Not Quite a Tiger

Kieran wanted his face painted for the very first time. He really did. He wanted to be a tiger. He looked through the book and picked out his tiger face. He sat down and was brave.
















That is until she started painting on his face.





















Then he wasn't so sure.





















So we wiped off his face and had this instead.





















All's well that ends well, I guess.

DANG IT, Caroline!

Surprise, Caroline!
















Caroline is my dear friend Christy's daughter. Christy should not be confused with my dear friend Kristy who's birthday is the day before Christy's - and Christy is definitely one year older. Or maybe she's one year younger and Christy's birthday is the day before Kristy's - I can't remember. It doesn't matter because I love them both in their own special ways. Thank HEAVENS they spell their names differently.

Caroline was asking her mother why I don't have any pictures of her here on my blog. I don't know why, Caroline. Now you are immortalized on the blog forever. Or until I delete the blog. Or the internet fails. Or D-Day comes. Well, you get the picture. Just because this is your first appearance here doesn't mean I don't love you, too. And please don't hold it against me that I had to steal this picture from your Mom's facebook page. It was either this stolen beautiful picutre of you or this mediocre picture that I took a long time ago.
















Christy was recently telling me about all the things they are not allowed to say at Caroline's new school. Things like:

Dang it!
Shoot!
What the? (we agree)
Crap!
Darn!

I then had to remind Christy that a while back I was working really, really hard to eliminate the more colorful versions of these words from my vocabulary. Of course, occasionally I had outbursts, but I did much better with things like "God bless America!" or "what in the world?!". But I had to stop saying some of those, too. One day we were driving somewhere and I said, "God bless America" and from the backseat Kieran piped in, "Don't say that, Mama. It's bad words."

Kids.... I swear.

Hey SIGG! SUCK IT!

I was a little more than dismayed to find out about the BPA in the SIGG bottle liners. I trusted this company had sold me something I could be proud of and even told my friends about my bottles when they asked. Lots of people said, "oh, I don't trust the aluminum bottles" and I always defended my choice based on the quality product, or so I thought, and the safe epoxy lining I had spent our dollars on. Surely, in this day and age of reusable water bottles no one would be stupid enough to negate the safety of a lining by using an ultra-controversial and already proven unsafe chemical, no to mention the possibility of tarnishing their name. After all, they were one of the biggest producers of reusable water bottles.

Then I heard they were doing a voluntary recall. Well, at least they admitted their mistake and are willing to rectify the situation, right? They've made a new liner, coined the EcoCare liner, and this liner supposedly does NOT have BPA. I sure hope you're not lying to us again SIGG. They also still stand by the old liners (HA! Really?) claiming they did not leach BPA. Although some independant studies have proven otherwise. The sad part is that there is an allowable limit and the leaching of BPA from the liners was well within the limit, which makes it OKAY for SIGG to say their liners don't leach harmful chemicals.

In any case, I decided to take whatever little faith I had and go for the voluntary exchange. I wasn't thrilled with the choice at Whole Foods (one of the retailers offering the exchange program) and was lucky to find exactly what I wanted at EMS who apparently is also doing an exchange program. Imagine being a retailer that sold SIGG bottles with liners that contain BPA. My guess is just about anywhere that is selling or has sold SIGG is offering an exchange no questions asked. Apparently Whole Foods was offering store credit, you know the kind you could buy anything with, not just a new SIGG bottle. What does that tell you about their confidence? Imagine the backlash any retailer that sold SIGG bottles could take. No one asked because we TRUSTED. The retailers trusted and we trusted.

I'm really, really glad I didn't decide to send my SIGG bottles back to SIGG. I have already read a number of horror stories. I surfed around SIGG's website for a while after reading some of those horror stories. I was horrified myself to see some of the language on their FAQ page. Many, if not all, of their product descriptions say, "Why are SIGGs SUPERIOR than any other bottle on the market today? Check out our SIGG FAQ page and find out!" And yes, I'll agree - the FAQ page does make me feel inferior. The people at SIGG are clearly superior to the average consumer. At least that's how I felt after reading through it. I think if I were the CEO of a major company and was recently busted over an unsafe product the second thing I would do after writing a letter to consumers is have someone from marketing go over my website with a fine-tooth comb and word things a little more carefully. I also wouldn't make people wait weeks on end for replacement bottles, even if it meant rolling up my shirt sleeves and heading down to the warehouse myself and approving as many overtime hours as needed to get the job done. Even if you have denyability. Which I think you don't, by the way.

Shame on you SIGG. Shame on you. I really hope a couple years from now I won't being saying shame on me for falling for your EcoCare liner. You know what they say - fool me once.....

Aidan

It's hard to think of Aidan as a second-grader. He is growing so very fast right in front of my very eyes. He is absolutely drop-dead handsome. I help him get ready for school every morning and I comb his hair and look into his eyes and I can't help saying to him, "you are SO handsome, Aidan." It's just too overwhelming to me to not say it.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit sad to think that this is the last first day of school photo I'll take at our front door here in Maryland. We're going to miss all the friendships and routines we've established here. Aidan and A.J. are going to miss each other, I'm sure. I do have a plan that will let Aidan and A.J. talk once in a while, and I'll be encouraging him to write letters and send things to A.J. whenever he wants to share something with his BFF.

Aidan is very, very excited about moving (Kieran is having some issues right now - he's very upset about what we are going to take with us and what we are leaving behind, specifically the actual house, because I keep telling him we are taking everything with us; but this post is about Aidan). We have already started talking about places we'd like to visit and he is getting a good idea of what this move really means. Just the other day he very patiently explained to Kieran what the initial trip would be like and why it would be like that. He explained why we couldn't drive to England and would have to take an airplane ("because we have to go over an ocean, which is water") and why it would take so long ("it's a REALLY big ocean") and then what we would have to do after we got off the plane ("probably take a train or something because the airport won't be right by our house"). And then he reiterated that we're taking everything with us, most importantly the cats, but not the house because that would be impossible. He's not scared at all about anything. Do you think about what your kids might be like when they grow up? Do you think about what clique they might fit into? Aidan is not at all shy and really isn't scared of much. He makes friends so easily. And did I mention he's totally good-looking to boot? Class president? Best smile? Most Friendly? Whatever he becomes, I will love him with all my heart.

He is a swimming fiend! We took a trip to Pennsylvania to visit my Dad's side of the family for the First Annual Tink Fest and my Uncle Larry had a pool in his backyard. The transformation was tangible: he went from sinking and flailing to floating and swimming. I'm not sure if it was all the other children his age swimming or the smaller size of the pool, but it was really amazing to watch. He reverted a little bit when we came back to our community pool which leads me to believe it was the size of the pool. His swimming is improving every time we go to the pool. Of course the pool will be closing after Labor Day, so I've signed both the boys up for swimming lessons, and I suspect I'll have to do the same in England to keep them swimming while we are there. I don't think there are a lot of outdoor pools in England!

I posted all three of his first day of school pictures on facebook, and the change in his height was over a foot. I know I could see this on our grow stick upstairs where we mark the boys heights every birthday and Christmas, but to see it that way really had an impact on me how big he is getting. You can see the sunflower he planted in the spring of First Grade gave him a run for his money, but not by much! We are harvesting the seeds to feed the birds and maybe to share with family and friends if they want to grow their own.

All in all, Aidan is having a great year. He's truly transforming into quite the nice young man, don't you think?

A Note to Future Potential Girlfriends

*Future girlfriends, please note:

If you want a boyfriend that gives the best hugs, Aidan is your man.

If you want a boyfriend that gives the best kisses, point your sights on Kieran.


Thank you in advance for your consideration of our two most eligible bachelors,

The Management

How'd he do that?

Monkey boy! I was helping Geoff with something he was making for dinner. I turned around to find Kieran sitting on the counter. He sits on the counter quite often, but usually he uses his stool to get up or we pick him up. His stool was no where to be found. So how did he get up?



Monkey boy's brother had a go, too.

SNOW!

Snow Day

The snow is falling.

The kids are sleeping.

The house is warm.

No school tomorrow.

Life is good.

(pictures to follow)

Snippet

A fond memory from a historical day:

Mama: We have a new President!

Kieran: Can we open it today?

He obviously thought I said present. I explained further:

Mama: No, sweetie, we have a new President - it's a person. He is the leader of our country, the United States, where we live.

Kieran: Can we open it, please?

The Christmas post that wasn't

Christmas was really good, just in case you were wondering. The only problem? There aren't many pictures to prove it. Unfortunately, Kieran was not in the best mood on Christmas Day (I was having flashbacks to Thanksgiving dinner) and really needed some serious attention to survive the morning, so the family photographer (me) was otherwise occupied. As for lots of other Christmas activities that didn't get photographed? I guess I was too busy enjoying them with my family rather than taking pictures. No harm in that! Here are just a couple of photos I did manage to get.

















(can't you just feel the love)


















































playtime at Santa's house







































































Aidan's gingerbread house
















iDog at the birth of Jesus


















out with the old, in with the new - the FIT is go!