France, Part Two

The crepes were amazing.  I had one with goats cheese, then one with chocolate for dessert.  Walked across the street with Callie to get this snap of folks finishing up their lunches...

Then back to the cottage for a little wander around the garden.  The pool was small and a bit cold, but adequate enough for three toddlers and a baby.  Also, it was entirely enclosed which gave us peace of mind, especially given E had that unexpected dip shortly after our arrival.

The walk down to the beach was a pleasant one.  The sea was just barely visible from our cottage...

The roads were narrow, with not too much traffic.  En route, an ancient cross in a small courtyard.

Past a church.  We saw a van full of nuns once, not sure if they originated from here.

Just past the church, the beach was finally visible.

These wild strawberries tasted divine - the best I've ever had.

C and I spent a few hours on our last full day at the beach together.  E had a small incident (we think gastroenteritis) that necessitated a stay at the local hospital, poor guy. It was sunny and hot that last day there....

A little stream ran down into the ocean.  C, of course, was drawn to it.  The above picture is before the soaking.

...and after....

and after that, we didn't stay long because of the hot sun, but she had some tidepooling time on the (very nice!) beach before we went back for an afternoon siesta.

Highlights of the trip: 

Visit to a nearby French amusement-type park with a large swimming complex (and waterslides that E could do!), animals, and diversions like large slides, adventure playgrounds, and trampolines!

The beach!

A night out--just B and me--at a restaurant within walking distance of our cottage.

Biking with E on the back in a kid seat.  Hard work up the hill but fun going down!

And, of course....

...the little bit of adult time at the end of each day. 

France

I've only ever been to Paris, so I was looking forward to spending some time in rural France.  I'd heard the beaches were gorgeous.  We took the Eurotunnel - from Ashford (about an hour's drive from where we live in London) to Calais.  Waited our turn, drove the car up onto the train, parking brake on, waited 35odd minutes, drove out onto French soil.  Color me impressed.

Then it was about three and a half hours to Caen.  I would have liked to look around some of the D-Day points of interest but with two small children this was impossible.  So after spending the night at a motel we headed on deeper into Brittany.  Got to the little town of Trelevern in the afternoon, after some getting-lostness.  Walked into the 5 bedroom villa we were renting with inlaws... and E promptly fell into the pool at the deep end.  B fished him out, and we greeted folks with him in sopping wet socks and clothes.  On the bright side, hopefully E will never think of flotation devices that sit atop water as "solid" ever again.  And we'll be getting him swimming lessons this summer.

Our beach was a 8-10 minute walk away (with children, faster if alone) and was absolutely gorgeous.  Unfortunately, I dropped my camera as the tide was rising, and it... well, basically died a glorious, salty death.  Was bailed out by a mother-in-law with an extra camera (she who gave me the old one in the first place, an excellent camera that travelled to Greece by train, California, and many other places, and lasted for 5.5 years... I do regret my clumsiness in dropping it) and so I do have a few photos.

But it's late at night and C has decided she enjoys waking at 5am and then needs resettling every 10-20 minutes until 6am, which is tiring.   So... one photo, of the girl herself, just above the beach of a small town about a half an hour's drive from Trelevern called Locquirec.  We had crepes there...

To be continued later!

June in London

The Met Office is warning homeowners to brace themselves as the deluge, which began in earnest about 6pm last night, is expected to continue all day bringing three inches of rain by tea-time.


Although apparently the hosepipe ban still stands.  Anyhow, this quote just about sums up the last three months.  The Diamond Jubilee was subject to atrocious weather - mad props to the Queen for standing up for something like four straight hours as she made her way down the Thames.  We are back from France and everything is really busy.  Also, I dropped my beloved camera into the sea so there will be no pictures for awhile.  I do have some of France but they're on a memory card - eventually I'll be able to post some.  For now, gotta run.  Before the floods get me or something.

This'n'That

May already.  We leave for France in a few weeks.  Both B and I are looking forward to a vacation and E is really excited as well.

What have we been up to?  Well - E got accepted to the local school, so that's sorted.  He'll be starting Reception (Kindergarten) in September.  He'll only be 4!  They start really early here... and he'll be the youngest in his class.  I'm going to ask them about half days, at least at the beginning.  I also need to ask them about how they treat gifted children because folks... he's definitely reading.  Fluently.  I don't say this lightly, but yeah, when your 3 year old is reading YOUR emails out loud to you, the whole reading thing gets pretty real.  He's so funny because he stumbles over some words and yet reads longer ones.  Still, he's learning at a rapid rate.  And nobody's even teaching him - we do sound out words with him but mostly we just read to him (or, as of lately, let HIM read to us, because he asks to).

Recently we went to the Royal Festival Hall to see a theater production aimed at 2-5 year olds.  It was an interpretive dance with an interactive backdrop.  At 30 minutes long it was about perfect for his attention span.  Here he is all excited to leave and catch the train to Waterloo ('scuse the messy living room):

C has been getting up to mischief as usual.  She's also been sleeping better (most of the time) so it's not unusual for her to go through from 8-5, then back into her cot until 5:45-6.  Still not perfect, and I still definitely don't want to talk to those people who have children who sleep from 7-7 and nap 2 hours, like clockwork.  I pretend they don't exist, or I try to, at least.

Found C wrist deep in the peanut butter jar a few days back. Fortunately it was 95% empty.  She ate that other 5% though, for sure.  With a plastic fork she fished out of the cutlery drawer herself.

Keeping up with them is hard.

Sometimes this happens.

But mostly not.  (That's E asleep in full school uniform, sans shoes.  He was so tired.)

Mostly it's keeping up with a slightly-too-precocious toddler....

...and trying (and sometimes remembering) to savor the moment.

In and around all this I've finished my latest novel.  Historical paranormal romance (ain't that a mouthful?), it's come in at just under 68k.  Revised, it should run around 75k.  I'm taking a few weeks off to write a short story and then I'll, *gulp*, edit, expand, write a synopsis and a query letter, and start fishing for agents.  My other novel's still in a slush pile of some editor's and I've got a short still out as well that I'm going to nudge on tomorrow, since it's been a few months since I've heard from them.

And that's all for now.  Blogger's thrown a curveball at me and changed the layout so this post has taken a bit longer than usual to write... now to find the publish button....

Central London

Sometimes I forget just how close we are to Central London. We lucked out finding this area back in 2007... short commute time to Victoria, yet removed enough from the hustle and bustle to feel like a tranquil place.

Yesterday we decided to meet up with B's brother and children in Hyde Park. There's a great playground we'd heard of - the Princess Diana Memorial one - with a gigantic pirate ship and other play structures inspired by Peter Pan and Neverland. So we met up, the journey in not being too bad (mainline train one stop, Tube in to Bayswater) and spent a few hours in the sun with the kids.

E really enjoyed himself. C did too. Although she was too young to really appreciate all the little nooks and crannies of the playground, she was still able to hug totem poles...

...and toddle around the wigwams.


The tunnel, however, did not yield to her force of will, and she would not stoop to crawl through it, so they were at an impasse for a little while, until she wandered somewhere else.


Meanwhile, E enjoyed chasing (and being chased by) his cousin. S is younger than E by about 18 months but is starting to be able to keep up/engage more and E loves having company at playgrounds. He was none too happy when they had to leave, but all the cool extras at the playground soon cheered him up. There was a pirate telescope at the top of a little hill... actually a kaleidoscope... that he liked quite a bit.

Checking out the treasure chest....

Walking the plank...

Sitting on a chair on the "sensory trail" which was a winding stone path incorporating things like instruments and other neat little features.

Like this wooden xylophone-type thing.

And this deceptively spinny thing.

Also, a chiming trampoline!



C fell asleep in the stroller, so while B and E played and explored, I sat and enjoyed the sun (and wished I'd brought my notebook and pen... I am behind on my word count and really want to get this first draft finished!)

It was a good day. The playground got so full the attendants (yes, attendants, at a playground! Very posh!) had to introduce a 20-out, 20-in crowd control at the gates. Being so close to Mayfair we saw some diverse children - several were out playing in miniature tweed jackets, etc. E fell asleep leaning against me on the train ride back, he was so exhausted.

Bayswater station. Probably I might catch flack from some official for posting this... but you know what? I don't care. I thought the juxtaposition of light and dark was gorgeous. Wouldn't mind waiting for trains in that station.

April

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay (who, I believe, was a friend of my grandmother's).

We are not up to much here. Our balmy weather disappeared quite sharply and now we have all the bright colors of spring underneath a drab gray sky. I don't mind the rain because it's been so dry lately, and there's a water shortage, but the cold is getting on my nerves. I thought I was all done with wrapping us all up in 900 layers just to go on a walk around the neighborhood.

It's the second week of the Easter holidays here, and E won't have to be back at school until next Tuesday. B had booked today off work and we spent it visiting grandparents in North London and going swimming - well, everyone else went swimming while I perched in the attached cafe area on top of a mound of our stuff, armed with a book.

Speaking of books, I broke 60k on the novel and hope to be done with the rough draft by the time we leave for France in May. Finding it awfully difficult to make time for the writing these days, but I hope to pick up the pace when E's at preschool next week. I can usually get a little bit done in the morning before picking him up at lunchtime, even if C doesn't sleep for long.

We find out whether E has been admitted to our local school (the one his preschool is attached to) next week sometime. I wasn't all that worried about our eligibility but then I heard that the school had 200+ applications for 52 places this year. So it'll be nice to have the whole official letter and all.

Our nights with a certain young miss have been full of ups and downs. Last Friday she only woke once - at 4am - and then slept until 7. Best she's ever done, and of course she doesn't go and repeat it... the nights since have been anywhere from 4-6+ wakings. But I do think we're getting somewhere, slowly. Naturally, any progress we make with the baby has to be somewhat offset by a little boy, standing at the foot of our bed at x'o'clock in the morning and saying "Dadden, my bed has turned into a volcano, you need to come turn it into a bed again." And then showing up fifteen minutes later, after being given a "guardian" stuffed wolf, to say "Wolfy has caught fire in the hot volcano, please save him."

Well, bedtime is rolling around sooner than expected (doesn't it always?) so here is a token picture, because blog posts with just words always seem like such insurmountable walls of text....

I hasten to add that B was the one who dressed her, and the pom-pom boots were definitely his choice as well. But she carries off the look well, I think.

Dumbphone

I have what I fondly refer to as a dumbphone. I should clarify that it has one or two bells and whistles, namely the camera (which is all I use it for apart from the odd text or call), but it's certainly no top of the range thing. Still, it enables me to point and shoot, capturing the moment here and there without fuss.

So I present to you a selection of blurry photos, each one with lots of sentimental value yet little to recommend them technically or artistically.

Callie riding a horse toy at the church playgroup. She was around 12 months in this picture.

Climbing at 12 months...

...and at around 13 months...

...ditto the above.

Safely contained within a swing. The shoes she has on here were also E's first shoes.

Smugly doing the train down the click-clack track at one of the local children's centers. These places are stay-and-play areas, open in the afternoons, geared toward preschool children under the age of 5. The Libdem/Tory coalition have cut funding for many of these places.

2 C's... in the sensory room at one of the local children's centers.

Vrooming around the outdoor area of the center.

Climbing and following big brother, a marvelous combination.

Ditto the above, minus climbing.

E chillaxing on a log on the common.
Slightly distorted sibling picture, driving the airplane at the local common.

Can't climb that (yet).
The round-and-round is always good for some giggles. E in his school uniform here.

Peepo.

A "boat" E and I built out of old boxes and boards and bricks, at the local children's center. Love the fact that they provide these natural materials that have unlimited, open-ended play potential.

Sibswings. This was taken recently - you can see how C's hair has grown.

Logwalk at the Common park.

Outdoor play at the children's center.

Squashing a flower in her paws on the school run.

We found a new park last week that's only a short bus ride away, has a different children's center attached, a sandpit, and lots of things to climb on, including this train caboose and...

...this locomotive with a tunnel down the middle.

Inside the new children's center, E rode this funny foot-pedal-machine.

"A-a-anything you can do I can do betterrrr...."

Rocking horse inside.

Taken today... E and I visited Hamley's Toy Shop on Regent's Street while B and C stayed local. Lots of things to do/see, and here E is watching a Scalextric race, with a separate train display set up in the middle. He also drove remote controlled cars and played with a ton of other toys.

Like this rocking horse.

Free face-painting job - he is a tiger. Got lots of indulgent grins on our way home today!

A quick stop for a miniature chocolate cupcake on the top floor, overlooking central London, then a wander around Carnaby Street before heading home.

The phone is back in my pocket, ready to capture more moments. I have more blurry pics on my last phone but it's daunting thinking of hunting it down, charging it, finding a way to get them off, and then sitting here sorting through them, so I will rest on my laurels now... besides, C's sleeping is worse than normal because we are trying to crack down on her bad habits. Saw a pediatrician who said the bad sleeping is behavioral... needless to say, last night wasn't a barrel of laughs, and tonight probably won't be either.