Christmas Concerts

Wednesday night was the candlelight carol service at my school.  It was held in our lovely courtyard.  My class looks out on the lovely courtyard with some trees and a pretty fountain in the middle.  There were beautiful Christmas lights across the courtyard and through the trees.  The school concert band, choir and of course steel band all performed interspersed with carols sung by all.  The highlight was the alto sax solo by one of the 6th formers (seniors) during "Have your self a merry little Christmas". Apparently he was the young musician of the year for the Cayman Islands last year.  It was so good, he did an encore after the concert while we were waiting for the big raffle draw to take place.  Unfortunately we didn't win any of the prizes in the big raffle.  (The grand prize was $25,000!!) The trombone section in the band has quite a few women it too.

A side effect of the Madden's visit in November is that Ellie now believes all babies are Madeleine. Madeleine had just turned 1 and Ellie and Alex really enjoyed having a little one around.  Alex was so gentle with her and followed her around helping her.  Every time Ellie sees a picture of a baby she says "Madeleine".  Even when she sees baby pictures of herself around the house, she insists it is Madeleine and won't believe us that it is actually her. 

Today at school we only had a half day of classes.  We then had a wonderful Christmas lunch in the canteen.  Each tutor group had a table to decorate and enjoy lunch together.  Afterwards the year 11 students put on a Panto in the hall for all.  The tradition is they poke fun at the teachers.  I guess since I am new I got of relatively lightly as they don't know me very well yet.  It was very funny and the younger kids loved seeing the year 11's making fun of the teachers.  Tomorrow we only have a half day and no classes.  There is the big talent show and then mass before we break for the holidays.  We are all looking forward to our break and the students don't realize that the teachers having been counting down the days more closely than them.

Tonight was the Christmas concert at Montessori for Alex and Ellie.  There was a huge crowd watching,  I never imagined there could be that many cars parked out in front for a small school.  The kids all sat in chairs out on the patio with lights and a beautiful tree, with a packed audience of parents, grandparents and others crowded around, standing room only several rows deep.  Alex and Ellie had their best Christmas outfits on and school provided jingle bells for their wrist and lovely angel tinsel halos for their heads.  Ellie's class of two year olds was first singing their ABC's.  Then Alex's class of the three year olds and the other class of four year olds came out in their little parade and took their places.  They all sang a great collection of Christmas classics and did a wonderful job for a group of such young kids.  The genius of the concert was it was very short.  Lots of kids waving to their parents in the audience, some good singing and then before anyone could get distracted or grumpy we were done and on our way.  The secret to a outstanding little kid performance is brevity!  Afterwards we all went to see the amazing Christmas light display again.  The kids just love wandering around all the lights, Santa's (except Ellie who is scared of any kind of Santa, even a mechanical one singing Christmas carols), reindeer, trains, polar bears and snowmen. We even ran into two of Alex's classmates, obviously the lights were the thing to do after the concert, and they were running all over with Ellie chasing after them trying to keep up.

This afternoon while watching the movie "Cars" (yes it is still Alex's fav)  Alex said he wanted a Mack truck like in the movie.  We told him we could put it in his request for Santa to bring to him on Christmas.  He insisted that it had to be bought in the store and was not convinced that Santa could get him one.  Sunday, the 20th, we are off early to Minnesota to soak up a cold and hopefully a white Christmas.  The kids are all excited about singing their carols to Grandma, Grandpa, tata Tam and uncle Brad.  The kids are also delighted to be going on an airplane again and keep asking when we are going to pack and dragging their little wheelie bags around the house and putting their essentials in.  We hope everyone has enjoyed their Christmas build up and have a fantastic holiday.  As Alex loves to say while his little reindeer Ellie follows him around, "Ho, Ho, Ho! Meeeeeerrrrry Christmas!!"

Love Eric, Emma, Alex, and Ellie

Merry Christmas

Hello all,
    I realize it has been a long time since we have posted so I will try to catch up.  Life has been very busy here on tiny Grand Cayman.

    Emma has been busy looking for a job and looks like she is close to getting a position to start with a new firm early next year.  Nothing is certain yet but things are looking good.  Along side the job search we have had lots of visitors during November.  First were our good friends the Maddens from Oman.  They are in Senegal now but had been in the States because Sean was undergoing medical treatment.  He was unable to come down but Kim came down for week with Abi and Madeleine.  Abi is three days older than Alex and they were best friends back in Muscat.  We haven't seen them in almost a year and half, yet Alex and Abi picked up as if they had just seen each other the day before.  Ellie had a blast playing with a big kids as she wasn't walking the last time she had seen Abi.  While I was at work everyone else had a great time enjoying the sites of the Caymans.  One day my cousin Melanie and her daughter Tricia were in town for a day on a cruise.  Emma and Kim picked them up and they spent the day at Rum Point,  a wonderful beach on the north side.  The cruise ships are not in town for long and they were back on the ship by the time I was done at work so missed them.  There were also trips to the beach and the Turtle farm which the kids just loved.  The highlight was the trip out to  Stingray city.  There is a shallow area out in the north sound where stingrays congregate.  You can get in the water and the stingrays swim all around and you can feed and touch them.  Everyone had a fabulous time and i was quite jealous being at work all day. 

    A few days after the Maddens left, Emma's parents came into town for a couple week visit.  We had fun hanging out, enjoying the beach and enjoying the kids' first batch of Christmas presents.  The kids are still enjoying Montessori and swimming in the pool and at the beach.  We also still make lots of visits to the airport and the airport park to watch the planes.  While all our visitors were here Alex and Ellie slept in our bedroom with us.  Alex has a single mattress and Ellie slept in her cot.  After Emma's parents left we put Alex's mattress back in the kids room where our visitors had been sleeping.  We decided that Ellie was getting too big for her cot so put her in a bed.  The other bed in the kids room is a queen size bed.  We offered Alex the big bed but he wanted to stay in his mattress as Nana had just brought him a single bed size Cars blanket and matching pillow case.  He was more than happy to let little Ellie have the queen bed.  So now Ellie has more bed per size of person than anyone else in the house.  She loves her new bed but only sleeps in a tiny corner of the bed on the side next to Alex's bed.  Alex is still getting up at various times in the night and coming upstairs and crawling into bed with us.  Ellie has done this only a couple times but now has started getting up and going into Latha's room and getting into bed with her.  One morning I came down and Ellie had gotten out of her bed and wandered into the living room and was sound asleep on the sofa!

    Alex and Ellie have really been enjoying the Christmas season.  They helped put up the tree and just love watching the lights on our tree.  While decorating the tree we put on lots of beads.  They are Mardi Gras beads I got in New Orleans back in 1998 when I went to Mardi Gras with OJ.  Ellie just loves the cheap, tacky beads and plays with them all the time.  She keeps holding them in her hands and saying "Thank you daddy for my beads".  As I told her, I am more than happy to make the sacrifice to go back to Mardi Gras to get her more if she wants.  It is hard to keep them on the tree as she takes them off to wear them and play with them.  They both enjoy Christmas music and can now sing along.  We watch the Disney Christmas DVD's.  Sadly for us there are only a few of the old classic Christmas programs that the kids like.  They enjoy the Gumby Christmas, Tom and Jerry and the Grinch.  None of the others like Rudolph or Frosty,  when we try to get them to watch they aren't interested.  They are really enjoying the Dora Christmas special.  I wish I could say we were enjoying them but after a few dozens times we have had enough.  We have been to see Santa a few times.  This year Alex doesn't cry and will sit with Santa but Ellie is still terrified of the big man in red.  We have also enjoyed driving around and looking at all the Christmas lights.  Unlike in Oman, a lot of houses here go overboard with the Christmas lights.  There is one house which beats anything you have ever seen in any TV show or movie.  I am sure it is a good marker for planes on final approach to the airport.  You can park and wander around the front lawn to see all the lights.  It is very amazing and the kids just love it. 

    I go on Christmas break next Friday, the 18th and then on Sunday we fly to Minneapolis to spend Christmas at my sister, Tamara's house.  My parents will also be down and my brother OJ and wife Songul will also be coming out.  It will be nice to see the family and for the kids to experience American Christmas, with all the trimmings including what seems like will be bitter Christmas cold and hopefully some snow. Hopefully we will be able to stay more current on the blog.  We wish everyone a wonderful holiday and hope to see a lot more of you next year.

        Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.....


            Love Eric, Emma, Alex and Ellie

Ellie Picaso

We haven't written in a while and it is probably because we have been busy.  The weather has been great and we are two-thirds of the way through hurricane season and not even a whisper of a storm.  I have been through five weeks of school and am very busy.  I am really enjoying St Ignatius Catholic School.  I am the head of maths, which is a small department, only three of us total.  One of the other teachers is new also so we are very busy.  Learning names of all the kids, teachers, parents and how everything works on top of teaching and getting the department organized.  I have six classes, in the American system I have a class in each grade from 7th grade through 12th, and in the English system it is Year 8 through 13.  I also have a year 9 tutor group. School is close enough that I can bike to work everyday and our classes look out onto a lovely courtyard with a nice fountain in the middle.  The kids are really nice and I am really enjoying the school and glad to be back to work again.  We are doing the IGCSE and A levels but the school has had to mesh this English system into an American system with grade point averages (GPAs) as many of the kids go to university in the States.

Back in July we purchased a beautiful house here.  It took us a while to get all the paperwork for the mortgage as we have bank accounts in 3 countries and have just moved from a fourth.  This makes it very hard to get all the papers you need, and to get them quickly.  Although the seller had accepted our offer and deposit, a couple weeks ago, just as we were finally ready to close they accepted a higher offer and pulled out on us.  This was a big disappointment as it was a beautiful house for a very good price and we had spent lots of time and money trying to get everything needed.  The government had a big reduction of stamp duty for houses sold before the end of September, so since we finally had all our financing and paperwork in place, we quickly found another beautiful house. A couple days before we were due to sign the final paperwork Emma was laid off from work.  It was not a big surprise as the office has been very slow for the last few months.  She came in to build up a banking practice and there was no work so the newbie had to be the first to go. 

Emma is actually really excited as she now has lots of time to hang out with the kids and already has several good leads and a job interview.  We decided it was not the right time to buy a house so we have renewed our lease and will stay in our rental.  The kids started Montessori school in September and are having a great time.  The school is just around the corner from the school they went to earlier in the year, so Emma or Latha can walk them to school.  Every morning when I leave on my bike Alex follows me out and reminds me to wear my helmet and to be careful while on my bike.  Last week when Emma picked the kids up, Ellie's teacher let Emma know that Ellie was a very talented artist.  Combined, Eric and Emma, have no artistic talent and we usually just throw away most of the blobs and scribbles of art that the kids bring home from school.  Our house is not that big and we already have lots of pictures and paintings on the wall.  Ellie's teacher said that the painting she did that morning was the best one she had seen in over 20 years of teaching pre-school.  We are still not sure what she is talking about but what do we know? We will let you decide.  We have kept this one just in case...

In November my cousin Melanie and her daughter Tricia will be pulling into Cayman on their cruise and will have a day here. Emma is going to pick them up and probably hang out at the beach with them or whatever they want to do for their day in Cayman before getting back on the ship.  Emma's parents will be our first overnight visitors in November when they visit for a week. We do have room still for visitors so come on down and visit.  We are planning on having our second cold weather Christmas in a row when we go to Minnesota at Christmas to see my parents and Tamara and the clan.

Now that Emma has more time and things are starting to settle down a little at school we can get back to regular blogging.  Hopefully we ride out the end of November without a hurricane as the weather is already starting to cool down a little. 





a Block breakfast before a big day at Montessori

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. 

Ie Shima

From Aug 1994 to Aug 1995, while still in the Marine Corps, I was the Officer-in-Charge of the Operations Support Detachment Ie Shima. Ie Shima is a small island off the west coast of Okinawa, Japan. It is a small island you can only get to by air or on the ferry. There is a small local community of farmers and fisherman as well as a couple hotels. My detachment was only 11 Marines. We were responsible for the training range on the west end of the island. At the time it was one of the top training ranges for all services in the Western Pacific.  Helicopter, AV-8B Harrier jets and C-130 aircraft used the runway regularly. We also supported parachute operations, small boat operations, and all sorts of training exercises across the land areas of the range. Being the senior military officer on the island, I was viewed by the local Japanese community with the same respect as the local mayor.  We also let the farmers keep their goats on the range (there was no live fire on the range) and come cut the grass to feed their cattle. This also meant we got to help catch the goats for special occasions and join in the preparation and feasts.

I remember when the Japanese phone company hired one of Japan's top film directors to do some commercials and ads for them. He wanted to do them on the island and on our range. The production company came out to ask permission and took me out for a wonderful dinner to discuss the details. We had a wonderful relationship with the locals and we all loved our time on the island. The island is mostly famous as the place where the famous war reporter Ernie Pyle was killed during the invasion of Okinawa in April 1945.  There is a small memorial park on the island to Ernie Pyle and the Marines are responsible for the upkeep of the park and hold a ceremony every April to remember him. Dignitaries come from Okinawa, mainland Japan, and lots of senior US military and WWII veterans.

In the spring of 1995 I was informed by headquarters that there would be two WWII vets and their wives visiting the island. They had gone through their Senator in Texas to arrange all permission and I was instructed to show them around and provide any help I could. They were going to stay at the YYY resort on the island. Both vets had been in the Army Air Force and flown fighters from the airfield on Ie Shima during WWII. They were very nice and it was a pleasure to show them around the island and listen to their stories from their time on the island. Neither had been married during WWII and they both joked with their wives that they had received "Dear John" letters from their sweethearts at the time, while stationed here. We had some excellent dinners and they enjoyed reliving some of their WWII experiences. After I returned to San Diego in the fall of 1995, they contacted me to tell me their old unit from their time in Ie Shima was holding a reunion in San Diego and invited me to be the guest speaker at their dinner. I had a fantastic time at the reunion and enjoyed hearing even more stories and being able to tell them how important such a small island still was to the military. The two gentlemen who had visited Ie Shima had told me that they had been flying fighter escort for the bombers that dropped the atomic bombs. One of them shared with me a letter he had written home to his parents after witnessing this sobering moment. I would like to close my reminiscing with his letter dated August 9, 1945.  Sometimes history is more powerful in the first person, as it happens.

"Of course, the topic on everyone's lips is the atomic bomb. Will they or won't they quit? When you receive this, perhaps it will all be history, but I doubt if the Japs will throw in the sponge very quickly. Isn't it an amazing weapon, though?  I just happened to be looking at the horizon to my left from "Cherry's" cockpit when it seemed as though there was a sunrise at midday.  The horizon, even in the brilliant light of near-noon, became a vivid and awful orange.  It truly was a horrifying sight.  Then before ten minutes had elapsed, a symmetrical cloud column had risen high into the sky.  With our gunsights we estimated the cloud to be fifty thousand feet high.  It made us all feel rather humble, if not futile.  E.M.C. Jr."



 

ALEX TURNS 3

Alex turned 3 yesterday and had a nice party at school that Ellie was allowed to go upstairs to join. He has come a long way in 3 years. At Burger King for ice cream the day before his birthday he showed how he has grown into his role as a big brother. There was a large poster with all the Transformer toys available in kids meals. Ellie kept pointing to the pink motorcycle she had gotten last week and saying "my bike, my bike" as she believes most of what she sees is hers. (I think this comes from us always calling her a princess.) Some of Alex's classmates from school were there and also starting pointing to the bike saying "my bike, my bike". Alex quickly jumped in and starting defending his sister by saying "no, Ellie's bike" and stood in front of the picture so the other boys could not point at it anymore. He stayed in front of the picture for quite a while refusing to allow anyone else to claim the bike as theirs. As a send off to his 2's he threw his biggest tantrum to date while we were in Burger King for ice cream. He got upset it was time to go and ended up on the floor screaming and crying and clinging to my leg as I tried to walk across the floor. I think he has done a good hand-off to Ellie as she jumped right into the role of cheeky, naughty 2 year old. On the way home from ice cream Alex was screaming for fun in the car and I reminded him they were not allowed to scream in the car. His reply was "Can we scream at home?" Perhaps the lawyer in his mummy is rubbing off on him. He loves to remind mum when he finds her shoes around the house that she needs to put them in the shoe rack by the front door.


By coincidence constitution day here is just a couple days after July 4 so we get a bank holiday weekend on the 4th of July. Alex and Ellie wore their special outfits to school the day before to show they are all-American kids. The next weekend Ellie actually got to have a play date when her friend Amelia from school came over on Sunday morning with her family for breakfast and a busy morning in the pool. Ellie loves to paddle around the pool with her float belt on and Alex is getting good at swimming around completely on his own with no floats and can even swim to the bottom to pick up his little seals.


For his birthday he got a train, an airplane and a "Cars" umbrella. (Ellie also had to have an umbrella as she believes she is the same age and for a month-and-a-half she is technically correct!) Later that afternoon they were playing outside with the umbrellas even though there was no hint of rain. it still amazes me what kids find so entertaining.

After much hassle, effort and frustration, mostly at the British, Latha finally arrived this afternoon. It finally took getting a transit visa for a 3 hour layover in Heathrow. It took 5 days, several sets of photos, money, lots of paperwork and numerous trips to a variety of British Embassy sites in Muscat so she could change planes in London. The kids are so excited to see her and I think she had one whole suitcase of presents for them.

We are off to Minnesota to visit the family on Aug 7. It will be great to see the American clan again. In preparation for starting work the end of August I have started a website that is a little bit about maths. Even if you are not one of my students you should check it out. I also have another blog which is devoted to maths and school. Mr Block's maths home

GRADUATION

Last Sunday the kids school had their graduation ceremony. Alex and Ellie are too young to be graduating, the ceremony was for the four year olds who were graduating nursery and ready to move on to the big kids school for kindergarten next year. We went because Alex's class were to be flag holders for the procession of graduates as they paraded up to the stage. Ellie's group was to perform a little song.

We arrived just in time for the start and the hall was packed. The ceremony was at a local hall that was set up very fancy. Alex went shy right away and would only stand in his spot with his flag if mummy sat with him. Even being next to his girlfriend didn't help with his shyness. (Yes he used to have a girlfriend back in Muscat but she moved away to Africa and has never called or written him since, so he has moved on!) To the tune of "Pomp and Circumstances" the nine four year olds paraded down the middle of the seating area, past Alex's class holding their little Cayman flags, and up onto the stage where all the staff and guests were seated. All the kids were in their green traditional graduation caps and gowns. One of the graduates was overcome with sadness at having to leave nursery and was in tears the whole time. (Maybe it was just his fear of having to go to kindergarten next year!)

There were lots of poems and songs by the graduates and speeches by the teachers and staff. There was a speech by the guest of honor. While the speech was interesting, I think she forgot that most of the audience were kids under four and their parents. Once the four year olds loose their focus, the parents then loose theirs. In our case it involved chasing Alex around the hall as he dragged a large balloon sculpture after him. There was a large pot luck buffet set up in the back of the hall. Ellie spent her time walking along the tables naming the food and trying to get into the cakes. Ellie's group did a good job with their little teddy bear song and the ceremony was really nice.

We all had a good time and happy there was no valedictory speech!

UPDATE FROM THE ISLAND

It has been a while since I have written so I will try to quickly mention what we have been up to. It is amazing how time goes so quickly when you are in a routine with two little ones who never let you get into a groove no matter how hard you try.



On Friday before fathers day we had a luncheon at the kids school. They had made cards for me and some other presents and we got to all have lunch together. The kids have now become water rats. They are really enjoying swimming in the pool and it is now hard to get them out. Alex wears his mask and is swimming well on his own. Ellie just puts on her float belt or water wings and floats around the pool on her own not worried if she ends up on the other end of the pool from me. She spends her whole time smiling saying "look at me, look at me" which is her new favorite phrase. She also loves to walk around telling everyone who will listen "I'm a princess!"

On Saturday, June 20 I participate in the Flowers One Mile Sea Swim. It is a huge annual event here that had almost 750 swimmers. There was a large number of swimmers from all over the world including a large contingent of kids from Australia and lots of current and past Olympians. Check out the web site for details on all the Olympians as well as the results. It was cool to swim against the likes of Ian Crocker, Neil Walker, Anthony Nesty, Kirsty Kowal and others. Ryan Lockte was here on the beach chatting with swimmers and posing for pictures but did not swim as he is prepping for World Championships in a couple months. The water is warm and crystal clear and there is lots of prize money as well as loads of raffle give-aways at the end for all finishers. I hadn't swum a stroke in over two months and had a slight course misunderstanding. I thought the buoys marked the course and I had to stay seaward of them. After about a half mile it finally occurred to me that everyone else was swimming just off the beach and I was actually off the course. I had to head back in to shore. I still managed a 71st finish so there is lots of room for improvement next year. The race was won by Shaune Fraser, a local swimmer who now swims for University of Florida. He recently won the NCAA 200 free and fly with a NCAA record for the fly. His brother was close behind who is also at Florida. Anyone who is a swimmer or wants an excuse to head down here should come swim next year. After the swim we had fun playing on the beach hoping to win a raffle prize. After living on the beach for seven weeks and showing no interest in swimming at the beach Alex has suddenly taking to the waves. One of his best friends from school Zeke was there as his mom had done the swim. They kept the entire beach entertained running naked up and down the beach and through the waves. The sight of me chasing them down the beach shouting at them to stop brought a lot of chuckles from beach-goers.

The rain has become more regular but we have only had one day when it rained all day. It rains a lot during the night and is nice during the day. The rain at night brings out the frogs and the chorus is deafening. The rain has also brought out the land crabs. We had a large one trying to get in our back door the other night. We figured he lost his way after a big night out. A friend of Emma's works on the Humane Society Animal hot line so we called her and she explained it is time for the land crabs to come out. We did not find out whether we should help them find their way into our kitchen!

We just learned that Latha arrives on Saturday evening, so July 4 will be a true Independence day for us! Our offer on a home has also been accepted. We still need to have a survey done and get the financing, but it is looking good. We will be planning to move in during October when our lease here runs out. The house is across the street from the ocean, a short stroll to town and has a huge yard and pool. It is just one block from Eden Point, which is the best snorkel ling spot on the island. We will keep you updated on the progress of the sale and then we look forward to seeing everyone.

2 2's

The title is not a maths puzzle but highlights the fact that Ellie turned two today which means we now have two two year olds without twins! We got Ellie a large Little Tykes kitchen for her birthday and I spent last night putting it together and trying to get the stickers in the right spot. I now know how I will be spending Christmas eve in the future! Ellie had a big cake and party at school and Alex even got to take a break from his academics to join her party. He had to make up the work he missed colouring and ordering numbers for homework? Ellie has been revelling in being a birthday girl and liked the book she got from school so much she had to bring it to bed with her. She spent the afternoon after our swim polishing off the rest of the birthday cake.


Hurricane season has officially begun and we are all ready with lots of food, water and lights all ready in case we get hit bad. It has started to rain more but it pours for an hour and then clears up. A couple weeks ago the kids had an open house at their school on Saturday. The kids really enjoy large bouncy castles and Ellie gets in there and bounces with the big kids. They were also introduced to sno cones and cotton candy. They loved the sno cones which were refreshing on a very hot day. Even though the cotton candy looked like lots of purple fun neither of them really liked it. This revelation came long after they were covered in it!

The boxes are finally all gone and the pictures up on the wall. The dining room table finally appeared again which means we don't have to always dine at the coffee table. I am finally getting through the major problem which has been power. When we left the States in 2002 we had to get rid of almost all our electrical items since the voltage in the UK is 200 volts. Oman was also 220 volts so we could bring all our stuff with us. We have now moved back to 110 volts (This is a British overseas territory so why don't they stick with the mother country??). This means we had to leave most of our appliances again. Some of the small items are dual voltage so we could bring those and we had a couple items which were not dual voltage but we decided it was worth it to bring them. We now have them going with a voltage converter. Then add to it all the issues of different TV systems and types and regions of DVD's and you have a major international incident trying to get everything working. We have accumulated DVD's from everywhere and I am having some issues. I am slowing getting through them and getting all the required appliances and entertainment up and running. We have also acquired a second car, a 1996 Honda CRV ( the most common type of car on the island ) for Emma to use for her commute to work. The parking lot is so tight at her office she needed something a little smaller. It is a right hand drive from Japan so smaller than the version you would find in the States.

I have been doing a little work getting ready for next school year. I was part of the phone interview for a new maths teacher we need for next year. We found a good candidate who is currently teaching at a British school in Spain whose school is a victim of the European economy and is having to cut back. I have also been working with the head on getting some curriculum changes made and ordering new software we need. It is great that they are letting me be involved before I start.

The last time I went shopping for a bike I was looking for the latest in racing and technology. I have now passed into a new phase in my life. I just purchased a Huffy which has a rack on back, full fenders on both wheels, only 5 speeds and a kick stand! And I spent weeks trying to find just the right bike. Emma can attest to how excited I was with my new bike. This is cruising land, all flat and never far to go so I am already to cruise to town and work. We are looking forward to our 2 2's, but also looking forward to Alex being promoted to 3 next month.

Boxes,Boxes go away

I am sorry we have been silent for a while but Monday morning, May 4 they delivered our shipment and we are just getting out from under the pile of boxes. Our 20 foot shipping container in the drive was almost as big as our house. The way they do customs here is the customs agents come to your house and check your stuff while they unload it. They would randomly cut open boxes to see what was in the box. The agents were very impressed with how well packed our stuff was and how difficult it was to get through all the packing to see what was inside. This is a great ad for Writer, the company which packed all our stuff in Muscat. Everything made it and was in the appropriate number of pieces! Our house here is much smaller than our place in Muscat and mostly furnished. This means we have a lot of stuff that we don't need or will not fit so we have a storage unit not too far away by the airport. It is difficult planning a move here where most places are furnished but you can't be sure what will be in the house you buy or rent.

We have slowly been getting through the boxes, finding what we need, and sending the rest to our storage unit. The kids adore the "new house" and cheer every time we turn the corner and see the "new house". We are in a small complex of 12 townhouses. We have a large fenced yard as we are one of the end units and there is a pool which we usually have to ourselves.

One of the benefits of living in the Western Hemisphere is the opportunity to see more of my family in the States. Last week we took advantage of two holidays Emma had from work ( National Day and the National Election day which comes once every four years) to go to Minneapolis to see my sister Tamara and her family and my parents. We barely made it to the airport here on Friday morning, May 15. The lady gave us a lecture about arriving one hour before departure while pointing to her watch and showing us how it was 59 minutes till departure. When we reached the check in I realized I had left the car seats in the car. Fortunately the long term car park is about 100 metres from the terminal. (It is a very, very small airport.) I was able to run back to the car to retrieve them. When we booked Emma's visa online as part of the visa waiver program the Homeland Security site made it clear we did not need to print out a copy to bring with us while travelling, as all the info would be in the computer. Of course, the airline was also upset with us at check in for not having a copy, even though there was no mention of needing a copy on their website. Confusion still reins as we noticed each time we went through security during the trip. We made it on the flight to Atlanta where we were changing for our flight to Minneapolis. While having dinner in the Atlanta airport Alex suddenly became very ill and started throwing up. We knew that there was a 24 hour throwing up bug going around the Caymans as friends kids had it the previous week. Our concern now was someone would notice Alex throwing up and with a very high fever and think he might have swine flu and throw us all in quarantine for our trip. I forgot to pack a spare shirt so he went shirtless. As we got on the plane for Minneapolis the flight attendant noticed our shirtless kid and we just said he got his shirt all dirty while having dinner. No one needed to know about the throwing up!

We had a fabulous visit in Minneapolis with my sister Tamara, husband Brad and all five kids. My mom and dad were also down from up north. Alex and Ellie had a blast with all their older cousins and Grandma. Emma and I had a chance to go out for several nice dinners without kids and do some shopping for essentials. On Sunday we all went out on their very comfy pontoon boat on Lake Minnetonka. The weather was gorgeous and we stopped at Fletchers be the lake for a tasty lunch. On the way home we stopped at a small island in the lake and got off to play and explore. Alex got his first taste of a real bike and quickly took to peddling all around the neighborhood on his cousin's bike with training wheels.

We had a smooth flight home except for some ticket issues again when checking in both in Minneapolis and Miami while changing planes. While checking in at Minneapolis two of our three bags were overweight so I played a fun game of rearrange items from one bag to another to a carry on bag while reweighing after each move. We finally got each bag to within limit to avoid any fees. Our total weight had not changed, just what was in each bag. We have not been on a US domestic flight since we moved away in 2002 and you quickly realize how much nicer international air travel is! We got home in time for bed on Wednesday 20 May and even though they had a wonderful time the kids were both still excited to see the "new house" when we came around the corner. There were many requests the next few days for Grandma and for Ro ro (their eldest cousin Rowan, who is wonderful with the kids).

Friday night the kids had a movie and pizza night at their nursery school. I dropped them off with their pillow for a night of "Stuart Little", popcorn and Dominoes. Ellie was the youngest as her class wasn't actually invited but they made an exception since she and Alex are so close. Alex was holding onto me and didn't want me to leave . I kept trying to sell him by mentioning all his friends were there, they would have popcorn and pizza and they were going to watch a movie. Alex was not convinced but Ellie just got more excited at each activity. Sometimes she is more grown up than Alex.

Saturday morning we went to get bikes as Alex is now hooked on cycling. Since Ellie believes she is the same age as Alex we had to get her a bike also even though she is not close to pedalling on her own yet. Alex got a "Cars" bike and Ellie got a Dora the Explorer bike. Ellie's even has Dora's special backpack on the handle bars with a special map in it, just like Dora has. Alex puts on his helmet and tears around the front parking area of the complex. He can weave around the cars and only goes tumbling off when he veers into the grass. Ellie just likes to push hers around and occasionally sit on it and look cool. She is not even very interested in allowing me to push her. Alex also enjoys riding Ellie's bike around and this does bother her. The other day we were all sitting on the sofa when she spilled some juice. With her cheeky smile she just said "Daddy clean it up." At this time last year Alex could only say a couple of words.

Saturday afternoon we went to Petapalooza. It is an annual event to raise money for the local animal shelter. There were ten live bands, the surf wave was open as well as the skate park. Everyone brought their dogs. All pets were invited but I don't think it was the kind of event cats would want to be at. There were also two huge inflatable slides. It didn't faze Ellie that most of the kids tearing up it were four or five times older than her. She made it to the top before getting scared and crying. An older girl was nice enough to slide down with her. She just wanted to do it all over again and did, crying when she got to the top and waiting for an older kid to slide down with her again.

We are finally getting settled in and the kids are really enjoying themselves. I hope everyone is having a great start to their summer. Hopefully we will be able to stay more current now that we are settled in.

Diarrhea Man

Thanks for all the birthday wishes from everyone last week. To celebrate my 43rd we all spent last Sunday exploring the east and north of the island that we haven't seen yet. The island is gorgeous and we started in Kaibo which is all the way in the north. It is a beautiful little beach with great views across north sound and not many people around. Then we went to Rum Point which is also on the north end and wandered around and had a nice lunch. The water is gorgeous and the kids had fun running on the pier. We even ran into a friend of Alex's that we had met at the kids indoor play area a few weeks earlier. Ellie had helped herself to several of the girls Dunkin donut holes back then and this time the girl helped herself to half of Alex's cookie which didn't seem to bother him. He has got the way of the world worked out pretty good for a two year old! For dinner we had take out from the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate.

Alex has taken to wearing his mask in the bath. He keeps saying he is a diver man but it keeps coming out diarrhea. Emma and I wet ourselves as he keeps saying "Alex diarrhea, Alex diarrhea" and keep expecting the water to go brown!. He loves swimming with the mask and we have to pry it off his face when we put him to sleep.

It has been a busy week that culminated with us getting the keys to our house Friday morning, May 1. Of course there was no power when we went in that morning but it was quickly sorted. I spent all week trying to get all the requirements arranged for our move, power, water, TV and Internet. the Internet still hasn't been set up so as of tomorrow we may be silent on the digital front for a couple days. It was refreshing to see that even though the Caymans is the fifth largest financial centre in the world, it is still not always straight forward to get these everyday necessities arranged. We started moving our things in and are really looking forward to the delivery of our shipment scheduled for Monday morning. Three months of living out of suitcases will soon be done. The house is mostly furnished with sofas, beds, dining table, all appliances, and most of what you need for the kitchen. We are now sorting out what goodies we still need to make it home. All of our stuff from Muscat will not fit so we have a storage unit arranged for the extras.

Alex went on his first school field trip this week. They went to the fire station. For a little boy that just loves large vehicles, he has not been able to stop talking about the fire trucks all week. Today the TV install men were in the house setting up the satellite TV. (We will have Dish TV). Alex spent the whole morning standing next to the install man saying "man what are you doing? man what are you doing?" They were very good with Alex and did not seem too bothered.

The highlight of the week, especially for an American was to go to the law courts and see Emma admitted to the court of the Caymans. One of the named partners presented her credentials to the judge after all the pomp of the judge's entrance. I have to admit that even though I have lived through all of it, I sounded very impressive when he went through her career. The judge made a nice speech after confirming that all her documents were in order. She was already in the traditional black robe. After the judge officially admitted her to the court of the Caymans she got to put her wig on. I don't mean she has gone blond or ginger but the funny gray wig you see on all the British TV shows. As she doesn't do much work in court she won't be wearing it again soon but it was lots of fun to see. After the ceremony the judge came down from his bench to shake hands with Emma and congratulate her. He also said that she was the first person he has admitted who has practiced in Oman!

Tomorrow, Sunday, we move into our new house officially and will say goodbye to our view of the sunset from our living room across the beautiful beach. We are really excited to be able to finally settle in and get back to some normalcy. The kids are also really keen to get into the swimming pool Now that we are into our house we have the room so the officially come visit us sign is now up.

Tiny Tots Olympics (Sportsday)

April 25, 2009 saw the athletic event of the year take place, the Tiny Tots Olympics. Tiny Tots is Alex and Ellie's nursery school. The athletes were kitted out in their house colour t-shirts; the bluebirds, the green parrots and the red robins, the house of Alex and Ellie. Even many of the parents were sporting house t-shirts.

The activities began with a parade of the athletes by house, each house having a large banner. There was motivational kid's music playing and the standing room only crowd was rumoured to contain a few non-family members or staff! Few could hear the music over the wailing and tears of the contestants as they were forced from the play rooms with all the toys, leave their mummy and daddy, and made to walk out onto the field. There were orange slices and Gatorade for the contestants. The field was freshly manicured with red, blue and green lines to mark the track.

Many a controversy occurred throughout the morning. Their were many claims that runners had run outside their lane, a common occurrence with the one to four year old crowd. There were birth certificate checks to verify the ages. Alex, who is not yet three, was running against some much larger three year olds. Measurements had to be retaken and records challenged as the 50m run was most certainly not even 30m. For some the pressure was too much and they froze on the track, crying for mummy, unable to live up to the high expectations of their cheering house members and their sponsors; the hot dog stand and an unnamed chip company hawking their wares in the stands. It was rumoured the windy conditions were above allowable limits and many more record runs are currently under challenge. Many a younger competitor had to be led down the track as they were unsure what they were doing and why they were not watching cartoons at home on a Saturday morning. Many a parent was wondering the same. Not us, as ours are always up by 0530 these days. There were also some inspiring shows of sportsmanship. When the one year old girl from the green parrots went down headfirst in the grass, the red robin competitor came up and lay face down in the grass next to her, refusing to take any advantage from her misfortune.

Besides the track events, there were also some field events. There was the colour match, the string large beads and then run, and the ever challenging event of running, stopping to put shoes on then continuing to the finish line. These were largely for the older kids and do not make good spectator events.

It was a fun morning and Ellie decided rather than run she would cheer on her house and eat all the food she could get her hands on. Alex ran the three year old 50 meter dash. (As alluded to earlier the distance was questionable which is a good thing) As he lined up to run, crocks securely on his feet, he had me put his spider man shades on in an attempt to psych out his opponents. He ran a good race, inspired on by mummy sitting at the finish line. He stayed in his lane and showed good running form for a Block.

This was our first school event as parents and I am sure we have many more years of events to look forward to. Look for the highlights on Sportscenter later or maybe Transworld Sports, or CNN.

Ellie takes care of her brother

We just got home from school and I thought I should share another brother sister moment. Since neither of the kids took a nap yesterday and then awoke again at 0500 this morning, they were both exhausted after school and were snoring loudly shortly after we left school in the car. Again I had to carry both at the same time with their bags across the compound and up the stairs. At the top of the stairs I put Alex down so I could get the key out. By the front door we have a small bucket with water so you can wash the sand off your feet before going inside. Alex was so tired he fell backwards and landed right in the bucket with his bum and his shirt and shorts were soaked. Being exhausted he didn't find it as amusing as I did and was crying and screaming. I quickly got them inside and had Alex dry and ready for his nap. As I was zipping him up in his sleeping bag Ellie came running in the room with his toy helicopter from the movie "Cars". This instantly cheered him up. She then went running off saying "airplane, airplane" and shortly returned with two of Alex's favorite airplanes for him to take to bed. The smile on Ellie's face and her good deed cheered us all up and Alex went off to his nap happy. Hopefully all this love will translate into a long nap now.....

Fatherhood

We have settled into a regular routine. Emma is settling in to work and I drop the kids at nursery in the morning and pick them up at lunch time. We are excited about being able to move into our house on May 1. While we enjoy the condo on the beach it will be nice to have more space and a fenced yard. Our container has also arrived so hopefully it will be through customs and we will be able to have our stuff shortly after we move in. We have been living out of our suitcases for close to three months now.

Last weekend we finally had a chance to do more exploring of our gorgeous island. On Sundays everything is closed here, all shops and even the large grocery stores. Only the restaurants are open. We drove east along the southern coast and found a beautiful tiny beach called Heritage Beach. We were the only ones there and the kids enjoyed playing in the sand and the shallow water. As Ellie has had some bad nappie rash she was running around naked. At one point I had to go to the bushes to pee and take in the beautiful view. Ellie wandered over to see what I was doing and while standing next to me enjoying the view she had a pee too! My little girl making her daddy proud!

The other day we had called Emma's sister Clare in the UK to wish her happy birthday. Alex has just started actually talking to people on the phone and enjoyed talking with his auntie Clare. Ellie had her chance but just likes to listen and smile at the phone. Just before hanging up Emma asked Alex is he wanted to say "Happy Birthday to Clare again"?. He gave his big smile and said yes. She handed him the phone and he said "Happy Birthday again." Daddy is so proud that Alex has inherited his sense of humour.

When I pick the kids up from nursery at lunch I usually pick Alex up first since his class is upstairs and then we go down to get Ellie. Alex usually has some piece of art he has created. As soon as Ellie sees Alex walk in her class she runs to him and they give each other a big hug. Ellie then takes Alex's project and starts admiring it. If Ellie has made one of her own Alex admires it and is always very impressed. They are very cute together and seem to have a sense of what the other wants and try to cheer the other up if one is sad or in trouble. When they fall out, Ellie has learned to bite and has given Alex some nice tattoos!

We spend the afternoons playing at the airport park, the beach, or the indoor kids play area. I am enjoying having this time with the kiddies. We are also planning a trip to Minneapolis to visit my sister Tamara and her family and my parents. Emma has a long weekend so we are adding a couple days. Cayman national elections are in May and it is a public holiday so we are taking advantage of being so close to the States to go see family and maybe a little shopping. Once we move into our new place we will have lots of space for visitors so come on down and see us.

A man and his (mini) van

Yesterday we took possession of our new 2002, burgundy Chevy Venture. Yes, we joined the minivan cult. Those of you without kids may be chuckling at us, but Alex and Ellie think it is the coolest car around and constantly want to go drive in the bus! ( They like it much better than our rental SUV) Alex even told me the bus was cool! The magic doors that open and close all on their own bring a look of wonder to Alex's face. The other day I also got my Cayman driver license to add to my US one and my Omani one. (I never did get a UK license when we lived in London even though I should have, according to the authorities). The Cayman license was the easiest, as all you have to do is show your US one and they take your picture and money and you are set. In Oman you had to do an eye test, which of course I failed since they test both eyes, not just your choice of one, like in the States. It took a lot of talking to the policeman, who didn't understand what I was saying, and eventually after talking to his superior they just let me have it.

The kids are settling in well at nursery and enjoyed all their Easter activities and especially their Easter baskets when they left on Thursday. The entire drive home they wanted "chocolate, chocolate", which then continued after they woke up from their naps. Friday and Monday are holidays here so we have a long weekend. Most of which I have already spent at the airport park. I am doing ok in my role of Mr Dad and learning quickly. I have most of my tasks mastered and running smoothly, taking kids to school, shopping, laundry, dishes, packing the kids lunch and bags for school each day, etc. The area I struggle in is getting them dressed each morning. I have never had a flair for fashion and cannot match colours. At least if I was colour blind I would have an excuse I could use. The fashion side is a bit easier as all Alex has is shorts and t-shirts and Ellie has some dresses to go with her shorts and shirts selection. The other morning I had a nice pink shirt from with a pretty picture of Holland on it to match her shorts. Ellie was not interested but Alex saw it and wanted to wear it. That sounded good to me so he had a shirt, but of course it did not go with the shorts I had for him. Ellie was happy to wear his tie-dye shirt which of course did not match the shorts I had for her. (They are almost the same size which is handy for nappies and clothes.) I think it is great they want to pick their own clothes, but of course Emma was horrified when she saw the kiddies all ready to go to school looking like fashion school dropouts. I am proud of their dress sense and they were off to school happy and content.

We have a couple of Easter egg hunts for Sunday that we are looking forward to. I also guess we will be spending a lot more time this Easter weekend at the airport park. Enjoy your Easter and may all your eggs be chocolate!

My Left Foot

Today I had another x-ray of my foot taken to see how it was healing. The broken bone is slowly fusing together but I am not ready to start running again yet. This is getting frustrating sitting here watching lots of people run up and down the beach by our window and not be able to get out there myself. I did get into the water this week and had some lovely ocean swims up and down just off our beach. It is a beautiful place to swim with crystal clear water. I also had a meeting at school this week to finalize our timetable for next year. It is nice being in the position to be involved in planning for next year which would be much harder if I were not here on Island.

The kids finished their first full week of nursery. They are adorable every morning going to school with their backpacks and hats. Ellie still cries every morning when I drop her off but she soon settles down and has lots of fun. The ladies who watch after her group are amazed at her eating abilities, the way she uses a spoon or fork and chows down her food and then starts on theirs. She also impressed with her ability to put a whole rice cracker in her mouth whole and then eat it. She is definitely taking after her dad. Alex is the old hand who plays it cool while we drop Ellie off first at her class then go upstairs to his class. He is by far the youngest in his class but is doing well and always has a big grin on his face when I pick him up at lunch. It is nice that Emma can come sometimes also to pick them up. We still only have one rental car so we drop her off at work in the mornings and go get her in the evenings. The kids are very impressed that "Mommy go to work today."

Our favorite hang out in the afternoons is the airport park. Their are some great climbing frames, slides, swings and open space at the park. The parking lot is right next to the runway. We stand at the fence not more than 100 metres from the runway and wave at all the planes as they land and take-off. The kids get a huge kick out off seeing the planes from up close. Everyone on the planes must think we are the local greeters there to welcome them to the island and to wish them luck on their trip home! Ellie still believes she is the same age as Alex. She follows him up and down the climbing frames and slides. This terrifies me as she still topples over when walking. Today she started climbing up a curved ladder Alex just mastered a few days ago. Just to prove a point she insisted on carrying her little teddy bear blanket in one hand and refused to give it up to her terrified dad. During a major melt down Alex had this afternoon as the result of refusing his nap today, Ellie figured she should start crying to. Alex abruptly stopped crying and said "No Ellie cry, no Ellie cry". They are very cute together when they are not working on maiming one another.

We think we have finally found somewhere to live full time, at least for the next six months. We decided on a lovely town home with 4 bedrooms, a very large yard and a pool in the complex. It is less than a mile from the kids' current nursery and also from the Montesori they will start at in September. It is also less than a mile to my new school and about a mile-and-a-half to the coast. Unfortunately, we cannot move in until May 1 so we are stuck in our beach condo until then. Once we move we will have plenty of space for visitors, so be looking for us off the left side of the plane waving to you as you land!

Driving in the Caymans is interesting. We drive on the left side of the road British style, but the cars seem about 50/50 right side drive/left side drive. It appears the max speed limit on the entire island is 40 mph. Traffic at certain times of the day is just horrendous also. Mostly a result of small roads and everyone working in one small city with the same hours, compounded by thousands of cruise ship visitors crossing the roads in the small downtown around the port.

We love Cayman more every day as we get to explore and see more. Last Sunday we were invited for brunch at a friend of Emma's from work who has a son Alex's age and another older boy. Some friends of friends of ours in Muscat also came over with their kids. Alex and Ellie had a great time playing with the kids and all the great toys they had, as will as swimming in the pool. Everyone is very friendly, relaxed and helpful. To quote the ending of the same book on the Caymans I mentioned last time, "Caymanians know that the time to be happy is now and the place to be happy is here. Man, this is paradise, dis is Cayman!"

CAUTION, IGUANA CROSSING

"There are 50,000 people living in grand Cayman, a beach 5.5 miles long, no river, over 400 banks, more than 90 churches, 2 prisons, 7 traffic lights, 1 bridge, and many,many chickens." This is the beginning of a book I found on life in the Caymans this week.


When Emma first drove back into our complex after picking up the rental car she saw the iguana crossing sign and just figured it was one of those funny tourist signs you see. That was until she almost ran over a large iguana in the middle of the parking lot. There are lots of large iguanas that hang out in the parking lot and lots of smaller lizards all around our complex. At first Ellie was afraid of the small lizards and she would make us pick her up when we walked past areas that were known lizard hang outs. Now she is fascinated by the big iguanas, tries to chase them around and wants to pet them!


It has been another busy week. Looking at a lot more houses and we also started looking for a car. Alex and Ellie went to their first day of nursery on Thursday. Alex did a year of nursery back in Muscat but this was Ellie's first day ever. We assumed it would be easier to leave Alex first then take Ellie down to her class. When we all walked into Alex's new class he went to the corner on his own and started playing with some toys. Ellie saw all the three year olds sitting in the corner singing so she walked right over, sat right down in the middle of the group and tried to join in. Next the teacher had them all sit at the tables and she held up a card with animals on it. Ellie jumped up saying "animals, animals" and started naming them before any of the other kids had a chance; "zebra, giraffe, elephant". Finally I had to take Ellie down to her class first. She eagerly made herself at home and Alex and I went back upstairs. After a while he finally settled in and they both had a good day. The only bad moment Ellie had was when she saw Alex in the playground and started crying because she wanted to see her brother! They will be going five mornings a week starting this Monday.

We have also been to the butterfly farm, the mothers playgroup, and spent a lot of time at the many parks with amazing climbing frames. Alex and Ellie are quickly becoming quite the little climbers and enjoying all the big slides. Today Alex had his first real haircut. Up until now Emma has just tried to cut little bits where she could. We have tried the kids hair cut places before but Alex could never be convinced to sit in a toy car to have his hair cut. Today he willingly climbed into the toy airplane and watched "Toy Story 2" while the lady cut his hair. His hair was getting so long it was bothering him when the wind blew and it got in his eyes. He looks much older now with his short hair.

Later in my new book on the Caymans it continues: "There aren't just banks in Grand Cayman. There are many law firms too." Emma has finished her first week of work and is getting busy already. Our future living arrangmenets keep getting more confused as we see more places. There are lots of very nice places we are trying to decide on. We will keep you informed when we have our own place so you can book youor holidays. Hopefully the sun is shining on you too.