Still sweltering

The heat wave continues. It's becoming absolutely miserable. I'm sitting in the living room next to an open window with the fan on high and still sweating. I have found a way to beat the heat though - develop a very high fever and get the chills. Last night I woke up shivering. I had been feeling ill all day and my temperature shot up when I went to bed. Tobes is ill too and J took us all to the doc's today. We now have three prescriptions between us and will hopefully be feeling better in a couple of days. Hot and ill, what a combination.

In happier news, Toby's fourth birthday is on Monday and we're having his party on Sunday. It's a Lazytown theme of course. The flat is too small for a bunch of kids to run around so we're having the party at Pizza Express in the village. The children will make pizza and then we're going to fly kites on the heath.

The caterpillars are doing very well. Amazing how quickly they grow. We're expecting them to start making their cocoons in about 7 - 10 days. Very exciting. They're in a special little cup with their food and Toby carries them from room to room, showing them around. He had me read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to them the other night and afterwards he said to them, "Now, that's what you're going to do guys!". We have a butterfly habitat that we move them to once they make their cocoons. It's all very sweet and Toby is really enjoying it.

Nikki is in Kent this week working on a children's outdoor play. She's actually building the sets and they're camping onsite. I hope she's managing to keep cool.

Our family is expanding

Now grandparents don't get too excited. When I say that the family is expanding I mean that we are getting a pet. Or rather some pets... five caterpillars. Toby has been asking for a pet but J and I are not quite ready for any more mammals in the house. We discussed fish but in the end Toby opted for caterpillars. Over the next 4-6 weeks we'll watch them make their coccoons and then become Painted Lady butterflies. The plan is to release them in Manor House Gardens. Unsurprisingly their names are Sportacus, Stephanie, Ziggy, Bessie and The Mayor. I bought them from Insect Lore and I have a feeling that we're going to become very good customers.

I'm melting

First off, let me just say how incredibly hot it's been here. We set a record on Wednesday for the hottest day ever in July. It got up to 95F. I can hear the Texans laughing but that is soooo hot without AC. If this seems garbled, there are lots of typos or I just don't make any sense it's because my brain has melted.

Things have been ticking along. Nikki took yesterday off from work and went down to Cambridge. Went to The Orchard (of course) and saw Jenny, Jack & Kate. The children formed a little gang with other kids who were there and they chased "bears" under the trees, ate tons of strawberries, did some drawing, got into some stinging nettles, played Lazytown and had a brilliant time. Rosie was right there doing her best to keep up. I put her down on a picnic blanket and she shouted at the children when they ran past, pulled up the grass and ate quite a few strawberries too. It was so nice to sit back and watch them play. I've spent my whole life looking forward to days like that.

And speaking of special moments, a few nights ago we all four ended up in our bed. It was a bit squashed but at one point I woke up with a child on each side of me and they had each thrown one leg over me. Lying in bed with a baby under each arm. I know I'll never forget that moment or the feeling of those two warm little bodies holding on to me. We're so blessed.

Been busy

We've been having too much fun to blog lately. We went to Spitalfields Market and met up with Mary Catherine et al, we all got together again the following weekend and went to Tate Modern. MC's Nana is over from Atlanta so it felt like a good 'ol American get-together.

On Thursday night Nikki went out with some colleagues to see the new Rosamund Pike play. I love Rosamund Pike. She's so smart and stylish and beautiful and seems so poised and witty. (And no, Rosie wasn't named after her but she obviously didn't put us off the name.) After the play Nikki was having drinks at the theatre bar chatting with some other theatre and film folk when 'Ros' came over to join them!! She had worked for one of the people in Nikki's group so Nikki spent an hour drinking and chatting with Rosamund Pike!! Nikki was a very good sister and risked looking incredibly uncool by getting an autograph for her big sister.

Nikki has been working loads but managed a day off on Friday and we took the kiddos to see Treasure Island which was being performed in Greenwich Park. We had a picnic then watched the show and it was really good. Tobes has been sword fighting ever since.

Yesterday we went to a children's festival in SE London and saw the real Stephanie but only a fake Sportacus from Lazytown. It was still very cool and Tobes had a fantastic time.

Today Nikki and I went off for a girls' day and did some marathon shopping. I've been hearing a lot about a discount store called Primark so we went on a pilgrimage to Bromley to check it out. It was fantastic! There was a very funny moment when we went into the changing rooms and were told that the limit was 4 items each... I had 12 and Nikki had 14.

We're having a heatwave

To use a phrase from Elizabeth - it's Africa hot here. It's hot. It's sticky. There's no AC and it's bloody miserable. I've reverted to my Texan survival instincts:

1. Take the car everywhere, even just down the road to Toby's school, because at least the car has AC and it's much more comfortable than walking.

2. When making a drink first put in as much ice as the glass can hold. The actual drink is secondary to the ice.

3. Always, ALWAYS have a cold drink to hand.

4. Shower whenever the mood strikes.

5. Never leave the house without sunglasses.

6. Don't move unless absolutely necessary.

Nikki arrived on Saturday and has settled right in. She started working today. It's very strange to have her here in London but not have her here with us all day. I spoke to her a few hours ago and it sounds as if it's going well. She's hoping to get some kind of work schedule this week and we can then start planning the summer.

We're planning to do a girls weekend in Italy. Looks like we'll have a little mascot on the trip as Rosie is very much a Mommy's girl right now. Won't go to sleep at night without me and if she wakes in the night it has to be me there to comfort her. I went to pilates last night and could hear Rosie screaming as I walked down our street. Poor little thing was doing that hiccuping thing that children do when they cry really hard. Almost broke my heart. Don't think I'll ever go to pilates again.

She'll be here in a few hours!

J has just left to go get Nikki at Heathrow. In just a few hours she'll be here! I've been doing some last minute tidying, preparing Nikki's room, making up her bed. I can't believe that she's arriving tonight.

The article in Practical Parenting came out today and I love it! Much better than the article in Eve Magazine. There's a whole two-page spread about me and a photo in the table of contents. I'm really happy with it. It's a lovely keepsake of my pregnancy with Rosie.

For Elizabeth

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner,
That I love London so.
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner
That I think of her wherever I go.
I get a funny feeling inside of me
Just walking up and down.
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner
That I love London Town.

Now all we need are some West Ham tops, mugs of tea and some jellied eels and Bob's your uncle.

Livin' in Da Hood II

Rosie and I were walking to her music class this morning. We turned the corner and saw about two dozen police officers and half a dozen police vehicles surrounding two men, one of whom was doubled over in obvious pain. The other one was leaning against a fence with his head hanging down and breathing hard. I heard a police officer say to someone in the police van 'We had to beat the crap out of them.'

I slowed down and an officer came over to us and explained that he would escort us through the area. Of course, being a concerned parent and a police officer's daughter I asked what had happened and was told that the men had tried to hold up the travel agent (travel agent?). I asked if they had been armed and was told that they had knives. 10.30 on a Monday morning and knife-weilding burglars are holding up a travel agent about 500m from our flat. Welcome to London.

After music class the road was still closed so Rosie and I walked into the village. I stopped to talk to the officer at the end of the road, always good to get a second report and see if they match up. They differed only in that the second officer said that the burglars were carrying tasers rather than knives. I guess if I had to choose I would rather be stung than stabbed so this was some comfort. I also learned that it was an organised gang that travelled around and not a local group and no one, aside from the burglars, was hurt. The police must have been following them because there were so many officers out, both in uniform and plainclothes. This was comforting to know too.

The whole village was buzzing with the news. There was crime scene tape all around the travel agent's shop and everyone was trying to guess what happened. I ended up telling the newspaper salesman and the barista at our coffee shop what had really happened. When they asked how I knew I told them that I had stopped and spoken to a couple of police officers. I guess it's unusual to speak to the police in this situation because whenever I said that I had spoken to an officer people looked at me like I was crazy. I seem to get that look a lot.

Still recovering

Got back three days ago but we're still getting back to normal. I feel like I'm drowning in domesticity right now. Between the children, the housework and trying to get some odd jobs done before Nikki gets here I'm not sure if I'm coming or going. That's why this is going to be so short.

I've tried to send the link for the Disney pics out to everyone but I've forgotten the password and had to send it again. Hope it's made it to you eventually. My head is well and truly spinning.

We're home

Had a wonderful time at Disneyland. We spent three days in the park, one day hanging out at the hotel and Village and one day taking care of Tobes when he became ill. Luckily, he didn't get sick until our last night but it was bad enough that we called the hotel doctor. I was half expecting the doc to turn up dressed as Goofy with a giant stethoscope but he was actually a rather dashing Frenchman. Unfortunately, he didn't speak a jot of English so I had to speak French. I love speaking French and I've been told that I have a very good accent. The problem is that because of the decent accent people assume that I can speak French quite fluently. Not true. I'm sure that at one point I told the doctor that though I didn't have a thermometer I knew that Toby had a very high 'February'. Well, 'fevrier' and 'fievre' are quite close.

Now I'm trying to unpack and catch up with the news from Grandma's funeral. I tried to ring a few times from France but could never get through. The pic is from my sister's blog. It's Granma and Grandpa. I can't imagine when it was taken but don't they look happy. I like to think that's how they are now - together, happy and so in love.

Some happy photos on a sad day

I thought I would post some of the photos from our weekend. On Sunday we went up to Cambridge to see Jenny, Kieran, Jack and Kate. We met up at The Orchard, just about my most favourite place on the planet. It's a tea garden in Grantchester and you eat under the trees. It's surrounded by pastures and after eating it's always nice to walk across the fields to the river. Lazing under the trees, eating scones with jam and clotted cream, strawberries and cream, chatting with friends while the children run and play... what could be better.

After The Orchard we went back to Jenny and Kieran's house and had lunch in their garden. The children played in the sprinkler and the paddling pool and I think everyone ended up a bit wet by the end of the day. Tobes had a bath with Jack and Kate before we headed back to London, all of us happy and exhausted.

At 7.30 tomorrow morning the taxi comes to take us to Waterloo where we catch the Eurostar to Disneyland. I'm so glad we have something happy to look forward to right now.

Grandma's funeral is today. She'll be buried wearing a pink shroud, in a pink coffin with a pink satin lining, surrounded by pink flowers. I'm glad she's going out in style. So very sad not to be there though.

Grandma died last night. The funeral is on Wednesday at 2.00. We leave for Disneyland on Thursday morning at 9.00. After some soul searching and talking to Mom we've decided that we'll have to miss the funeral. Mom said that Grandma knew how I felt about her and that I couldn't break Toby's heart by cancelling Disney. I think she's right.

So on Wednesday at 2.00pm (8.00pm GMT) if you could spare a thought for my Grandma, Versie McClendon, I would be most grateful.

A Fair Warning

I've been thinking about Nikki coming over and what it's going to like having another person in the flat. This afternoon J was trying to iron a shirt in the kitchen while I was organising Toby and Rosie's dinners. It was a mix between ballet, slapstick and a contortionist act as we weaved and leaned around each other, talked over each other and made sure that no one was burned by the iron or scalded with hot water.

I feel that there are a few things that I should warn Nikki about before she arrives. I hope it doesn't scare her off.

1. We wake up early. Sometimes very early. I'm talking 4.30am on occasion. And there's no slowly waking up and gently starting the day. Tobes usually tries to flip out of bed a la Sportacus and Rosie likes to start the day by eating within minutes of waking. She resorts to shouting and banging on the table if my speed at preparing her bottle does not meet approval. Our neighbors just love us.

2. We have a three year old boy in the house so you may from time to time, or possibly every day or even numerous times a day, find wee on the toilet seat. Or on the floor. Or maybe even on the magazine that you've left in the bathroom. Tobes does the best he can (foreskins are a nightmare) and apparently urine is a sterile body fluid so just wipe it off and try not to gross out too much.

3. Sometimes Tobes prefers to use his plastic potty rather than the toilet so you might just find a little potty somewhere in the flat containing wee or perhaps something a bit more hearty. Don't be shocked. Better in the potty than in his pants. Just let me know and I'll deal with it.

4. 4.00pm until the children's bedtime around 6.30pm is what I call Hell Time. It's that time of day when the children are getting tired but there are still things to do like eat dinner, take a bath and get ready for bed. This is the time of day when I'm at my most harried and the children are at their most demanding. Holding an intelligent conversation with me at this time of day is a real challenge. Once the children are in bed and I've dried off from their bath, cleaned the food out of my hair and sat down with a drink I'm back to normal. Most nights anyway.

I know there are at least a dozen other things I should warn Nikki about but it's almost midnight here and there's always a chance I could be getting up in four hours. Will have to think about it and write another day.

Babies who lunch

Here's Rosie in Greenwich Park today picnicing with her friends Thomas and Elizabeth. Toby and his friend Ben (Thomas' big brother) were off running around and chasing squirrels. Summer has finally arrived and it was a beautiful day.

All Good Things

Grandma is doing much better. Last time I spoke to Mom she was out of the hospital, had started eating and was keeping her food down. Hopefully she's out of the woods now.

Rosie has two pearly little teeth poking through her lower gums. She's also started making consonant sounds so we get a lot of 'bababba', 'gagagaga', mamammama'.

Toby gets more precocious by the day. The other morning I was trying to get us out of the house but Tobes didn't want to go out. I said, "Tobes, come on. Mama needs coffee and fresh air." Toby looked at me and said "Then open a window and make some in the kitchen."

We're off to Disney in a week! Today we bought bathing suits, sun cream, aloe vera and a first aid kit. I'll probably start packing this weekend. You can never be too organised.

Nikki arrives on 1 July for two whole months! So excited. We're still trying to get the spare room painted and cleared out for her. It's going to be so great to have her around for the summer. I've been organising my little heinie off looking into activities in London this summer. Can't wait!

AND, I was buying a metal scraper at B&Q today for some DIY work in the flat. There are strict laws about selling anything that could be used as a weapon to anyone underage. As I was packing the bags the cashier turned, looked at me and said 'Are you over 21?" I could have kissed her.

I'm a bad, bad Mommy

Very demanding hospital appointment with Rosie this morning. Much more than I expected. She was finally seeing the allergy clinic at King's College Hospital and they told me the appointment would take about an hour. It took over three. I'm still processing all the information but basically Rosie has eosinophilic colitis. There's more info on this site www.apfed.org. I thought she just had a milk and soya sensitivity but it sounds more complicated. It has something to do with an overproduction of a certain kind of white blood cell. My head is still spinning with all the info right now.

They did loads of tests today. Little pricks on her leg to test for various allergies, took a surprising amount of blood and weighed and measured her (still just the same as Tobes - 98th percentile for length and around 50th for weight). I had to give the whole medical history twice then they asked me what foods she has eaten, what she can tolerate, what food she's reacted to. Very demanding and, of course, Tobes was bored out of his mind and getting more and more out of control.

The upshot is that they've put Rosie on Neocate (the one that costs 150 pounds a tin which lasts 3-4 days) and a no-milk, no-egg, no-soya diet. They said that we need to increase her protein intake to two servings a day and that we should introduce fish. They also said it would be best if I made fresh organic purees for her because so many babyfood manufacturers use soya as a filler or have additives that could irritate her stomach. After she's on two servings of protein we need to get her milk down to 20oz a day. She's on 28oz now.

I left feeling awful. Aside from the usual stress and crap that these things seem to involve (They would only take cash or cheque for parking but the cash machine was broken. They agreed to invoice me when I started crying.) I left feeling like a terrible mother. Though I always have the best intentions about making my own purees, it has never happened. Tobes was weaned solely on jars and Rosie has been the same. I always buy the good quality organic baby food and this time around I've even found fresh frozen organic purees for Rosie, but I've never made them myself and I feel incredibly guilty about it long before a doctor starts lecturing me on the subject. Plus I haven't given Rosie any fish yet. I felt so incredibly judged over the fish thing! Silly, but I can't help it.

To top it all, they put a band-aid on Rosie's arm where they took the blood and when we got home Rosie took it off when I wasn't looking, put it in her mouth and started choking on it. Very, very bad mothering day.

New talents and little obsessions

Rosie

New talent: Growling, especially when she's looking at something that interests her. She's been exploring the higher tones of her voice for a while now and seems to have just discovered the lower ones. Today she was looking at a toy, turning it over in her hands and growling softly to herself. It's like having a puppy.

Little obsession: Remote controls. She always wants to hold them but if I let her play with them she ends up reprogramming the TV and I can't find any of the channels. Yesterday I gave her an inexpensive calculator that we gave Toby when he became interested in the remotes. Toby would quite happily play with the calculator, pointing it at the TV or holding it up to his ear like a phone. Rosie looked at the calculator then looked at me as if to say "What the hell is this?! I want the remote, not a bloody calculator" then she chucked the calculator on the floor and reached for the remote.


Toby

New talent: Drawing Mickey Mouse. We were sent a DVD to prepare for our trip to Disneyland in June and it includes a segment on how to draw Mickey Mouse. Toby watched it half a dozen times today and drew a surprisingly good Mickey!

Little obsession: The British X-Factor winner has released a song called That's My Goal and Toby loooves it. He calls it 'the quiet song' and asks me to play it every time we're in the car. So funny to hear that sweet three-year-old voice in the backseat singing along. Not quite as funny as when Toby sings 'my hump, my hump, my lovely lady lumps..." but, you know, funny.

The Long Weekend

Just a few words and a bunch of photos (many thanks Elizabeth!) about the weekend. We had a three day weekend for the Spring Bank Holiday and spent it hanging out in Blackheath and Canary Wharf. On Saturday we met up with the Dunnes at Starbucks on the Wharf and went to the motor show. I found the perfect first car for Tobes - the G-Wiz. It has a top speed of 40mph and can go only 40 miles before needing to recharge. Sounds perfect for a teenage boy.

On Sunday we stayed in Blackheath, flew kites on the heath and had lunch at Cafe Rouge. For the bank holiday Monday we had planned a picnic on the heath and a visit to the fun fair with Elizabeth, Andrew and Mary Catherine. The day dawned cold, windy and a bit wet but we were very English about it and dutifully spread our blankets on the damp ground, ate our picnic and laughed at ourselves. Our perseverence paid off and soon the sun was out which made it all worthwhile. We even got the kites out.

We warmed up with hot drinks at Costa then went over to the fun fair. The children had a brilliant time going on the bouncy castle, riding rides and playing a fishing game. They both won a prize and you can see from the photo of Tobes and MC with their prizes that they were well and truly worn out from the day.

Our exit was perfectly timed because within seconds of getting into the car the heavens opened and it started to hail. Mother Nature was obviously on our side.