Kai's Injury of the Week

Bad idea: Taking a head first dive off the couch into the coffee table. It makes a giant, purple bump on your head.

The plus side: you get a cool band-aid, or as Kai likes to say, "PAN-TAID!!!"

Poolside

The lens of the camera was fogged up because it was so hot and we'd just come from inside to outside. The same thing happens with sunglasses.

Kai at the pool.

"Fwimmin'!".....as Kai likes to say.

The Kids Playing

Kai looking into Quinn's crib.

He decided to join her.

Quinn rolling around in her crib.

Kai playing.

Numbers

We have a big, foam playmat that connects together like a jigsaw puzzle. It has numbers and mathematical symbols on it. Kai takes great pleasure in immediately tearing it up into as many pieces as possible as soon as I put it back together. It is a nice place for Quinn to crawl around since it acts as a cushion against our tile floor.

This morning, Quinn was crawling around and Kai went and sat by her. I told him to teach Quinn the numbers and sure enough, he started showing Quinn the numbers and explaining them to her. "Quinn! This is a seven! Quinn! This is a two!" It was adorable. So cute, in fact, that I got out my camera to record it for posterity. Of course, as soon as I pulled out the camera, my two little hams immediately stopped what they were doing and fixated on the camera. Oh well, I tried....

Play Group

Wednesday night Shawn was playing in a volleyball game, so I thought I'd bring the kids to go watch him play. I pulled into the parking lot on the Base and dragged the stroller out of the trunk. As I did this, a woman driving by in an SUV stopped rather abruptly and rolled down her window to speak to me. She asked, "Did you just get here?" I thought maybe she meant parking-wise and wanted my spot. She meant here as in Bahrain and told me about a playgroup she and some of the other moms from the Base participate in. She gave me her contact information and I decided that it was something I was definitely interested in doing with the kids. The reason she thought I must have been new to the country was because I had the airline check tag still attached to my stroller (oops!) from our trip home in April!

We have a pretty hermit-like existence aside from the usual shopping trips to the grocery store, Shawn's sporting events and an occasional weekend outing. Things get worse during the summer because it's so hot the kids can't even really go outside to play any. So I thought the playgroup would probably greatly benefit us.

When I spoke to the playgroup organizer, she said that this particular playgroup a lot of the dads would be coming, too, so Shawn decided he would check it out. The group was hosted this week by a very nice couple who is from Poland originally. They have lived in Bahrain for over a decade each and have an adorable little girl. There was another Polish couple there who had a 2 year old boy and a baby girl with the exact same birthdate as Quinn--December 8, 2006. Needless to say, we compared notes. There were several other couples, mostly Americans. In total there were something like 8 kids all running around everywhere. Everyone was very nice and the kids all got along surprisingly well. Shawn and I had a nice time and I think it is something I will continue to do in the future. That was my big excitement for the week!

Augusta "SuperMom" Cherri