The Jubilee celebrations

It was interesting to see the differing reactions in our house last weekend to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. As we settled down to watch the Thames flotilla, DS was completely dismissive. I don't think he saw anything particularly interesting in watching a lot of boats travelling down a river. (Like his father, he'd rather be in a boat than watching one.) He didn't understand what it was all about, and said, "It'll be on again next year anyway - I'll watch it then!"

DH, of course, is interested in most things that involve small boats and seemed at least mildly interested. DD, however, was glued to the screen and fascinated. She didn't get all the cultural references, but did ask about the ones she knew she didn't get: "Mommy, what's an MP?" I was gobsmacked to discover however that, although she knows the British national anthem is God Save the Queen, it took her forever to come up with the name of the US anthem! "Umm . . . something about rockets and a battle" was the best she could manage until I gave her some hints!

The Jubilee Barge carrying The Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

Seen from Chelsea Embankment, looking towards Albert Bridge.

  © Copyright Oast House Archive and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Feeding the (rabid?) vermin

Deprived of a pet since both the gerbils died within the last few months, DH and DD have taken to feeding the local vermin. Not content with leaving food out for them, they have been determined to make friends with them.  Much patience last weekend led to Mamma Chipmunk actually coming up on the front porch and eating out of their hands. (DH swears that chipmunks and squirrels don't carry rabies, though the CDC says that any mammal is susceptible.)

This afternoon when DH came home from work, Mamma Chipmunk was waiting for him - she raced over and stood on his foot, looking up as if to say: "Where's my dinner?" A lot like me really, except I don't stand on DH's foot ;-)

Personalized license plates

Personalized license plates are more of a big deal here in the USA than in the UK I think. Years ago, when I was in grad school, I had a Turkish friend who had the license plate "NAME". Everyone thought it was very funny - him included. He had chosen that word for his license plate because that was his wife's name. Yes, her name was Name - pronounced Nah-may.

I sometimes wonder what people are thinking when they choose a vanity plate though. There's one I used to see regularly that reads "AIRHED". I suppose maybe she is, if she chooses to advertise it that way! On the other hand, if this one wasn't already taken, I might actually consider it given that DD says I'm the meanest mom in the world because I asked her to tidy her room:

(Source: Great Vanity License Plates.)

This morning DH saw a personalized plate that you would never see in the UK though. At least I hope not. He wasn't quick enough with his camera to get a photo of it: "SHAG 1"

Such a thoughtful child!

DS suggested this evening that we might like to celebrate Valentine's Day on Sunday because it's not a school day and we won't be so rushed in the morning. He shared with me that he is giving his sister $2 as a present, and is giving his father $5 "because sometimes you and Daddy are a little short of money." I've already got my present - a piece of artwork he did at school this week.

Christmas shopping

I am one of those mothers who likes to take her kids to museums for fun and buy her kids educational toys. Fortunately, most of the time my kids seem to like this! Our trip to the UK this summer had a Roman theme - Bath, Chedworth Roman Villa, Roman tour of Chester, Wroxeter Roman city . . . So when I saw that the British Museum shop has a free shipping offer on right now - including to overseas addresses - I had to take a look. Oh dear! I could spent quite a lot of money there, and not just on the children! Well, I'm sure I could get some of those things here in the US, but some of the things I like  are British Museum exclusives. Hmm - may have to browse some more and put a wish list together!

By the way, if you click on my link to the shop and end up buying something there, you could help defray my expenses shopping there as I do get a commission on purchases made in the next ten days through my link.

Logical child

I let DS play some games on my iPod Touch one time when we were waiting at the doctor's office and ever since then he begs me on a regular basis to be allowed to borrow my iPod. After a playdate with a classmate, he told me that he wants Santa to bring him a Nintendo DS this year but then he started asking about their relative costs and changed his mind. Now his plan is to buy a Nintendo DS with his own money - presumably money he hopes to get as presents for birthday or Christmas, seeing as I don't give him regular pocket money. The reason why he'd rather buy one himself? Well, he found out that iPods are a lot more expensive, so he wants Santa to bring him an iPod instead! I'm very torn because the games he likes to play on the iPod are things like Numbl and Shift - games that make you think! However, given that I've already cracked the screen on my iPod, I think he's going to have to wait a while before he gets one of his own - and his thinking skills are clearly already well developed anyway, aren't they?

Bugs and meds

I didn't miss the US on our recent trip to the UK, except when we needed an open pharmacy at 8 on a Sunday evening when my son had a strong allergic reaction to the local biting insects and began to look very puffy. My mother was sure the 24 hour Tescos would be open, but '24 hours' means 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. on Sundays. Should you ever be in a similar situation, do not bother trying to find out which is the 'duty chemist' in town. They won't be open either, as their hours are likely to be something like 11 a.m. till 1 p.m. According to Late Night Chemist, Boots claims that they now have a 24 hour pharmacy within a thirty mile drive of most of the UK population, but we had a hospital much closer than that which was a better bet. We were lucky enough that we knew all we needed for DS was over-the-counter antihistamines. The hospital has a truly 24 hour pharmacy which sells OTC meds, and we got in and out fast enough that we weren't even charged the 2 pound parking fee and didn't have to deal with anyone asking us for either NHS cards or (worse) credit cards!

Make sure you know the generic name for any OTC meds you may need when travelling. We wanted Claritin - and found Clarityn was the same thing - loratadine. I would be wary however that similar brand names might not always mean similar products, and sometimes the names are so different that telling the pharmacist what you want will not immediately get you what you need.

Of course, we should have had some loratadine with us. I had my asthma inhaler and never needed it, though had I forgotten it I would have certainly needed it! I was glad I'd remembered the imodium when I was not well on our return flight - especially as we ended up sitting in the plane on the ground at Heathrow for 2 hours after our scheduled departure time! Although I've had a flight attendant offer me meds for an upset stomach in the past, I learned from that experience that the imodium pills are so tiny it's always worth having some with you when you travel. Loratadine now gets added to my packing list, but who knew that bug repellent with DEET would have been a good idea for a trip to the UK? Aiee - not that it would have done anything to ward off the wasps that were everywhere this year . . .

Football commentary

We are not a sports-loving family. We don't go out to play or watch team games of any sort, and although the kids occasionally watch (American) football on TV they don't really have much clue about it. So they don't have much experience watching sports on TV. As it was a rainy day, I turned the television on this afternoon so we could watch at least part of the World Cup game between England and the US because DD had asked at lunch "What's the World Cup for and when's it happening?" The commentary was hilarious, but we did have to alternate between watching the game and playing games on the wii because DS really wasn't interested in the game.

DD: What time is it in England now? (Umm - 5 hours ahead of here, but the game's not happening there - it's in South Africa.) Why is it happening in South Africa? (Because that's where FIFA decided to have the World Cup this year.) What's FIFA? (The organization that organizes the World Cup.) Why are they playing soccer at this time of year? (Because this is when FIFA decided the World Cup would be.)

DS: What team is the guy in the yellow shirt on? (That would be the referee.)

DD: The guy in the yellow shirt seems to be on the England team. (Again, that would be the referee, and he wasn't on England's side!)

DS: Who's the guy in the orange shirt? (One of the goalies.)

DD: Why isn't the goalie staying in the goal?

DS: Why did they move the goal? (They changed the camera angle!)

DS: I think his chest is broken. Someone else is going to have to take his place. (He's probably just fine - they usually are.)

DS: I hope the England player gets another yellow card or a red one, then America will win.

DD: Why aren't there any girls playing? (They have their own teams.) Because the boys think they're better than girls?

DS: This is boring! (Repeated loudly every five minutes.)

DD: There's more tomorrow? I thought it was just today! Does it go on for days? (Yes, and no we won't be watching much more of it - probably just the highlights on the news!)

DH: What, they don't play until there's a winner?

DD: England would've won if Mia Hamm had been on their team!

All About Springtime

Karen tagged me what feels like weeks ago for a meme about springtime that originated here. I've finally got around to it, mostly because it involved asking DS (age 7) some questions, so he really did half the work on this post!

1. How does the world change in the Spring?

Well, 'cos in the spring there are like plants and in the winter there’s like nothing.

2. Lots of babies are born in the spring. Where do you think baby animals are born?

Wherever they live. Wherever their mother or father chooses. (The look on his face implied he thought this was a stupid question!)

3. What did mummy do before you were born?

I don’t know. You went to England before I came! (He's referring to the the fact that when I was 7 months pregnant with him I went to England for 3 weeks.)

4. Spring is a good time to play outside. If you and mummy could spend a whole day playing outside, doing anything you want, what would it be?

Badmitten. Badminton.(The Easter bunny just brought him badminton equipment.)

5. Did you know we moved the clocks forward? Why do you think we do this?

No. Don’t know. (At this point he clearly thought the questioning had gone on far too long and all he wanted to do was get back to the wii!)

6. How long is it until summer?

I don’t know. Like, a few months. (Final effort - he knew I wanted him to say more than "I don't know", so he tried to come up with something!)

Hmm - I'd never noticed before how often he says 'like'!

What does Barbie drink?

Last weekend we had some very good friends over for dinner who we hadn't seen since before Christmas and we finally got to exchange Christmas presents. Although they often buy things I wouldn't for the kids, they are extremely thoughtful and always hit the nail on the head in terms of choosing something the kids love. This year they got DD a Barbie.

This is her first Barbie doll ever and she was very excited about it. It came with a kitchen, so she is a very domestic Barbie. Hmm . . . Oh well. That's OK. DD knows that in our house the kitchen is really Dad's and Mom only gets to use it on school nights to make sure we eat early enough to get everyone to bed on time. Anyway, DD was delighted and has played with it a lot in the last week.

I had to laugh when I saw the 'instructions' that came with the kitchen though. Not instructions on how to assemble it - no, it came pre-assembled. Look:


I guess they think Barbie users are really dumb if they need to have explained to them how to put the lid on a saucepan, or how to open a cupboard door! About the only 'instruction' there that might actually have been needed was showing that the hook above the oven was to hang the chandelier from. There was also an image of all the (very tiny!) parts that came with it.
Can you spot the item that surprised me? (Think about this blog post title.)






You see, there's a tea kettle, and even some honey for the tea, but no tea cups. However, Barbie does have champagne glasses!

Birthday parties

mom/Mum and Nappy Valley Mum both blogged about kids' birthday parties recently. I blogged about food at birthday parties, but they had both actually given birthday parties for their kids. You see, we haven't actually done a party in a couple of years now because we hit upon the idea of asking the kids if they'd like a party or a family trip instead. Both children, very wisely, have chosen the family trip. Nothing huge or expensive, you understand. Trips down to Maryland to visit their great-aunt and uncle, and the kids get to choose which activities we do when we're down there. Things like the Baltimore Aquarium or the Smithsonian Museum. My favorite memory is of watching them looking through the fence at the White House and DS turning around and saying quite scornfully "I could climb this fence really easily!"

I think in 2010 we may have to have parties for them and I'm thinking I need to start planning now - especially as to what will go in the goody bags! On the other hand, if we do a trip to the UK to visit family, I could avoid the whole goody bag issue that Mom/Mum talked about, by telling them that's their birthday 'party' this year.

How quickly they forget!

Was woken this morning by shouts from DS:

"Mommy, mommy, it snowed!"

Funny - that wasn't in the forecast! They predicted clear skies overnight, and sunshine today - perfect for going to the Fall Festival! Ah yes, clear skies overnight - our first frost of the season! Not even a heavy frost either! How he mistook this for snow, I have no idea!

Just wishful thinking I suppose.

He's going to be SO excited when we finally DO get snow. He was talking yesterday about how he's really looking forward to it. Not because he wants to go sledding or make a snowman, but because he wants to shovel the driveway!

Well trained!

DD went to a classmate's birthday party this afternoon. They had rented a local ice rink. The group had the entire rink to themselves for about an hour and got to watch the Zamboni clean up the ice before they skated. Then when the Zamboni came back out, the girls retreated to a squash court where tables were set up for them to have snacks, cake and ice cream. While they were doing that the public skating session started, so once they were done with snacks they got to go back out on the ice for another hour. DD had a blast. The only other time she's been skating was when she was in pre-school. She was nervous at first this afternoon, but gradually gained in confidence, despite three quite hard falls resulting on one very bruised knee.

I discovered that skating is not like riding a bicycle. Even admitting the fact that I was never particularly good at skating even when I was a teenager, my performance today was pathetic. I could blame the rental skates I suppose. I still have the skates I had as a teenager, and they still fit, which thoroughly confused DD whose feet are still growing. However, even though DH kindly cleaned the rust off them, my blades were in dire need of sharpening and when I discovered that there was no one at the rink who could sharpen them for me I decided it would be safer to go with the rentals. I pottered around the rink a couple of times and that was enough. It was much more fun hanging out at the side of the rink gossiping with the other mommies and taking photos of the kids.

DD enjoyed herself so much that she decided that she wants to go skating again on a regular basis AND she'd like her next birthday party to be at the rink. The last few years she's had the option of taking a family trip to somewhere like Washington D.C. instead of a party and has always chosen the trip. So I asked her if she'd rather have the skating party than a family trip. (The party would probably be the cheaper option!) Her answer proved she is well-trained: "Hmm. Can we go to Canada?"

On our own with DS

Only one of the children is home this evening. DS asked when he got home from school if he can sleep in DD's bed instead of his own tonight. I know he misses her, and she's only been gone a couple of hours! I doubt she's missing us. I hope not anyway!

We decided to take DS out to dinner as a treat. I asked him where he'd like to go, and delightfully he answered, "Somewhere close and cheap so we don't have to spend too much of your money." Ahh - so cute! So we went somewhere close, but not as cheap as he would have liked. (He was thinking Friendly's or McDonalds I think. He's still never been to "that Scottish restaurant" as my sister used to call it, so for him it would be a treat.)

For years now our choice of restaurant has usually been guided by one rule - it must be child-friendly. However, the restaurant we chose tonight is a small place that seems to discourage children in the evening by not having a printed children's menu. Our waitress handed all of us a regular menu, watched DS reading it, and finally said "Do you know what we have on our kids' menu?" Duh, no! She then recited the kids' offerings to us. After all, the littlest ones can't read, so why print a menu for them?! Well, the kids' menu usually has a picture on it to color to keep the kids entertained while they're waiting for their food! Kid-friendly restaurants also have paper cups with lids and straws. Not this one. DS was brought a heavy pint glass of water, and then an equally large glass of milk. He did a good fantastic job with both, not spilling either of them.

Being pint glasses, both the glasses he had were etched with beer company logos. One was from the Berkshire Brewing Company. He read the logo aloud, looked very puzzled and said "But why doesn't it say America?"


It took us a minute to realize that the only BBC he knows is:

Not so lucky

Last summer when one of the baby bunnies in our back yard narrowly avoided being hit by the weedwhacker, my daughter christened him/her Lucky.

Yesterday, DH discovered lots of fur on the grass in the back yard.

Not easy to see until you look a little closer, given that the grass is not so green this time of year. We easily could have missed it.


DD assumed it was from the mother rabbit pulling out her fur to line a nest again. When she realized that it was more likely evidence that one of 'our' rabbits had been prey for the bobcat, she asked:

"Do you think it was Lucky?"
"No dear, I don't think it was lucky!"

Fortunately, she seemed happy with that answer! I just hope we don't start finding bones in the yard . . . Do bobcats eat the bones? Maybe it was a hawk that got the rabbit and that explains the lack of other remains. I DO hope they're off in the woods somewhere and not elsewhere in our yard!

Dinnertime

Both children are usually pretty good eaters. They like a lot of things I'm told many other children their age won't eat. But for some reason DS has decided in the last 6 weeks or so that nothing we cook is good enough for him any more. He will request something for dinner and then refuse to eat it when it's served. Unless it's cheerios, goldfish crackers or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, there's no guarantee he'll eat it. Some yogurts are acceptable, and anything mom and dad would classify as junk food, though we rarely, if ever, serve it. Tonight's dinner conversation was typical:

On seeing dinner being prepared by DH:

That's yucky!
How do you know? You've never tasted it!
I just hate it!
But you like everything that's in it!
Well, I'm not going to eat it!
Then you're going to be very hungry because that's all that's on offer tonight!

When it was actually put in front of him:

You know I don't like that!
(We ignore him.)
The sauce is touching the broccoli!
(We ignore him.)
I'm not hungry! I'm full!
But I bet you have room for chocolate ice cream don't you?!
Yes!
Well, the ice cream is only for people who've eaten at least half their dinner!

The faces he pulled were quite entertaining, but he wouldn't let me take a photo of him:


Nor, apparently, was it acceptable to take pictures of his 'disgusting' dinner:

(The empty cup was going to have milk or water poured into it after he'd eaten some of his dinner. We've learned not to fill it at the beginning of the meal as otherwise he just fills up on liquid!)

My dinner, on the other hand, was very nice:



Just kidding! The teatowel and cocktail napkins were joke gifts from DH this holiday season! I had the same pasta with homemade tomato sauce with olives, pork, and broccoli that the kids had and I'm looking forward to the leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow (even without an accompanying glass of red wine!)

DS never did eat any of his dinner, but that's OK - guess what he's having for dinner tomorrow?! :-)

Follow-up: He did indeed get offered the same meal a second time - and guess what? This time it was deemed yummy and he ate it all up!

Future plans

Apparently just before Christmas DD was making plans for her future. I found the following written on a small scrap of paper hidden under her bed. I'm not quite sure why the numbering changed mid-stream - it looked as though she was making plans for specific ages, but then suddenly it changed to specific dates. Perhaps she wanted to throw me off in case I found the list!

10 - See Beverly Hills Chew Wa Wa
11 - own all high school vidios
12 -
13 - Get ears perced
14 - Get first boy friend
15 -
16 -
17 -
18 - Take dads canoe building class
19 - own a horse
Dec 20 - Live on farm
Dec 21 - own livestock
Dec 22 - Request song
Dec 23 - Move to apartment but own farm
24 - have child
25 - move to New york
26 - see the macys thanks giving day parade in New york
27 - buy car
28 - buy a house
29 - Get marryed

She must have written it on a day she was in a good mood because there is no mention of leaving home until Dec (i.e. age?) 20. We do need to have a little chat about the fact that she apparently has no ambition to go to university. Of course that would save DH and I a ton of money in the short term, but probably not in the long run as she will need financial support from us if she ends up in dead-end jobs because of a lack of education! I'm not necessarily excited about her having a child before she gets married either. That's worth a few conversations too!

Who ate the tree ornaments?

I finally found some chocolate tree ornaments - for some strange reason they're not very easy to find over here. I put them on the tree after the children were in bed. Within seconds of coming downstairs for breakfast the next morning, or so it seemed, they noticed them. They appear to have inherited my chocolate gene. I warned the children not to touch them.

The children left for school, I started on housework. As I was transferring laundry from the washing machine into the dryer, I found a very distinctive wrapper in with the laundry. Someone, though I couldn't tell who, had eaten one of the tree ornaments and put the wrapper in their pocket. (I suspect this was probably before I put the ornaments on the tree.) I wasn't counting as I put them on the tree, but I counted as I followed through on my warning and took them off the tree again and realized that not one but two of them were missing. However, there were a couple of new ornaments on the tree:

Both children deny having taken the chocolate off the tree in the first place, but given the appearance of the poinsettia leaves, I would bet it was DD. I can't believe she really thought I (the chocolate queen) wouldn't notice!

Postscript: She 'fessed up to taking one chocolate ornament off the tree, but denied having eaten the mini candy canes missing from the kitchen - this despite her breath smelling like mint this morning and the candy cane wrappers being hidden under her pillow. She claimed her brother must have put the candy canes in her mouth while she was asleep, and the wrappers under her pillow! She really doesn't lie very well, but I guess that's a good thing!

What's a babysitter worth?

DH and I don't often go out on our own without the kids as that involves paying for a babysitter. Sometimes it's worth it though, especially when dinner's free as it was tonight at DH's company Christmas party. At some point in the conversation someone asked me how much we pay our babysitter per hour. She was shocked by my answer, I think because she usually has relatives babysit. I admit that we do tend to pay our babysitters fairly generously, but we do always hire adults not teenagers.

Tonight's babysitter is worth her weight in gold though. The kids love her, despite the fact that she stands no nonsense, so that's a good start. But when we came home tonight we found that she had loaded the dishwasher, washed the pots and pans and cleaned all the surfaces in the kitchen so that it was cleaner than when she arrived.

Not only that, but when she heard a funny noise coming from DS's room she went upstairs to investigate - and then cleaned up the projectile vomit that was all over his room. She woke him up (apparently he threw up in his sleep!) got him to get in the bath, and when he reappeared claiming he was clean she sent him back, (with his sister to supervise this time,) to get the chunks out of his hair. She shook the chunks out of the comforter into the yard, and put his bedding in the washing machine. (She took the clean, dry clothes out of the dryer and put them in a tidy pile upstairs, and moved the wet clothing into the dryer and switched it on.) She cleaned up a lot of the puke using paper towels and thoughtfully put them in a new trash bag ready to go right out in the garage. She then also did her best, with DD's help, to figure out how to work the steam cleaner to finish cleaning the carpet in DS's room and she remade his bed with clean sheets and blankets. And although she had our cell phone number, she didn't spoil our evening out by calling!

An experienced, well trained, babysitter - $10/hour

An experienced, well trained babysitter who cleans up your child's vomit so that you don't have to after your oh-too-rare evening out - PRICELESS!

Letter to the tooth fairy

The tooth fairy doesn't have to bring her pliers to our house! In the last week, the tooth fairy has paid us two visits, and she'll be back again tonight. DS lost his two top middle teeth - so now he actually has an excuse for his inability to say the sound 's'! One of his teeth was so appallingly wiggly that when I tried to straighten it in DS's mouth, (so it wasn't sticking out at a 90 degree angle!) it came out with no effort on my part. The other came out a couple of days later when DD kicked him in the face. She was sitting on the couch and he was crawling on the floor by her feet annoying her, so I'm pretty sure the kick in the face was as much his fault as hers. "Well, if you hadn't put your face next to her feet, she wouldn't have been able to kick it, would she?!!!" Yeah, yeah, I'm an unsympathetic mother!

Just yesterday DD discovered that one of her teeth was wiggly too. She kept asking when it was going to come out, and I had to tell her that it looked as though it would be a few days yet. However, shortly after I sent her to bed tonight, she reappeared downstairs - bloody tooth in hand, and gum bleeding profusely! She went back to bed quite happily though, leaving the tooth with me so I could clean it up before putting it next to her bed for the tooth fairy. I just went upstairs to do that and found that she had written her tooth fairy a note:

Dear Pearl,
Do you know my brothers tooth fariy if you do could you wright it hear __________ (signuture)
I would like a picture of you to if you could
sincerly
DD

PS I forced the tooth out.

One of DD's friends found out that her tooth fairy was called Pearl, and what do you know, when DD asked, she found out that her tooth fairy is called Pearl too! I suspect DS has the same tooth fairy as his sister. (I'm too tired tonight to be creative!)