fashionless or fashionable

I know, and will be the first to admit, that I don't have the greatest fashion sense. In fact, I think Tim might tell you that at times it's downright embarrassing (I still wear wide-leg pants, gasp!). I have grown even less interested in what I look like over the last several months as the amount of dirt and dust that gathers on my clothes, within seconds of setting foot outside, makes "dressing" (which is to say putting together an outfit) virtually pointless. Friends, returning from home leave in the states, even brought me some fancy new threads, but I have refused to wear them for fear of permanently ruining them with dirty footprints or sticky fingers.

The same goes for Eleanor's clothes: I don't want to stop her from exploring the world around her, so there are some clothes which I just don't put her in first thing in the morning, when I know she'll be spending hours outside - in the dust. Generally I do the choosing of outfits, and she happily dons whatever I select.

This morning, however, Eleanor chose what she wanted to wear, and given my lack of fashion sense I just can't decide: it is totally fashionless or awesomely fashionable?
-kjd

Eleanor's selected outfit (dots, stripes and florals)...

...and "how to mix patterns" examples from a fashion website.

1 little monkey

"One little monkey jumping on the bed..."

Much to her mother's pleasure, she did not fall off. Or bump her head. She did look rather sheepish after doing it though, which reminds me of another song...
-kjd

dads and daughters

Sometimes they are going to be on the same page; their experiences aligned. Sometimes, they are not. But of one thing I am certain- they will always love each other. After all, dad's are awesome.

Case in point:
-kjd

family dinners

Eleanor likes communal eating. Well, perhaps a more realistic statement is that Eleanor likes eating what you're eating- not what mom has spent 30 minutes preparing for her to eat. The staff cook, Yuda, has even taken to preparing a little extra food for her, so that she and Asina can sit and eat lunch with them. This weekend we returned from shopping to find a little to-go container of rice and beans at the bottom of the stairs; for Eleanor, from Yuda.

In an effort to save time, because Tim and I ended up eating so late in the evenings (it wasn't until I had put Eleanor to sleep that I was able to start on dinner, which generally meant we ended up eating sometime between 8 and 9 pm), and because Eleanor seems to prefer dining with friends, I decided it was time to institute family dinners.

Although I haven't managed to pull it together every night of the week (surely that's going to take some practice, right?), the times that I have managed to put a hot meal on the table that's both delicious (for us parents anyway) and kid-friendly have been a relative success- which is to say that even if she doesn't devour the food, Eleanor sits happily at the table long enough for us all to enjoy the dining experience.
-kjd 

On the menu last night: roasted cherry tomato,bell pepper, and leek quiche.

Oh, the anticipation.

First bites.

proud mama, "keep on rollin'."

I know that one of the worst things you can do for your child (and probably, therefore, yourself) is to fill them with ideas about what you think they should be when they grow up. I recently heard a comic relating the story of telling his mother that he wanted to be a comedian, "That sounds like you said lawyer?" she replied.

So, while I know that I shouldn't hold out hope that Eleanor is going to become a famous pastry chef and teach me a thing or two in the kitchen, seeing her handle a rolling rolling pin for the first time (like a pro, I tell you) certainly made my heart swell with pride.

Today, playdough. Tomorrow, French Culinary Institute?
-kjd

fort and beans

Our life here often requires adaptability (as I've written about) and creativity (which feels so much like adaptability lately). Without playgrounds, malls, community centers, parks, walking trails, bike trails, or countless other "things" we might find to amuse ourselves on a lazy Saturday afternoon we are often forced to improvise.

Last weekend, tired to visiting the same two (small) playgrounds and having finished all the groery shopping we needed to do (which least gets us out of the house), dad (aka. Tim) came up with two new ideas: fort building and bean tossing.

Both turned out to be great fun.
-kjd
 

beginning construction.

stretching the sheet.

helping.

supervising.

completion.

inside.

sorting and pouring.

tossing and running.

dads are awesome.

incident with a lizard

A few days ago, in the late afternoon, I swung the door open to the porch. Eleanor, just a few feet behind me, stopped at the door as I was saying to her that I needed to check the tiles (they are often too hot for bare feet after baking in the sun all day). As I bent down just in front of the door, facing the tiles, I felt something hit my head and seconds later saw a lizard scurrying toward the opposite side of the chimney. I don't know if he was drunk, dared by his friends, or just lost his footing, but it scared the crap out of me (and rightly so, I think) and I screamed. This, in turn, made Eleanor scared and she started to cry. After a few moments of comforting and reassurance that the lizard was all gone, she stopped. But she still wanted nothing to do with the porch.

The event must have been pretty dramatic, maybe even traumatic, for her; since that day, and several times each day, she seems to relive it. She points to the door and says "Ahhh, ahhh" with rising and falling intonation while using the "all done" sign. She then points to my head, and says all done once again. Sometimes I think that first "ahhh, ahhh" is her imitating my scream, which is equally funny in its own right. Everytime we go to the porch she does the same thing, and now there's an extra pause while she waits for me to tell her that it's safe to come out. There are no lizards falling from the sky.

It's strange to think that in no time this will be a forgotten memory for Eleanor, and all we'll have left is this blog post to remind us of that "incident with a lizard."
-kjd