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: