Tuesday, October 26, 2010

KTB






These are some pictures that our friend Ashley Willis has taken, she is so talented. I hope to one day be half the photographer she is....I am trying to soak up all that she has to teach me while we are here in Grenada.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

yo ho yo ho a pirates life for us








We got to sail around the island in a pirate ship not too long ago. We had a lot of fun, but I don't know if we are quite cut out for a pirates life to be honest....

Krew fell asleep for half of the trip and missed out on all the rum punch (well, more like pineapple and sprite for us)

I did enjoy swinging from the ropes into the water, but felt a little claustrophobic when we stopped to snorkel (in my defense, right when I jumped in the water someone spotted a huge octopus, which didn't help with the fact that I was trying to cope with feeling trapped in a vast, quiet, eerie and dark ocean...ok it wasn't that bad, but claustrophobia really does kick in any time I am in the ocean).

Thomas wasn't able to enjoy going all Jack Sparrow and swing from the ropes because of his surgery recovering wrist, he was however able to walk the plank...still very entertaining. Thomas loved snorkeling; where we stopped there were huge sculptures carved out of metal that had been dropped to the bottom of the ocean. I thought they were a little creepy, especially the carved people, but Thomas loved every minute of it (I am beginning to think we should have kept Krew's webbed toe so he and his dad could share a love for the water....). After watching Thomas jump into the water and fearlessly snorkel around the creepy sculptures, I was beginning to think that Thomas could really embrace the pirate lifestyle, until.....he lost his wedding ring to Davey Jones' Locker; I mean pirates are suppose to make it out with all the booty not lose it to the ocean, right?

Thomas felt horrible....he actually tried diving down into all the coral to search for his ring (which explains why I couldn't find him for a half hour). When we got home he couldn't eat or sleep, so he rushed out to the local mall and bought a cheap replacement for the time being. Knowing that his birthday was coming up, he told me not to get him anything; he wanted any money he received from family to go toward buying a new ring. Thomas always told me that he wanted to be the old man who still wore his original wedding ring, all worn and aged over the years. This. is. why. I. love. Thomas. The dang ocean can keep the ring, all I need is that husband that still wants to be there when we are worn and aged even it means going through a few rings.

Monday, October 4, 2010

what we have learned from a one year old





(These are pictures from the day of his birthday....it is slightly ghetto, I couldn't get eggs from the grocery store to bake a cake in time and we didn't spend the money to buy a real candle, hence the match....we are planning to celebrate a bit better this weekend for both Thomas and Krew after Thomas is done with midterms)

October 3rd started off bright (literally bright, shades are not made well enough to keep the Grenadian sun from blaring into your room) and early (this is one of the reasons we keep Krew around, he has a nack for waking up no later than 6:30 in the morning, so we never have to hassle with an alarm clock ever again). Once we heard his cheerful jibber jabber and obsessant scratching against the pack-and-play, we burst into a horrible early morning rendition of happy birthday. Krew was wearing a huge smile, welcoming the surprised (tone-deaf) singing. While he kindly stared at us, waiting for us to finish singing, I thought to myself, "Is is possible for someone to look so much older after just one day?" You know how your grandparents always ask you if you feel any older on your birthday and you sheepishly answer back with , "well, yeah I guess so," but today wasn't like that. I knew if Krew was able to communicate, he would definitely say that he felt older; that he finally felt like he was one. Today he had the wisdom of a one year old in his eyes. That may sound stupid, I mean how much wisdom can a one year old really have, right??? Well, who knows...all I know is that this one year old has taught us a lot. Krew has taught us that:

making excuses is for the less creative--Krew prefers to cram at least 10 toys at a time into his left hand because he never knows what toy he might need while his right hand is doing all the exploring; he never seems to be bothered by the fact that he only has two hands...me on the other hand (no pun intended), I complain about not having enough hands to carry in the groceries, but now I am going to have to get creative with my loading methods, thanks to Krew.

genetics are a tricky thing--Even though Krew does look A LOT like me as a baby, you still never know....I mean, two brown haired parents can still produce a little red head boy...who saw that coming???? I'm not complaining though, it is such beautiful hair....people pay money for that kind of hair. And if its even possible, I think his hair has actually gotten more red since we have been in Grenada...and with sweaty curls, it makes for the perfect combination.

sharing is the cool thing to do--Krew will rearrange a neat row of shoes, just to hand you one, or two or three...he is usually willing to share all that the neat row has to offer. He even takes the time to dig through his blue bucket of toys to pick out the perfect toy to share, which is usually the dinosaur or the baseball. Krew is even willing to share in public places (which makes it real, right? I am just not making this up), like church, where he continually offers his prized possessions (his books) to the children sitting next to us. When it comes to sharing with Krew, there is no indian giving allowed, when you share, you put your whole heart into it. Need I say more, this behavior can be a little intimating, especially from a one year old, now I find myself making goals that involve sharing rather than going to the gym.

baths, books and bananas make for a great day--I think we all enjoy life's simple pleasures at times...a steamy hot shower, a bowl (or three...ahhhem) of your favorite ice cream; its all very normal, but this boy lives for these so called simple pleasures. He screeches a high pitched "ba, ba, ba" as soon as he hears the bath water start and at times he has been known to try and climb over the shower step....anything to get into the bath faster. I am beginning to wonder if he gets dirty and messy on purpose just to squeeze in an extra bath. As for books...man does Krew love his books. If all you did was read him books for a day, that would be the happiest day of his short little life. I almost feel bad for the toys that he has, they're clearly not treated equally. Bananas are Krew's new found love. Back home bananas were a little ho-hum, but bananas in Grenada are the real deal....super sweet and delicious; Krew can't resist and I for one can't blame him.

you can never wave too much or too fast for that matter--Once Krew got down the whole waving thing, I was excited for the occasional bye-bye waves, but "occasional" doesn't seem to exist in his world. He waves at everything and everyone and at hummingbird speed (I don't know how it is physically possible for a wrist to move so fast). It is no wonder that we both come back from a walk pooped...I am doing all the walking and Krew is doing all the waving.....he never misses a car, a person, a dog, a telephone wire, and lets be honest, a blade of grass; everything gets a proper wave on our walks.

playing a jam always makes you feel better--We all know that playing a good song does brighten your mood, but since having Krew, it is almost more enjoyable to watch Krew jam to a jam. This little boy loves music; he will stop whatever he is doing just to put a smile on his face, rock back and forth (keeping with the beat of course) and every once and awhile throw a fist pump or two. He just recently started stomping his feet (especially when Paul Simons', "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" is playing, funny, huh??).

a learning curve can never be too steep--We use to joke that Krew was a bit of slow learner (Kind of a mean joke I guess, but joking about it made us feel better about the fact that he didn't start crawling until about 10 months)...little did we know, that he just wanted to impress us with his super steep learning curve and learn everything all at once. He learned to walk (and now practically run), say dog, woof like a dog, hold up one finger when you ask him how old he is, play vroom vroom with cars, decently throw a baseball, knows the difference between a plane and a car....the list goes on. I guess he shut us up pretty quick because now our jaws are dropped with amazement.

its pointless to learn how to say "cat" or "meow", because dogs are so much better anyway (Thomas would agree 100%)-- Everything is a high pitched "dawwww" (dog) these days and no matter how many times you say a cat says "meow" at the end of the day it always says "ooooof, ooooooof." So right now I am having a moral dilemma....since he has the dog thing down, do I teach him all about cats now....but what if he replaces his love of dogs for a love of cats....I don't know if Thomas can handle that. Oh, well, we will have to see, the learning must go on.

if you've got it flaunt it--And I don't know exactly what IT is, but Krew definitely has a lot of IT. Every where we go...especially here in Grenada people stop what they are doing and go gaga over Krew. Children, the ladies, grown men even, all they want to do is get a smile out of him and chat for a bit. It is incredible how much attention he gets...and I would say that he doesn't even know it, but I think he does. He waits for the perfect moment to flash a smirk or wave hi....he might be a little bit of a charmer like his dad....which will make for one happy wife one day.

walking should be a pass time and not an everyday necessity--So like I mentioned before, Krew has been walking for a little over two weeks now. Once he took his first steps, he was off with only two speeds, fast and faster, but now that the novelty of walking has died down, he would just rather....not. Getting him to walk on his own now is a bit of a chore; he prefers crawling or stringing you along by the finger....it is only when no one is paying attention will he venture off by himself. Oh, well at least we know he can walk, it will become exciting again one day, maybe when he figures out that the next step is running.

There are so many things that Krew has taught us. We become better parents, better spouses and better people each day because of what we learn. We are so blessed to have such a sweet, smart, and funny little boy in our lives. We in no way deserve him, but we love him more than we ever thought was possible, so thats got to count for something, right?

Saturday, October 2, 2010

only in grenada






So Krew is officially walking!!!! (well he has been for almost two weeks now, my updating skills are a little lax these days) Not only is he walking, but the little guy turns one tomorrow!!! Can you believe it; this could have possibly been the fastest year recorded in history....I can still remember his birth like it was yesterday. Well, I told myself that I should write a proper post devoted to Krew for his birthday (mainly for my sake to remember the special day) so maybe I will accomplish that tomorrow, who knows, like I said the updating thing hasn't gone so well for me thus far. In the mean time I thought I would share a funny story....

So realizing that I might not see my family for a year....or more, Thomas and I decided that it would be a good idea if Krew and I flew home for Thanksgiving and spent a little time with my family while Thomas stayed in Grenada for two weeks to finish up with finals. I got on the phone and made the painful but necessary phone calls to switch our flights. Switching my flight was a sinch because it is all electronic, but switching Krew's was a little more tricky. Since he is a lap child he is required to have a paper ticket, meaning I have to go to the actual airport and get one printed off. Knowing that ticket prices go up as time passes, I decided to rush to the Grenadian airport, and take care of Krew's ticket asap. Well, needless to say the Grenadian airport is nothing like what we are used to in the states, but when I walked into the small...tinny, tiny international airport, I actually thought the whole process might be pretty simple because there was only one American Airline ticket agent and only one person needing help (me)...haha, boy was I wrong. So after explaining my situation I was prepared to pay the change fee to receive Krew's new paper ticket, for his new flight. In the end none of those things happened. The ticket agent was adamant that I did not need a new paper ticket and that the one I had would work just fine....even though it was for a different time, a different date and a different destination..... I guess she could tell that I was a little uneasy about the whole thing so she told me to step over the weight machines, behind the ticket counter (could you imagine!!!, this would never happen in the states....only in Grenada) and then I followed her to this security locked office (again, this would never happen anywhere but here), where she pulled up my flight information on a computer (using all of her passwords that I could have easily stolen and reeked havoc on the tinny tiny airport, you know if I was crazy like that). After she pulled up my locator number she proceeded to call American Airlines on the phone. She handed me the phone and stood right next to me while I talked to the American Airline representative. I was baffled by what was happing.....the conversation went a little like this:

Me: Hello, what process do I need to go through to change my son's flight; he is a lap child?? (already knowing the answer to this question because I had called the day before and was told that I needed to go to the actual airport for them to print out a completely new paper ticket)

AA representative: You need to go to the actual airpot and have the ticket agent at the counter print you off a new paper ticket.

Me: (repeating loud and clear so that the ticket agent standing right next to me could hear every detail that I already explained to her five minutes earlier). Okay, so I need to go to the ACTUAL AIRPORT and have the TICKET AGENT print me off a COMPLETELY NEW PAPER TICKET!!!!!!!!!!

AA ticket agent standing next to me: Ask her if she can do it over the phone???

Me: (already knowing that the answer was no, but obviously she needed a more simple no, because the last answer wasn't straight forward enough) She wants to know if you can do it over the phone??

AA representative: No, I am sorry i cannot do it over the phone, I can only do electronic tickets and paper must be done at the airport.

Me: (again repeating loud and clear) No she cannot do it over the phone, you need to do it here.

AA ticket agent standing next to me: Ask her if there is a price that you need to pay and if she can take care of that over the phone??

Me: (I also knew the answer to this question from my previous phone calls the day before, there was supposed to be a small change fee associated with this new ticket and it had to be taken care of at the actual airport) She wants to know if there is a fee associated with this new paper ticket and if so can you take care of it over the phone???

AA representative: I do not know if there is fee, the ticket agent at the airport should be able to take of all of that at the airport....wait a minute, is the ticket agent asking you to ask me these questions...what is going on over there????!!!!!

Me: Yes, m'am, I have no idea, but I will tell her that you cannot do anything to help me over the phone and that everything needs to be taken care of with a ticket agent at the actual airport and that she would need to print me off a new paper ticket and check to see if there is a price associated with it....thanks bye, bye.


So after all that, with straight forward directions from an American Airlines Representative, this ticket agent still believed that my original ticket would be sufficient, but to make me feel better she printed off an itinerary, that she typed up herself, to bring back to the airport the day of our departure.....and there should be no problems......right??!!?!?!?! We will have to see if Krew and I make it off this island. I guess the plus side to all of this is that we didn't have to pay the change fee, because the ticket agent was also convinced that I already paid for that as well (which I did not, and was totally ready and willing to pay). Like I said I was so baffled by this whole experience, that on the way home, I drove through an entrance only section, which means I think I skipped out on paying for parking.....oooops!!!!! At first I didn't realize it, but after seeing two Grenadian workers throwing their hands up in confusion while staring straight at me, I finally realized what I was doing. So of course not only was I confounded about what just happened at the airport, but then I felt bad about not paying for parking....although my remorse didn't last very long when I saw a guy driving completely on the side walk, making people jump out into the street to get out of the way.....at least I didn't put peoples lives in danger when I went out the wrong way......oh only in Grenada!!!!! Got to love it.