Thursday, July 5, 2012

It's hot...really hot.
But the Delaware River area is lovely.
We had 4 hours to kill 
between check out and check in
so we took the scenic route from
Hancock NY to Ellenville NY.

Ben is tired of travel.
Glad to be staying put for several days.
Maybe he will snap out of the 
"I already have lots of VN'ese  friends.
I don't need any more.
I'm not saying hi to anyone!" funk.
It's special.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Busy, Busy,Busy...stop

Yup.
That's us.
Auntie Carol's retirement.

Auntie Kristen's baby shower.


Auntie Barb's retirement.
School year wrap up
and preschool retirement.

A day full of laundry and packing
while my child pranced about the house
on a mission to never dirty laundry again.

Then off on our epic summer journey...

First stop, for a few days, Auntie Kristen's house
where we found our precious Auntie timing her labor pains...
seems to have passed.

Spent hours having fun in the backyard pool.

Today off for pho
while working to keep the precious Auntie calm
and not high blood pressure-y,
fat ankle-y,
early labour-y.

Here til Wednesday
when we drive off for our over the border fun
at the Catalyst Camp!

Take a look at this LINK to peek at the fun!
We can hardly wait!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Hee, hee...

Mama, this is my sari.
I'm an Indian girl.
You can only talk to me in Hindi.


Makes a sweet Indian Girl, doesn't he?
Hee, hee...
______________________________

And today?  
Auntie Barb's last day as principal of our school after 11.5 years.
An Indian tradition, the teachers towed her out of the school lot at 3:45
(in a VERY fancy corvette...not quite as traditional).
I was holding a very tired and very hot Ben in my arms.
We waved good-bye.

In the car a few minutes later
"Mama, is Auntie Barb going home now?"
Yes
"To our home mama?"
No sweetie, to her own.
"Oh, but our house is where retired people live."
Hee, hee...
_________________________________

In the car, driving home
I apparently made him angry.

"Mama?  You are a cod fish!
Not a cuddle fish!"
Hee, hee...
________________________________

A (not so) lovely interaction at the grocery store...
Looking the cashier right in the face
"Mama, humans get older and older and older...
(big dramatic pause)
and then they die.
That's just the way humans work."

And that cashier was very very old.
And I was simply so relieved when she laughed so hard
she could hardly catch her breath. 
Hee, hee...
_________________________________

And in other laugh invoking news???
Tomorrow is the very very last day of work.
Hee, hee...

Sunday, June 17, 2012

2...more....weeks.....

Until a whole lot of this:

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Photo fun in the Sun

Lots and lots of VERY hot air show fun on the weekend... 

No real interest in the air show...
but mini golf?
big blow up slides?
Hagan Das (sp?)
Yeah, so much fun.





And today?
Special visitors for Ben at school!
From nana's neck of the woods!
So much fun sharing with friends.


Summer fun-coming to you real early!

Monday, June 4, 2012

Ahoy maties!

Each year we celebrate little dude's birthday 
with his sweet friends from Hai Duong.

We also have traditionally served ice-cream
to a few close friends on the street,
on a different day of course.

Families have grown.
And we aren't on the street anymore.

Combine our little Vietnam group
with two friends from town?

What do you get?

A pirate crew.

An a very very good time.





Pirate scopes

A captain to lead the way

Treasure boxes, to collect you booty

Treasure

 4 or 5 treasure stops total on the way
to a full treasure chest.

And then?
Dinner.
And Cake.
He was soooo pleased.


Gifts from friends

And great big bags under his eyes...
What a glorious birthday it was.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

It's going to be a busy year...

Went into the bookstore for some quality time before our birthday lunch at the local pho joint.
Dude walked up to to the "librarian" with a very serious question.
See, we were on a mission of sorts.
Ben had questions and mama had none of the answers.

It went something like this:
Do you have any books about ancient humans?
The ones that didn't have an alphabet or email and wrote messages with symbols and pictures inside of caves and on rock walls?

She turned to me and asked:
Is he just short?

I managed to discover, while cuddled up in the nonfiction section reading books on ancient Egypt, that today's Adventures in Art pirate show was about Hieroglyphics. He really is something else.

A few more examples of why you can't really say anything near him if you don't want him to repeat it endlessly, rolling it around in his mind, making it his own.

I give you one 40 minute commute to gymnastics..

Mama, is gelatin poisonous?
No sweetie, it isn't?
Then why did 'Y' say it's poisonous?  Our spiderman treats for my preschool birthday are gummy and he says they have poison.  If they have poison everyone in class will die!  Remember we watched the show about Asia's deadly snakes and the poisonous ones were deadly for sure!
Gelatin is not poisonous.  'Y' isn't allowed to eat it because it is a meat product and he is vegan but it is not poisonous.  Besides the spiderman treats are gummy from pectin which is a fruit product so even 'Y'  can have a pack.
Mama?  Why did 'Y's' mama tell him something that is wrong?

Moving on.

Mama?  Do you have any cultures? (I'm thinking Scottish?  German?  Where are we going with this.)
What do you mean sweetie?
You know, the active kind.
What do you mean sweetie?
So we can make yogurt mama!  You need milk and active culture to make yogurt.

Down the road we drove.

What is the meaning of affect mama.
A bit unclear I asked affect? infect?  Which one sweetie?
Not sure mama.
Like what will be the affect of kicking mama...
Ha!  A bruise!  Yeah, that one!
Why do you ask?
Amy said writing with makers will affect my blood.  Are markers poisonous? (hmm, back to death again I see)
No sweetie.  Your blood will be fine but your hands will be dirty!

And then there was the big one...
Mama, how exactly do babies come out of tummies?
Suffice to say that this one took up a good portion of the trip.
And yes we started with surgery but because I could not in fact say for sure that HE was born surgically when directly asked (and I also couldn't say for sure that his birth province had lots and lots of painkiller for surgery) I had to go a whole lot further.
Far enough in fact that he now knows HE can not carry a baby and give birth because he does not have the prerequisite parts.  This resulted in lots and lot of tears at the inequity of it all.
Oh my.

And today we are onto the whole ancient civilizations thing.

As he was drifting off to sleep on the eve of his Forth Birthday I asked him what he wanted to learn about while he was 4.

His response?
Everything I don't know mama.  It's going to be a busy year.