Wonderful Windsor

We took the kids out of school on Thursday and drove up to Windsor for a fun-filled, family adventure.  We started out at Legoland theme park, which I think was the family-friendliest place we've ever visited in Britain.  We had an excellent time...

Can you spot the real baby?

Although she was too small to ride any of the rides, Lili enjoyed herself plenty.  She reminds me so much of Emma as a baby in that she requires half the amount of sleep that other "normal" babies seem to need and she enjoys activity, changes of scenery and constant stimulation.  Legoland pushed all of her buttons, and she was a very happy camper there.  (Today we are back at our boring old house, and she is not impressed.)

As lovely as Windsor was, I am ever so glad that we only stayed over for one night.  Sleep-fighting Lili kept me up most of the night with her antics.  I'm sure that since we were in a different place, she was all out of sorts and decided that waking up every twenty minutes was the best way to ensure that she didn't miss out on anything exciting.  At one point in the wee hours, I dreamed that I was crying and telling anyone who would listen how tired I was... at least, I think that was just a dream.

On Friday we went into Windsor and visited the castle there, which has been an "official residence of the Sovereign for over 900 years."  It was beautiful and impressive.  We weren't allowed any photographs inside, but the grounds and exterior were just as spectacular.

Lili tried to become a part of the attraction by happily shrieking at the top of her lungs throughout our tour of the castle.   She has earned herself the nickname "MJ" since she sounds like the queen of the monkey jungle.  She is desperate to communicate with us, and I suppose this does the trick because a noisy scream ALWAYS attracts the attention of someone. 

Emma took copious notes the entire time we were in the castle to the point that I think she missed a good bit of the castle itself.  She had her nose in her writings the entire time.  If anyone asks Emma about Windsor castle during the Victorian era, expect to get an earful.  (On second thought, ask Emma about practically anything, and you'll get an earful.)

 

All in all it was a wonderful, albeit tiring, getaway.  And we are back at home just in time for the rainy weekend.  Time to get caught up on laundry and continue with the house clear out.  I am savoring these last few weeks and will indeed try to squeeze in a few more British days out! 

Pip pip Cheerio!

Splish Splash I Was Takin' a Bath...

If only the other kids were this enthusuastic about bath time...



This explains why I get a shower every time Lili has a bath.

Sunday With Sophie

Emma got all dressed up and went to a birthday party today, and the rest of us enjoyed some afternoon sunshine at St. Fagans.  Sophie enjoyed being the only kid with an understandable vocabulary on our outing.  Sometimes a girl can't get a word in edgewise when her chatty big sister is always around.  We also hit the St. Fagans gift shop for some Welsh souvenirs to take back across the pond with us.  Happy Sunday.

It's a New Day...

Birds flying high, you know how I feel

Sun in the sky, you know how I feel

Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel...

...I'm Feeling Good!!

The Difference Between Two and Three

This morning in the intervals between punching the snooze button on my alarm clock, I dreamed.  I dreamed that I had taken Sophie to school, and was at the doctor's office with Emma but realized that I had left Lili at home alone in bed sleeping.  My dream self was all, "OH JUNK!"  My dream self was racing home, certain that she had woken up and crawled off of the bed and broken her arm or something.  My dream self never could manage to get home because of that doggone alarm which insisted on beeping every nine minutes.

This was most certainly a dream scenario.  I have never actually forgotten one of my children, but there is an art to managing all of them, particularly when someone is unwell.  I'm not sure I have mastered this art yet.  When I was talking to my mom last night, I heard myself say (something like), "The difference between two and three children is the difference between busy and hectic."  I'm pretty sure that's not a grammatically correct statement, but y'all know what I mean. I love having three children.  They are all fabulous, but there is almost no down time for me.  I have become a serious multi-tasker.  It is never boring, and I never quite feel well rested... at least not so far.  Some of this will improve as the girls get older, but for now life is both frenzied and fantastic all at once.  And that's alright by me... pretty much.

Does She Get Dinosaur DNA Too?

A couple of weeks ago I asked my friends if anyone knew anything about amber teething necklaces for babies.  No one responded, so I just assumed that nobody knew what the heck I was on about.  I came across these on the Interwebs when I was searching for a teeth-able pendant that I could wear and that Lili could chew on.  I thought this might come in handy on flights, or at the grocery store, or any number of other places.  So... when I Googled: teething necklaces, these amber baby necklaces kept popping up in my searches.

Supposedly the oils in the amber resin act as a natural analgesic when worn next to baby's warm skin.  This is apparently an old, tried and true European remedy for teething pains in babies.  My curiosity got the best of me, and the necklace, which is totally cute anyway, only cost me about ten pounds sterling, so I ordered one.  Lili has been wearing it for about five or six days.  She was a terrible mess last week and had a nasty cold, and I have to admit that since she has been wearing this doggone necklace, she has been a little more pleasant and has been sleeping better.  (She doesn't wear the necklace while sleeping at night, of course.  Please don't email me about the dangers of choking.  I know this.)  She still has the cold and lots of snot to go with it, but she does seem to be a little less miserable.

I'm not sure if I can attribute her mood improvement to the necklace or not, but it certainly hasn't hurt anything.  So...there you go.  This is my rather ambivalent review of our amber teething necklace.  I have read numerous reviews on the Internet written by parents who swear by them.  I'm not quite as gung ho, but we will carry on with it... just in case it is helpful.

In other news... Sophie has lost another tooth, and Emma seems to be getting along a little better with the girls in school this week thanks to some conversations I've had with other mothers.  We are continuing to make arrangements for our move.  This includes selling all kinds of junk from our house here.  Anybody need a lamp?  How about a coffee table?  Better yet, how about a 2005 Ford Focus??  Call me.  We'll talk.

Enjoy the week wherever you are...

Eight is Great...Mostly.

My baby turned eight this weekend...EIGHT!!  We had a really nice time celebrating on Saturday with our adopted family, the Collinses.  Liam Collins turned eleven on Sunday, so we just made a joint birthday celebration and had a fantastic time.  Emma says it was her best birthday ever even though we didn't have a big party with loads of kids and fuss... in fact, perhaps that is why it was the best birthday ever.  We were able to focus on celebrating the kids whom we love without worrying about all of the other birthday party dramas and details.

I love the person that Emma is becoming.  She has always been such a sweet and sensitive character, but growing up also means that there are some painful lessons to learn and some "mean girls" to be dealt with.  On several different occasions recently, Emma has been on the verge of tears after school.  Girls there have been doing some of the same mean and nasty things that they did when I was eight.  Clubs are formed that Emma is not allowed to be a part of, and she feels lonely and rejected.  Other girls are manipulative and threaten to tell the teacher lies about Emma if she doesn't do: a,b, or c.  She finds all of this appalling, and I find myself choking back tears at times when she tells me about her day.

Emma also tells me that she never cries at school or tells these girls that they have upset her because she doesn't want them to think they have power over her.  Did I mention she's eight?  When I watch her playing and creating and just being Emma, I think I would have loved to have had her as a friend when I was a little girl.  She is so clever and imaginative.  Of course, I'm not eight, and I'm not her friend.  I am her mother, and I am doing my best to nurture her self-esteem and help her navigate through this tough time. 

I know these are things that most everyone has to go through at some point, but my heart breaks for her.  I remember myself at age ten, and how I came home crying (what felt like) every night because I felt like I just didn't fit in.  Girls who had been my friends when we were six, were suddenly part of the "in crowd" and couldn't be bothered with me.  I was so lonely and distraught.  The next year, however, I started middle school and met my eleven year old soul mate, Jennifer Freeman along with several other cool girls who are still good friends.  Being excluded from the "in crowd" at the age of ten changed me for the rest of my left.  It changed me for the better, I believe.

Being excluded from The Gummy Bear Gang* taught me to appreciate real friends who loved me for who I was and not because we were members of the same social circle.  Being excluded taught me not to seek the attention or affection of those who didn't want to give it naturally.  Being excluded strangely gave me the confidence and the freedom to be myself and to feel proud of myself when I was different from the others.  I never felt like I was striving to follow the major fashion trends.  I have photographic evidence to prove it.  I didn't like the same music groups that everyone else liked.  I didn't spend my high school weekends drinking and smoking my troubles away... although once Jenny and I did steal a beer.  After we each took a sip, we poured the rest down the toilet.  Hmmm.... and there were also all of those late night cigars on the front porch, but I swear we didn't inhale.  I digress...

We all have painful experiences in our childhoods.  Kids are mean.  I'm sure I broke some hearts and bruised some egos in my day as well.  It is my hope that these experiences will help my Emma find herself and learn to embrace real friends and to sympathize with the under dog.  That is my hope.  It is my wish, however, that I could just take it all away.  I wish her life could be sunny and happy forever because it hurts me when she is sad.

" Growing up is such a barbarous business, full of inconvenience... and pimples."

 ~ J. M. Barrie

* Totally made up.  The cool kids didn't call themselves the Gummy Bear Gang... just for the record.

Lili Crawls... and Produces Vast Quantities Snot

Lili worked out how to shift out of reverse and into first gear on the evening of Mother's Day.  She was motivated by a pair of tasty glasses which had been left on the floor to tempt her.  I know I should have immediately "blogged" this big news, but later that same night a cold virus kicked in and the girl has been a grizzly, snotty mess ever since.  (Translation: I have had about 20 minutes of sleep a night for the past three nights and have been toting around a miserable, snot-dripping babe during all of the daytime hours.  You know the drill.)

It's my own fault for bragging to George on Sunday.  I said something foolish like, "I finally feel like I am getting stronger again and starting to get back to my old normal self."  As soon as I said those words, I tried to grab them and shove them back into my mouth, but it was too late. 

My friend, Sensible Sonia, who always knows the proper thing to say, told me this morning:  "At least you were feeling well and strong before all of this sleep deprivation hit; otherwise, think of the state you'd be in!"  Too true.

I do need to get some rest soon.  I am feeling a bit like the walking dead today.  Sophie has another boyfriend coming to visit after school today, so I will have to do my best not to do anything too frightening.

More cute baby stories, move updates and photos are coming I'm sure... as soon as I get 40 winks.

Although I hope you already know, my love for you just grows and grows and grows...

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. ~Rajneesh

Thank you to all of my sweet girls for making me a mother!

I have the best job in the world and am feeling very loved today.

Mother's Day Au Naturale

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers and fairy godmothers!  Sending lots of love to you all!

Bass-ackwards

Lili has mastered the art of crawling...in reverse.  As you can imagine, this is more than a little frustrating for her.  I rescue her, crying with her little bottom jammed into a corner, about a hundred times a day lately.  Perhaps I exaggerate a bit. 

She really wants to "go to there," but inevitably winds up going away from there instead.  I suppose pushing is easier than pulling.  I know this will be a rather short-lived dilemma for her.  Soon I will be writing about how she is off like a bullet and pulling all of the books off of my shelves.  Aren't babies grand?

Advanced Baby Feeding...Not for Sissies

Take one look at Lili's ample thighs, and you will understand that she likes her food.  She has, however, become a bit more discerning recently, preferring fruit and yogurt to vegetable and other savoury purees.  Sometimes I try to be a sneaky chef and mix fruits and vegetables together in an attempt to fake her out, but the thing that seems to work best is just giving her a piece of soft, cooked veggie to chew on...

Now that she is in control, carrots and green beans are her friends again.  She would also like to make friends with anything I happen to be eating.

If she eats really well, she gets to have cake!!  Well... a rice cake.

What the heck is this delicious thing?

At the end of it all, I praise her and praise her for having such a good lunch.  Then I pull her out of the high chair and discover all of those carrots, beans, bits of cheese and biscuits collected in the corners and crevices of the seat.  Oh well, we are getting there.  Learning is extremely messy.

This Little Piggy...

I only wish I had written this...

Baby Feet

by Edgar Guest

Tell me, what is half so sweet

As a baby's tiny feet,

Pink and dainty as can be,

Like a coral from the sea?

Talk of jewels strung in rows,

Gaze upon those little toes,

Fairer than a diadem,

With the mother kissing them!

It is morning and she lies

Uttering her happy cries,

While her little hands reach out

For the feet that fly about.

Then I go to her and blow

Laughter out of every toe;

Hold her high and let her place

Tiny footprints on my face.

Little feet that do not know

Where the winding roadways go,

Little feet that never tire,

Feel the stones or trudge the mire,

Still too pink and still too small

To do anything but crawl,

Thinking all their wanderings fair,

Filled with wonders everywhere.

Little feet, so rich with charm,

May you never come to harm.

As I bend and proudly blow

Laughter out of every toe,

This pray, that God above

Shall protect you with His love,

And shall guide those little feet

Safely down life's broader street.

From the book "Rhymes Of Childhood'" ©1924

Ladies Who Lunch

We are a bit out of sorts here lately since our George is working so much.  Hopefully his big project will be completed soon, and we can get back to our usual family shenanigans.  Until then we girls are doing our best to enjoy girly time and girly days out when possible.  Lately I am starting to feel a melancholy tugging at my heart each time we have a particularly "British" day out.    Today was no exception when we decided to trot over to our local castle (Castell Coch) for lunch and a poke around.  We took just a few photos, but maybe not enough.  As we were driving home, I wondered if that would be our last visit.  I had a lovely chat with two of the Cadw workers on staff today, and one of them told me, "Don't worry, Lovely. Even if you go back to America, Wales isn't going anywhere.  We will still be here if you want to come back and visit."  True. True.  But I do find myself getting sentimental over funny things.

I had to take a photo of this plaque in the tea room and think that it surely must apply to our Lili.  In case you cannot read it, it says: To be born Welsh is to be born privileged, not with a silver spoon in your mouth, but with music in your heart and poetry in your soul.

Lili very much enjoyed the Welsh fare in the tea room today, waking up from her nap to eat almost as much vegetable cawl (soup) as I did!  Lush!

There are definitely some traditions we will be taking back with us.  These two certainly enjoy an afternoon spot of tea with cake or biscuits, and I don't expect that to change.

Like the Oompa Loompa Dee Do!

"A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men."  - Roald Dahl

Today we enjoyed the Radyr Festival again.  This year's theme was the characters of Roald Dahl, and my girls were thrilled to once again march in the parade in costumes made my the ever-so-clever, Jane Morris.  What a fantastic way to spend a Saturday morning...

Sophie and Emma as Oompa Loompas extraordinaire with THE man, Willy Wonka, played brilliantly by our good friend Michael.

The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) ready to be carried by Kevin Morris

Mr. Twit, another brilliant Jane Morris creation

Lili was so excited to meet Willy Wonka!

And yes, of course, I'm having a spot of tea!

All of the Oompa Loompas and Willy Wonka in the parade

The girls were happy to get those green wigs off in the end.

Lili was a happy bunny.  She loved all of the colors and music and activity.

Hurray for festival day... our last one here!!

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." - Roald Dahl