The Worst Punishment of All

It's the summer holidays here, which explains why I have been absent from my blog a good bit. My time has been consumed by my constant companions, two little girls who have a love-hate relationship with each other. (Cue the Haynes Sisters singing..."Sisters, Sisters, There were never such devoted sisters...")

The weather hasn't exactly been stellar either. Yesterday I read an article that said British weather forecasters were revising their predicitons of a "barbeque summer." Now, they say, it is likely to rain throughout July and August. George and I thought it was a bit funny that they were making predictions about what July's weather would be like during the last week of July.

So... the girls and I have been trying to stay busy and entertained in the unpredictable British weather. We are often inside together all day. We are often getting in each other's space and on each other's nerves. (Don't forget I've got the hormones working on my side of things as well.) Yesterday started out to be "one of those days." Before I had even dragged my massive self out of bed, I could hear my two darling daughters absolutely screaming at each other...things like, "Emma, you NEVER share anything with me!!" and "SOPHIE, you are the meanest pest ever!!"

Often in these situations I find myself a bit torn. One of our family rules is: No shouting at each other.... BUT I want to raise girls who are confident with expressing themselves. I also know that sometimes when I find myself in the midst of a hormone-encrusted, illogical fury, a good scream really does make me feel better. Last night, for example, my husband laughed out loud in a really annoying way...or maybe he scraped his spoon against his dish...or perhaps he was just sitting there breathing and just generally being too close to me. Whatever the case, I snarled at him, "Remember how when I'm in the third trimester of pregnancy, I hate you?" Then I smiled sweetly, and felt all better. It wasn't shouting, but it was still a bit of a nasty way to express my feelings.

Back to my original point, I want my daughters to be able to express their feelings of frustration, but it's difficult to expect them to always do it respectfully when this is something of which I am completely incapable. Have you ever been locked inside the house on a rainy day with Emma Carson while she sings "I Know a Song That Will Get on Your Nerves" at the top of her lungs all day?

So yesterday morning, we had the chat about giving each other space, listening to each other and not hurting or screaming at each other. This all happened at around 8 am. (I didn't realize that George had had the exact same conversation with the girls at 7:30 am while I snoozed.) By 8:45 things hadn't improved, and I was at my wit's end. "THAT'S IT!!!" I screamed, "For the rest of the day, I want you two to stay away from each other. Don't look at each other. Don't talk to each other. Don't even THINK ABOUT each other!!! And I mean it!" "And I mean it," is one of those things you get to add to the end of sentences when you're the mom and you've had it in spades.

Sophie immediately obliged. Emma tried to negotiate a "one more chance," but I wasn't having it. Emma was clearly upset and tearful saying, "It's so unfair that I'm not even allowed to play with my own sister." Sophie appeared to actually enjoy the hiatus from her sister briefly. About forty-five minutes later, Sophie approached me and asked, "Can me and Emma play again? We promise we won't fight." I agreed to give them one more chance, and would you believe it? They didn't fight for the rest of the day.

Let the punishment fit the crime. Often it's quite effective.

I'm Not the Only Thing Growing Around Here...

Last month George and the girls planted carrots, lettuces and two varieties of pumpkins. We have been enjoying watching the veggies' progress in our back garden. We've eaten a few young lettuce leaves, but the rest of our produce won't be table-ready for a while longer.

Above Sophie and Emma are proudly posing with their Atlantic Giant Pumpkins.

A Big Day For Emma!

I'll admit she doesn't look thrilled in the photo below, but this is the price she was willing to pay to be fabulous. Emma has been asking to have her ears pierced for many, many months now. George and I both agreed that she should wait until the summer holidays, which have arrived very quickly. The experts at Claire's knew it was best to do both ears at once. That way there could be no backing out if the first snap was too traumatic. My camera caught the expression on Emma's face just before the earrings went in...

Emma orginally selected some sparkly clear crystal earrings, but they were out of stock, so she settled for some lovely "ruby-esque" studs. The good news is the whole ordeal was over very quickly, and Emma was all smiles when she saw herself in the mirror...

Big girl back at home with her new red baubles...

Sophie was feeling a bit left out of all of the photography, so Emma took this photo of the two of us in our green dresses in front of our green apple tree. "We're the ladies in green!" Sophie sang.
I'm feeling a bit more like... "Ho ho ho! Green Giant!"

Happy Birthday to Me!!

I spent my birthday and the preceding weekend in a beautiful little 300 year old cottage in West Wales. George quickly learned, after banging his poor head several times on the low door frames, that people WAS shorter back then!! Here are just a few of my favourite photos from our journey...

Above Emma and Sophie are enjoying the lovely garden at the cottage where we stayed.

They LOVED this garden, and who could blame them?!

We spent a blissful day in St. David's exploring the cathedral, castle, local cuisine and seaside.

Sophie is a girl after my own heart. We dined in lots of lovely restaurants and, since it was my birthday weekend, we sampled desserts or puddings with every meal. Sophie is pictured above with a heavenly, warm sticky toffee pudding from the Stackpole Inn. Other favourite puddings included a banana toffee and fresh ginger pavlova, lemon lime cheesecake, and hot apple and rhubard crumble with ice cream. Stick a fork in me, y'all!


This picture just makes me smile. Emma and Sophie really do enjoy each other's company so much. Their personalities are so different, but they love each other to the ends of the earth. Here they are having what looks like a rather serious chat in front of the impressive Pembroke Castle, which was just round the corner from our cottage.


And finally...what a lovely place to spend my birthday. We couldn't resist posing in front of these gorgeous hydrangeas at the Cwm Deri Vineyard, a completely lovely place to have a birthday lunch. The views from the vineyard were spectacular, and Emma and Sophie enjoyed racing around the farm, dodging all of the ducks, hens, and roosters.


As always, as nice as it is to get away, it's even nicer to come back home to one's own bed...especially when you're in the last trimester of pregnancy and have trouble getting comfortable at night anyway. Tonight I will enjoy my big bed. I will also enjoy NOT having to climb over sleeping children on an inflatable mattress in the hallway when I get up to go to the bathroom multiple times. Dorothy said it best, "There really is no place like home!"

Off to the Wild Wild West...

We are off to West Wales for a few days tomorrow. I am told this is one of the most beautiful places in the world. So I hope to return with a slew of beautiful memories and photographs.

Hooray for the summer holidays!

Reading Magic

What has happened to our supposed "barbeque summer"?? I think every year Britons excitedly proclaim that this summer will be different; this summer the weather will be hot and sunny in Great Britain. If we say it enough, we believe it, and then it must happen, right?

Well, things were looking good for a few weeks, and now, as we approach the summer holidays, it all seems to be falling apart on us. Just when I had bought all sorts of cute maternity sundresses and skirts, the temperamental, cloudy atmosphere returns. Yesterday when I went to collect the children from school, the sun was shining when I got out of the car, so I left my coat and umbrella behind. By the time I walked up to the schoolyard, however, the rain was tipping down. Typical.

There are only two more days of school, and we are planning a getaway to West Wales this weekend. The weather forecast suggests there is a 70% chance of rain every day we are away. This, of course, makes this mama want to cuss, but maybe we'll get lucky. If not, maybe we'll cut the trip short and try again another time. You all know what Mark Twain said about the weather.

On to the topic suggested by my seemingly irrelevant title... The Carsons had an adventure on Sunday afternoon. We all piled into the VW Touran, and headed over to our new Cardiff Costco where we spent hours browsing the American -style wholesale warehouse. Of course we needed that industrial-sized box of frozen mozzarella sticks that we purchased...every pregnant lady does. Sixteen tins of baked beans? Bring it on! We also found a few American items that we didn't know we were missing: things like... Hershey's chocolate syrup (2 ginormous bottles), the biggest bag of Rocky Mountain Marshmallows I've ever laid eyes on, and a box containing about a hundred bags of Orville Redenbacher's microwave popcorn. I am thinking that all three of the previously mentioned ingredients could probably be combined to create something that would make Paula Deen's toes curl.

Needless to say, we spent a bit of money and came home with a car full of industrial-sized joy. One of our seemingly insignificant purchases was an anthology of stories that I picked up for Emma. The book was entitled Illustrated Stories for the Holidays. I thought it would be a good one since her summer holidays start on Friday. Little did I know, this book would inspire a full-on obsession with reading on Emma's part. She began to devour it on the way home and has had her nose buried in it almost constantly ever since. Every night this week, George or I have had to go into Emma's room multiple times and tell her to turn off the light, put the book away and go to sleep! "But Mom," she says, "I just love this book! I love the words! I love the way it feels! I love the way it smells, and I just want to find out what happens at the end!!" I am so happy that Emma has caught a case of "Reading Magic" at the tender age of 7. (Now she understands what was going on with me when that last Harry Potter book came out, and I locked myself in the bedroom for the day.)

On a similar note, our local Borders is sadly closing this summer and everything in the store is 50% off. I went over there yesterday morning and just about went into labour (no, not really), I was so excited about all of my finds. I came home with lots of those, good-smelling, joy-bringing, page-turners for the whole family...even a few new board books for our new, little future-book-lover.

"Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book." ~Author Unknown

Jack & Toby Are Back!

Yesterday after helping me make a fantastic lunch of grilled cheddar cheese & apple sandwiches, I found Sophie sitting on her own with The Very Hungry Caterpillar game. I apologized and told her that I couldn’t play right then since I needed to have my lunch and clean up the kitchen. “No, it’s okay,” she replied, “I’m just playing this with Jack and Toby.”

Jack and Toby are Sophie’s imaginary friends who have been en absentia lately.
“Oh,” I said, “Jack and Toby are back? They’ve been away for a while. Have they been on holiday?”

“Yes,” she told me, “They’ve been to Egypt.”

“Wow! Egypt sounds exciting. What did they see there?” I queried.

“Oh, just some camels.”

“Did Jack behave himself?” I asked since Jack tends to be naughty by nature.

“Yes, Toby was looking after Jack, so he didn’t get into any trouble. Toby has to really look after Jack because he is a little rascal.” And so the conversation continued.

How I love having creative little girls around the house. I think about how rarely we actually play with toys around here. This weekend, the kids have kept themselves very entertained with cutting and coloring paper doll chains. Emma has also been engrossed in her Hama beads again, making ducks and little girls this time. And I have been drawing inspiration from them both. Creativity is contagious, you know.

Last night at bedtime, Sophie came in listening to her song list on the iPod. She sat next to me on the bed, took out the ear buds and asked, “Where are the baby’s ears? I think she needs to hear this.” The song was Big Girl, You are Beautiful by Mika, and the ear buds were directly smashed onto my abdomen. Sure enough, Mika got a response, and the baby began to groove along to the music a bit. Sophie already feels certain that she and her new sister are going to get along swimmingly.

Wishing you creative bliss and the knowledge that YOU are beautiful…wherever you are reading this.

Hello My Baby, Hello My Honey...

Sweet Sophie perched in the window reading us a story...

She's going to make a great big sister.

Sophie has been developing a lovely fondness for the little girl growing inside me. She often lifts my shirt and whispers into my tummy, "Hello, baby. This is Sophie, and I love you!" She also often whispers, "Stay in there. I don't want mom to have to go to bed." Sophie also likes to put her ear to my tummy to see if anyone ever answers back. Unfortunately Sophie has the attention span of...well, a five year old, and she hasn't yet been able to feel the baby kicking. Anytime she is around and I feel big movements, I call her over and have her put her hand on me to feel. Inevitably the movement instantly stops, and after about thirty seconds, Sophie is completely bored with waiting. I am reminded of the Warner Brothers singing/ dancing frog who always clams up and croaks anytime his owner tries to show him off.


Sophie has another theory as to why she's never able to feel the baby move. "I'm just cwtching her," Sophie says, "And I made her go to sleep." It is lovely and surprising to see that Sophie already seems to be forming a kind of bond with her new sister. This little girl is so blessed to have four elated people at home waiting excitedly to greet and welcome her into the world.

Out of the Mouth of Emma

This morning Emma and I were both getting dressed and chatting in my bedroom. I pulled out a rather enormous pair of maternity underwear and commented to her, "Check out my giant pregnancy knickers."

Emma replied, "They match your big pregnant bottom." Nice, right?

Not one to leave things alone, I asked, "Do you really think my bottom looks bigger? Dad says when he's walking behind me, he wouldn't even know I was pregnant."

Emma looked at me with a face as serious as a heart attack and said, "Mom, I think Dad's just saying that to be nice."

So...there you go. If you really want the truth, ask a kid. I still think I prefer my husband's assessment of my derriere, but to be honest, after shopping for a bathing suit this morning, Emma's assessment appears to be more dead on. Yikes!

The Secret

I feel quite stupid posting this today, but I have come to a very profound conclusion in the last couple of weeks. I feel stupid because the conclusion is not really profound at all, and it has taken me years of marriage to wrap my brain around it. I always thought I was a pretty clever girl, but this one has taken me a while. I have discovered the secret to a happy marriage.

Don't get me wrong; the last eight years have been mostly very happy ones. My husband and I enjoy each others company. We appreciate the other's sense of humour. He "gets" me, and I "get" him. But I have secretly been driving him crazy for years. You see, George is rather tidy, and I am a bit more free spirited. I fail to notice that my nightgown has been hanging on the bedpost for three weeks or that I have left the drawer in the kitchen open again. When I look into the room, my eyes don't even focus on the cereal box on the table or the book that I was reading left lying on the floor. This drives my husband crazy. He comes home from a long day at work, sees the cereal box and the not-yet-sorted shopping bags on the counter (which were left there because I was distracted when the phone rang and then ultimately forgot they even existed). He is bothered by these things the same way that I am bothered when I read gross misspellings and poor grammar. He is bothered by these things the same way I am bothered by headlice or moldy bread. It's that bad. And I am only just "getting" this.

I am not inspired to keep a super tidy house because it doesn't bother me. I will not have grungy countertops or nasty sinks, but clutter goes completely unnoticed by my eyes. What I have recently figured out is that if I maintain more order at home, it makes my husband happy. If I look at a pile of clean laundry that needs putting away, I now think of it as an opportunity to make my husband happy, and I do so love it when my husband is happy. I have often heard it said that "when Mama's happy, everybody's happy," but this also applies very much to Dad.

So...the secret to a happy marriage? Find out what your partner wants, and give it to them. It has taken me eight years to determine that making the bed and putting away the dishes would bring glee to my partner. And for me, regarding that unmade bed as an opportunity to show my husband that I care about him, makes me feel much more inspired to complete the task.

So...that is what's working this week. We'll see if I carry on feeling so service-oriented as I become more and more pregnant, but for now, I feel enlightened and George feels loved. Who knew that those Five Love Languages were for real??

"Where Liberty Is, There Is My Country." -Benjamin Franklin

We started off our Fourth of July at a British Medieval Faire at Christ Church in Radyr, and why not?

Later on in the evening, we did it up right with hot dogs, hamburgers, fife and drum music and even our own fireworks show. My American friend Kim and her family were among our guests, and we all enjoyed watching her two-year-old Kyle respond to the fireworks. It was a pretty even blend of excitement, delight, and terror. Emma and Sophie also enjoyed palling around with little Kyle. By the end of the evening Emma had decided that, as much fun as he was, she is glad I am having another girl. "Little boys are a LOT of work!" she said, "I cleaned up everything he wrecked, but it wasn't easy!!"

(The kids are pictured above cheering for the fireworks in our back garden)

Little What's Her Name...

I am posting this one after the fact since George finally got the scanner working. I know they aren't the clearest photos, but this is basically what Sophie and I saw last Tuesday when we went for my scan.

A Poor Sick Peanut

Ho hum. Miss Sophie had a pretty good day on Wednesday, but was obviously not herself again yesterday. We really knew something was up this morning when we found her sleeping on the rug in the bathroom. It didn't even occur to me, but George suggested that I take her to the local surgery since there is not much in the way of after hours care on weekends apart from the hospital emergency room.

So... after taking a less-than-thrilled Emma to school on her own again, Sophie and I trotted over to Radyr Medical Centre where I was surprised to find a young doctor who was very concerned about the peanut's condition. So...now she's on yuck anti-biotics for a chest and ear infection. I'm sure my remedies of soup, popsicles and rest would have eventually done the trick, but hopefully she will be back to her usual self even quicker now. On the walk from the surgery to the pharmacy, we enjoyed counting all of the garden snails stuck to the stone walls along the way. For the record, Wales must be a very hospitable place for garden snails as there were scads of them.

Otherwise there is not much to report. We are hoping to celebrate the 4th of July with some fellow Yanks at our house tomorrow evening. If we get up to any noteworthy high jinks, I will be sure to post.

If you're reading this from the land of the free and the home of the brave, I hope you have a wonderful and festive weekend!