Christmas and Boxing Day 2008

This year it was just the four of us alone here for Christmas, which might have been slightly pathetic, but fortunately both kids are at optimal ages for enjoying the holiday as it was meant to be: Ethan is still clinging staunchly to his belief in Santa, and Avery is just old enough to know that boxes plus wrapping paper equals new toys. Here they are acting like, well, like kids on Christmas:

Avery did not require any pompom coaching; she was born to shake it.

Okay, it's still a video game, but he's definitely getting a workout.


"Avery's" dollhouse; occasionally I even let her rearrange things, but after she's in bed I put it back just like this. Notice the Dad is downstairs doing the washing up. Alone. As it should be.

The kids feasted all day on chocolate coins and Lindt reindeer, so they weren't that interested in dinner; we gave them pasta and put them to bed early, and then had the kitchen to ourselves.

Here's our Christmas dinner, which I do understand is rather brown and unappetizing (however delicious); I'm showing it to you only for the purpose of passing on the following advice from one of our English friends re. the proper way to cook vegetables. When I mentioned apologetically that I thought the sprouts might be overdone, he observed that "as long as you can make out individuals, they're not overcooked." A quintessentially English point of view, but one I have adopted for reasons of digestion and because I have a houseful of small children who prefer not to have to chew their food before swallowing.

Boxing Day was gorgeous and sunny (and freezing, but never mind) so we went up to Knole Park for a walk, and to fly Ethan's new kite.

Ethan, Avery, and Dylan in Knole Park

Ethan and Avery in front of Knole House

Flying the kite


Ethan took this picture of Avery & me

Downtown Sevenoaks

Tomorrow it's back to school, work, and whatever it is I do. We wish you all the best in 2009!!

More December in Review

Lansing had some vacation to burn before year's end, so he had 2 full weeks at home with us, which made for the Best Christmas Ever as far as the kids and I are concerned. (Lansing, possibly, will not be entirely devastated to escape back to the office tomorrow.) We put the tree up the first weekend in December, ensuring there would be plenty of time for it to wither and die and fling sharp little needles everywhere (okay, it didn't help that we forgot to cut the bottom few inches off before we put it in the water.)

Kind of blurry, but with the flash you could really see just how dead the tree was...

Ethan finished off the school term with a carol service in one of the beautiful local churches. Once school was done, we planned a few day trips to distract him from the agony of having to wait 3 more days to open his Christmas presents.

We spent a day in London, decorating cookies with Mother Christmas and checking out the aquarium. Avery spent most of her face-time with Mrs. Claus eating chocolate- they just kept putting it in front of her- with predictable results:

I promise Lansing's not breaking Ethan's arm off-camera, however it sounds, it was just a gentle restraint technique. Ahhh, sugar. And what better complements a full stomach than carnival rides?


We finished off the day with a quick tour of the London Aquarium, which I can't currently recommend since it's under construction- it's a bit like wandering around a building site with a few fish tanks inexplicably installed beneath the scaffolding.

You can color a picture at the remarkably filthy craft table, however, if that's of any interest to you.

Or maybe you'd like to see the fish that's clearly been attacked by a shark? Yes? I thought so:

I'm thinking feeding time maybe needs to be brought forward half an hour? Someone has clearly been getting impatient. Or, I don't know, maybe the fish started it. In any case, it made quite an impression on all the children present.

December in Review

We've really made the most of our Christmas break this year, catching up with lots of friends that we see all too rarely. We had some great outings with the kids...and also some we thought would be great that didn't quite turn out that way. Avery and I headed down to the London Temple one grey and freezing morning, having heard that the angel Moroni statue was finally going to be helicoptered up onto the spire (the temple was built in the 50's, but at the time they weren't able to get planning permission for Moroni.)

We arrived early and wandered around looking at the new visitors' center and the Christmas displays.

Did I mention it was freezing?

I've got to be the worst photographer on the planet- I couldn't find a good angle for this shot.

Avery's patience with the camera soon wore thin.

We could see the statue on the lawn, but no sign of any helicopters. Eventually they let us know that the pilot was fogged in and it would be a couple of hours. I couldn't see Avery hanging in there that long, nor did the fog look like it would dissipate anytime soon, so we just grabbed a couple of close-ups and headed for home.

One angel, mint condition, still in original packaging

I'm not sure when they actually got it up there, but it looks like the helicopter eventually came through.

Two

We've had a busy December here at the Politrell compound, which partially accounts for the lack of new posts (and the rest of the blame goes to general indolence.) Avery turned two years old at the beginning of the month, and enjoyed her birthday party and cake plus the auxiliary family cake and celebration a couple of days later. As our singing has not improved any since last year, I'll spare you the video clip this time around.


I got a ridiculous amount of satisfaction out of the fact that there were exactly the same number of cupcakes on the cake as there were children in attendance. This was pure serendipity but it appealed to my compulsive side.

Post-frosting euphoria

I couldn't get any of them to look up.

So far Avery's twos have been more terrific than terrible. She has recently begun talking in full sentences (sample monologue: "Where's my purse? Mommy! Where my shoes gone? Where's that chocolate??" Proving that, indeed, children learn what they live.) She and Ethan (mostly) adore each other, and the highlight of her day is picking him up from school with me. Despite our best efforts, she has discovered princesses and prefers to wear a tiara at all times, ideally paired with those plastic feather-trimmed high-heeled shoes that seem to have been produced and marketed for the express purpose of breaking toddlers' ankles.

Pictured here with emergency back-up tiara in hand

She is adorable, clever, and funny and none of us have any idea how we ever managed without her. Especially now that she's definitively committed to the concept that nighttime is for sleeping; that's really sent her approval ratings through the roof.

In Which I Get What I Deserve

Those of you who weren't big fans of my last post will probably enjoy this one... While I was jubilantly composing my ode to change, Avery was wandering around entertaining herself (first indicator of poor parenting) while still clad in the previous night's diaper (second and more incriminating indicator of poor parenting).

In case anyone's ever wondered how long a size 4 disposable can hold out against a 2-year-old and three 8-ounce cups of milk, just know that 14 hours is pushing it, and may result in total failure of the absorbent granule system. When that happens, you can expect to find thousands of tiny piles of over-engineered gel all over your living room, like this:




McCain supporters, I hope this eases some of your pain.

Yes We Can (Bore You With Our Political Musings As Well As Our Home Movies)

I hesitated a bit to publish this here, since this is mainly a place for me to ramble on about my kids and my eventless existence, rather than a forum for my political views (that's what Facebook is for ;-)) But then I figured my 2 readers might actually enjoy a little content for a change.

I was awake at 4-ish a.m. GMT when Senator McCain delivered his concession speech. (I'm linking to the NY Times because I like their format, with the text alongside; also because I am a socialist.) I thought it was inspirational, heartfelt, and deeply moving. I felt like I was once again seeing the McCain I have admired for the past decade, the McCain who was so little in evidence during the past several months. He was quick to suppress the "boo"s that greeted nearly every mention of Senator Obama's name (very poor form, supporters, though I recognize that it's easier to be gracious in victory than defeat). He reminded us of what was most important. He focused on what needs to be done now to improve our situation. I wish this McCain had campaigned this year. I hope he's back to stay.

I was still awake around 5 when Senator Obama took the stage in Chicago and delivered one of the most powerful speeches in American history. This speech will be quoted along with Lincoln's, Kennedy's, Martin Luther King's for decades, probably centuries to come. The fact that it was intentionally written to be that sort of speech in no way detracts from its power- it made the grade. I have not heard a speech of this caliber in my lifetime. If Senator Obama didn't get your vote, I wouldn't be surprised to find that you felt differently (I hope you will go back and give it another chance when the sting of McCain's loss has faded, because it is full of beautiful language and, more importantly, beautiful ideas and ideals that are deeply American), but maybe as you listened you at least got a sense of why so many of us are filled with hope at the idea of an Obama presidency. I didn't say "filled with certainty"- we are filled with hope. We don't think he's a perfect man or will be a perfect president. But we admire him for who he is, for what he's accomplished with this campaign, and he is not merely a symbol, as valuable and stirring as that is. He is an intelligent person who has shown he is willing to listen to other intelligent people, to think creatively, to take a longer view. He is a politician, sure, and he has pandered; he has said and done things I don't agree with, and I expect he will in the future. I don't know exactly what his presidency will bring, and I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that he will be a transformative president. But what I saw Tuesday night gives me hope. I don't believe he won because of the economy, or because of fear of a Palin presidency, or fear of anything. I think he won because he consistently reminded us of what was best inside of us all, and he reminded us to hope. Certainly he set that tone in this speech, and I hope and pray he continues, we all continue, in that vein for the next four years and beyond.

It is shaping up to be an interesting time. Russia woke up Wednesday morning ready to kill everyone's buzz with the news that America is to blame for everything that's wrong in the world. I'm sorry- Russia? The country that for sixty years turned the economy, infrastructure, culture, history and future of everything they touched into rubble, to the extent that nearly two decades on we are still reaping the whirlwind everywhere they set their feet- and after all that their leader said that the COLLAPSE of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century- this is the country that is telling us that WE have ruined the world? Russia, you've lost a lot of things, but I never thought I'd live to see the day when you lost your sense of irony. Yet here we are.

And that's just one issue. It's understandable that we are all a little nervous about what is to come. But over the past couple of days I've seen a lot of blog posts, e-mails, and comments expressing, not just uncertainty, but fear and despair about the future now that Barack Obama is our President-elect. Hey, I felt that way myself in 2000 and 2004, and look how well that turned out... But I hope, and I think I have every reason to believe, that we have a better, more intelligent, more thoughtful man leading us now than we have in a long time (take that "long time" back as long as you need to in order to feel comfortable with it ;-)) I don't think his optimism is unfounded. I love what he said about "summon(ing) a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other." If there's anything that will get us through whatever lies ahead, it will be that spirit. His speech served as a reminder that "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Those things will get us through anything that comes our way. I hope and believe Obama's got more going for him than words. Only time will tell. But I love that he's started out by reminding us that we all have to step up our game and be prepared for sacrifices along the way. And I love that he's done it so eloquently. Being eloquent isn't everything, but it's not nothing either.

Let me end with something I think we can all agree on, along with the hope that the sum total of Obama's presidency will be as inspiring as this, one of the most stirring lines from his speech:

"(T)he true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals- democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope."

Karate Kid

Ethan just qualified for his orange belt. Here he performs his kata, the name of which currently escapes me. He really digs the shouting, he's toning it down a bit because he's self-conscious in front of the camera, but he really puts his lungs into it at the rating sessions.

Indoor Sports (for the feeble-minded)...

This is how Ethan & Avery while away the post-dinner, post-SuperWhy electronic-media-bereft evening hours until bedtime. Ethan made the tactical error of teaching Avery to tickle-wrestle, and at 21 months she has gained the upper hand.

Politrells Go Camping

Lansing was concerned that Ethan was nearing the critical age after which he would no longer be interested in camping, so we headed out a few Saturdays ago to equip ourselves with camping gear. The only tent we have is a 2-man pop-up, so we knew we'd have to upgrade. I have a horror of small spaces, and an aversion to sleeping directly on the ground, so we were looking for something roomy enough for an air-mattress. Given the weather in England, we also wanted space to play in case of rain, and we wanted to be able to stand upright inside. We came home with this:

Which was a little bigger than we'd expected. It's kind of hard to gauge these things from a 3x5-inch diagram. We had a trial run in our back garden, and after unfolding the thing there was some discussion re. taking it back to the store and exchanging it for something a little more understated (and not weighing 60 kilos), but in the end that sounded like more work than it was worth. So if you and 20 of your friends or relatives would like to come camping in England sometime, consider yourselves invited!

Ethan out on the back forty. That's some serious acreage.

Inside the main tent there are 2 4-man sleeping compartments. We put Avery's bed in one of them and our air mattress in the other, made a bed for Ethan, put all our gear inside, and still had an insane amount of floor-space. It was fairly ridiculous for a 2-day trip, but next summer we're hoping to go for a couple of weeks and then we'll be glad to have the room, I'm sure.

We went southwest to Swanage, which looks like this:

It was about a 2 1/2-hour drive, which is nearing Avery's limits of tolerance for the car. She toggles between three modes of behavior on long rides: Fighting the Restraints, Drunken Singing, and Comatose.

Somehow we managed to fill the cargo space for ONE NIGHT of camping.

It was a good trial run and because it was sunny it gave us a false sense of optimism and we'll probably go again soon. The beaches down there are gorgeous and also they have thousand-year-old castles to explore, if you're tired of the gorgeous beach.

More photos are here. (yes, I'm now on Flickr, Facebook, and Blogger- inescapable!)

Viking Bay

Last week Lansing took a couple of days off and we took advantage of the rare sunny weather to fit in some day trips. We spent a day up near Ramsgate, at Viking Bay beach in Broadstairs.
We got a few decent snapshots from Lansing's phone. It was one of the warmest days we've had this summer, maybe close to 80 degrees. The water, however, was probably in the mid-fifties, but the English are undaunted by cold water and plowed right in. Maybe one day we'll acclimate enough to join them.

The kids had fun in the sand and at the mini-carnival there on the beach.

Avery has recently discovered Magnum bars; for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to give her one just as we were getting into the car. We used to have a no-eating-in-the-vehicle policy, but now it's come to this:

Could that hair be any messier?

A Magnum bar is nothing if not huge and melty, and eventually most of it slid down her arm and pooled in her lap, at which point we sluiced her down with a few baby wipes and headed for home.

The next day we made an ill-advised foray to Windsor Legoland (ill-advised because apparently most of southeast England had the same idea.) We got off on the wrong foot because in my haste to download driving directions and get on the road, I ended up printing out directions to Windsor Castle, and only realized my mistake as we were pulling up to the queen's front door. It was kind of like that Jack Handey scenario about taking the kids to a derelict warehouse and telling them Disneyland burned down. Ethan's fury mounted steadily as we proceeded to lose our way and wound up driving through Eton, at one point interrupting a wedding procession. It was not our day. But we got there eventually.

Somehow we only ended up with one photograph:

Avery germing it up in Duploland.

The kids really enjoyed it though and we didn't actually spend too much time waiting in lines; also, it did not rain on us, which always feels like a major victory here. I have to say, though, they have some of the worst food I have ever eaten, anywhere. And bear in mind that I have dined in train stations throughout eastern Europe, so that's really saying something. In the end we really had no choice but to declare it another Ice Cream for Dinner night.

More Bad Parenting

These pictures are from a few months ago, too. After a morning spent fruitlessly trying to clean the kitchen while Avery climbed my legs and begged me to read to her, it finally occurred to me that she might give me a couple of minutes' peace if I brought the play kitchen in and let her fill up the sink with water. Poor Ethan, he was never allowed to have any kind of messy-play fun, because of my abject horror at the thought of cleaning up another mess and my failure to understand that wiping up water requires nothing more than an ordinary bath towel and 30 seconds of your time. I know, I'm slow. Anyway.

She enjoyed herself enormously, and I got her to wash a lot of the toys, too, so everybody was a winner. Here she is bathing her doll:

I promise we don't bathe her like this.

After a while she decided it was her turn:

She actually managed to wedge herself in there, but unfortunately the water was really cold by that time, and she was rather unhappy about it. I know, baby, some things SEEM like such great ideas at the time, but then it all goes terribly wrong. Happens to me ALL the time, and not only in the kitchen.

Cruel parent that I am, I took her picture before going to rescue her.

Finally, Wedding Pictures

So it only took me 2 months, but here are a few photos from Kristin & David's wedding. It was a beautiful day, beautiful bride, and we wouldn't have missed it for anything!

Here's Kristin after the ceremony, in the gorgeous dress her friend Emily designed and made. Not the best lighting, I know; we were both standing in the shade because it was so hot.

Here she is with John & Carlos, and David is in the back somewhere.

And finally, one with the whole family.

I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted to, because Ethan & Avery were desperate for some shade and some lunch, so I can't wait to see all of hers. Lansing kept the kids outside during the ceremony, and from what I could tell Avery managed to pick most of the flowers on the grounds and trample the rest. Here they are in a rare cooperative moment:

We were lucky enough to be able to stick around for the 4th of July too; our first one in the US in 5 years. We took the kids to a parade, which kind of mystified them. We had to skip the fireworks though, since our flight was early the next morning.

Avery celebrates Independence Day in the traditional manner, with a tantrum.

What Passes for Milestones Around Here

We spent a few days at one of the CenterParcs in May; for reasons I can't explain (because I don't know, not because they are too horrifying to explain) I didn't get many pictures. But on our final day I managed to snap this one of Ethan calmly coloring while we awaited our food at the Pancake House. This is a milestone for 2 reasons: 1) I never believed I'd live to see the day when Ethan would sit quietly in a restaurant like an actual human being and 2) nor did I think he would ever voluntarily choose to color, and furthermore to color inside the lines, filling all the white space, rather than inscribing each page with a single cursory scrawl and calling it a day.

His lack of coloring aptitude was problematic only in that it so concerned his kindergarten teacher that he was referred to physical therapy, where he spent many hours resentfully tracing patterns while grinding his teeth into powder, and many additional hours complaining about how much he hated the therapy sessions. (His therapist also drove me insane, insisting that he was right-handed and we must encourage him to use his right hand...see photo above, notice which hand he's using? The child does not so much as pick his nose with his right hand - sorry for the tmi- and he never has.) Fortunately the next year his teacher was herself the mother of 3 boys, and confined herself to observing, "He really hates coloring, doesn't he" with no mention of therapeutic remedies.

And here we have Avery with her first pig-tails (cute bows are courtesy of my friend Heather, check the link if you have a child in need of adorable hair decor!)


Next up we have a lesser-known milestone: Avery trying to produce her first urine sample. What, you don't have a page for that in your baby book? She was running a fever for a few days and when we couldn't find any other explanation the doctor suggested I try to bring in a clean-catch sample to check for a u.t.i. Oookaaay... so I put her on the mixing bowl in front of the tv for half an hour, nothing- then foolishly turned my back for 2 seconds to grab the remote control and she sprinted over to the couch and left her sample there. That's when I decided she was probably fine and we'd give the fever another day or two before making a second attempt. Fortunately she was back to normal the next day.


This last one is not a milestone per se, but it was cute. Ethan & his friend Dylan created these Iron Man costumes out of the contents of the recycling bin, plus a Super-Soaker and a defunct light-saber.



Coming soon- pictures from my sister's wedding! Assuming I remember the camera.

Bad Parenting

I'm a little concerned about Avery's maternal instincts, or maybe it's my own parenting skills I should be worrying about. This morning I was folding laundry when she came in with a couple of dolls and tossed them into the washing machine.

She had trouble getting the door to close, because the baby's toes were in the seal. After a few tries, she gave a disgusted sort of sigh and took off, pausing at the door to reassure them with "Bye! Yuv yu!"

"Whatevs. I'll be back later. You'll be fine."

"No need to call CPS, they like it in there."

Eventually she retrieved them, and shoved a sippy cup in each of their faces in turn, so she wasn't completely negligent.

Caught by the paparazzi. Makes Britney look like Mother of the Year!

In all fairness, she likes to climb in there herself, so she probably thought they'd enjoy it too. She's forever putting things into the washer or dryer-- food, coins, PlayMobils. Very important to do a quick sweep before you turn on any appliances in this house.