A pet what?

Abigail and Ethan are at the age where they are fascinated by pets. Every place we go, if they have a pet, Abigail or Ethan will cry when it is time to leave. Not too long ago, after a crying session, Chris promised the kids that they can have a pet when we get back to Taiwan. Anyone who knows Chris knows that he isn't fond of animals. But for cats, there is a special lack of fondness. When Abigail heard that they could get a pet, she immediately said that she wants a "little, bitty, baby cat". Ethan quickly replied "NO!" I saw the look on Chris' face that said, "That's my boy! He's not going to put up with this cat stuff, he wants a dog!". Then Ethan continued, "I want a BIG cat!" I promised them that sooner or later, they would both get their wish. Chris promised to have a home office where the cat is not allowed to visit.

Snow to sweat in 5.2.......days

Last week, we woke up to Abbey joyfully yelling that it was snowing. My first thought was that we are in Louisiana in March and there is no way it was snowing. But it was. The ground was covered and great, lazy snowflakes were steadily making their way to earth. I got the kids dressed in just about everything they own (that's what you do when you are raised in Alabama where 2 inches of snow closes schools and government down and causes a serious run on milk at the grocery story) and we headed out to play. All of Abigail's Ladybug magazines lately have been featuring snow and kid's playing the snow, so it was a dream come true for her. She didn't have to be told how to make a snowball or a snow angel. Ethan didn't have to be told to attack her while she was on the ground making the snow angel. I guess that is just hardwired into little brothers from birth. Yes, it was snow in March, but it was magic for us.

This week, my compressor went out on the jeep and I am sweating to death. But such is life on the road. Now, I am off to look up the symptoms of a heat stroke and tape them to the jeep steering wheel.

Next time, I'm going shopping alone.

The other day I was being checked out by a nice lady with an extremely bloodshot eye. During the course of our chatting, she mentioned that her contact had torn and scratched her eye. My cute kids were there, thus a story developed. The lady leaned over to say hello to Ethan and the next few minutes went like this:

"Hi, what's your name?"

"You're ugly" (I am too horrified to react quickly and am hoping she didn't here that!)

"Humm? What did you say?"

Abigail covers Ethan's mouth with her hand and replies,

"He said you're pretty"

And just like that, the pendulum swung from severely honest to lying. As you know, we have been working with her on saying things that aren't polite, but I would like to mention that we never taught her, nor even hinted that she should lie. Actually, less talking was what we were hoping for! Unfortunately for all of us, the dear lady did understand Ethan's superb English and fell over the counter laughing at my kids. My mother-in-law has said that kids keep your feet on the ground and boy, is THAT true!