October 1, 2009
Joseph and Bernard (the cook’s sons) spend a lot of time at our house. They enjoy exploring Eli and Lucy’s toys and movie media.
The other day though, they each arrived with something that peeked the interest of both Eli and Lucy.
Home made cars:
A fruit juice box, couple sticks and can lids.....
A cut up flavored milk crate, bottle caps & sticks
Bernard working on a car for Eli and Lucy
September 21, 2009
It was just almost a month ago now.
Guess I’m a little behind.
He loves school. I love his uniform. Easy and simple, no struggles over what to wear in the morning.
Yes, I see there are spots, I think he spilled yogurt and I tried to salvage the “jumper” aka sweater so we didn’t have to go for the backup one.
He is doing great in school. He has finally adjusted to the full days of school, although I am not adjusted to the fact that he has nightly homework.
He’s a leftie who seems to become a rightie when he’s been in school for some time (they assure me they are not trying to influence him). As he comes into his own his creativity and perceptiveness are showing themselves. I love this about him.
He is friends with EVERYONE and is always asking for their number so I can call them for playdates. Overall, it is great to see Eli blossom into such a social, delightfully humorous little boy. Here are his friends Sinclair, Bernadette (twins), Maanov and Ishie at school, posing for my camera on the 1st day:
August 27, 2009
Eli likes to hang out at the main gate where he practices playing “guard” with Tito our security man. One morning last week, he was over there particularly early, like by 7:45 or so. I don’t generally have a problem with him being over there…it allows him free time outside, he keeps Tito company, and I get a little break from the chaos that can often become my world. Anyhow, I looked outside and noticed that Eli’s shoes were still neatly parked by the door. And, if his shoes are still by the door, then they are not on his feet! I think that we have had the conversation of the importance of wearing shoes about a thousand times already.
It obviously isn’t sinking in.
Anyhow, I walked myself over to the gate and walked Eli back home, while on the way explaining the importance of wearing shoes and socks. Followed by a lot of comments from Eli such as, “But Joseph and Bernard don’t wear shoes”, “But I haven’t stepped on any thorns”, “But I’m fine mom” and my favorite, “Just let me do what I want to do mom!”
As we approached our crushed gravel driveway and the journey with Eli became quite slow (he has to walk carefully over those sharp stones in bare feet), I heard a funny noise behind me.
I’m getting pretty used to the sounds of the birds that frequent our yard. This was not a familiar sound.
I turned and looked over my shoulder, and what did I see?
A Marabou Stork. One of these:
He was huge…especially in contrast to these little guys (Pied Crow) that are everywhere in my yard:
The stork stayed around for quite some time, picking up large sticks that I hypothesized were for nest building, but Uncle Dennis, you can tell me if that is a correct assumption or not. I yelled for Megan to come take a look, we snapped a round of pictures, and then the stork flew off to a nearby tree to roost.
I told my mom about my sighting.
Later she face booked me (yes, she is with the times and on FB!) and she commented that maybe my being stalked by a stork is a good sign. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I kind of like the thought. Perhaps there will be another little May in our future yet!
July 2, 2009
This last week Ian had an interesting conversation with a Kenyan man who will renamed nameless in order to protect the innocent (quite literally).
The conversation started out with a discussion of movies and the man asking Ian, “Why do they all hurt each other like that?”
“What do you mean, hurt each other?” Ian replied.
“Like killing each other, and shooting each other. Doesn’t that hurt?” the Kenyan questioned.
“Well, it’s acting” Ian slowly said
“But in Terminator, that man pulled back his skin and there was metal under there!” exclaimed the Kenyan.
“Yeah, but that wasn’t real.”
“But there was metal inside his arm!”
Ian again, “But that is acting.”
Kenyan man getting frustrated that Ian was not understanding, “But what about the wrestling? They must be really angry to do that to another. They must be very dangerous to know those moves.”
Ian, “Uh, that’s just fake.”
“What do you mean? They are jumping on each other and hitting each other.” Kenyan man says very confused.
Ian, “No, it’s just acting, it is all planned out ahead of time, you know, like a script. Actually, the Terminator is the governor of California!”
Kenyan man, “Ahhh, ohhhhh!”
And so the conversation continued. I don’t think that Ian was successful in convincing this man that Terminator wasn’t really made of metal and was pulling his flesh off. He’s right, that really would hurt!
Anyhow, in the spirit of our WWF story, thought I’d share a little WWF Lucy style that has been a favorite past time right when I am trying to shoosh them both to bed:
WWF is real in our house.
July 2, 2009
This week a volunteer arrrived from Holland and she was sent with a plastic bag of random goodies to give out to children. She brought the bag to us for use by the children at the Centre.
Eli and Lucy decided to preview the contents and do a little modeling for us. Eli’s looking pretty “cool”, but I think Lucy’s look has a bit of work to be done yet:
June 13, 2009
The kids have always been enthralled with my makeup bag. At home in Portland, I would pacify their interest and desire to be made-up by occasionally putting on a little nude eye shadow on each of the kids. They would then run to the mirror or each other an exclaim, “Oh, don’t my eyes look beautiful?” Eli has also taken things a step further and notices other people’s eye makeup and often compliments them on it. I.e. Erin’s pretty blue shadow on Aloha Days, or the Ross check-out girls’ crazy metallic green eyes. He notices. And he loves it.
Because we have found that Lucy sleeps much better when Eli is out of the room, he has been sleeping in our bedroom at naptime.
A few days ago, I caught him with my make-up bag which is now out on the dressing table in our bedroom. He had been told NOT to get into it, but he looked hilarious, so I took a picture of it, took the makeup away, scolded him with my “big girl voice” and told him to go to bed. End of story.
Till yesterday.
Yesterday, while I was working with some women at the program, dad put the kids down for nap. Or so he thought.
I came home, and after a few minutes went in to check on Eli. The boy had the makeup. And he had gone to town. It was worse than the time in Portland when he got a hold of my spray foundation and covered his naked body and the walls of of our walk-in shower with the ENTIRE can. Note: that stuff is greasy as doesn’t come off of shower tile well.
He not only emptied the can of spray foundation, but he experimented with EVERY piece of make-up in my bag….which is pretty extensive thanks to my make-up artist friend Erin. His arm looked like he was an African…thanks to a heavy coating of mascara. He really painted it on good. And, his face looked like a cross between an African warrior and a lemer. He tried everything…eye shadow, eye liner, face powder, blush, bronzer, color matching foundation…you name it. And then, he must have gotten bored and decided to paint on my comforter….NOT AWESOME either. For the record, color matching foundation bleaches out fabric. Just in case you ever need to know.
Anyhow, he is quite repentent, and has been asking me things like:
“Mom, what can I do that you love?” “How can I make your heart happy again?” “Mom, I’m sorry I did your makeup” “Mom, you don’t have a blanket now huh?” “Mom, can we still go get me a special toy”…..and so on.
Just in case the lesson hasn’t sunken in quite yet and the boy gets another make-up urge…I’m back to locking it up again. Most of my make-up was salvagable, but it might not make it through another Eli episode.
The boy needs some paint and an easel already.
June 11, 2009
On her "mountain" of stones..beyond a canyon/river but it is hard to tell.
That is Eli’s name for Lucy when he is teasing her. It drives her crazy. He knows it does, so of course she gets called that even more. Until I step in to referee. Then he just tries to whisper it. Anyhow, Lucy is quite the character. Surprising people here with her boldness and toughness. People are always grabbing for her when she falls, but then she just gets up, brushes herself off and is fine. She wanted me to take this picture of her outside when she was playing “king of the mountain”, which involves her yelling to anyone who will listen, “GET OFF MY MOUNTAIN!” I don’t know where they get these things.
As we were walking outside, it was early evening and Lucy pointed and said, “It so shiney!” I must have looked confused because she repeated herself and pointed to the sky. The evening sky at dusk looked shiney or rather silver if you ask me, but hey, shiney works. Then she pointed to the cow and said, “Did they melt the cow?” Took me a minute to figure out that one too. Melt, milk. You can see how the two words might get confused. Then she looked at the scab on her knee and said, “Come on with me owie.”
Sometimes you just got to love this girl. Stubborness and all. Ok, I love her all the time.
