Scratching Post

When we got the kittens, Tara decided she wanted to make them a scratching pole. She spent many hours web surfing for ideas, and finally found one she liked.



She did all the work by herself, with only minimal cutting help from me for the big cardboard tubes we used. The kittens were very interested in the process.



After a few days of hard work, she presented the finished product.



The kittens were thrilled! A place where they can watch out of the window.



Or sleep nicely together.



Or of course, hang out leisurely after a long and hard day of pouncing.



I was pretty impressed with the job Tara did on this, and the scratching pole is a daily favorite of the kittens.

More Passport Fun

Finally got the darned passport applications in. We went to a smaller passport office this time, and things went much smoother.



Now let's hope the passports make it in time.

Yesterday, I played in a go tournament in Massachusetts. Was fun. I even won second place in dan division, but that was only because it was such a tiny tournament.

Passport Application Fun

My two older girls have been invited for a family visit to the Netherlands, so they need new passport. Both do own old passports, but Tara doesn't quite look like this anymore.



Neither does Jane look like the picture on her passport.



Two days ago, we went to the passport office to pick up forms and ask what we needed. So we filled out the forms, and grabbed their old passports. Today, we went to the passport office. We waited waited waited till they finally opened, and then found out that even although they did have old passports, they still need birth certificates too. I guess they aren't convinced that they really have been born. I mean, they could just be a figment of their imagination, right?

We didn't have time to go home again and back to the passport office, so we will make a new try tomorrow. At least we got passport pictures made today, so we are one step closer to actually getting the application filed.

Wish us luck.

Sinterklaas Sugar High

Tonight we celebrate the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas.



For a few days, the kids have been putting out their shoes at night and singing Sinterklaas songs, and would find candy in their shoes in the morning. Sylvia was so excited about this, that she would greet me in the morning with 'Did Sinterklaas pute any candy in my shoe, mama????'.



At first, Sylvia wasn't sure about the singing. But after teaching her 'Sinterklaas Kapoentje' she was more enthusiastic about it. I think she felt self conscious that she didn't know the words to those Sinterklaas songs.



Tonight, we do the gift giving part of Sinterklaas, when he crosses the Atlantic Ocean on his horse and leaves presents in front of our door. Why yes, his horse is an excellent swimmer. Tara said she was happy we were one of the few people in America to celebrate this holiday, and I have to agree with her.



Kids are super excited, and were even more bouncy when we served a cake to celebrate. Since they really needed more sugar, right?



Last night, I found this cake in my freezer, and I want to clean out my freezer soon, so it was just lucky coincidence that we could celebrate with cake. Just in case anyone thought I was organized enough to actually bake, don't worry.

It is not the most perfect cake ever either, but my kids didn't seem to mind.

Love Tuesday

Last night, in bed, instead of falling asleep, Sylvia was snuggling with me.
'Mama, I love you!'
'I love you too, darling.'
Sylvia, after a few seconds thought 'I love everyone in this room!'
'Awww, nice.'
Followed by 'I love everyone in this house!'

I was half asleep, but kind of perked up when she added 'I love EVERYONE in the world!'.
So y'all out there, feel Sylvia's love reaching out, and enveloping you.



Now we got back to the more prozaic 'We all are held up by our house. But what is holding up our house?'
My answer 'The world.'
This naturally led to 'But what is holding up the world?'
Followed by a long discussion between Sylvia, Kate, Erik, and me about gravity and how it holds together the sun, the Earth, and the moon.

The joys of 2am conversations.

Tooth Silliness

Last night, Erik knocked one of his front teeth with his knee (don't ask) which hurt a lot , and also it started bleeding. He even said he could wiggle it, which I didn't quite believe until he actually showed it to me and I couldn't ignore it any longer.

I thought it was a baby tooth, but my hubby was convinced it was a grownup tooth, as were Erik, and his other siblings. Yes, I know that with my first kids, I would have known exactly which teeth had been changed already. But I have to admit that with number six I mostly knew that yes, he did lose some teeth a while ago, but I have no idea which ones.

Of course, this morning was full of all kinds of doctors visits and passport applications and other stuff, so I didn't get back to the tooth till the afternoon.

Erik, walking over to me 'My tooth still hurts.'
Me, in a hopeful voice 'Did it stop wiggling at least?'
Erik, demonstrating 'Nope, it didn't. See, it still wiggles!'
Me, still hopeful 'Maybe it is one of your baby teeth?'
Erik 'No, I am SURE it is a grownup tooth!'
Me, not wanting to admit defeat, and looking for support for my hypothesis, asking the other kids 'Do you guys remember which teeth Erik lost already?'
The other kids, in a very convincing way 'We are so totally sure that this is one of the teeth Erik has lost and replaced by grownup teeth. If we are wrong, we will clean the house from top to bottom!' (OK, maybe they didn't say the last sentence, but it would have been awfully nice if they had)



Over the years, I have learned that sometimes the only thing you can do is give in and hope for the best, so I called the dentist. After asking me a few questions, and putting me on hold to listen to awful dentist music, they told me to bring him in right now.

I really loved getting out into the snow again, after spending my morning driving around everywhere. But I didn't feel I had much choice, and by now I was pretty much sure it was a grownup tooth that was loose. So all kinds of horrible scenarios were flashing through my head, Erik having to live out the rest of his life with one of his front teeth missing with associated crap to go with it.

We got to the dentist and waited and waited and waited. Erik spent the time to read a bunch of books, he enjoyed practicing his reading. I just waited and worried, just like a good mother should do. OK, maybe I also was reading a book.

The dentist came out, took one quick peek, and told us that this was a baby tooth. Nice seeing us, now go home and stop bothering us. OK, maybe he didn't say that, but my mommy guilt read that in him, feeling really silly to take a kid in for a loose baby tooth. I mean, what kind of mother doesn't even KNOW which teeth of her kids are baby teeth and which are not. He showed me how to tell the difference, so hopefully this will not happen again.

I felt silly, but on the other hand, I am glad we did get it checked out. And I suspect and hope that I am not the very first parent ever to come in loose baby tooth. Heck, they even might have a paper with tally marks somewhere on the wall, showing that we were occurence #666 of this phenonema.

A Day in the Life of a New England Family

Today, I knew I could get tons of go studying in, because I couldn't go anywhere during the snow storm.



But!
In the begining, there was the Shoveling the Driveway from Hell. Then there was the I Am Too Tired and Hungry To Clean My Room, But Not Too Tired To Scream Kate Incident
Then there was kids needing help putting on snow suits Followed five minutes later by kids needing help taking off snow suits. Did I mention it takes at least ten minutes to put a snow suit on Sylvia?



Of course, this was accompanied by Mountains of Wet Snow Suits and Mittens.
Not to mention Mount Laundry in my computer room, which I have been ignoring but which grows anyway.



And naturally there were the normal Taking Kittens of Table, and Making Food for Hungry Kids, and Chatting On Line, and Checking Blogging Friends To See Whether They Had Snow Too, and the same kids needing snow suit help again, and the Kate Screaming About Sylvia Eating Her Lollipop Crisis and then there was life.



Summary: I didn't get any studying though, which I am sure must be a surprise to all. I didn't get any bread baked either, which was on my list of things to do too. I guess we'll eat rice tomorrow.



But many snow angels got made, much sledding was done, hot chocolate was being devoured, and the driveway got kind of shoveled.

Maybe tonight they will sleep and I can get some studying in. I can hope, right?

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday, we prepared for the storm. I made sure all our bird feeders were filled.



We cleaned all the animal cages, so we didn't have to do that during the snow storm. Our mouse was thrilled to have new bedding to dig and explore.





This is what our backyard looked like yesterday.



And this is what it looked like today, with still at least eight hours of the storm to go.





I guess I won't go anywhere today.

And So It Starts

A Winter Storm Warning remains in effect from 7 PM this evening to 7 PM EST Monday.

Snow will develop this evening and become heavier overnight. By morning... 3 to 5 inches of snow is expected.

Snow will mix with sleet during the day Monday with total snow and sleet ccumulations of 8 to 12 inches. The snow and sleet will end Monday evening.

Northeast winds will increase to 10 to 20 mph during the day Monday with gusts to 30 mph. This will cause some blowing and drifting snow and reduced visibilities. Gusty winds will continue Monday night.




I guess we are not going anywhere tomorrow. I now understand why bears hibernate, seems like not a bad idea.



The joys of living in New England.

Banana Peel

Sylvia put down her banana peel, and wanted to say something about it. Only, she didn't remember / know the word for banana peel, so instead she called it 'That banana without a banana.' Makes perfect sense, I guess ^^