Author: Robin Chartier

A little crabby

Since the weather has cooled down quite a bit recently (low 90s) on Thursday we went to walk along the beach. The boys were busy collecting shells while we walked.

The water is warm, but there were only a handful of men swimming. People don’t go to the beach here like they do in California. I haven’t figured out if it’s a seasonal thing and it’s still too hot, but my guess is part of the barrier to going is having to remain fully covered. If I had to wear an abaya and hijab, I wouldn’t want to take my kids to the beach either. Along this mile long stretch of beautiful coastline we saw maybe 10 other people. Thousands of people were driving by in their cars, but no beach goers.   

The carrot at the end of this walk was a trip to the Starbucks that is right on the waterfront. Caleb has an armful of shells and he’s complaining that Carter won’t let him put them in his pockets. Carter already has a pile of shells in his pockets and insists that any extra shells are going to pull his shorts off of his body. With those skinny hips of his, I’m sure he was close to losing his shorts.


It’s an amazing location. This a 5 minute drive from our house. Lucy lives up behind the hotel that you see on the hill in the background. 
Frapps for all! (Carter shared his vanilla one with Camille.)

Except this guy, who in his long sleeved black t-shirt and sweatpants still wanted to get a caramel steamer.

On our way back the boys spotted huge crabs on the beach below so we scrambled down to take a look.

Did you know crabs are ridiculously fast? I didn’t. The moment they saw movement headed their way they were gone. I guess to grow that old and big they have to be pretty smart and quick. There were hundreds of crabs of all different sizes.

And thousands of crab tracks in the sand. 

No luck catching one with all the possible hiding places between the rocks. 

In this pool of water left on top of one of the rocks when the tide went out were these tiny fish that the boys tried to catch. They were fast too.

One of the smaller crabs. The biggest ones had to be the size of my hand, not including the claws.

Since the tide had gone out considerably Josh thought we might be able to wade across the waterway to the other part of the beach instead of climbing back up to the road so he went to check it out.

Venturing out, but Caleb wasn’t convinced it was safe. The current was pretty strong as the water was being sucked out into the ocean by the change in tide.

It got about waist deep — remember, I’m hiking this with a 20+ pound baby strapped to my chest and wading across unknown waters in my flip-flops that kept sinking down in the sand. I wasn’t really feeling the adventurous spirit. Especially once I felt something sharp stinging my leg. 

At the halfway point the boys pulled themselves up on this little island and then ran back to me to report that the other half was too deep to cross. They probably could have made it without me, but they were looking out for their little sister. 
Wading back I started to lose my balance and Caleb steadied me and fell down instead. He proudly stated he sacrificed himself for Mommy and Camille.

After retreating to dry land I looked down at my leg and saw blood. The crazy person in my head was convinced that it was a jellyfish or a stingray or something exotic that would make my leg swell up and have to be amputated, but since it didn’t hurt, I knew there was probably a non-lethal explanation. I don’t know what it was because I didn’t scrape it against any rocks and I was in the middle of the water when I felt it, but days later it is healing normally, so I guess I’ll never know. 
After exiting the water we had to scale the rocks to get back up to the road and my Rainbows weren’t providing enough traction so I took them off. Unfortunately, my feet were still wet enough to be slippery so as I went to push off a rock to bridge the gap to the next, my foot slipped and I fell backwards. Luckily the rock was big enough that I half fell, half sat down on it and only ended up banging my elbow in the process. The boys were all very concerned, especially Carter who insisted on holding my hand and helping me up the rest of the way. 
All in all, it was a fun and successful outing (and the boys found some great shells!), but next time I’m going to pass on the fjord crossing part of the expedition and stick to the beach. I don’t desire any more encounters with unknown sea creatures. 

fall festival

Last night was the Fall Festival at school. Basically a big Halloween party for the elementary school students with games, food, and trick-or-treating.

Here we have our Dread Pirate Roberts (with his awesome sword — silver yarn crocheted over a coat hanger. Josh bent the handle into the correct shape and I wrapped it with black fabric to give it the right grip) and our Tae Kwon Do black belt. In the background is our little pumpkin. She is twice as big as last year so the pumpkin “dress” has become a “shirt.”

Calvin is dressed up as a cool middle schooler. He had a birthday party to attend after the school party so he didn’t want a costume.

Both gyms were set up with carnival games and the boys went around collecting candy and prizes.

One of their favorites was the Angry Birds game: they threw beanbags made to look like Angry Birds at other bean bags made to look like pigs. Knock down the boxes and crush the pigs to win!

The Angry Bird bean bags were really cute! There was a line for that game all night.

Then it was time to line up outside for trick-or-treating. One of Caleb’s best friends (dressed as a tent).

Another one of his good friends — adorable Princess Leia. 

This is why he came home from school wanting to be a vampire. He talks about this girl from his class all the time.

Caleb and his teacher — Mrs. Bernhardt. The reason why there are no pictures of Carter is because as the hundreds of kids lined up outside the school building Carter and a friend saw an opening at the front if the line and squeezed in. Of course he tells me all this later when I finally caught up with him and asked where he disappeared to. 

Calvin helped out with the “throw a wet sponge and hit a teacher” booth.

Girly was happy just hanging out on my back. I couldn’t tell if she was really tired, or just happy with so much to see.

 Back in line for more games and more prizes. 

Another one of Caleb’s best friends. Are you sensing a theme here? 

Finally I caught up with Carter and his partner in crime. His mom was in charge of the Fall Festival so he and Carter got their pick of the candy stash in her office. This is when I found out that after all the work I put into his pirate costume, he went around telling people he was a ninja. Sheesh.

Picking through the stash at home. Camille wanted to make sure she got her share of the loot. I made sure the boys knew how lucky they were cause back in the olden days when I was a kid, I didn’t get to eat my Halloween candy. We would dump it all in a pile and each of us could pick out 3 pieces to keep. The rest was “thrown away.” I found out later that mom kept a stash, Kristy kept a stash, Carrie kept a stash, and knowing Wendy, she probably did too. I’m the only one with Halloween = no-candy memories.

Still trying to get to the good stuff . . . actually, because they don’t do Halloween here the stores don’t sell bags of miniature “good” candy. Most of it was those weird tootsie-roll shaped chews like my grandma used to eat, suckers, and hard candies. No Smarties, no Sweet Tarts, no M&Ms, no Nerds, no Jujy Fruit, no Whoppers, no Snickers, Milky Way, or 3 Musketeers, no Hershey’s minis (Special Dark) and no candy corn. I had one Twix, which was the best Twix I’ve ever had, a 1/2 of a Bounty (which is like a Mounds — coconut inside chocolate) and a few bites of  the different chews to see if there were any worth eating (nope). So, pretty much a normal, candy-free Halloween for me. 

coffee group

Baby girl and I hosted the embassy spouse coffee group this month. While we were setting up for the the party we took some photos of ourselves.

Showing off her ability to climb up on the table, stand up, and crouch back down. 

Super proud — right before she took a tumble off the table. 

No blood, no foul.

On the menu: Fruit salad with melon, apples, grapes, oranges, and mint.
Chicken salad sandwiches (in the croissants)
Molasses cookies
Chocolate Banana Bread
Drinks: coffee, tea, orange juice, champagne

Nothing fancy — good food served on paper plates with wooden forks and paper napkins. And I was able to put my large collection of Starbucks mugs to good use. The fanciest part of it all was my new tablecloth from the Syrian wood guy in the sook. I figured as a grownup, I probably should own one tablecloth so I bought this one last week. It’s a latte colored fabric with slightly darker embroidery thread.

There were 15 or 16 women in attendance and we had a fun time chatting, eating, and shopping. (A woman was there who sells shirts that she imports from India). Camille partied right through her naptime. She was too busy “trying on” the clothes and eating bites of cookie to feel tired. She strutted around the room like she  was one of the the girls instead of my baby.

PS

For all those worried about Calvin and his self esteem — don’t be concerned. He’s fine. His teacher couldn’t be nicer. (From looking at the work samples Calvin was turning in, he’s much nicer and more understanding than I would be). See, in the background of this picture he’s yawning his way through his flashcards. Not embarrassed at all.

Part of the issue is he isn’t confident with his math facts (and has always been that way) so when they are doing work in class he takes WAY longer to do it than anyone else. Thus, the multiplication flashcard suggestion to help him pick up speed. Hopefully increased speed will equal increased confidence and he’ll leave behind that deer in headlights look when presented a problem to solve.

The picture of him with his head in his hands and Josh mid-eyeroll was CLASSIC Calvin and pretty much summed up what math has looked like at our house for the past 6 years. If something doesn’t come easily to him he gets frustrated and gives up instead of trying to figure it out. He’d rather avoid than fight. This meeting was more of a “we’re going to make sure you keep fighting” coaching session.

So don’t worry that his confidence has been bruised or anything — he still thinks he’s plenty awesome at lots of things (whether he is or not). We’re hoping that someday he’ll be able to say that he’s awesome at problem solving, attention to detail and seeing something through to completion. It’s not about the math, but the man we’re hoping he will become. 

Happy Meals

Caleb was invited to a classmate’s birthday party. He was so excited to find that the party was taking place at his favorite restaurant, “the yellow M.” We arrived to find a McDonald’s packed with 30 screaming 1st and 2nd grade little girls.

She wanted to be one of the dancing, balloon waving partiers too, but settled for an ice cream cone instead.

She’s clapping along with Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.” 

Caleb has always been a ladies man. I think there were 2 or 3 other boys at the party, but he was surrounded by girls all night. He has two other birthday parties coming up that are all-girl parties, plus him. They just really seem to like him.

Calvin was the lucky beneficiary of a parent/teacher conference right before we went to the party. Josh is holding the teacher recommended flash cards. At least Calvin has the same problems with math at school as he had with me teaching him at home so I can file that one under: Not My Fault