Twilight

Teresa gave me a great present for Christmas--a book that I could immerse myself in for a day--Twilight. It's a gift that keeps on giving because the book is a trilogy, so now I get to give myself more presents by ordering the next 2 books (from play.com--free delivery)! I knew of the author because Carole recommended her a few months ago to me. The author's website says that the movie will begin filming in the spring.

I'm looking forward to forgetting the world for a few days as soon as the next 2 books arrive! What a great present!

Why I Don't Homeschool

In my attempts to make dinner time more fun (see previous post) I've been playing games with the girls during dinner. Last night we played a Christmas trivia game. One of the questions I asked was, "Why did Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem?" I knew they would get it because all during December we read from the New Testament and Christmas books every night.
This is how the conversation went:
Rachel: Because they had to.
Me: But why did they have to?
Emily: Because Herod was going to kill Jesus.
Me: That's why they went to Egypt, but why did they go to Bethlehem?
Then Rachel's face lit up with excitement!
Rachel: Because they had to pay their taxes!
Me (beaming): That's right, Rachel! (I mentally pat myself on the back for teaching my children the story of Jesus' birth and think, 'She does pay attention during family scripture reading.')
Rachel: I knew that because Mrs. Blair (her PRESCHOOL teacher) read us the story today.
I'm going to ask Mrs. Blair if she'll continue reading the scriptures to Rachel. By the end of the year Mrs. Blair could probably have her understanding Isaiah!

Have Some Fun

This post is about the latest book I'm reading.

(After my last post I'm thinking I should find a book about how to handle sick children better, not put a baby on a couch when a midwife is coming to check how the mom's doing and how to keep up with a baby's doctor's appointments.)

I found the book at the LDS bookstore by the temple. It's called Piggyback Rides and Slippery Slides--How to Have Fun Raising First-Rate Children. Here are some of the chapters: Bedtime is Playtime, Playing with Your Food, Playing in the Great Outdoors and Turning Work into Play. I have tried some of the ideas and like the results.

Why I like the book:
I readily admit I'm not creative, and I am more than happy to become a better mom by using other people's great ideas.
It reminds me that I have so many moments with my kids that I am not using to the fullest to just enjoy being with them as opposed to counting down the time to bedtime.
I like being a mom when I'm having fun.

Happy Monday?

It's been a rough morning. Hannah has been fighting a cold and cough that has made her miserable. I feel for her and I pray for a very quick recovery so that both of us can be happy again! Lizzie now has her cold and cough. After a long morning of Hannah crying because I put jelly on her toast after she "asked" me to and then honey on her toast because she "asked" me to and then screaming for jelly and cookies and chocolate she spent some time in her room in her new big girl bed. (She finally figured out she can climb out of her crib last week!) Because of all of Hannah's screaming I put a sleeping Lizzie on the couch and shut the door to the living room so Hannah could scream to her heart's content in her room upstairs.
I took a shower during one of her tantrums and got ready for the day. A few moments later the doorbell rang. It was the midwife. She could tell by my face that I forgot she was coming. She was there to give me a postnatal depression test! After the morning I had had I was ready to hand Hannah over to her and run away.
Here were my thoughts as I led the nice midwife to my living room:
I'm so glad I'm dressed.
I'm so glad Hannah's dressed.
I'm so glad my house is relatively clean. (Only because the home teachers came by last night and the whole family did a whirlwind clean up!)
And then we walked into the living room where I had left a sleeping baby on the couch! Lizzie had pulled the blanket over her face, so I quickly pulled it off before the midwife saw. At least she wasn't there earlier watching me handle Hannah's screaming. :) So far, I wasn't scoring many points for a model mom.
The midwife asked me how old Lizzie was. "Ummm...I think about 9 or 10 weeks." (What mother doesn't know how old her child is????) By the way, I checked. She's 10 1/2 weeks.
Is she rolling over? "Yes, from her stomach to her back."
Oh, well the best place for her might be the floor. "Right."
Did she have her 6 week well baby check? "No."
Oh, well we need to get her in for that. "Yeah, I'll call today for an appointment." I called right after she left.
When was her last weight check? "Ummm...I haven't taken her in to weigh her yet."
O.K. Bring her in to check her weight. "Yeah, o.k. I'll do that this week." Tomorrow.
She asked some questions about Lizzie's cold and said I might need to make an appointment for a poor baby check. Of course, this would be separate from the 6 week well baby appointment and weight check appointment. When I took Lizzie in for her 6 week immunizations (at 8 weeks) I thought the nurse would weigh Lizzie and do a well baby check. But no, immunizations are done on Thursdays and weight checks are done on Tuesdays and well baby checks are done when I make the appointment!!!!!!!!!!! When I told the midwife that in America these things are all done at ONE appointment, she smiled and said "Different systems." I would choose something other than "different", like "more efficient" or "easier on the moms."

And then the postnatal depression test. After reading the first sentence "In the past 7 days..." I thought, "I already know I'm not going to score very high." The last week Jon was not home before midnight most nights and 3 of the girls are fighting colds and I had Enrichment Night I was doing. You can interpret that how you would like, but if you know me well, last week was a long one. But, I was happy to see my score of 7 out of 30 (with zero being the perfect score saved for mothers who don't leave little babies on the couch!)

Updates

Here's a quick update on where the girls are at:

Loves to go to the farm so she can wear her 'wellies'.

Sadly, the "choo choo train" model village closed until February. Hannah burst into tears the first time I told her. We drive by almost everyday to check to see if the gates are open or closed! The other day she was pretty frustrated that it wasn't opened--she wanted to go in anyway. I told her I didn't have the key so when we got home she went to find a key. It didn't matter to her that this key only opened a Polly Pockets castle!

Loves her baby Lizzie! And yes she is wearing a swimsuit. She is patiently waiting for her dad to find her a swimming pool somewhere in England.

Her favorite show is In the Night Garden with characters with names like Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka, Tombliboos and Igglepiggle. It's pretty cute when she mimics the voices.

Loves to dance and recently learned how to ride a bike in 2 tries!

Many tears have been shed the last few months when Mom and Dad have asked her to wear warmer clothes. A skirt and short-sleeved shirt with no coat is not appropriate for weather in the 30s and 40s. She told me to just find her fuzzy tights so she can keep wearing skirts in frigid weather! Pants are like a punishment to her! We make deals like, "Wear the pants while we go ride bikes and then as soon as you come inside you can put your skirt back on."

Last week she came home from school and said, "Mrs. Blair said I have to wear 3 layers." And that's all it took! Every night her outfit is laid out and we count the layers--a short sleeved shirt over a long sleeved shirt with a jacket. I laugh every time she comes out of her room with 3 skirts on!

This has taught me who she really listens to. Next time I have any difficulties I'm emailing her teacher to sort it out!!!!!!!!!

Loves to be happy and says great phrases like "straight away", "you're a clever girl" and "when we lived in America".

Lost another tooth and learned the lesson that sometimes the Tooth Fairy is silly and forgets to look in tooth pillows for teeth!

Loves Lizzie's smiles and listening to Lizzie coo while she sings to her.

Thanksgiving Week

Our great Thanksgiving Week with great family:

We saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace

Hannah and her lovely cousin visited Odds Farm with their hungry sheep, huge pigs and tractors that take you wherever you want

We went to the London Temple

We found a 1,000 year old village with this great-looking stone church

Lizzie was happy about her blessing from Jon. She was happy her uncle could be there!

The girls were happy to smile for the camera after church.

We're thankful for happy, giggly girls!

Jon was thankful we had someone to play Rook with.

Dressing up and dancing like ballerinas

Things I'm grateful for:

I was especially grateful this year to not have to make Thanksgiving dinner!

Family who will come all the way to England just to bring us peanut butter, coconut, pudding, a baby monitor, Sharpies, cardstock and a binky clip!

I am still amazed that I am living in England. Fall was absolutely beautiful here. I couldn't get enough of it. It's my favorite season! Is there anything better than the trees changing colors and everything looking so golden?

It's Fun!

Someone recently told Jon about an online radio that I am having lots of fun with! Here's what they say about themselves:

Q: What is Pandora?
Pandora is a music discovery service designed to help you enjoy music you already know, and to help you discover new music you'll love.
It's powered by the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken, the Music Genome Project: a crazy project started back in early 2000 to capture the complex musical DNA of songs using a large team of highly-trained musicians.
Just tell us one of your favorite songs or artists and we'll launch a streaming station to explore that part of the musical universe.

I've started three stations: Ingrid Michaelson, Jack Johnson and Peter Breinholt. What are some of your favorite musicians/groups that I could explore? I love finding new things!!

Now, does anyone know a site like this that I could use for books?

Harrod's Christmas Parade

This morning the girls and I woke up early to go to the Harrod's Christmas Parade. Our neighbors, Bill and Ann (from Ireland) and their 3 girls have been going for 10 years and had the whole parade memorized. We followed them in which made parking much easier. Ann helped Emily up to the front, Rachel sat on Bill's shoulders, and Hannah was passed around until she ended up on my shoulders, Lizzie slept peacefully through the whole thing in her Snuggli.

It was a festive way to welcome in Christmas!

We waved to Father Christmas--drawing attention by yelling out Santa Claus! Mrs. Christmas was in a separate carriage.

We were lucky enough to have snow blown in just for the occasion!

We saw really tall people riding on tall bikes.

When I woke up Hannah this morning she greeted me with a great laugh that continued through the parade! It's so much fun to see a parade through a child's eyes, isn't it? She loved the big bubbles.

There were characters from Peter Pan and "Alicia Wonderland". The girls liked the silly dancing pirates, but I thought the red roses were pretty.

Is there a new Chipmunks movie coming out? Because Simon, Alvin and Theodore were greeting all the kids. They got my kids' attention!

And what's a parade without a man with a seal?

Happy Halloween!

Emily the Good Witch and Rachel the 50s Girl

Tinkerbell Hannah and a Cute (but tired) Lizzie

Halloween this year was a little different than previous years. It's not a big holiday here even though it originated here. I heard several people refer to it as the "American holiday." Outside of grocery stores I didn't see any decorations, the candy and costume selections were minimal. Thankfully, I only had to buy Emily's costume, and since I waited until Halloween Day I got it half price!!! (Procrastination pays!)

The girls were very excited to go trunk or treating at our church and collect a few cups of sugar--I mean a few kilograms of candy.

The British might not be big into a holiday for ghosts, but they are big into a holiday (on Nov. 5) where they get to burn effigies in big bonfires.

What Do I Miss?

Jon's been in Chicago this week for some meetings. Before he left he asked me what I would like him to bring back. (Emily asked for eggs and cheese!) Though I did think of things that I haven't been able to find here, I couldn't think of anything that I have felt deprived of. If I'm willing to pay for it I can have all the things we used in Amercia. One website Americans use here sells things like root beer ($26/12 pk.), Hershey's Kisses ($5), graham crackers ($8), applesauce ($7.70), Apple Jacks ($10) and 350 other items not sold here. I've asked American women living here what they pick up when they visit America. Answers included: cosmetics, kitchen garbage bags, quart-size Ziploc bags, cake mixes, chocolate chips, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, clothes and shoes for school year, Hidden Valley ranch mix, Lipton onion soup mix. Because we're here for such a short time I enjoy discovering the British version of some things or just accepting that I won't have it for a year.
What would you miss if you weren't able to have it for a year?

Exercise!

Right before I was discharged from the hospital (here people don't say "the" before hospital) a physiotherapist met with me to go over important exercises I need to do. We went through each one (there are 9 of them) and after each one she would say, "And you need to do this one twice a day for 12 weeks." That's a lot of exercises! But my favorite was when she was going over the pelvic floor exercises and she said to do them 6 times a day! And I asked, "For 12 weeks, right?" And she said, "No, these you need to do for the rest of your life." The rest of my life is a long time! 6 times a day! My doctor has already pretty much sentenced me to a life of not being able to jump rope or jump on a trampoline as a grandma because I have not been doing my Kegels since the birth of Emily. I am sad at that prediction because my dream has always been to be able to jump rope ON a trampoline with all of my grandchildren at once! There goes my life-long dream. My response (though tempted to share my dream with him, I didn't) was that none of my doctors have ever stressed the importance and he was absolutely shocked (as was I!) Are only the British concerned with having strong pelvic floor muscles?

A Foreigner in a Strange Land

Sometimes it is pretty funny being a foreigner! For the past week Lizzie has been a bit congested and has had difficulty breathing at night. My simple idea was to buy a bulb syringe at the store. Well, after 4 stores I discovered they are not common here. I also discovered they are not called bulb syringes. "What does it do?" people would ask me. Now here comes the fun part--How do you say "It sucks snot right out of your nose?" in a proper British way? "It quickly pulls mucous discharge from your nasal cavities?" And of course other people are always around to discover how an American woman is going to pull this off. Well, after several explanations over several days and several nights of listening to poor Lizzie breathe our local pharmacy ordered one at the cost of $7. I was hoping it would come engraved with Lizzie's name and birth stats for that price!

You Happy?

Lizzie is so calm and content and still is sleeping very well. She sleeps in her stroller for hours while we run around farms, the train village, museums, the library and walks through the town. She slept in her bouncy the other day right in the doorway to the kitchen because the girls wanted to look at her while they ate their lunch. Lunch ended and she slept for a few hours through screams, everyone walking by her, bumping her, kissing her. I was amazed.

My little Hannah wants to grow up faster than I am ready. Her favorite question right now is to ask everyone in the family if they are happy. She will ask numerous times until she is content that everyone is truly happy. Of course, the girls know this and like to pretend they are sad. It really upsets her to see anyone upset. My favorite time that she asks is right after I have said her name in a sad or frustrated tone. If I tell her that I am not happy because of something she has done (for instance...color on the carpet with marker that doesn't wash out!!!) then the lips start to quiver.

Fall Break

The girls enjoyed a week off of school for half-term break. We went to Odds Farm and played on their mini-tractors.

Rachel seemed to get the wettest "kisses" from the goats.

Hannah was giddy trying to feed the goats straw. She didn't seem to notice that they weren't interested.

Rachel tried to clean out her pumpkin with tongs--she wasn't too excited about touching the slimy stuff. Hannah took her painting very seriously.

We made a huge mess but had a great time.

Aren't Hannah's and Rachel's pumpkins scary?

Lizzie's and Emily's pumpkins look happy! Lizzie's pumpkin is sucking on a purple binky.

Happy Birthday Ray Ray!

Birthdays seem to last longer than a day around here! Ray wanted to celebrate her birthday with her grandparents before they left. So, a week before her b-day she opened presents and we all enjoyed a yummy cake Grandma made. Then the next Saturday Jon took Ray and Em to see Ratatouille. Hannah, Lizzie and I met up with them afterwards at TGIFridays.

Doesn't Rachel look like a true princess in her b-day crown she decorated at school? Rachel was excited that I got to visit her class on her birthday. Actually, I think she was more excited by what I brought--chocolate chip M&M cookies to share with her class and Lizzie.

More cake and more presents on her real birthday!

We have a tradition of sneaking into the b-day girl's room while she sleeps and decorating her room with notes and balloons. Notes to Rachel this year included words from Mom like: "I love your beautiful smile" and "Your sisters love you so much!" Notes from Dad said things like: "Now that you're 5 can you get a job?" and "Next year you'll be 6!" The girls keep the notes up for months and I love going into their rooms and reading Jon's loving fatherly words.