School

So it turns out that I'm not as on top of things as I thought. The crazy Brits start their children in school when the children are just four. (How did I miss this? Because I have no British friends.) So, next fall, in less than a year, Tommy is supposed to start school. Even the American school starts them when they're four. They just tack on a second year of kindergarten. If we'd stayed in the US, I would have had this year plus two more to figure out school for Tommy, as I wanted him to do kindergarten at Montessori. But now we are here.

Apparently the Brits haven't read all the articles about how kids who start school later are more successful.

Sigh. If I'm not posting, it's because I'm calling up all the snotty schools in our neighborhood to beg for a spot. Or to beg for an assessment. (Not sure what you can assess about a four year old.)

How to play football:

Coffee morning, bread and bows

So this morning I dragged myself to a coffee morning for the parents at Tommy's school. It was hosted by a lovely woman, in a lovely flat (they bought both flats on the floor of the building and then gutted them so the result is especially stunning). All the moms ("mums") were very nice and welcoming -- they commented that I was the only new mom to attend and the hostess even thanked me for my effort. Anyway, here's what I learned: I am the only mom without a full time nanny, and we are poor compared to all the other families at our school. I have tentatively arranged playdates with three of the mothers though, which is wonderful.

On the way home from coffee, I purchased this for Lizzie's hair:

Yesterday I baked bread. It turned out very well and I am very proud of myself. It had to rise twice, so it felt especially labor intensive. Isn't it pretty? It's almost half gone already!

Happy weekend to all of you.

The cutest thing you'll see today...

I'm sorry it's so long. The first 40 seconds are the best. I just don't know how to edit movies.

Guess who the pests are here??

While we were having dinner on Thursday night, Tommy saw two of them on our fence. Then, as we walked home from the tube on Saturday evening, we saw this one at the end of our block in a neighbor's yard.

Our cupcake likes to swing

First Day of School

These pictures are late, but here is Tommy's first day of school!

Happy Weekend.

Hi everybody. We are plugging along. Tommy finished his first full week of preschool (nursery, as we call it here) yesterday. I talked with Miss Alma at pick up and she commented again on his energy level, and also assured me that he is making friends. She said he is a leader and that even older kids want to do whatever he is doing, and that he's extremely confident. I had been a tiny bit nervous that he didn't seem to be connecting with any of the other kids. Miss Alma also reminded me that it had been less than two weeks... I wonder if it's harder to teach the kids or manage the (neurotic) parents when you're a preschool teacher? Anyway, Tommy spent lots of time in the garden yesterday morning, and wanted to bring home a plastic bag full of weeds. So he did. During the first week, he brought home a picture, and now a bag of weeds. I know he's doing more art, because he often has paint in his hair, but he apparently doesn't care to bring it to me.

This morning Tommy told Eli that he lives in his house in Virginia with Ovie. We miss Ovie.

Tommy's first football class should have been on Wednesday afternoon, but I forgot to take him. Yikes. We went to the playground and I remembered about fifteen minutes before the class was supposed to end, when I noticed some other kids at their football class. Unfortunately, I was at least a 30 minute walk from the field.

We take the bus to preschool and on the bus, Lizzie stares at people until they pay attention to her and then she flirts with them. It's sweet. She likes to look out the window, too, but prefers to interact if possible. She is working REALLY hard on crawling. She's doing a pretty good job sleeping, but we are still rocking her to sleep, and need to just bite the bullet and sleep train her. Perhaps next weekend. This weekend, Eli has a lot of work to do, and sleep training and work are a bad combination. Lizzie discovered yesterday that she just loves pancakes and if you hold one in your hand and don't give it to her, she wails.

Have I commented on our library yet? It's in a pretty old building and it's huge. There are loads of fairly new computers, tons of DVDs (you have to pay 1.50 to rent them for four days), CDs (also a small fee, I think), and of course books. You can recycle batteries there, and also pick up recycling sacks (for your household recycling) if you run out. There is a huge room for kids, and the doors close so you don't have to shush them. And it's less than two blocks from our house. I think we could spend lots of afternoons there once the weather gets bad.

Have a great weekend!

A couple of photos --

Here's Lizzie in her cupcake hat from Aunt Jan & Aunt Jean, getting ready to go for a run:

Tommy at one of London's crazy adventure playgrounds (he's very high, but also very good at climbing):

"My name is Brettandy"

Yesterday after looking at pictures, Tommy announced that his name is "Brettandy." Can any of you guess who was in the pictures? These days he normally goes by "Dozie Ix." Good ol' Doz is a fixer who has a backhoe that goes into outerspace. Typically, after he gets home from outerspace, he digs for a while before eating dinner. He has lots of kittens, five parrots and he used to have two dogs, but yesterday they "deaded." Don't worry, nothing to be sad about apparently (?!).

When I picked him up this afternoon from school, his teacher said, "I don't know how you keep up with him." (As a side note, I do think it's good that he's my first child, because I don't have anything to compare his energy level to.) She said they adore him, but that he is very busy. I figure we are getting our money's worth.

Lizzie is NINE MONTHS OLD TODAY. She is pulling up on things, especially her baskets of toys, and she has some method of moving as well. I'm not sure what it is; I just know she isn't usually where I left her anymore. (My poor second child.) She is mostly busy being totally adorable all the time. She loves bread and makes the biggest messes when we give it to her. She loves her little baby Montessori class and laughs a lot during the singing parts. She is awake now, so I have to go get her. Sorry for the incomplete post...

A few pictures:

Tommy preparing to go to college and the space station:

We had a talk about college being when he will move away from me and Daddy and now college is something of an obsession. The space station is from Curious George.

Lizzie just being cute:

This is what jetlag looks like:

We went to Lizzie's first Montessori class this morning. She just goes for 50 minutes on Tuesdays, and normally her big brother won't come along. But, he starts school tomorrow, so he didn't have anywhere to be except with us. He was a good boy, and Lizzie enjoyed the songs and the big basket full of random objects that she was free to suck on (each baby gets their own basket, and the toys are cleaned each class). One of my friends from the garden is in the class with her baby. And speaking of the garden, we're going back to the garden to play with Leon after naptime...

I hope you all had happy Labor Day weekends.