Spring has sprung

Milk break this afternoon

This is how I found them in bed last night. God, they're lovely.

Rosie doing her own version of street theatre. She likes to get in the window at Starbucks and wave at people walking by.

Beautiful morning. Our street is so full of wisteria, jasmine and honeysuckle that it smells wonderful. The big lavender bush at our front door is starting to give off its scent now too. I can even smell it laying in bed at night with the window open. You'd hardly believe we were in London. Such a beautiful time of year in England. It always seems to be at its best in the changing seasons, spring and autumn. Summers seem to get hotter and more uncomfortable every year. Winter is still lovely but it doesn't compare to springtime. Everything is blooming and so green.


Toby started having lunches at school yesterday, or what they call school dinners here. This really confused me at first. Isn't dinner the evening meal? I asked around and it seems that a dinner is a hot meal regardless of when it's served. Most people have one hot meal a day and call it dinner whether it's at noon or 7.30pm. OK, fine. So Toby has started having school dinners and it's gone very well. Yesterday they had fish, chips and peas and today it was lasagne and fresh garlic bread. His school is taking part in the Jamie Oliver school dinners scheme so nothing is fried (it's all either baked, grilled or steamed) and all fruits and vegetables are prepared fresh at the school. I'm very relieved to know that Tobes is getting a healthy lunch. I peaked around the door today and saw him tucking into his lasagne and talking to his friends. So sweet.


J took Tobes to school this morning so Rosie and I got on with some chores around the flat. The first one was emptying the nappy pail. It was way overfull, as usual, and there was a big ball of dirty nappies jammed in the opening of the bucket. I was trying to pry them out when one of the nappies exploded and spewed everywhere. Have you ever seen the stuffing of a dirty nappy? They're full of some kind of gel that turns into little blobs when they get wet. These little blobs were all over the nappy pail, the floor, my trousers and feet, along with a fair amount of poop. Rosie ran in to see what was going on and I could hear her shouting over and over again, "Yuck! Oh, christ! Yuck! Oh, christ!" as she ran back out of the room. She's like a little parrot. I've got to start watching what I say. Toby just looks at me and says "Mom, don't say 'shit'. It's rude." Not sure if that's better or worse.