My long, lean string bean...

No, I'm not talking about Martin.  It's all Edith.

I had her weighed and measured at the baby clinic on Wednesday.  She is in the 50th percentile on her weight.  A comfortable average.  But her height is up in the 91st.  She is tall tall tall and slender for her age.  It looks like she'll take after her daddy in her build.  Lucky girl!

She tips the scales at 17.11 lbs.  She only gained 6 oz. in the last 10 weeks, and that's 3 lbs. smaller than Dylan was at the same age.  That's a lot when you're only 28 1/2 inches tall.  The health visitor kept reassuring me that it was nothing to be concerned about.  What she didn't realize is that I'm NOT concerned about it.  Edith is so happy and obviously healthy that I wouldn't care if she hadn't gained ANY weight.  She's getting really tall instead of really wide.  This is a good thing!  Besides, she's still on the slightly bigger side of average and her head circumference is spot on with her weight. 

Dylan was always my husky little man.  Perfectly proportioned but BIG!  My kids lucked out.  Dylan is going to be tall and solidly built.  Edith is going to be tall and willowy.  The genes combined just the way I was hoping they would.  Dylan will have a great build for a boy and Edith will be the envy of all the girls.  Well, that will be the case if they maintain their childhood proportions anyway.

Hooray for marrying a man with long, skinny legs to give my children a fighting chance!

On the baby changing table at the swimming pool.  Check out those legs!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our dinner was a success.  Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet corn, brussels sprouts, roast sweet potatoes and parsnips, home-made stove top stuffing, gravy, and (of course) pumpkin pie.  Martin's family were all here, and the company was good, the food was good, and the kids were well behaved.  Can't really ask for more than that!

As always, Thanksgiving makes me miss my family.  But this should be the last one that we spend in England, and then I can relax and let my mom do the cooking again!

A question for all the parents out there...

How do you feel about leaving your kids in the car while you run in a shop to do a quick errand?  Like pay for your petrol or buy a stamp or pick up some train tickets or use an ATM?  It's such a hassle to get both kids out of the car to do these things when I'm only going to be about 3 minutes, but I'm not sure it's cool to leave them in there on their own.  With the doors locked, of course.  Any thoughts on this?  I'm not sure if it's kosher to do it or not!

Thangs that make me smile, and sometimes laugh out loud...

Dylan is such a talker!  I was so excited for him to start, and now we can't get him to shut up.  But I still love to listen to his sweet little voice.  And I especially love how he pronounces things.  Some of my favorites, before I forget his funny little toddlerisms, are here:

Issinge = orange
mish mingers = fish fingers
Tinkybell = Tinkerbell
Nocules = binoculars
ottocker = helicopter
Dinnan = Dylan
Eeediss = Edith
Marton = Barton
Sp'oso = Special Agent Oso (one of his favorite cartoons)

Then, of course, there's the usual cute little toddler lisp.  His els tend to become w's.

And Edith, well, she has the best giggle inthe whole world!  She loves to play catch in the evening after dinner, and she loves splashing in the bath.  She can move now, but only backwards.  She is absolutely desperate to crawl, and lays on her belly and kicks her legs like she's swimming, with her arms held behind her.  And she has that crazy Cindy Lou Who hair--bright coppery red with a curl at the top.  Sometimes all she has to do is smile at me and it makes me laugh.

My children continue to be the biggest source of joy in my life.  I'm tired, but so happy!

Hooray!

I feel like a new woman today.

Yesterday was rough.  Edith had a bad night so it was a VERY long day, with Martin at work from 9 am and a lot to do on not much sleep.  We made it through though, and I cleaned the house and prepared awesome Chinese food for dinner.  We even had Christine over since she's not been feeling well lately.  And, the best bit of yesterday, we bought a car.  It's not my first choice, but I'm sure I'll learn to love it.

I've been in a funk ever since the sale on that Seat fell through.  It's funny, because with NO car we were automatically £150 a month better off, but not having one makes me feel poor.  There I sat with loads of cash in my front room, knowing that I didn't have a £50 monthly insurance bill to pay and that I wouldn't have to shell out £80 a month on petrol, and I was all depressed about being broke.  This car is a Nissan Primera, and it's got a much smaller engine so should REALLY help with the fuel consumption.  And it will cost about £18 less per month to insure.  It's a nice car.  I'm trying to get excited about it.

That's not what the "Hooray" was for though.  It's all about that adorable little monster baby of mine.

She's been waking up two or three times a night for the past 6 weeks, feeding for about 5 minutes, then going back to sleep.  We decided to just let her fuss last night, and she slept through.  Well, she fussed for about 15 minutes at 1 this morning.  But she went back to sleep on her own, and then woke up at 5am--15 minutes before Dylan did.  She had a good feed, then went back to sleep.  That was 2 1/2 hours ago.

It feels so good to get a decent night's sleep!

Anyway, I need to get ready for the day.  We are going on a little drive with Christine to pick up our "new" car.  We have to go to Derbyshire.  That could be really fun, since we'll be in the peak district.  It could also be a really long day.  We'll see.  Derbyshire is lovely, and we're going somewhere I've never been.  That's kind of exciting.  I'll bring the camera in case there are any great photo ops.

Happy road tripping...

I hate it when I'm right...

The car that was "too good to be true" ended up being too good to be true.  Martin is on the train home from Sheffield as we speak.  So here we are with no car, and now nothing else is going to look as good.

C'est la vie.

Looks like something may be going right for once...

We decided a few weeks back that we couldn't afford the petrol, tax and insurance costs on our car any more, so decided to try and sell it and look for something a bit smaller.  We listed it on eBay in a 5 day auction, and sold it for the reserve price.  Success! 

We needed to find a new car, and fast, because of hospital appointments, Kleeneze, and Martin's delivery driver gig, so we started looking on eBay.  I found something that looked too good to be true, but we decided to call about it just to make sure.  And after an impromptu trip to Sheffield to check out this car, we are halfway to ownership of a 2005 Seat Leon.

Our eBay buyer is coming to collect the Rover tonight, and Martin will be taking the cash and catching a train to Sheffield tomorrow morning to pick up our new car.  Instead of being carless for a month, like last time, we will only be carless for about 18 hours.

And this car...

Martin and I love Seats.  They don't sell them in the U.S. but they are a subsidiary of Volkswagon.  VW test out their new stuff on Skodas, then Seats, then put them in Volkswagons, and then into Audis.  So it's a lovely little Spanish Volkswagon, pretty much.  Our first car when we moved here was a Seat Cordoba, and this is the updated version.  Seriously, if money had been no object, this is the car we would have chosen for ourselves.  Maybe not this color (it's BRIGHT yellow), but this car is seriously gorgeous!

We are getting the car for about 1/10 the actual value.  The insurance will be the same, but it will get about twice as many miles per gallon.  As Martin says, if the cost of running it doesn't end up being that much less, we can always sell the car for 5 times more than we bought it for!  We just have to scrape together a little bit of extra cash to tax the beast!

Pictures are coming!

Our afternoon at Donna Nook...

We arrived in the middle of the afternoon--at about 2:30.  The sun was dipping low on the horizon, but at least it was shining!  We strapped Edith into her sling, and off we went!

We had to climb over some sand dunes to get to the seal viewing area.  The climb was Dylan's favorite part!  Then we finally got to see the seals.

There were so many of them--some of them closer to the fence than others.  This one was close enough to touch, and was so lovely and fluffy and soft looking.

Dylan really liked the baby seals close to the fence.   He kept saying, "Oh, so cute!" and telling us that he wanted to kiss them (much to the amusement of all the other people there!).





Cathy took a picture of all 4 of us together-such a rare occurrance!

Dylan returned the favor by taking one of Cathy and John--with a little help from Martin, of course!

Then we got to see the baby seal (mentioned in an earlier post) that was just minutes old.  Amazing!  Kind of bloody and gross, but still amazing!  Edith and I stood and watched the mother seal try to get the baby to feed for the first time.  It was almost painful to watch, and I'll bet arms would have come in really handy at that point!

Then Dylan wanted to climb on the sand dunes, so Martin happily obliged with a rousing game of hide and seek in the bushes and running down the hills!

Edith and I just watched.  Having her strapped to the front of me is eerily like being 9+ months pregnant.  Can't see my feet, center of gravity really off, back aching, etc.

I captured a really good picture of the reason Edith gets called Cindy Lou Who...

She has the craziest hair on the planet.  But she's still a lovely little lady.  See...

A good time was had by all.  Wish you could have joined us!

The End

I love weekends!

Although I would like them more if Martin had two days off!

Yesterday was good. Martin wasn't feeling so hot when we woke up, so I took the kids to church by myself so he could get a little bit of rest. Hard work for me, but needed and appreciated by him. I managed to get the three of us ready and out the door by 9:20, proving to Martin that it really IS him who makes us late every week. I even stopped off in Scunny to pick up a crock pot that I got off Freecycle and we were STILL on time. Yay for me!

Church was ok, though I only stayed for Primary. It is actually impossible for me to handle both kids on my own during Sacrament meeting--especially now that Edith is bigger and either sits on the bench or on my lap the whole time. Dylan has a tendency to wander up on to the stand and try to talk into the microphone. And we left immediately after singing time, too. I was standing by the nursery and looked through the window to see Dylan pushing a little girl over and making her cry. I figured he needed to come out, and figured that would be as good a time to leave as any. Dylan cried because he didn't want to leave (he loves nursery and Emma)so I had to carry both kids and all my gear out to the car on my own. I love it when people at church see me struggling with my arms quite literally full of babies and other stuff and don't even try to open doors for me or offer to help.

Finished ranting now!

We had lunch when we got home, then hopped in the car for a little drive. We'd planned several weeks earlier to have a family outing to Donna Nook (the RAF bombing range) to see the baby seals. There's a large colony that uses the coast there as a breeding ground. Because of the bombing practice there, they have no predators. It's one of the safest places in England for seals to come ashore to have their pups.

It was a lot of fun! Cathy and her boyfriend John came, as did the mother and father-in-law. We got to see a seal that was just minutes old. I kind of wished I'd been able to watch it being born, and Martin was relieved that we'd missed it. There were so many tiny little fluffy white seals, though the seal placenta lying all over the sand dunes was pretty disgusting! We also got to watch the, erm, courtship of a couple of seals. That was interesting. It felt like we were watching a nature documentary, but it was much more visceral than telly!

After we saw the seals, we went back to Laurie and Christine's house and had dinner. It was delicious--especially since I didn't have to cook it! Then it was home to get the kids to bed. It was so late that we didn't even stay to help clean up and we skipped baths.

Edith was awake twice for feeds again. That girl is going to be the sleep-deprived death of me!

I have loads of pictures,, but the camera is in the kids' room and Edith has gone back to sleep. I don't want to chance waking her up just to put a few pictures on the blog. So I'll put this one on for now...

Dylan and I do our "very very bad" faces (from Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish--some are glad and some are sad, and some are very, very bad!).

...and will put some pictures from our weekend on the blog later.  Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, but soon.  I got a lovely sunset picture.  The sun is now setting at around 4 pm.  Only 5 move weeks until the shortest day of the year, thank goodness.  English winters are rough, when the sun rises at around 9 am and sets at about 4pm.  That is, of course, if the sun comes out at all.  Today is a gray and rainy day, so there will be no sunshine for us today!

Oh, Edith is awake.  Time to really start the day!

Dylan's funny little voice...

Edith's eyes...

We went to Ulceby yesterday and hung out at the in-laws' house so Martin could change the oil in our car (and it was DISGUSTING!). My father-in-law is currently on 10 days off at the refinery where he works, and my mother-in-law gets off work at about 1pm, so we had some good bonding time with both of them.

I, quite comically, took both kids and the dog for a walk at the same time. Dylan was riding in this little ride on car thing that I had to push, Edith was in the sling, and I had the dog on his lead until we got past the houses on their road. Must have been a sight to see, but it worked out ok. I was pretty tired by the time we got home though, with pushing Dylan, pulling on the dog's lead, and carrying Edith.

When we got back to their house, I was looking at Edith's eyes. They've been a deep sea green-blue color for quite a while now, and I thought she was too old for them to change. But yesterday, I saw a few flecks of brown in her eyes. I got all excited--I might have a cute little brown-eyed girl after all!

I remember when I was pregnant with Dylan getting all excited (and nervous) about how my baby would look. I thought it would be fun to see which features popped up in our children. And I was right--it IS fun to see who got what from which parent. And now it looks like we'll have a blonde haired, blue eyed male version of me and a brown eyed, dark haired female version of Martin. How cool is that?

We were looking at baby and toddler pictures of Martin yesterday, and I'll tell you what--Edith DOES look a lot like her daddy. I've always thought so, but looking at pictures yesterday totally confirmed it for me. The shape of their eyes, their mouths, their pointy little chins--it's all there. And Martin finally believes me. At least a little bit!

I hope you all enjoy the videos. I've been having trouble getting my videos loaded onto Blogger, so I finally just joined the masses and opened a YouTube account. It's so much easier that way, and now I can show videos of my beautiful children to my distant family. I have a cute one on my camera right now that I'll try to get posted soon. It's all about Dylan discovering that it's fun to make Edith laugh, not just to make her cry!

So other than the thing with Edith's eyes, not a lot going on right now. Martin is going to try to sell our car on E-bay so we can get one with a slightly smaller engine that will use less petrol and cost less to insure. I guess that's exciting, because we might not have transport for a few weeks.

Oh, I just thought of something exciting! We have decided to put our house up for auction. The property auction is in February and if it sells there it will take about 56 days (no more than that) for paperwork to be completed and the sale to be final. Then we will rent somewhere until we can get Martin's green card and get Edith's birth registered at the embassy and her U.S. passport sorted. Things are moving along again!

Edith is an early bloomer

Dylan does "yogo"

A fine line...

Ok, now I'm torn between wanting to move home and wanting to get some stuff done first!

I went to see my GP yesterday.  Dr. Wellings wasn't there, so I saw Dr. Jaggs-Fowler instead.  And yes, he is just as posh as the name sounds.  But I like him, and here is why:

I started my visit with a discussion about my pre-natal vitamins (which I am about to run out of).  He told me that the NHS won't provide them but the chemist should be able to recommend an over the counter brand that will be comparable and that it IS a good idea to continue taking them while I'm still feeding Edith.  Then we moved on to flu shots, and he gave me mine (not for swine flu, but I will receive that one at some point as I am high risk because of my asthma).  He also gave me a pneumococcal vaccine, which is standard for kids now but wasn't available when I was a baby.  It gives you immunity to some of the nasty germs that cause chest infections, which is really good news for me.  Then we moved on to the really embarrassing bit that I have been wanting to see a doctor about but have been putting off.  Finally, Martin made me do it!

We discussed the stretched skin on my stomach.  I showed him my horrible "apron" of skin that came courtesy of carrying two huge babies REALLY low.  Martin is the only other person who's seen it and it was rather humiliating to show it to someone else, but I needed to do it.  I explained how after I had Dylan the loose and hanging skin was an annoyance and I really disliked it.  But since the birth of Edith the skin has stretched so much that it is now uncomfortable at the best of times and downright painful at others.  I told him that it is affecting every part of my life, and keeps me from doing a lot of things that I'd like to do.  I totally broke down and cried like a baby in his office.  Over my disgusting tummy!

Dr. Jaggs-Fowler was most sympathetic.  And he is willing to try to help me.  We talked plastic surgery, and we talked about the NHS paying for it.  There are just three obstacles, and he said that they are not insurmountable.

#1-Can't do anything while I'm still feeding Edith. 

#2-My current weight.  Logically, I need to wait until I've lost the baby weight before they will do surgery of any kind as it wouldn't be 100% effective if there was still fat to be lost when they removed the extra skin.

#3-I would have to get special funding which my doctor would have to apply for as this is a cosmetic procedure and the NHS don't pay for frivolities. 

So, feeding Edith.  Well, time will take care of that one.  I'm sick to death of feeding her anyway.  And the weight loss one, that's a toughie but very do-able.  The last one is the highest hurdle, but (and this is why I heart Dr. Jaggs-Fowler right now) he said he is willing to pursue that special funding for me.  Because although it's not a life or death situation for me there is a good chance it will be deemed medically necessary.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  And now I have a good reason to try to lose some more weight.  I HAD lost some, that month when we had no money, but I was actually afraid to lose more because it made my stomach look so much worse.  Without fat to cushion it, the skin on my stomach hangs even more.

I am also glad that it's not all in my head.  That makes me feel better.

So now I am conflicted.  I want to sell the house and move home, but not before I can have this surgery done.  I'm starting a little "diet," though not a drastic one since I am still nursing my baby, and I am going to do pilates and ride my bike every night if I can.  It's a race against time and the housing market.  It's going to be goodbye butter, cream and cheese at my house, too.  My snack for date night was fruit tea and an apple.

Hungry days to come, but I'm all fired up to do this.  My loathing of my body is strongerr than my appetite for yummy food!

My girls...

I have never made friends easily.  I guess it's because it's not in my nature to trust people.  I try to give them the benefit of the doubt and like to assume that people are decent until they prove otherwise, but I don't open up that often.  As a result, I don't have many close friends.

As I entered my teens, I pretty much stopped having female friends all together.  I couldn't bring myself to like the cookie cutter Mormon girls I went to school and church with, and my parents couldn't approve of any other kind.  They did their best to make sure I didn't have any "bad influences" in my life, and that pretty much meant that I didn't have any friends.  I did have some guy friends, but it's not really the same.

I have formed a few bonds since then--with my lovely college roomies Amber and Krista, with my girl Becca, with my friend Michelle.  These friendships have been few and far between, but all the more treasured for it!

So imagine my surprise when, on reflecting about friendship, I discovered that I have two "best friends" here in England!

Emma and Jen, you always have my back.  If I had to, I could drop in at a moment's notice (or with  no notice at all if I was really desperate).  You help me with my kids, let me whinge about my husband, do fun things with me, share meals and trips to the park and swimming pool, and most of all, just let me be me.

I struggle in England.  I have never felt like I fit in here, and probably never will.  Americans and Brits are totally different.  Don't let the fact that we both speak English fool you--we are not the same at all!  I try to keep my head down and blend, but with my best friends, I don't need to do that.  You make life over here more than just bearable.  You make it enjoyable.

Thanks for the estrogen (or oestrogen, for you two!) influence.  A girl needs a couple of good friends, and I'm glad you are in my life!

A day off...

Oh, the bliss!

Dylan is having one of those weeks where he is pushing all the boundaries and just being two.  Combine that with the fact that Edith hasn't been sleeping well and it's made for a rough couple of days.

We took the kids over to the Mundays' house because Dylan was crying and Martin asked him what he wanted.  He wanted to play at Emma's house, and that's ALL he wanted.  When we got there, Emma said that she'd just have him for the night, and it was like a dream come true.  So Martin and I abandoned our kid and enjoyed being parents of one for a night.

I've decided that most of our stress with Dylan comes from his refusal to use the toilet.  He keeps peeing all over my carpet and it's making me so stressed and angry.  So we've decided to put him back into diapers for a little while.  It's frustrating because he was totally potty trained last month and this month it's like he doesn't even get it.  What a huge step back!

Other than that, we're doing well.  Martin got another "job."  He's working 4 nights a week as a delivery boy for Rapi, the Indian restaurant just up the road.  Since we live so close, he stays at home and is sort of on call.  He only actually has to work if there are deliveries to make, and he gets paid £5 a night regardless and a set amount for each delivery he makes based on the location.  It'll be an extra £20 a week no matter what, which will be great to have.  Especially since he doesn't really have to do much for it!

I'm just hoping that he can bring home a curry every now and again...

just a glimpse...

Every once in a while I snap a picture of my kids and catch a quick glimpse of what they might look like as adults.  They take my breath away sometimes!

Edith is going to be quite a little beauty.  That fiery red hair, those deep greenish blue eyes, that creamy pale skin, and those perfect, delicate features.  I can hardly wait to see her grow up!

And Dylan--well!  Those beautiful baby blues, that cheeky grin, his sunny, flirtatious personality.  Oh, he is going to break a few hearts!

And I just love this picture because of the long, skinny legs flying all over the place.  Finger crossed the kids ended up with Martin's legs!

the beauty of our town...

The kids and I went for a walk last week.  We walked through town and to St. Peter's church.  It's the older of the two Anglican churches in Barton, and it is beautiful.  Dylan really enjoyed playing in the leaves in the old graveyard.

The light was just right--dappled and eerie.  Just what you want in a graveyard, right?

This is the view of the church from the street. 

The leaves are nearly gone now--we had our first huge storm of the season and it blew most of the leaves out of the trees.  But we've been enjoying the glorious colour this year.  My favorite part about autumn in England is that the grass stays green while the leaves change color--beautiful!