Sudsy Fun

An English summer is a lot like a North Carolina spring. We finally started wearing shorts over the last few weeks. Today it was so sunny and beautiful and warm that I set Ollie up outside with a bucket of soapy water and some of his toys. Here he is, giving his Thomas trains and assorted helicopters and airplanes a sudsy bath.

Four Eyes

He looks like such a little brainy act.

Yes, our little Olfer has glasses. We had his eyes checked about a month ago, after which we were referred to a pediatric ophthalmology specialist. That eye exam was last Wednesday, and it confirmed that, yes, he does have a mild astigmatism in both eyes. (His eyeballs are football shaped instead of soccer ball shaped, or as they say here,  rugby ball shaped instead of football shaped...huh?) 

Glasses were in order. We selected frames on Friday and picked them up yesterday. 

Even eating yogurt now looks like very serious business.
Really, he's reading the Wall Street Journal.

Love that smile. 

So the deal is, these glasses are part of a therapeutic trial. The eye doctor suggested that Ollie should wear them as much as possible, especially when doing detail work like looking at books or coloring or learning letters/numbers or building with Legos, until he's about six or seven.

Reason being: while the neural pathways are still being laid down in his developing brain, if he "sees" things properly, his brain will then "see" them properly for life, even if he's not wearing glasses later. This is particularly important with symbols, like letters and numbers and shapes. Proper visual-cognitive interpretation now can help prevent difficulties with learning to read a few years from now, and so on.

And, yeah, there's the cute factor, too. He's going to get away with everything now, isn't he?

Candy Land

Ollie is learning to play his first board game, Candy Land.

There is a lot to learn with a simple game like this: Taking turns, colors,
drawing cards and putting them in the discard pile, counting spaces,
the concept of starting at the beginning and moving toward the finish line,
and the concept that you are represented by a game piece.

Dragon Battle

For his eight birthday, Aunt Rita and Uncle Tom took Merrit shopping in downtown Black Mountain. What Merrit chose was a book called The Klutz Book of Animation. For all our homeschooling friends and/or bored summer-vacationers, there are tons of fun projects in the book to engage a young, aspiring animator.

Check out Merrit's first animation. We did this together in about an hour (my role was simply installing and opening software programs and cueing up the music...he did everything else).

If you have a webcam, a computer with an Internet connection that you are willing to let your kid use, and can download a free software application called SAM, you have everything you need to let your kid create his or her own short animations. Hope you have as much fun with this as we had--and will continue to have! 
Thanks Durenda and Tom for such a great birthday gift! Here's that book again. Not that you need the book, but it does have lots of good ideas and some background information on animations in general; you can get it at Amazon.com.

Checkmate

Mike has been teaching Merrit how to play chess.
As I eavesdrop (not really, I just happen to be fixing dinner),
I'm amazed how many life lessons can be worked into a game
of chess. Once a homeschooling family, always a homeschooling
family--at least in spirit. Everything is a learning opportunity!

Ollie in the background playing with his Leap Frog
alphabet letters.

High-Flyin' on a Springy Sunny Day

Ollie eating omelettes, complete with wife beater and butt crack.
Yeah, we're very proud.

Today was omelette day. Merrit wowed us with The Napoleon. Later in the day, we walked down to the coast. Merrit rode his bike and Ollie rode his scooter. The weather was gorgeous. Mike and I both broke out the flip flops. 

All of us were feeling exuberant that spring has sprung. 

Passersby were totally making fun of us...but, whatever. The pics are worth it, don't you think?

Hoping all you Raleigh folks are safe and sound after last night's tornadoes. Sending thoughts and prayers. Let us know how you are. <3

Eight Weeks of Waiting...

...and our boxes are finally here! The kids acted like it was Christmas morning as they were reunited with their favorite toys. Mike is happy to have his guitar again. And me, I'm torn between my kitchen goods and my scarves, shoes, and jewelry.

Breakfasting at Home

Today was omelette day.  Read about the Cheesy Secret omelette here.

Milestones

Merrit's front tooth is coming in!

And Ollie is dressing himself!

Video Tour of Our Cute Rental by the Sea

We are renting a fully furnished house in Whitley Bay. What you see here, aside from our clothes and computers and a few toys that the kids brought, doesn't belong to us. :-) We are still waiting for our boxes of things to arrive. I really do need to check on where the boat is via the online tracking system. Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Here's quick video tour of our surrounds. Enjoy!

And if you missed the pics of our place posted at my friend Kristi's blog, they're here. She took some cute shots when she was here to help us move over and settle in the first week.

Stuck at Home Today

Merrit climbed to the top of this pillow mountain and proclaimed,
"I'm the King of England!!"

The boys and I are stuck at home today. It's raining, for starters. But also the man from Virgin Broadband, our new Internet service provider, is supposed to be coming by to set up our phone line and install wireless Internet access.

Full disclosure: I faked all the previous blog entries because I didn't have Internet yet.

We are also waiting for a plumber. I noticed this morning a large wet area across the ceiling and down the wall of the small dining room--right underneath the upstairs bath. Called the landlord. A perk of renting, right?

Rain. And more rain.

The boys won't have their boxes of stuff for about four more weeks. That means that only the toys they traveled with on the plane are here. They're a bit bored, but I like to see them work through it and make up games and use their imaginations.

What started out as a plan to build a fort transmogrified (a little Calvin and Hobbes for ya) into Pillow Mountain. Imagine gleeful giggles as the boys slide down the sides and scramble heels over head to see who is first to reach the summit. Ollie can hold his own, let me tell you.

The next nine days call for rain. Pretty quickly, I bet, we'll do like the locals do and:

1. Dress for it.
2. Get out in it.

No one here stays in. I have watched them through the front window all day. Moms with infants in plastic-sheeted prams. Kids in rain slickers and Wellies. Old couples with umbrellas. Commuters walking quickly by, head down, all business.

I am keeping my eye out at the charity shops for size 10 rain boots for Ollie. Merrit already has a pair of rain boots (so cute, got them from L.L. Bean last Christmas, they have turtles on them)...but can we wait four weeks to get them?

On another note, look what popped up overnight in our back courtyard:

Cause He Wouldn't Be Ollie...

...if he didn't at least try it. And then, get stuck.

"Why?", I ask. "Why?"