baby jail pick up

 

 

 
One of my favourite chores after work is picking up Charlie from Baby Jail.  He's got a good thing going there.  He and Ms. Tina, his teacher, have a great relationship and clearly adore one another and he's actually learning quite a bit ("I know my colours, Daddy!").  On a typical day, I hop the wall taking the short cut to the wooden fence where expectant children cluster around the check out teacher searching the new arrivals for their Daddy.  They also serve as look outs.  They've learned which grown up goes with which child and invariably when they see me coming one or more of them will shout "Charlie's Daddy!" and an eager scout will disappear into the clot of kids and seek out my little guy.  Then from the depths of the playground a sweaty little guy in a hat will come scampering up to me with calls of "Daddy! Daddy!" and run and give me a perfunctory hug.  After that, he'll either show me some rock/puddle/bug he'd been inspecting before I showed up and then drag me to go get his bag en route to the car.  On Fridays the bags are upstairs, and the above is me coming back down to take him to the car.  That's my boy!

every morning

 

Before school and piling in the car, a favourite delay tactic to venture over to the plantings we did together and (a) count the beans on Charlie's string bean plan and (b) look for snails.  Man, these kids are thrilled about snails.  The poor snails have spent the better part of a day getting from one end of our garden to the other only to be returned to origin by our "helpful" children.

 

 

little gardeners

 

Making sure we are snail free!

 

 

Charlie wanted to be sure his dog was safe too, so he strapped him in.

playtime

 

Initially, as an architect, Schuyler was an eager failure.  She would gamely sit down and build skinny towers with all the structural integrity of a jellyfish which would fall and scatter with predictable abandon.  After a quick lesson from her Dad in the basics, she latched onto the word "stable".  Immediately, her work improved with a broader base but still some pizazz.  More Frank Lloyd Wright than I.M.Pei so I was keen.  Meanwhile, Charlie kept lookout for out of town looky loos coming to invade the construction site.

checking the grounds

 

 

New planting planted en famille

 

Taking a break from "helping"

 

 

The driveway where one day, bikes will roam.

homework

 

Bermuda Cedar

 

Bermuda Palmetto

Charlie Young and the Bovine Experience

Olivewood

 

Bermudiana
Schuyler came home from school with homework.  Now when you assign homework for a five year old, you are effectively assigning it to her parents.  But it was actually pretty cool.  The assignment was to find four listed endemic species in Bermuda and take a picture of yourself (read: please photograph your child near some plants) and then glue the photo in a book and right the name etc.  Anyway, the fun part was taking the photos and actually getting the kids to be interested in identifying the plants.  Re-reading that sentence i realise i sound like a big nerd.  Let me put it another way, there are worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon that walking around Spittal Pond with your kids on a treasure hunt for plants.  Although, if I remember correctly, we waited until just before dinner to do this and Schuyer was a bit sick so we didn't last very long on our mission.  But we did last long enough to get these pics.

rainy afternoon

 

 

 

Schuyler had ballet rehearsal to prepare for her evening performance.  This gave us a rare opportunity to spend some quality time with the boy.  But it was one of those grey days where you feel like England.  A characterless bleached sky, soupy air, and low, low pressure where all that pleases is a good nap and maybe  a movie that wasn't made by Walt Disney.  Fortunately for him, Charlie is new enough to this Earth to find a day like this genuinely awesome.  Just getting to go outside in the rain and (especially) under an umbrella was more exciting and scintillating than any movie.  He was thrilled.  The exuberance and energy he brought to enjoying the sprinkle of rain is an object lesson in how to live well on a grey day.

A visit with Auntie Jenness

 

 

 

While Schuyler is at ballet rehearsal at the Sunday School hall nearby, we used the time to visit your Auntie Jenness.  Your Auntie Jenness passed away a long time ago and there are days when I get very sad that I missed out on knowing the other big sister I never had.   I try to picture what she might look like and the bond we might have.  And there are days when I just get sad that someone so tiny, young, and innocent was taken from the world.  And then there are the days when I realise that I owe my life to this little baby girl.  If she had not been taken, my mum and dad didn't intend on having more children and Uncle Will and I would just be a dream that never happened.  So occasionally go and visit your Auntie Jenness and thank her for everything you have and every opportunity you've had in life because without her loss, we would never be.  And that's the bond I have with your Auntie - eternal gratitude.

watering

 

 

One of the more enjoyable chores the kids have is watering the plants.  Largely, this is because they don't realise it is a chore.   And since it is now officially summer in Bermuda we can now water the plants in our underpants.

happy bermuda day 2013

Ahhh!

 

 

Our first Portuguese Man of War of the season - watch your step!  Fun facts about these things:
1. they are carnivorous and eat fish!
2. it is not a jellyfish but a colony of polyps much like coral
3. when they detect threats on the surface they can actually deflate their gas bubble on top to briefly submerge.
I'm not sure aliens could be more bizarre than these.

 

Ain't nothin' better than a big hole to a kid!  This started as a pretty good castle that Papa built which was destroyed by a giant boy named Charlie so Papa dug a big hole instead and that was a much bigger hit.