British Museum, Round 2

 

This little girl is getting so big! She's asking big questions, and she's getting physically stronger and bigger. She also learned from her Aunt Sarah that it's hilarious to take pictures of herself making faces (thanks, Sarah--here is a recent self-portrait).

In response to her getting big, I wanted her to be helping me out--ah, are we transitioning to that phase of childhood? I think so! Mark and I cooked up a scheme (a popular word here) of things she could do that would be good for her to learn and be helpful to the family. That is, stuff that I don't have to do for her anymore! Yaaay! She's keen on being helpful and having responsibility, and all we had to do was stop and teach her how to do it a few times now that she's big enough. The ones I'm most excited about are sweeping up the dining room floor and doing her own laundry! The Big Adventure brought on this opportunity by limiting our other extra-curricular activities and social time, so we had slowed down enough that the idea had time to emerge. Good!

On one Saturday, Mark took the boys back to Coram's Fields playground while Noelle and I went to the British Museum for an hour or two. These two sites are near one another. We made a point to find the Easter Island statue since one of Noelle's favorite shows here, "Zingzillas," features some large talking heads modeled on this. She likes the tv ones better because they are smiling.

The artifacts here are unbelievable. It's seeing all the pictures from a history book be real things! Like this Assyrian/Babylonian statue, which was one of my favorite finds on this trip. We've been reading about Ancient Egypt, and she saw the hieroglyphs on this obelisk and was so excited to recongize some of the symbols from her book.

This excites me, because "seeing the actual stuff: was one of my big plans for the whole school year. Noelle also liked this Egyptians doorway facade.

 

 

After unsuccessfully looking for the Bible-era coins exhibit (we only found a few coins in a case), we met back up with the fellows and went home. I enjoy these outings together.

 



Meanwhile, this guy has been working hard. It pains him to give up the prospect of a Saturday alone in the library getting things done on his research when he's spent so much of the week doing other necessary things that aren't his research, but he has lovingly made space for family time or Katie-goes-away-by-herself-for-a-couple-hours time. Thank you.

Buckingham Palace tour

Being in London in September means that we had the opportunity to tour the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace! We made this a mommy-daughter outing.Noelle at Hyde Park Corner afterwards. She wanted to continue on, but since the Tube was down for the weekend and we had to use the replacement bus service, we turned toward home.

Wellington Arch is basically at the Corner, not far from the Palace. 

Noelle took this picture! She says the building is much prettier on the inside than the outside, and that they should paint it to be more colourful.

In front of the Victoria Memorial, waiting for our 1:30 tour time. Did you know that a Starbucks gift card from the US works in London? I determined that it does--oh happy day!

Noelle likes finding things with the EIIR insignia, like this fence post, mail boxes, etc. (Elizabeth II, Regina)

We think they don't want you going in here.

Unfortunately, no photos allowed inside. If they had been, I would have taken these:

• Noelle wearing the headphone audioguide and staring wide-eyed at the gilded ceilings and chandeliers.
• Fancy furniture and plaster work clearly meant to impress.
• The special exhibit of the coronation from 60 years ago, including the beautiful fancy beaded dress and huge purple fur robe--sweet! The diamond diadem impressed us too, and the video they played showing the actual coronation taught me a lot. 

Another day

 This trip has not been all sight-seeing, oh no. We have also watched a great deal of tv. Joel has been particularly infatuated with shows that feature crafts and activities. Back in Chicago, we saw an episode about "apricot slam dunkers." Joel had been unable to rest until I had gathered all the supplies.

Basically, one puts a dollop of cream cheese onto a circle of puff pastry dough. Add half an apricot, drizzle with syrup, and bake. Then use the apricot netting (this was the hardest thing to find), the lid of a wipes container, and a cereal box to make a basketball hoop. This was supposed to be easy, but it just reaffirmed my non-awesomeness when it comes to crafting and doing fun projects. Oh well--they had fun, even if no one but Joel actually ate the finished thing.

The kids have been playing meerkats regularly in the living room.

One day we went to Coram's Fields, which is an enclosed playground near Mark's office in central London. Check out this tube slide! Yes, that's my two-year-old climbing.

This picture explains to me why Joel can eat anything he wants--because this is how he "relaxes" with a snack. 

Here is our new megastroller, in which one who is careful can load not one but three Rankins. It is quite heavy and large itself.

Weeks after the aforementioned slam dunkers, I got around to using up the puff pastry dough by having them cut out shapes and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar before baking. I wish I could say that these were only two of our many enriching crafty cooking activities...but this is about the extent of it. We have seen a variety of sites, though, so there should be more pictures to come.

Cross-cultural differences

 It is true they speak English here, and for that I am immensely thankful. I must say, though, that there are some cross-cultural differences. Here are two:

1) Tastes are different...

2) There are things we just wouldn't call things...

Monument and Golden Hinde

Noelle and I took a Mommy-Daughter outing on Sunday afternoon last week. We were originally aiming for the Tower of London, but we diverted at the last minute to "The Monument."

 It's much easier taking one child at a time on the tube.

 My flat friends were no trouble at all.

 The Monument memorializes the Great Fire of 1666! It's this big column, with a shiny set of flames on top! The location is very near where the fire started on Pudding Lane.
 What there is to do here is...climb up the stairs to the top and look out. Round and round you go!

Sit in the window well every now and again when you are dizzy or out of breath. The stairs get narrower as you approach the top, but otherwise it seems there is little way to tell except to count your 303 steps.

Enjoy the view! We finally laid eyes on St Paul's Cathedral! The Tower of London and Tower Bridge are visible on the other side.  Coming down is a bit trickier because it's easy to get dizzy.

 We enjoyed this, the largest window, and were delighted to find that on the outside, it's the middle of an ornate wreath on the inscription part! We received our "I climbed the Monument" certificates with pride and decided to wander around. Look what we found!

Naturally, there was a certain song we were compelled to sing as we strolled across, even though this particular bridge seems sturdy enough.

 I wish I could say Noelle was impressed by Southwark Cathedral. No so much. But we did then stumble upon the Golden Hinde II, which is a reproduction of Sir Francis Drake's ship The Golden Hinde.  She wanted to see this and take the tour. I was glad I followed her inclincation, because it was really interesting and I learned a lot about sixteenth-century sailing!

 Noelle as Sir Francis Drake.

 On the gun deck with the tour guide.

 Do not touch the ropes.

Who would have known that she would find this interesting? But she did. :)

We are...(an outing in pictures)

 We are on the top of a double-decker bus! We are excited!

 No, we are really excited! I think it's just Joel's expression here captures it.

 We are sitting on a bench that is a statue of a Renaissance-style chained book! We are at the British Library! We peeped in at the Magna Carta, but it wasn't doing much, so we had to leave. This is the site of my favorite quote so far: "Look, the Magna Carta! This thing is a thousand years old! Isn't that cool?" Answer: "Yes, Mom. Can we go now?" Besides, it is really a hush-hush sort of place, and Marky wanted to run in circles and scream.

 We are at the British Museum, and they have real mummies! (Also many living people trying to see them.)

 And mummy-holders!

 And extremely fancy sarcophagus-type items! These things are SO intricately painted, it's amazing.

We are looking at the Rosetta Stone. So is everyone else, which is why Mom is on the other side of the glass case taking terrible pictures!

 We are tourists, and we have no shame! :) But we are also one of Her Majesty's Guard and Paddington Bear!

 Wait! We are famished! We can not possibly make it home to eat the food we have there.

 We are... at Pizza Hut!

 We have given Noelle the phone-camera! Look--I'm on this trip, too!

 We have done the kids' menu art projects!

 

We have given the phone to baby brother!

We are tired.

Swamped

So it's been a difficult week here. Several different influences, all of which are only moderately disturbing, have been chipping away at me. I've very much appreciated the emails and other communications that friends have sent along. They encourage me. Day-to-day I'm holding up above water, and I know His mercies are new every morning, but my boat has been riding lower and lower into the water as the days go by.  This morning, my little dinghy got swamped.

Mark had to have a meeting with the students this morning, so he couldn't go to church with us. I REALLY wanted to go, but I knew that while I could carry Marky for the mile walk, I certainly couldn't manage Joel too. So I figured out the bus system for getting there--it's not that far, and just off of the same road we live off of--it can't be hard, right?

Right! We managed the bus--hop on and hop off, really just a couple of minutes' ride. Okay! Hmmm....we were so efficient we were 45 minutes early. Doh!

We hung out at the back while the worship team practiced. Joel sat nicely and listened and sang along. Noelle twirled around in circles, dancing. Marky ran shrieking and squealing in large loops,  climbing up on the furniture so that I would tell him to get down. We did this for some time until I thought it was close enough to service time to check out the nursery and drop Mr. Squeals off. Pick up the bundle of coats and shuffle together back toward the 'centre.' No dice. Shuffle back to sanctuary to look for someone to ask.

A kind-looking cleric bustles by me en route to something else. "How are you?" he smiles and asks...
"Oh...I'm okay."
"Can I help you with anything?" he asks.

At this point the crazy American woman bursts into tears and starts bawling.

Bet he wasn't expecting that.

She cries while she tries to explain that she doesn't know where to put the children because last week everything was different since it was still summer. She snuffles and says, "I'm not actually insane, I just..."

He asks of the children's ages, and whether or not Joel is in "Reception."

To which crazy sobbing woman says, "I'm American, and I don't know what that is!"

"So am I," he replies. Ah yes. The tremendous non-roundness of your vowels. I probably would have noticed if I hadn't been weeping.

Well...you can imagine the rest of this interaction. He asks if I want to sit down. He asks if he can carry my big pile of jackets for me. He kindly directs me to the helpful childcare people and asks one in particular to be my guide before excusing himself.

These folks start to sort things out with me (why is this woman crying? it's Sunday school!), even though they ask me about "Reception" again. Marky decides the nursery suits him fine as soon as he sees the train set. Noelle is eager not to be late to her class; and Joel...well...Joel bursts into tears and clings to my leg because he can't join Noelle.

The awesome woman who is leading the nursery hands me a flier about the Thursday morning Bible study and invites me.
She says, "I thought it started last week, and I was so disappointed!"
"So was I..." tears, tears...
"But this week will be awesome."
"Thank you, I intend to come," I snuffle.
"I must hug you!" she exclaims.

Thank you. Please. Let me be your friend.

Now I must take my weeping face and my cling-wrap son and go into church.

Ultimately, Joel comes into the church service with me, where I weep through the praise time and am extremely thankful I brought tissues. Having had a good long cry, my head hurts and I really want to stop. Besides trying to give all of this upsetness over to the Lord, it's embarrassing to keep bursting into tears in front of all these strangers.

Everything else was fairly uneventful. Joel turned off his shyness and upsetness as if with a switch when he determined that the likelihood of his getting a snack was significantly higher in his class than in big church. He marched down the hall like he'd been there forever and enjoyed himself. (And, yes, there was snack) The kind cleric came over directly to me at the "pass the peace" time, and I managed to exchange pleasantries without re-crying. The sermon was encouraging.  Marky was still playing trains when I picked him up. Noelle was excited about her time too. We found the appropriate bus stop after only one botched attempt....and we made it home.

Now I'm here supervising Marky's nap while Mark takes the other kids to the Tower of London with the JMU students for a Group Outing. Later, they're all coming over here for dinner, but I'm happy to say that a local Italian restaurant is doing the cooking. So all I need to do now is straighten a bit. And take a nap.

I hope you found this at least a little bit humorous, because I think it's simultaneously sad and hilarious.
Looking for a better week this week,
Love,
K