Ready to Move!

The Wifi at these temporary apartments hasn't been working for a few days now and the top shelf of the dishwasher is all messed up and the washer/dryer still smells off and I am ready to move! Chris just informed me that Boeing is finally through scouring the lease with a fine tooth comb and has approved it with some minor changes. So we are set to move in on Wednesday, April 1st-yah!! The kids and I went to meet with the Lord and Lady Landlords today to see the place and learn the ins and outs. We really lucked out with this place-you can't beat the location in the middle of it all (but yet is is tucked away and has a private courtyard) and it really has everything we need (the owners spared no expense and bought new towels, coffee machine, Dyson vac, nice knives etc.) I got the scoop on them too. They are both Scottish and met at 16, have 3 girls ranging from their 30's-40's. He used to work in semi-conductors in Silicon Valley since the very beginning in the 80's (and I gather they made quite a fortune in the process). Now they are "gypsies" and go between their places (living in the one that is not currently being rented) in Poole, Arizona, California and Canada where their kids and grandkids are dispersed. Anyways, they were very nice and she had all sorts of local info. to share as well. She also told me that Poole Harbor is the 2nd largest natural harbor in the world (Sydney Harbor is first). 

And that the ferry to Paris, France pretty much left once a day most of the time and there is also a ferry to this island that is about halfway between Poole and France, called Jersey. You can take a day trip leaving at 10am and arriving back around 10pm.

Ethan was being very polite and asked if he should take off his shoes and was pretty well behaved (phew) and was buddies with the guy. He's all excited about his room that has bunk beds. Hailey was kind of cranky but what can ya do? Since it is a townhouse we'll probably have to get multiple baby gates (especially since Hailey is currently obsessed with stairs).

Anyways, a few funny things from today:

1. This seagull flew by and stole Hailey's ham and cheese half sandwich (she hadn't even had a bite yet) right out of her hand and then all of these birds swarmed and devoured it. It really made quite the impression on Ethan-he brought it up multiple times today (I was pretty surprised as well). I told Ethan, "That's why we need to eat it right away." :)

2. Ethan kept going up to this little girl Ella in the department store (she was in her stroller at one point and he gave her a kiss). It was very sweet but we need to discuss boundaries (especially for people we don't even know). I think he is missing preschool (he's such a social kid!) and I am going to look into sending him here. I guess they go mostly through the summer and only really have Aug. off and have longer breaks here and there like two weeks at Easter so it might be more worthwhile (I was originally thinking it's only a few months until summer break).

3. Ethan accidentally threw his ice cream cup in the red post office box. Whoops! I can understand his confusion.

4. Why do we not have these in the US? (If you have a newborn in a car seat, the car seat takes up the whole shopping cart!)

I have noticed that their strollers are different too. The majority of them have the kid laying almost completely flat (I think they are trying to encourage napping). :)

5. Ethan said out loud (about the lady helping us at the post office): "Why does she have so many teeth?" Which frankly I was glad he didn't say it in a worse way (the poor lady's teeth were really crooked and facing every which way) and I could respond, "You have just as many teeth." And then talk to him later about how we all look different and beautiful in our own way and how it would be boring if we all looked the same. And not to say things like that because it might hurt her feelings.