Spiders are friends.

Sunday night Lincoln saved me from death.  We were in the kitchen talking sweetly to one another (read: having a heated discussion) when mid-sentence Lincoln said all too calmly "Move Vindie."

I jumped to the side and looked down to see a spider the size of a small rodent a few feet from where I was standing. Now, I am not exaggerating when I say that it was the size of a mouse. I have never seen anything so big, hairy and black. I quickly picked up Livvy and stood on a chair the on the other side of the room. All the time screaming at Lincoln to KILL the SPIDER! 

Lincoln manned up and with 4 blows with his slipper, the beast was dead. Later I asked him if he considered not telling me to move (because at the time I was being a brat) and he said he'd thought about it...but thankfully decided that I am worth saving. So glad that he did. 

We decided to put our new found friend in jar and contact our apartment manager. 

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Jacki,

Tonight we found and killed a very, very large spider.  We are not spider experts, but seeing that huge spider really alarmed us and made us wonder if we should be worried about the safety of our little children, who are only 7 months and 2 years old. We kept the killed spider in a jar thinking that you may want to have it identified and possibly have the house sprayed to kill such spiders. 

Thank you for your help in this matter, 

Vindie and Lincoln

The response: 

Hello Vindie

Sorry to hear about the spiders.  All spiders in this country are totally harmless and have no poison.  Where possible they should be collected up in a jar and put in the garden.   Hope this is okay.

Kind regards

  Jacki

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Collect them and put them in the garden!?!?! 

Lincoln asked around at work and apparently spiders (and ants) aren't considered pests in the UK and there are no spraying services to rid you of their presence. 

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These arachnophobes are glad that we have the chance to get over our fear.  

Penshurst Place

Our Saturday was beautiful. It was a day that made me think that maybe all of the hard that we've been through has been worth it. 

We drove a short 15 minutes away from our house. And we entered a beautiful English countryside with a beautiful house from the 1300s and adjoining gardens.

The babies were happy. The hubs was happy. And the gardens and house were almost completely empty except for us. 

 We walked through the gardens, while Livvy ran, sat and searched for treasures in the perfectly sculpted bushes. 

Jude mostly stayed snuggled and contented in his stroller (and 20 layers of warmth).

The grounds were amazing, and the entire time I was there I was in disbelief that we were actually walking around such a historical, beautiful place. 

...And Livvy was really excited to see some grass and dirt =).

At the end of the day, Lincoln and I were both in shock. We had experienced a non-stressful, happy, priceless day together as a family. I can't wait to have many, many more Saturdays just like this one.

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This family is glad that we live in Kent, the "Garden of England". 

Love week.

 I love Valentine's Day. Livvy and I made Valentines for Lincoln and then Lincoln wrote us some in return. Complete with cut out hearts. 

I love having kids running around my house again. We had 7 kids (and 7 half-eaten sandwiches) at a playdate with our new friends. Livvy is the most outgoing person. She plays with all the kids and then if any mom has an open lap she plops down for a snuggle. 

I love the view from my front door. Our front garden is enclosed by an ancient moss-covered gate engulfed in bushes and Livvy can play in the mud and find leaves and sticks to her hearts content. 

But most of all, I love my new nephew Raylan Richard.

 For weeks I'd been trying to get my home Internet up and running in hopes that I could see my new nephew when he was born. I was convinced after MANY phone calls with no results that it was hopeless and I wouldn't be able to see my sweet nephews face. But 5 hours before Raylan was born my Internet miraculously turned on. And a few hours after his birth, there he was on my computer screen. 

And even though I was in a different country, I felt the quiet, sacredness of a new sweet baby in our family. While I am so sad that I couldn't be there to hold him, I am so glad that I was able to see his tiny face and talk to his beaming father the day he joined our family.

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This aunt is glad that I have a new sweet nephew to love. 

6 reasons I love my 6 month old.

1. He is the happiest baby I've ever seen. You pretty much look at him these days and he flashes that big grin in return. Melt. My. Heart. 

2. He is a tank. He is super tall and a plump little (big) thing. His thighs have the most adorable rolls of blubber. Oh the rolls of squishy goodness! 

 3. He screams like a little girl. He rarely cries these days, but just lets out high-pitch ear piercing screams. And then as soon as he is placed in bed, or fed he stops. Oh the Jude Dude, how you keep us on our toes!

4. He looks like me! Finally I have one of my own! I see a lot of my brothers in his face and it makes me smile and excited to see how he will look when he gets older.

5. Jude loves music! Since he was born if you sing to him he will smile (especially if you have a low-base voice like my 18-year-old brother). He now tries to sing (moan) in return...which makes sitting anywhere quiet eventful. 

6. Jude loves his sister. He is always turned like this looking for where she is and what she is doing. He also, LOVES his dad! When he sees Lincoln come home from work he starts kicking and smiling and practically jumping into his arms.

I can't believe he is already 6 months! It has gone by so fast! 

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This mom is so very glad that I have a little dude named Jude.  

What we do.

So the other day, my very British, 70-something neighbor from the apartment above us came down to help me hang some curtains. She is always very concerned about us and whenever we talk I think we're speaking two different languages.

Anyway, we were working on looping hooks and fixing pleats when she asked me:

"What do you do all day?"

To which I didn't have much of a response.  Immediately after she left though I was inspired.

Mid-wiping Jude's bum, Livvy had an accident and the next 30 or so minutes were spent getting bums clean and clothes changed.

I should have told her I wipe bottoms all day!

With no car, no friends (yet....see I'm optimistic!), and a snowy wasteland outside I pretty much take care of babies and housework all day long.  Which has had its highs and lows:

High: Jude turning 6 months and trying his first baby food!

Low: Livvy has relapsed in potty training (she's having a few accidents a day) and sleep-training (she tries to crawl into our bed every night).


High: Livvy and Lincoln playing in the snow. I thought she would last two seconds in the snow...but she didn't want to leave her "Frosty!" (snowman). 

Low: Jude has decided he likes to sleep in our bed. Every night I have one baby on top of me, and one curled around my neck...while Lincoln curls up at the edge of the bed trying to not get pushed off.

High: Livvy used her first British word yesterday...she said "This yogurt is lovely!" Which is funny because every time we meet a Brit they call my kids lovely! So she's probably heard that one the most!

Lincoln came home last night and told me his co-worker told him he was going to a football match and then out with friends then asked Lincoln what his plans were for the night. To which Lincoln responded, "I'm going to put my kids to bed." (And he did put Livvy to bed about 20 times throughout the night!)

Being a parent is hard no matter what country you're in, but all the lows are worth it for the highs!

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This wife is glad that I have a husband to share parenthood with. 

I really hope you love this stroller...

This is Lincoln doing this post:

We brought a double stroller with us to England that I thought was a really good stroller.  It was a sit and stand stroller, so Livvy could sit or stand in it, and Jude's car seat latched right on to it, which was nice.  It had overhead covers that protected the kids from rain and also a little storage basket on the bottom.  It was a little long since one kid sat in front of the other and at times could be a little difficult to maneuver.  But it was also sturdy and overall seemed like a great stroller to me.  However, London is not the most kid friendly place and many Tube stations do not have elevators which makes it very difficult to get around when pushing 2 kids in a stroller.  

However, once we got to England, we noticed that the double strollers here are quite a bit different.  Rather than having one kid in front of the other and being quite long, the kids sit side by side and so are quite wide.  They also have these plastic rain covers that protect the kids from the wind and rain better than the cover our stroller had.  Anyways, Vindie seemed to think that somehow having one of these strollers would make London more child friendly and change her life.

I had heard similar stroller talk before.  Probably a year or so ago, Vindie told me that she needed a double jogger stroller so that she could go running (she couldn't use the double we already had).  We paid $70 for one at a garage sale, Vindie used it like 3x, and then we sold it for like $30 when we moved to the UK.  Gotta love buying high and selling low.  I could envision something similar happening in the UK.

Anyways, even though I thought a Maclaren stroller (UK stroller Vindie wanted) was a little better than what we had, I didn't think it was that much better and definitely not worth the hassle of selling our stroller and buying a new one.  However, a guy randomly asked Vindie about buying our stroller at the grocery store and Vindie found a reasonably priced Maclaren on Gumtree.com (similar to Craigslist), so I finally gave in.

Vindie arranged with the woman selling the Maclaren for me to come pick it up one evening at 7:00 after work at her house.  Vindie sent me Google Maps instructions of how to get there and acted as if it should be no big deal.  I just had to take a bus and then walk about 3/4 of a mile or so.  

I hopped on a bus near where I work in Central London and rode it for about 30 minutes to the stop where I was supposed to get off.  I hopped off, took one look around me, and then immediately wanted to jump back on the bus, but by then the bus had taken off.  Let's just say that it was probably one of the worst neighborhoods I had ever seen in my life (yup Vince, even worse than Concord if you can imagine that).  I was the only white person around, which does not always indicate a bad neighborhood, but in this case it did.  It was already dark, there were a bunch of thugs loitering around, and here I was dressed in business casual and carrying my laptop bag.  Vindie had sent me to the London ghetto.

Well, I immediately started looking for a non-hooligan looking person to ask where I could get on a bus that would take me to the Tube, home, or anywhere else that wasn't there.  I finally found a woman who gave me directions.  After walking for a little while in the direction she pointed me, I realized that I was actually pretty close to the house I was looking for.  I decided that if it was this important to Vindie and if I was already so close, I might as well go buy the stroller.

I finally found the house and knocked.  A Pakistani woman with her head covered came and looked at me through the glass in the door before turning around and leaving without  saying anything.  I knocked again louder this time and she returned and told me through the door that her daughter (the person selling the stroller) was not home yet and that I would have to wait for her outside.  Well, I waited about 15 minutes and then a man approached the home.  He was the brother of the woman selling the stroller.  Anyways, he also left me outside for a while but then I guess felt bad leaving me out in the cold in the ghetto and so invited me in.  He talked to me about the exciting sport of Cricket for 30 minutes until his sister arrived and I could purchase the stroller.

Walking back the way I had come through the Compton of London pushing an empty double stroller (it was pretty heavy so I didn't want to carry it and I didn't know how to fold it up anyways) and carrying my work bag was a memory I would like to forget.  You should have seen the looks I got from these street punks.  They either looked at me like I was crazy or suspiciously as if I had just stolen a stroller from an innocent mother pushing her kids around.  Lucky for me, they didn't think a stroller was worth stealing.  

Anyways, I finally got to the right bus stop in ghettoville.  I had to wait there for about 20 min for my bus to come.  Another bus stopped even though nobody was getting on or off and the bus driver opened the door and asked me where my kids were as if I had decided to take them for a stroll through Richmond and had not realized that I had forgotten them.  Anyways, my bus finally pulled up and to my dismay it was one of the small single story buses and it was packed with culturally diverse people.  I still didn't know how to fold up the stroller, and so the only place wide enough for me to fit my stroller was at the front.  That meant that every time anyone got on or off the bus during my 30 min ride they had to literally climb over my stroller.  I still got some judging looks but nobody said anything.  I was so tired and frazzled at that point that I probably would have screamed at the slightest provocation.  Anyways, I finally made it to the tube, rode it to our stop, and then walked home.  I walked in the door and told Vindie that I really hoped she loved this stroller.

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This husband is glad that he didn't die.

Move in day!

The day we moved in Livvy asked me for a pillow, then told me to leave her alone. And this is what I found ten minutes later. We've all been a little tired here, but we're slowly making England feel like home! I'll post more pictures of the house soon!

What we learned in London.

We learned how to maneuver a stroller through tight situations and in between masses of people on the tube.

We learned how to be creative to keep kids happy in a high rise.

We learned where each train station's "lifts" were located.

We learned that if there are no lifts, carrying both kids up the stairs in the stroller makes you strong (and sore).

We learned that groceries are not something to take for granted. We drank the milk that we lugged in the bag hanging on the stroller through the streets and up to our flat, much slower and in rations.

We learned that cities aren't really meant for kids.

We learned that taking the "TRAIN!" sounds fun to Livvy...but not so much to her tired parents.

We learned that we were ready  to move to Tunbridge Wells, with or without furniture!

And lastly we learned to mind the gap! (if you've ever been to London then you know what I'm talking about...if not come and find out!)

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These suburbianites are glad that we can visit the city and not live in it! 

Ikea.

In preparation to us moving to our new place (without our shipment of beds, chairs and toys) we decided a trip to Ikea would be necessary. Neither of us had ever been to an Ikea in the US, so we were a bit overwhelmed at the idea...but a few spreadsheets later (I'm not kidding) we were off.

So after a subway, train and tramlink ride we made it to Ikea Croyden.

Please note the NEW pram complete with a rain cover and foot muff! I'm no longer the American with the oversized stroller! Don't worry I almost got Lincoln killed trying to get it for me...but that is his story and he has promised to make his blogging debut telling it.

We walked through the store (I swear it's a town) and stopped for a bit of lunch before continuing on to the self-pick up area.  (LOVE the food...it really is all that it is cracked up to be!)

The self-picking area was pretty crazy. Lincoln tried to maneuver a boxed table/chairs, wardrobes, and bedside tables through a sea of Saturday-Ikea shoppers....while I pushed my new stroller (and kids) to the check out area.

We arrived at Ikea around 1 pm and headed for the Tramlink at about 5:45 pm. Overall I don't think it was has crazy as we had expected. They delivered all of the furniture (and other random things I bought) to our new house the day we moved in. It was so nice to have at least some furniture right away!

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This Ikea first-timer is glad we bought the Sweedish meetballs (and furniture). 

Natural History Museum and Changing of the Guard

Before we left the big city we decided to check out Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard, followed by the Natural History Museum that is located next door to where we went to church. 

We didn't see much of the guards, because it was swarmed with tourists, but we did hear their band and caught a glimpse of the tall black funny hats. 

After seeing the palace, we booked it to the museum to see some dinos!

Livvy loved seeing the fossils and looking at the gems that the museum houses.

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These tourists are glad that their museums are free!