First Impressions.

Now that all of the moving posts are over, it's time to move on to some fun stuff.

One of my favorite parts of moving back, has been watching and observing the reactions of the kids. Just seeing what they notice. They are pretty insightful about some things, and just plain funny about others.

For example, one of the first comments Miss B made to me (keep in mind she was born in Belgium, and the last time she'd been on U.S. soil was almost two years ago) was, "Mommy! The toilet flushers here are so cool, they are little handles!" (In Belgium, most of the toilets flush with a button on top. Something, I don't think I ever even noticed until she made her comment.)  That was followed a few days later with, "Mommy! The toilet paper here is SO soft!" Ahem. Apparently I should have invested more money in my toilet paper purchases there.

I should do an entire post about commercials, but I can't wait. During the first official week in our house, A.J. said, "Mommy, the commercials here say really important things about life, but then it's for something stupid like toothpaste."

There are a lot more commercials here. Monkey calls them "previews". "Mommy," he said. "There are just too many previews, I don't like all of the previews." It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. And one day, he tracked me down where I was unpacking boxes, to tell me, "Mommy! Did you know there is a vacuum without cords on TV?"

And speaking of commercials/previews, we are not used to tuning them out. I would guess that most American kids have figured out that commercials are the time to run to the bathroom or whatever, at least that's what I always used to do during the commercials. Not my kids. My kids have not yet developed the skills to tune them out and are instead completely riveted to the commercials. Entranced. And as a result, I've found myself having to explain a lot of things that I never expected to have to explain. Like erectile disfunction. And vaginal dryness. (And no, we weren't watching anything obnoxious, we were watching Modern Family reruns on cable.) But seriously, do we have to have commercials for that stuff? Can't people just slink through the pharmacy and find what they need without being so informed?

One day last week, A.J. came home from school, very excited. "Mommy," he said. "Today I learned how to open my milk." Mental head slap. I've tried to anticipate and preempt some of their challenges, like explaining the Pledge of Allegiance. But opening his milk carton is not something I ever would have thought to show him. But of course they didn't have milk cartons in Belgium. They don't drink milk with lunch in Belgium (only breakfast) and anyway, milk is in bottles there, not cartons.

Ok, and I will end with this. Last week we were coming back from dinner and came across the radio station Kool 108. This is the "oldies" station that my mom always used to listen to when I was in high school. It was music from the fifties and sixties and maybe even the early 70's if they were feeling bold. And now? Kool 108 still calls itself the oldies station. But they play music from the 80's. And John and I sang along to Don Henley's The Boys of Summer, at the top of our lungs, all the way home.