But First....

A post about our London Aquarium trip.

I took E by myself, leaving B home with the baby. She was supposed to nap, but he only got about 20 minutes of peace out of her. By that time, the boy and I were well on our way - train from our local station to Waterloo, which took about 15 minutes. E was very excited, got on the train and bellowed: "This train is going to Waterloo!" which provoked many smiles and a few outright chuckles from the passengers. He then sat across from an older mother and her teenage daughter and proceeded to chat to them the entire way. They were charmed.

Once out of the train station, his enthusiasm did not wane. The London Eye (big ferris wheel type thing) was very exciting to him.

It was a bright sunny day (if a little chilly) and Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament were gilded in sunlight.


Inside the aquarium, we found an open tank where we could look down from the top at the fish. Here, a ray is visiting us, poking its nose above water. We weren't allowed to touch, although in the San Francisco aquarium, we could. They feel like... slimy, spongy cartilage, basically.


There was a great walk-through tunnel with fish/sharks/rays swimming above us and little peekholes for children.


BIG fish in this tank plus sharks plus sea turtles (not pictured). There were lots of little kids crowded around watching.

Croc.

Buddha-in-a-tank.


There were penguins in this tank but I didn't get any in the hasty photo I snapped.

Brightly colored fish! He was nearing the end of his patience by now, and wanted some lunch.

So we walked back to the station to find some, chasing pigeons along the way.

And back home afterward, walking up through the graveyard listening to the trains roll past. Along the way, he snatched up two sticks and told me he was going to sing the blues. Then he performed "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" in a minor key.


All in all, it was a beautiful day, if slightly overwhelming for a 3 year old (and, to be quite frank, the London Aquarium is too expensive to visit lightly - nearly 30 quid for just the two of us).

It was Remembrance Sunday, so there were many in the graveyard who had come to pay their respects to the World War I/II memorials. We walked past, and chatted (very briefly) about his great-great grandfather (buried in the Somme American Cemetery) who was a sergeant and a medic in World War I, from Coxsackie, NY.



A 3 year old is too young to understand, but all the time I was walking, I thought of the World Wars. In Flanders fields, the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row.... and was so grateful to have a whole family and an intact flat to come home to.

Vegetable Herding

Back from Wales. More later. Busy herding a baby herding onions and potatoes.

Oh, all right... a sneak peek:

What...

have we been up to in November so far? Well... playing with B's iPad (both kids love it, although we're limiting its use)...


...eating a BIG chocolatey Halloween treat...

...playing lots. This girl loves to push buttons. She seems to have quite a bit of manual dexterity. If she looks stern in that photo, it's only because she's about to make a move for my camera, which has lovely shiny buttons...

...and eating us out of house and home.

I turned around for 5 seconds and there she was rummaging away! Once I determined there was nothing open (read: messy) she could grab, I got the camera. Please excuse her brother's hand-me-down pyjamas. They were so comfy, I had to keep them. Pure fleece, which is great with the weather getting colder.

In and around all this, we're coping with a broken dishwasher. Yes, it's completely borked, fixing it would cost as much as buying a new one, BUT here's the thing - it's an integrated dishwasher, so it's going to be damned difficult (and expensive) to replace. It's the landlady's responsibility, but on the other hand, she's not raised the rent in two years.... so frankly, rather than be priced out of the area, I'd rather do dishes by hand. Which we are, and have been doing, for the past several weeks. Coping. Yes, just about. My hands are really clean. Unfortunately, however, it looks like the washer/dryer is on the fritz too. Fortunately, it's just the dryer part... so far. Great timing with winter, but... could be worse. Right? Did I just jinx myself? I probably did.

Baby C took two unaided steps yesterday. I don't think she meant to, but she did anyway - from one cruising point to another. She turns 11 months tomorrow. My instinct says she'll be awhile yet before taking more unaided steps, but I'll be keeping my eyes peeled. Speaking of big moments and milestones, her first word may have been "Wow." I've heard it on two different occasions but I'm not 100% sure, because she doesn't tend to repeat it on command.

Well, off to catch up on emails... okay, who am I kidding... I'm going to read some, promise mentally to reply, and then fall into bed anyway.

Happy (Slightly Early) Halloween!

I have written before about how the UK doesn't celebrate Halloween with as much gusto as the US does, but today, en route to a friend's baby shower, I spied CHRISTMAS decorations in one of the superstores. Come on! Christmas in October? I'd been merrily tuning out the odd mention (people here start talking about it as far back as late August) and now I feel myself turning all bah humbug. There was once a time when Christmassing didn't begin until after Thanksgiving, and I think I liked it better then.

So. We went to Wimbledon Common today, hiked, went into the Windmill musuem (E LOVED it, although the boy loves museums in general), came home, and carved our pumpkin.


Elijah helped with the scooping.


Baby Callie helped with the... um, well.... Baby Callie was the overseer.

She thinks our caution about raw pumpkins not tasting very nice is highly amusing.

Brother and sister examining the finished product.

Test run.

Happy Halloween!

School, Autumn, Life

Life continues to roll on, complete with mild-to-moderate sleep deprivation and busy schedules (mostly B). E has settled in to preschool, and is the youngest in his class by some way (only August-born). I have mixed feelings about school in general... whether he'll be a child who falls through the cracks, gets bullied, perhaps overlooked by adults due to his general easygoing nature and reluctance to rock the boat.

He is not like a "typical boy" running around playing guns, dinosaurs, etc (although he's into vehicles, especially trains) and although he has social skills, they don't extend to defending himself when confronted by someone aggressive (or perhaps even another very assertive child). He takes criticism to heart and is sensitive, but tends not to show it on the outside. For example, he'll come home and tell me an aide was "cross with him" for something or other. He can tell me the context, because he's quite verbal, and these incidents are always, from an adult point of view, trivial. Yet to him they are a big deal, and I'm trying to process how I feel about that - whether it's a "necessary evil" for him to learn about the world, or whether I ought to look at ways to protect him from that kind of thing until he matures a little bit more. I don't like the idea of sending him off to kindergarten at the age of 4 - one MONTH after he turns 4, to be precise.

I would rather, in my heart of hearts, send him to a Montessori preschool until he hits 5. He is reading simple words now - my, no, dog, on, a few others. He is asking "what do these words spell?" every day. He is (and has been) counting with one-one correspondence up to at least five or six, and more if he is in a careful mood. He uses words like "reflection" accurately, in context, and as part of his general vocabulary. He can draw faces although he isn't much interested in drawing in general (he enjoys painting more). He is musical. He is kind.

And I just don' t feel his teachers are seeing much of this (if at all). I had a scheduled 10 minute talk with them on a parent conference day and E sat to color in a picture while I chatted. One on one with the aide, he colored in an "S" and volunteered the sound it made (sss) and also that "Snake begins with S." She was surprised. I wasn't. And I understand that there's a minimum ratio the teachers deal with but I do struggle with knowing that my son is possibly getting overlooked. Not that I want him to be drilled academically, but... it'd be nice if they appreciated what he can do. I get the feeling that the wheels are in motion for preschoolers who need extra help, but no plans in place that recognizes advanced/gifted children. And I will be honest and say that it makes me a little bit angry.

Angry that the school talks about how important attendance is and talks about FINING parents who take their child on vacation when school is in session... yet doesn't seem to recognize each child is an individual. I am fully on board with E learning how to stand in line, wait his turn, etc (actually he does all that pretty well already) but I am NOT on board with him becoming a little lemming and losing the ability to think for himself/outside the box. And I do think school, as a whole, promotes that. It's easier for the teachers, perhaps, easier for "the majority."

Well, I don't know where I'm going with this, but it's nice to put my thoughts down. I'm sure I'll refer to this post later in life. B and I sometimes go back to older posts on this blog to see how we felt back then, or look at pictures, or find the dates of something we all did. So now I've got this entry and down the line, when I need to make a definitive decision about his schooling, I'll be able to refer to it.

I think what I'd most like is a halfway house. If I could send him to school for half-days and then involve him in extracurricular activities a few times per week (sports, language, music) I would be happy. I don't think I'm up for 100% homeschooling, just as I feel leery about 100% regular schooling. I guess the only thing to do is watch how things go and play it by ear.

Meanwhile... life rolls on... we went to Clapham today to the tea place at the edge of the Common.

Father-son matching blue turtlenecks. Pistachio ice cream for the young master.

A nice treat.

Clowning around outside for the camera.
C chewing my ring!

I have a picture of me standing by this fence when I was 28 weeks pregnant with E... life really does fly by!

They love each other.

Going toward the car after a little walk around. We ran into friends about 30 seconds after I snapped this photo!

That's all for now. We are in the thick of autumn and I'm enjoying it despite the cold mornings. It's feeling like a good time to wrap up warm, enjoy cocoa, unwind, prepare for the incoming holidays. We are off to Wales in mid-November and Halloween is soon....

October

We had a great heat wave lately - 70's and 80's, real summer weather - but have now returned to more season-appropriate weather. Since summer was on the cool side, this heat wave has made me less grumpy about heading into autumn/winter. I'm looking forward to hot chocolate... Halloween... Christmas... not so much the idea of darkness falling at earlier than 5pm and the 1385 layers the children will need and not being able to go in and out of our garden at will.

E has been enjoying his preschool. He's been bringing home lots of paintings and other little projects. The joy of having a very verbal 3 year old - he's able to tell me a fair amount of details about his day. I feel good about the place he's going to. It's only 3 hours per morning but it's become important in our lives.

C is developing in leaps and bounds, although she still only has two teeth. She also doesn't sleep very well. A good night for us is when she's only up 3 times. A bad night can be 9+ settlings. B helps me a lot otherwise I would have crashed and burned by now. But she's a smart little lady so I try and count my blessings. She cruises now (holds onto the furniture and sidles along), claps, waves, sticks her tongue out at you and goes "LEBBLE LEBBLE" in her baby voice, and loves it when you copy what she's doing. Also dances (in a rickety, baby manner) when music is on. And laughs at her big brother. Crawls away at warp speed while sticking forbidden things in her mouth and looking smug.

So... photos... one, at least.

Brother and sister on the little trampoline. She was actually bouncing (not jumping, obviously) but bending her knees and going up and down with big grins.

Ok - one more picture:


Still need to blog about the CA trip. Right now we're counting down the days until Halloween... that's the next fun landmark.

First Day of Preschool

Here's the man himself, ready to go. He did not want to stop and get his photo taken, hence the slight disheveledness of his uniform etc. And that smile is his "smile for the camera" smile.