The Little Things…

Measuring spoons on hooks inside the cabinet.

Things like this make me oh-so-happy.

An Experiment

I did an experiment the other day. I gave my Lego-instruction-sheet-reading genius an IKEA stool (in parts, how they come) and some tools.

I let him have at it.

He needed a little help here and there. But by the end of the evening he had put three together and no longer needed the instructions.

This girlie was the quality control. She’s climb up and give it a good wiggle.

It passed every time.

Anyone need some help putting something together? I know just the little guy to help you…

Two Things.

1. My girlie is over three months old.

2.  I have finally ended the seven year Africa-hair-funk.

You can congratulate us both. :)

My Littlest

Here’s just a few photos of my lillest…

The big kiddos think it’s so fun and special when Lil’ A gets a bottle and they get to help!

Learning how to fold laundry at a young age.

She’s thrilled!

And she’s growing fast… kinda a little chunk!

Adjustments

Adjusting back to life in America has been easy at times. Hard at other times. And just plain funny at others!

Today we’re going to focus on the funny

It’s comin’ to you in list form cause I like lists and this is my blog.

1. When riding in the car, my children would ask “Why does this car have music?!”. They were confused because our vehicle in Africa was so old it didn’t really play music. We could have listened to Arabic radio, but frankly that wasn’t so fun. So we usually listened to nothing.  Since January they have adjusted to this and now Sweet N often asks us to turn on the music!

2. When we arrived it was cold outside. Brrrr. We’re desert people, not snow people really. One day I asked H to please put his coat on because it’s cold outside. He came into the living room proudly dressed in his jeans, socks and his winter coat. No shirt on underneath! He had a big grin because he was so excited to wear his new puffy coat but he had forgotten that he was supposed to be fully dressed UNDER his coat. Ha!

3. I had a hard time driving the speed limit. As in… I would be driving slooooow. I’d often look at my speedometer on the freeway and I’d be going around 50mph and cars would be flying by me. Ooops! Our city didn’t really have any freeways and we often drove on dirt roads or terribly damaged paved roads so we were rarely ever going more than 30 or 40 mph. 50 felt so fast!

4. I also still find myself thinking how inconvenient all the road rules are. It’s more more convenient (and fun) when you get to make up your own driving rules. I miss that.

5. I had to explain what a closet was to my children! Built in closets were a very rare thing in our country, so even though we would have them when we traveled, my kids were still somewhat unfamiliar with the concept and the word. We had a little lesson and that straightened them right out.

6. Once on a preschool field trip the kids teacher came back excited to tell me how well the kids did so well in the crowd, didn’t have fear of being amongst so many people and weren’t afraid to be a little pushy to get up to the front. Ha! That’s what African ‘lines’ will do for ya…

7. When I stick my foot or arm out from underneath my covers at night I still occasionally have the though “Uh oh, I hope the mosquitos don’t get me!”  Funny, since there’s hardly a bug in our new city at all…

8. I am so thankful for my refrigerator light (among a thousand other small luxuries). When I open the fridge at night it’s so bright I can actually see things in there. It’s amazing!

9. When Mike traveled to South Africa in February I wondered if diapers were cheaper there and if I should ask him to bring some back for me to save money? Ha! We used to do this all the time whenever someone (anyone, really) was traveling outside of our country in north Africa, but I’m pretty sure things aren’t really cheaper many places in the world than where we are now. Hard to stop that kind of thinking after so many years!

10. In Africa we threw our toilet paper in a trash can instead of in the toilet. This causes some confusion upon coming back to America. I get confused myself and so I can’t blame the kids! H had one instance of throwing his toilet paper in the bathtub soon after arrival. Ha! I blogged about that here.

I’m glad I made notes of these things, aren’t you? Such a funny thing transitioning from one lifestyle to another, especially with wee ones…

Happy Helpers

Today I needed to clean the floor. Last time I needed to clean the floor N wanted to help me and I ended up getting super frustrated cause we had to share the squirt bottle which slowed me WAAAAY down and I just wanted to get done and off my knees!

So today I filled three squirt bottles with vinegar and water and got out three rags before I even started.

I’m such a genius.

The kids got really into it and about five minutes in I left my rag on the floor and went to get my camera. This had to be documented.

H offered to clean under things that are hard for me to reach (and then that led to cleaning under that things weren’t a problem for me to reach, but hey… that’s okay!). He’s a very thoughtful boy.

N offered to clean the bathroom floor. Whaaaat?

They just kept going.

And going.

This girlie was NO help, however. :)

Not bad, eh?

Then they moved onto their bikes.

And the play kitchen on the deck.

H tackled the inside and the outside of a set of sliding doors.

N sprayed some of her Daddy’s books (ooops! Shhhh, don’t tell) before we had a conversation about what we do and don’t spray. Then she moved onto the kitchen island.

Side track… cute hairdo? IfIdosaysomyself…

Also, this girlie was making up her ‘tweaning song’ as she was working. I started typing as she was singing. I had to work pretty  hard to not laugh…

Well I dinent (didn’t). Well I dinent. Well I dinent do dis (this) jobs before…

I never did doing jobs. I never did doing jobs. I never did doing jobs…

All da time.

I never did doing jobs betause it is my first time doing my job. It is my first time doing my job. It is my first time doing my job…

Soooo I tan(can) do my job when I tan do my job if I tan do my job. If I can do my job (repeat?)

If I caaaan.

I didn’t ever do my tings that my mommy and daddy say. [Is that so?!]

Yes I don’t det (get) my jammies on all da time. [Uh huh. True, my dear firecracker girl.]

So this is not dooood. So I get in twouble (trouble) for not letting me cwean da sings (things). [At least she shows this is ‘not dood’! This is something, right?]

I never did tweean (clean) my sings (things) and Mommy and daddy clean my things.  [Yes. Yes we do sometimes. It’s often easier than waiting for you to do it.]

Mommy and Daddy twean my sings (things) and I never do it all da time. [I was just waiting, HOPING for her to sing an explanation of WHHHHYYYYY she doesn’t obey and why she prefers the battle of wills that ensues when she doesn’t obey!!! But alas, she never did.]

SO I used to have a “Thank you God for giving me the sings I need” [What? How does this relate? Preschool brain side-track, I’m sure. Or maybe she knows she needs the training and discipline we give her to help her learn to obey and she was thanking God for that? I think this is what I’ll choose to believe…]

For I never did the sings (things).

(Do you know a working song that I am singin?) [Talking to her brother for a minute…]

and singing on…

I never did the sings (things)…

And on and on it went.

Oh my goodness she cracks me up! I love hearing her songs. I learn so much!

Big sister is singing and cleaning away and this one is still snoozin’. Still no help. Except the fact that she wasn’t crying. That WAS helpful.

This cleaning went on at least an hour. H used up over two bottles of cleaner. N figured out her bottle could spray about eight feet. Her rag was DRIPPING wet. Everything smelled like vinegar and the kids were so stinkin’ happy. I practically had to pry the bottles from their hands and force them out the door to go play in the hall.

I fully realize that this was probably beginners luck. But maybe, just maybe this will occasionally repeat itself and the spots can get off my floors without ME doing it? Maybe?!

They really did help me! Job well done kiddos!!!

Ten Little Fingers

Ten little fingers,

Ten little toes,

Two little eyes,

One little nose.

Put them together and what have you got?

A baby oh so sweet, ready or not.

The Great Outdoors

We went camping a couple weekends ago. It was a bit cold, but o-so-fun! We actually ‘camp’ in a cabin with beds, a heater, kitchenette and toilet. That’s how we roll these days. Maybe when our youngest is four we’ll try tent camping again? Maybe?

:)

This is our latest family photo. I love it.

Here is my littler girlie grinnin’ at her Daddy. And yes, we played shuffleboard. And yes, I annihilated my husband and that was one of the many highlights of our night away.

She’s just so stinkin’ cute all bundled up! First camping trip at two and a half months… not bad!

A First For Us

Um, it looks like we may have a thumb-sucker on our hands! This has never happened to us before. I am not quite sure what to do!!  I’m inclined to try to encourage her toward her cork and discourage the thumb… but she’s just so darn cute…

“Wocks”

My daughter loves her “wocks” (rocks). It started many many months ago. Maybe you could say in Africa there wasn’t much to play with besides sand and rocks but that wouldn’t be entirely true. Just partially true. They were kind of everywhere and always free for the taking. We’d often have to stand by the gate and wait for her to dig through the sand so she could find the perfect “wittle wock” to bring in the compound. We could have tried to stop her, but frankly, it usually wasn’t worth the fight.
Do you know my daughter? ;)
Anyway.



We found a collection of rocks stashed inside an oatmeal can.



She’d go looking for the perfect rocks when we would visit the tea lady…



…and then display them on the table (and want to take them home).



She’d dig for them at church and carry them around in her shirt.



She’d collect them during her Daddy’s football (soccer) game and put them in an old bottle (which was also scavenged).



When we returned to the States, we discovered several rocks hidden in the dresser drawer.



Recently she dug in rocks outside of church.



And here is a collection that showed up on our coffee table.

We often find her looking for the perfect rock outside the building we live in and find rocks stashed in the pockets of her school backpack and in her coat pockets. Or in the washing machine. Oops.
Dear girl. Dear sweet silly girl. I love her. And rocks are pretty harmless, eh?