Summer's Swan Song

It has been a full week. Most of our meals were picnics, we scootered wherever we could and slept as late as possible. We also bid farewell to our last summer house guests and our beloved babysitter. Lots of late nights and lazy pajama mornings mixed with the inkling of the routine that awaits us.

We scootered to Buckingham Palace today to tour the Royal Mews and play at St James Park. We lingered way longer than we should have and felt a nip in the air, watched the sun begin to dip, and tried to make dinner out of a few hot dogs before heading home. Then we discovered that Big Brother did in fact need new school shoes. For tomorrow. Even still, it was all over too quickly and I'm still stitching a kazillion nametags onto a sea of uniforms that range from size Very Tiny But Still Too Big for Baby Sister to polo shirts for Biggest Brother that I could probably wear.

Their bags are packed and at the door and their breakfast table will be festive. There's nothing I could quite tuck into those little bags to represent all that our summer has been, so I can just hope memories of a great summer will carry them through the first day at Our Sweet School.

These four little people are undoubtedly summer's best company!  I miss them already. And not just because they introduced me to "The Fall Guy."

Best of Spain

It seems like too much so soon after vacation to actually punctuate and format paragraphs. So without further ado, these are the highlights from our week in Isla Canela, Spain:

relaxing days on the beach

marathon cartoon mornings, adding another country (Portugal) to our list, making a meal out of fresh tomatoes, avocado, oil, and sea salt

playing cards and on the swings at the chiringuito. Enjoying mojitos, Cruzcampo and fresh fish

random meandering wildlife (horses, goats, giant beetles), stumbling upon a vintage tile shop in Portugal and dreaming of coming back with empty suitcases to tile a future home

a rental car, reading lots of books, late nights, late mornings, absurdly timed meals and not caring a lick for a clock or a calendar

buddy time

the pool, finding interesting shells and flowers on beach walks, getting buried in the sand

Looking through the pictures makes me think to tell you that it occurred to me while we were away that Big Sister is beginning to look like Diane Lane!  This revelation meant little or nothing to the Mister who  doesn't realize the great import of "the Outsiders." Google Diane Lane as "Cherry" (or even now) and see if you don't agree.

And I've no idea (other than we've dropped it a kazillion times) why the trip pictures are so hazy but honestly, it was that kind of trip. Everything was bathed in a warm, sunny, sandy glow of late nights, long mornings and perpetual beach hair so the pictures being too bright strangely capture that feeling. I was glad to get home to be able to actually run a comb through Big Sister's hair. For a week I just did my best to organize it.

The Mister is a new expert on the Spanish Civil War and the economic issues in the country were apparent. Trips, no matter how relaxing, can be an education for us all in ways big and small.

But back to the best of our days in Spain. The Mister and I agreed our very favorite part was the boys picking out "best friends" necklaces as souvenirs.

Good times indeed.

Q&A with the Boys

Somewhat fresh off their first time to sleep at a friend's flat, I proudly present my adorable boys:

Q: I know you guys, but some people out there might need help putting names with faces and remembering what you're up to these days. So, can you introduce yourselves? And are there no barbers in London? Are you auditioning for a Beatles tribute band?
Biggest Brother: I'm on the left. I'm 10 and I play guitar and drums.
Big Brother: That's me on the right. I'm 7. I'll be 8 in July. I like any sort of racing and love to draw.

Q: How is life in London? Feeling settled?
Biggest Brother: Life in London is busy and something new, although I do miss home sometimes.
Big Brother: It is definitely bigger and much noisier. I'm feeling mediumly settled.

Q: Is it true you've tried some unusual food?  Do you really like blackcurrant juice? And do you really not like McDonald's anymore?
Biggest Brother: Yes!  I like blackcurrant but not McDon.
Big Brother: I have tried some unusual food. Like fish and chips and Lebanese meatballs. I kinda like blackcurrant juice. And I DO still like McDonald's.

Q: What are the biggest differences about your school in London?
Big Brother: Here we wear uniforms. And not everyone brings a packed lunch [this is compared to his school in La Grange which didn't have a cafeteria. If you didn't go home for lunch (sigh!) you could bring lunch to eat at school].
Biggest Brother: Our playground is on the roof!

Q: Do you miss anything from the States?
Big Brother: I miss Target and Walmart, Lucky Charms [which his mother notes he's never had...], PopTarts, being close to my cousins, and small town life.
Biggest Brother: I miss Target, cereal and PopTarts.

Q: What's going on these days in London?
Biggest Brother: There are brand new buses with two sets of stairs.
Big Brother: The Olympics!  Queen's Jubilee!

Q: Where have you travelled since moving?
Biggest Brother: Germany, Paris...
Big Brother: Spain, the beach in France, Scotland, Eastbourne, Whistable, Oxford

Q: Where are you going this summer?
Big Brother: Spain and Morocco!
Biggest Brother: And lots of our cousins and grandparents will be here!

Q: What are your favorite places to go in London?
Biggest Brother: Good question -- John Lewis! The train stations, Holland Park's adventure playground, Battersea Park, Hamley's
Big Brother: Hyde Park, the indoor playground, Covent Garden, the transportation museum, anywhere on a bus

Q: How about outside of the city?
Biggest Brother: I liked Eastbourne and Brighton.
Big Brother: Eastbourne was really neat. And Brighton's Pier. Oh, and Oxford. I really liked going on that bus ride and seeing all the buildings and universities.

Q: Favorite part of living here?
Big Brother: That we live right outside of Hyde Park, that we're close to a bus stop, and that we have a really good view from our flat. Seeing all the really cool cars - Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Range Rovers, Aston Martins, Bentleys, Mercedes and last but not least, Maseratis!
Biggest Brother: Riding double decker buses and all our new friends!

Q: Least favorite?
Big Brother: Definitely all the noise and pollution. It's a bit too busy and city-ish for me.
Biggest Brother: Being away from my family and friends.

Q: What's the funniest British thing you've heard? Funny British sayings or words you've picked up?
Big Brother: A food called a 'toad in a hole.'
Biggest Brother: Once, when I helped someone they said, "Cheers, Lad!" We still say that because it is funny!

Q: Who's your favorite blogger?
Big Brother:  I have to see more blogs to decide.
Biggest Brother: I only know one!

Q: Anything else?
Biggest Brother: Tell everyone to come visit us so we can show them around!
Big Brother: Yeah - our couch pulls out and we have bunk beds, lots of space in our room and 3 sleeping bags, too!

Love Is.

Remember those 70s books and cards with the little sketched couple going about their business being in love? And all kinds of clever things that defined their life in love?

Here's the 2012 version. It makes me happy that this could be a very, very long post. I may have to do it again.

Love is...

tormenting your mother by pretending you're going to drive your bike into big mud puddles. And likely slip and fall and track lots of mud into the flat. With your very best friend doing the same thing.

Love is...

passing the time on a long train ride "reporting live" on Barbie microphones with your best girlfriend. Even though your mother dislikes licensed characters, she will think this is a hoot.

Love is...

helping Baby Sister enjoy a hike even though you were mid-way through exploring a rocky Scottish beach with your buddy.

Love is...

reading to a tiny sister on the way home from the park.

Love is...

a soft hand to hold on a walk.

Love is...

letting a scared little person squeeze you as you whiz above a German village on an exceedingly fast Ferris wheel.

Love is...

a buddy to play with on the bleachers while your brothers perfect their skills at the skateboard park. 

Love is...

watching faux princesses at an old castle with someone who thinks you are a real princess.

Love is...

choosing to sit without any space between you when you have acres of a park to explore.

Love is all that and more. 

Changes. Caught on Tape

I got about 4" cut off my hair and it seems like I've started a little in house (in flat?) trend of changes! Big Sister wants her goldilocks cut, too and now even the boys are noodling through new styles. I'm not sure I'd recognize the guys without their surfer/skater mop tops anymore but confess that seeing more of their sweet little faces has an appeal.

We watched home movies (including one of Big Sister's tearful first haircut!) for Family Night on Sunday. Shades of watching slide shows when I was little, Baby Sister is clearly under represented and not just because she's been with us the shortest amount of time. It will never be the same for all of them but she'll be fine.

We must take more movies of all of them. Of us together. They are precious time capsules. To be able to revisit the children who change every day, to hear their voices when they were tiny, it is all incredibly dear.

We each picked a disk and watched our life completely out of sequence. There was little mewling infant Big Sister on her first Christmas Eve while chubby brothers in matching flannel tiny man button up pajamas put carrots out for reindeer.  There was Baby Sister, seconds after she arrived, being weighed. (9 pounds, 1 ounce. In case you forgot. I haven't.) The first time the smalls met Baby Sister. There was tiny Big Brother with a xylophone mallet clenched between his baby teeth. He seemed to wait interminably in the wings while Biggest Brother gave a guitar solo dressed as a cowboy, until finally announcing (to a roar in our flat!) "I'm smoking!" There was Biggest Brother singing without a care to crowds waiting to see the Liberty Bell. And moments later, standing in front of said bell, asking us completely innocently whether he might be allowed to ring it.

The children are honestly each others best friends and I am lucky enough that it is my "job" to get to see that in person every day. And to be there to soothe the tears when best friends squabble, too. At our parent conferences, teachers commented on how apparent their affection is for each other at school. How they cheer so much for each other and seem to delight in being together. That the novelty of their being buddies isn't wearing off.

I see that most days, but there was something uniquely wonderful about witnessing and reliving how that all began when they were babies and toddlers together in a way I could pause. To see Big Brother showing Baby Sister what all the Easter Bunny brought her. The kindness with which they touched each other even then. How wide eyed Big Brother watched and listened to everything Biggest Brother said and did. (Still does.) All of it caught on tape. When they were so tiny. And I know in a matter of months, I'll look back on movies and photos of them from this week and wonder why I thought they were so fully grown and big now. Already pictures from last summer of the 4 of them look so dated.

My favorite movies were of really nothing special at all. Of the boys eating "al fresco." Big Brother wearing a sun hat and sitting in a high chair under a freebie (Richmond Braves giveaway!) umbrella made into a sunshade. We took note of what they were eating (portions of grapes!) and wearing (tiny polo shirts over diapers and undies!) and revelled in the everydayness of the moment. We tickled at quizzical baby Big Brother hearing birds above that big umbrella and being confounded by the noise. The boys' adventurous obstacle courses set up in our tiny dining room. The everyday brought back to me in full color. I could do everything but smell their baby smells. Video you'd only want to watch if they were yours. And they're mine. It is a wonder I'm not playing the tapes again right now.

Everyone was noticing all the many, many changes we've witnessed in each other and in ourselves, too. What are a few inches, dozens of pounds, and all shades blonde and brunette (those last 3 changes being mine alone!) between loved ones?

I know I can't keep any of us from changing. (Although I'd be happy if I could keep this hair color without spending another dime. Or investing what I do in various face potions.) But I am newly resolved to documenting - especially on video - the children and our normal life together. It is too precious not to.

The boys are talking about crafting a guest post on the blog soon. Maybe they'll unveil newly shorn little heads. Maybe you'll be even able to see their ears! Stay tuned.