Where's Eliza?

Labor of Love by Daddy

Both Sides Now

Test flying her new fairy suit

Explaining an exciting scene from Princess Bride...something about an eel.

A few more from the Real Life

Miles is soooo powerful that he doesn't even need knights! Or gods.

We will be working on our dance technique in Zimbabwe.

Catching Up

I need to catch up on posting some videos before we relocate to our slow-connection life in Harare!

Expressions of persuasion: Miles and his mother.

Eliza's fairy song:

Fairies. Fairies. The fairies fight a tiger.

The fairies fight it. The fairies do it.

Fairies. Fairies. Fai-ai-ries.

We do the fairies. The fairies kick.

And the tigers gr-scream.

Fai-ai-airies. Fai-ai-airies. Fa-ai-airies.

That's what it's all about.

That Terrible Halloween Night!

A few families got together (all Brits except us) and decided to set up a three-stop circuit. There was a giant pinata spider at the first house, a reading of That Terrible Halloween Night at our house, and 2-family effort at the last house with "yucky dip," a treasure hunt, and beer for the adults. The kids had a lot of fun, but it's just not the same as knocking on the doors of your neighbors' homes and having them say "Now who do we have here?"...though I did try to pull it off in costume as the old man who read the story.

Ashitaka

Pink Pony

See the resemblance?

When I Become a Woman

Me: What do you want to do when you become a woman?
Eliza: I want to reach the lights.
Me: What else?
Eliza: Drink coffee.
Me: And?
Eliza: Go to work.
Me: What do you want to do at work?
Eliza: Make music
Me: What kind of music?
Eliza: Jingle Bells
Me: Do you want to play an instrument?
Eliza: The drums!

Birthday Vids

Eliza's Third Birthday

These were taken at school. I brought cupcakes. Miss Line Leader is all excited it's her special day.

I wish this were in focus. Can you see how she's just eating up all the attention? They were singing to her.

The afternoon party paper-crown-making table.

One of her German friends, Kathi (Andrea's daughter).

Fe did her hair, obviously. (She always curses me when I get it cut.)

This is Caroline and Ben's Emily I blogged about when she was born. She's 7 months now!

Eliza's school friend Rosa (another German) who gave E this uber-girly Hello Kitty dress that she loves! It's very cute.

Opening presents at all her friends' insistence (Oliver, Cleo and Kathi). Normally people don't open birthday gifts at parties here, but the kids had their own way.

It didn't get as pink as I was imagining. I couldn't find any crepe paper streamers. All the little girls had on a touch of pink...boys were in red...so that was cute. And Paige's recommendation for decorating paper crowns was a big hit with boys and girls alike. I regret I didn't get more close-up shots of all of them. We put a table under the olive trees with glitter, stickers, and shiny paper cut into strips and shapes for them to glue on paper crowns. They did that first, so many sported their little masterpieces for the rest of the party.

We tried a pin-the-tail-on-the-pink-pig game...which I'd had my doubts about, and predictably the little ones were not into the blindfold but surprisingly into just sticking the tail on. Eliza got upset that someone was messing with the tail she put on...it was just one of a few melt-downs that day that she's prone to at this stage in her life. Suddenly she'll get an idea of how she wants things to be, and something will prevent it from being that way. Then she'll tuck in her chin, sit on the floor and start howling. It looks to me like textbook toddler behavior. I'm just wondering how long this stubborn waywardness is going to last!

But enough badmouthing the birthday girl! She dressed in her new pink tutu for the party and carried her new big girl doll dressed in a matching tutu. She was happy with the day which she has been looking forward to and imagining for months. (How many times have I stuck candles in her meals and sang happy birthday to her?) She enjoyed it all: the crowns, the friends, the opening of gifts, the giving of party favors, the birthday song and the candles which she blew out with gusto and an apparent feeling of accomplishment.

Settling Back In

Amman at sunset - Iftar

I can't be bothered to blog on the whole August holiday. The blog is mainly for everyone who was there and have all the photos and memories anyway. Suffice to say, the kids were so happy to see everyone, and although they were sad to leave, they didn't linger in that sadness but jumped back into life in Amman as soon as we got here.

Highlights for the kids? Playing with Webster. Playing with cousins. Getting new books and reading them with the grandparents. Playing on the beach. Playing in the mountain creek at the park in Banner Elk. Going to Tweetsie Railroad: our first ever "Family Theme Park." The Chattanooga Aquarium. Playing with friends in the Coolidge Park fountain and swimming at the neighborhood club. And of course, getting loads of loving attention from all the relatives.

We had a week or so and then it was back to school. Miles is in what they call KG2 (that would be kindergarten in the States) which makes him part of the Biggest Kids class at Hill House. Eliza has moved up from the Littlest Kids' class (Nursery), and is now in what they call "Foundation." Most of the kids in their classes are the same as last year, so only the classroom and teachers have changed. And they are riding the bus home which is such a treasure that Eliza cries any time I pick them up instead! There's an adult attendant on their little bus who sits with them. They just wear lap belts (which is more protection than most of the kids in Jordan get), but they are the first stop...just 2 minutes away...so I don't feel too stressed about it.

Today is the last day of Ramadan when many Muslims fast: between sunrise and sunset, no food, water, cigarettes, etc. Nothing! This is especially hard in the summer when the days are hot and long. Most restaurants are only open after sunset, and the restaurants that are open cannot have people eating outside: they keep the blinds down. For a month! I go to work and hide my coffee alongside the desk, sipping surreptitiously. I bring my lunch and eat it on the rooftop. I feel guilty when people see me chewing gum while driving. Anyway...glad that's over! And that we have a week holiday to take some day trips with the kids and our friends.

Eliza riding her bike in the park.


Miles doing homework for the first time.

Triops invading America

Miles wrote Happy Birthday Mommy by himself (D told him the letters). The "Istana" is the largest snake in the world.

Miles' World

Mom, look at Super Strong Thing's muscles! Who do you think is stronger: Super Strong Thing or Inpunchination?

Super Strong Thing

Inpunchination

The Creator

Gray Goose & Gander

Mother Goose rhyme put to music (David's tune) with Eliza thrown in for fun.

Touche'!

Doesn't seem possible

Baby Eliza one year ago

Now...and with her increasingly big brother.

First Solo Play Date

It wasn't planned really. I just spoke to Marit, the mother of a classmate of Eliza's today (who's also a friend of mine), and she said Eliza could come over in the afternoon. I'd planned to take the kids to the British Club to meet other friends (Alex & Oliver). When I got home from work, I asked Eliza what she'd rather do: go to the swimming pool and playground with me and Miles and the Wareings? Or go to Rosa's house by herself. Mind you she was already fully dressed in her bathing suit and expecting to go to the pool. "Rosa's house! Rosa's house!" So I took her over there, and she jumped out of the car and was standing outside the gate yelling "Rosa! Rosa! I'm here!" She's only been there once before and that was maybe 6 months ago when we did a play group there, so I was surprised that she even recognized the place, but she did. "This is Rosa's house!" There were excited hugs and kisses between her and Rosa when she arrived (typical of what they'd do at school when they saw each other in the morning), and then they ran off to play. No good-bye mommy! No worries at all. She was there for nearly 3 hours and ate dinner with them. No fights or tears or accidents. When I arrived to pick her up, she cried. "I want to sleep here with Rosa!" Marit was kind enough to agree that Eliza could come back tomorrow morning. They leave at the end of the week for their summer holiday, unfortunately. I confess I'm a little concerned that she might be like her mother, always dying to spend-the-night-over with friends instead of staying home (boring). But I'm impressed that, like her brother, she's so brave and excited to be completely on her own.

Updates

Eliza these days: 

• Potty Training: She wears panties most of the time. At school, she's 4 out of 5 days dry (that's all morning until 1). Then when she gets home she usually has an accident or two. Like Miles she started off making it to the toilet for the caca, not the peepee. It has reversed in a way. She hardly ever makes it for the caca, and almost always does for peepee now. She's very stubborn sometimes and will not do anything on the toilet no matter how many times I take her, then she'll just wet her clothes, undress wherever she is, and continue playing half-dressed. Other than being semi-successful at using the toilet years before her brother was trained, she is less conscientious than Miles was about NOT doing caca in the pool or bath. I cannot wait until she stops with that nastiness. It's certainly not winning us any friends at the pools we visit.
• School: Eliza is the youngest at the school, but she's confident and happy there. They only have another week left. There are some summer camp options for Miles, but not Eliza because she's only 2. I just can't see sending Miles off to leave Eliza home all morning by herself. So they will probably both be at home for the next couple of months. 
• Play: Being a younger sister, E usually gets pulled into whatever Miles is doing. He's influenced her independent play: when she's on her own she'll pick up a couple of knights and have them play fighting. But she also likes to carry her baby around, push animals in the stroller, organize tea parties, dress up in heels. More so than Miles, she can't get enough of climbing and jumping. I actually heard her giving Miles pointers on how to ride his bike the other day. A stranger commented today that she was impressed Eliza could pump her legs and make herself swing by herself at such a young age-she loves the swing. Eliza has a new stuffed puppy she takes with her everywhere that she's named Fimiry.
• Attitude: She wants to do everything herself. She has to hold my hand. I can't hold hers-(unnerving when on the street). She likes to wag her finger and boss people around with an expression of scorn. She turns on the water works to get what she want, i.e. the thing Miles just grabbed from her. Enjoys a good chase. Is most charming with her raise-eyebrows-sincerity when explaining something to us.

Miles these days:

• Play: What's nice about a 5-year-old is that he can get the paper out of the cabinet and the crayon box out of the drawer. He can open the crayon box, pull out the chair, and start working on a a number of drawings - things he dreamt or saw in a movie - often super hero type monsters, scenes in space or fights between super hero type monsters in space. He'll pull out the costumes and dress himself, and encourage his sister to take up another sword and fight him...or if she's not into that to fight the ghosts (the sheer curtains blowing in the wind).
• School: Some days Miles is not in the mood to go to school, but that's improved a lot in the last month or so. He usually doesn't like leaving school either, but that has recently been resolved in that he is riding the bus...with Eliza! So today was the first time, and they were both thrilled. I started back to work today, and this seemed the best solution. They only have school for another week.
• Swimming: It's time to learn how to swim. A lot of Miles's friends were able to take swimming lessons over the winter, so they're all swimming without arm-bands. We have started lessons, just one so far, and he has been able to swim a little: putting his head under water and swimming 5 arm strokes, half way across the small pool. He raises his head and starts paddling and gets tired and starts to sink and takes in a little water...so it's that second breath that's the challenge. He's excited about it and enjoying himself and likes Ali, the lifeguard at the American club, his swimming teacher. He practices with us, too.

Capturing Eliza

The days of Eliza's tiny voice and hilarious baby-ish expressions are numbered. We try to capture it on film when we can, but I feel I'm missing so much of it. In blogs and such, all her spunk and cuteness gets over-shadowed by Miles who has big 5-year-old ideas that take up more space and make adults think a bit. So when Eliza is presented with her brother, she's the picture of a little chirping nonsensical sidekick instead of the large personality who can hold her own that she truly is.

Serious Painting

Here's Miles "creating a board game like chess but about monsters," using his favorite colors: red (the color of lava and rage...he's into the word "enraged" these days which he feels is more accurate than "anger" to describe his feelings of frustration at times) and pink (a color close to red). Both Eliza and Miles are wearing oil cloth aprons I got for them at Christmas via Etsy. I can't find the woman who made these, but there're a lot of cool handmade things at the site. Miles picked out the fabric himself (see, red...and it's got a pink pocket with red strawberries, his favorite fruit next to red apples).

Eliza, the driving force behind getting out the paints, is seriously at work.

What happens when you leave a toddler alone with paint. (She did a very thorough job.)

BTW, Elizabeth, if you're reading this, Eliza loves the black Amsterdam shirt you gave Miles when he was a baby. She pushes aside all the pink and goes for the black any time she's in the mood to dress herself (and it's actually clean and in her drawer).

Harvesting the Garden

Fe and Eliza picked grape leaves from our vines out back. She soaked them overnight, then made a big pot of stuffed grape leaves that were certainly the very best stuffed grape leaves I've ever eaten. Buttery, lemony...even the kids ate them. Yes, they ate rolled-up, dark green, moist things that were good for them--leaves that have grown lush with absolutely no contribution by me, just lots of sunshine and a bit of soil and water. 

The size of it!

To the left of my hand are the tiny beginnings of the grapes. Last year they were pretty sour, so we didn't eat them. It never occurred to me to harvest the leaves, though.

Eating the grape leaves, Fe, Eliza & Miles in the shade of the unharvested leaves.

Oh, and I think we've got a cherry tree! It never occurred to me before how similar they are to plums. I never saw anything but maraschino cherries until I was an adult. The fresh cherries in season around here are delicious. Cold, right out of the fridge, they are the perfect hangover food.

Dry Pants Day

Eliza made it through the day at school with no pull-ups and no accidents! Somebody find me a sticker for this girl! Hell, stickers all around! Have a sticker on me!

However, on her walk to the car...bless her.

That said, I will try not to obsess about my children's various milestones.

Parent Teacher Day

David and I had about 10 minutes with Miles and Eliza's teachers yesterday. They didn't have folders or assessments to review. It was the usual casual sit down, and frankly, they said some of the same things to other parents, which made me feel like maybe they were not all that prepared. But then I'm on the parent side of things now, and we can be so demanding, can't we?

Miles's teachers said that they take him with them to make copies or run errands. He likes to be the helper, and that works for them to keep him occupied. When did I learn that this is how teachers deal with "trouble makers?" The whole time they spoke, I felt as though a translation from their parent speak to my teacher speak was going on in my head. But they said they were walking a line, wondering when they should make Miles understand that he needs to do what the other children are doing, that he can't always get his way. Yes, he flatters them: how they smell, what they're wearing..."I love you, Miss! That is such a pretty dress!" I can relate. Well, on the flattery part, I admit to encouraging that a bit. A woman likes to hear she looks good! But on finding the balance between firmness and reasonable fairness for a child's individual needs, that seems to be a doozy of a struggle some days.

They say he's learning well and seems to understand everything that he needs to know at this point, but he just isn't interested in participating in the lessons. Oh, he'll be front and center for story time, and he likes listening to music (or watching dvds!), but when it comes to repeating phonic sounds...boooring! He actually told me that last night: I don't want to go to school: it's boring! It looks like as much as I don't want to give him special treatment (i.e. Deal with it! We all did! It's your job to go to school! You're going to love reading--trust us!), it might be a good idea to start strategizing more on what he needs to be stimulated or else things could go sour, or rather stay sour, and potentially exponentially for the next 15 years.

Or am I taking things a little too far. He just turned 5, for goodness sakes. He's not even in Kindergarten yet. All he wants to do is play. Is that so unreasonable?

Eliza is the youngest in her class. I tend to forget she's just 2 and a half. You should see her on her new bicycle these days--with training wheels, but still! Her teachers still say she is fun to have around. They like her personality. She seems to really like school. Even at home in the morning she asks, hopefully, do we have school today? David thinks that, in part, this is her way to antagonize her brother who dreads school. Socially, she plays with everyone, and doesn't appear to have a best friend now. The dramas she has recently been throwing when we leave her at school (leg clinging, whining) are "for attention" since as soon as we leave, she stops.

She's not hitting others "for no reason" any more. She plays with typically boy toys as much as girl toys. She is learning all they are expecting her class to learn. Their only challenge with Eliza is that she chooses not to listen sometimes. She will ignore them when they are telling her to do something that she doesn't want to do. Sound like anyone else we know? Hmm, must review the parenting chapter that explains what I must be doing to reinforce this behavior in my kids. That said, I am 90% sure this rebelliousness in both my kids is genetic, though both my and D's parents report that we were "well-behaved" children. Could it not be a case of the old rose-colored glasses? OK, I will take responsibility for the rebellious nature and David will take responsibility for the disgruntled boredom. Or would that be counter productive?

Biggest good news is that they've agreed to let Eliza go to school with no pull-up on, and today after her first big-girl-panties day, she was accident free...until the final 10 minutes or so when she proudly told her teacher, when asked if she needed to use the toilet, that she already did her caca.

Boyz-n-Girlz

The play-date after school went something like this:

Miles (shirtless): Maria, do you want to play super strong thing? He keeps jumping from building to building. And he only lands on the tops of trees, and his feet are twice the size of buildings. They're 67 meters long! And his hands are 28 big! 

(He has to go shirtless these days since the Hulk and the Thing are shirtless. Apparently, no shirt can contain the bulging muscles of the super-super-super strong. BTW, we've never let him see any superhero movies or tv shows - he plays totally from images in his pre-school-level comic books and what he's picked up from friends on the playground. It almost feels like child abuse to deny him, but David feels even more strongly about the no-watching-violence thing than I do.)

Maria (clutching a tube of sparkly pink lipgloss): Eliza can't use this. It's only for big girls. (Eliza jumping up and down and whining.) OK, she can use it, but only on the top lip, not the bottom. (Eliza smearing it on her nose, top lip and bottom lip.) She put it on her bottom lip! (It's hard without a mirror, I suggest.) But I can put it on perfectly without a mirror!

The play-date went on to another friend's house, more of a mom gathering with the children doing their own thing wildly about the property. There was some joint play, but at one point the 4 girls played dress up: not the superhero kind, but the pink, sparkly, make-up, high-heels and tiara kind. Miles spent a good portion of the afternoon alone in his classmate's big brother's room, playing out imaginary fights between his many action figures. 

So is this how it's going to be from now on?

May Days

May pole dancing, cotton candy, clowns, draft beer... See, being abroad is not all that different. To quote Travolta: "It's the little things..." Like calling that inflated funhouse type bubble thing kids jump in  a bouncy castle. (What do we call it?) We're behind the high walls of the British Embassy instead of in a wide open park. And there are imitation Persian carpets on the ground instead of picnic blankets. And there's a significant number of Filipino nannies helping out with the big Jordanian families instead of just a mom & dad utilizing a serious off-road stroller to manage their two.  

Friends: Adam (Falastine's husband) and Leanna at the May Fair.                                                          

Ben (Caroline's husband) with Emily

Spiderman! Where are you coming from, Spiderman? Nobody knows who you are!

Roaring tiger, Eliza, with her future sister-in-law, Maria (Leanna's big sister). These friends of ours are leaving next month, moving to Copenhagen (where Adam's from). Falastine (who is Palestinian / Arab Israeli) is my pilates teacher and was my Arabic teacher last lear. We carpooled and have been doing play dates with the kids (and adult dinner-partying) for over a year. We'll miss them!! But Maria and Miles's sincere plans to get married (this was decided some 6 months or so ago and is discussed by them as a sure thing coming) ensure that we will see each other again.

 

Here we have some pre-bed wrestling or as Miles called it, Monster Attack. Or something like that. Miles prefers to go shirtless these days, as many superhero types, to show off his muscles. 

The beginning of the end of innocence?

Miles and Eliza had a roaring good joke going between them at dinner last night.

Miles: (in that na-na-nany booboo sing-song tune cherished by children all over the world) Eliza is a caca. (laughter)

Eliza: Miles is a caca. (laughter)

Miles: Eliza is a caca. (laughter)

Eliza: Miles is a caca. (and so ad infinitum)

Me: Children, we do not talk about caca at the table.

Miles: (in an almost teenager-like sarcastic tone with an indulgent little chuckle): Sure, Mom. We NEVER talk about caca at the table.

...it was only a matter of time given his Brigham blood. Of course, mother that I am, it was all I could do to stifle my appreciative giggle.

Another weekend away

To take advantage of the wonderful spring weather, flowers and rare-for-Jordan green hills, we went to Ajloun this past weekend, even after the last two week of travels with Jack & Barbara. We'd originally planned to go with J&B to Ajloun on the first weekend they arrived (I had organized a big group of friends to go up, too), but the weather turned cold and rainy so we bagged it. Nice as the spring weather can be: bright blue skies, warm sun and cool breeze, the weather can suddenly change and be grey and dusty with a strong wind that's sometimes wet. They call this period of spring khamseen (meaning 50) for the 50 or so days when the weather flip flops due to the dust clouds blowing north from the Arabian peninsula. 

And unfortunately we had bad luck again: partly cloudy, the wind a bit too cool. It was do-able though: we were able to get us a dose of nature. The kids climbed trees, ran trails, picked flowers, flew a kite, tossed a ball, picnicked and followed the short, dramatic life of insects. 

I found that I am still anxious at night while camping - some mothering thing. It was very cold, and I was half-consciously worried the kids would catch their death if they kicked off their blankets. I was surprised at how deeply appreciative I was to be back home.

It makes for good memories though, like Miles asking me to sing lullabies to the tent full of kids and requesting the old Brigham favorite "little milo dear, little milo dear, the night is very near..." but with a new verse for each child, which they thankfully fell asleep to.

Another nice memory: Eliza climbed up a tree to an adult's shoulder's height with no help at all. That girl has spunk!

Slideshow

 Here Miles leads the children in a rousing chant of nonsensical hilarity.