These Are The Days

It is day 2 of our 2 week break. Actually Day 4 if you count the weekend. This time last year we were off to Paris and still feeling less than sure footed about which end was up in London. Now fully settled in our life here we're breathing easy, still touring and sending up a big cheer for a long vacation! We've left spelling tests and maths homework for a bit. We're having a blast and we haven't even begun to pack for our actual vacation or celebrated Easter or Biggest Brother turning 10 yet!

This weekend found us building a LEGO minifig parade. Big Brother and I were inspired by a visit to a LEGO store in an actual shopping mall while finishing birthday shopping for Biggest Brother. Then we hit the skateboard park. Yesterday found us at the Diana playground until closing. We followed that with ice cream for dinner. Until the Mister, bless him, arrived home and cooked the children an actual meal.

 

Today we hit 3 exhibits at the V&A and Natural History museums. We're new experts in British culture and history having taken in a photography exhibit about the Queen, a post-WWII British design retrospective, and a poignant review of Scott's fatal quest to reach the South Pole (and return).

Tomorrow we're going to lounge around in our jammies. We've earned it. All this out and about enjoying the city has us worn out. Baby Sister was asleep long before tonight's dinner picnic. She better rest up because tomorrow morning will find us hunting for Easter baskets in the flat and Thursday and more treats with visiting American friends.

As Biggest Brother noted, "Today was a good day." Yesterday he toasted a wonderful first official day off by holding his ice cream cone aloft. And to think, many more days of luxurious break stretch out ahead. Hooray for it all!

Today was a particular delight. The exhibits are ones I'd go to solo, but are made so much more interesting with the smalls. But without a doubt the highlight of my day was watching Big Brother hold Baby Sister on his lap on the bus on the way home. He absently played with her hair while they watched London out their window. She started playing "This Little Piggie" on his fingers and then on his face. He endured "This Little Eye" quite nicely and with great humor when it threatened to be painful!

A few bus passengers caught my eye watching them. They seemed to share my happiness the sweet moments between them. I thought my heart might burst. I was so proud of my little people all day and genuinely loved their company. (And to be fair to us all, we don't revel in each other's company every moment of every day. It isn't always a mutual admiration society. That is what has made these last days especially delightful.)

In between exhibits, we had a snack in the V&A garden on a blanket. Jam biscuits. I had a glass of wine with lunch. We soak up the Europeanness. We are so fortunate and grateful for it all. We sent the Mister a message to thank him for sponsoring our lovely outings.

These are days I so hope they'll remember. If I cannot freeze time here this spring, this break, I am desperate for them to remember it all. To know what sweetly simple days we're having together. That Biggest Brother made us breakfast buffets delivered by his LEGO train and that they spent hours in pajamas building train tracks. It is admittedly, why I was (secretly) happy that Biggest Brother turned down an offer to attend an all week sports camp. (BIG BROTHER: "I'd miss you guys too much!" ME: Really? Okay!)

So one day little Lovies, when you see a David Bowie video, a children crossing sign (which we've learned was designed in the UK and based on a childhood photograph of the designer and her little brother), a Beaton photograph, or the Terra Nova emblem, think of us. Or maybe when you're savoring an ice cream at a park on a spring evening and it is way too late to be considered a snack, I hope you'll remember these days with great fondness.

I know I will. And while I'm hoping, please take the time to remember these days together. Because without each other, each part of our little puzzle, it wouldn't be just so. Everyone added their piece to the day. Biggest Brother by carrying Baby Sister on his back, Baby Sister by cheering us all with her witticisms, Big Brother with his wide-eyed enthusiasm, and Big Sister for her observant, gentle ways.

The boys begged me to let Big Sister have a slumber party in their room tonight. I tuck them in with this wish: That we'll have lots and lots of days like this ahead of us. And when these days are behind us, that they'll treasure them as I do.