Quiet Time

We've been spending a lot of quiet time around the house lately, partly because I'm really tired just about all the time, and partly because I want Claire to be so bored with me that school is a welcome relief next week. But even though we've been cooped up, we've been doing some fun things.

Claire's recently had the light bulb moment of figuring out that letters put together carry a meaning in a word, and she's been a reading maniac ever since. She's constantly asking me "What does that say?" to any word she sees, and she now wants to read her own books by herself. So the other day, she dragged her blanket, her mouse cookie book and the newest Skippyjon Jones, a cookie and drink outside and set up a nice little reading picnic for herself. She wouldn't let me stay out with her, but I could hear her through the crack in the door "reading" away.



And yesterday we had a little baking party. We baked some sugar cookies, then Claire did all the decorating. She was so careful about covering the cookie with a nice layer of icing, then did her best with putting the sprinkles on. This easy project kept her quiet and concentrating for about an hour! We took them over to Grandma's house last night and thankfully Aunt Jamey took them home with her so we can make more today!

Busy

We've had a super busy last couple of weeks. It all started with a surprise anniversary party for Honey and H. We thought they had it figured out, but they didn't. We've never seen them this shocked! So many friends and family came--even Great Grandma Scott!

The next day Daddy had to leave for a loooong trip. He's not even home yet, but will be tomorrow. We can't wait to see him! We've done lots of fun things while he's been gone to help the time pass more quickly:

Katie came for a visit, which meant a trip to Chuck E Cheese! Since Mommy can't fit in those hamster tubes anymore, it's up to her to join in on the fun:

Brady and Cash came to visit for a day! We went to a really fun indoor playground place that even had recliners for the mommies!

We went to SeaWorld with Honey and H! It was soooo hot, but I had a wonderful time dancing in the air conditioned puffin exhibit:

Mommy and I went to see "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" at the children's theater downtown! I was such a big girl, sitting nice and quietly with my popcorn and following along with the play. I giggled all the way through it and was so disappointed when it was over.
And the fun isn't over yet! Daddy comes home tomorrow, and then we get to have another party at our house for Aunt Jamey and Almost-Uncle Jeff on Saturday!

The Incident

A little background:

1. I've been teaching Claire how to use glue and scissors for the last couple of weeks.

2. We've been reading a lot of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" (more on that later), and one of Claire's favorite parts is when the mouse gives himself a haircut.

We found a great anthology of the "If You Give..." books at Barnes and Noble that comes with a CD with all the stories read aloud, plus songs and other fun things. So while I write on the computer in my temporary office, the dining room, Little Miss Independent likes to listen to the CD in the den, which is on the opposite side of the house, completely out of eyeshot for me. She sits there nicely with her book, not necessarily following along while it's read, but still looking at the pictures. And I can hear her being her busy little two-year-old self, moving around every now and then. But all of a sudden, it got very, very quiet. Which should have told me that something was amiss. But, I was on a roll, and I honestly didn't want to walk over there to investigate, thinking at the time "what's the worst that could happen?" After a few more minutes of this exceptional silence, I decided to take a peak. And this is what I saw (take note of what's in Claire's hands):


Claire somehow knew where I hide the scissors in the kitchen, pushed her little stool over as stealthily as possible, and took them. And then she somehow talked Titania into sitting with her and getting a hair cut. Luckily Claire didn't think about her own hair, but poor Titania has chunks missing all over her back.

So the scissors have been moved (again). And I think the CD player is going to move into the dining room.

7/11: Into Cape Town

We woke up early this morning to head out to the nearest airport in Durban, a 3+ hour drive from our farmhouse. From there, we were flying to Cape Town, to begin the civilized part of our trip. We saw lots of interesting sites on the beginning of the drive:

Here are Zulu houses:

And here's how they mow their grass:

And then we hit the mountainous roads. And I resumed my role as the carsick passenger, except in the extreme sense this time around. I doubt any of you have ever thrown up on cow carcasses on the side of the road...Claire decided she needed to join in on the fun, too, so we had a swell drive into Durban. I'm sure Lauren and Chris especially enjoyed it.

We finally made it to the airport and got checked in and ready for our flight into Cape Town. The weather in Cape Town was supposedly horrible, and we were expecting a pretty rough flight, but everything went well. Claire was disappointed this plane didn't have tv's build into the seats, but she was fine with getting to watch Mickey on Daddy's computer.

We landed in Cape Town in between storms, picked up our next set of vans, and headed to our house. We were staying in a great, big house at the foot of Table Mountain, with views of the valley out our back porch. And there was even a vineyard in our back yard. Quite a nice change of pace from the farmhouse.

We went out to a nice seafood dinner, then came back to call it a night. By this time the storms had picked up again, and we could hear the howling of the wind and the lashing of the rain on our windows all night.

7/10: Life at the Farmhouse

Everybody but Honey, Claire, and I got up bright and early and headed out for the first tour of the day--the Isandlwana Battlefield, the greatest defeat in the history of the British Empire. Here's everybody getting settled in with their hot tea:

They were gone until lunch time, which meant that Claire and I got to sleep in. Honey woke up with a really bad sore throat, so we took it easy and explored the area around our farmhouse. Have I mentioned that the farmhouse has no heat? And very little electricity? An it's winter there? The last time we stayed here, we had to use kerosene lamps as our light source, and the motto of the trip was "put another log on the hot water heater" because the hot water heater was literally a large barrel on top of a fire. Oh, and have I mentioned that the shower is outside? Fun times. For some. Luckily, things have improved (slightly) since last time. We had real lamps in our rooms, and the hot water comes from a real hot water heater. But there's still no heat. And the shower is still outside. And it was still winter.

Here's what the hot water heater used to be: (fire in the bottom, and the big barrel up top)

Luckily, the weather warms up nicely during the day, and it's actually warmer to be out in the sun, so we took a few walks around the property in search of animals. We didn't find any, just a lot of chickens.

Everyone came back from their tour in time for lunch at the lodge, then it was time for them to head back out again for the evening tour--the battleground of Rorke's Drift. Honey, Claire, and I stayed behind again and enjoyed naps and......a shower! I was feeling so dirty, and I figured "who can see me? No one is around." So I did it. And, of course, being my luck, 2 random people on bicycles rode by. Lovely. Probably not at all what they expected when they rode into our little campsite. It really is a nice shower, though, if only the wall was just a little bit higher....Here's a shot:


The group was back for the cocktail hour before dinner, so Jason and I took our leave and headed back to the farmhouse for our dinner and to get packed up to leave the next day. And not a moment too soon!

Here's cocktail hour around the fire pit: