Redemption II - The Forest

Today I redeemed another Christmas gift card thingy from my hubby... a trip to the forest!

We'd never been to this 'forest' in the city before. We thought it would be hard to find, but it turned out it wasn't hard at all. We just drove to the vague vicinity of the forest and then followed all the young couples whose parents would not approve of them being out together... and we easily found the forest!

It was actually kinda of foresty. Much to our surprise! And it was right on the Nile. We were surprised by how quiet and peaceful it was.

We chose a tea lady who had chairs on the edge of the forest by the water and got settled.





If we would have come and hour later I think we would have seen a gorgeous sunset over the water.



N sat in this chair for about 2.5 minutes. During which time she gnawed on a muffin.



Then she threw bits of it on the ground and peered over to take a look.



H sat in his seat for about 4.5 minutes and drank his very own cup of carcaday (hibiscus) tea.

He would sit next to his cup of tea and stick his finger in it to repeatedly test the temperature.

So cute.



He especially enjoyed the last drops which were pretty much pure sugar. When he held the glass up to his lips for a long time to let the thick sugary syrup slowly drip down the glass into his mouth I asked him what he was doing. He told me "I jus wike da sugar Mama."

Uh huh. I bet you do!



There was lots to explore.



And lots of exploring to watch.



Please. Could someone tell me what is IN that belly of hers? Besides, of course, the muffin that was repeatedly dropped in the dirt and returned to her grubby little hands?

She's So Generous

My girly has really developed quite a generous side in the past few months. She loves to give things away...



She'd like to share with you a business card from the art show,



her Dr. Suess book,



a lid to our mosquito repellent



and of course... a maraca.

Those were all things you were really needing, weren't they?

Yup. She's so generous...

The Letter I

Today in school my boy studied (term used loosely) the letter 'I'.

See?



Isn't it amazing how H can paint in the letters so well?

Oh yes, my boy the teachers are great painters. I've already mentioned this here.

Aaaanyway, they always color or paint the letters and then color or paint something else that begins with the letter.

This is nursery school activities 101, right? You get it.

Only I thought today's 'I' word was a bit strange.

In the U.S., when Aunt Julie took H to Romp 'N Stomp, they also did the letter I. And they talked about igloos, iguanas and ice cream! Fun!

Today (are you ready for this?!) H brought home a nicely colored picture of an...



INJECTION?!!

You have got to be kidding me.

Really. Is this some kind of joke?

They had two and three year olds coloring pictures of syringes and teaching them INJECTION?!

Wow.

Quote of the Day

"KSTART YOUR VOGUE WATCH"

-a tee-shirt spotted during a walk

Words to live by, wouldn't you say?

(???!!)

A Fleecey Kind of Day

I know you hear me talk a lot about the weather. I can't help it. I guess it's just 'cause frankly... the weather is a big part of life here.

So there.

And lately it's been frigid. You already know this cause I showed you the five covers I've been sleeping under. What I didn't tell you is that the other day I added a sixth. A quilt.

Oh my.

Aaaaannyway...



We've all been wearing fleece.

Currently I'm wearing two layers.

It's around 65 in the house.

Brr. That does sound cold. Maybe I'm not crazy. Or maybe I literally have lost all sense for a normal person's idea of hot and cold. I have no idea.

But it's a funny thing. Cause I can sit here freezing and not be able to FATHOM sitting in the same spot in a few months roasting. Literally, I'll be sitting here in three months time, dripping in sweat, wrists sticking to the keyboard, half-dehydrated while my kids play under the fan in their skivvies while the air-coolers run full-blast.

Except I can't remember that feeling. The actually FEELING of being hot. It's completely lost on me at the moment.

And you can be sure that in THAT 'what-am-I-doing-living-in-these-temperatures MUST DRINK ICE WATER' moment that I won't be able to conjure up this feeling of chill that I am feeling now.

It's a funny thing, these feelings of hot and cold.

I don't have it figured out.

All I know is that today...



...it's a fleecey kind of day.

Repeat Offender

Usually I am pretty good about my kids' boundaries. As in, what is a toy and what is not.

But there is one area I have not been consistent with my daughter. At all.

It shows.

I know that the kitchen cabinets and pantry and fridge should be off limits. But she knows my weakness and she sneaks in at just the moment when I'm in the end stages of some multi-tasking kitchen feat. She knows I haven't the energy to wash my hands, move her away, tell her no, watch (and listen to) her scream and insist she stop digging in the cabinets.

Instead I use my energy to wash my hands, take her picture and tell her how cute she is, naturally.

She loves it.

Then later I clean up everything she pulled out.

Then I am reminded that I have lemon poppy seed muffins mixes and another bag of brown sugar. Oh goodie!

And the next day... repeat.

I have proof. Lots of proof.

Wanna see?

Okay. I can't hear you.

But here is the proof anyway...



Here she is squatting on a precious pack of pretzels.

She has no respect for the much-too-small-for-the-price packet of imported pretzels.



She's really looking hard for somethin'. Maybe she knows that I hide the cheerios back there...



She's so dang cute.



And brave! Here she risked her life to discover the unknown territory of the refrigerator door.



It keeps her happy and occupied...



I can't say no!



Just look at her...



I also came across this picture from November at my parent's house.

Even then, I found her gazing longingly into their (incredibly clean, now that I look at it compared to mine) fridge.

If only she'd eat half of what she pulls out...

Redemption

Today I redeemed one of my Christmas presents from my hubby...



We went to buy plants!!



As soon as we got out of the car H was mesmerized by all the flowers out front.



This place even had a proper flower shop in the front.



When I stepped in here I didn't feel like I was in the country that I was in.

At all.



H was most excited about anything orange. Orange is his color, after all.



This kid ran all over the nursery. Up and down and up and down and around and around the little dirt aisles.



Can you see the energy oozing out of his limbs? This compact pose was struck just before he started jumping in circles, limbs waving in all directions.

Crazy kid.

Crazy cute kid.



Seriously, he was hysterical.

"Moommeeeee, Daadeeeeeeee, wook at dis! Wook at dis! Woooook aaaat diiiiisss!" (pointing everywhere all at once).

Everything was amazing to him.

He is amazing to me.



This one? She couldn't have cared less.

It's okay. We all have our days, don't we?



This was my bonus plant! One above the prescribed two!!

The plant carrier was quite proud of his duty.



Look at this gorgeous vine with the hanging flowers. I bought one of those for the equivalent of five bucks. Do you think mine will turn out to look like that one?

Not sure.

But I'm a-gonna try.



Here we finalized our purchases. The blue flowering viney plant, the small very cheap bonus plant and the palm looking plant for indoors.

I think I'll go back with H sometime. I don't think the kid would have been any happier at Disneyland.

Okay. I don't actually know that.

I just know that he LOOOVED this plant nursery!

I did too. Thanks Mikey!