mention at this point that it was very windy, as well as rainy. Eli skipped down the sidewalk....and then a gust of wind blew his little pink umbrella inside out (it also blew mine inside out). I quickly tried to right both of our umbrellas and I did, just in time for another gust of wind to pick Eli up, Marry Poppins style, and blow him right over...into a rather large mud puddle. His umbrella went blowing across someones garden. I had a moment of panic, trying to decide whether to first pick my little guy out of the mud puddle or chase that pink umbrella (which at this point blown into someone's house and was now stuck in their hedge). Fortunately, both Eli and Pink Umbrella survived (and for the record, I tucked my muddle little man under my arm and ran for the umbrella with most of the parents of Ava's classmates looking on. Small wonder that she gets invited to very few play dates...)

So, as I was saying, Eli has given me little blogable material, until today. I went upstairs for about 2.3 seconds before I heard, "I tuck, I tuck!" (I'm stuck for those who don't speak or have forgotten Toddlerese). I dashed downstairs to find this...
Apparently, Eli had gone on a "search and rescue" mission for one of his little matchbox cars.
Chillin, watchin a little Diego (toys nearby in case the show gets boring)
We made Easter cupcakes today. I am not sure what sugar, coconut, and jellybeans have to do with the resurrection of our Savior...but...
...You can't deny the happiness in thier little sugar coated faces!

It's almost spring and love is in the air...

Today was one of those days where I literally watched the clock from about 1830 on, just waiting and wishing for bedtime. After Ava paddled Eli for whacking her upside the head, I decided that bedtime was coming early tonight. It never ceases to amaze me how fast they can go from best buddies to sparring partners! When Eli is napping, Ava wonders around the house lost, asking every five minutes if she can go wake him up. Eli "whines and pines" for Ava while she is at school. They are each other's best friend. When they play with other children, Ava follows Eli like a shadow and refuses to play with anyone that won't include her brother in the game. Eli happily goes along with anything Ava wants to do. Eli has even become quite the nurturer under Ava's strict guidance. Eli often drags me into the corner of the dining room and proudly shows me all of the baby dolls, dinosaurs, tractors, and toy cars lined up, noses to the wall in time out.
I am not sure which kid thought that the bear and dinosaur needed to "spoon" in our bed, but it was a nice reminder of why raising children is such a joy. This is the good stuff that keeps us parents going when we catch the kids launching themselves (often unsuccessfully) over the "pet" vacuum cleaner. It now makes funny noises...

Miss Mouth

Today I ran outside during the 26 and a half minutes of sunshine. Upon my return, Ava greeted me at the door (talking nineteen to the dozen...as usual). "Mommy when you are mad and get upset with me or Daddy, you do just like this *enormous sigh* and this...
I sent her royal sassiness and her Daddy outside to wash cars. Of course it started to rain...but that just makes it easier, right?
And then the beautiful rainbow
There were actually two rainbows...probably the best I have ever seen.
Poor little guy has been underrepresented lately...he still loves cars, balls, and cartoons. His new love is Ava's big pink heart shaped necklace...I have chosen not to post pictures of that...

Ava is having her tubes removed from her ears in a little outpatient surgery tomorrow. I have tried to convince her that her ear operation will help her listen to Mommy and Daddy better but she just looks at me with that same look from the first picture and says, "Actually Mommy, they are just taking my old tubes out cause they don't work anymore. It won't make me hear you any better, actually." Yes Ava, but I still remain hopeful.

US bound!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we will be coming home for a visit from 7April to 13April...we miss you all so much! Eric and the kids will actually be arriving late on the first..but those lucky ducks get to go down to Charleston and spend a few days in the sunshine with my sister. I'm happy for them, really, I am...

Just a little Ava story for you...
The kid loves her bugs, especially worms! Today, while playing in the garden, she found a particularly fat, wriggly worm. Being the nurturing little girl that she is, she picked him up and brought him over to her daddy to admire. Eric reminded her that worms need dirt to be happy. "Oh!", squealed Ava. 30 seconds later she returned with her wiggly worm, lightly sprinkled with dirt. "Now he can be happy." I pray she keeps that lovely childish innocence, it is one of my favorite Good Things in life.

Normandy!

Everyone probably can remember that one certain vacation from childhood, where Murphy (and his law) rode along....lesser families may have given up and gone home. But not us, we are Condermans, we always press on....

We had to get up at about 4am on Saturday morning to catch the early ferry out of Dover. Somehow, we managed to turn around twice in the first 5 minutes. About a half hour down the road, I realized that I had forgotten the bread and peanut butter. In our family, no peanut butter=potential kid riot. Not good, not good. We made it to Dover with about 30seconds to spare...only to find that one of the Ferry companies had gone on strike. Dover was just one big cluster of lorries, blocking all of the roads and making it impossible to get to the port to catch our ferry. We missed our ferry. We had to buy a new ticket and wait four hours to get on our ferry. It is a lot of fun keeping two tired peanut butterless children happy for four hours....

We finally got on the boat. Warning bells went off in our heads as we sat down at the table and were handed our "complimentary" barf bags. About 5 minutes into the Channel crossing, the vomiting marathon began. Our kids did well until about halfway through the trip...Murphy must have dropped the ball because Ava actually hit the barf bag (rather than the floor, seat, Mommy, etc). Eli was unhappy but, thankfully, unpukey.

Murphy must have hung around the docks waiting for our return because the rest of the trip was about as smooth as it ever is...the pictures are a little out of order...but enjoy...
Here we are on the beach in Normandy...wasn't it nice of Ava to loan Eli her hat?
Isn't she beautiful??
Pink hat aside, isn't he handsome??
Walking from the American cemetery to the beach
Eric pretending he is a Nazi, Ava pretending she is a "grass princess",(Eli is behind me throwing rocks at flowers)
Here we are at the Abby at Mont Saint Michel. The Archangel Micheal descended here in 708, so they named the island after him. Maybe that is why Ava got a little overwhelmed and had to go "inspect the bricks".
In the little Abby garden
The winding streets of Mont Saint Michel
And now we are back on Normandy beach (yes out of order-I know)
This is the cathedral at Bayeux where we stayed. We got to see the famous Bayeux tapestry depicting William the Conquerer, um, conquering I guess. The town was lovely and Ava and I had fun exploring the grounds around the cathedral at night, looking for ghosts. We think we might have seen a few...
Yes I love my little Auto timer on my camera
And back to Mont Saint Michel...if it looks familiar, it is probably because the city in Lord of the Rings, Return of the King was designed after it. Maybe that is what inspired our kids to act like little orcs and dive into the "swamp" of receding tide water outside of the city. It was great fun to watch them play in the mud and get to have some "kid time".
Eli was really on the trip too...he just doesn't ham it up for the camera like my pretty Ava!
Eating bread and cheese on the window sill in France...does life get any better?

Note- the boat crossing back over involved no vomit from our children- yeah! But we did manage to miss a turn and wind up in downtown London. Why is it that Eric and I are both college educated well traveled adults, and yet we manage to still get 10 IQ points dumber anytime we try to read a map??? C'est la vie...