One Thumb Up One Foot Down

Thursday, 13 September 2012

Bite-Size Culutural Adjustment

Bringing your four kids 'home' to a country that is familiar to you but not so familiar to them is an interesting ride providing daily entertainment. Here are two snippets from lunch today:

Jack: Mom, who is running for president?
Erin: Well, there are two main candidates. One is Mitt (lots of laughter for what a funny name) Romney and the other is Barack Obama (surprisingly no laughter on that name). [I gave a bit more background about Republicans and Democrats being the main two parties etc]
Theo: Hey Barack Obama. I have heard of him.
Jack: Yeah, he took David Cameron to a basketball game.
Erin (a bit worried): Is that all you know about him Jack?
Jack: He is president too.
Erin (relieved!): Yes, that is right.

A few minutes later.

Erin: Hey look there is a dog out back, as a BIG (think Labrador size) black and white dog - runs through the back yard.
Theo: Hey, maybe it is a skunk. Mom, is that a skunk?

Two lessons learnt from lunch:
(1) There is little emphasis on learning the US Presidents at an early age in Britain.
(2) Britain doesn't have skunks.

Monday, 10 September 2012

Be Bald

A few days ago at breakfast the boys began to sing the kids praise song that goes 'be bold be strong for the Lord your God is with you.' This prompted Jack to ask Charles what the word bold meant. Charles answered that it was very similar to being courageous. Theo then piped up and said 'yeah, sometimes it means that and other times it means to not have any hair.' I love four-year-olds.

Friday, 7 September 2012

Park Trips

We are relearning how to do parks in America. We are slowly finding our groove. In England you walk to the park. In American you drive to the park. And if it is happy hour (2-4 pm) at Sonic (meaning half price drinks) Mom stops and gets a cherry diet coke for herself and three free waters for the kids. We show up at the park in our mini-van and all get out with our sonic cup and straws. We are starting to fit in very quickly indeed! We are quick learners!

Yesterday after arriving at the park, Theo quickly started asking others to play with him. His main introduction went something like this:

'Will you play with me? My name is Theo. Do you want to play World War 2? You know World War 2 was real. It really happened. It isn't a fairy tale.'

Unsurprisingly, he didn't have a lot of other four year olds biting at his invitation. Again, unsurprisingly, he had lots of parents laughing at him. And thankfully he had a six year old brother who was ready to indulge his desire to play WW2.

Sunday, 2 September 2012

Getting Settled

Saying good-bye to England was hard (blog posts to come when I can emotionally stomach it), but saying hello to many new and exciting things has helped the transition. So many things have happened since we arrived in the USA - it is hard to believe it has only been three weeks. Highlights include:

getting to see almost all of our family
buying a new mini van
lots of playing at the mall (too hot to play outside!)
First Mizzou football (American football!) pep rally with the grandparents and the Abbotts
Lots of playing with cousins
First paediatric appointment with Dr. Holly (whom we are going to LOVE - she gave us her cell phone...just in case we have a need!)
Jack joining his first soccer team
Theo getting his first big wheel and driving it lots in Granddad and Grando's driveway
Addie's speech therapy beginning
Eliot attending lots of house showings as Mom and Dad try to find the right house for us

We hope to still use this blog as a scrapbook recording fun and important things of our family. Admittedly some of the motivation for the blog (being far from grandparents) is gone, but we have grown to love it as a family scrapbook and hope that many of our friends across the pond will still check in every once in a while. For now, here are some pictures:

Kids with Uncle Brian