Happy

Hannah woke up from her nap the other day, and was in such a happy and sassy mood that I just had to get my camera.  It's hard to get pictures of her with any eye contact these days now that she is always on the move, and her confined in the highchair worked out perfectly.

I'd just been taking pictures of some of the little details in the flat, (living room, coming at you this week!), and wanted to get pictures of the little details of my girl too.

Lashes, fingers, smiles and sass.  Love her.

Read More

Our Little Walker

Read More

Moving In Outtakes

So, moving in.  The weekend when we arrived was a crazy one.  Not only did 4 other people descend upon the flat, but also 4 people's stuff, including various things that we had ordered and had shipped to the flat.  So for a few days we lived in and around empty boxes, boxes of things to be opened and assembled, unpacked suitcases, racks of drying clothes, various things that needed to be strategically placed to allow them to fit in the tiny storage areas, and overall chaos and clutter.  Which made me crazy.

Most of the pictures are in black and white just to help me deal with the crazy mess that is happening in them.  It makes it seem more like a funny memory than a stressful nightmare.

This is the kitchen before.  The after is here.

Chelsea and Chris taking the old couch downstairs, having a bit of a "Pivot! Pivot!" moment.  (You know, like Ross?)

The couch-less and furniture-less living room.  But even then, there were clothes drying.

We do have a piano, despite requesting for the landlord to remove it.  He said no.  So we let Jayce "play" it in short bursts.  

The other day Chris asked Jayce if he would like to take some piano lessons since we have a piano.

"Mmmm, no.  I'm already pretty good."

So there's that.

Since there is a shortage of toys at the moment, Hannah opted to just crawl into and play in her car seat.  Which is not what she wanted to do on the plane when she needed to be in it, ironically.

When I was putting together this table, Jayce turned to me and said, "Mom, you're a natural." 

Thank you Jayce.  I am a natural at putting together tables. 

Chelsea and I, however, were not naturals at putting together this desk.  It took us almost 4 hours because the directions were annoying and we didn't have the right tools.  By the end of it we were using pliers to try to screw in these screws, which there were millions of.  We had been attempting to use the only screwdriver that we had, which was one of those tiny screw drivers that you use to put batteries in kids' toys, and it was completely stripping the screwdriver and making it even more useless than it already was.  Our fingers were raw from trying to screw them in by hand, which forced Chelsea to declare at one point, "My hands hurt from all the screwing!!"

Which is really funny at 2 am.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the desk unfinished.  Chelsea flew out early the next morning, and without her help and Chris at work, the desk moved to the bottom of my list of priorities.  However, the next week a handy man was over fixing a few things in the flat.  While he was upstairs I quietly quietly snuck a few tools from his toolbox by the door, put the rest of the desk together, and snuck them back in.  And then I realized that Chels and I could have done the job in about an hour if we'd have only had the right tools.  Sigh.  But it was a funny night.

Read More

Another Baby

Hannah discovered another baby in the bathtub the other day.

Of course she tried to get the other baby, but when that didn't work out, she still smiled at her and gave her a kiss.  The little sweetie.

PS-Sorry for the fake out on the title!!  

PPS-Along those same lines, last week out of nowhere, Jayce and I had the following conversation.

J, sadly:  Mom!  When you eat, all that food covers the baby all the way up.

Me, stunned: What?!  (For a split second I thought to myself, "Wait, am I pregnant right now?!  No.  Whew.")  You mean, when Hannah was in my belly?

J: Yeah!

Me: (Random incoherent babbling as I recover from the shock of Jayce tricking me into thinking that I was pregnant for a few seconds.)  

I have no idea what I said.  Whatever it was, by the end of it he was no longer worried about babies being covered up by all of the food that you eat when pregnant.

PPS-I obviously don't think that pregnancy is a horrible thing, but if that were our situation right now, it would be quite a shock.
End of second round of incoherent babbling.

Read More

His First Day

I mentioned in our little what's going on recap, that we discovered that Jayce was going to be able to start school very late in the game.  We discovered on a Tuesday that he got into a nearby school, we met the teacher/saw the classroom that Friday, and he started full time the following Friday.  We were so happy that he would be able to start school right away, as we hoped this would help him to more quickly get acclimated to our new life here, and make some new friends.  

I discovered in that teacher meeting that he would be in school all day, 5 days per week.  We had thought it would be half days, so this was a bit of a shock, but it was our only option.

Jayce was excited about school.  He loved his old school and the prospect of school was a good one, even before he'd been to the building.  But as soon as he walked into the classroom to meet his teacher, he jumped right into playing and never looked up.  The teacher talked to me about how it was an environment of play-based learning, with a loose schedule of activities but the freedom for the children to take part in whatever made them happy and helped them to feel comfortable in their new environment.  

This sounded good to me.  My only concern was that the days were so long.  Jayce has been taking 2 hour naps every day and the school doesn't do a nap/rest time, so I was/am concerned to see how he is after a few days.  But he seemed comfortable in the meeting and asked every day if he would be going to school that day.  When his first day arrived he was very excited. 

Just not about getting his picture taken.  I can't even look at these pictures without hearing the whining that was going on, first Jayce, then Chris.  But the pictures still completely crack me up.  He's such a little grump in the morning, and that is a little like his momma.

I quickly gave up on getting a pleasant looking expression or any eye contact, and we headed out to school.  Luckily his day starts a little late, at 8:50, so we are able to let him wake up on his own, eat a leisurely breakfast and watch a few cartoons before we head out the door.

Then we were off to school. 

I like Jayce's school.  

It's big, but understated.  It's not fancy, but it's FULL of good "kid stuff."  His classroom has a reading corner, an imagination station, a dress up corner, a white board area, a computer area, a writing table, lots of little tables full of various activities for building, arranging, and other fine gross motor skills and tons of other things.  I'll have to go into his school another time or this post will become exceedingly longer than it already is.  But let's just say, the outdoor classroom space has a little area just for the kids to dig in the dirt, and has shelves of little Wellington boots for them to change into while they're doing so.  And I adore this.

We dropped Jayce off, he ran into his classroom and didn't look back.  Chris felt bad for me and took me to a delicious little restaurant near the house where we ordered breakfast sandwiches that  we thought were going to be served on rolls but instead were served on bread.  We're still getting the hang of various nuances of life here, and now we know this one.  But the mochas were amazing.

 Hannah and I went home for a bit and then headed out for a bit of this.

Yep, it appears that I'm learning to knit.

(Backstory.)  Last Wednesday we went to an AMAZING coffee/ice cream shop that is really close to our house for the first time, and discovered that the shop hosted various activities during the week.  One of them was for a group of "creative ladies," and met for the first time the morning of Jayce's first day of school, so I decided that I was definitely going.  It would be a good distraction and I planned to enjoy myself.

I walked in to a table full of ladies with yarn and needles.  The leader of the group was extremely kind, chatted with me a bit, sympathized about Jayce's long school day, showed me some books, loaned me her needles and got me a little lesson.  Another lady sat with me and attempted to show me how to knit, but kept taking the needles out of my hands to fix what I was doing wrong, and kept repeating the instructions to me as I attempted to not drop the needles, which are surprisingly hard to hold at first.  

I finally completed one stitch correctly, after which she turned to the group and yelled, "She did it! She got one!"  I got up at one point to wrangle Hannah away from something that she was wrecking, and the lady scolded me, nicely, that I shouldn't have gotten up because I hadn't finished my knitting.  She was great.  When I left, she pointed to a chair and informed me that she expected to see me there again the next week, and that I need to make her proud because I'm going to be her protege.  Which is fine by me. 

Hannah and I came home, had lunch, and took long naps.  I treated myself to a bright new tea cup that I fell in love with a few weeks ago, and decided that I would use it while Jayce was in school.  It's bright and sweet and makes me smile, a bit like my little guy.

After school Jayce was great.  I could tell he was tired because he was a bit spaced out, but not grumpy, and told me about his day as we walked home.  I let him have a snack, watch some tv and rest while I fixed dinner, and that seemed to work well.

If you're wondering about his crown, his class is the jellyfish class, and all of the kids were wearing these when I picked him up.

This morning when I dropped him off, I found out that he had been crying for me yesterday at lunch time, but then was fine after that.  I know he asked for me the first day of school as well, not sure if he was crying then or not.  But as the teacher was telling me this, Jayce dropped off his book bag, hung up his coat, told me goodbye and ran into his classroom.  So I know that he is happy there, has been ready and excited to go to school each day, but I think by mid-day, when he usually naps, he's just so darn tired.  

For now, we're going to stick with this, it's only his 3rd day of school today.  But if he continues to be sad and weepy by the middle of the day, or seems just overall too worn out by this new school schedule, then I might go pick him up after lunch each day.  We'll see.  The fun of constantly second-guessing your parenting decisions is upon us already!

He did make the school newsletter already though.  (On the left, by the arrow.)  That's my boy.

Read More

Out and About: Richmond Bridge

The first day that we were all in town, we went to Twickenham to see Chris' office and the campus.  Chelsea had a meeting with the head of their masters program in Sports something.  Training?  (Sorry, I don't remember.)  After the outing we were all crashing from jet lag so we headed home, slept a bit, and I truly don't remember what we did the rest of the day or night.  But the next day, we went to Richmond.

Since that day, we have been back to Richmond a dozen times, Chelsea and I went back two more times just while she was here.  This is the area where we will probably try to move next year.  Because it is amazing, truly.  Luckily it's only about a 10 minute bus ride, but it's the type of place I'd like to be walking around in every single day as opposed to just a few days a week.

The main high street has lots of great stores and a wide variety of beautiful restaurants and cafes.  And the parks, oh man.  I need to get some pictures before I talk about the parks, but you can just assume that they are pretty great.

Then there is Richmond Bridge, which is...

amazing.

It goes over a little channel of the Thames River, and it's so beautiful, people just rent boats and row right on down and enjoy the scenery.

Or you can eat at one of the many restaurants that are along the river, like this one (on the right) that Chelsea and I were obsessed with because it was beautiful and we wanted to go eat on that elegant patio.  But Chelsea and I were on a mission on this day so it had to wait.

I, however, was obsessed with these two benches overlooking the water.

Can you blame me?  Chelsea made fun of me (a little)but I thought they were so adorable and quaint.  A little grassy knoll at the top of a hill, overlooking the river, with weeping willows and bright green grass in the background.  I just wanted to get a book and a cup of coffee and curl up there for an hour.  Or sit there with Chris, stare over the rive, and people watch.  Or take pictures of my kids on them.  Or get someone to take pictures of me and my kids on them.  You get the picture.

I'll have to write more about Richmond later.  I originally started to in this post, but when I was looked through my pictures, I realized that they were all of the bridge.  So the bridge it is! 

Happy Monday, and happy first full week of Jayce at school.  That will be my next post. :)

Read More