Day 2 in London

Our day started slowly as the kids and Ryan slept in a bit. Kate's kids headed to school then Jack returned to bed reporting he was sleepy. Ryan explored Notting Hill and searched for coffee (easily found). We headed to the park that is across the street from Kate's house. Parks cover 30% of London.

Kate tells us the flowers are changed year round.

This is one of the last bottle kilns left in this neighborhood which used to be the poorest part London in the mid 19th century. Bricks were manufactured in the kiln. There is now housing all around this kiln.

We ate lunch, packed snacks and headed for the double decker bus for old london. The kids here ride scooters to get around so Jack scooted around and Kate lent me a stroller for Sonia. She napped while we checked out Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Parliament building. This area of town is packed with tourists. It was unusual to hear British English spoken. From there we walked over to St James Park which is across the street from Buckingham Palace. This park is owned by the royal family and we were told picking the flowers is illegal. We rode the Tube back to Notting Hill and snacked on gelato and Italian hot chocolate on Portobello Road. This is a very happening part of town.. lots of shops, fancy homes and foot traffic.

London!

We have the great good fortune to have friends living in London. I was very sad when they moved away. They are a family of 5 whose oldest child is the same age as Jack. Sonia is between their #2 and #3. We arrived yesterday after a loooong journey. We spent 2 hours in the Seattle airport, 9+ hours on a direct British Airways flight, an hour at the UK passport check/border control, then 30 minutes in a car. We arrived at our friends' lovely Notting Hill home around 230pm. We walked around the neighborhood a bit but were all pretty exhausted. The kids did sleep a bit on the plane but we did not sleep at all.
Last night, we all slept in one room. The kids seem to think it was daytime in the middle of the night.. not the greatest night of sleep but not that bad either. All told, our transition has been ok. We'll be here 3 weeks and I'll chronicle our adventures here.

intrepid explorer

Jack has become quite an explorer. He loves to be outside and he has started enjoying moderate risks. He used to be pretty cautious. One of the really fun things about staying at home with my kids is that we get to be spontaneous. Today, I picked Jack up from a friend's house and we went to Hidden Beach and hung out there for a little while... no agenda and we stayed until we felt like leaving. It was cold and the wind was blowing but we still enjoyed it.

The shots I got of Sonia were not great since she wanted me to hold her the whole time we were at the beach. She liked the waves and the water but they also made her nervous. So here is a pic from a few weeks ago. My sister wanted a picture of Sonia wearing the shoes she gave Sonia for christmas.. plus check out the cool sweater..also from aunt katie. My favorite outfit is when Sonia wears the skull sweater with her tutu.

Traditions

I am instituting a couple of family traditions. The first is having adventures. I want to have an adventurous life and I want the kids to have one as well. We bought a mini-van and headed out on our first family adventure last weekend -- Hood River. Lots of fun! We visited friends and took the kids sledding (Sonia declined to participate but Jack loved it). The next day we went to several museums -- an antique car and airplane museum in Hood River, then onto OMSI in Portland. We spent a loooong time in the car due to traveling on a holiday weekend but we had fun. We spontaneously stopped in Olympia to eat.. for us, wild times.

Our next big adventure is a 3 week trip to London. It is important to note that adventure does not always mean fun. It's an escape from our every day life. I am not sure taking 2 small children across several time zones to a different country will be fun .. but it will definitely be an adventure.

The other tradition I've started is weekly dinner guests. Every week, we have 1 family, couple, or person over for dinner. I want the kids to know how important it is to have friends and be a good friend, how to be a good host ( I am still figuring this out), and how to cook (also still in process). It's also a bit of an adventure because we never know how the kids will behave with others around.. sometimes they are happy and sometime they are .. not.

The Dentist and other adventures with Sonia

For a while, I didn't have much to say about Sonia. She was just there and I had to focus on Jack. This explains why second and youngest children are the way they are. Sonia seems to become more aggressive daily. If I could have cloned myself, I wonder what she'd be like. She pushes Jack (and other older children) for no apparent reason. Most are nice enough not to retaliate but sometimes, after a while, they can't help it.
It's tough sometimes. Then there is another side of Sonia.. she is miss personality. She is so funny.. so full of ideas. At 2 she is already playing pretend games, loves Star Wars and playing games, and she likes to draw. She makes her needs known and I appreciate that about her.

We recently went to the dentist. She already brushes her teeth and understands what happens at the dentist office. She was cooperative and watched Dora.

Sick again

Ah winter. Time for sickness. Our house has been invaded by the stomach flu. Jack has had it since yesterday. Sonia already had it although the stomach flu for her consists of vomiting once and eating a full meal with no consequences 2 hours later. When Jack seems really sick, it gives me lots of opportunity to practice being present.. it's always been an anxiety trigger for me. I can get some distance from it now although yesterday I wished for ativan. It's tough when he is a limp little guy. He is already so skinny. Luckily it's a sunny beautiful day and we live in a lovely, light filled house. We borrowed several videos and downloaded the audio of 'charlie and the chocolate factory.' We make the best of it. We created a cozy little nook for jack on the family room couch. We sit with him in between cleaning and cooking and taking care of business. It seems like he is on the mend.

Youth

Parenting always makes a person think of their youth. In this case, I don't mean the years I was a child. I mean youth as vitality .. youth as not having experience a lot of pain .. naive hope.. stuff like that. I mean the spirit of being young. My digital photo library only goes back to 2004 and I was trying to find a picture from that time. I found a picture of me with friends out at a party -- my bachelorette party. The thing about the picture that is interesting to me is that I don't just look younger .. I look like I've lived less -- suffered less. Life and parenting are definitely aging me. It's fascinating how the stress and pain of life appears on the face.. especially the eyes. I do not long for that time, and there is no way I'd be who I am today and have that same face..

Sonia is funny

Sonia seems to be growing out of her nap. She isn't tired most afternoons. Today, I put her down at 3 and she slept until 5 but then she stayed awake tonight until almost 10. Long after Jack had gone to sleep, I heard her downstairs. She walked quietly up the stairs. When she got to my room, she put her head down and crept quietly to my bathroom.. obviously thinking if she couldn't see me I couldn't see her. Then she played in the bathroom for a little while then came out and sat on the floor. Finally, I said hi and told her to come lay down. She was so happy. She said 'oh good snuggle with mama.' Then we laid down for a while and she sang 'you are my sunshine.' She is so funny.. such a great snuggler and usually very sweet. Her latest love is pink baby, featured below. She always wants to have pink baby nearby. If she can't find her she'll say, 'mama find pink baby RIGHT NOW!' or my favorite is when she asks me where pink baby is. I'll then say ' I don't know, do you know where she is?' then she replies 'I don't know and I don't care.' (she picked that gem up from jack).

Funny.

Snow

It started snowing a week ago. School was closed all week. Today was the first day we could use our car. We all enjoyed playing outside.. Jack loved sledding. I was grateful for the kids in the neighborhood because we had lots to do. Even so, both kids were out of sorts. Jack wanted to either watch movies or play with our neighbors. If he wasn't doing one of those two things,he was unhappy. He is not a whiner but this week he whined A LOT. Sonia did not love the snow. I think it's just a little too difficult for her to walk in and she complained about being cold a lot. She did like sledding and playing outside but not for long.

One morning our neighbors came to our house. The kids played dress-up. Our neighbor is dressed here as a poor woman on the Titanic singing to collect money. She won hands-down for most creative.

While the snow was beautiful and we didn't really feel too inconvenienced by our lack of mobility or even our lack of power (1 day), the snow lifestyle did not bring out the best in any of us. We are grateful the storm has passed.

My children want to be with me all the time

I am writing this down because I know it won't last. I do not have any memory of feeling this way towards my parents but I am sure I did .. many, many years ago .. a dim memory for my parents I am sure.
When I cook, they either have to sit on the counter, on a chair next to me, or on the floor near where I am standing. If they decide to go into their rooms, they want me to come with them. The only thing for which Jack has a long attention span is being read to -- by me (or Ryan). They demand attention often by yelling or annoying behavior ( brother hitting sister or sister getting into the coffee beans and throwing them everywhere ). I get tired of it. Why must they be appendages? Yet, I know it's temporary. They love me so. Mostly, I really enjoy it.

Sick

For the last week, 1 of my kids has been sick. Sonia woke up from her nap last Thursday with a fever. The fever lasted 4 miserable days and was followed by two more miserable days of serious, mucus-filled head cold. On Sonia's last day of misery, Jack got the fever. In addition to the fever, he is now vomiting. These are not good times. It's interesting to me how my challenges with sick kids have changed. First, it's been a year since either of my kids has been this sick and that is a huge improvement. When Jack was little, this level of illness seemed the norm. While I had an afternoon of being very freaked out by how sick Sonia was (I was convinced she has meningitis), for the most part I have not been anxious about how sick they are.

There is always some struggle involved -- we have been in quarantine most of the last week. We don't sleep well at night. But the worst has been this feeling I've had that if I had not chosen to have children I would not be going through this. If I'd made a different choice, my life would be easier. I would be happier.

At first I didn't know what to do with this piece of human conditioning. It was kicked off by seeing pictures of child-free friends kite surfing in Mexico. I have no way of knowing if I would be happier. Who knows what I would be doing right now. My life would be completely different. Since I never would have experienced a life with children, I wouldn't know how different it is to be without them. But the whole conversation is just depressing.

The other truth of this experience is that I like taking care of these two little people. There is joy in reading to them and making sure they are comfortable. Jack and I have had some cute heart to hearts. He asked me how he got into my belly. I have told him this story before. Each time he listens without comment. He was very interested in how his dad cut his umbilical cord. He told me about a book he'd read called 'Wenis the Penis' about a guy named wenis who has a penis named wenis. We didn't get to the plot level but it was funny.
Today the sun in shining. I am grateful that I don't have to be anywhere else.. and I wish I were kite surfing in Mexico.

Arizona!

We spent 10 days in Arizona during our Christmas break. We had a great time. The weather was amazing, we got to spend lots of time with family, and we had many fun adventures.

We went to the Children's Museum (much cooler than ours)

We took a hike in the White Tank Mountains. We hiked to a waterfall. I thought there might be water in the fall because of all the rain Phoenix has had lately.

Jack is standing in front of the water-less fall.. although you can see the little pond the fall created when it had water.

Aunt Katie helps Jack assemble his fire engine / village. I would not recommend this toy.. I thought it was a matchbox toy but it's a weak imitation.

We took the kids to a train park in Scottsdale with my friend Aida and her kids. This was great fun. We went on train rides, saw a model train village, had a picnic, played at the park.

Lastly, we went to the air force base near my parents' homes to visit the fighter planes there. My dad's name is on an F-86 and we were sure to get our pictures taken in front of that plane.

Christmas Ships

Every year, we go to see the Christmas ships. An Argosy cruise ship is lit up with a thousand lights and a choir sings Christmas carols from the boat. We hang out on one of Seattle's beaches just after the sun sets and listen to the music with hundreds of other people. At least 20 other lit up boats of all sizes follow the Argosy boat around Lake Washington. It's a beautiful sight and really fun for everyone. This year, many of our neighbors went too.

My neighbor, husband of the gal on the far left, took this picture many times.. this was the best one.. proof that when you see a good picture of a group of young kids, the photographer was professional.

Bed Head

Sonia's hair has become out of control.. She wakes up like this:

Then she screams when I try to comb her hair. Mama! Don't hurt me! It's very sad. So, I am cutting her hair short so I will not have this problem. I know this isn't a good long term solution. Sonia has such a strong personality that when she realizes I don't want her hair to be a tangled rats' nest, she will make that her official hair style.

She sings her own songs these days. The other day she sang this one to the tune of 'you are my sunshine'
You are my cheddar bunnies
My only cheddar bunnies
You make me happy
When skies are grey
You'll never know Cars 2
How much I love you
Please don't take
McMissile away

I have to confess that she has watched parts of Cars 2. And she does occasionally eat cheddar bunnies.

She will start a little school in January. When I took her to visit a couple of weeks ago, she cried when we had to leave. I think she is ready for friends and better toys.

after school fun

I picked Jack up after his long day at school yesterday. He was in a good mood. The three of us headed to get a snack at a frozen yogurt shop. Sonia often asks Jack if she can hold his hand. He says no a lot but yesterday he said yes.

Then we went to the Seattle Center where they are displaying the super-cool miniatured winter village.

We wandered over to the Children's Museum and learned some great stuff. The last hour of the day you can pay a donation to get in. This museum is one of the pricier in Seattle and I was thrilled to learn this. Also, they have a nice LEGO exhibit with lots of cool projects on display -- a 3 foot tall Space Needle, a large Tower of London -- and LEGOS of all sizes for kids to use.

The regular exhibits at the Children's Museum are also cool. Here is Sonia driving the fire truck.