You Are Just Here for the Cute Kids and Animals Part I

Forgive me, I briefly forgot that the majority of my loyal readership is really just here to see K and T and the occasional elephant. Fear not, I can indulge that craving!

Hi! How are you! We missed you!

Apparently K thinks she is on a casting call for a part in "Almost Famous."

K destroying a very belated chocolate easter bunny. Apparently the package containing said bunny went missing, ended up in Paris, the South Africa and then traveled to us by truck. Highly unusual. And miraculously despite all of that all of the Easter candy, including the bunny, was still in perfect shape even three months late.

T practicing her reverse crawl/scoot.

All of us together at the falls. Don't we all look like happy campers?

Both girls sort of looking at the camera... pretty much the best you are going to get when trying to put a 9 month old and a three year old in a photo together.

All You Can Do Is Laugh

A message from your always gracious hostess: Let us all pretend that I did not just vanish off the face of the earth for over a month. Best to put that behind us and just carry on as if that had not happened, complete with whatever apologies I should make and promises to not disappear again. Though, if I ever disappear for that reason again then something has gone terribly wrong. Let me put it this way: previously I had one very firm rule for picking places we could live: no tsunamis. Walls of water freak me out! Now my rule has expanded to include no tsunamis and no countries eligible to host the conference we just finished hosting. Imminently reasonable, in my always humble opinion. Now, let us resume our regular blogging schedule.

A week to ten days before the big event the whole pace of the Embassy had shifted into high gear. The building was packed with short term employees sent out from various offices in DC, so suddenly you really did not recognize every single face you saw in the halls (both disconcerting and kind of fun. Variety!). Everyone was sleeping too little, drinking to much, and mostly subsisting on various types of candy handed out at meetings to try to keep the mob under control (I usually brought tootsie roll pops, and twizzlers to my meetings, I am just that kind of girl). I would leave my desk for 10 minutes to do something crazy like go to the bathroom and refill my water bottle and come back to 15 new emails in my inbox, the majority of them requiring some sort of response or action on my part, most of those making me want to stab someone with a fork.

Of course, all of this is exactly what one should expect when a whole bunch of VIPs descend like locusts in conjunction with a big conference. The best you can hope for is controlled chaos and that everyone walks away happy with little to no inkling of the madness going on behind the scenes.

So, one of the many things going on at the Embassy was that a ton of art was finally being placed. Some sculptured, some wall hanging quilts, some big photos of animals, a whole grab bag of stuff including, obviously, Elvis. I kid you not. A wooden ceremonial mask of Elvis in a nice plexiglass display case appeared, as if by magic, one morning. We are talking end of career fat Elvis, complete with big sideburns. He was the talk of the Embassy, with many, myself included, declaring him "creepy." And then, as if having Elvis in the building wasn't awesome enough, he started to move every night!!! Everyone had thought about it, several had mentioned the idea, but someone (or several someones, I still don't know for sure) was actually executing the plan and moving Elvis around the building at night. It was one of the best things ever!

The fact that someone was being clever enough, in the midst of all that was going on, to do exactly what everyone was thinking and actually move Elvis around was priceless. It was one of the funniest things ever. It made it ok that I was coming into the office at 7am on a Saturday because Elvis greeted me at the elevator! I was less likely to kill the very very young, very very obnoxious DC folks who seemed to always be checking Facebook in the control room rather than doing, you know, work (those damn kids today!) because I had spotted Elvis lurking by the water fountain.

And then, after the conference closed, and the last VIP was wheels up and it was time to rest and drink and work on rebuilding intra-Embassy relations after everyone had been angry and snippy and grumpy for weeks, Elvis made one last spectacular appearance: at the podium oh so recently occupied by someone Very Very Important, complete with his very own conference badge:

You Can See It From Space!

Much like the Great Wall of China or the Pyramids, our new playhouse, now complete, can also be seen from space. We just wanted to have something built that would use up a lot of the wood from the giant crates in which all of our stuff was shipped. We got a good recommendation for a guy who did a friend's playhouse and I messed around on the internet to find something I liked. If I am being kind I could say we took the original inspiration and ran with it. Or, more realistically, one could say that things got a titch out of hand...

At any rate, K loves it as do all the kids who come over and play. We have plans for additional after-market accessories as well. I think a cargo net on one side would be fun. And since we have some leftover wood perhaps a balance beam or something similar off to one side. We are having to get new tires for my vehicle so I think we will take two and half bury them upright as additional climbing/jumping devices. And a slide will probably appear eventually as well.

The real goal of the backyard has been achieved which is that I can sit on the patio and drink my coffee or gin and tonic (depending on the time of the day, though sometimes those distinctions can get dangerously tricky!) and passively watch the running amuck. Of course, in a couple of months when T starts moving around I will be forced to realize what a death trap I have assembled and will have to run after her like crazy... oh wait, no I won't, that's why I have nannies! Back to that G&T!

In other news, I finally got bored feeding T just pureed veggies and fruits and figured she was ready to move on to bigger and better things so she had banana bread today and liked it very much. Now we can slowly start to transitioning to just letting her eat little bits of whatever we are having, which is much more convenient.

Fair warning, things are getting really crazy here with work for both C and myself and will remain that way through mid-June, unfortunately. Lots of VIPs and VVIPs and VVVIPs and whatever other silliness all requiring various levels of handholding and generally much to-doing. So, its not that we don't want to respond to emails more... its that we are actually having to work at work, which is a real bummer.

Open House II

Welcome back! C and I have both had another crazy week at work, and things are only going to get more hectic until mid-June, but at least the end is somewhat in sight. K is doing well and loving her new playhouse (a topic for a later post). Poor T seems to have her first ear infection. At least, that is my uneducated guess. Low grade fever with grumpiness and no evidence of teeth that appears after 5pm on a Friday seems to almost always be an ear infection. We are keeping a watchful eye, holding her a lot, and planning to wait it out til we can get in to see the nurse on Monday, unless she seems to get significantly worse. Poor baby! Now, where were we? I believe I had shared our front exterior, our cavernous living room, the dining room and kitchen. Let's move on to the real heart of the house, shall we?

Welcome to the TV room. This is where the magic happens, by which I mean it is where we watch somewhat choppy Armed Forces Network (AFN) and cross our fingers and hope that something, anything, somewhat watchable is on. Surprisingly enough, there have been several Twins games on thus far this season, making me happy. Though with the cooler weather here I feel like I should be watching football, not baseball, but what's a girl stuck in the southern hemisphere to do, right? I should also add that the TV room shots and playroom shots to follow were all taken before noon today, Saturday. Both rooms had been spotless perfection yesterday evening when our staff left, so all of the assorted clutter and chaos is what K has managed to achieve in a mere few hours this morning.

The big batik is something we picked up here. It certainly adds a splash of fun color to the room. And that is our very old, very small TV. But we use it so little we can't bring ourselves to invest in anything larger/flatter.

From the TV room you go through a very short hallway into what was intended to be a mother-ion-law suite. It would make a great guest space, as it has its own bathroom, but while we are expecting lots of visitors (hint hint!) we don't expect them with sufficient frequency to warrant leaving this space as an untouched guest room. So, instead it is the playroom, which works out great, and the little connecting hallway is the changing table for T and spillover storage for some of her toys and clothes.

The playroom! K with her grandparent provided veritable stable of bouncy horses, Bucephalus and Toes. The owls are from the annual street fair in Del Ray and the curtains are shower curtains from Target. The sad, stained pink t-shirt is what K insists on changing into every single day after school. Because the housekeeper does the girls' laundry every morning it is always back in her drawer, just like magic! I have prohibited it from leaving the house, and I assume it will actually disintegrate into nothingness soon.

Two more shots of the playroom. I love the wall sticky things. The little forest scene and alphabet add some lovely color and fun, at a very reasonable price point. And who doesn't love a beanbag chair!!

Even with an ear infection she is happy, she is just that good of a baby (karmic payback expected in approximately 16 years).

Open House Part I

Howdy! Running a bit late this week on the posting. The usual excuses. Work, small children, crappy African Internet, etc.

But now that I am here, hi! Don't you want to learn more about where this chubby little almost cherub lives? We finally managed to get most of our art on the walls, and most of our stuff arranged in a semi-permanent fashion. I am not going to swear I want have a fit of OCD in a week and rearrange everything, but here is how the house stands for now. Or, at least, part of the front "public" half of this house. I am going to have to do this thing in installments, I fear. And, since this isn't Southern Living, Better Homes and Gardens, and certainly not Dwell (the nice modern design people would be appalled by the size and layout of this house, it is everything good, effective architecture should not be!) the house is somewhat untidy. Forgive me, I took the pictures over the weekend when the help wasn't on duty ;).

The front of the house. Directly behind me (which you obviously cannot see) is our gate. I am standing on the spot where our driveway touches the front yard. To the left, also out of view, is our pool. To the right is the side portion of the front yard with the tree K likes to climb (make a mental note of that for later). That is our lovely front porch, very nice for coffee and/or mimosa drinking on the weekends. We have a couple of sets of patio furniture out there. It is also usually decorated with at least some of K's chalk drawings.

Welcome, come in! This is the front hallway looking straight in. If you walk towards the stroller all the way in you find yourself in the TV room. If you turn right and go down a step....

Then you are in the living room/ pong room. That is our lovely stripped Embassy issued couch. We really like the hardwood floors, as they are easy to keep clean, even when you spill beer on them! Truth be told, we are rarely in this room unless we are playing beer pong. It is a bit sad, but it just isn't that welcoming of a room when it is just us in the house. It does get some use when we have guests.

Other side of the living room so you can see the red couch-matching chairs!

Now we have walked through the living room, and up the step on the left to enter the dining room. You can see the TV room off to the left. But if you go to the right, and through the door...

You find yourself in our kitchen! It is quite large, with lots of good counter and storage space, but it is somewhat oddly arranged. In this photo I am standing more or less in front of the sink so it is, as you can say, way on the other side of the room from the stove. And yes, the monstrous plastic contraption hiding off to the side is an exersaucer. I finally gave in and got one second hand from a friend out here because we had no good way of having T in the kitchen with us. While she sits up pretty reliably, every now and again she will get a little too exuberant about something and flap her arms and giggle until she loses her balance and goes straight back. I really did not like the idea of her cracking her head on the tile, so the exersaucer keeps her safe and happy while I cook.

See, tree that K likes to climb! I decided that it would be a great idea to kinda coach her up the tree the first time. Now it is all she ever wants to do. Way to go me!

That is all for now. The next exciting installment should include the TV room, playroom and the really long twisty hallway to the bedrooms. Stay tuned!

The Curse of the Long Weekend

We are on week two of long holiday weekends and I am starting to run out of clever ideas for projects to keep everyone happy and entertained. Indeed, at one point this weekend we were reduced to the always classic game of "can K fit into a suitcase? why yes, yes she can"! (see below"). Who knows what we will be reduced to tomorrow. But, before I ran out of creativity, energy, and patience, we did do a few neat things.

T looks on hopeful that K can, in fact fit, and might be going somewhere far, far away. No such lucky, baby, sorry. You are stuck with her, smothering hugs and all.

Our first project was making "marshmallow dream" (to use the lingo of a certain popular coffee establishment) birds "nests." This went fairly well.

K further assisted in the project by eating all of the black jellybeans that I did not think would make very cute "eggs" in the "nests." That's right, the child will not eat tomatoes or anything made of potatoes other than french fries but she is all over some black jellybeans. Yuck!

Still feeling ambitious, the next project was lemon sugar cookies with lemon icing. K helped roll out the dough and cut the cookies into assorted animal shapes. Unfortunately, they were all consumed before I remembered to take a photo. Whoops.

Of course, it is also important for the adults to have projects to keep them busy during these long holiday weekends. We decide to undertake the arduous task of taste testing different exotic juices with sparkling wine to seek out some fun alternatives to the classic mimosa or belini. Now we can both highly recommend litchi juice with a nice prosecco, so I think we can consider that project a success!

Works in Progress

Why, hello there! We are quite excited about a few projects we have going on around the house. Of course, I am quite busy myself learning how to sit up, and grab toys (and K's hair!), say "dada" constantly (of course) and eat mushy stuff, but I am not the only one with a lot on my plate. Check it out:

Our garden is looking very nice, with okra, zucchini ("baby marrow" here), eggplant, onions, tomatoes, strawberries and possibly a few other odds and ends. Everything is out of the ground, and most of the stuff is just starting to flower, so in a few more weeks we should have tons of yummy stuff to eat! Since only one person in this household is civilized enough to enjoy the wonder that is fresh tomatoes (cough cough, C and K you are both just wrong on this issue, and T is too little to have formed an opinion yet) she is going to have to figure out a good tomato sauce to make and freeze in bulk.

This is the much more elaborate project: the playhouse. Yes, that is a two story playhouse, and yes, it may have gotten a bit out of hand, but it is going to be really cool when it is done.

The frame and walls are all done, so next week the carpenter will cut in the windows, add the doors, and do the railing on the second story (it has a balcony of sorts on the front. He also has to do the ladder (no interior stairs) and put on the roof. With a little luck it will be done this week. There are a couple of big garage sales coming up both at the embassy and the school so hopefully I will be able to find some fun stuff, like little furniture and maybe a kitchen set, to put in the playhouse once it is done.

Finally, our lemon trees are continuing to produce like crazy so we are putting K to work picking fruit.