A conversation between foreign service folk would have gone differently...

This week I met a neighborhood mom at the bus stop. We were chatting. I asked her some question, not relevant to the post, and her reply was "I don't really know. I haven't lived here that long." So I asked when she moved.

"We've been here three years."

My jaw dropped. Of course, in the foreign service if you've been somewhere for three whole years you are (1) the resident expert on everything and (2) probably leaving next week.

Life is different for other Americans, I think.

Mosquitoes

I have been overseas for the last 6 years. I was also pregnant when we left the USA 6 years ago. Lots of things happen to a woman's body during pregnancy, some are enduring changes such as my friend's mom who went up a shoe size with each pregnancy (my friend is one of three. By the way, why the $&^%&^%$ couldn't that have happened to me? I need a southeast Asia tour just to get some shoes that fit!).

For the last six years, I have been almost entirely untouched by mosquitoes. I ignorantly figured that my body chemistry changed enough with those babies that my sweet, sweet blood was no longer so attractive to mosquitoes.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

It turns out that my blood is unpalatable to EUROPEAN mosquitoes. American ones, Maryland varieties especially, are still driven to me like little vampires.

I may not enjoy the last month or so of summer as much as I'd wish.

Because that couldn't be the end of the story

I approached tonight's dinner a bit hesitantly. I made sure everyone was awake and on the potty and all essentials were in my bag before turning the burner on low to melt the butter and begin the risotto. Sigh. A few minutes into the warming, the burner starts smoking. Of course I turn it off and call the hotel, which sends up an engineer. She and I seem to have a major miscommunication as she's all focused on the disconnected burner from yesterday's debacle and ignores the more recently smoking burner. At one point when she's testing things and something starts to smoke gently, Zoltan proactively puts his hands over his ears. Poor guy.

In the end, she cleans the burners and it's all fine but too late to make risotto as that takes an hour. So, tonight's adventure was the Afghan Kabob house where we tried to entice the kids to eat by repeating over and over that "it's just like shashlik."  Worked on Zoltan, the budding carnivore. Alex ate bread and rice.

An exciting day

Following the amazing list of recommendations of things to do with the kids while in NoVA, today we took advantage of the cloud cover and headed to Clemyjantri Park in McLean. It was everything everyone promised it would be and more, we will definitely be back.

As a testament of the morning, the kids took lovely 3 hour naps. After Alex woke, I decided to start on dinner, so I got the pan warming on setting 5-6 as I took out the chicken and other ingredients. When it seemed warm enough I poured some olive oil into the pan. It started smoking immediately, which was unusual, and then ...

the pan caught on fire.

Cue up Zoltan being awakened by the sound of the fire alarm and handling it much better than I would have predicted; my attempt to contain the fire by turning the pan over on the stove (which did contain it but I guess I peeked too soon as it flared back up when I lifted it to check); and the front desk reacting not quite as fast as I would have thought, although it certainly may have been no more than 1-2 minutes. Oh yeah and I had a horribly delayed out-in-the-heat headache.

So I guess we're going out to eat tonight.

* Edited to add: We did go out for dinner, and serendipitously wandered into the Nepalese Momo Restaurant in the strip mall across the street from the hotel. Today was its very first day of business! Their official opening is Friday and we may very well be be back it.

Sometimes she's a very good big sister

During a suspense-filled moment in the Land Before Time movie the kids were watching, Zoltan got a little nervous. So he asked Alex to hold him, and she did.

First Ever Shashlik at Harveys Lake

Turns out the kids are total waterbugs and love the beach club. So I guess all that money all those years we never went are totally worth it ;-)

In addition to, you know, beach, the beach club has other useful features: a clubhouse you can rent out for parties, bathrooms, picnic tables and permanent grills and a playground. The grills gave us an idea - pull out the portable shashlik grill we'd gotten in Russia and cook our lunch waterside. It was the inaugural lakeside shashlik but I hope/think it won't be the last.

Hard at work

Working off the lunch

Major Milestone Cabin Version

We bought NEW furniture for the cabin, home of cast-offs and thrift-store finds. OK it was only deck furniture because the half-rotted wooden table the place came with is now quite a bit more than half rotted, but it's still a major deal.

Behold. There's no umbrella because we are so thickly shaded with trees that sunlight rarely penetrates the deck.

The Miracle of Lollypops

My kids totally dig lollipops  I am sure part of the appeal is that they are only given pops in times of desperation - doctor visits, flights, etc. This is a deliberate strategy to keep the value high.

This weekend we were at Terry's niece's graduation. A class of 500+ students (larger than my entire high school!) called for a large venue, so it was at the Giant Arena in Hershey. It was loooong. You'd think it would take a while to hand out all those diplomas, but that was actually the speediest part of the day. Zoltan of course got antsy but we could get him out to the part of the stadium where there's concessions, bathrooms etc. Alex, however, was the model child she always is whenever we're in public. She sat in her seat, sometimes watching and listening to what was going on, sometimes coloring or having a snack. The only time she got up in the 3 hours of the ceremony was when I encouraged her to go to the potty so we wouldn't have any issues when we sat in parking lot traffic at the end.

Not suspecting the ceremony would go so long, we had been a bit too parsimonious with the snacks. So, by the time we were sitting in aforementioned traffic an hour past normal lunch time and creeping up to nap time, the kids were understandably crabby.

I had a glimmer of a possibility, and ransacked my purse to come up with 2 lollipops. Instant happiness.

About 2 minutes after handing over the pops, I noticed Zoltan's eyes were closed, with the pop dangling out of his mouth. Apparently, at least one kid would get a nap!

We've been thrilled to discover that Zoltan does actually have the ability to sleep in the car, an ability his sister lacks and has always lacked. The unfortunate part is that he usually wakes disoriented and unhappy and there's nothing very soothing we can do as we're all seatbelted and such. But, on this day, when he woke about 1/2 hour later, this happened:  he opened his eyes, took the lollipop out of his mouth, looked at it, smiled and put it back in his mouth. Easy-peasy.

adorablisms again

Playing I Spy in the car. Alex spies something brown. Zoltan's guess "Is it the tree holder?"

Too much time together?

Alex tonight drew two pictures for me. In one, I am being eaten by a motorcycle that is flying. There are a lot of pretty clouds around us. In the second one, I am smiling because the motorcycle dropped me; however I am plummeting into a big city (lots of skyscrapers). A lion waits for me on one roof.

Maybe we are spending too much time together? C'mon time, tick along faster and bring our boys home to us!

Some cultural observations

When it was raining our first day here and I told Alex to wear her rain pants when we went to the hospital, she wanted to take off her skirt and just put in on when we got there. I had to tell her in America kids don't wear just their panties in public places even if it's just while taking the rainpants off and putting the skirt on.

People are way friendly in America. Every place we go there's someone who wants to talk to Alex. I am amazed and relieved that when I talked with her about it, she said it's OK. This is a kid who is fastidious about her personal space, so I've been worried about future tours in most of the rest of the world where people are more intrusive than in Russia. The part I don't like is they all tell her she's pretty, which she is, but I don't want her to learn to define herself that way.

The garderobe phenomenon in Russia has become so ingrained I was actually indignant when the hospital didn't have anywhere for us to leave our wet raincoats and the stroller. Same with the Franklin Institute (well, just the stroller. It was a hot sunny day)

We've been worried about her losing her Russian language skills. While we've been here she's read half a book and talks and sings in Russian every day. It certainly may still happen, but I think we'll be OK until we get her to Russian afterschool care or a babushka babysitter.

Troubleshooting

The latch on our dryer broke and it's a long holiday weekend here so I have 2 thick strips of masking tape keeping the dryer door shut so the wet stuff doesn't get moldy. At one point the tape stopped sticking and it turns out the dryer is happy to operate while the door is wide open. I learn something new every day.

Congress

I'm reading David McCullough's John Adams. Nearly to the end, I just found my very most favorite quotation, "Having failed at nearly everything he ever tried, he had lately been elected to Congress."

Not much seems to have changed in 200 years.

Happy Earth Day!

13 years ago today I went on a first date with a guy I met in his own kitchen. He was the new roommate of a friend from graduate school and I went with some other friends to their housewarming party. Funny how I don't remember the date of the party. But I do remember I had papers and exams and although we soon started talking every night on the phone, we hadn't seen each other since the party.

We decided to check out the Earth Day doings on the National Mall and met up at noon. The conversation never stopped and it felt like we'd already known each other forever. Fourteen hours later we were still talking, I was seriously starting to fall asleep, but he hadn't kissed me yet. And then he did....

Go Gevalia!

And on a lighter note ... I have to give a shout out to our coffeemaker.  If, hypothetically, someone were to turn on the coffeemaker without having ever put any water in, the thing simply shuts itself off. Almost immediately. Yay for no burnt pots or electrical fires!

This vs. That

Last week Terry had training in Portugal. He did this:

Some beautiful building on the water

 Some beautiful monument on the water

A seagull eating a rat. Notice the water flows, as in it isn't ice

Ah, wine

Meanwhile, I was home with 2 kids who had just gotten over Daddy's last trip. Alex had all the medical issues going on. We did this:

Yep I let Zoltan have the camera. Heck, Terry doesn't like it (camera) anyway.

  Treat!

 They gave him that lollypop free. Alex's was red.

That sign says "Happy Phone" above the seafoam green telephone

 Playground at the detsky sad when we went to pick Alex up after our special day together

 Of course, Alex and I had to hit the same cafe on our special day.

 The tea here is amazing. And comes with a little cookie.

 Super heroes duking it out

More things the kids say

Some of these are old, and some are things we have had to say to them, but they need to be preserved for posterity before they are forgotten:

Parent: No Alex, don't hammer the cheese

A: I'm talking to pop-pop.
M: is he saying he misses you?
A: no. he's saying is that baby's teddy bear and are you allowed to play with it?

A: I'm a ballerina! I have a dress, and my legs are strong, and I can dance

Parent: No Alex, I don't want a real pee-pee in the pretend potty

Z: I want to go out! I want to go out in the city!

A: (after pretend trick or treating) Halloween candy is separated into M&Ms, chocolate, candy and french fries

At dinner:  Mommy, no singing. You have to eat your dinner

T: Tell my why you want to go into the dining room. I want to hear your reasoning.
A: That's an excellent question. I want to go in because I want to.

A: No Benjamin, I can't play right now. I'm eating a cookie.

A: Zoltan, you like to do everything I do, so why don't you eat your grapes? I'm eating my grapes.

Zoltan has self confidence

Zoltan has been due for the a haircut.  So tonight we gave him one.  After is was all over the following conversation took place.

Me: Zoltan you look sharp.
Zoltan: Yeah I look sharp!
Zoltan: Mommy, I look sharp! 

If nothing else this boy has self confidence.  He does not require a lot of coaxing to tell you how good he is.

This means "I miss him"

The kids prefer me. This isn't any kind of secret, because kids are also tactlessly and brutally honest. Sometimes, I have to imagine parenting isn't exactly fun and games for Terry.

However.

He was away this long, long, kids-home-from-school-for-3-days long weekend.  Zoltan has been potty trained decently well since he was 2, and has averaged no more than one accident a month for a good 6 months. He peed his pants Every. Single. One. Of. The. Four. Days. Daddy. Was. Gone.

When you're parenting your kids solo, the hours between bedtime and wakeup are especially precious. And, apparently, especially rare. Each night Terry was gone the kids took a solid hour to settle down and go to sleep ... heck I don't know if they were asleep but they stopped calling for me so I'll take it. They also fell immediately out of their previously and only recently acquired habit of not waking until 8am or later. Oh no, 7am is good enough for them now!

Not getting enough sleep makes people crabby. Especially children who haven't quite learned to articulate their emotions yet. The bickering, squabbles, just plain being mean to each other was about to drive me crazy and one morning the kids were informed that I was taking them outside to play because they were driving me crazy. Not my proudest moments but I managed not to say anything really damaging to them so I call it a win. They sometimes fight going out, but it is an instant mood booster for them and it's a double whammy because it is an instant mood booster for me too, so everyone is happier. Until one kid reaches the front door before the other and then everything is a trauma again.

From the moment Terry walked back in that door, the kids became the sweetest, most loving, most affectionate children one could wish for.  Oh how I dread his next business trip.

Zoltan-isms

Tonight, we were looking at the clock while I held him after he 'had a bad dream' 5 minutes after I put him down. He was reading the numbers out loud to me - he's working hard at reading them correctly as he's inclined to start on the right, not the left. After the number changed and he read it to me, he then said "I think the 3 is going to catch the 2".

When stretching his arms as wide as he can, he doesn't say "I love you this much" but instead "I love you this hugs."