Cambridge and Kitty cats

Yesterday we went to Cambridge for some Japanese cuisine and to hit up the H&M for some shoes and PJs for the kids. The little ones had not exactly been stellar at church (Eli had actually been kicked out of children's church and demoted to the nursery! Something about throwing crayons instead of coloring Daniel and the lions...) Anyway, we headed to Cambridge knowing that everything could quickly fly south. The kids were kind enough to nap on the way there, so they woke up as little angels...hungry little angels. Now it is a documented fact that anytime Eric and I try to find our way anywhere we get about 10 IQ points dumber. We have been to Cambridge at least a dozen times, but we still spent a good hour walking around in the rain looking for the restaurant...in the rain. By the time we gave up and settled for a semi respectable looking pub, we were all soaking wet, exhausted, and starving. The pub didn't serve milk so we gave the kids a bottle of water. Eli promptly removed the plastic top, set it on the table, filled it with water, and slugged it back like a shot of whiskey. The kids proceeded to do this until the fish and chips arrived. We got a few strange looks, but it kept them happy. Still, I have to wonder where little man learned that trick?...
After lunch we went to the store for the PJs and shoes, only to find out that the kids portion of that store had moved across town. At that point I was completely happy to duck into the baby Gap next door and pay out the nose for the shoddy looking shoes and pretentious pajamas.
In other news, Circe cat is clawing her way to "leader of the litter" status...literally. My kids have the battle wounds to prove it. Eli is actually a little scared of her...he has definitely had his share of maulings. Most the time the three of them play very nicely together though.
Ava shows off her mad writing skills!
You can't tell from the picture, but Circe is actually hanging on and willingly being "drug" through the house.


Ava loves to play "sockie" with my dad and step mom's dog. Lucky for Ava, Circe likes to play sockie too!

Is That The MP's Knocking At My Door?

For those who are unaware, my brother and I have been playing golf since we were old enough to stand. But there has been this ongoing competition between us and our dad trying to beat him one on one playing 18 holes. We would like to beat him - just once! And I had thought that by the time we were in our 30's (and therefore dad in his 60's) this would have been accomplished at least one time. Oh well ...
So I'm standing about 150 yards from the green on hole #10. I aim ... I swing ... I hit the ball hard ... and WAY LEFT! The ball goes out of bounds and over the protective wall with barbed wire. Next thing I hear is "PING"! Yes, my ball has hit the hanger for an F-15 Fighter. I sigh ... I drop a new ball ... I aim ... I swing ... I hit the ball hard ... and WAY LEFT again. The ball again goes on the same trajectory and again I hear "PING"! I hit the same hanger.
So what was a decent round of golf with a handful of pars and all I can think about is that I took an 8 on that par 4, and the indisputable fact that it is going to be impossible to beat my dad in golf from military prison.

P.S. Here is another quick conversation I had with Ava.

Ava: When can we go back to the beach?
Me: Which beach would you like to go to?
Ava: You know, Daddy, the one I was at with Mimi and Papaw.
Me: Ava, you know, I was there too.
Ava: You were?
Me:

Just illustrates that thing that is the Power of the Grandparent.

I think I need a set of encyclopedias...

Ava has a "fun" new game that she likes to play while driving called "I ask a question, you ask a question". She is allowed to ask us anything and we have to answer as best we can and then ask her a question. She comes up with some doozies too!
Ava- "How do clouds know when to rain?"
Me- I think I made something up about clouds getting too heavy so the water starts leaking, etc.
Ava- "Where does power come from?"
Me- Ummm, power lines, and maybe a power plant, transformer, something something windmill, negative charge....ummm...yeah.
Ava- "What does the inside of your body look like?"
Me- Sweet! I can answer this one! Well, there are bones and blood and organs and tissue, an-
Ava- "Mommy! Did God put the tissue there in case a kidney needs to blow his nose?"

Sure Ava, sounds good to me. What was your next question?

Just a Simple Update

Nothing fancy today - just giving an update on how things are going here. Surprisingly smoothly considering the 1 1/2 professions, 2 kids/no daycare, SOS and MSN life we're living here. Anyway, here goes.


We took a little trip to Bury St. Edmonds today. It is a very quaint town with a beautiful cathedral and the ruins of a 7th Century Abbey. Here are the kids and me outside in the gardens that surround the Abbey.
OK - this one should probably be deleted, but the kids and a new friend of Ava's decided to play hide and seek in the ruins. I was OK with that until they began climbing them! But being the Father of the Year Candidate that I am, I decided it was more important to get a picture of my children's escapades than actually stop them. But as soon as I finished taking the picture, I ran and got them off so I believe I didn't completely ruin my chances of winning the award.
We have had the most beautiful weather lately. We have slight tans and happy dispositions as a result. I mean, we're talking 8 or 9 days in a row of sunny mid-80's weather. So according to the law of averages, we should next be seeing that kind of weather in 2012.
Circe is surviving ... barely. The kids love her soooooo much that I worry she may be crushed under the weight of the love. But it's all good, because despite the multitude of kitty scratches (for Ava these include on both arms, her belly, her chest, her cheek, and one left nostril), Circe seems to be equally falling in love with ... well ... Ava at least. Soon after this picture was taken, I asked Ava to let go (which she did) so the cat could escape (which she did not try to do at all). Stupid cat apparently is enjoying all the hugs.

Lastly, I need to report some successes. My girls are doing very well. Ava has actually finished reading her first book - "A Great Day For Soccer". It's a Dora book, and with the exception of a few odd words like "through" she reads it all herself. Admittedly, she doesn't read for comprehension and it goes agonizingly slowly, but it still brought a little tear to my eye when the last word was uttered. Way to go AVA! (By the way, who invented this language we read?!? Every time I teach her a new rule she discovers a word that doesn't follow it. Very frustrating.)

And then there's the other girl in my life. Captain Conderman (AKA Ness) is plowing through her SOS and passing the tests. 4/5 completed and hopefully done by July. In addition, she is doing very well in grad school. Although this is not a surprise to us (or to you probably), it is only due to the extreme dedication and effort she is giving. And we are very proud of her.

Well, I'll give the blogging reigns back to Ness now. So the reading will be shorter and more witty ...

Happy Mother's Day!

Here are a few pictures of how we spent Mother's Day...with a bonus story at the end. Enjoy! Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful Mommas in our life!
Two mommies enjoying brunch at the Officers Club...yes all four of our kids were there too. They were actually very well behaved. Happy moms day to us!
Here is my little angel. She does grow fangs by 7pm, but, like I said earlier, she was an angel during brunch.
Such a handsome little man!!!
After brunch, we went to a birthday party. Eli found a nap buddy....
...but he woke up for cake time!
This is not what the bonus story is about, but I just wanted everyone to have a little glimpse into the joys and challenges of raising a boy. One jar of baby powder sure does go a long way!

So, the weather has been beautiful 70-80s here this week. A few days ago I decided to walk downtown to pay our water bill. I loaded Eli onto his push tricycle and Ava onto her bike that we had just taken out of the shed where it had stayed all winter. About 5 minutes into the half mile walk, Ava's handle bars fell off the bike. I hauled my parade back home, found a wrench and fixed the bike. I was still congratulating myself a few minutes later when the handlebars fell of again. The pedals wouldn't turn either. A closer inspection revealed that the bike was completely rusted out. Rats. I calmly explained that we would have to throw the bike away, which sent Ava into complete hysterics. I put her on her scooter and we left the house for the third time, Ava howling, Eli complaining of extreme hunger. About halfway down the hill into town, Ava (who was still bawling) started complaining her scooter wouldn't roll. Sure enough, the poor thing had spent too much time in the gravel that the plastic wheels were shot. She would charge mock 5, pigtails flying, downhill. As soon as she would pick up her foot, the scooter would completely stop, usually pitching her off. By the time we got to the bottom of the hill, I was carrying a crying Eli, pulling Ava on the scooter, and kicking the tricycle. I had run over my own foot twice. I made the kids sit on the bench while I crossed the street with the offensive scooter and practically threw it at the charity shop. I would have kicked the darn thing too, if my foot wasn't already throbbing. The first thing out of the kids mouths when Eric got home was, "Momma threw away my bike and scooter...sniff...sniff."
Today we bought Ava a new bike.

Anyone Want To Play "Ava-ball"?

I'm not really positive about the rules, how to win, or anything for that matter. However, it only took watching her once the get the idea. Apparently, what you do is the following:
1. Grip a golf club like it is a hockey stick.
2. Give the ball a slap-shot towards a hula-hoop that is obviously the "goal".
3. Run around the yard touching different items and yell "First Base", "Second Base", "Third Base", "Fourth Base", "Fifth Base" (yeah I don't get it either).
4. Run into the previously mentioned hula-hoop (which of course the ball didn't even come near) and yell "TOUCHDOWN!"

Maybe I should stick to teaching her one sport at a time :)

Watermelon and Sunshine!

Today marks day two of mid seventies, almost cloudless weather. We are in heaven! Our kids have gone outside at about 3pm (after naps and school) and have not set foot in the house until 730pm these two days. Imagine mud mixed with watermelon juice mixed with sidewalk chalk, sweat, kiddy pool water, and something blue and sticky that I have not identified yet. Now smear this across every square inch of my kids...they looked like summer! The bath water was actually gray with floaters when I washed them tonight. Ew. But the kids had a blast and I know two parents who are really hoping that all that play time wore them out enough so that they will sleep until 730 or 800 tomorrow. Right, keep dreamin' mommy!
It just doesn't get much better than this! And like the classy momma that I am, I taught them the proper way to spit watermelon seeds. giggle- Eric walked around with a seed stuck to his neck for the better part of the afternoon!
If this doesn't make you want to be a kid again, I don't know what would!
We realized at some point today that we hadn't seen Circe for about 2-3 hours. Because the kids had gone in and out so many times today, I was sure kitty had taken the opportunity to escape the tail pulling and over abundance of love. After searching the neighborhood, we found her stuck in a clothes hamper upstairs. We set her free and she went downstairs and tried to pick a fight with Ava's robot dinosaur. I heard spitting, hissing, and other threatening kitty sounds coming from the kitchen. I feel kinda bad for fussing at the kids for picking on her when, in fact, it was robot TRex doing the whisker pulling...this time...
About two seconds after I took this picture, Eli decided to water Ava. She was not nearly as amused as he was.
Somehow, many of my children's toys have opted to "migrate" outside in the last few days. Today I was planting flowers and dug up one of Eli's "racy cars" in the flower bed. (I love that he calls all cars "racy cars"...always conjures up an image of a little sports car all tarted up...)

Well, I'm off to clean the afternoon off of my bathtub...wish me luck...still don't know what that blue stuff was...

Circe Cat

So we finally broke down and got a kitten...we really are a "pet family" and the house has been lonely without the pitter patter of little paws. Now it is nearly impossible to get a kitten in the UK. The British won't give Americans pets because we have a bad reputation for abandoning them when we PCS. You pretty much have to hear about someones un-spade cat having a litter of illegitimate kittens at the precise right time to have a chance of owning one. I happen to check our online "for sale" base website everyday and found that one little free calico had just (an hour ago) been posted. I immediately attacked the poor guy with phone calls and emails. Good thing too, because by the time we arrived to collect our little bundle of joy the next day, at least four people had tried to claim our little Circe!
You just have to like books to fit into this family!
Little man is learning gentleness one time out at a time! Circe is either very tolerant or not real bright...today I caught Eli holding her tail while she ran in place, Little Man stroking her head muttering "good kitty". I aided her escape, talked to Eli about tail pulling, and watched Circe disappear (wisely) under the couch. Not 5 minutes later she was curled up next to Eli purring...I really hope she is just very patient, but one has to question her intelligence...
Nothing makes a little girl more happy than having a kitten!
This is what I just arrived home to find about 20 minutes ago. I had taken the couch cushion cover off to wash it, so the cushion was lying on the couch "exposed". Why Circe thought that a couch cushion was a good thing to munch on is beyond me...why she then decided to bite the sleeve off of Ava's dress just makes me wonder if we actually got a puppy in disguise...? Or maybe it was a warning against any "would-be tail pullers"...