Preschool!

Today E had his first settling-in day at the preschool around the corner. It takes us about 5 minutes to walk there. B was able to go into work late and come with us and chat with E's teachers and the aides. The nursery is well equipped with a nice outside space that incorporates trees, a big playhouse, grass, a platform for imaginative play, and lots of toys to play on. The inside space is pretty good too. It was funny seeing the boys gravitate toward the airplanes and firehouse and the girls going for the kitchen/play food area.

There was also a little area where the kids could pour themselves a drink of water and have some fruit to eat (today was pear). And several tables with arts and crafts and playdough, and a reading area, and the bathrooms were nicely equipped with lots of soap and even an easel in the middle with pens and paints.

E will be going 5 mornings per week and he is so excited. He will be one of the youngest in the year (if not THE youngest).

C is 9 months tomorrow and crawling all over and pulling herself up to standing on stable objects. Sleep issues abound, but we are coping.

Next week I will have pics of E in his uniform but for now all I've got is a funny pic of C in her bath....

Will do my best to make more time to post next week!

Ok, Ok

Back to the scheduled show. Which probably means pictures. You want pictures? I got pictures. Here's a few from our trip up to Suffolk last weekend.

Off on a walk, in borrowed boots. I did think long and hard about posting this because one of those children is not mine - but due to the angle I decided to put it up. And yes, they love each other. Very much. One of the quotes was "I'm falling in love with E!" which was very humorous and cute.

Tractor. Left lots and lots of muddy ruts in the road. Our walk took us past farmland and lots of pigs, some with piglets.


And muddy puddles.

By this point, Callie was zonked out in the sling and remained so for over an hour. The kids were picking and eating blackberries from the hedges and loving it. I really appreciate being able to stay in the country with these friends and let E run wild with kids his age in the country air. I think he gets a lot out of it. So do I, actually.


Swinging in the back yard. We also went for a boat trip, complete with mooring up at a little island with a Wendy house and exploring the "magical forest" (E's term) before getting back in our boat and rowing to the shore for ice cream.

Today we had a little informal (and belated) 3rd birthday party for him, just a little picnic with some of his friends near the park. It went really well.

In other news, B starts his job in Brighton on Monday so I am bracing for earlier starts and later finishes. The recent riots didn't have much of an effect on us however a bunch of people trashed Clapham, burning stuff and looting and smashing up the train station B passes through. Our local Dominoes chain had its windows shattered as well.

I am behind on 2850825 emails, as usual. Trying to do some writing, mostly failing, but the occasional 500 word spree gives me hope. Counting down the days until E starts preschool. He'll be going 5 mornings a week for 3 hour sessions. It's a proper little school with uniforms and everything. Years ago when we moved to this area we unwittingly landed right next to one of the top schools around - there's a massive waiting list and people speak highly of it. Fortunately they give priority to people who live within the catchment area and... well, that's us.

Well, I'm off to crank out 200 words and then visit the Land of Nod.

Warning: Political Stuff

Look away now if you mind swearing and don't want to get all het up.

If you're still reading - I'll keep it short. I don't think I've ever been so close to such craziness! Local businesses being looted and burned, riot police and vans and dogs just up the hill, our local shops shutting down at 4pm and putting metal grilles over the doors, B's office in Central London being evacuated, train stations being smashed up and closed. This is all a bit nuts.

That being said, I'm pissed off at both sides. The rioters, for opportunistic looting and senseless burning, costing businesses millions of pounds. The government, for not seeing this coming. Colossally so, in fact. I mean, the Home Secretary herself said, back in September 2010: ""The British public don't simply resort to violent unrest in the face of challenging economic circumstances. ... It is ridiculous to suggest that there are not savings that can be made in policing." (source)

You dumb bitch, there weren't enough police on the ground last night to prevent looters from totally destroying multiple parts of the city - including pillaging the hell out of some of our local shops! They were in there for hours, walking out with all sorts of stuff, all because our local cops had to go reinforce other parts of the city due to YOUR budget cuts!

And meanwhile we've got our Prime Minister, who only bothered to return from vacation earlier today, yammering on about how we're all "in this together." Apparently that also means cutting taxes for corporate buddies while putting more pressure on the working and middle classes by screwing with child benefit and shafting low-income working families by cutting child tax credits, which many people depend on to help them get childcare. I'd look for a relevant statement by George Osbourne here, but apparently he's only just curtailing his holiday in California to come back to the UK to deal with the rioting, so he's probably only getting on the plane right about now.

So while Parliament discusses stuff like reintroducing baton rounds, rubber bullets, water hoses, etc, I'm going to sit here and wonder why the fuck democracy is so skewed toward a system that favors slapping temporary bandaids onto a situation over addressing root causes. Because from where I sit, I'm disgusted at both sides. Opportunistic looters - that sums up my feelings. And I don't feel I need to differentiate between either side when I say it.

I'm becoming more libertarian by the day.

(Very) Belated Update....

So we've been back from CA for a few weeks now, and are settled in. I didn't get to catch up with everyone I wanted to! Nor did there seem to be enough time to visit. The weeks we were there flew by. I plan on doing a write-up at some point, mostly for my own benefit so that I can remember and savor what we did there in the years to come.

We're off to Suffolk this weekend, staying with friends. Today is E's 3rd birthday. He was very excited to go outside and find this:

Please excuse his green underoos.

Although it's been a bit tough adjusting to life back here in the UK (rain in July and August is bleh, sinus headaches are bleh too, nonsleeping babies are VERY bleh), we are pretty much back on track now. E is starting preschool in September and will be one of the youngest kids in his age group. I know enough people in the area to arrange playdates once a week or so, which is very nice. B is starting a job in Brighton which is a 90 minute commute, but should be a good change for him.

And in and among all that we are finding time to eat blackberries from our garden in the sun.

Will try and update again sometime soon....!

It's so good to be back. Even with jet lagged kids, seeing my old stomping grounds is just amazing. On the first night, Callie woke at 2am and I took her for a walk on the marsh. The tide was going out and I stood at the bridge wearing her in the sling and let the rushing of the water drift her off to sleep. Fog was rolling inland from the ocean, over the hills, shrouding the mountain. The only other soul I saw on the walk was someone I knew from years past, on his bicycle going to work.

Been to both the MV and the Saus. library, for ice cream, to one of the Corte Madera malls, to the park, and to the beach.

Without further ado, some pics.

...or well, I'd add pics if blogger.com on Internet Explorer wasn't so buggy... maybe next time.

June

Kids are growing. Life is busy. The California trip edges ever nearer. E starts preschool in September. C is 6 months old.

We lunched at a pub on the Thames on Saturday and met friends in Covent Garden on Sunday.

Everything is basically going well, although life gets hectic around bedtime. C has started solids. We were going to do the Japanese tradition of giving her a grain of rice, but she had other ideas, and snatched a piece of pitta bread off a tray at a barbecue we went to last week. After soggifying it, she was wreathed in gummy smiles, so...

Anyhow... here's some photos.

Lunch on the Thames, near Hammersmith Bridge.

Slurp.

Banananmghomnomnom.

E's play is getting lots more imaginative and complicated. That's a level crossing, bridge, and tunnel on the same track. Recently, we added a little train station.

Salad grown in our back garden. Some rocket (arugula) plus random other varieties. Did you know you can tell the type of person you are from the kind of salad you eat? Yeah! Elton John's a rocket man. (I'll get my coat....)

E at the Science Museum recently, learning about cause and effect.


Probably won't update again before we set off to CA, but will try for more regularity!

Quotes etc

Still catching up on emails (may have missed a few here and there) and blogging has taken a back seat for a while... sorry!

We are potty training in... well, let's just say we're taking the long, scenic, easy route of no pressure. And no really big accidents, either. Yet. This necessitates (for the moment), a bare bottom around the house. We have leather couches. E's always been in diapers when sitting on them but today we were letting him watch a TV show and he (gasp) sat still for more than 5 minutes. When he moved again, his eyes got suddenly wide and he proclaimed:

"Oh! What is happening to myself? The butt of myself is stuck to the couch?!"

Even disregarding the toddler-style phrasing, you have to admit it's hilarious.

Speaking of cuteness, today I had to put the baby down for a few minutes. I heard her begin to grizzle from the other room. When I finally got to her, she'd been crying/grizzling for a minute or two. She also had a sticker on her knee and four cuddly toys deposited on her head. This is not an isolated occurrence.

Lastly, I asked E what color the sky was. We were indoors at the time. He turned to me and said, solemnly: "Gray." I guess I'm raising a very British child.

I feel incomplete not putting up a photo, so here is one of E and me at the Science Museum in London last weekend, watching a giant factory steam wheel go around and around. I tried to explain the Industrial Revolution to E but I'm not entirely sure how much he absorbed.