Entertainment Tonight!

Yes, Harvey opens tonight. This is probably part of the reason I have been absent from my blog for far too long. Tonight is the night...ready or not.

Veta, Myrtle and Elwood

Photo taken backstage at our dress rehearsal

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Monday morning has brought with it then end of the Easter holidays. Emma and Sophie are back in school, and thankfully our morning went rather smoothly. Much to my surprise, I didn't have to drag Sophie out of bed at all. In fact, she came up behind me at about quarter to eight and shouted, "Boo!" When I turned around, she was already dressed in her school uniform. Way to start off a Monday!

The sun is shining, and the birds are singing and no one had a strop this morning...well, only me a little, but I do have an excellent excuse. Blame it on the hormones.

I did remind Emma on the way to school that she was allowed to tell our secret now, so of course, as soon as we walked through the school gates, she told everyone: friends, acquaintances and strangers, "MY MOM IS HAVING A BABY!!" It turns out I am not the only one. The mum of one of Emma's best friend's is also expecting a baby this fall... as well as another of my friends who thought she could never get pregnant again. Something in the Welsh water??

After getting the kids off to school and acknowledging all of the congratulations that Emma's announcements had solicited, I met the Radyr Drama costume mistress and headed off with her to a costume shop in Barry. We found a lovely peach 1920's style party dress for my character to wear, and everyone assured me that I really didn't look pregnant at all in it. The costume lady mentioned something about my looking thinner than most young girls these days with thier "muffin tops." I had to laugh. I must also admit that it was quite nice to hear that I looked thin and healthy (even if they were lying) as I have been feeling quite like a tugboat lately.

Harvey opens next Wednesday night, ready or not. I think it will be a great show and have really enjoyed the rehearsals. There was a write-up about it in one of the local magazines that referenced a "real live American" being in the show. If I can get my hands on it, I will post a copy of the article.

Happy Monday to all!

Practically Perfect in Every Way

Today was one of those really great days. Today was the kind of day I used to imagine when I envisioned myself with children (before I actually had children). We woke up at a somewhat leisurely hour and all showered and got dressed in our favorite dresses. The girls were giddy with excitement since the three of us had tickets to see Mary Poppins at the Wales Millennium Centre. Later in the morning we went to the train station and headed for Cardiff Bay. We had plenty of time to spare, so we scouted out the perfect place for lunch: Bellini's overlooking the water. Sophie ordered her own lunch (in perfect Italian): canneloni spinaci, Emma had spaghetti polpette and I had pizza funghi. Everything was fabulous. If you don't believe me, ask Sophia as she ate all of her canneloni, three slices of my pizza and about half of Emma's spaghetti. She still had room, of course, for two scoops of vanilla gelato afterwards. Perhaps she is having sympathetic pregnancy symptoms?

After a most satisfactory lunch, we walked over to the theatre and discovered that we had really fantastic seats in Row C! (I don't know why I never bother to look at where I'm sitting until I actually get there.) We were thrilled we'd have such an excellent view of Mary and Bert. (Below Emma is marvelling at how brilliant our seats are, and Sophie is joining in.)
The show was so great we were practically shrieking with delight. Wonderful actors, exciting dance numbers, perfect costumes, and superb special effects...who could ask for anything more? The bloke who played Bert was a perfect combination of a British Dick Van Dyke and Ryan Gosling. We approved!! So we all highly recommend Mary Poppins and girls' days out. Today was one of the best.

On a completely different note, yesterday Sophie was invited to go and play at her friend Ruby's house, so while she was occupied there, Emma accompanied me on a little shopping trip to look for a few maternity clothes...all of my old ones are in storage somewhere in North Carolina. I haven't been able to comfortably button my regular jeans for a few weeks now, so it was time. While we were browsing, Emma noticed a maternity t-shirt that was "bedazzled" with jewels that spelled out the words "Hot Mama." She drew my attention to it, and although it's not my style, I asked her, "Do you think I should try that one on?" Emma scrunched up her face and looked at me very skeptically and replied,

"Well, you are a mama, and you are very pretty, but a shirt like that is just bragging." I think I hugged her right there...or at the very least high fived her. What cool little girl she is. I am always fascinated with the way her brain thinks about things.

And now, I will leave you with this final thought:
"I'm practically perfect in every way. Practically perfect, that's my forte. Uncanny nannies are hard to find, unique, yet meek and unspeakably kind..."

Coming Out of the Closet...

And putting on my big girl pants. Yes, I have finally announced to the world that we are indeed expecting baby number three, and probably just in time. The belly seems to be popping out quite quickly this time. The other day, my Sophie, who is five, was writing and drawing. I caught a glimpse of one of her papers on which she had written, "Big Fat Mum." I asked hopefully, "Sophie, did you write this because you were mad at me?"

"Nope." She responded casually. In other words, "You are just big and fat, as a matter of fact." Oh well, this is what is supposed to happen during pregnancy, no? And according to my ante-natal check today, I am still in the "green/ healthy" range for BMI, so it can't be too bad.

I am actually just happy that food sounds good again. I really struggled during my first trimester and spent lots of time choking down the only foods that seemed palatable: cheese, bread and Rice Krispies. It was an Anniversary miracle that I was actually able to cook a decent meal last Tuesday for the first time in many weeks!

I had my first hospital visit to the Royal Glamorgan today, and was pleasantly surprised with how nice and friendly everything was. The adorable, blonde midwife that took me through everything today was so lovely and responded to nearly everything I said with the word, "Fab-o-lous!" Since the kids are still out of school on Easter break, all four of us got to see our baby dancing on ultrasound. This still amazes me even the third time around. I have a person growing inside of me!! We are very happy...and no longer keeping it a secret!!

Happy Easter!

What a lovely Easter we've had today!

Hope you have too!!

What a Day for a Daydream...

Blue skies smiling at me! Nothing but blue skies do I see!

We are loving our sunshine here this Easter weekend. Living in Great Britain really makes one appreciate the sun when it decides to grace us. Today we went for a bike ride on the Taff Trail and stopped sporadically to explore nature's beauty.

Sophie biking with her Dad

George and Sophie looking out over the River Taff.

The girls loved finding this special spot off the beaten path. The ground was covered in little yellow wild flowers. We dubbed it the Secret Fairy Glade.

A beautiful day!

A Day Out at Longleat

Since George was able to take the day off work on Thursday, we decided that an adventure was in order. We packed up the car and drove to Longleat just on the other side of Bath, and we had a great day. We visited a real bat cave, saw all sorts of animals in the petting area...including otters who were feasting on baby chicks...oh my! We took a Safari boat and saw sea lions, hippos and Nico the lowland gorilla on "Gorilla Island." We also ventured through the giant hedge maze and were luckily led by George who has a much better sense of direction than I. We didn't even need to send up red sparks with our magic wands in order to be rescued by Professor Dumbledore.

After a really nice wander around the grounds, we headed back to the car, as we had saved the best for last. We were at last ready to drive through the Safari Park. I was not prepared for how fantastic this would be. We were so close to all of the animals. When we were driving through the lions area, I cracked my window and we were able to very clearly hear a "conversation" between a male lion and his ladies. We all sat, silent and transfixed. The photo below was taken from my car window. If I had been foolish enough to open my door and get out, this huge fellow would have been just a few paces away.

In another area of the park, George and the girls were able to feed these lovely fallow deer. I couldn't believe how brave Sophie was about it!

I also never thought I would be this close to a rhinocerous. There were several of them roaming about. When I rolled my window down, we could actually hear them crunching and munching on grass. So cool!

So all in all.... and excellent day out! It is quite sunny today, so perhaps we will have another adventure...but a bit closer to home.

Happy Easter weekend to everyone!

Eight Years!

Yesterday was our eighth wedding anniversary, and I am afraid that once again, no grand gestures were made. Not that I am complaining; I think maybe the Carsons are just not grand gesture kinds of people. George did bring me the beautiful flowers pictured above along with a funny story about buying them, and I was able to make a really nice dinner for the first time in weeks AND prepare George's favorite: doo doo balls. I mean honestly, is there anything that says, "I love you," more than a fresh steaming batch of doo doo balls? But...apart from that, George had to work all day and I had play rehearsal in the evening, so we didn't have that big romantic evening that I think we were supposed to have.

Actually, I don't know that we've ever had a "proper" romantic anniversary. We really got off on the wrong foot with our first anniversary which had me on strict bedrest with my pregnancy with Emma.... and then, life just sort of happened. Every year lately we seem to be travelling (with our children) on our anniversary since it always seems to fall around the Easter holidays, and believe me, overseas travel with young children typically doesn't inspire romance.

I suppose if we aren't bothered, it doesn't really matter. I couldn't be happier about being married to George. We have entirely too much fun just doing nothing with each other...perhaps this is why we haven't made an effort to do anything outrageous for any of our anniversaries thus far. Looking ahead...I think we'll have to be a bit more creative when we get to number ten, but there is a bit of time to think on that.

On another note, despite dismal weather forecasts, we have had rather lovely weather since the kids have been out of school for the Easter holidays. Today after a bit of charity shop scouring with my friend Sonia, I took the girls over to Castell Coch for lunch, tea and Welsh cakes. It has been a really beautiful day. I was persuaded to buy them two fantastic puppets from the shop in the castle: a king and a red dragon. So I expect they will be busy all afternoon planning this evening's entertainment, a puppet show. I just heard someone exclaim from the other room, "Pretty please with cabbage on top!!" Not sure if this is part of the show's script or real life dialogue.

Wishing you all the blessings of spring in this Holy Week.

Happy Birthday, Sophie!!

Last night, as she requested, Sophie celebrated her birthday in a posh Italian cafe. Her birthday meal included some of everyone else's dinner as well as her own pasta with cream and proscuitto. That's my girl! She is pictured below inhaling before blowing out the candles on her fab chocolate gelato dessert (just in case you thought she looked terrified--this is not the case).

Here is the happy birthday girl, her proud papa and the toothless wonder, Emma jumping in at the last minute. Can you feel the love tonight??

Mom, the Tooth Fairy Didn't Come Last Night!

The title of this blog reflects the first words I heard out of my daughter Emma's mouth this morning. Crap! I decided that Emma was up later than usual last night. The tooth fairy must have buzzed by, seen that she was still up, and headed off to collect the other teeth on her list. I conferred with some other mothers today, and they concurred. This is surely what happened. The tooth fairy is bound make it tonight.

Yes, not to be outshone on her sister's fifth birthday, Emma made the day special for herself as well by losing her fourth tooth (top front right since I know my mom will want to know). She looks awfully cute and thinks it's quite funny that she now has a bit of a hard time saying her "th"s. Her class presented a school assembly this morning in which she had several lines and read the Mother's Day entry from her journal. She was brilliant, wonky "th"s and all. At the end of the assembly, her teacher, Mrs. Richards, brought in the chicks which were incubated in their classroom along with baby bunnies and ducklings. One of the ducklings escaped from its basket and went a bit rogue in the school hall. This only enhanced an already-charming show. Hooray for spring!