Update on the Girls

Since the holidays, we have all gotten back to life as normal. The girls are really settling into school now and seem to really feel happy. Abby has gotten over her fear of swimming lessons with her class and is making huge progress. The girls take swimming lessons together on Mondays. Abby has swimming with her class (during school) on Tuesdays and cross-stitching after school. That's when Sammy, Alex and I go to the library while waiting for Abby.  I also am teaching the girls piano and our lessons are on Tuesdays as well. Wednesdays, Abby has recorder lessons during lunch period in school but after school its a free day where the girls can have play dates with friends. Thursdays, Sammy has choir, Abby has Kumon (a math tutoring program) and afterward she has Brownies. Fridays, Sammy has street dance and then it is home for an easy dinner and a movie party. Our worst day is definitely Thursday. I feel so exhausted after taking the girls from one thing to the next. It is so hard not to over-schedule them. They both have interests and want to do things. I can only imagine how I will feel when Alexandra gets older and starts after school activities as well. I am truly a "soccer mom" now running my children from one activity to another. I don't even think I have them in that many activities. Abby complains that she doesn't have dance lessons. Well sweetheart, something else will have to go if you want to do that....

The above pictures are of Sammy sweeping our driveway. What a great helper. 

Yes, that is our car in the driveway in the background. I am sooo glad I did not get a mini-van or anything bigger. It is not practical in this country. The parking spaces are tiny, the roads are narrow and you are constantly parallel parking. No thanks! I love my little car. My friends who have bigger cars are constantly complaining. I think they are nuts! Our car also gets incredible gas mileage where they are constantly filling up their tank for about $8 a gallon.

Here is Abby trying on her new Brownie uniform. She loves all the activities. They are even going down to London in March to see the Broadway show of Shrek in the West End. 

A fun past time for the girls is singing in their little karaoke machine.  I will post some videos of them singing as soon as I get a chance to download them. 

This was a lazy Saturday morning reading stories to the girls. Alex fell asleep right under me. 

Charles and I celebrated our ten year anniversary this month. We got a babysitter and drove into London for dinner and a night at the opera. We saw Der RosenKavalier at the London Coliseum. We parked in China town which worked out well when we arrived but when we tried to leave at 11pm it took forever to get out because of all the traffic of China town. I heard there was a parade the next day for the Chinese New Year. We are not sure we will drive into London again. We may just drive part way in and then take the tube. We didn't get home until almost 1am! The four-hour opera was great. It was fun to dress up and feel like we were going out on a real date!  

The girls got this Barbie dream house for Christmas. Alex loves it. She always wants to go up and play. It is quite disturbing though that every time she plays with Ken she insists on stripping off all his clothes. She says he is stinky. She also insists on sleeping with some of the Barbies for nap time.

Silly girl!

Drama

I hope you don't get the impression from reading my blog that my life is without drama. We certainly have our share. This past week, little Alexandra was sick and vomited a bit (nothing really that dramatic). In some ways I was happy for an excuse just to stay home for once and get some things done. She mostly lounged on the couch and watched t.v. She took a few days and eventually was deemed better. However, that very night Abby vomited in the middle of the night. Charles and I immediately expected it was what Alex had. However, she was perfectly fine the next morning eating and dancing about as usual. I kept her home from school that day which also happened to be the very day that her school class has swimming. 

Here in the UK, students have swimming lessons during school with their class. I have also signed Abby and Sammy up for swimming after school. Abby loves the swimming lessons with Sammy. They are in the same class and they are bouncing off the walls, they love it so much. However, swimming lessons at school with her class are a different story. The first time she went, she was the last one dressed and everyone was waiting for her to get on the bus. That was very traumatic for her. She also is one of the only ones who is still in the shallow end of the pool, all the rest of her class is in the deep end and are more advanced swimmers. In some ways this is my fault for not getting her in swimming lessons earlier but I tried. She has been terrified of the water for a very long time and was not ready to take swimming until recently. I really feel for her. I have asked the school if I could go on the bus with her class to swimming but there is already a roster of mothers and they don't need me. Also you have to be CRB certified which is basically a WHOLE lot of paperwork to make sure you are not a paedophile. I have not filled out my paperwork out of sheer laziness. I guess I should. 

I think Abby was sick (her vomiting certainly sounded real) but I think it also may have been nerves and stress about swimming. Poor girl! Like I said, she stayed home on the day of swimming. The school told me she was not allowed back for 48 hours after throwing up. The day she was home, she was so bored! I couldn't imagine keeping her home another day. Besides, Wednesdays is when she has french class and she absolutely loves it. So I made her get her uniform on that morning and give it a try to see if the school would let her come back. Charles was in Brussels for the day so I was on my own in this decision. 

I took her to school but thought it was pretty likely that she would be turned away to stay home for another day. I think she thought (or hoped) the same. However, they told her she could stay. She was so surprised. However, she refused to go into class. I am pleading with her, comforting her, trying to persuade her but no luck. I take her to the office where the pleading, begging and persuading starts all over. She is holding on to me and crying and refusing to go to school. The secretary literally pries her off me and physically takes her away to class. I feel terrible! It was awful! I cry all the way home. I call Charles in Brussels. He tries to calm me but is heading into a meeting. I worry and feel terrible the rest of the day. Would it have been so awful for me to keep her home one more day? I go and pick her up from school. She comes out smiling and gives me a big hug. Tough love is more difficult than I thought and this is only the beginning...

Strange Cravings

So it's Saturday night, 10:30pm and we are watching "The Big Bang Theory" season 4 (I know, pretty exciting life we lead). The episode is where Sheldon brings home a whole bunch of cats to live with him to help get over the "break-up" with his girlfriend. I have had little too eat all night. Nothing sounded good to me. I was hungry but couldn't figure out what I wanted. Sheldon gets out some Fancy Feast cat food to feed the cats and it dawns on me, I need tuna. I want some tuna. That is what I am craving. I try to let the craving pass. It does not. Fifteen minutes later, I am still thinking about it. So I get up in the middle of the episode and go to the kitchen. Charles asks if I want him to pause it. I say no out of embarrassment that he will find out what I am doing. He pauses it and asks, "Are you opening a can?" "Yes," I reply. "I am craving tuna."  I bring the can and a spoon in and sit down on the couch. Charles asks are you pregnant? What is wrong with you? First of all, NO, I am NOT pregnant. I just saw the cat food and it helped me figured out what I wanted to eat. A little strange, I know....

A View of the Horses

These pictures are from November but I wanted to post them to show Alexandra's favorite spot to sit. Almost every time she goes up stairs she ends up climbing up onto the window seal in Abby and Sammy's room because it has such a great view of all the horses behind our house. She regularly says goodnight to the horses as we are putting her to bed (as well as every other friend or person she has ever met).

I love that she enjoys looking at the horses so much. I have also enjoyed watching them at randoms points during the day. I have noticed them all galloping after each other at times and they always seem to be eating in groups.

We are still enjoying our new life in England though over Christmas I think we were all missing our old house in Chicago but I think it has past and we are now moving on.

(This post is for you Janet.)

Holiday Baking

Before the holidays are in the far distant past, I must post my holiday baked good pictures from this year. I took pictures of most of the items that I baked. So in no particular order here they are: First up, soft and chewy Gingerbread Cookies. It ain't the holidays unless we have loads of these. We don't just make one batch of them either. I make multiple batches throughout the month of December. We gave them to neighbors, we had a gingerbread party in the middle of December with some friends where we ate them fresh out of the oven and we decorated them on Christmas Eve with MOUNTAINS of frosting and GOBBS of sprinkles all for Santa to eat... heh heh heh!

No, we didn't eat Sammy's hat, nor was it edible but I threw this picture in here because her hat was decorated for New Year's Eve. I didn't seem to get pictures of Abby's and Alex's hats which were also loaded with sticker jewels, finger paints and foam letters. They were the hit of the party!

Here is my New Year's cake. It is actually much taller than this picture makes it look. It was a chocolate cake (from scratch). It is covered in whip cream that has been mixed with gelatin to give it stiffness. We had sparklers for candles on it at midnight. The star was made by Charles because I made another one and it looked way worse.

Here is our lovely gingerbread house (from Costco - I refuse to attempt to make my own gingerbread for the house - way too much work). It was decorated a Sunday or two before Christmas. We hot glued it this year since last year it kept falling over. The girls loaded it with so much candy it made me laugh.

Christmas Tree Cinnamon Rolls!

These cinnamon rolls are now a tradition. (Thanks Christine!) I make these for neighbors as well as for breakfast on Christmas Day. We have them with hot chocolate. Aren't they pretty?!
I also made cranberry muffins with butter sauce for Boxing Day but forgot to take pictures of them.

Cesnica - Serbian Christmas bread - I baked this bread for Christmas dinner. This bread is baked with a coin in the middle. Whoever gets the coin has a year of good luck. I baked my bread this year and it looked lovely. However, when we cut into it we realized the middle was not quite done. It was still doughy. I just cut up the parts that were baked and someone got the lucky coin, I threw the rest back in the oven and baked it but by the time it was done everyone was stuffed and no one really ate anymore. Next year, I will bake it on a lower temperature so the middle gets done. I guess I am just not used to how my oven bakes here yet.

Here are the girls on Christmas Eve with some friends of ours decorating their gingerbread cookies. After all those sweets and non-stop eating, I am off to the gym for 2012. I joined a gym in November but my membership didn't start until January 1st. So a month of eating will certainly give me something to work on while I am there.....

Public Transportation

"British rail commuters pay up to 10 times as much for season tickets as some European counterparts, a transport pressure group claims."

The past several days I have heard reports on the BBC about the high cost of British public transportation. They reported that commuters in the UK pay 10X the amount of other countries per year.

"We knew we had some of the most expensive rail fares in Europe, if not the world, but even we were shocked by how much more the UK ticket was in comparison to our European counterparts," said Ms Allain spokeswoman for railway.

It is true, they ain't kidding! For example in Italy, they pay the equivalent of 300 GBP or UK pounds (which is $465.32) for an annual pass (yearly pass) to travel the same distance that Charles travels to work each day. Do you know how much Charles pays for his annual (yearly pass)?

3000 GBP that is $4,653.00!!!

Incredible! Wow! For that amount of money, the train should NEVER be late or have ANY kind of problem.... sadly that is not the case. Ahhh, the joys of living in the UK.

Check out this article from the BBC for more info.

Random Thoughts

I have been thinking lately how nice it is to move from time to time. I think back to when Charles and I lived in New York city and all the great friendships we made there, then on to London, Chicago and now back to England. Every place we have been, we have made close friends that seem like family. Friends that we spend holidays and birthdays with and friends we just hang out with and dream of living in a compound together with (perhaps a little strange but it is true). When we leave them, we miss them like crazy and long to hang out just a few more times. I think by moving around your life is richer because of the great people you meet. In fact, I almost feel sorry for those who don't move because if we keep meeting such amazing people then I am thinking we better move every two to three years so we can meet all the great people out there that have so much to offer and teach me. The people we have met have certainly enriched my life.

It is interesting to move to a new country versus just a new city in the same country. I have discovered that any American I meet here instantly becomes my best friend. That is not to say that I do not have plenty of English friends or friends of other nationalities but there is an instant bonding that takes place when people are American. I guess the other reason I have also made friends so quickly here is that my girls are now in school. When one of them wants someone to come over for a play date I am forced to get to know the mother and we become friends. It speeds up the whole friendship making process.

Another thing I have been thinking about lately is my vocabulary. When we first moved to London in 2003, I was eager and willing to use all of the English terms for things and made a huge effort to do so. Things like nappy instead of diaper; garden instead of backyard; rubbish instead of garbage; pavement instead of sidewalk. However, we then moved back to the States and I was quickly trying to change my vocabulary back to the American terms mostly so I would stop getting strange looks. Words I had a hard time changing were: pacifier instead of dummy; cell phone instead of mobile phone; crib instead of cot.

But now once again I am back in England but this time I am actually finding myself refuse to change my vocabulary yet again! Most of it is PURE laziness on my part. I just simply cannot be bothered this time. Besides I AM American after all. Why should I change? Especially if we are going to be here for the long term I have started to feel like I need to preserve the "Americanisms" for my children and myself. Besides that, living in the country versus the city, I am constantly being reminded that I am American. I ask the man in the grocery store - "Where is the molasses or black treacle?" The man responds, "you are American." "Yes," I reply, "now back to my treacle, where is it?"

At Halloween, I found myself saying, "I am American and yes we go overboard and decorate for holidays like this." At Christmas I found myself saying, "I am American and Americans decorate early for the holidays (right after Thanksgiving) and yes, we decorate the whole house." In a sense it feels liberating to be who I was born to be! I guess though if I am here long enough I may start to use the English terms just because I hear them so much or because I am now constantly being corrected by my children of what the right term to use is. It is tea not dinner; trousers not pants; motorway not freeway; boot not trunk; and post not mail, they say. They also correct me if I do not pronounce words properly. Such as the word "parcel." I say "parcel" like any American would but apparently that is unacceptable to Abby and Sammy who immediately correct and mock me and say it should be pronounced "pah sel." I am sorry but I don't even naturally use the word parcel. I mail PACKAGES!