Wednesday, November 21, 2007

More cute kids

The kids were drinking tea in the bathtub today. Don't worry, it was decaf. The following exchange happened:

Ben: We’re drinking tea in the bathtub! That’s so silly!

Ellie: Why are we drinking tea in the bathtub?

Daddy: Because you have a very nice daddy.

Ellie: But most of the time you’re just boring.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Hiding

The kids have recently grown quite fond of hiding from us. Ben isn't as enthusiastic as Ellie, but he will often play along nicely. I have two stories and a picture for you.

First, a few days ago Jen was taking a shower, and Ben and Ellie were jumping on the bed trying to get me out of it. I managed to encourage them to play a game that would allow me to get a few more moments of sleep. The three of us crawled under the blankets to hide, so when Jen came out we'd be gone. Ben quickly decided this was too scary, so he just sat on top of the blanket. When Jen came out she saw a huge lump on the bed, with Ben sitting nearby. He promptly announced "I didn't want to hide", thus revealing our cunning plan.

Second, again a few days ago, Jen and I were talking about something in the computer room, with the door closed. The kids were out playing on their own, and I was listening for them. All of a sudden, the house grew silent. I opened the door and shouted for the kids. There was no response. I started to panic a bit, and frantically started scouring the house for them. A few minutes later, when panic is truly setting in, I go to the last room in the house, the laundry room. For those of you who know, the laundry room is blocked off by a child gate. The kids were hiding in a corner, behind a huge wardrobe, giggling quietly. They had scaled the gate and gone to hide. For the record, Mom and Dad, the similarity to my escapades at that age has not eluded me.

Finally, the picture. They will hide anywhere. Below they are pictured in their bathroom hiding on the shelves. The spot was actually quite good, since the door was open before I took the picture, blocking them from the view of anybody entering the bathroom!

Saying goodbye

Saying goodbye to friends is something the kids are going to need to get used to in this life, and for Ellie the first really good friend has departed. Elsa only recently became Ellie's "best friend" and has just moved to Gabon, stopping by England to visit her extended family there. Ellie's question with regard to all of the posts on our bid list is "is that close to Elsa?" She had a rough couple of days, but seems to be handling it well. We are planning to facilitate communications with them using e-mail and mailing drawings. In any event, the picture below was taken the day before Elsa got on a plane. Elsa is in the middle, for those of you who haven't seen our kids recently :)

Halloween redux

Greetings one and all. I just saw that we have apparently not posted a darn thing for the last two months. Wow. Apologies all around. We've had an eventful couple of months, but I think the best way to start it off is with a couple of photos. This post and the next two will be mainly just about cute kid photos. Enjoy!

We had two trick or treating events this year. The first was the neighborhood party, organized by some fellow Americans who really miss their DC neighborhood festivities. There were something like 24 houses on the tour, and the kids went around in a tuk-tuk with Jen, while I stayed home and handed out candy. The second event was at the embassy, and Ellie brought her good friend Elsa along. More on Elsa in the next post. The general opinion was that the candy at the embassy was better (mostly imported, not scary Asian stuff) but less abundant. They are still working their way through it all, though, so there was certainly no shortage.

Preparing to go trick-or-treating by communing with the spirits

The full range of super heroes - Wonder Woman, Spartacus (I guess), Superman, and Batman
From left to right, kids are: Shelby, Ethan, Ellie, Elsa
Ben, not pictured, was also