An iPad, Kids Beds and a Bird Tossing

Here are some of our favorite apps (so far!)

• Flipboard (me and charles)
• Words With Friends (me)
• Cookie Doodle (audrey)
• Cake Doodle (audrey)
• iTot Cards (Will)
• Barbie I can be (audrey)
• Thomas Books (will)
• Skype (all of us!)
• Preschool Farm Photo Touch (will)

I looooooooove the iPad, There’s something for everyone! Audrey and Will can operate it with ease, it is educational, entertaining and just plain fun.  I am thrilled with all the capabilities of it that I wasn’t even aware of before the purchase.  For example, here we don’t get any reality shows (or any good tv shows for that matter).  And with the iPad, I can download them to iTunes and watch them wherever I am.  I am thinking of catching up on the bachelorette next time I’m at the gym!  The kids can have their favorite shows on there and not all have to be purchased – you can find a lot of cartoons on you tube and just save it as a favorite for later. The kids and me are having a ball on it!  It was awesome skyping with family and being able to follow the kids around the house and outside playing while their nana and papa watched.   Facetime doesn’t work here, but I did some searching and I think there are ways around it.. When I get that set up anyone that has an iPhone 4 can just video chat with us at any time instead of going thru skype.  I love this thing and am thrilled that it bridges some of the gaps for us.  **by the way I found it on Dubizzle (similar to Craigslist in USA) from a guy that bought one in America, still sealed in pkg with the Target receipt. yes!

and FINALLY my kids have beds! I’ll give you the down low on whyyyyy this has taken sooo long.

We didn’t bring over beds because we wanted the kids to share a room to allow for a playroom and since Audrey had a girly pale yellow bed and Will was transitioning out of the crib we needed beds for the kids and chose to just find some here.  If you remember wayyy back, we bought some from that furniture store I love here (one was in stock, one wasn’t).  We got the one that was in stock delivered right away and ordered mattresses for the size of bed (American Standard bed sizes do not apply to the rest of the world.. note to self).    Well, the matching bed we ordered was going to take one month to arrive. ok. no biggie.  then two months passed, then three all the while I am going up there every week or two to check on the status. ok so now FOUR months passed and my inshallah attitude has totally worn off.  I requested a letter in writing from them that if my bed had not arrived within one week that we would get full refunds for both beds.  One week passed, got the cash and picked up these beauties for the equivalent of $250/each and delivered two days later. Nice. Honestly, I like them better anyway.  I found them months ago in our initial shopping trip looking for beds for the kids and luckily they were still there.   One problem… they are different sized twins than the previous beds… that means new mattresses. ughhhh. so now we have two twin mattresses that we don’t need. Maybe I can sell them.

Anyway – the problem is solved and in a country where the furniture selection is SLIM pickings for my traditional style, I lucked out, big time.  I brought over the gingham duvets and my mom monogrammed the gorgeous shams before we moved… Still needing white box-pleat bed skirts which I will get this summer.  My kids will get to enjoy the beds for a whopping 2 1/2 weeks and we’ll be gone for 2 months. LOL.   They will of course enjoy them for years and I totally plan on hauling these back to the States with me (whenever we move back) and putting them in Will’s future room.  Love it!

Audrey’s ^^ Her sheets are precious whimsical fairies

William’s ^^ his sheets are handsome red, white and blue trains

this is just Lagniappe.  I actually captured the “I’m not really in trouble, am I?” face… dimple and all.  I took this picture after catching him jumping from one bed to another like a spider monkey (*arms and legs out straight).  He’s oh so bad, but I still  lovingly, bite on him daily. 

Still wondering about the Bird? Well, Mr. Will did it. Surprise Surprise.  Yesterday, Audrey and I noticed that there was a baby bird on their bedroom balcony and we watched the mama bird bring food and feed the baby.  Today frick and frack were playing upstairs and Audrey decided she would open the sliding glass door (which we didn’t even know she could do – they are really heavy and often stuck)… and let Will out to see the bird.  (*don’t stress about them being on the balcony, they couldn’t fall or anything, it is safe). Will decided to pick it up and THROW IT off the second story balcony.  About this time I come home from an unsuccessful outing and hear everyone upstairs and Audrey is yelling, WILLIAM THREW A BIRD, WILLIAM THREW A BIRD!!! Charles shrugged it off thinking she was just making something up.. he didn’t know there was actually one up there and he was thinking ‘how in the world could Will catch a flying bird and then throw it?!’  but he didn’t realize it was a tiny, baby bird that couldn’t get away.  STILL in disbelief (even after I told him yes indeed there was a bird up there) he went outside and saw the poor little thing laying there dead.  Charles discarded the bird before our little animal lover, Audrey could see, knowing she would be traumatized – but her heart was broken about it anyway.   What would posses him to see a bird, pick it up and throw it.??! I’m hoping he was just trying to ‘help’ it fly??  I have heard before that you need to worry about the kids that are really cruel to animals.. but I’m not toooo worried about this since he is usually really kind with other animal encounters.  {Sigh}. One thing I know for sure is that this little guy is ALLLL BOY and very very different from his big sister.