It's All About Claire

You'd think that the title would prepare you for a post about some funny story about Claire thinking the world revolves around her. And while it might, a few things have happened this week that made me take a step back and realize what a special girl our Claire is.

I have been amazed these last several months about Claire's growth into the big sister role. She really has blossomed into a loving and kind girl, and I'm lucky that I have this opportunity to get to know her better. As the second born, she always had a friend in Lily and they were often partners in crime. When it came time to snuggle and calm down, there were always two, with Lily's boisterous demeanor winning out more often than not. I have discovered a Claire that I didn't know very well until recently.

I have watched her interact with Sam and Caroline and she relishes the fact she can help care for them. Claire, on her own, will seek out Caroline in her car seat and start talking to her. Caroline just loooooooves Claire. One of Claire's new tricks is crossing her eyes. Being a constant face-maker myself, I was quite pleased. She was showing Caroline her crossed eyes which got a little giggle from Caroline, but Sam had obviously never seen it before and he just starting cracking up. He kept asking her to do it over and over and Claire was so pleased to be the center of attention making Sam and Caroline laugh.

Even though parents love their kids all the time, there are times when you get a special look in your eye and the love you feel is more than usual. Watching Claire cross her eyes was one of those times. She was so pleased and we praised her to no end.

The other standout moment for us with Claire was yesterday at a zoo outside the city of Buenos Aires. Every parent from the beginning of time has used the trick of spelling words when they don't want their kids to know what they are talking about. Being in another country, we have opted to just speak Spanish. Well, after being proactive and encouraging Claire to really learn Spanish, we might have to start spelling words in Spanish. We were at the zoo and were discussing the possibility of getting ice cream for the kids before we left and Candace was asking me what I thought about it in Spanish. Claire, who was a few feet away from us looking at some weird animal turned and asked, "What? We're going to get ice cream?" Also at the zoo, she walked up to a complete stranger, touched her necklace and said, "Que linda." (How pretty.) We are so proud of her.

The painful thing is to see Claire's sincere hurt of having lost her best friend Lily. A lot of times, Claire will fake pout and mention she misses Lily to get a hug from us or to help her get out of a little trouble, but a few times over the last couple of weeks she has be involved in an activity that has reminded her of her time with Lily and it will really impact her. It breaks our hearts both to see Claire feel that pain, and to have that same pain return to our own hearts.

She is a special girl and I love her very much.

Truth and Lies

Truth:

Caroline is loud. We have finally figured out, though, that there is a system to her madness. When she is mad, she cries and is loud. When she is happy, she screams and is loud. I think that she is louder when she is happy. Go figure. That must mean that she's very happy during Sacrament meeting.

Truth:

Sam is big. He could pass for a four year old compared to some of the Argentine kids we come in contact with. Sam will be two for about 5 more months, which means that he could probably eat the other kids he plays with for a snack.

Lie:

We swim in our pool every day. That would be truth except for the rain. When it rains, we don't swim.

Truth:

Caroline is going mobile. No, we did not buy her a Blackberry... but she is able to drag herself here, there, and everywhere at ease. She is pulling herself up to a standing position on everything she can get. It's fun to watch her discover.

Lie:

Valentine's Day in Argentina was a dud. To the contrary. Candace and a few friends put together a nice picnic for me and the husbands and came down into the city and surprised us. It was very thoughtful of them and it was a great time. Good food.

Lie:

Walmart is the same worldwide. Just ain't true.

Truth:

Politics in another country are fascinating. This is an election year in Argentina and it's very interesting to see how other countries approach it... for good and for bad since we live here.

Truth:

Being an American is awesome. Enough said.

Quotes, and Stuff

[CAROLINE SCREAMING]

Candace: What happened?

Claire: Caroline fell off the couch.

Candace: How did Caroline get on the couch?

As it turns out, Claire (who has become increasingly helpful with Caroline) thought that Caroline would be more comfortable on the couch. Claire then returned her attention to Martha Speaks, and Caroline plunged face first off the couch. Bloody nose... scraped forehead... etc etc. Claire is a great helper and a sweet big sister to Sam and Caroline, bloody noses notwithstanding.

I wasn't here for this next one:

[CANDACE AND CAROLINE PLUMMET]

Candace: #()@$(*

For the record, I don't think Candace has ever said "#()@$(*" in her entire life, and I'm sure she didn't at this time either, but I'm sure that if she was ever going to say it, this would have been one of those times. You see, we have these great beams on our top floor play room where we have hung two hammocks that are used every single day. We have polyester straps wrapped around the beams and put towels under them so they don't rub and fray on the beams while being used. Well, apparently the first hammock hung had (alliteration central!) already begun to fray when we put the towel under it. Many days have we swung the kidlets in the hammocks and they love it. Well, on this day, with Caroline laying on Candace swinging gently, the strap broke, and they fell on their @$()@#(.

[WALKING UP TO A MEXICAN RESTAURANT]

Candace: I think after this, I'll be ready for steak again.

To fully appreciate this comment, we have to go back 11 years when Candace and I first met, dated, and eventually married. Candace did not eat red meat. Not steaks, not sloppy joes, not even In N Out if you can believe it. We'd go out to dinner and it's as if she'd taken the Chick-Fil-A billboards to heart that say: "Eat mor chikin." You know the billboards I'm talking about... with the cows painting the sign. Over the course of our marriage, her tastes have evolved, beginning with my excellent hamburgers, and progressing to other cuts. Here in Argentina however, where they describe themselves as the #1 world exporter in beef, after Brazil, Candace has really surprised me by actually ordering steaks, and liking them.

The bad thing about being the #1 beef exporter in the world, after Brazil, is that many of the restaurants are focused on, well, beef. We, however, will not be forced to eat beef. We found a Mexican Restaurant and went out for Mexican. It was really good. Before even eating, we were talking about how it was nice to take a break from the beef (although I didn't think we needed a break)... and Candace said the above. I love my wife.

We've got all kinds of funny stories about traffic, grocery stores, and protesters that all help paint the picture of life abroad. We are having a good time and finally feel like we're settled in.

VIVA LOS ARGENTINOS MOURITSEN.

Give Said the Basketball Stream

After being her for so long, you'd have thought we'd have figured a few things out. We made good progress this past week as I often heard some of my friends tell about watching BYU basketball games online (since none of our cable providers carry the MTN or VS). I was introduced to the a few sites that stream the games... sometimes fuzzy... sometimes a little lag... but they have the games nonetheless.

Last week, I was able to watch the SDSU-BYU game until it cut to audio only the last minute (when BYU had put the game away). I saw most of the BYU-WYO nailbiter, and part of the BYU-UNLV game (since we were on a family walk to the Rio de la Plata). If you haven't understood the magnitude of what I'm saying, it's that we are able to watch BYU sports from here. Go figure. The time difference often makes it a pain to stay up so late, but it's an easy sacrifice. Plus, watching a small box (full screen makes it too grainy) on the computer isn't the same as a large flat screen TV, but it's better than the alternative, which is a big fat nothing (or the audio stream). Either way, I'm able to follow the season a little better, and it's great.

We had a good day yesterday, heading to a bowling alley in our neighborhood in the morning, and having a few folks over in the afternoon for dinner and a walk down along the water. While a beach it's not, we are able to look along the shoreline and get a surprisingly great view of the city. If you can look past all of the garbage, stray animals, and unkept park facilities, it was a pleasant walk. We went with another American family, two of which have very blonde hair like Claire's... so many heads turned. We're used to it by now. Caroline is our only child to have dark hair and dark eyes (i.e. the Mouritsen look).

It was kind of funny this week when Candace was talking to her mom... Her mom was sending us a package and said that she had some room left (thank goodness for USPS flat rate boxes) and she asked if we wanted anything stuffed into the empty space. We debated, but settled on Miracle Whip. It's the small pleasures. It turns out that the common practice is when someone travels to the States for a short trip, they take two large suitcases (practically empty) and come back loaded up with essentials you can't get here like good garbage bags, Ziploc bags, brown sugar, Miracle Whip, peanut butter, syrup and chocolate chips, just to name a few. You've got to have it down to a system, and I think that I've got a few trips to the States in the next several months that we'll have to plan ahead so I bring back what we need when we need it.