Our kitchen

Once you enter inside, you see that the bottom floor of the house contains the main living room (which belongs to Sam and his toys), the kitchen, and a small bathroom.

This is how our kitchen looked when we first moved in. Shortly after, Stuart went on a business trip for 2 weeks and I attacked the kitchen with some paint.                                                                                            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It turned yellow! We also had a huge 8 seater table removed from the living room (that took up half the room) and two of the bar chairs.                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My little model is showing off the room, as well as starting to beg for a snack. He loves cereal bars but for some unknown reason has named them “bookies”.

In this photo, you can see our dandy new oven. I like it, but right now the oven is cooking at almost 70 degrees Celcius lower than it should. We bought an oven thermometer in London to keep an eye on it.

The kitchen sink. This is where I spent a great amount of my time. As you may be able to tell, we do not have a dishwasher. Well, actually that is not true – I am the dishwasher.  The problem is that our water is not safe to drink because it comes from the river, and it has a higher bacteria count that our bodies cannot handle. So, when I wash the dishes, I then have to boil water in the kettle, fill a plastic tub in the stink (no stopper) and dip all of the dishes into the boiling water (using gloves, of course).

You can vaguely see our boiler on the wall outside the window. It provides continuous hot water on demand, which is great. But, it doesn’t always fire properly and if you aren’t paying close attention (or are sleepy, as in my case) and turn off the water and start again because it isn’t hot – the boiler will ignite all the loose gas with a boom and shake the windows.             

My new fridgie!! We had one before that was a bit larger, but it was damaged in an earthquake (before we arrived) and the main door wouldn’t close all the way – so I had bugs and warm milk. If you look closely, you can see the backdoor has a lock on it about adult eye level – that is to try and prevent a certain escape artist from sneaking out!                               

Looking from the kitchen back into the living room (and front doors).  I was in the middle of doing mass laundry after a trip, which is why there are 2 laundry hampers there. Also, to the right of the hampers you can see where I hang my fly swatter – the most important item in the room!

A little drive

Let’s take a little drive, shall we? 

Head out of Lima going south on the good ole’ Panamerican Highway.

Watch out for road repairs due to prior earthquake damage (specifically the big 8.0 last year):

***********************************************************

After an hour and some, when you see the V cut in the mountain ahead, you know you’re almost to our house! (I believe the oops truck is carrying bananas):

***********************************************************

Closer now. You can see “Asia” written on the mountain to the right:

***********************************************************

Round the curve:

***********************************************************

Aha! Here is our neighborhood! Slow down to take a turn in to the right:

***********************************************************

Entrance gates (which were subsequently painted lime green in the summer):

***********************************************************

Drive down the main road in our subdivision (hehe). The little hut looking things are actually placeholders for the land until the area is built up (or so I’m told, but I don’t see that happening any time soon). In the distance straight ahead, is the Pacific Ocean:

***********************************************************

The road comes to a T. Prepare to turn left. I have to admit – the first time I made this trip, when we were moving here, I started to wonder where the houses were going to fit since it seemed we were running out of land:

***********************************************************

After the turn, a short travel down a portion of the old Panamerican highway:

***********************************************************

Turn again – our driveway! You can finally see where we live. Notice all the grass and trees, and neighbors! (hah)

***********************************************************

Into our complex:

***********************************************************

Park the car at our backdoor. This is our building and our windows are the brown one (Sam’s room) and the one above:

***********************************************************

Walk around the building to the front and see our house! It needs some paint touching up.

***********************************************************

Sam checking out his kit (and my gnome):

***********************************************************

Open the glass doors and come inside!

Home tour manana! Ciao! (they say that here instead of adios)

Outside?

We have broadband now! Whee! It’s not wireless, so I’m anchored, but it’s much more dependable than that pesky old dial-up. This means I can start doing more photos! Aren’t you excited?

Me:  “Sam, do you want to go play outside now?”
Sam: “Yes, but first I need my jacket. It is cold outside!”

I am constantly amazed at how well his language skills are for a  2.5 year old. The other day he wanted me to follow him, so he said, “Mama! Come!” but I wasn’t fast enough. So he repeated himself and said it to me in SPANISH:  “Mama vien! vien!”

Knocked.me.over.

“Momma? You comin’?”

The other morning I woke up about 8 am and was listening to Sam (on the baby monitor) play happily in his room when an earthquake struck. Since I panicked over the last one we had, and I was pretty tired, I decided to wait it out and see what happened before I jumped up. It was all over in the amount of time it took me to think that through anyway. heh.

Just a rumble, rumble, rumble, SHAKE, rumble, rumble.

Sam was quiet for a minute and then spoke up in an alarmed voice:

“Momma?  You comin’?”

“Momma?  Sammy’s room is broken!”

Heh. He couldn’t think of any better way to describe it, and it just made me laugh!

The following comes from a great website that I follow (as well as everyone else out here). It is amazing to see how many earthquakes happen worldwide on a daily basis.

Check it out: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/  (click on the maps for details)

Earthquake Details

Magnitude	5.2
Date-Time	Saturday, June 07, 2008 at 13:06:28 UTC Saturday, June 07, 2008 at 08:06:28 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	12.412°S, 77.687°W
Depth	35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program
Region	NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL PERU
Distances	75 km (50 miles) WSW of LIMA, Peru 145 km (90 miles) S of Huacho, Peru 205 km (125 miles) NW of Chincha Alta, Peru 270 km (170 miles) NW of Ica, Peru

As a point of reference, we live 107 km S of Lima, so we weren’t too far from the epicenter.

Ick!

Dear Sam,

Please, please, please do NOT lick the fly swatter!

Love,

Momma

Hello Daddy!

Stuart usually goes to work in my dreams, around 5:45 in the morning. Most days I wake briefly when he leaves, and remember it all in a blur. This morning was no different until the phone rang at 6:45 am.

“Hi, its me. I’m by the back door…can you let me in?”

(We have no key to our back door, for some reason, and he has to leave me the key for the front)

As winter closes in, the weather is becoming more humid and wet, and there is an incredible amount of fog.  Apparently there was a huge accident on the Pan American highway early this morning, and the road was blocked in both directions.  Stuart and the other men in our housing camp ride a private bus into work every day ( it is a 45 minute journey) and they made it less than half way before the driver was called and told to turn back due to the accident and resulting 15 kilometer traffic jam. The highway where the accident occured is high in the mountains where the fog is a problem even in the summer, and it is only one lane in each direction.

Here is the road as it looks in summer with minimal fog (and dry!):

Another bus of Stu’s coworkers was caught up in the traffic jam, and the men actually had to get out of their bus and walk back to another bus that could transport them back to our camp.

At 10:30 am, the call came that the road was clear and guys could board the buses and get back to work. Turns out it was a false alarm because Stu came home 10 minutes later. Yes, the road was clear to allow some traffic to flow…err…while they got a crane in place to help clear up the mess, at which time the road was closed back down.

They never did make it to work today.

We’re home

We’ve made it home to Peru in one piece, after a very long journey. It went pretty well though, and Sam tolerated the long flights like a champ, considering.

 I only had to catch vomit in my hands once.

We also got our luggage back. It eventually made it to Johannesburg just in time for the return trip, and the possibility of losing it again. We have since discovered that some items were kindly removed from the bags, which is highly annoying. Most notably, they took my Levis, my tennis shoes, a bit of my makeup, some of Sam’s winter clothing and his tennis shoes, as well as some gifts we were taking for the girls.

Bye bye shoes!

The weather in Peru has changed since we’ve been gone. It has gotten cooler overall, but the days are nice and warm (as opposed to searingly hot).

I really like it, and don’t want it to keep cooling down.

Checking in

We are currently in South Africa, sans luggage, visiting the girls.

Many photos coming.

Today, and all

I know there is a big chunk of the story missing, the bits about arriving in Peru for the first time and our adjustment to life here.  I will catch up on this, promise.

Sam and I have been back in Peru this week after a two-week trip to Dallas. We are settling back in and waiting for Stu to return from Chile and join us. Sam is very happy to be back – he missed his friends, and his playground, and his bed. For me, it’s not so easy.

This morning I woke up about 8:15 to the sound of Sam shouting to me over the baby monitor: “Mama…mama…wake up!  Mama…come here now!”

As I got up I realized that we probably needed to catch the bus to Lima today in order to get more water (and beer, but I’ll let you decide which is more important) because we won’t be able to go again until Monday.

Deciding at the last minute meant getting ready in a hurry. I threw Sam and I into the shower, dressed, shoved our breakfast into a backpack, grabbed the stroller and carseat, and rushed out the door to get to the bus stop by 9. 

Halfway there one of the drivers ran over to me.

“Senora, lada lada lada NO BUS lada lada lada lada.”

I understood enough and turned around towards home. Grumpily.

Later, I found out that there were major strike activities planned for today with tire burnings, marches and demonstrations expected along the Panamerican highway so the buses were restriced due to security reasons. In fact, the early morning bus from our camp, filled with the guys going to work, had to turn back after it was set upon and had things thrown at it.

(There is a fly on my leg, it will not leave me alone. I did not miss the flies, did not want to come back to all these flies. Have killed over 10 of them today, one was especially messy. This one does not have long to live.)

The fun part was that Sam got to play with some of his “uncles” and his godfather, since they were home for the morning. Everything cleared up before noon, which is good, but still no bus action for me today.

It is very quiet here, almost stunningly so. I was prepared for it, so I thought, because I knew the summer locals weren’t coming back after Easter, but it feels really bare here. Imagine that Sam and I have gone into the movie “The Shining”  again, and we’re holding up the hotel for the winter. The halls are empty, folks.

After lunch, I put a bag of popcorn into the microwave and stepped out the door to put laundry on. Burned the heck out of it (the popcorn, of course).

So, I promptly put another bag of popcorn on, popped into the loo, and burned this second bag worse than the first.

Ah well.

 

Moving, just photos

Lima out the window of our hotel:

 

Traffic, heading out of town:

 

Shopping center:

 

“Momma!  Save room for me!”

Starting the adventure

We are in Peru!  Unfortunately, I do not have an internet connection at the house, but I’ve discovered a free wireless connection in Lima at the Starbucks. Sam and I have travelled into Lima by bus (provided by the company) to do some interneting and grocery shopping. Stu is back in London for two weeks, so we are holding our own.

This is where we live. It is in the middle of nowhere. I will have more to say later and may update again on Thursday with more photos. I love it here – it is such an improvement from Nigeria.  The food is excellent and we love our little house. I am slowly learning a few Spanish words, but I have a long way to go.

Sam is loving it here also. He spends a lot of time playing outside and has befriended some children.

More soon.

In Peru

We are in Peru!  Unfortunately, I do not have an internet connection at the house, but I’ve discovered a free wireless connection in Lima at the Starbucks. Sam and I have travelled into Lima by bus (provided by the company) to do some interneting and grocery shopping. Stu is back in London for two weeks, so we are holding our own.

This is where we live. It is in the middle of nowhere. I will have more to say later and may update again on Thursday with more photos. I love it here – it is such an improvement from Nigeria.  The food is excellent and we love our little house. I am slowly learning a few Spanish words, but I have a long way to go.

Sam is loving it here also. He spends a lot of time playing outside and has befriended some children.

More soon.

 

 

 

Oh Dear

Many things have happened since my last update.

First, the results of the test of Sam’s heart came out great – turns out he has what is called an “innocent” murmur which means that his heart functions perfectly, it just makes a funny noise. Many people have it and there is nothing to worry about. This was such a relief to hear. Although I was pretty sure he was fine, I still worried like crazy.

 Afterwards, I spent about a week or so going through the house and getting rid of things we didn’t need. I took about 8 bags of clothes, toys, shoes and books to the Oxfam charity shop, and I was able to organize the rest of the house in preparation for packing.

Then, on October 26, Sam and I made our way to Dallas. The 10-hour flight went pretty well, although there were some tough spots. Luckily, the people sitting near me were all nice and not worried at all about Sam and any potential screaming fits. Unfortunately, the flight attendants were all in a bad mood and made a few nasty comments, one of which really upset me. In fact, they felt so bad about the way they treated me that I got a lot of positive attention the second half of the flight (and some help).

We had a good visit in Dallas with family, and I have some cute pictures of Sam in his costume on my camera, but I got a little sidetracked by the events of the past few days and haven’t downloaded them yet. Sam ended up getting sick a few days ago.

He stopped eating most things and would keep vomiting up his bottle (milk) and then almost everything else I tried to feed him. We took him to the doctor and she said his ears, throat and chest were fine and he probably had too much acid on his stomach. On Friday we were scheduled to fly to NC to visit my mom and I went ahead with it although Sam was very grumpy and clingy. I was hoping it was a stomach thing and it would pass.

After arriving at my mom’s, Sam slept all night with no problem, but woke up cranky and begging for a bottle. About a minute after his finished it, he started screaming in pain and the whole thing came back up. We decided to take him to the Urgent Care center (since it was Saturday) and see if there was something else that could be done.

They took one look at him and told us we needed to go to the hospital. They made a few calls and took us by shuttle across the street to the ER. Luckily, they have a special section for kids and we ended up in the pediatric ER.

It ended up being a very long day. The initially wanted to see if Sam would drink anything because he didn’t seem to be too badly dehydrated according to a physical exam. He flatly refused and screamed when we tried. He only wanted me to hold him and he was very lethargic and sleepy. As a last resort, they tried using a syringe to force liquid down his throat, but it was a screaming battle. During his crying, Sam kept saying “oh dear!” and the nurses got a kick out of this.

After this, they decided to start an IV to give him fluids. The used a papoose type device which they wrapped around him to keep him still – he HATED it and screamed. We heard ”oh dear!” a few more times. They managed to draw a tube of blood for testing at the same time. Then, we waited for the test results and the fluid to take hold. My mom took photos on her cellphone.

It was a very long wait. Thankfully, and a HUGE thankfully, my mom stayed with me the whole time because it was very scary. I did pretty well but began to panic when there was no change in Sam after all the fluid. I thought he would perk up but he didn’t. He was still a rag-doll. Oh dear.

We learned that his white blood cell count was fine, but that he was severely dehydrated. (No surprise). Also, his blood sugar was worrying low (because he wasn’t eating) and they became insistent that we make him drink something with sugar in it. No dice. After this, I had to take him for Xrays because they were worried that he might have a bowel obstruction. This didn’t go well and I had to hold him still in several different positions. Truly heartbreaking. Then, they showed me the results and he had tons of air trapped in his bowels (from the drink being forced down his throat, probably) but nothing sinister showed up. This was great news, but also very frustrating because they still couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

Then, we finally got to meet the doctor  and she got things hopping. They attached a bag with sugar solution to his IV and pumped it in to help get his blood sugar up, and she ordered a dose of anti-nausea medication to also be given in his IV. She also warned that the next step would be a CT scan which would require him to drink a nasty solution. She didn’t really want to do this test because of the radiation, but was having to push to find a solution. They retested his sugar by pricking his finger and he was very curious about the band-aid:

Thankfully, the anti-nausea medication had a profound effect and within 10 minutes he was up and asking for a cracker to eat. I was so overjoyed! The change was incredible. The best part was that he started doing so well that we got to skip the CT scan and go home after 9 hours!

He is slowly starting to feel better and has eaten a good amount of food today. I am still having to give him the anti-nausea medicine, but I think by tomorrow he will be much improved.

Stinky Sam and the fish and the doctor

I took Sam to the doctor this morning to have an overall checkup before we leave, and to ask a few questions. I love the general doctor here (called GP) because you see them in their office and the visit is casual and can take up to an hour, as ours did. Sam loves going there because they have a huge fish tank in the waiting room, and he is entranced by it.

 I had Sam weighed and measured. He is in the 50th percentile for weight at 12 kilos, and he is in the 98th percentile for height. heh. This explains why I have to buy pants for bigger boys just to get them long enough!

Then, the doctor did a physical exam and took a while to listen to Sam’s heart. He told me that he detected a murmur, which I surprised to hear (eventhough I had one as a kid, I heard) because he has had his heart listened to before. He suggested I take Sam to the hospital toget an echocardiogram done to make sure it wasn’t anything serious. I honestly don’t think there is a problem because Sam hasn’t had any difficulties, but I still feel a little unnerved about it. He said he would check with a cardiologist and call me later in the day. This happened, and I had a choice of appointments for tomorrow, since they are making it a priority. So, off we go to the Royal Brompton Hospital around noon tomorrow.

After that exam, the poor baby had to have his last routine vaccination!! He did really well though, I just hate it when he cries from the shock of the needle.

We stopped for doughnuts on the way home and then, as I was walking upstairs into the kitchen, I caught the sight of a mouse running across my entry way floor. *sigh*

The moment my heart stopped, and so on…

I didn’t have a very good day. In fact, it was one of those no-good, very bad, hideous, hide under the covers kind of days.

 I’ve gone back and recreated some photos to help tell the story.

This morning, after breakfast, I left Sam in the living room (lounge) while I ran upstairs to the toilet. We have baby gates on both the up and down stair sections so he is trapped, and the room is baby safe. I wasn’t planning to be long, but several minutes later I came back downstairs and called Sam’s name. No answer. I looked around the room, no Sam.

Then I saw this:

As my brain registered the information, I ran downstairs at lightening speed, shouting his name. No answer. With horror, I knew what I would be seeing before I actually turned the corner. He knows how to open the front door (they are different here – you just have to push a button to get out).

My heart shattered when I saw this:

Since I was in my nightgown, I grabbed my coat and ran outside in my bare feet shouting his name, “SAMSAMSAM??!”

Nothing. He was GONE.

I was in a panic. He knows how to open the gates at the entry to our drive and my mind was afraid to think of him running out into the busy street around the corner.

I tore around the corner and the gates were closed. No baby. I cannot describe to you  how horrible it was to know that he had gotten away and I was responsible for losing him. Drama aside, it was nothing less than utter terror. 

I ran out of the gates and looked up the road:

I didn’t know what to do. By this time I was screaming his name when suddenly something orange caught the corner of my eye. I turned around and saw him standing in a large puddle in his pyjamas and socks.  He was happily playing and soaking wet. I ran over to him (in slow motion, like a movie) and he said to me, “socks, socks.”

I said, “yes, baby, your socks are wet. Let me get you back home.”

He had been trying to get into this puddle for several days – each time we came home from being out - and I never let him. Now I was really glad he was so entranced that it kept his attention long enough for me to find him.

Once we got back into the house, I decided it was time for a shower. His feet were very cold. We went into the bathroom and I shut the door, just in case. Sam usually wants out of the shower before I am finished, so I let him out of the stall and he plays in the bathroom. He likes to flush the toilet several times, play with his plastic car, test the cabinet doors (which are secured), unroll the toilet paper and pull the towels off the rack. But, today he decided to play with the lock on the door. The lock on the door is funny – it is a little knob that hooks onto a rod inside. He usually pulls the knob off but its not a problem.

Today that changed.

 Once I got out of the shower, I noticed that he had managed to LOCK the door before pulling the lock knob off. This meant we were locked IN the bathroom. I tried to use a pair of tweezers to fix the problem, to no avail. We had no clothes, and no way out.

Oh deary me. Can you imagine my state of mind at this point?!?

Sam had been playing with my cellphone shortly before we hopped in the shower, and luckily it was still on the bathroom counter. I had no other choice but to call Stu at work and tell him to come home straight away.

Then, after a big sigh, I sat down and began to pluck tiny glass shards (from the street) out of my feet.

Leaving London

How do you say goodbye to a city?

Sam and I are leaving soon – our flight out is scheduled for October 26 –  and I’ve started to wonder if I am going to miss London.  We’ve been here for almost two and a half years and I have gotten very used to life here, and in some sense it feels like home. In fact, I’ve started to pick up some of the language – phrases and different terminology. Truth is, I just don’t know how I feel about leaving. Sometimes I start to panic and wonder if I’ve seen all the sights and fully enjoyed all that England has to offer, and other times I am so sick of the crowds and noise and all that big city living entails.

We are going to be spending a few weeks in the States before heading to Peru. I am looking forward to this, but find that it will also be an adjustment. I feel very removed from life there since I have been away for so long.

Big boy!

Isn’t he gorgeous?  Don’tcha like the big bruise on his forehead? (He tripped)

Peru earthquake

We heard the news about the Peru earthquake this morning and Stu has been on the phone to see how everyone is. The earthquake epicenter was in the Chincha and Canete area which is approximately 10 kilometers from where we will be living. We have checked up and found that no one we know has been hurt. I was especially worried about our friends who have just moved there with their 6 month old baby.

The word is that there is no noticeable damage to our living accommodation, but they are waiting for daylight to finish checks. As for the construction site, that will also be closely scrutinized because they are working on foundations and want to make sure nothing was damaged. But, with the magnitude of that earthquake,  I can only wonder.

Spain and moving

<we are in Spain with the 3 kiddos and all is well. Sam has fallen in love with both the swimming pool and the ocean.

>I just found out our move date to Peru is Nov. 15.  hmm!!

Sleep, with a capital I

So peaceful…I love it! I had to sneak my camera in for a shot. George looks like he is giving him a kiss.

Stu has been in Peru this week, and we are doing well. My only problem is that I can’t sleep. Or actually, won’t.

I keeping finding so many things to do after putting Sammy to bed, that the time flies by. I get my 100th wind and end up staring at the clock until midnight…one…Insomnia is a very unfriendly bedfellow.

And my alarm clock cries around 7 am whether I like it or not so I spend half the morning in a semi-comatose state. After feeding Sam, I usually lay on the floor with my head on a pillow while he plays around me and blows raspberries on my stomach.

Sam is really embracing his new speech skills. He has discovered that items have a word associated with them and now he wants to know the words for everything around him. He is enthralled with books – they draw him in like a magnet. I have one on his changing table and he says “BOOK!” almost immediately after I get him out of his cot in the morning. Then, he reads it to me while I change him, and then waves goodbye to it when we leave the room.

He has several books in the living room and we go through them – he points to things and waits for me to tell him the corresponding word. He gets excited when he knows one, such as “BIRD BIRD BIRD BIRD!” heh.

He also loves airplanes and points them out to me when we are out walking about. Since we live in the flight path for Heathrow airport, he is able to point one out to me about every minute or so. (It is cute, the first 80 times or so.)

Ok, enough, maybe I should go look for some shut eye.

He is starting to talk:

bird

book

ahhplane (airplane – points at sky)

apple

duggie (doggie)

daddy (no mama)

and then,  the other morning I heard this on the baby monitor:

“wheres tha book?”

a full sentence!

Scattered thoughts

Guest post by my sister Katie:

 First off, sorry for the lack of posts.  I keep thinking of things to write during the day, but at night my energy runs low really quickly (and our favorite show is on..).   

So,  while I’ve been here I’ve been observing how demanding being a mom is.  There’s just too much to do in the day, between watching the kid, playing, feeding, changing nappies, not to mention all the cleaning to do.  So I really appreciate all the Mom’s out there.  Good on you.  It’s stressful and I don’t know how you all do it so well.  And… thanks to the dads as well, they do a wonderful job too.

The girls are coming tomorrow and the house is in a flurry.  We are all SOOOO excited. 

The next thought I have is about the little Samster.  Every week we go to a playgroup.  Last week we went at 330 as usual.  We took off sams shoes and I went in to play.  The trouble with last week was that there was a 5 week old infant with her nanny and elder brother.  The nanny went in to play with the boy and my sister was intrusted with the infant.  Sam and I were having fun for a while until……    KaBAAM  the jealousy monster crept out of Sam.  He looked over at his mom holding the little girl, and he went crazy, wailing, kicking and screaming.  There was no consoling him! So my sister and I had to switch places.  But Sam still held on to his mommy.  He didn’t play like normal the entire time.  He was mommy’s boy.  A bit jealous don’t you think?

Sam is also such a cute kid.  Hes always saying diddle diddle daddle and things like that.  He is such a happy kid, he likes tickle fights and will tickle my belly button all the time. 

I’m getting pretty sad because my time here is almost over.  I’ll be leaving on Monday   I’ll miss so many things here.  Cokes and ice cream, my loving sister, my favorite show, a little boy waking me up in the morning, starbucks blueberry muffins, trips to the park,  and even my brother-in-law snoring in his chair at night.

Sorry for the randomness… my thoughts are just too scattered, excited and sad at the same time.

Why?

WHY won’t my son keep his hands out of the toilet??

Grr.

Brace yourself…massive photo update!

I took Katie to see Leeds Castle out in Kent (ie, the old neighborhood for me). It was about 1.5 hours by car, but it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed it!

Besides the castle, there were large grassy areas to roam, so we took off our shoes and ran around (see how dusty mine were!):

Playing with Auntie Katie:

Beautiful tree, with a tiny river running nearby that Sam loved:

Happy boy!!

Sam running down the halls of the castle:

In the cellar of the castle, looking for ghosts:

The off to the castle maze. He loved following the path, but became a little confused when we would take the wrong course and come to a dead end:

We solved the maze and ended up on the mound in the middle which looked down into a grotto below. Last time Sam and I came to the maze, I tripped on the stairs up to the mound and he was hurt (and I was traumatized). This time, we made it in one piece!

Inside the grotto tunnels:

Looking at the fountain inside the grotto:

Then, we had a new accident. Sam slipped on the wet rocks and fell over onto his back and bumped his head. He was covered in mud, but I took his pants off and let them dry, brushed off the dirt, and he was as good as new!

There was also a park on the castle grounds:

Down the slide!

Absolutely precious photo, in my opinion:

Switching gears to another day. MoM, this is the photo I mentioned that you would completely understand. Hah:

Another day, we three went into London to St. Paul’s Church, and a nearby museum. Sam was so happy to walk along the river and watch the boats:

Boats!!

It really creeps me out…

This isn’t Katie, this is her sister.  And I’m creeped out.

When Katie came over, I told her to be sure and bring a light jacket because the weather can be a bit finicky here. On her first day in town, we decided to take her out for a walk to keep her from giving in to her jet lag. She came down from her room in her jacket – a brown, hooded thing from the Gap. I turned to look at her just as I was grabbing MY jacket…a brown, hooded thing from the Gap.

We both have the same jacket – exactly the same (although mine is a MUCH larger size, mind you)  – and we bought them in separate countries without knowing.

****

We have become addicted to a particular evening TV show and Stu is getting used to our requests to watch it (instead of the Discovery channel). Last night, he stood up and said, “your show…”

And before he could the rest of the sentence out, Katie and I both shouted in unison:

“Ten Minutes!!”  (as in 10 minutes before showtime).

We act like twins sometimes eventhough there is a huge age gap between us. 

Weird, eh?

Hello….??

Guest post by my sister Katie:

First off, is there anybody out there??  Where are the comments people?? I’m feeling a bit neglected.  Do you like the posts do you not like the posts?  Its hard to stay focused on posting without feedback, so don’t be shy

Next, I would like to declare that Covent Garden is my favorite place in London.  Why… I don’t know.  I suppose I like it because there’s always something going on there.  There TONS of shops, a carousel, and funny people covered in silver paint acting like robots.  Quite fun.

That’s all for now until I get more comments

PS I love my sister