EWG is 1!

Elliott William Grooms, age 1. 18 Aug 2014

Boy loves his pacis. Stirling Castle, 26 July 

On his birthday in the Botanic Garden, one of his favorite spots

Beach/sand lover. Millport, 23 Aug. 

Common descriptions of Elliott: laid-back, content, gorgeous, charming, clever, happy, lovely

In general, he is a delight to all--smiling and waving to the old ladies that populate the buses we ride; playing with other wee ones at the parks we frequent; engaging with the grandparents on FaceTime; and generally livening up our household with his sweet smile, laughs and wobbly steps. He loves to clap and dance (bless his little white boy heart) and move around. He loves to snuggle and be held; to receive kisses and zoobers, especially from big sister, and generally is very affectionate. He is a laid back and contented little guy and I could not be more grateful for this quality. I credit some of this as his personality, and some to the fact that we are more laid back this time around.
He absolutely loves to read books (FINALLY, A CHILD I CAN READ WITH) and often crawls into our laps with a board book clutched in his chubby little hand. Melt my heart. This has also encouraged L to read more, which obviously delights me. He is trying hard to walk, and I think will be fully independent at this soon. He is excellent at crawling and standing and quite proficient at getting where he needs to go or obtaining what he desires. He attempts to pilfer L's breakfast pretty much every morning.
This is not to say that Elliott is a perfect baby! He routinely wakes up around 6:00 am and he has not slept through the night EVER. Not once. However, I do love the middle of the night cuddles and at this point, we are (mostly) down to one waking. Sometimes I'm less cheerful about this lifetime habit of his, but for the most part, I'm just grateful that he is a good napper.
 And living in a city  without a car, with a mobile-yet-not-walking baby, is challenging and dirty, to say the least. Sometimes I just close my eyes and actively choose not to think about the germs.
He is mostly weaned and I suspect will be fully weaned within the next couple of weeks. We had a good run, and I am grateful that he is such a good eater. One of his nicknames/hashtags is "Elliott Give Me All the Food" Grooms, and eating is definitely a favorite past time of his.
It is amazing to me to think about how different his life is than Lillian's was at one. He has ridden in countless elevators, subways, buses and trains. He has been in multiple countries. He is surrounded by other languages and accents that are different from ours. It does make me sad that he won't know his grandparents, aunts and uncles and our community group and other friends like Lillian did during this year, though knowing that this isn't a permanent move makes this knowledge easier. We hope and pray for both of our kids that this experience will have a positive impact on the course of their lives, though it is also strange to know that E won't remember one bit of our Scottish adventure.
All that to say, E is the kind of baby who makes us want to have 10 more (or maybe 2), and we can't wait to see how our little man grows and changes this year and always.

Happy first birthday, Elliott. You are a gift to us and so many others already, and we love you to pieces.

The plus side to lots of rain

Something I'm learning

I am working on other captivating travelling posts, a pithy first birthday post, etc., but this is what I was thinking about tonight.

We are rapidly approaching the two month mark in Scotland, and in certain ways, I can see how the next year (or longer) is going to fly by. Our little family is busy doing all the normal things, plus trying to see our new city and country. Most moments are fun. Most of the time it's unbelievable to see my almost three year old grow exponentially as a direct result of where we are, and to see my husband blossom in a new position.
There are hard moments though, and if I had to put a label on them (which I'm about to!), I'd say they are all elements of one large problem:

I love control.
I love to be in control; I love to know exactly what's going on and where I fit; I love to know what's coming next; I love to always have a Plan B if things don't go right. You get the idea.

Oh, and times this by one million with kids.

(And this isn't to say that I'm a total stick in the mud, or that I don't like adventure. Because I do. As long as it's planned out. HA. Also, having a plan isn't always bad. And control--in moderation--is important. But that's not the point of this post)

Anyways, I've learned after leaving my comfortable home, my friends and family, my car, and other material blessings, that I like control a little too much and that I "balk" (okay, sometimes rage and cry) at having it stripped away. Here are a few situations that have driven this lesson home:

-Walking into our new home and discovering that we had no idea how to turn the power on, nor any instruction manual or guidelines to help. (Thanks to the friendly policemen who helped us figure this out.)
-Knowing that we needed a key for the "bin room in the lane" for large rubbish bags but a)didn't know where the lane was and b) didn't know how to acquire a key. (Thankful for a kind neighbor who allowed me to copy hers.)
-Having three different neighbors come tell us that our pram was causing problems in the building and essentially that everyone disliked us for having one (Same kind neighbor helped me figure out the door/latch situation.Jury's still out on the rest of the neighbors, ha.)
-Being stuck all the way across London on a tour bus during rush hour when both the kids were melting down, knowing simultaneously that other people on the bus were judging me and that I had no way of getting us home any faster (Kids fell asleep in sticky, sweaty puddles on me; we survived and lived to tell the tale.)
-Trying to get home on the bus from the city centre in Glasgow, in the rain, while normal bus routes were suspended on two sequential days for two completely different reasons (Had to walk a long ways and take a different bus. Both times. Not my favorite set of experiences.)
-Looking at the weather forecast, realizing it's going to be in the 40s this week (IN AUGUST), and also ascertaining that we haven't the foggiest idea how to turn on the mysterious heating system (tricksy husband for the win! A victory woneven as I typed tonight).
-Getting anywhere at any point for any reason--obviously this is an exaggeration, but not having a car is an unbelievable loss of control. I can't control (as much) what the kids see; who they encounter; how speedily we get somewhere, etc. We are at the mercy of bus timetables and city events. Not to mention toddler pace, millions of request for treats, baby shenanigans, etc. Also their meltdowns are no longer contained in a car for just me to hear.  There is no rushing them to the car to regain control of a situation. My parenting is on display all.the.time, and boy is that a humbling reality!

There are lots of positives to this type of living as well, both for me as a sinful, flawed parent, and for the growth of my kids. I know God is teaching me a larger lesson about Who is in control (and who is not!) and what that means in the daily grind of life. When I talk about surrendering to His will or holding my life with an open hand, it's not just a big picture thing.
And that's good. But it's definitely not easy.

Pictures from London

We've been working out a few kinks in our Internet, so I wasn't able to upload most of my pictures with the last post. So, here you go.
They're in no particular order, of course.

This was her response when I tried to get her to sing the song. No doubt she felt it was inaccurate to sing about a different bridge.  

Miss Alicia! We had so much fun hanging out with her while Thomas worked. 

View of Tower Bridge from London Bridge in the morning sun. 

in 

Elliott took a lot of bus naps during our time in London. What a champ. One of the many many reasons I love the bus tours. 

Hanging out in Green Park during the hottest part of the day with a family from Riyadh. 

Sometimes you just have to (metaphorically) close your eyes and not think about the germs and dirt. Trafalgar Square. 

It's awesome when you're travelling and you find a place that is cool for kids AND adults. 

Crawling, twirling, owning. 

The only crib nap from the weekend and it was a bit on the sweaty side. 

L was really into playdoh creatures this week, so about 2 hours of the 5 total were spent creating little friends for her. 

Puppy paws post-nap on the train. Mr. man spent most of the trip crawling around and rearranging the dining car. #whateverworks

London in July

(note: "London" should actually read "surface of the Sun")

Unsurprisingly, I am a little behind on blogging. I really want to document our time here well, so I am going to go back a few trips and play catch up. We were in London July 17-20.

We moved into our flat on Tuesday, July 15, and left for London on Thursday, July 17. And went to IKEA in between because for totally unknown reasons I thought that would be a good idea. It was a busy few days and possibly a wee bit on the crazy side, but Thomas had a work party to attend in London on Friday, so the kiddos and I decided to join him in good ole London town.
We took the 12:35 train out of Central Station--which I arrived there with kids and bags at 12:30 because I had GONE TO THE WRONG DARN STATION on the bus and had to take a taxi to Central. Therefore the whole trip started out on a breathless, panicky note but we made it (and made some friends on the bus ride to the wrong station. Go, God!). Little did we know that the hardest parts of the day were still to come.
It's a 4.5-5 hour train ride from Glasgow to London. The kiddos much prefer the train to the airplane because there is no way to restrain them...so it's definitely an active ride for Mom and Dad. Each of them slept a little; L watched a little Peppa Pig; E played on the floor; and we enjoyed the endless parade of meals and snacks that come when you sit in first class. T was working from the train, which justified the expense, and kids under 5 are free on trains. Huzzah! As we journeyed, I watched as my phone went lower and lower in batteries. Which led to the discovery that neither of us had packed the charger, each thinking that the other one had. And Thomas still didn't have a phone, which lead to an amazing confluence of events:
-London Euston station at rush hour (MADNESS)
-No hotel address, though we knew the name and the tube stop
-No Internet capabilities
-No phone capabilities
-No map (usually T would carry one but we got phone lazy)
-No way of knowing that our tube station was not wheelchair accessible and therefore nearly impossible to navigate with bags
-85+ deg temps in a city with no A/C, fans, moving air, etc.

Looking back, I am still amazed that we managed to get to our hotel--thanks to God's grace and the kindness of strangers who did things like carry our stroller down FOUR FLIGHTS OF WINDING STAIRCASE STAIRS INTO A TUBE STATION AS HOT AS A BLAST FURNACE, and look up directions on phones, etc. We=idiots. I still feel embarrassed when I think about just how dumb we were. Thank goodness our kids are troopers.
Fortunately this was the low point of the trip, and things went up from there.
On Friday, Thomas worked at Blackbaud in London (v. cool office on the Thames) and the kids and I did the open air bus tour with our friend Alicia, whose husband was also working that day. The temperature in the apartment we were staying in hovered at 80+ the whole time, so hanging out there was not an option.
I love a good " 'decker" bus as L calls them, and we had an awesome time tooling around the city with the millions of other tourists. We had so much fun on Friday that we decided to do it again on Saturday with Thomas. With kids, it really is a good value for a nice survey of the city. Most things in London are way too expensive to visit with ticking time bombs kids, so at least this way you get to see Westminster Abbey even if you don't want to risk going in, and you get to hear a lot of history from the tour guides. Plus there was moving air most of the time.
Both days also included good park breaks (Green Park next to the Ritz was our favorite); eating the cheapest food we could find (read: not actually cheap); sticky, sweaty bus naps--we were stroller-less both days which was amazing; and general awe at the amazing-ness of London. We also did things like watch the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace with 908097987 of our closest friends; a little Thames river cruise from the Tower of London down to the London Eye; lots of playing in Trafalgar Square; and a dinner in Covent Garden (sounds more awesome than it actually was with over-tired kiddos).
Night-times were a little rough given the temps and layout of the 1 bedroom apartment were were staying in...meaning that lots of coffee was ingested during the day. Lots. Even though it made us even sweatier.
All in all, it was a fun weekend, and I love that a month later, I really only remember the good parts. Ha!

Playing in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Portrait Gallery. E's knees were black at the end of each day. 

Crossing the Thames and loving the bus