February 9, 2014

It has been a couple of weeks since I have posted.  Nothing too exciting has happened, but I realize that I really need to write.  With the start of the Olympics, I was telling Justin about some of his "gymnastic routines" that he did when we watched the Olympics on TV in Idaho with my parents.  Now Rob laughed that I didn't even know if gymnastics was a summer or a winter event. I don't think it is so hysterical because it isn't like they are outside.  Why can't they do gymnastics in the winter?  I get skiing is winter, track and field is summer, but gymnastics?  Anyway, Justin was asking questions about it including how old he was and I had no idea.  I was able to refer back to my blog and not only answer all of his questions, but show him a video clip.

Now as I was reading it, I cringed at how poorly I write on my blog.  I generally write as I am sitting watching TV before going to bed.  I don't proofread or put much effort into it.  I have realized that that doesn't matter too much, as long as I get things down.  If I really want, I can SOMEDAY edit things and do it right.  To be honest, I don't care enough to do a "good" blog.  This is for my mom primarily and, as I have learned, my failing memory.  So, here are the recent events of my life, dull as they may be.

My birthday is probably the big event of the post.  The boys were SO excited for my birthday to come.  They called many secret meetings to plan and ask questions.  The code word was "Bakugan" and they would tell Rob that they wanted to have some Bakugan time up in Justin's room and make sure that I knew I was uninvited.  Rob tried to explain that generally adults aren't as excited about birthdays as children are.  The way Justin sees it, I should be MORE excited about my birthdays than he is about his.  After all, he is a child and still has many birthdays to look forward to while I am old and don't have too many more left.  Better enjoy them while I can I guess.

The boys, especially Ryan, were a bit distraught that I was making my own cake.  I reassured them that it was fine.  I told them that I wanted a very special pineapple upside down cake and I was the only one who knew how to make it.  I had no birthday presents from them, so I found things in the closet that Rob could help them wrap for me.  It isn't like I didn't have things on the way, just not here in time.  There really isn't a place for the boys to go shopping for things I might like, so they got to give me something at least.  Rob had the day before my birthday off from work, so he made pizza with enough to have leftovers.  Pizza and pineapple upside down cake.  What else could I want?

I was also able to talk with both my brother and my sister. :)  I generally talk to my mom each week (and sometimes Dad pokes his head in to say something), but not so much with my brother and sister.

Forgot to take any birthday shots with the cake or anything,
but here is one shot of me with Ryan on my birthday.

 Justin has been working on shapes in school and the boys have become more interested in playing with the pattern blocks.  It's fun to have pattern blocks and some 3D shapes for Justin to use to teach Ryan.  They play school, though when it is time for Ryan to be the teacher things don't go well for long.  I suppose I should be glad that Justin is a good student in real school at least.

 

My birthday packages did finally arrive.  We also got a box of clothes that Nathan's boys had outgrown.  My boys love getting hand me down clothes from their cousins.  Ryan wanted me to take a picture of him wearing this hoodie.  There is one Cars hockey style shirt that the boys both claim as theirs.  Funny since neither of them like the movie.  Guess the shirt is just that cool.  It fits them both, so I just need to remember to rotate which drawer it gets placed in so they get equal opportunity with it.

Ryan continues to enjoy school.  Here he is playing outside while I wait to take him home.  He wanted just five more minutes.  Some things never change.  I think he would be happy enough to go there all day everyday.  Three mornings a week is enough for me.  Next year he will be a kindergartener and I will be home alone all day.

On the last day of January, Justin got to go to a birthday party for his friend Ani.  They live nearby so he was able to walk to her house after school with the other children from his class.  Unfortunately, I forgot to tell him that he was allowed to eat at the party.  Now I tend to think that is a given, which is why I forgot to mention it to him.  Cake was served, and he said he didn't know if he was allowed to eat it or not.  Ani's mother decided to call me to see if he had allergies.  Wouldn't you know that she called at the exact moment I was taking out the trash!  I didn't hear the phone, nor did Ryan mention that I had missed a call.  I rarely receive phone calls, so I didn't think to check.  I noticed the missed call shortly before I went to pick him up.  Justin was able to bring a piece of cake home, but he was a bit upset that he missed out on treats at the party.  Sigh.  We went over the concept that if I give permission for him to go to a birthday party, he has permission to eat food there.  He has even been to Ani's house before and it isn't like her mother is a stranger by any means.  Sigh.

Saturday was a bit better for Justin.  Charlie came over for a play date.  The three boys played nicely. Of course they really wanted to play outside since it was sunny.  They didn't seem to care that there was a biting wind.  I went to get the basketballs for them, and the garage door from the house to the garage broke.  Great.  At least the Embassy takes care of all of those issues for us, but still a pain.  The basketballs needed more air.  They decided playing kickball with me would be awesome.  I froze to death as they enjoyed making me play against the three of them.  At least I got my exercise for the day.  Usually I would love to have Charlie stay forever, but since I was outside and very cold I was happy when it was time for us to take him home.

We got in the car and dropped him off before heading to the church to help clean it.  There were plenty of us, so it didn't take very long.  We decided to go to KFC for lunch since we were already in the city.  The boys love KFC and it is easy to park nearby, something that I wanted to be able to do because of the bitter wind.

I liked this "STUFF ONLY" door.  There were much funnier signs
in China so I am not sure why this one amused me so much.

 KFC was, well KFC.  When that is your fast food choice it is amazing how great it can be.  They played KFC commercials on TVs around the restaurant.  The commercials were from different countries and advertised products that aren't available here.  Odd to see items and currencies that aren't consistent with where you are.  I also realized that KFC is a Pepsi serving restaurant in the US.  All of the commercials showed combos with Pepsi and Pepsi products, yet here I was in Armenia with my Coke Light.  Huh.

After lunch we went to Yum Yum Doughnuts so Rob and the boys could get a doughnut.  I am a Krispy Kreme person and that isn't an option, so I saved the calories for junk we had at home that I would actually enjoy.

I love Ryan's bug eyes when he is trying to do puppy dog eyes.

 That evening when Justin was getting ready to bathe, he became suddenly hysterical about the possibility of a scorpion climbing into the bath water with him.  Yeah, I think scorpions often climb up the walls of bath tubs and plop into the water so they can make it over to a small boy and sting him.  He was getting all worked up about scorpions and it wasn't like we could say that there aren't scorpions here, because there are.  We haven't found any in our house, but some people have.  We reassured him that in the unlikely event of a bath tub scorpion attack, we would be able to treat it.  He wasn't convinced that the medicine and cold pack would be good enough.  We googled to show him pictures to see what the scorpions here look like.  Wouldn't you know that one of the first hits was how a five year old Armenian girl died from a scorpion sting!  We didn't show that to him.  I wisely didn't tell him all of the things he should worry about more than scorpions.

Reading over Rob's shoulder, Justin saw an ad about credit scores.  He, of course, wanted to know what a credit score was.  That led to all sorts of financial questions including whether or not we were rich.  How much money would we need to be rich?  What are our assets?  What are we saving?  Since this is the same boy who wanted to know if he got our money when we die, I am hesitant to make him think we have any!  So glad we can add financial worries to the boy who worries about everything under the sun.

The first full week in February was also fairly routine.  Rob recorded the Super Bowl so he wouldn't have to get up in the middle of the night to watch it.  He took the Monday off and watched it.  While his Seattle Seahawks won, he said that the game wasn't very excited to watch.

Justin had a playdate with his friend, Nathan.  Nathan and his family have moved to our neighborhood so now we live closer.  He is busy though with many extracurricular activities so Justin doesn't get to play with him as often as he would probably like.  School interferes so much with his life, poor boy.

Ryan had an extra day at preschool because two students were celebrating their birthdays.  They went all out for a school celebration.  They had pizza, cake, and other treats.  There were balloons and a professional photographer.  I was even requested to pick him up later than usual that day.  I was able to make valentines cookies without any helpers.

Friday I made some valentines chocolates, but that was not quite as successful.  I learned that my spatula did not stand up to being in the microwave with melting chocolate.  It meant a whole batch of chocolate had to be thrown out. 

A storm and later a mistake meant that I got to talk to my sister twice.  I realized how much I miss her and how fun it is to get to talk to her.  One of her few faults is that she doesn't live closer.

I have included a few pictures of the things the boys have done lately.  I have not done anything with my other blog since May of last year.  I have found several pictures and will go about posting them to the blog, though they will not necessarily be in any order.  Ryan especially has done some cute things in preschool that I want to put up.  I don't know if they will be of use to others, but it will help me remember some of the cute ideas.

The boys have been into Playmobil again.  I don't even mind playing
that with them.

Ages 7 and up?  Rob begs to differ!

The boys love watching the glitter move around in
the tornado water bottle.

Paper airplane making has taken over the dining room.

Internet Woes!

I have a real excuse for not writing for awhile.  We were without the internet.  Amazing just how much I use the internet.  Anyway, I will try to catch up with the whirlwind of activity of the past couple of weeks.

The biggest news for this time of the year is, of course, the start of a new school year.  Justin is in first grade this year.  He has school from 8:15 until 3:00 and homework when he gets home.  What a change from kindergarten!  We live close enough that he can walk to school.  Right now I am still walking with him, and will probably have to walk with him at least on library days to carry his heavy backpack.

Justin on his way to school.  He wanted to wear his "best clothes" for the first day of school, thus the Pokémon shirt.

 

 On our way to school, we walk by some water that is a haven for frogs.  I have never seen so many frogs in my life!  Some are really small and some are as big as my fist.  What I have found interesting is that they are in all stages of development.  I had always assumed that you would only see tadpoles in the spring.  We can see legless tadpoles, some with hind legs, some with front and back legs and their tails, and some with shrinking tails.  Of course there are the mature frogs as well.  The water is truly disgusting, and a great place for the frogs to hide while getting plenty to eat.  When Ryan and I go to pick Justin up from school, I have to be careful that we don't spend too much time frog watching!

Can you find him?  The one I see is pretty much centered in the pic.  There may be more though.

Ryan has also had a fun time finding shells.  They are white and about the size of a thumbnail.  The first few that he found were brought home and put in his room.  He started to collect more and we realized that they weren't all empty.  This week I saw some of his collection moving, so I put those shells back outside.  They are the cutest little snails.

I don't have much to say about Justin's school because he tells me very little about his day.  I am always amazed that a child who can never be quiet can't seem to tell me one meaningful thing about his day.  There are 12 kids in his class and he seems to get along with them.  I would love to be a fly on the wall and see what he is like in school.

I asked Justin what was on his forehead.  Evidently it is showing his brain hard at work.



 Pic of Justin's class from school newsletter.






Justin's school started on August 29th.  On the 30th, we had Ryan's open house at Rainbow Preschool.  He is going three mornings a week.  Right now Justin is begging for less time at school and Ryan wants more.  Ryan had so much fun at the open house that he did not want to leave.

Ryan loves to spin until he is so dizzy he just has to lie on the ground.

Swinging boy

Super pout!

After the open house, we had Cyrus, his mother, and baby brother over for a few hours.  They had gotten locked out of their house and Miles was back in the US for a funeral.  The garage remote was dead and the key was not working in the front door lock because someone had turned the secondary lock on the inside of the door.  Justin was hoping that we would have to have an emergency slumber party, but maintenance was able to get them in by a little after 9:00 pm. 


The weekend was pretty uneventful, but then on Labor Day, Ryan started school.  Unlike Justin, he has a lot to say about it.

We've gotten into a pretty good routine with the boys going to school and me dropping them off and picking them up at the right times.  When Ryan is home alone with me I get nothing done.  I hadn't realized how much he and Justin entertained each other.   

Ryan has a new friend at preschool named Marko.  I asked him if Marko was three or four and Ryan guessed four.  He told me that they have a measuring place on the wall at school and that Marko isn't technically as tall as a four year old so he must be three.  I suggested that he ask Marko how old he is.  Turns out that Marko is four.  Ryan hopes that he can have his birthday before Marko because he says it is kind of like a competition to be five first.  Sometimes he cracks me up.

I hope that something exciting happens between now and Sunday so I have something to write about in the next entry.

August 11, 2013

 Last week I didn't write because Rob was kind enough to share his stomach bug with me and I wasn't feeling well.  I will try to catch up and write for both weeks.

August 1st marked the last day of summer camp for the boys.  Justin always seemed to enjoy his time once he got there, but he was never very excited to go.  Ryan, on the other hand, was always excited to go.  It was good for them to get out of the house a bit and quite a nice break for me.  Ryan is on the waiting list to go to the preschool there in the Fall.  I think that he is going to miss Justin once school starts and it would be nice for him to have a chance to have something special for him as well.  Keep your fingers crossed that an opening comes up.

On August 2nd, Justin decided that it was his time for the stomach bug.  He didn't have much diarrhea, but he managed to vomit many times.  Unfortunately, one of the locations was my freshly cleaned floor.  Sigh.  At least it wasn't the rug.  I cleaned up and then mopped the floor yet again.  He didn't eat for the rest of that day or much the next.  I always worry about my skinny little J Man when he doesn't eat.  He doesn't have a lot of weight to lose.  Fortunately, he was feeling better by the 3rd, just not eating quite yet.

Saturday the 3rd we had a BBQ here with employees and families from Rob's section at work.  He works with some neat people.  We had gotten together with them at the beginning of July and I knew that they are a pretty laid back group so it wouldn't be a lot of work.  Everyone brought something so we just supplied the place, the paper products, potato salad, and a few drinks.  The weather was perfect and we were able to sit out on the patio, out on the lawn, or inside the house.  There was more than enough food and it was a nice get together.  Ryan really enjoyed all of the outdoor time.  The pictures aren't very exciting, but at least my mom can see a little of our yard.

 

 

And then Sunday came and it was my turn with the stomach bug.  That pretty much sums up Sunday through Tuesday for me.  Rob and the boys went to church on Sunday.  The boys were pretty good on Monday and Tuesday.  They got a lot of extra time on the ipad, ipod, etc.

 

Wednesday was our 11th anniversary. The boys tried to make it extra special by creating "fun" games for me to play.  They also managed to pull out just about every toy they owned to help decorate.  Joy.  Evidently it wasn't hot enough for them, so they had lots of blankets for me too so I could be comfy.  Ryan combed his own hair without complaint.  I was feeling much better, but not 100%.  I envied Rob being able to go to work and miss out on the celebration.  I guess it was sweet of them though to want to do special things to make it the best anniversary ever.

 

 

On Thursday I had an exciting outing to the Embassy for my health briefing and to get my picture taken for my diplomatic id.  I had the boys with me, of course, but they were hooked up to the ipod and the iphone and headphones so they were angels.  It's nice to be able to keep them quiet when needed.  When we got home, we spent time outside.  They enjoyed riding their bikes outside in our cul de sac.  I hate to watch because sometimes they get going pretty fast and they are not nearly as skilled as they believe they are.

 

 

Friday brought more time outside.  This week I was able to pull quite a few weeds while I was out watching the boys.

 

The weekend was pretty routine.  Saturday the boys wanted to show off their bike skills for Daddy.  I pulled out a scooter that I had purchased for them last month and they got to try that as well.

 

Somewhere along the way, Justin managed to lose his tooth.  Then, when he was cleaning it, he really lost it.  Luckily, the tooth fairy is quite understanding.