And the Ladies!

There are many fewer photos of the women which is just laziness on my part (uploading is taking a long time) because actually, we all loved this day a lot more than yesterday.

We saw them pass us on the way out and then watched the whole race (well, except for when BBC decided to show ping pong instead) and then made it back out to see them on the home stretch. 

I was so loud with cheering that it actually embarrassed Eli.  I was SO LOUD.  But I love them so bad.  And then I cried when the BBC lady spoke with Lizzie at the end.   

Here are the medalists:

 I'm sad that Eli missed Lizzie in this photo:

 The rest of them...

So, we're moving!

We have now made the necessary announcement to our families so I can share with the remaining four or so of my readers that we are moving to Muscat, Oman.  We hadn't realized this was a possibility until a month or so ago, and initially we were not very excited about it.  But we had a month to consider Oman vs Gabon, and by the end had a fairly long 'pros' list in favor of Oman.

We're not sure when we'll move (it is possible that the kids and I will stay in London until Christmas).  But, we hope you will come visit us.  It's supposed to be beautiful there.

The Olympics are RAD

YOU GUYS.  We planned our day around being two blocks from our house on Fulham Road at 3:30.  And it was so worth it!  I kept telling Tommy that it was a once in a lifetime moment for him:  the Olympics were right outside his front door.  

Here we are waiting:

 There must have been 25 police officers riding through on motorcycles before the cyclists.

 First glimpse:

 Soon-to-be Gold and Silver Medalists:

 The pack right behind them (and the jerk videoing the whole thing on his iPad and obstructing the view of others).  Of some solace to me is that I totally wrecked his videos with my loud and relentless cheering (screaming).  I'm an American and we know how to cheer, thank God.  These English people are ridiculous.  They'll bring flags but otherwise were their normal subdued selves.  I told Tommy loudly that he's always to cheer for people during sporting events no matter how stupid the people are around him ('no stupid, Mommy!').

 Here's the next pack of cyclists:

 Each country had a BMW station wagon with the extra bikes, etc, which came after all but one rider.

 This guy came with the station wagons.  He had just crashed (we heard; of course we hadn't seen it) and I will grudgingly give the English some points here because we did all cheer for him.  I wasn't sure if I felt happy or sad about that when I saw him finish (after they passed we went home and turned on the television) and he just collapsed crying against his coach.  I think the emotion of the Olympics is my favorite part.  There's something so raw about it.

Back tomorrow with the women.

Early Mornings.

Our kids have been pretty horrible sleepers this week (one of these days I'm going to post about Tommy's sudden fear of being alone and the resulting chunks of night we have spent sleeping on his floor this week), and Lulu in particular cannot handle it.  She's like her mama.  Anyway, today she was up at 5:15, yelling for me and waking up her brother.  So she's been a mess and had multiple fits. She mostly cried during lunch -- until I presented her with hummus, which is just weird -- and at one point Tommy looked at me and said, "I wish I didn't have any ears!!"

Totally.

And also, Auntie Em is 33 today!  Happy Birthday!

THE TORCH

First, I must thank Melora for remembering that I was due to see the torch this morning and for sending an email asking if I'd been successful.  As a faithful blog reader and commenter, she must be acknowledged here.

Anyway, so Eli let me go to work early and when I came out of the Tube at Blackfriars, it was immediately apparent that I wasn't the only person who thought to come in a bit early to see the torch.

Here's a picture to set the scene:

Here is, I hope (I had some problems uploading), a video of the torch passing by.  It was CLOSE, but still a bit anticlimactic.  (Sorry for the screaming.  I can't get over the English.  They are so calm about everything.  And doesn't the TORCH deserve a cheer??)

I have now decided that I want to see diving.  Leave a comment to tell me how much you would pay to see diving, as it might help me convince my husband to plunge for the tickets.  (Pun totally intended.)  Also, include £50 in childcare costs in your number.

*****

Check this space next week.  I have an exciting announcement coming soon.  Also, a request for parenting advice.

Hampstead Heath

Nobody's talking about it, but we've kicked off our "farewell, London" tour.  (Nope, still don't know our next destination.)  Yesterday Tommy had his last swimming lesson, so we didn't go far from the house (just to the green with a picnic as the weather was finally decent!) but today we went to Hampstead Heath.  It's really, really pretty there and there is also a bakery on the way.  We only got one sweet bite (but, it was a chocolate chip cookie the size of four, as the lady explained to me), and Eli and I got delicious salads and a turkey sandwich for the kids that had turkey that looked like left-over-Thanksgiving-turkey-sandwich turkey instead of the kind you buy in the store.  It was a trek -- Tommy walked probably three miles a lot of which was uphill -- so now he's playing on the iPad.  Eli downloaded a new game that's about an alligator taking a shower and it is a huge hit.  Though, he did tell me recently that "cut the rope is my favorite thing in the whole world."  (Also, talking about Thanksgiving, sort of, when I said something about Thanksgiving yesterday he asked me what Thanksgiving is, and it killed me.  What am I doing to my children?)

Anyway, here are a few photos:

 I include this photo because the kids are so themselves in it -- Lulu showing her underwear and Tommy pretending to shoot (yes, this is still a hard thing for me):

And this one is a bit overly sentimental but so am I today and this is my blog:

I think it's appropriate for me to end by saying that if you are ever in London on a sunny day, you should go to Hampstead Heath.

More Olympic Excitement

The TORCH will be going past our house (again, two blocks away) on Thursday afternoon about 2:00pm.  I will be at work and had been considering how to get home but have just investigated and see that it will be by St. Paul's at 9:00am.  And Eli has agreed to stay home until Mandy comes so that I can go see it!  I know that it will likely be disappointing (who knows what I'll be able to see) but DUDES more than ever before I am really looking forward to the Olympics!

Managing Up -- Lulu Style

Lately my children have started to bicker and fight and cry and generally not get along. At least for little pockets during otherwise long and lovely patches of play.

Yesterday morning, I laid down the following rule: if you taunt your sibling by saying na na na na na (you have to sing it, you know what I mean, right?) then you sit on the step. That's right, the step.

Tommy taught it to Lulu and now she is ridiculous about it. The moment she gets something that either (1) belongs to Tommy or (2) is something that she knows he will like and want, she lets loose a na-na-na-na-na so that he will (1) know she has it and (2) try to get it. And I'm like, DUDE, right now you have something cool. Just be quiet and you might get to keep it.

But either she's not as smart as I am, or retaining possession of the item is a lower priority than antagonizing her brother.

Her brother who is SO incredibly nice to her, almost always. When she has a fit, he offers her toys, hugs, any comfort he can think of. He squats down to her level and turns on his high voice: "What's the matter Lu? It's okay, don't worry. Let's go upstairs and play."

This morning I YELLED at Lulu because she was on her second fit in the same number of minutes and this one was about where Tommy had put down a ball that Lulu had never seen before in her life and had no reason to care about at all, and Tommy got super sweet to her: "you want me to put it back, Lu? Okay, okay, don't worry, it's okay." And then I had to apologize for being a horrible mother and for yelling and things were fine for the next ten or so minutes.

Later in the morning, Tommy shouted down the stairs that Lulu said na-na-na-na-na and I asked if I should come put her on the step. And he shouted down that no, I should not, as she said sorry. He's so sweet to her that I don't actually believe she did apologise but then, I suppose that's what big brothers are for, so I left them alone.

A Very Exciting Announcement

Nope, this post has nothing to do with where we will be moving and when.

It's much, much better.  (That was sarcastic, as I'm becoming a bit desperate to know what my future holds, but I actually am very excited about this turn of events.)

Friends, we live TWO BLOCKS from the route for the Olympic cycling races.  This means that despite the fact that we did not get any tickets, we are still going to see two Olympic events, and possibly more (stay tuned for future posts on this subject).

Seriously, I just figured this out when the borough put a flyer through our door on Sunday to tell us to think carefully about our traffic plans and I am now so excited to go out and cheer for TEAM USA.  I shall forthwith do some googling to discover the names of the athletes for whom I will be cheering.

An interesting story is that I really really really wanted to go to the Opening Ceremonies but we didn't go in the lottery for tickets as we had no idea if we would still be in London for the games.  Anyway, I was chatting with a friend last weekend and discovered that tickets to the Opening Ceremonies cost £950 each.  And I was thrilled to know that because I do not want to attend the Opening Ceremonies that badly, not even £500 badly.  MAYBE £250 badly but only maybe.

And a very happy Tuesday to you all.

Last Day of School

Thursday was a crazy day.  I swapped my Friday for Thursday because we had so much going on.  It was both kids' last day of school.  Lizzie "performed" in a program at her school (it was Olympic-themed and she was a goddess of dance); both kids were supposed to be at picnics starting at 12:30 (we skipped both); we had a teacher conference with Miss Jo AND I cleverly booked a pedicure and a haircut for myself.

And Wednesday at four a client suggested we meet late Thursday afternoon, so I had Mandy come at three and headed into work.

Now I sound whiney -- but here are some photos of Lulu's show.

Tonight we had a pizza party and watched a movie to celebrate the end of school and as a reward for working really hard in school this year.  The kids had a really good time but I ate too much pizza.

And one more, that really ought to go in 'glamping' but I'm a bit lazy tonight and it's cute:

Potty Trained!

Okay, I have warned all of you with the title of the post.

But, I'll be brief anyway.

Eli and I are proud to announce that our daughter Elizabeth (aka Lizzie aka Lulu aka Lulabella) has successfully potty-trained herself.  She decided she wanted to stop wearing diapers and start wearing "uh-were-wear" and then proceeded to fight us with all her strength whenever we tried to force her to wear diapers (I know, we sound like awesome parents) and now she even naps without diapers.

I suppose the lesson is that it's key to listen to your kids as they take on these developmental challenges.

Edited:  I have now posted a photo of her adorable bum in her underwear, which are the smallest size possible but which are quite baggy.

Obviously, she is awesome.  (And loves dum-dums lollipops, which she gets each time she uses the potty.)

Glamping

We went to the Manor Farm this weekend.  Eli took lots of nice pictures and I have posted some of them below, so that all of you can get a sense of what 'glamping' is.  However, these photos fail to truly represent the weather.

Friends, it rained.  Hard, and often.  In some ways, glamping was miserable even if the cabin/tent things were "more watertight than our house" as the other dad we went with said.  But, it was very very fun to see Tommy and Lizzie hanging out with their friends, Harry and Amelia, and to get to know Harry and Amelia's parents better.  

The activity that is not represented in these photos was my favorite.  We walked through the farm's sheep pastures and wheat fields to get to the nearest village pub, and there we removed our wellies and ate lunch.

So to sum up for those of you considering a similar experience:  it was muddy, it was lots of work (not much less than camping, honestly), it was pricey, but the kids absolutely loved:

1.  The wheelbarrows to transport your luggage, firewood, etc (this is
mostly Tommy)
2.  The llama (Alfie -- he protects the chickens from foxes, who knew)
3.  The chickens (they are very friendly and cheeky as Tommy said)
4.  The piglets (four of them)
5.  The sheep (decidedly the least favorite animal)
6.  The mud
7.  Playing with their friends
8.  Digging
9.  The cupboard bed (see below)

 Alfie the llama:

 Cheeky chickens (chasing Tommy):

 Our candle chandelier:

 Our hot tub:

Happy Fourth of July (yesterday)

So in honor of the Fourth yesterday, I hosted a national anthem sing-off in my office.  It happened throughout the day and commenced when my co-worker Peter came in and said,

"Is it the land of the free and the home of the brave, or the land of the brave and the home of the free?"

I just rolled my eyes.  So he said, "Can you sing 'God Save the Queen'?" 

So I did, you know I did.  By the end he was uncomfortable, that's how well I sang it. (Ha.)

Anyway, so then I fired off an email to Rebecca, the Kiwi who sits next door (I know, but I love email) and asked her for her afternoon availability so that she could perform "God Defend New Zealand" for me.  Her performance was remarkable because she did it like she was singing at a sporting event.  She said that makes sense because really that's all people do in New Zealand:  participate in and attend sporting events.  They are a tall people, which I think has something to do with this.  (An aside is that she was really confused when I said I feel that I am the same height as she is -- she's 5'9", but, I explained about how I've had a tall best friend for more than 20 years (!!!) and then she seemed, well, still confused.)

So then, the sweet French trainee with whom I work came into my office with a legitimate work question and was cajoled into performing the French National Anthem for me.  She did a nice job but when she got back to her office she sent me a link to her favorite version on youtube.

Finally, I sang "The Star Spangled Banner" for Peter and Rebecca who were amazed at its length.

Then we all attended the Firm "JULY 4th INDEPENDENCE DAY BBQ" which featured grilled food and American beer and wine.  It was not authentic in any way, but I appreciated the gesture.

Lizzie wore a red shirt with white bows on the shoulders (that is either from Molly or Maddy, thank you!) and navy leggings; Tommy wore his normal uniform with RED socks and as he shook his head teacher's hand in the morning, said, "Happy Fourth of July!"  I wore red, white and blue as well, but Eli refused.

I hope you all enjoyed fireworks for us!

Fish

Tommy loves fish.  When asked what he wants for dinner -- if he's in the mood to think about it and come up with an idea which is not all the time, not even close -- he will suggest fish.  And Sunday night, when he smelled it cooking, he said, "oh, great!  We're having fish!  I love fish!"  And then during dinner, he raved about it.

I was a child who refused fish, always.  Even when my dad went out and caught salmon, I wouldn't eat it.  I can't remember when I realized that grilled salmon with pesto on it was one of my favorite foods rather than one I detested.  Optimistically, I want to pinpoint that time as being in high school but it was more likely college.

Now, I have a five-year-old who gobbles up fish.  It's all I can do not to stare at him while he eats.  It's all I can do not to say to him, "whose kid are you, anyway?"   

(Lulu only eats fish in exchange for a cupcake.)

The fish:

 Salad for Eli and me:

 My ragamuffin daughter (and in the bowl are the kids' sweet potatoes -- if your kids eat salad please could you email me? I need tips):

Please god make it stop raining

It is the first day of July and the weather has been positively nutty today.  In equal parts it has been sunny, windy, and pouring rain.  As Eli said to me, "I don't care what you say; I won't miss this weather."  This was after we'd stopped underneath an awning to put the kids' coats on them because Tommy was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g.  (Yes, still constantly spelling.)

Now that it's July, it starts to feel like a legitimate grievance, you know.  It's summer.  But, it's summer in London.  Sigh.

We went to St. James's Park today to look at the birds (impressive to see huge pelicans, but less impressive to see that many pigeons in one place) and to walk around and just sort of appreciate London.  We went into the National Gallery to look at Claude Monet's waterlilies (if I knew how to link to my old posts, I would direct you to the one about how Tommy learned about Monet in school) and on the way we went through the Van Gogh room and really, he's just amazing.  Anyway, it was empty for some strange reason so felt like a 15 minutes well spent even though Lulu kept calling to 'get down, get down!' from the buggy.  Then she figured out that the space had nice acoustics and we had to get out of there as not everybody thinks her happy birthday loop is as cute as we do.

If you happen to see her, make her say umbrella.  It's really cute:  'umbralala.'

The Birthday Party

Tommy's birthday party was at an indoor play area called Gambado.  It's the kind of place that kids love and that gives adults headaches.  Bad ones.  But, it's really really easy to have a birthday party there.  Gambado even does the goodie bags ('party bags').  So when Tommy's classmate's Mom and I talked about where to have the party, Gambado was an obvious choice due to the fact that we could do minimal planning.

It was a huge success.  The only glitch is that I forgot a tray for Tommy's cupcakes and ended up using the tray that our coffees were served on, which sort of grossed me out.  (But, I used a new recipe that was really very awesome.  I guess another glitch is that the frosting didn't turn out that well because we can't get semi-sweet chocolate here and I can't figure out how to approximate it.)

Here are a few photos (they weren't very good mostly due to the lighting in Gambado):

Eli is such a good sport:

 Standing on a chair, cramming a cupcake into her mouth: