Making the Cut

When I told Chris a while back that I thought it was time to get Robert's hair cut, he said he wanted to take him. I said, "Ok, you can come with us." He said he wanted to take him by himself. A sort of father/son bonding thing I guess. I keep telling him he's a lucky man because not many mama's would entrust such an important milestone to daddy.

I did have several stipulations and assured Chris he would be in trouble if they were not met. 1) He'd better not bring back a bald baby or get him a buzz cut and 2) he must take at least one picture. If he was asked to hold Robert for the haircut, then he was required to ask someone else to take the picture.

He insisted that Robert's first cut should be from a barber at a barbershop, not a stylist or a woman. So he asked around at work (since he's been shaving his own head for 10+ years now and has no clue where a good barber is) and was told to go see Henry.

Robert got to sit in a firetruck and Henry got him all set up with a new big boy 'do. Chris said he did great. His only problem was he couldn't reach the steering wheel and kept slumping off the seat trying to get to it. He even let Henry use the clippers on him.

Daddy did a good job. I have a picture to document the occasion and Robert still has some hair.

Another Bunny

We went to take pictures with the Easter bunny after Clara's Easter egg hunt. She's wearing a dress we brought back from Paris. It's a very sweet dress; I need to get a better picture of her in it.

Robert wanted nothing to do with the bunny. He was okay with him until I went to put him in his lap. I do love a good Easter Bunny pic!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Easter

I thought for sure Clara would finally have a holiday celebration on one of her school days. Since there was no school on Friday I assumed Thursday would be the Easter egg hunt. Of course not. It was on Wednesday. Her teacher said they would be having a special snack at 9:30 and then hunt eggs at 10:00. When we got there about 9:25, I noticed a few cookie crumbs and sprinkles on the table but I decided not to ask about whether or not we missed the snack, hoping against hope that she would have forgotten about that part.

I had to leave because they were practicing something for graduation and I wasn't supposed to see it. So I went to Walgreen's and picked up a little basket, eggs and jelly beans for Robert because it hadn't occurred to me that he might go ballistic at not having eggs and a basket.

When I got back to the school, it was time for the hunt. The kids lined up with their baskets and then hopped down the hall to the door. They were like locusts and the hunt was quickly over. As soon as all of them had passed by, I threw a few little eggs out for Robert. That kept him busy and happy.

As soon as all of the eggs had been located by the big kids, I heard one boy yell, "I see some more eggs!", and I looked over just in time to see four or five little boys barreling towards Robert and the two tiny eggs at his feet. I was able to convince them they didn't really want them because there was only one little jelly bean in them. The kids got to stand around and compare eggs for a few minutes before heading back inside.

Then it was back to the room and to the part that I always dread. Time to be the only one in the class that has to leave the fun. Woohoo! I told Clara it was time to go. She completely ignored me. After several "it's time to go's" she finally stood up and started crying. Oy. As we were walking out, she remembered she was also supposed to stay for a special treat, so I told her that I thought they had their treat before she got there. So then I was a bad mom for being late. She was quite unhappy with the situation.

But then, as we were walking down the hall to leave, we ran into this guy!

And all was once again right in her world. Thank you Mr. Easter Bunny for being in the right spot at the right time.

Soccer!

That's right, official soccer mom here. I wanted Clara to have experiences other than dance to see if she might be interested in something else, so soccer it is. I've already explained that once she starts kindergarten, she'll have to choose only one extra activity to be in, so I'm interested to see which she chooses or if she decides to try something different. All I know is, I won't be running around like a crazy person all week and weekend to get her to everything. I think having down time with family and dinner together is more important that running everyone ragged and eating on the go. Soccer is interfering with daddy/daughter breakfast, but it's only 8 weeks.

One of the reasons I chose this particular league is because their practice and game is back to back early Saturday morning. I also appreciate that they keep score and have playoffs at the end. I'm not competitive by any means and I could care less how well she does, but Clara seriously needs to work on being a good loser. She is a terrible loser and cries and sulks any time she doesn't win or even when she thinks she may not win. It's embarrassing.

She was pretty clueless on the field, but you can't really blame her. I mean, our home is pretty much a sports-free zone. I bought her a soccer ball two days before her first game just so she'd know what one looks like. Ok, maybe she knew what one looked like, but I at least wanted her foot to have been in contact with one prior to starting day.

She surprised me and was more coordinated than I expected. She did really well. I think she was just really overwhelmed by it all. Running, kicking, coaches, team mates, goals, opposing team, referee.... it's a lot to take in.

I may be getting ahead of myself, but there's a chance she might not get the lesson in losing that I was hoping for. There are two boys on the team that are phenomenal. One had made two goals in the first quarter and the coach was told by the ref that he could only score one more that game. While I understand the reasoning, I felt bad for him. He obviously loves soccer and the boy knew what he was doing. He did make his third goal not too long after and I was afraid he would have to sit out the rest of the game. I was really happy when the coach let him in to play goalie, but you could tell he was itching to get to that ball.

Clara didn't pay too close attention and didn't want in the scuffle for the ball, so she held back for most of the game. She got to play goalie for a little while and she managed to block two goals! I was so proud of her. One did get past her though and she broke down crying immediately. Everyone was encouraging her, telling her it's ok and good job but she just knew she hadn't done what she was supposed to. It broke my heart to see her so upset but that's what I'm talking about with the whole losing thing. She had to come sit with us for a few minutes to compose herself. After a good cry she got right back in there. I'm so glad she's got some of her dad in her; she's got spunk. Had it been me at 5, I would've been begging to go home and never come back.

At one point, she was running and I didn't see how it happened, but she fell flat on her face. It was a really good fall. She started crying, so the coach helped her up and walked her over to us to calm down. Again, she ran right back in to the game. She's such a trooper.

Her coach was so great. His son is on the team and this is his first experience with being a soccer dad and coach. He was very encouraging and learned all of the kids names quickly. I really like him. Every week they will have a different word that they learn and at the end of the game, the coach chooses one player that he feels exemplified that trait and they receive a medal. The word for week one was team mate. Guess who got the medal?

Ok, so my child isn't getting the lesson in humility that I was hoping for :) I really am proud of her. She is such a fantastic little person, inside and out. One little girl started crying when she didn't get a medal and Clara went over to her, bent down (the girl was about a foot shorter than Clara), put her hand on her arm and told her, "It's ok, you played good, maybe you'll get a medal next time." My sweet girl really does know what it means to be a good team mate.

Day 9- London to Houston to Albuquerque

I can sum up day 9 in two words.

Very long

I'll write more about the rest of the trip later, but for now I will move on to more pleasant topics than puking, jet lag, colds, recovering toddler with antibiotic induced diarrhea, screaming toddler minutes before boarding plane, tummy bugs and emergency rooms.

Oh come on now, you know you're dying to hear all about it.

Day 8- London

We were both pooped when we woke Tuesday morning. Had we been staying longer, I'm pretty sure this would have been a 'do nothing' day. We had eaten the breakfast buffet at the hotel the two previous mornings, but I wasn't all that impressed with it so I talked Chris into eating breakfast at a charming little shop near our hotel called The Muffin Man. It turned out to be a nice little spot. Unfortunately they didn't take credit cards and we were almost out of cash, so we had to scrape together all of our change to pay the bill.

We went on over to the British Museum and although it's a great museum, we just weren't into it again. We walked through several rooms and then encountered mass chaos as we entered the room with the Egyptian mummies. Oh my goodness, we were waist-high in school children. There were hundreds of them packed into that room peering in at all of the mummies. We couldn't even get near most of the cases. I'm not sure if it's that packed every weekday, but it was nuts. We had to get out of there. I did get near enough to snap a picture of this unfortunate fellow who seemed especially gruesome to me.

And then some teacher decided that the doorway leading out to the main atrium would be the perfect place to regroup and count heads. There were maybe 50 6th or 7 th graders all converged in the doorway and were not moving. We eventually had to resort to nudging the little dears to get them to stop gabbing long enough to step aside and allow us to pass. We had both been looking forward to looking through that area and were a bit disappointed that it was that chaotic. I was a little surprised they would let that many school groups in at the same time.

We were both a little put off at this point and like I mentioned earlier, probably just a bit cranky and tired, so we decided to forgo an afternoon excursion. We had thought about going to the maritime museum, the Tower of London or St. Paul's Cathedral. So they're on our list for our next trip :)

The whole time we were in London, we had been on the lookout for a certain brand of very expensive scotch a friend asked us to bring back and hadn't had any luck locating it. The concierge said to try Harrod's, which is a massive store filled with just about anything you might possibly need, so we spent a couple of hours browsing there. No luck, though we did find several souvenirs to bring back and had lunch there.

This Steiff display was in the toy section and was very large. All of the animals moved around, so I guess a video would have been a bit more impressive.

After Harrod's, it was back to the hotel to get packed up to fly back to reality the next morning.

Day 7- London

We went to the National Museum of History on Monday morning. There were separate halls dedicated to bugs, birds, dinosaurs, sea creatures and mammals all of which would have delighted Robert and traumatized Clara.

What I loved most was the architecture of the building. It had a beautiful main hall that was three stories tall. This was my favorite of the museums/galleries we went to in London. This picture was taken in the Earth hall. There are constellations drawn on one wall and the solar system on the other with the escalator going up through this metal planetary structure.

This dinosaur was in the main hall. Chris took three pictures and stitched them together to be able to get the entire thing in the shot.

See what I mean? Isn't this room amazing?

That's 'ol Darwin seated on the stairway here.

And these skeletons were monkeying around down one hallway.

This was the mammal hall and had a full size replica of a blue whale as the center of the exhibit with all kinds of animals surrounding it giving you a good perspective of its enormousness. Well I'll be; I'm not getting the dreaded red underline so I guess enormousness is a word after all. For the record, enormosity is not.

Clara would've wet her pants when she came upon this guy. (She's got a thing about hippos. I don't think I ever wrote about the screamfest at the San Antonio Zoo last year.)

This little red panda would've been received well though.

We would've been frantically running for an exit at this point.

The dinosaur hall was very large and dark. You had to follow a path, first going up on a suspended walkway that ran from one end of the room to the other. At the end of the room was an animatronic t-rex against a background of trees and brush, lunging and roaring with a smoke machine going. Clara would have FLIPPED! We took some video of it and Robert likes to watch it over and over. After the t-rex, you weaved through the floor level of the dinosaur exhibit back to where you started.

After the history museum, we rode the subway over to the British Museum. This picture was taken on an escalator in the Underground. I was very surprised at how tall and steep the escalators were down there. You are a long way underground in some places. We ate a late lunch at a pub around the corner from the museum. Chris had a lamb and mint pie and I had a jacket potato (fancy term for baked). I wasn't nearly as adventurous as Chris when it came to dining. British food just sounds so unappetizing to me.

We walked into the first room of the museum and were a little overwhelmed, not knowing where to start. We were tired from all the walking and had wanted to get back to the hotel to rest before the evening, so we made the decision to go on back to the hotel and come back the next morning.

We went to see Wicked that night. We really wanted to see Les Miserable, but the ticket prices were astronomical, so we decided on Wicked because I had heard really good things about it. We both enjoyed it. I didn't know the story, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. There were several inconsistencies between the show and the Wizard of Oz book, but I tried not to let that get to me :) I kinda wish we had planned on attending more shows. It was a really enjoyable evening.

Day 6- London

Each day in London, we purchased unlimited transportation passes that were good for one day and cost 6 pounds. The only drawback was you couldn't use it until 9:30, but that didn't effect us at all. It was a considerable savings over the normal price of 4 pounds per ticket.

Our fist stop was Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. We got there a little early, so we toured the Royal Mews first. It is the palace stables and it houses all of the historical carriages and the queen's vehicles. They don't usually keep the horses on display though; only a few of them were there. This carriage was a gift from Australia, hence the kangaroo and emu on the side.

This is the Gold State Coach and it is huge, weighing 4 tons. It has been used for every coronation since it was built in the 1760's at a cost of 6,000 pounds.

There was a big collection of children's carriages that were made to be pulled by ponies, donkeys and one was even labeled as a goat carriage. Wouldn't it be the cutest thing ever to see a little prince or princess being pulled along in this little carriage?

After the tour, we headed on over to the front of the palace because the ceremony was getting close to starting. It starts at 11:30 and when we got there a little after 11:00, people were already starting to gather. As it got nearer to time, outside the palace was jam packed with people sitting around waiting. 11:30 came and went and still nothing. We eventually walked away around 11:45 with most people still waiting.

I checked their website for dates before leaving on our trip so I guess it was canceled at the last minute or something. When I checked the site later, that day was not on the calendar. I really wish I knew if everyone there was also under the impression that it was going to take place that day. I hope so, otherwise it would seem that I am quickly going crazy.

We had lunch after walking through Green Park and then rode the subway over to Trafalgar Square. One of the great things about London is all of the free museums and galleries. The National Gallery is located at Trafalgar Square, and although we weren't just dying to go there, hey, it's free. Why not? We only stayed a few minutes because both Chris and I felt horrible in there. It felt as though my sinuses were about to explode. You know the momentary painful feeling you get just before you sneeze when your face is all scrunched up and your eyes are watering? It felt like that, only it wouldn't go away. We quickly browsed through two or three rooms and then found a couple of the works that we would recognize, Van Gogh's sunflowers and a Monet (he's my favorite), and called it good.

And here's a mailbox.

And a garden growing up the wall of this hotel.

We walked up Regent Street making sure to stop in Hamley's Toy Store, which is 250 years old and encompasses seven floors. It was impressive and was filled with employees playing with all of the toys and showing the kids how they work. I'm not sure I would've wanted to go in there with the kids. There would have been much kicking and screaming at the mere mention of leaving.

We picked Robert up some die cast cars. He got a double decker bus, a black taxi and a mini and they've been a hit. I found a hard cover copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Clara as well as a Paddington book. We've started reading Paddinton and he's a hit. She's even letting me read with a British accent! She wouldn't let me when I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or Alice in Wonderland, so I'm pumped. I don't do it in front of Chris though; he's not very encouraging.

Day 5- Brussels to London

I was sure to have Chris double check the time on our train tickets to London. I can't be trusted. Then we had an amazing breakfast buffet at the hotel (with an amazing price tag to match). I'm not sure we would have enjoyed breakfast there had we known how expensive it would be.

We got on the train and wouldn't you know it, they served us breakfast. It would've been nice to know that ahead of time. We were seated in a row with forward and backward facing seats with a table in between. Across the aisle was an older couple that were returning to London from a 2.5 week trip through Europe, having visited nine different countries I think. Wouldn't that be nice?

The set up of the row we were in was perfect to have a nice conversation with them. We talked so much that we had been in the tunnel under the English channel for about 15 minutes before Chris even noticed. We learned that Will and Kate will be having a fruit cake for the wedding cake, which is the traditional wedding cake in England. We told them that in the U.S., fruit cake is kind of a joke and made fun of and they weren't aware of that. Mary explained how to properly make a fruit cake, which includes lots of ingredients that I have never heard of and it also requires that you poke holes in the bottom, pour brandy or whiskey on it, wrap it up and do it over and over again for several weeks I believe. It's called 'feeding' the fruit cake. Still not sold on the idea of fruit cake. She said she would think of us every time she makes a fruit cake from now on.

Once we got to London, we grabbed a taxi. They are so nice. There is no seat next to the driver, so you can put your luggage up front. Also, in the back, there are fold down seats on the back of the front seat, so there is a ton of room if you don't need those extra seats. There's a glass window behind the driver, so you have to push a button to talk to him. I only had one problem with our particular taxi; our driver opted to take us on the scenic route to our hotel.

We were in an older hotel, but not old as in quaint, charming old. Just old. I think Chris was allergic to something in the hotel because he seemed to have breathing problems when we were there. Just around the corner was an Underground station, so that was nice. There was also a coffee shop nearby, so we spent time there every day.

We had lunch in a pub; steak and ale pie for Chris and fish and chips for me. We walked down a street near our hotel that was lined with lots of shops, browsing through a couple of them. Later that night, we went to the coffee shop and didn't do much else that day. I know, pretty boring.

Day 4- Paris to Brussels

We had tickets to ride the train to Brussels on Friday morning. Our train wasn't supposed to leave until around 11:30, so we leisurely had breakfast and took a taxi to the station, getting there fairly early since neither of us knew what we were doing.

We didn't know if we were supposed to check our luggage or what, so we got into a line that looked promising. When the employee looked at our tickets, she said, "You've missed your train, it left about 5 minutes ago." What!?!?! Um, yeah, someone might have possibly been looking at the wrong time on the ticket. 11:30 was our arrival time in Brussels. My bad. So we got into a longer line to get new tickets. Of course, ours were non-refundable so we had to buy new ones. I beat myself up about that one for a very long time. It wouldn't be so bad except that this would actually be the second time I've done this exact thing. I am such an idiot.



Our train left about an hour later, at 11:30. We both really enjoyed traveling by train and were served a nice lunch. It was about a 15 minute taxi ride to the Sheraton where we spent the night. We only had one night in Brussels so I have to be honest, I had done no research at all on what there is to do in Brussels. We went to the concierge and told him we just got there and were leaving in the morning and asked what we should do.

We got really lucky and our hotel was really close to some cool stuff. He pulled out a map, and marked a few spots of interest that were just down the street from us. We walked across the street to a shopping mall where we spent a few minutes walking around. Then we strolled down the streets for a couple of hours. We grabbed a waffle from a shop and I had to splurge on one dripping with warm chocolate syrup.



We peeked into a church and then walked to the Grand Place, which is a big square surrounded by huge, beautiful buildings.



We went into several lace and chocolate shops and then kept walking towards something the concierge had pointed out on the map. He had told us to be sure to go see "our little boy". We weren't sure what he meant but knew we were getting close when we saw a large group of people up ahead snapping pictures. This is the "little boy" they seem to be so proud of. Click on the picture if you can't tell what he's doing.


Then we got a little lost on the way back to the hotel and came across this massive church.



We made it back to the hotel and were really tired from all the walking on cobblestone and uneven surfaces. After a rest, we had a late dinner at a cafe around the corner. Chris had a second waffle for dessert. It was covered in whipped cream, strawberries, ice cream and strawberry sauce. It was quite yummy. One thing's for sure, they sure know how to make a good Belgium waffle in Belgium. Neither of us knew what to expect in Brussels so we were both pleasantly surprised and glad that we decided to stop there for a day.

Day 3- Paris

We only had two full days in Paris, so going to the Eiffel Tower was the only other thing we wanted to make sure we did. Thursday came and it was rainy in the morning, so we decided to browse a huge department store called Galeries Lafayette. No purchases were made since the merchandise was largely designer stuff. I believe one entire floor was devoted to women's shoes.

After a short time there, it had cleared up a little and there were just light intermittent showers, so we walked around the area looking for a toy store that I had discovered online. I had us walking in the wrong direction for a few blocks, so we got turned around the right way and after several blocks and a few glances at the map, we finally found the store. We walked up to the door and it was closed or had moved or something. Oops. Wasted about an hour on that one.

We hopped on the subway and had lunch at Hard Rock and then walked to a passage nearby. We saw several of these passages. They're like pedestrian alleyways lined with shops. It would be a lot of fun to hit a bunch of the passages if you had the time (and if your significant other enjoyed shopping). We went into a couple of small toy stores and found some unique toys to bring back for the kids. Now this is a toy store. Look how charming this store front is. So much more character than Toys R Us or Wal-Mart.


The rain had passed through so it was clear enough to do the Eiffel Tower. That thing is massive. We opted for the elevator, but for a cheaper price you can take the stairs. The Eiffel Tower is basically a whole lot of waiting. You wait to buy tickets, then wait to get on the elevator going to the first level. Then you get off and look around, take some pictures, buy some souvenirs, then wait to get on another elevator going to the top, look around some more and then wait to get on the elevator to go back down. And this was during the week on a chilly, overcast day. I can't imagine what the wait must be at the height of tourist season.

In this first picture, you can see the Arc de Triomphe. Such a tiny thing from way up there. It got chillier and windier the higher up we went. The wind was ridiculous up at the very top.





Oh, I have a quick story I need to tell about my encounter with a subway turnstile. In the Paris subway, you feed your ticket into the slot and then proceed through a turnstile and a small gate. The gate is a little hard to push. Well, I got through the turnstile and pushed on the gate but I guess I didn't push hard enough and it locked back. So I was stuck in the tiny area between the turnstile and the gate. At this point, we weren't sure if the ticket was valid for only one trip or if it was good for a length of time. So I climb halfway over, reach way back and with one leg sticking over the turnstile, I try to stick the ticket in again. Nope. Only good for one trip. So there I sat with a leg hiked up over the waist high turnstile. I eventually had to climb over a waist high section next to the gate. My husband loves me. There is no photographic evidence of the aforementioned scene. He did, however, have a look on his face that said, "Really, Kelsey? Are you really stuck in a subway turnstile?"