So, Am I lonely yet??

Well, we're into week four of our overseas adventure and so far so good. We've settled in at the 'flat' and the only thing left is hanging some pictures, which I can't seem to motivate my husband to do. Josephine begins drama and computer class in the ASL after school program next week and she's also really loving the soccer (football) program in Primrose Hill on the weekends. Chris Jr. is also doing well. We've found a new part time babysitter who is also Chinese and she comes at the beginning of each week. She's going to take him to a fun creative play class at Ready, Steady, Go, a little preschool/mommy and me program across the park. Then at the end of the week he and I go to the gym together and on Fridays he has a music class at Gymboree.

So, we're all settled, right? Right... Well, maybe not all settled. I'm still trying to find a place for myself here. I'm trying to volunteer at Josephine's school and meet new moms through the St. John's Wood Women's Club. But as those of you closest to me know, I don't really make friends easily. Sometimes it seems like moms are supposed to automatically be friends when they have children of the same age, and that just doesn't always work for me. I guess I need more of a connection with people before I really feel comfortable. What I'm really saying is that making friends is hard, and though I'm not a shy person by any means, I'm always surprised at how long it takes for me to build a connection with new people when we move to new places. In Darien it was probably a year or more before I felt like I had some friends there. I hope it doesn't take me as long to meet people here, that might make for a long, lonely year! :)

That said, we are really loving London. Last weekend we explored the National Science Museum in Kensington and I have never seen Chris Jr. so excited! He was running all over the place yelling about the rocket ships, moons and stars in the exhibit about space. It was adorable! Then we returned to St. John's Wood and had a great dinner with the kids, the highlight of which was sharing the most delicious strawberry milkshake I think I've ever had. I think they made it with gelato... it was DELICIOUS!

The kids have also finally discovered

the train set that we got from their cousins about two years ago. Chris Jr. actually went into Josephine's room one morning and built a track by himself, though it wasn't completely connected, and they are both enjoying making complicated tracks with their Daddy after work.

There are also some weird UK habits that I am struggling with:

- All the smoking! I am truly surprised that the entire country isn't dying of lung cancer!

- Not getting up for an obviously pregnant woman on public transportation. Even Chris has remarked on this one. I have YET to have someone get up and offer me their seat on any of the crowded buses we have ridden on. It's just strange, in the U.S. people would jump up and offer me their seat, maybe it's a talking to strangers thing, but I just can't figure it out.

- I also cannot figure out which side of the street/hall/stairs/sidewalk to walk on. This is particularly challenging when pushing a stroller, one-handed, in the rain, while carrying an umbrella, all the while people walking towards me seem to walk wherever they feel like and rarely move to the side to let me pass easily. I'm not going to lie, it can get a little frustrating.

- Tea... ok, so for some reason I have started drinking tea in the afternoons. Which is totally strange to me because I'm usually all alone in my house doing this... maybe it's the weather or maybe I'm just subconsciously getting into the UK spirit of things. Who knows, but it is yummy.

Ok People, I'm Slacking Again... Ready, Set, Relocate!

What can I say? My dedication to blogging is officially waning. But here I am in London with few friends, lots of newness in my life, and not a lot of people to talk to. So maybe this move will be just the motivation I need to reconnect with my computer techie side. We'll see...

The last month and a half has been an adventure to say the least. We closed on our wonderful little house in Connecticut at the beginning of August, and it is ours no more. :( Kind of sad to shut that chapter of our lives. Then we were off for a whirl wind tour of extended 'familydom.' We had a great week in Atlanta visiting friends and going to the mountains with my parents. Their home in Clarksville is very relaxing and the kids just LOVED the pool. Chris Jr. discovered his inner fish and by the end of the visit Josephine was swimming under water.

Then it was off for our final two weeks in the U.S. in central New York. All I can say is that my in-laws deserve some kind of award for putting up with me for so long. I mean, as most of you already know, I am an official pain in the ass, and after three weeks of living out of a suitcase it really showed. We did have a great time at the lake, and I got some good skiing pics of the cousins and Chris.

We finally headed back to CT for one last doctor's visit to check on the baby and then our one-way flight to London at the end of August. The flight and the week to follow were quite a challenge for the entire family. The kids were good on the plane, apart from Chris Jr. spilling my cup of coffee on a lovely older gentleman before the plane even took off. Needless to say, they moved him to First Class within minutes, and we had an extra seat all to ourselves.

The jet lag was a challenge for us all. Josephine and Chris seemed to adjust the fastest, while Chris Jr. and I languished around for days getting up late and not sleeping at night when we were supposed to. Oh well, we've all settled into regular sleep now. Our furniture arrived at almost the same time we did, which made the three weeks of homelessness seem almost worth it! Particularly since I have heard some not so lucky stories from other expats here about waiting weeks and weeks for their shipments to arrive.

Here are some BEFORE pics:

Here we are partially AFTER (we've yet to hang up pics, but that's coming this weekend):

Generally things are going well. As of today we have our bank account sorted out, FINALLY. And all the utilities are on. I think Josephine is enjoying school, and Chris and I are going to her class back to school night this evening, so I may have more details to report after talking with her teachers. I will say that she seems to be adjusting well, and only mentions missing CT occasionally. She spent an hour and 45 minutes at her first UK 'football' practice on Sunday, and she did surprisingly well, considering that many of the other kids have been playing since they were 3 years old!

Chris Jr. is also doing well. The real test will be when Shaobai leaves this weekend. She came with us and has been here every step of the way helping with the move. I have been so lucky and blessed to have her here. Running all these errands without having to drag the kids has been a tremendous help. We will all miss her so much, but she promises to call and maybe even come back for a visit with her husband next year.

As for my husband, he is doing well and continues to run the 5+ miles to work each morning. His suits seem to be holding up well in this crazy Australian commuter backpack garment bag that he bought and wears when he runs, and he's not as sore this week as last week. Personally, I think he's nuts, but he's made a pledge to not ride the tube to work, regardless of weather or exhaustion. At this rate, he'll be back in Death Race shape in no time!! :)

Sending you all lots of love! Keep in touch!

DEATH RACE 2010

Matching Shirts: "Nice Ax... Want to See My Posthole Digger?"

Required/Optional Gear

$50 in Pennies (approx. 30 lbs)

Posthole Digger

Ax

3 inch Knife

10 lbs of Onions

Large Greek Translation Textbook

Registration

Timeline of Race Events...

Friday, June 25th

6pm - Race Registration

8pm - Shuttle Van to top of Tweed River Mountain, leave useful gear on top of the mountain

8pm-4am - Aimlessly hiking up and down the Mountain grooming trails and moving bridges from place to place (Approx. 10-15 miles??)

Heading BACK up the Mountain

Saturday, June 26th

4am - The "Official" Start of the race

Task One - go back up the mountain again to retrieve your gear (Round Trip Approx. 10 miles)

7am - They reach the top, after about 700 feet under barbed wire, to find that they have to go back down again to retrieve 'paperwork' to get their gear, barbed wire included

9am - Reach the bottom of the mountain again, NOT the high point of the race so far

11am - Back up top they are allowed to retrieve their gear and head back to Amee Farm for task Two

1pm - Finally the hiking is over, or at least we THINK it's over.

After all the hiking

Task Two - Wood Chop or Farm work, because they both had axes they are given the task of quartering 25 logs of their choice, it's a slower process than last year, but much easier than the farm work option, which involved loading and moving 15 wheel barrows of manure across a large field

Choosing Their Logs

3pm - Wood Chop is complete

Task Three - Pennies in the Pond, involved counting out hundreds of pennies and bagging them up in zip locks in multiples of $5. At this point Chris decided to donate all but the required $5 of his pennies. He didn't want to count them and he'd had enough of carrying the extra 30 lbs. It proved to be a good move for him. John donated about $20 worth of pennies and kept the rest.

4:30 - After diving to the bottom of the pond to retrieve their pennies we were off to the next task.

Task Four - Up ANOTHER Mountain!?!? - Team Chris/John split up here, with Chris and Meredith heading up the hill to the 'Onion Store.' John and Colin soon followed and caught up to us about half way to the Cottage. By this time Chris was REALLY struggling with his hip. When he walked it looked as though his right leg was about 2 inches shorter than his left one. NOT a pretty sight! :) John looked great, he looked like he had it in him to go all the way.

Before his last push up the Mountain

At the cottage John bought some Chinese herbs before he and Colin made the final push bush-whacking up to the 'Onion Store'

6:30pm - We all reach the cottage, half way to the top of the Second Mountain

Task Four/Five - About 200 yards from the Onion Store Chris ran out of gas. His official Quit time was 7:54pm. John made it all the way to the Onion Store. There he followed a number of orders from the 'king.' His tasks included moving chopped wood from one location to another, cutting up his onions and buying his way out of eating a pound of his onions. He completed his tasks at about 9:30pm, and at this point he elected to stop racing rather than hike back down the unmarked mountain in the dark.

So officially neither John or Chris completed the race, but they had a great time and both are planning to return for more punishment next year!

Unofficial Racing Times:

Chris - 8pm-7:54pm - 23+ hours

John - 8pm-9:30pm - 25+ hours

Official Racing Times:

Chris - 4am-7:54pm - 15+ hours

John - 4am-9:30pm - 17+ hours

Ok Life, Here We Come!

Well, it's official... we're moving to London and having another baby! Yes, you heard me right. We figured we might as well get two HUGE life changing experiences out of the way simultaneously. Well, not exactly, I mean, I'm not planning to actually give birth on the plane or anything, but close enough. The move is at the end of August, the baby is due in December. Have I completely lost my freaking mind?? I mean having a third child is pretty nuts all on its own. On Monday, as my Mom and I watched Josephine and Chris circling our living room in crazy hysterics, I remarked... "you know the only other thing we need right now? Another child!" What a laugh! Ha! It's going to be total and complete chaos. Anarchy. The shit will hit the fan over and over and over again, and I'll just be running around trying to wipe and mop it up! WOW! I don't need luck, I need prayers! And lots of them! :)

But on a lighter note, the beginning of our summer has brought a lot of fun family times. First, Josephine graduated from preschool. And let me tell you she was absolutely adorable. She was so proud of herself; she likes to mention to complete strangers, "I just graduated from preschool!" Very cute.

Chris Jr. has had no such similar life accomplishments of late. Well unless you count the lotion incident from my last entry, but that's a stretch. Although he did have a wonderful time tubing with Daddy at the lake over Memorial Day. He was bobbing up and down, nothing but smiles, yelling "faster, faster" and "bounce, bounce." Notice the new shorter hair cut in these pictures. The only real solution to the tub of Aquafor in his hair was to cut it all off! :)

One small Chris Jr. accomplishment... we've started some really basic potty training, which consists of him running around naked from the waist down peeing on command as often as possible on as many flat surfaces as he can find! Each time he does it he smiles and laughs as if he is so proud of himself! Now we just need him to aim into a container of some sort, preferably a potty. Should be a fun and wet summer! :)

Fun UK Tidbit:

Yesterday Josephine's dentist told us that over the years he's had many families move to and return from the UK and they have all shared the same experience. When US families take their young children to the dentist in the UK the doctors laugh at them. They say "these are baby teeth! why would we clean them?" It's accepted practice in the UK that children are not seen by a dentist until they are at least 16 years old! YUCK!!! I guess this explains a lot about the state of oral hygiene in England! He recommended that we make pediatric dental appointments when we come home for visits/holidays. So we have that to look forward to, which is nice. :)

Ok, I need to get my act together... I KNOW!

Well this blog thing seems to have petered out quickly. Maybe all the news and changes will help inspire me to add some details and write these a little more frequently. As for the update on our family, we've got lots of changes on the horizon... at the end of the summer we're moving to LONDON! Yes that's right, across the "pond," as so many keep reminding me. I'm honestly filled with mixed emotions about the decision. It's a huge step for Chris and he's really happy about the opportunity at work, but moving the kids so far from all our family and the life we have created here is quite intimidating. But status quo has never been our thing, so we decided that we might as well give it a go.

As for the kids, they've been VERY busy. Both kids had birthdays this spring, Josephine in April and Chris Jr. in May. We had a great day out in the city for Josephine, with lots of family and cousins along for the fun. Chris Jr. got a wonderful homemade cake, decorated by Daddy, with car wrecks and rivers on it! Don't mind the missing corner, Chris Jr. had it for breakfast, he just couldn't wait for candles later in the day!

Josephine also just had her first ballet recital, which was fun but a little chaotic. I've never seen so many saved seats and extended family in all my life. Who would have thought a 5 year old's recital would garner such interest! It was standing room only, and you guessed it, I was left standing. But the two minutes that her class performed were glorious! Very cute.

And finally for the funniest of our recent adventures. That would be entering the land of trying to remove greasy products from a toddlers hair. Yes, that's right... this morning I heard Chris Jr. at about 7am, but he often talks and sings to himself for a bit so I left him in bed. Things were quiet for at least 30 minutes, and then he finally began to cry. I entered his room to find one of the funniest things I think I've ever seen. He had kicked his crib away from the wall and then pulled it over to his dresser. There he'd found a conveniently located basket full of lotions, ointments, and thankfully two markers. In the dark he managed to accomplish quiet a lot. And amazingly enough, very little was on his bedding, he saved it all for himself, most particularly, his head. This was the sight...

Such a serious face to go with his treachery. He is so devilish! I LOVE it! I wanted to be mad, but I seriously couldn't stop laughing. He had an entire large tub of Aquafor on his head! After one bath with 4 shampoos he looked like a greaser from the 1950s who hadn't showered in a week. Tonight I tried again with 4 shampoos of dish soap hoping the degreaser might help. He still looks pretty bad! My little Chris, Daddy is off on Thursday... say good bye to your messy do and hello to your buzz cut!

Oh, one more note... if you plan to shower in a bathtub that has recently been used in a similar scenario, make sure you clean it VERY well before you get in! Just a tad slippery. lol

John's Video

Here is my brother-in-law's Death Race Qualifying Video. Enjoy...

Easter Cake and 35 miles... Really?

Well, our day came and went, without an Easter Egg hunt. I just couldn't muster the dedication it would have taken to re-stuff and hide the 50+ eggs Josephine found on Saturday at our neighborhood Egg Hunt. Thank you Renie and Chris! And don't you love Josephine's Easter Egg "Basket?" She loves her new soccer shoes so much she insisted on using the box.

But the day wasn't without some drama and fun. First deluxe breakfast and church. At the latter, it was revealed to us that Josephine was actually quite sick. She complained the entire time about her ear and couldn't even sit up for most of the service.

So home we headed to start Easter dinner, and oh, wait, did I mention the lost dog from the morning? Oh yes... cute as could be, lost, well-fed, friendly, no collar, black lab was out in our front yard this morning as we were leaving. I couldn't bring myself to just leave him wandering the neighborhood, so we put him in the courtyard and came back to deal with him. After a few blocks of walking and asking if anyone knew his owner, we decided to call the Darien Police, and the owner was at our door within 30 minutes! Easter saved for BOTH families! :) His name was 'chip', and Josephine misses him sporadically, but with some apparent nostalgia. Who knew a dog in the life of a 5-year-old for all of 45 minutes could make such an impression. And she's mentioned how old she is and how much she would love to have a dog at least 5 times since he left! Ughhh...

Then, after dinner was cooking, Josephine and I were off to the urgent care, where, after waiting for well over an hour to just see the doctor, we were informed that yes she does have another ear infection, or maybe it's just the last one, never quite gone away. Either way, she is resting now with motrin and antibiotics and lots and lots of CAKE. Yes, Easter cake! It's our new tradition, complete with a "Happy Easter to You" sung to the Happy Birthday tune. Candles and ALL! Daddy gets all the credit, with some help from Josephine on the blue dots and lots of help from Chris Jr. with all the extra cake he cut off. (The open mouth cake eating pic absolutely kills me!)

Overall it was a great day! Despite all of the unforeseen visitors and doctor visits. Ah... children and dogs, you can't live with them, and you can't live without them... well, we CAN live without the dog. Thank goodness!

Oh, and one more weekend tidbit, for those of you who thought that Chris Sr. was sounding remarkably sane in this entry... my husband started off the weekend on Thursday by running home from work. And yes kids, he works in MANHATTAN and we live in CONNECTICUT! Total journey... 35 MILES! Left at 5pm and arrived home around 1:30am. Part of his training for the 100 mile race he's doing in VT at the beginning of May. I am officially married to a maniac. But God do I love him! :)