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.

Rain and shine

Very excited. I'm contributing to an article about women's experience of miscarriage. Not a magazine but a broadsheet this time. More details when I know them!

Real up and down day today. The weather was very strange - pouring rain one minute and bright sunshine the next. Very apt. I seemed to go from lovely moments - picnicing in Greenwich Park with the children, Rosie laughing at my impression of a cow, Toby and Rosie giggling together - to feeling like my head might explode - Rosie crying and crying (think she's teething or her cold is really bothering her), trying to wipe Toby's bottom while he ran around the bathroom pretending to be Sportacus with Rosie screaming in the background. Definitely ups and downs.

I found out last night that my grandmother is even worse. She's in the hospital with a virus and can't keep any food down. I've tried to ring Mom and Dad a few times but they're never there. Always at the hospital. Mom left a message today saying Grandma seemed to be getting better but her dementia is really bad. She's making no sense at all. Mom sounded so tired. I'm sure she's at the hospital all day.

I talked to J last night about what we'll do when Grandma dies. I would really like to go to the funeral. I'd like to be there for Mom and I think it'll probably be the last time that the extended family get together. Mom has three brothers and a sister. Growing up there were twelve of us cousins and I loved every single one of my cousins so much. My aunts, uncles and cousins were a huge part of my childhood and it makes me very sad to think that Grandma's funeral could be the last time that I see some of them.

Sitting here now I can think of so many fond memories. Uncle Ronnie telling us the Headless Horseman story then Uncle Wayne jumping out with a coat over his head, scaring us all half to death... using a vine to swing across the creek behind Tessha's house one summer and David swinging right into a tree... Ian pretending to flush Tessha's cat down the toilet... two summers in New Orleans with Uncle Ronnie, Aunt Linda and Stacey, watching this new thing called MTV, making our own band specialising in Sylvia's song 'Nobody' and eating snowballs until I felt sick... riding horses with David and reading Daryl's Archie comic books... the time Daryl wrote a play that we performed for our parents that ended with Tammy saying the line "It's bat guano pie.'... wearing my hair with a braid on one side for years because I saw Melanie wear her hair like that once... dancing around the room to the Beatles and the Bee Gees with Tessha, James (who was Tootie back then) and baby Terry Wayne... crying my eyes out whenever we all had to say good bye.

Lot of good memories.

Kitchen Finished! Well, almost.

At long last the kitchen is almost finished. J and I painted the red wall last week and J hung things on the walls for me yesterday. All we have left to do is paint one bit the painter left undone for some strange reason, repaint the woodwork with gloss paint and I want to change some of the pictures on the walls. We have a rubbing from a Thai temple that I've wanted to hang up for years and I think it'll look great in the big frame in the kitchen. The Kandinsky print is definitely getting old.

Had a lovely weekend. We went to the school fair on Saturday. J is running in the London 10k in July so he went for a run with Pete on Sunday morning while the children and I had cinnamon rolls for breakfast (well, at least one of us is getting healthy). We had lunch out and then did some work on the flat in the afternoon.

Rosie is doing really well. Her allergies seem to be calming down a bit (touch wood) and I've been able to expand her diet more. In the last week she's had her first taste of tomato and blueberries, though not together. She looooved the blueberries. Rosie has a bit of a cold at the moment so I'm trying to increase her vitamin C with lots of fruit. She's getting stronger now and we have to be much more careful with her. This morning I put her in her bouncy chair in the living room, walked into the kitchen to get her cold medicine, came back in the living room and found Rosie laying on the floor next to her chair. She looked up at me as if to say "How the hell did I get down here?!' Thankfully, no damage done but I'm definitely going to have to keep a closer eye on this girl.

St Margaret's May Fair

Today we went to the May Fair at what will be Toby's 'big school', St Margaret's. It was fantastic. Everyone was so friendly and Tobes had a great time. It was the first time that J had visited the school and I was so glad that he liked it too. As soon as we got the offer of a place for Toby I started second guessing myself but now I know that it was definitely the right choice.

I would so love to take my American friends and family to one of these events. It's a bit like the fairs we used to have at school but uniquely English. There are stands selling things that parents have donated - second hand books, children's clothes, toys, etc and other stands with games and activities. They had some traditional things like a coconut shy, a tombola and donkey rides. They also had face painting, a bouncy castle and cookie decorating for the children. They had a cake stall (but no Cake Walk, god I loved the Cake Walk), barbecue hot dogs and burgers and, of course, tea. One big difference from an American school event was that they also had beer and Pimms for the parents and a Beer Raffle where the winner received a bottle of gin!

I met some of the mums working at the stalls and was very pleased to meet a lady whose daughter will be in Toby's class. We bumped into Pete and Philippa (Philippa teaches Year 1 at St Margaret's) and she told me that I had started off well because the women I had been talking to are both governors of the school. I've already volunteered my services for next year's May Fair. Philippa also told me that the lady who painted Toby's face has a child in Philippa's class, a child that will be in Toby's class and a six month old baby AND she's American and her family live in Texas! It was starting to get late by then but I did a circuit of the fair hoping to spot the fellow American and basically try to chat her up, but she must've left. Either that or she saw me looking for her and was hiding in the loos.

I am SO excited about Toby going to St Margaret's. It seems like such a lovely school with a good community spirit. I wonder if they'd let me run the beer stall next year?

After the fair we went to Cafe Rouge for dinner. I remember when I was little we would always go to Braum's after a school event. It was like a religion. School play - ice cream. Open House - ice cream. School Carnival - ice cream. We'd turn up and half the school would be there too. I wonder if Cafe Rouge will be the after school event destination for Toby and Rosie.

(PS for the Texans: Yes, we are wearing scarves and jackets today. I know it's almost June but hey, it's London. What do you expect?)

Livin' in Da Hood

Well, it was a stabbing last night. The police came over a bit later and asked if we had seen anything. I told them what I had seen, which wasn't much. I don't have any more info about it but my guess is that it was some kind of domestic disturbance rather than a knife-wielding mugger. When I heard the lady shouting last night she was saying (grandmothers look away now) "I hope you're fucking proud of yourself! He's dead now!" and then something about hoping the guy's dick fell off. Not really what I would shout at an unknown assailant.

And I don't think the stab-ee actually died. There was an ambulance and I saw a man holding his stomach and crossing the road. He was walking on his own, wasn't covered in blood and looked more pissed off than in pain.

Oh, what a drama.

Ah, Life in London

Giving Rosie her bedtime bottle when I heard shouting outside. It went on for a bit so I stood up and looked out the window in time to see a man staggering down our road and a woman shouting obscenities at him. Now there are three police cars, an ambulance and crime scene tape all over the street. I think it was just a domestic disturbance that got out of hand. I see the nosy elderly lady across the street is taking out her rubbish (very interesting timing). I'm sure I'll get the scoop from her tomorrow.

You Get What You Pay For

Lovely day yesterday. We went to our playgroup and it was nice to see familiar faces and feel a part of it all. One of the Mums was there with her new baby, a little boy named Magnus. Her little girl is two and is named Harriet. Sweet names.

The painter was still working in the flat so after playgroup we decided to go to Bluewater for lunch. It was great bombing down the A2 listening to the Black Eyed Peas, Van Morrison and Orson. Tobes and I were rocking out. John Lewis has a creperie, so after lunch Toby had a crepe for dessert. I bought a children's book about Paris called Crepes by Suzette about a lady who sells crepes all over Paris. When we went to Venice I bought Toby a book called Zoe Sophia's Scrapbook: An Adventure in Venice and it was fantastic. He was so excited when he recognised a building or sculpture in Venice and reading the book now helps him remember our trip. I'm hoping Crepes by Suzette will do the same thing for Paris. It's already started Toby's love affair with crepes!

When we came home the painter had finished. I think it's often very true that you get what you pay for. We went the budget route this time and hired a firefighter who does painting and decorating on his days off. It is true that every wall has paint on it but so did the floor and, in two cases, the paint used was the wrong one anyway. We have a white wall where there was supposed to be a red one and, while I was brushing my teeth last night, I noticed that the woodwork which is supposed to be gloss white was painted with satin paint. Oh well, it's an improvement on raw plaster.

On a happier note

I took Rosie to a music class today. It was the usual thing of Moms (and nannies) sitting in a circle with the babies, singing songs and manically miming. Not usually my thing but Rosie had a great time. She shouted to the music, banged on a drum, shook some jingle bells and attempted to clap her hands. We'll definitely be going back.

I've been in England almost thirteen years but there are times when I'm still struck by the 'Englishness' of things. In the class today were children named Lily, Merlin, Matlida, Mariann, Rupert and Persephone (yes, really). But then, I'm hardly one to talk with my little Rosamund.

The best thing about the class was doing something with Rosie, just the two of us. It's usually me, Rosie and Toby and when Toby is at nursery I often end up catching up on chores and errands instead of spending quality time with Rosie. It was nice to just focus on her for an hour and have fun together.