Lizzie loves to read...

Guess who...

is the ring bearer in Lib's wedding?? Here he is, as we were leaving for school on Friday:

After adding his yellow Wyoming hat, we set off (with the koala, of course).

Look what Lizzie can do!

First, this video should have been edited (there's no need to watch all of it), but I knew you would all want to know right away! Again, she got out of bed (didn't sleep and hasn't for two days during naps but now we know why!) and did this:

Balloon Sunday

Eli took these photos on Sunday. (True story, he later asked me how to do Lizzie's hair. Sorry if her weirdly placed hair clip is distracting. It won't happen again.)

Cute kid stories (no pictures)

Last night, Simon and Vivian came for dinner and they brought Christmas (and birthday) gifts for the kids. Tommy received four trucks, and as he opened them, he said, "Oh my gosh! Jesus." And Eli said, "I have to quit swearing."

This afternoon when we got home from school, I put the kids in Tommy's room and went to get some laundry from the dryer. When I came back, Tommy said: "Lizzie and I were cuddling and then she asked me to read a book and so I did."

Which leads me to the fact that Lizzie does ask to have books read to her. She gets a book, brings it over to you, and squeals. It is irresistible.

Lizzie also knows the word hot. It sounds more like "at!" And she uses it appropriately -- usually when I'm holding tea or coffee.

Tommy was sitting in bed with his animals and Lizzie's new baby that he dearly loves and said, "My animals are excited because it's their Christmas tonight." And I said, "Oh! What did you get them?" And he said, with a semi-perplexed expression, "no, Mommy, Santa's going to bring them presents." Yikes, Mommy.

As soon as I get my phone back, I will post some photos and videos. I know why you read this blog.

I am a fast runner

Today I went to the gym and I met with a personal trainer and he showed me how to do intervals on the treadmill and I will have you know that I ran at a 5:52 minute mile pace and the trainer told me I'm the fastest girl runner he's ever seen in the gym. As someone who has spent my life being decidedly un-sporty, the trainer pretty much made my day.

One more thing

On Monday I ran in the pouring rain and my phone was zipped in the pocket of my raincoat. My raincoat is apparently not as waterproof as I thought (thank you, Patagonia) and so my phone decided to break. It is being fixed, we hope. So no photos for a while. I know that's why you come here, and I'm sorry. Believe me when I tell you that both of my children are absolutely adorable right now. I think Lizzie is getting some more teeth because there is a lot of drooling right now.

London

I've been composing a post about what I hate about London, but I decided I'd also better do what I love about London, just so you don't think I'm miserable.

The things I hate:
1. That cars always have the right-of-way.
2. The puddles of vomit on the sidewalk every morning. I would understand this more if it just happened on Saturday and Sunday mornings, but people drink to excess and puke on the sidewalk every night here.
3. The dog poop on the sidewalk. I'm with David Sedaris and am proud of the fact that people usually pick up their dog's poop in the US.
4. The inefficiency. See my posts about the bank and my debit card, and how long it took Skye to give us internet access.
5. Sending mail and packages to the US. Packages cost a small fortune. And envelopes aren't expensive, but I have to go to the post office every time I want to mail something because the price varies quite a bit, so I have to get everything weighed. I won't be sending thank you notes in the mail anymore, but since I received about three Christmas cards in the mail, I know you all understand. (I really loved those Christmas cards, though.)
6. The dark. It gets dark at 3:30 for a few weeks. And I guess the weather, but really, it's the dark.

The things I love:
1. Runs along the river. (I love that I cross the Albert Bridge and that I used to do that when we lived here in 2007.)
2. Our house (except the parts of it that are gross).
3. Ocado (the grocery delivery service).
4. The adorable children. They wear little pea coats and have charming accents.
5. When people ask me for directions and I know the answer. This happens at least three times per week.
6. Tommy loves that the street sweepers are out twice a day, and he also loves the London busses. They are red and double decker and I'm not sure how they could be improved from his perspective.
7. The cookies and the chocolate. I need to detox from the sugar. I really do.

Swimming

So Eli and I joined a gym with a pool in September, and we've both been swimming a couple/few times a week. And I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to swim. It is such a great workout -- it makes me tired in a different way than running does, and I'm never sore when I finish. I think it's helping my running endurance, too.

I also want you all to know that Eli is an awesome swimmer. Seriously, there is nobody better that I've seen in our gym, and he's just impressive. It makes me wish I had worked a little harder when I was on swim team. It's cute because he adjusts his goggles for about ten minutes before he gets in. I look forward to the time when we can work out together on a regular basis, like the good old days running in Crissy Field.

Kids

I have been having a pity party for myself because Tommy and Lizzie are growing up so quickly. It's amazing to see all the stuff they learn and how quickly they learn it, but at the same time, the fact that Tommy is almost four and Lizzie is one (and Lexy is SIX, for that matter) just breaks my heart. I can't believe that so much time has passed. While I was running this morning, I was remembering my own childhood -- a time when I bet I was 9 and Em was 6 -- and realized that pretty soon, Tommy and Lizzie will be those ages. And it just kills me. Because then I thought about how someday they won't even live with us anymore, and while believe me that I would love to skip off to a movie whenever I felt like it, the emptiness seems unbearable. And then, I think of my parents' friends' granddaughter, who was born a couple of months before the Lula and is losing muscle rather than gaining it and will die by her third birthday or something unfathomably horrible like that. And I stop my pity party and feel grateful until I hear some sentimental music or something sets me off again like Tommy using a big word or Lizzie standing unassisted.

Ah, parenthood.

Pilot

Since about four pm yesterday, Tommy's been wearing this hat/swim goggles combo. He is a "fighter jet pilot" in them. He even wore them to school this morning...After a huge fight about whether he would ride his scooter and wear his helmet or ride in the double stroller and wear his hat. He claims that he will ride the scooter to football this afternoon, but I am expecting another huge fight that wears him out so entirely he won't make it to football on the scooter.

Here's what we're doing today...

Tommy's day

Today when I went to get Tommy at preschool, his teacher told me two things about his day. First, she told me that they have a new student who had a hard day today and was very upset. Miss Karina said that Tommy tried to cheer her up. He got her a glass of water, and sang "twinkle, twinkle" to her, and then read her a story. I asked him if the little girl felt better and he said no, that she continued to cry. Miss Karina said that Tommy was being modest and his efforts actually did help.

Then, Tommy brought over a string with multicolored beads on it. Apparently he and his friend had been working with the string and beads earlier. Miss Karina said they told her they were making a bangle (a type of bracelet).

Oranges

On accidents...

Tommy fell down the stairs today at the Natural History Museum and has a huge knot on his head. I wasn't there. I just heard the crying and the Eli appeared with a kid in each arm and he was saying, "well, when you lose your balance on the stairs, you grab the handrail. That's what they're there for..."

Our peanut

This is my second post about Lizzie in a row -- you'd think she was the eldest. She will tell you the truth.

She had her 1 year old visit at the doctor today and she remains tiny. She weighs just 17 lbs, 6 oz, which puts her in the second percentile. She is 29" tall and in the 50th percentile for height. The doctor was impressed that she says "ball." He said that he is not worried about her size because she is obviously thriving. (I tried to explain that she's not doing most of the things that her brother was doing at this age, and he cut me off with, "she doesn't have to walk until she's eighteen months old.")

Here she is after my run yesterday, asleep:

This is yesterday as well, but I think before the run?

It's raining here today, but I promised to walk to pick up Tommy so he could nap in the buggy on the way home (I wonder how many parents are trying to talk their kids out of naps? It feels so odd). He was excited to stay at school for lunch bunch, I'm sure partially because the food is so good -- it's from an all-organic restaurant that is near our house. I told the owner that I love it when Tommy has lunch at school because I know I can feed him peanut butter and jelly for dinner.

BALL!

So we've been trying to understand Lizzie for a while now. She clearly says "ma-ma" and "da-dee" and I think she says "hiya!" But after Tommy's football class today, it is certain that her first word is "ball" and she says it with enthusiasm. She loves that football class and as we walk up the stairs to get to the room, she flaps her arms and bounces and smiles. And once we're in the room, she turns away from me and lunges toward the ground (so far, I have not dropped her, but it can be tricky).

Tommy went back to school today and Lizzie missed him, but she likes being able to play with all the little lego guys without having them snatched away from her. She also likes my undivided attention.

Accident-prone?

So we had the scooter crash two days ago, then yesterday I gave Tommy his toothbrush and he stuck it in his mouth and took off running. And he of course fell and cut the back of his mouth with the toothbrush. I heard him start crying and I actually could barely bring myself to look at him because I was so worried it would be an awful injury and require an immediate trip to the emergency room. (We had a long talk about running with things in his mouth, and then two more long talks on the same topic today.) Then, after he got home from school today, he was playing in the kitchen while I made lunch, and he somehow put his fingers in the door of the refrigerator when I had it open and then when I closed it, he started screaming. Horrible. He has one of those smashed-looking bruises on his finger. (When he gets hurt, Tommy wants "something soft" to make him feel better. Thus far, we've used fleece blankets, but today I hit on the genius idea of giving him a dry washcloth and he walked around with that for 15 minutes or so. What is so great about this, you ask?? LESS LAUNDRY.) So my question is: is this just one of those bad-things-come-in-threes situations, or are we looking at an-injury-a-day-in-2011 situation?

Scooter crash

Today we all went out for a walk. Tommy rode his scooter. He crashed. He rode down a ramp, didn't brake at the bottom, and crashed into a wall at the bottom, smacking his nose on the handrail. His nose immediately started to bleed -- a lot -- and he cried which meant it was serious as he doesn't cry normally. Anyway, we both felt horribly for not catching him (but it was impossible) and so we bought him a cookie.

Happy New Year!

Eli and I managed to stay up until midnight, and it's a good thing because people here set off fireworks. Somehow, the kids stayed asleep. But, we started the new year this morning at 5:45 because that's when Tommy woke up (Eli says that more fireworks were set off, but I am skeptical because they did not wake me up). Lizzie followed shortly and Eli and I groggily started the morning routine. We had a dutch baby for breakfast, and then went for a long run. Both kids fell asleep in the jogger -- probably because they woke up before 6 -- and so we kept walking until they were done with their naps. Anyway, we've had a very fun week. We went to Winter Wonderland, which is a huge amusement park that is set up in Hyde Park during December. It's actually really impressive given that it's temporary. Tommy's favorite ride was the snowman bouncy house and he jumped until he passed out, almost. (Actually, he jumped until I saw him slug some girl in the back and I climbed in there and got him, but he was exhausted.) We also went to the British Museum, which did not go over so well with the three year old in our house. He liked the building, but the mummies creeped him out. Our strategy is to stick with the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum (and possibly a couple of others) so that Tommy continues to look forward to museums and not decide that they are boring or scary. On Tuesday, Eli and I went to Oxford Street (and also to the gym so Eli could give me some pointers on my swimming) while the kids stayed with Miss Alina. Oxford Street was pretty horrible -- so crowded it felt like we were at a concert, not walking down a sidewalk. Our fault, but we had to do some returning and exchanging, and not dragging the kids along was too temping. The other high point of our weekend has been cooking from the cookbook the kids got Eli for Christmas -- Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals. So far, it's pretty great.