blah de balh vlahg

Shattered

Guest post by my sister Katie:

Yesterday the fam and I went to an airshow about 15 mins out of London.  We met a couple friends there and spent the whole day eyeing the sky.  It was great fun.  If you have never been to an airshow I highly recommend going.  We saw all sorts of planes old and new.  My favorites were the tornado, the glider, and the red arrows.  The glider was especially cool because it begins attached to another plane.  Then when they get to a reasonably high height the glider detaches from the motored plane and the fun begins.  Its amazing all the things the glider can do, all sorts of loops and tricks.   Pretty cool.  So now after a day of great fun and excitement we are all completely shattered. 

Baby Bandit

Guest post by my sister Katie:

So today, we had to make a trip to the store.  Just a normal trip to pick up a few things.  We got to the register with Sam, checked out, and then the cashier pointed to Sam and said, “are you going to pay for that as well?” The little bugger had picked up a huge can of men’s shaving cream without either of us noticing.  Quite the sneaky little baby bandit isn’t he?

Weeping for Peacocks

Guest post by my sister Katie:

Yesterday was an adventurous day.  We all left the house around 1015am and hopped in the car.  We proceeded to drive an hour and a half or so into Kent.  Our destination being Leeds castle.  We did so much there!! It was amazing how we stayed occupied all day.  First there was the walk through the gardens (beautiful!)  We then walked through the castle lawns and the birds (ducks, geese, swans, peacocks)  would walk right up to you.  Afterwards we got a bite to eat, went to the playground, the dog collar museum, and the infamous (and quite challenging) maze.  After all that (and some ice cream) we headed inside the castle, and it was beautiful. 

The funniest thing about the whole day, I thought, was the peacocks.  There were about 4 or 5 of these birds wandering around the castle grounds.  Each time the birds would go all out with their feathers, up in a fan and the whole bit, Sam would go nuts crying.  He was terrified of them.  You couldn’t blame the poor kid either.  One thing I didn’t know about peacocks is that they shake their feathers when their up to get the female’s attention.  This makes a rattling sound that wasn’t too pleasant for little Sam.  They also have a terribly loud and frightening honking sound that they make.  All these things combined made Sam turn around in his pram and scream until we got away.  I found it funny but I could understand his fear as well.

It was a lovely day other than the peacocks.  We spent almost all day at Leeds and we were all shattered afterwards.  Consequently, today was a lazy day.  TV and reading books for the girls while Sam played and ate all day long. 

Bye for now,

Katiebunny

Guest post by my sister Katie:

Its been beautiful here in London the last couple days.  But, its been hard to get out of the house, due to laying around being very relaxing.  We’ve been to the park, and had a nice walk around the town.  Otherwise, I really can’t think of anything unique to talk about.  Its been a long relaxing day… aren’t you jealous?? hehe

WEEEEE LONDON!

Guest post by my sister Katie:

Hi this is Katiebunny,

If you don’t know I’m miss bunbunny’s sister.  I just arrived yesterday for a visit for an entire month.  So, while I’m here I’ll be guest posting to give you a clue on our daily adventures. 

I left for London around four thirty p.m on Saturday.  I had a great plane ride, the checky-iny people at the airport sat me next to two other college students.  One was from Baylor and is currently on a marketing trip around Europe.  The other is doing an exchange program in Spain this summer.  So as you can imagine we sure did chat for a while.  It was loads of fun.  There was also a mission church group on the plane.  They were going to Uganda to do good of some sort.  They all must have been excited about their do-gooding because they were chatty throughout the plane ride, giving me very little sleep.  (Which I wasn’t too keen on !)

I arrived in London at 710 AM on Sunday morning.  I was about the last to get off the plane and decided to freshen up before going through customs. Very BAD idea!  The line for customs took about 45 minutes to get through because all the people on my plane were before me, and a lot of other international flights had just gotten in.  I finally got up to the customs agent and he asked me all sorts of funny questions about my sister and about previous trips I had taken.  After a short while he let me through.  I was relieved, customs is always a bit scary. 

After a long walk, I saw a crowd of people with one peeping his head around to see me.  It was Stuart! I was relieved to see a familiar face.  We went to the car park and down the lift.  I then tried to drive the car apparently.. the steering wheel was on the wrong side and I had forgotten that tiny detail.  Its about an hour’s trip to London, so Stuart and I chatted a long while. 

We got to the house and I was greeted by a blond haired, blue eyed little boy and my sickly sister.  You see the mother and child pair has been hit by strep throat and other kinds of ailments.  We all chatted and watched the little one for a while and then decided to take the tube to Hammersmith to keep me awake.  In Hammersmith there is a lovely old bridge over the Thames.  We went under the bridge to a walkway where all kinds of houses and little pubs are strung along.  It was a lovely day, nice, bright,and sunny.  So, we decided to sit at one of the pubs and have a coke or other kind of beverage.   One of Stuart and my sister’s friends joined us there for a drink.  He was a fine Irish fellow, very kind, funny, and fast talking.  I couldn’t help but laugh a few times because he talks so fast and has a different sort of lingo.  It was a bit hard to understand, but I picked out the key points in the conversation after a few stops for explaining.

After that adventure, we made the trek home, and Stuart promptly made dinner.  It was amazing!  Steak, potatoes, and salad  yum!!!  The cute little one went off to bed while we all watched Top Gear, and Deal or no Deal.  Fun shows!  I like Deal or No Deal better here because its the British version and isn’t so long and drawn out.  By the time those were over I was terribly tired from jet lag so I went off to bed. 

Today I was awoken at 10 o’clock by my sister and a shining baby boy.  He was wicked cute almost naked baby boy!  You see I am sleeping in what usually is his room, so he had no clothes to wear until I woke up.  He was dressed in my school colors today, suspenders and trousers.  Too cute! (I’m going to say cute a lot when speaking about him… how could you not?)  I got dressed and ready and we went to lunch at a wonderful restaurant called Burger Kitchen.  I gasped when I saw my burger,  it seemed 8 inches tall!  It was delicious though. We went home and did some girl talk, and relaxing while the little one took a much needed nap for 4 hours. He needs to recover from his sickness! 

Then, we visited the nearby Tesco.  We drove there in the car, and it was strange because it was the first time I had seen my sister drive on the wrong side of the rode and in a big city like London.  I felt like I was 14 again when my sister drove me everywhere in the car that is now my own.  Thanks sis!  At the store there were TONS of people hustling and bustling to get their food.  Some were quite annoying bumping into us and stopping their cart so fast that we ran into them.  Everyone is always in a big rush here.  It’s quite different from the part of Texas I am from.  There, no one is in a rush to do anything!  We got through that mess and met Stuart back home.  I played with the boy for a while and got to give him some supper.  The adults ate spaghetti  for dinner, again delicious!  Now Stuart has gone to bed and I will do so soon as well.  So far the trip has gone wonderfully, and I will have more to dish tomorrow! 

Bye for now,

Katiebunny

Guest author Katie

You might start to see some posts here from Katie, so enjoy. (They will be in red text).

I will try to post some (more) myself.

Off!

Off to Barcelona for the weekend!

16 months

16 months … such a beautiful boy!!

New shoes

Well, the boredom did not last very long as Stu is now out of the country for 10 days and the little run is keeping me running.

Thank you, Aunt Jane, for the suggestions! I did manage to paint my toe nails (for the 1st time in about 3 years) and love it. Also, I may look into the banana bread idea because I am supposed to be on a diet (self imposed) and it sounds like the perfect thing to break the rules.

Sam got new shoes this morning. For his size, the options are quite limited and I didn’t like the first shoe brought out because it was so heavy and hot looking. So, we went with a sandal that has a BUCKLE so maybe my little darling won’t be throwing it around the supermarket aisles like he did with his last shoes.

Are they cute, or what??

Bored

Everyone else in the house is asleep (one in his cot, one in his recliner) and the TV is dull, and I am very bored.

 I’m not sleepy, can’t be bothered to do laundry or clean … lalala… and I’ve looked up everything I can think of tonight on the internet. All surfed out.

Just thought you’d like to know.

Sammy hates mail…

Not really.

But, the arrival of mail in our house is a cruel, cruel event.  When the mail comes through our letter opening in the door downstairs, it sounds JUST LIKE Daddy coming home from work.

So, Sammy gets all excited and starts saying “Daddle daddle daddle” and races to the safety gate to look.

He waits expectantly, and I have to break the bad news.  “See Sammy, no Daddy yet…he is at work. Only mail”

He protests and looks around some more.

And then he screams.

What I did for my birthday

I love my birthday. I always wake with a smile and feel cheery. I make myself enjoy the day no matter what, and I always feel special. I wish every day was my birthday.

Today, my husband woke me up and gave me the sweetest card.

Then, I fell back to sleep and my alarm clock started to cry about 8am.  Sam and I got up and had breakfast and then showered. It was slow, leisurely, and fun.

Then, I decided it was time to get out of the house. I had managed to break the wheels on Sam’s pram due to overuse (and over loading), so we went in search of a new cheapie to tear up around town.

I found a great little stroller at one of the shops on Oxford street and they allowed me to move Sam straight in, pay and roll out. They even took the old pram and got rid of it for me.

I wanted to catch the bus home instead of taking the tube (to avoid stairs). I thought it would be nice and relaxing, and we could enjoy watching out the windows.

About halfway home, as we neared a bus stop, the driver stepped HARD on the brakes to avoid traffic. Unfortunately, several people had gotten out of their seats in preparation of the stop, and one of them was caught off-guard by the jolt and sent flying down the aisle. It was an older lady – I guessed her age to be about 70 years old, and she slid about 8 feet down landing very hard on her hip, and then she continued to slide until she banged her head on the far end of the bus.

It was awful to watch.

Several of us sprang into action. Knowing Sam was ok, I sprinted over to the lady and helped her sit up (she was trying it on her own anyway, otherwise I would have encouraged her to stay still) while I also grabbed her purse and began putting the items back in. She was in pain and having difficult sitting. The driver couldn’t get out of his seat (they are shut behind a door for safety) so he spoke to me through his window. I don’t think he realized how badly the lady was hurt until I told him to call for an ambulance. I had to repeat this request several times.

We helped the lady to a seat, but she was still obviously in pain. The whole scene was disorganized so I helped where I could – telling people that the bus wasn’t going anywhere while we waited and advising them to catch the next one.  Soon, the bus emptied out. A few minutes later several people came down the stairs from the upper deck (hadn’t even thought about the fact that there were still people on the bus!) and one lady looked straight at me and berated me with, “well, you could have at least told us what was going on!”

One man, when I told him the bus wasn’t going anywhere for a bit, got angry and said, “I don’t like the sound of that, what exactly is going ON HERE?”

Sam became upset because he sensed something was wrong, so I got him out of his pram and let him cheer up the injured lady.  He was happy to walk around the empty bus and try out the stairs. One other passenger, a guy about my age, stayed on the bus with me and helped me keep the lady calm while we waited. The bus driver dutifully began to fill out “incident” paperwork. He then asked the lady for her age and when she replied “85″ I was shocked. And frightened for her.

It didn’t take long for the paramedics to arrive, and they took the lady off the bus for evaluation. Meanwhile, the police showed up (lights and sirens and all!) and launched a full investigation. I fulfilled my witness duties and then waited. The bus driver was grilled and then asked to take a breath test as part of procedure.

I felt humiliated for him.

He passed.

When it was all over, the bus driver and his boss (who had arrived on the scene) decided to give Sam and I a lift to our stop before taking the bus back to the garage (the driver was due to go off duty). So, they put “Out of Service” on the ticker and we took off.  I have to admit that I enjoyed that part and smirked as we passed each bus stop on our private tour.

Then we picked up dry cleaning.

Rushed home and ate lunch.

Sam took a 30 minute nap before we rushed out the door again for playgroup.

Then we went to a friend’s house and had a small impromptu birthday party.

The company, and the champagne were lovely.

Now, off to bed. All in all, it was a good day.

Better, with plans

Things are a little better, the girls still aren’t coming this week, but we’ve pulled together and made definite plans for them to come for their next break – in June.  They were sad on the phone tonight, and we tried to be reassuring.

They are glad to be coming in June, at any rate.

And their passports should be ready by then.

Disbelief

The girls were supposed to come visit for two weeks – arriving on Thursday… just two days from now.

 We have heard this morning that the trip is cancelled – they did not receive their passports in time.

We had lots of plans and were so excited, and now we are devastated.

I can’t imagine how they are going to feel when they learn…

Sissies

This is an old photo, but…

10 years old today, can you believe it?

Oh the sickies

Sam had a rough night. His fever spiked at 103 and he was miserable. We gave him some pain reliever and lots of cuddles.

It is hard to see him sick, and not worry constantly.

Good news is that he is feeling much better today, although still a bit sniffly.

Ick

Sam is sick. We could see it coming all day.

He is really struggling to sleep tonight. He has a fever of 102. I looked “fevers” up on the internet to make sure I know what to do, and when it is an emergency. He has never been this sick before, so I haven’t been through this yet.

Poor kid.

Dear Tourists…

Dear Tourists,

Daily, I am amazed by people visiting London who obviously look nervous and probably feel out of place, yet do everything they can to look like a target. 

Just a few thoughts:

• please don’t wear new, white tennis shoes – surely, there are more available shoe options …or at least muck them up a bit before you arrive.
• forget the matching his & hers jackets, please!
• don’t wear large backpacks…you can’t possibly need all that stuff as you tour about! Just put your passport in one pocket and a small map in the other. If you can’t leave it in the hotel, don’t bring it on the trip with you!
• if you stand huddled on a street corner, lost and flipping through your huge guide book, you are bound to look like an easy target. Find a nice cafe and hunker down with a cup of tea while you make a new plan instead.
• oh, and never mind buses and taxis, watch out for pram drivers or you could have your feet flattened.

Missed us?

Have you missed us?

Maybe we should start updating again??

From the day

On Friday night, I leaned over Sam while he was in the bath, and my glasses slipped off my face and fell into the bubbles. About an hour later, they fell off my face again, and when I went to pick them up the frames split in half.

I have spent the last couple of days walking around with scotch tape across my nose holding the two pieces of my glasses together. I’ve gotten a few weird looks on the street, haha.

Today, I got my new pair and they are so comfy! I missed my eyes.

In the mornings, when I shower, I put Sam into the bathtub with toys while I’m across the room in the stall. He is usually quite happy to play while I get ready, but today he decided to grab onto the towel rail and go for a climb. Unfortunately, before I could get to him he slipped and bit his tongue.  

I have more pictures to put up, but my camera isn’t speaking to me at the moment.

A brilliant move!

Yesterday, Sam and I went to the V&A, otherwise known as the Victoria & Albert Museum. I packed his walker with us and when we arrived I took him out of his stroller and let him use the walker to motor around the hallways. He loved it and was so excited that he babbled constantly.

He gathered quite a lot of attention, and smiles. The guards were especially delighted with the pick-me-up of seeing such a cute little boy touring the halls. We went through the China and Japan exhibits, to start with. I am starting to fall in love with the museum, after practically hating it the first time I went in (thought it was dull and drab). The magic and mystery of the large rooms and beautiful exhibitions has grabbed me. And Sam loves the chance to practice his walking skills.

In fact, this isn’t the first museum we’ve played in. Sam also loves going to the Natural History museum for a chance to see the huge T-Rex (which he was unsure of) and all of the stuffed animals (as in dead-n-stuffed).

 But, as of today, we may not have much more of an opportunity to practice with the walker:

Stu returned from his trip this morning after several delays in Chicago due to snow (which is apparently coming our way tonight!).  I told Sam when he woke up that he had a surprise coming today, and he was beaming when Stu walked through the door.

 We were chatting and catching up when I mentioned that Sam is getting very close to walking – he takes my hand and when I let go he almost takes a few steps on his own. Stu was intrigued and set Sam on his feet, grabbed his hands and steadied him while I held out my hands and called him to me. Then, Stu let go and Sam took 4 steps on his very own before reaching me. It was such a stunning and exciting moment! Our little boy is getting so big – I cannot believe that he took his first steps today. It was brilliant that it happened just when Stu was here to see it.

Of course, we were so excited, we wanted to see if he could do it again – and he did! He is so precious!

Sammy’s play

It is quiet tonight. I have been thinking all day of a post I want to write, but now that I am sitting in front of the computer, I am too tired to commit to the effort.

Sam has given me the flu he has been fighting all week. I need to call tomorrow to get him into the doctor because his cough has gotten frightening. I was hoping he would recover without needing antibiotics, like he did last time, but he might need the help this time.

We woke him up at 6:30am this morning because I needed to drive Stu to Heathrow airport for his trip to the States. When I went into Sam’s room, he was sleeping so soundly that I hated to wake him, and when I did he became very upset and began coughing. He struggled for breath because he wouldn’t calm down. Poor kid. Though, once we got into the car he was a chatterbox, heh.

In lieu of my planned post, here are some recent photos of the boy as he plays around the house!

Hiding in the basket under his highchair!!

Don’t let the bag get in your way!!

This was a quick photo since he started crying. I have to watch him carefully with this toybox since he can get stuck (as shown):

What is this? I found it on the floor while Momma was folding laundry!

Riding my new trike!!

Pit Bull baby

To start off this post, Sam thought he would write a little something to you:

  /nB/   ‘; ;;;;;;;;;; ‘zX#li216TG MJT6JHDCSUY54TRGZ46TCYTY? gVB;  ./ /.’;PLC9  /L

Looks like he is displaying a healthy interest in computers already..what with all of the back slashes. In fact, he is so interested that I have to keep the laptop on the table when I write (while he is awake) because if I decide to sit on the couch I am besieged by little hands.

Isn’t he cute, the big boy!

The other night, Stu and I were playing with Sam in the living room and Stu decided to grab me and wrestle me to the ground to tickle me. (ahh) I laughed and hollered as one would do when being tickled, and suddenly Sam started to shout, and came crawling over. He was very, very concerned.

We had noticed before that Sam doesn’t like it when something threatens his Momma – when we were visiting my MoM I made a fake crying noise over something (stubbed my toe…etc) and he got very emotional and upset. I didn’t realize that he would have such a drastic reaction to me being tickled and laughing, but he did. He thought something bad was happening to me and was coming to give Stu his due.

I love that he wants to protect me, but we have to be careful not to scare him or make him doubt his security. So, now when we start to see this reaction in him, we call him “Pit Bull baby.”

Oh snow!

[Welcome to the new blog!]

This morning my husband woke me to tell me it had snowed overnight. He was so excited, in fact, that he left for work without his cellphone.

So, in the interest of something to do, Sam and I decided to take the train to give Daddy his phone at work, pop into Krispy Kreme donuts, and then walk home through Hyde Park to see the pretty snow.

The pretty, pretty scene:

Pink Red cheekies:

Putting a hand in it:

Then, I sat him down in front of some blooming flowers and several tourists started “ooohing and ahhing” and taking his photo. His own little paparazzi group! (Can you blame them? Soo cute!)

Later on, we found our path blocked by a tree that suffered during the gales we had last week:

Sam seeing a snowman for the first time:

If this picture doesn’t make you laugh, then…what can I do? It is too funny!

Changes

There are changes afoot.  Check back.

ps – tomorrow is the BIG day!!

Moving

This blog may be moving.  Check back.