Bubbers First Tooth

Maya's dead tooth finally abscessed and had to be removed. As it so often happens with children, she had to wait until just after we left free dental care to do it. Two years of dead tooth and then boom right between free dental care and dental insurance she has to go and have it yanked out. She was extremely brave and didn't cry or flinch...you guessed it- brave skills were put in and operating at 100%.

Maya's explanation of what happened to her tooth goes like this.

"My tooth had a little flea in it and the flea was munch munching on my tooth so I had to go and have it taken out by the dentist before it got too full."

She seemed alright with that and the whole thing threw me off guard so I just left it at that.

Meet Ed

Here is Ed with his trusty laundry basket and blanket ready to take on the world.

Ed loves his Dad. He also loves to point at anything and everything.

This is Ed. Ed is growing fast. Ed is trouble.
Ed has decided the laundry basket is his. If we try to use it he dumps everything out of it so he can have it for his only personal use. He has a lot of uses. It slides nicely on our carpet and transistions flawlessly from extreme plush to padless berber to peeling linoleum. Aside from the fun he has sliding it around the house he also loves to fill it up with things from around the house. He usually starts off with his blanket, then pulls off plastic ornaments from the Halloween lights and tosses a few of those in, he proceeds into the office for whatever not-haves he can collect in there and to top it off he likes to put a bunch of cars and blocks in there for show.

Recently he has realized that another basket perk is that he can flip it over and voila he can now reach everything that was intentially placed "out of Ed's reach". Okay, we will have to move all of those things further back or tuck them away; a hassle but manageable. What I am irked about is how I went to take a shower and it was lacking hot water only to step out into a nice refreshing 60 degree house.

I asked Mark if he wouldn't mind checking it out in case the pilot light went out or whatever happens to make the water NOT HOT. Turns out someone thought it would be great to turn the switch to "vacation" mode on the water heater as well flip off the switch controlling our central heat. Yeah, thanks for that Ed.

What I do love about Ed right now is how he has enthusiasm for finding "pun-keeens!" and everything is "sceeeery". I love his smile and I even love how anytime I bend down to pick something up Ed comes tearing around a corner leaps up with arms spread and both feet off the ground to body slam me. I usually win, but I love how he keeps trying anyway.

Subject: Message from the Queen of England to USA

A message from the Queen:
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II


In light of your failure in recent years to manage your economy, or to nominate competent candidates for President and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.




** Important, please read thoroughly! **

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1.You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour', 'favour', 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise'. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary'). The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.

3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as 'like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

7. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut

8. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

9. You will cease the playing the hybrid game you call football. There is only one proper kind of football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body Armour like a bunch of nancies). Be warned, however, that if you try Rugby, the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, as they regularly thrash us

10. Furthermore, you will stop calling the event at the end of your baseball season the World Series, since so few civilized countries play the game. Since less than half of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

11. In time, MI 5 will tell you who killed JFK.

12. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 PM with proper cups and saucers, not mugs, with high quality biscuits and cakes; plus strawberries in season, with cream.



God Save the Queen!

Old Days

I am tired of looking at the same picture but not quite organized enough to put on some recents so you are getting this oldie but goody that I came upon just now. I can't believe how quickly they grow up and how much they change. At the time you think they are so adorable, unique and memorable that you could never forget that moment in time, but you know what? You do, at least I do anyway. Not in entirety; but small details and simple memories, feelings that are evoked when you are lucky enough to have caught something on video or camera of time or a moment spent with the little ones. It is then that your memory is jogged and nostalgia hits as you are able to recall how they were, how things were. It is strange because as I go along in life I still look at my kids sometimes and I want to freeze time and keep them just as they are. It never happens but as time goes on I continue to enjoy them. I just hope that one day when I am old and gray, I will be able to look at any tangible preservation of memories I will have and smile with the memories. When it comes down to it, it is preservation of ideas, photos, writings, in any way or form that will survive throughout the years. Sometimes, I get down on thinking about how I need to display things better or I don't take a picture because it isn't that great. You know what? Nice pictures are great but when it comes down to it it is the subject matter that is the most important to me not the display. This is all rich coming from someone who has been organizing photos for 9 years but it keeps things in perspective for me and helps me to keep my expectations at a level that they are at least attainable.
This all being said, isn't Aida cute? So different, yet much the same. Look at little Lucy!

Sunday Treats

Most every Sunday since Mark and I have been married, we have made chocolate chip cookies or some kind of baked good to devour. Okay, so we do it most days of the week as well but Sundays are regular you know like clockwork. Today, Aida decided to takeover and she is quite the little cook. She made fried cookies made out of flour, milk and a little water. Lowfat and delicious. Then she spent the afternoon making these chocolate squares. First she decided the cupcake holders weren't the right size so she decided to craft her own boxes from paper. Then she thought about how the melted chocolate would stick to the paper so she laminated it with cello-tape a very good idea. For the finishing touches she cooled them in the fridge lightly or not so lightly dusted them with sugar and then cut out jack-o-lanterns as a topper. I thought they were quite ingeniously done. Watch out Martha because Aida is hot on your heels.

Fall Bike Ride

The weather is still quite nice here and we finally have a biking arrangement that works for the family so we went for a family ride. For those of you that have heard me go on and on about my trike and the bike path, here is a picture of my trike. I love it because it is so easy to take Maya and Ed in and out of and I can talk to them while I am pedaling away-not as easy to do on a trailer. The bike path is totally safe from cars and the trike is pretty hard to crash-for most people anyway (ah hem you know who you are). When the kids are grown back on goes my huge basket for carrying groceries or a dog. Hey c'mon now there are leaves on the ground which constitutes this as a fall picture.

First Fall Lot

Okay so my big plan for October was really that I wanted to try to have a picture depicting Fall or having a glint of Halloween in it each day or every other day. So far I have not shown consistency or stuck with my topic. So, here are the first official fall pictures. There have only been a couple of leaves that have turned here but I thought it was fallish to have Ed in his overalls eating an apple. TOTALLY unplanned but it did make me get my camera out which I liked. I also shot some cute ones of Maya. She looked adorable save for the huge chicken bone she was sucking the marrow out of. Somehow her striped pants just couldn't compensate for such rude eating habits. As usual, I had a hard time narrowing down because I love my Ed.

Election Day

The girls' school had an election day at their school today. When they got home I asked them, "Who did you vote for and why?"

Maya: Ibana because the name is pretty and O'cain sounds funny like "candy cane" and his hair is too white.

Lucy: McCain because he eats ribs and runs on full-speed (she meant he drives a full petrol car).

Aida: Obama because he will be the first black man voted to be President by America. His wife has the same name as my aunt. He is young and he drives a car that runs on only 1/2 petrol so it is better for the environment.

For those of you dying to know the results, McCain won. Lucy was thrilled and Aida insists that it is just because they want him to win and be the oldest president.

Maya's Fav

I was surprised to hear this was a Jim Henson company project. I have to admit I love real puppets more but Maya just loves loves loves this show. I never thought she would like anything that was not princess related but surprise, apparently Maya is a bit of a science buff. I also actually do like a couple of the songs-they are catchy. I had no idea that a rolie polie is not a bug. Shame on me but yeah for Sid! I just have to know who else has kids that love this show?