the lake Aug 2009

We had a wonderful two weeks at my parents house on Little Sand Lake in Minnesota this month.  (Emma was only able to stay for the first week.)  The first week we seemed to bring warm weather and sunshine with us and we had a great week playing on the beach, swimming and hanging out on Uncle Brad's fab pontoon boat.  Alex and Ellie though stayed true to their roots which are in Oman and the Caymans.  The water at the lake was way too cold for them to go swimming.  Alex did fall off the dock one day and went head first into the lake.  It was quite shallow and he quickly found his feet on his own.  Tata Tamara was on hand to pull him out.  He spent the rest of the week proudly telling everyone how he didn't cry when he went in.  He also kept going on and on about how he blew bubbles and kicked with his legs when he went in.  One day Alex and Ellie did try to get in when we were all swimming off the pontoon boat one afternoon.  The both had looks of extreme shock on their faces when they hit the water and were out in an instant. One afternoon after watching all the Hodgins kids skiing and tubing, Ellie decided she wanted to go tubing.  We got her on the tube with cousin Rowan and pushed them off.  She quickly decided she wanted to change her mind.  We did get her to ride along for a short ride before we had to pull her in, quite the adventure for the new two year old.  One afternoon while we were on Big Sand Lake on the pontoon we anchored in a shallow area out in the middle of the lake.  We were all enjoying a good swim, minus Alex and Ellie who were content to stay on the side and watch, warm and dry.  Alex must have decided he had fallen in once and Ellie had missed out so he pushed Ellie in off the side.  She had her life jacket on so there was no real harm done other than the surprise and shock on her face when she finally righted herself.  I happened to be right there in the water and had her out in a jiffy.


We all went along to Chateau Zorba's one Sunday afternoon to hear Grandma and Papa Denny's band "The Upper Mississippians" rock the house again.  The kids all love to listen and dance to the music.  They also really enjoying getting to join along with a percussion piece to one of the songs up front with the band. 


Most evenings we were able to have dinner at the picnic tables outside with beautiful views of the lake.  One evening we had a big cake and pinatas to celebrate all the kids birthdays that we had missed during the year.  Emma and I went a little overboard on the candy for the pinata and the kids were still eating candy out of their candy bags two weeks later!  We had an early campfire one night so Alex and Ellie could join in.  They both got to roast marshmallows and enjoy a couple smores.  As usual, they had more smore on their face, hands and hair than inside them.  We spent two nights sitting out on the deck one night and the pontoon boat the other, watching the Perseid meteor shower.  We had some beautiful, clear star-filled nights with fantastic views of the meteors.  Since Alex was getting up really early, we couldn't stay up too late but still saw a great show!

We had two mornings at the logging camp for breakfast.  Since pancakes are Alex's favorite food, they had a great time.  They even had more fun exploring the trails and playing on the old logging equipment.  The second week the weather got much cooler as the autumn weather arrived early.  I quite enjoyed the cool weather as we have lots of hot, humid weather at home whenever we want.  There was much less swimming but the kids had a blast playing with all the toys and costumes in grandma's basement.  We also fit in a few shopping trips to Walmart and ice cream at the old fashioned ice cream parlor at the Dorset House.  After two busy weeks of little sleep, lots of playing, bike riding and having a great time with their cousins, it was time for Eric to head home with the kids on my own.

This was my first trip with both kids on my own.  The first person I came across as I entered the Minneapolis airport at 0530 with the kids in their double push chair and trying to wheel two large suitcases along with my other hand, asked if I was travelling on my own.  When I said yes, her reply was good luck.  The lady at the check-in desk had the same response for me.  When I went to get a tag for the push chair at the gate, the man took one look at me and offered me the bulkhead row as he thought it might be a bit easier for us.  Half way through the flight, two weeks of little sleep and way too much stimulation finally got to Alex and he lost it.  It took almost two hours to calm him down, which I am sure the people in first class in the row in front of us appreciated.  A nice lady who was travelling with her family did offer Alex a large bag of gummie bears which helped to start calming him down. Northwest Airlines must have noticed that I had a very long layover in Miami and came up with an idea to help me kill time.  Instead of delivering our push chair to the gate as we got off, "they forgot" and sent it to the baggage claim. I had to lug Ellie down the length of the airport while avoiding Alex or coaxing him up off the floor.  We survived our five hours in the Miami airport and had a relatively calm rest of the trip.  Everyone was very excited to see mummie after we finally got out of the airport just about dead-last in the warmth of the Cayman evening.

Pee pee, potty potty, pee potty pee

As you can tell from the title, big things are going on in our lives here in the beautiful Caymans.  Two weeks ago we moved Alex out of his cot and got him a single mattress on the floor. By now he was getting out of his sleeping bag all the time and was too big for his cot.  Our big fear was he would just get up and walk out of his room when we tried to put him to bed, especially at nap time in the afternoon.  Our fears were compounded when Alex kept saying "I get out" with a big smile, every time we discussed his new bed with him. We have been pleasantly surprised that we have not had any problems with him getting out of bed when putting him to sleep.  He is especially excited that "I can turn around" under his covers.  The only problem is convincing him to stay in bed in the morning when he wakes up "until the sun comes up". We are regularly awoken by the sound of Alex coming up the stairs to see us sometime between 0400 and 0500 every morning. One morning, on coming downstairs with him, it was evident he had been up for a while playing with his toys in the living room with the lights on. 



Friday at lunch time the kids had a picnic at a local park with school. Their topic for the week had been picnics and BBQs, so they ended the week by having a real one.  Parents were invited so I went along for the picnic.  When I got to the park the kids were getting off the bus, lining up in classes, and then marching off to the playground.  I stayed back to watch them and the two of them are so cute.  As soon as they were free to to go play, Alex went in search of Ellie and brought her up the climbing frame to the big slide and helped her go down. Standing on the side I could hear Alex calling out "Ellie" or Ellie shouting for "Alex" whenever they got separated.   We had a fun picnic, chasing the chickens around, enjoying the sun and food. Coincidentally, it was Alex and Ellie's last day of school.  Next week we go to Minnesota for a couple weeks and in September they start at Montessori.

Yesterday Alex and Eric stayed in all day to learn to use the potty.  We have a cute small potty for Alex that he can use on his own. It even makes a special noise when he puts something in the potty.  As our guide I used the book "Toilet Training in Less than a Day" (over 2 million copies sold). It was written in 1974 and supposedly is a classic.   After one day I would have to say we are not quite there yet after more than a day.  For various reasons, we have had to modify some of the techniques in the book.  Very quickly Alex knew to go to the potty, could pull his shorts down and sit down.  He could get up, pull up his shorts, pull the tray out from the potty and carry it into the bathroom. (We are doing the training in the kitchen!) Once to the bathroom he empties the tray into the toilet and flushes then returns to the potty and puts the tray back.  I am amazed watching him go through the whole process on his own, very proud of what he can do.  Lots of Hershey chocolate kisses were part of the success.  The only stumbling block is getting Alex to pee in the potty.  At the end of the first day it was pee-on-the-floor 8: pee-in-the-potty 3. We are making progress, it is just getting Alex to hold on until he gets to the potty.  

Alex and Ellie continue to love swimming in the pool and are making good progress.  A couple days ago while Alex and I were swimming, we came across a crab on the bottom of the deep end.  Alex was excited that there was finally an actual sea creature in the pool.  Either it was a land crab that accidentally ended up in the pool or an escapee from a neighbor's kitchen.  Either way, crabs don't fare well in fresh, chlorinated water.  We were careful not to get too close to avoid "waking him up".   Alex found my old snorkel a couple weeks ago and insists on using it when swimming in the pool.  The mouthpiece is too big for his mouth so he just chews on one half, which means he can't actual breath through it. He won't swim without it though.  I bought him a kids snorkel which will fit entirely in his mouth.  He loves using it but I still don't think he breathes through it.  It is funny watching him swim around the pool with his mask and snorkel on, coming up and telling me about the fish and mermaids he has seen.   A few weeks earlier he went on a school trip to ride on the tourist submarine.  He still won't stop talking about the fish he saw and especially the "diver man" with the bubbles feeding the fish. 

Emma and I were watching the swimming world championships on TV this afternoon.  Alex woke up from his nap and came out while we were watching the men's 1500m.  He plopped down on the sofa and started watching with us.  Within a few seconds he was transfixed and watching intently.  When the race was over and they started to go to the ads, Alex was excitedly shouting at the TV and us; "more, more".  Good to see we have another swimming fan in the family.  Later this afternoon in the pool Alex started doing a pretty good freestyle arms which he has never done before.  He said he was copying the swimmers on TV.

The next big adventure the kids are already planning for is the airplane trip to Grandma's next Friday, Aug 7.  They are playing a lot of airplane and getting ready for lots of swimming and playing with the cousins.