golden rule days

M is in school now.  Simon walks him there on his shoulders the whole way as they talk.  Mason loves it.  Then Roman and I pick him up 4 hours later and we go play somewhere.  On this particular day we stopped at the museum lawn on the way home.  As we entered, Mason saw another little boy the same size, who noticed him as well.  They ran toward each other with outstretched arms and hugged.  Never seen each other before.  All they cared about was that they were the same size and had a friend to play with.  Mason makes friends with everyone he meets, no matter the gender, age, or background.  It's really impressive.  Roman, on the other hand, is working on his interpersonal skills.  He often panics when people over 9 years old make eye contact with him, and he turns and squeals, peaking back to see if they're gone.  Then I have to slowly close the buggy shade so he'll calm down, which is really awkward when people are ogling him.  

I can't blame them—he is a beauty to behold after all.

 

My boys are escape artists and always practice on me.  Roman actually did make it out from under this spiked fence and Mason started running the opposite direction behind me toward the street and I had a mini-heart attack trying to decide which child to rescue first.

Mason is hiding on the other side of this bin.

Mason has a habit of tying chains of cars together with long strings, as displayed above.  Roman is watching closely, as usual.  A master copycat.

The brains of the operation.

the chief

processed palace

I'm overwhelmed by the abundance in grocery stores here. There are so many options, it's almost sickening. It's even more sickening when your 2 year old is screaming, "MO NACKS! MO NACKS!" Which translates to "More snacks, please dearest mother, most honorable one." And you have to yell to be heard over the squeak-grinding of your cart wheels*, "Shhh. Please wait. You can have a snack in a minute." Mason was trying to escape from that plastic car thing attached to the cart. He soon figured out that he wasn't really steering this car after all, and after swiping a box of cherry tomatoes onto the floor as a distraction, he tried to make a getaway. Roman, meanwhile was being the pleasant angel he is, but having him strapped to me, meant I was slower and Mason sensed this weakness.

The shoppers could see and hear us coming through the aisles. I was almost too distracted to see their uncomfortable smiles, as they dove into the wall of cereal boxes to clear our path. As if I can't maneuver this thing.

One brave soul, however, approached us as if to speak. He handed me a business card.
"No thanks," I said.
"It's for a day care."
(groan) "I'm good."

So what does it mean when perfect strangers are recommending day cares to you? I didn't know either so we proceeded to fill our cart with giant pumpkins and (s)nacks.

*not to be confused with cart wheels

bath, england

What does it mean when we travel to a beautiful place and end up taking photos of mostly ourselves?

Bath was nicer than expected. We did our first house swap with a mansion in a private forest, with a pool, tennis court, trampoline, garden, playground, and toy room. Oh and cinema room. definitely spent more time at home than in the town. So maybe our perception of Bath was skewed somewhat.

We have a friend who is from here who can't stand to hear it pronounced "bath" as in "bat" so be made sure to say it right "bath" as in "ball" (even though we were only talking to each other the entire time).

The Roman Baths were amazing. I love going to the spa in general, and was fascinated by the (nude) hangout scene that happened here back in the day.

Over 130 of these tablets have been found here, on which bathers inscribed curses addressed to Gods like Hermes, against those who stole their clothes while they were bathing. There were also love tablets attached to locks of hair or clothing of the one you wanted to place a love curse on. Romans could buy pre-written love tablets with a spot to insert a name.

I remember as a child, my dad telling me that people never change, which I didn't believe because I thought the world he grew up in was so distant to my reality and he was too old to see that. But maybe he was right.

melt me

I know young mothers go on and on about their perfect babies way too often on blogs, so I thought I'd try not to do that. But I tried thinking of something else to say that describes him and can't. So I guess that's that.

suri cruise syndrome

It's Roman's 1/2 birthday. Once again I can't believe we've made it this far. I wasn't sure there was any room left in my heart to fully love another baby, the way a baby deserves. Seemed to me that all the space was already occupied by M and Simon.

The thing about Roman is, he's charming. Our love grew naturally- as would with a fancy new boyfriend, who becomes your best friend who never leaves your side. I can say that I love Roman more than I thought I could. This bond has brought us close through the hard times we've had together.

These last 6 (12) months have been a doozy. Let me tell you. A year ago I was in the throws of morning sickness (also on a boat in Greece, which didn't help). And it seems like yesterday that I was sifting through baby names with not-so-helpful baby naming apps on my iphone:

This pregnancy came with new aches and pains and a toddler to chase as well. Roman was born a perfect little baby, but soon struggled with silent reflux and eczema in extreme forms. We've enlisted live-in au pairs to help out and we're slowly getting back to normal life. It's been an incredibly challenging time for me, as I have been sleep deprived and stressed with trying to find answers to help him, and care for Mason and a house and work. I've often felt like I was trying to appear normal and say normal things in social situations when all I really wanted to do was curl up on the floor and fall asleep in a corner somewhere. I do, however, feel like we're ready to come out of hiding and participate a little more with reality. Starting with responding to many emails, and adding some posts. Roman has had a good attitude even though he's been uncomfortable, and loves to learn and play. He is so lucky to have Mason as a playmate from the start. Mason loves to make him laugh and they already play together on the floor.

I've been surprised to find how protective M has been of the baby. When someone else holds Roman, Mason cries and leads me to him saying, "baby baby" until I take him and he feels much better. If Roman is crying, he will pat him, hold his hand or rub his head, also leading me to him to help. Once Mason was sick himself, with a fever, and still tried to comfort Roman when he began to cry. I'm starting to see how it is that brothers are such an important parts of the other's life. I can't fully describe one without telling about his relationship with the other.

The best news on the horizon for our family is that we have our tickets booked to the states from Oct-Dec this year. It will be Roman's first trip to the homeland. I can't wait to show him off to family for the first time and give him room to roam (no pun intended).
Our last trip home, I was 5 months pregnant, and just flew straight from London with Mason on our laps. As the plane touched down, Simon leaned toward the window and said,
"I can't wait to party it up in LA tonight."

And was completely serious.

I told him to have fun because I was exhausted and going to bed. I felt him come home around 2 or 3 AM. I woke up around 9 and walked into the kitchen to find this piece of evidence on the table:


Simon wearing a zebra top hat at Dimples Showcase? Hm. I now have this photo on the fridge because it makes me happy to see my boys having a good time.