Juggling Skills

Whilst Al took the pups for a much needed walk this evening (a good sunny warm one in Maine), and Rafi was finishing his dinner - I decided to dust off my juggling skills after spying a bowl of oranges. I have tried to impress Rafi in the past with my juggling skills but he was seemingly too young for these feats of magic - and with Al never overly impressed - it was a losing battle to impress my family. Though tonight was different - up went the oranges and Rafi was immediately impressed, laughing and mesmerized so much that...he wanted a go! One orange then two then three in his hands and then...thump, thump, thump - we now have three bruised oranges. Quickly grabbing those up - he wanted the others in the bowl, oh dear - and pushing the bowl safely out of reach lead to a round of big tears and crying/wailing - not the end of the fun I was expecting!! Perhaps tennis balls next time Rafi...

Holiday Weekend

It's not over yet, but so far we've had a super holiday weekend. Yesterday was very hot and after forgetting Raf didn't have a gym class - and being the only parents who turned up to an empty gym - we spent some time gardening and mowing the lawn and then headed to the beach later in afternoon. Raf had a blast. He liked to collect on the pretext of making the sand wet for sandcastle building, but mostly he just loves to collect the water. So many older folk were sitting watching him as he was squealing every time his toes touched the cold water. Here he is pouring the water over Rich's feet... that's a lot of fun!

Today some friends came around this morning to check out our baron landscaping and to see if they can help (fingers crossed). My friend Amy has two lovely little girls, both younger than Raf. Raf was so proud to show Analise his trains and his other toys upstairs, and Rich - who was up there too - reported that Raf was offering to share his choo choos. He is so pleased with his toys when he shows them off!

We all headed outside, and as I was showing Chris around the yard, Raf and Analise played on his little slide. All of a sudden (I missed it, but thank goodness Amy had a camera!) they spontaneously hugged. It was so sweet!

And then there was a goodbye kiss. The little charmer!

After a busy morning we headed to a wedding reception at a golf course. The wedding was actually a few months ago in Israel and it was great to have an American celebration! I must admit that I've been looking forward to Rafi wearing his new shirt and tie since I found in on NextDirect. He pulled it off nicely, I think. He wouldn't wear the new shoes we bought him for more than three minutes so he ended up back in his crocs. I was very happy he didn't take off his tie.  He had a lovely time running up and down the stairs, watching the golfers, and generally running us ragged. 

Sweet big brother

We've been trying to get Raf used to the idea that there's a baby on his way. We're having varying success. We play a game when we point to something and label something incorrectly, to which Raf responds, "noooooooo", and laughs. When I say there's a 'baby in mummy's tummy', Raf's been responding with the same incredulous, 'noooooooooo', and laughs as though we're telling him a big funny joke. We also ask him if he wants to kiss the baby in mummy's tummy and he does, but then he blows a big raspberry!

We're not sure what to make of all this. He does love to read his 'baby is coming' books, and at the park yesterday, his nanny told us, he was super interested in an 11 day old baby. Apparently he was very sweet. When he woke up this morning, after asking from some kisses, and after I had bribed him for a few minutes with my ipad (it was 5am), he said, 'kiss the baby?' And he gave my tummy a few kisses - without the raspberries (although perhaps there was one).

As I was getting up and getting changed into my running kit, Raf went for it and gave my tummy a big hug and kiss. It's a terrible picture but it's so sweet.

This evening we sat on the couch and my tummy got my kisses and a couple of raspberries. As he went up to bed with Rich he said, 'night, baby',

Night Night

Getting Raf to sleep lately has been quite a challenge - we have theories and ideas as to why he's not even contemplating sleep until 8:30pm which is running about a hour later than usual. Could he be growing out of his afternoon nap, or the longer, lighter days or just not wanting to say goodbye to his trains which have been regular guests in the bed again - which is OK for the most part unless they are the ones that make noises which can go off and wake him up when he does fall asleep! So it's late by the time he starts to wind down, a few books are attempted and he likes 'Stick Man' at the moment - and then I switch the light off and we now have a nightly round of 'Night, night.' This can go on for sometime - tonight it was at least 30 times and just as you think he's nodded off - yep - another 'night, night' comes out of the darkness and the rattle of a train and I know I'll be in the bed for another ten minutes or so. It's very sweet though and one of those times that is oh so brief and you hope you don't forget in the great scheme of things...

The Sea

Having to get a garden trowel to plant our flowers and a 'speedy recovery/get well' card for my step-brother who has had a serious accident after falling from a horse - I decided to drive around our old stomping ground of Biddeford Pool first - which as the crow flies is not too far from where we now live if you were swimming it. So we drove the long way around going by UNE (hey mama Raf shouted) and past our little stone cottage rental where we lived from 2001-2002 before being turfed out for the summer rental market - it was nice while it lasted! Then up to the Pool - all our old running routes and the scene of my duathlon a couple of years ago - it's a beautiful spot - great bird-watching (and seals sometimes) and an impressive looking spiritual retreat that was an old hotel are a couple of features. The sea can be quite wild - and whilst it was relatively calm - it was quite an experience today - breaking in all directions, very odd to see! Being close to the Atlantic again - has been one of the best things of our move - and whilst we will miss the lakes close to our old home - and plan to visit as much as we can - the sea and the beaches are very reassuring, and connects us more to home in some ways not easy to explain. Apart from the obvious that the Atlantic hits Europe 3,000 miles away! And it's just as cold there too - UK summer holidays and hypothermia were always a cause for concern. So we are lucky to have this on our doorstep - even Old Orchard Beach has it's colourful charms - and we are waiting to get into the water one way or the other as soon as possible - kayacking, swimming, rescuing the dogs - and whilst its not the Mediterranean sea for warmth or colour - it's just wonderful to be able to see the sea nearly everyday...and looking forward to those hot July/August days!

Beachy Weekend

It was a beautiful weekend in Southern Maine, and in some ways our first taste of summer in our new pad and locale. Work is fairly hectic, right now, but we did have some fun. On Saturday we headed to an opening of our friend's photography showing at a really lovely coffee shop is Falmouth in the early evening. Raf had such a fab time. He sat down like such a big boy and ate his favourite snacks (crackers, hummus, juice!) and then he played with some of the toys in the coffee shop and was a bit of a goof with his fake laugh! Funny boy.

This morning I woke up feeling a bit grumpy yet the birds were chirping away and the sun was coming up so I snuck out of bed and headed out the door for a nice 5 mile run. We've found this great loop which takes you past the Saco river, down a trail, along the coastal road, and then back along another trail to get back to our house. It was gorgeous!

Yes, feeling pretty big at 20 weeks. Things have definitely popped sooner this time around!

After a quick trip to the garden center we packed up some lunch and hitched the trailer to the bike and we biked down to Ferry State Park for a picnic. There's a great picnic area next to the beach. Perfect.

There were some crazy people swimming and Rich and Raf went to get some water so we could make sand castles and Raf was soaked! I could hear him squealing as he was running back along the beach with the cold water slopping all over him.

Burying feet is hard work.

A very nice Sunday, and all of us are feeling pretty lucky to live in such a super place.

Adventures

A busy week at the Poppet household. We're all looking forward to mid summer when things hopefully calm down a bit. In the meantime Raf continues to be the funny little fella that he is. For a while now he has a new game, which involves getting stuck (on purpose) and then asking for help. He does this on the bed where he squeezes himself between the mattress and the bed-frame, and as he climbs into the space he's already shouting 'I stuck!' He also does it when he climbs onto his seat to sit at the table. He moves the chair as far away from the table as is possible, usually turning it right around, and as he climbs on declares that he's stuck because he's too far away from the table. "I stuck" is invariably followed by "help please". I caught an episode on my phone yesterday - this time involving long grass.

In other adventures someone accidentally knocked on the gas knob on our cooker/range and without us knowing we had a gas leak. I couldn't work out the smell at all when I got home (duh) but opened the windows anyway. I was working upstairs all day with this nasty smell and it wasn't until Rich and Raf got home that Rich worked out what it was and turned off the gas. Of course we were scared to turn anything on in case there was a big bang so we called the local fire service to get their advice, and before too long we had two very loud fire engines arriving at our house!!!!!! It was a bit overkill but the fire officers we saw were extremely nice and gracious about it and even invited Raf to sit in the fire engine! Aw, dreams do come true. he was pretty happy.