Imagination

Tommy's all adjusted to being back in London. But he has discovered his imagination, so it's almost like having a different child. Last night, I mentioned that he seemed cross and asked why. He said, "there's a monster." I said, "really?" And he said, "yes, it's out on the roof. It's not a scary monster, it's a nice monster, but it's making me really cross." Oh, well that explains everything. We have multiple conversations like this every day.

Lizzie is having a harder time with the adjustment. But, she feels good enough to practice pulling herself up! Still no teeth and no movement toward crawling. She had a doctor's appointment on Friday and dropped from the 10th percentile to the 9th percentile. The pediatrician isn't worried and I'm not either, but I wish she would eat a little bit more. Tonight she had a piece of garlic bread (and really did eat most of it), so she's on the right track.

We've had a nice weekend. On Saturday we went out to look at wallbeds, but the showroom was closed and we ended up just having lunch. Sunday, we did tons of shopping for the house but didn't get any of the things we needed. And at this point, we are tired of having a house that isn't all set up. Finally, today (a bank holiday!) we went to Regent's Park. There is a fun playground in there and it's pretty easy to get there on the tube. Tommy rode his pink scooter all over which was helpful.

OH! The big exciting news -- and I do mean big -- is that we bought a grill. It's HUGE. Eli's been making delicious dinners on there every night. We had pizza the first night, grilled chicken and vegetables the second, and tapas tonight.

I know, no pictures yet, and I'm sorry. Soon.

We made it.

It's 11:30pm and I'm sitting in our living room with Lizzie who is playing.

We arrived about 12 hours ago. The flight was perfect. Lizzie slept the whole way, with minimal nursing, and Tommy slept about two of the 8 1/2 hours, but he was very good. Tommy is clearly his father's child, as he can skip a night's sleep and still be in a wonderful mood. Our televisions didn't work properly and turned off about every five minutes, so Tommy learned how to turn on "Olivia" all by himself. Once, I woke up and saw him watching sports, but otherwise he did it all by himself. Anyway, it was the best-case scenario, and don't think that I'll count on such good behavior ever again. I know I was LUCKY, as the immigration woman reminded me.

We had such a nice trip, and I promise to post some photos and stories at some point. Tommy got to ride on Robie Pruden's tractor which was fitted like a backhoe, and he got to dig with it. He couldn't believe how lucky he was and kept looking at me with an incredulous expression. We also got to see his friend Margaret's farm, which has chickens and geese and ducks and pigs and sheep as well as all manner of vegetables. My favorite part was the blackberries. It was lots of fun. Anyway, more stories and photos, and house photos will come soon, too, as Eli got lots of work done while we were gone and we're getting close to being photo-ready.

Vacation...

I'm such a bad blogger. But I'm here now, and that's what matters.

We've been busy! On July 20, we flew to Seattle for vacation.

But it is not vacation when your jetlagged children wake up at one am. It just isn't. And if my children didn't exist, I could've taken an ambien to guarantee my own sleep. But after a few rough nights (and days, who am I kidding) we all settled into to my parents' house and started sleeping fairly normally.

We began our vacation with my family. The highlight was seeing Auntie Em and Sid who came from Melbourne. We all went to Jane and John's cabin at Lake Roessiger and had a very good time. One of the best parts was playing Apples to Apples, and if you don't know that game, you should get it and play it because it's fun. We also had fun celebrating Auntie Em's birthday and eating her cake.

Then, we packed the car up and drove to Newman Lake, which is near Spokane. We spent three days there with Eli's family, which was very fun. Tommy loved swimming in Newman Lake (it was much warmer than Lake Roessiger) and he also loved playing with his cousins and Adeline and Claire. He is a tiny bit scary in water because he is relatively fearless and we never know what he's going to do next. I know what I'm going to do next, though: sign him up for some swimming lessons.

Eli had to leave when we returned from Newman Lake, which has been very sad for all of us but especially for Tommy, who cried the whole way home from the airport. "I really need my daddy, mama! I need to go to London now, mama!"

We've been in Seattle this week, mostly working on wearing out my dad. He has been brave, but I think he's pretty exhausted. This was proven today when he managed to take a nap on the living room couch while Tommy, Lizzie and I all played about 10 feet from his head. You have to be pretty tired to nap through Lizzie's shrieking.

He'll get a good chance to rest next week though. On Monday, we are going on a quick trip to Laramie and Lander to spend a little more time with Eli's family. I am excited about the trip but dreading the actual travel -- it will be a lot of car and plane time for these little kids. The secret for Tommy is episodes of Sesame Street on the computer (who knew you could buy Sesame Street on iTunes? Eli, that's who), but for Lizzie it's a tiny bit harder...

I promise to post picture next time or to update our Picasa site. It's embarrassing how behind we are on these things.