Toddler in the house

From the day Samantha was born people were telling us, "just wait till she's walking and into everything." Well, we have no need to wait anymore on that one! Sam is definitely into everything, and we are very aware that we have a toddler in the house!! Grandparents chuckle and get that "how sweet" tone of voice when we talk about Sam's many misdemeanors. Other mothers either sigh in sympathy or raise their eyebrows in a quick judgment of our situation. As for me and Brian, we're just fascinated to watch our girl grow, though we do sometimes wish the "into everything" stage wasn't quite so intense.

Here are just a few pictures of Sam from this past week, so you can either add your chuckles, sighs, or eyebrow-raisings, as you wish. Sam is a book lover of the most peculiar kind. She fancies big, heavy books -- and only loves thumbing through them, mutilating the pages, and trying to tear the spine in half (she succeeded with one of those big touch-and-feel cardboard kid books last week, ripped it right in two!). In addition, she is most fascinated with whatever Brian or I happen to be reading. Here she is posing with my UK driving manual, hopefully it stays intact until I take the test.


Sam's new favorite place is the little shelf under the coat rack at the top of the stairs. Whenever she disappears and is "too" quiet, I can usually guess she's making mischief, pulling down coats or dragging toys/household items up the stairs for us to trip on later. The other night we had a book club, and she stood there on the little shelf greeting all our guests. Her dad felt most especially welcomed by her, as he happened to come home from work right then!


What can Sam do in the five minutes it takes mom to check her email? Well, today she surprised me completely with a nice toilet paper train, running the length of the hall from the guest bathroom clear through our bedroom to the master bathroom. She didn't just string out the whole roll, but also proceeded to shred it into tiny pieces once it was completely unwound.

Another three minutes when mom was preoccupied... You've got to believe Samantha KNOWS not to get into this cupboard. She gets a "No!" a hand slap, and an exile from the kitchen every time she ventures and is caught. Well, so she waited until I was in the shower (I left the door open to hopefully keep an eye on her). In the very few minutes it took me to wash my hair, she had opened the special vanilla hot chocolate (Stephen's brand) that I bought in the US for Brian for Christmas. She dumped it ALL on the floor, ran dirty underwear through it, then started putting boxes of macaroni in it as well! (That was all on Saturday. Today, it was the shortening she got into -- rubbed it all over her pants, very greasy.)

I've heard a lot of moms say "it's a good thing they're so cute!" It's true; when I creep into her room late at night and see this innocent little angel sleeping peacefully, all mischief is forgotten and she's the sweetest baby girl in the world.

Snow Day in London

Last week we had an official snow day here! London and SouthWest England received record amounts of snow, more than they've had in over 7 years! Brian and I chuckled to ourselves that 2 1/2 inches is a record snowfall. England just doesn't get that much snow in the South. So, it was fun to have some excitement, and fun to see everything all white.

Samantha and I went out to play in the back yard for a little while, and I got some cute pictures of her. She loved looking at it, and was quite puzzled by how hard it was to walk around in it.

I couldn't find her mittens, so she wore socks on her hands. They worked okay, until she fell down and got personal with the snow. Then she was not quite so happy about being out in it, and wanted me to carry her (and get myself all wet, of course).

We also went for a ride/walk in the stroller, to visit our friends. It turned out to be quite the work out for me to push the stroller on unshovelled sidewalks! Sammie was loving it, looking all around and talking about it all, in her gabby way.
When it was time to come in, she thought it was so funny that I took off her wet and snow-caked jeans and shook them out the back door. She was especially pleased to then run around the house pantsless for a few minutes. Cutie.

The Grand Tour

Well, here are some pictures of our new place, now that we're settled in. We've yet to hang many pictures on the walls, but the cupboards are full and most of the furniture is now in its final resting place, we think. So, here's the grand tour of our new home...

The dining room, with a view into the living room. I took this one at night, so you can't see the cute vines out the window, or the nice lighting that comes through the patio doors in the living room. The following is a daytime shot of the living room.



Here's a view of the dining room, looking across to the kitchen. It's a big open-plan layout that I love, since it's easy to keep conversations going whether I'm in the kitchen, dining room, or living room. (Not that I converse with myself, of course.)

Below is our master bedroom. It's got tons of storage space, which is WONDERFUL! Brian and I each have our own closet (his is cleaner), plus a spare coat closet, and a separate closet for towels and sheets. My favorite is the view from the patio doors out into the back garden.

Here's a shot of Samantha's room/guest room. It looks a bit tight from this angle, but it's actually roomy enough for all that's in there. Sam loves to play with her toys at the side of the crib and at the end of the bed. We still need to decorate, of course.

The office (below) is the least "put together" room, probably because it has all the paperwork, and Brian (bless him for taking on the chore) is still finding places to put things. I didn't take a full shot of the room, because the rest was not so very tidy. But, we're liking the thought of having an office so far. We have plans of adding an ellyptical trainer, if we can find one worth buying. (Yes, there's room, though the picture looks crammed.)

And here's our back patio and garden. It's kind of narrow, with both patio doors from the living room and the bedroom opening onto the deck. But it goes a long way back to a nice storage shed and a barbeque grill around the corner on the left.

Where is Sammie?

Sam loves to play her own version of peek-a-boo. Instead of pulling the blanket off to say "boo!" she prefers to walk around under the blanket while we try to coax her out of it. We usually end up laughing hysterically until she runs into a wall or door and gets a little bumped up.

Twinkle twinkle... our little Star.

Samantha loves to sing Twinkle Twinkle with me and Brian. Every time she lays down for a nap or night time, we sing together and I close the door and listen to her continue to hum the tune. I was excited to see that she recognized the tune when I played it on the piano.

Feeding herself!!

What a big girl Samantha is! She's learning to feed herself with a spoon, very exciting! She hasn't quite mastered it yet, but she is catching on and getting a little better every day. I usually have to help her get the spoon loaded properly, but she's great at getting it in her mouth. What a clever girl! Now if only we could expand her pallet a bit... she has her favorites (yogurt, eggs, mac and cheese, bananas, baby cereal) and has a hard time varying from them, but we're always hopeful.

Getting Settled

Well, we did it!! We moved! And we're happily settled in our new place, enjoying a new life without so many stairs. It's great. And we love the new, open space. I need to take more pictures, now that things are more situated. But here's a little start.

My favorite part of the house is the open plan kitchen with a wrap-around counter. I love being part of discussions in the living room and dining room while I'm fixing and cleaning for meals. This picture was taken before we moved any of our stuff in (that's why it looks so clean!)

I was really looking forward to our new kitchen that has more space -- especially, it has more drawers! Two rows of drawers along one section of the cupboard space. Unfortunately, I fast lost my claim on three of the drawers, as I realized that everything I put in them was immediately redistributed all over the kitchen floor by my little Helper Girl. So, now Sam has the three bottom drawers for whatever she things is "drawer worthy." (Luckily for me, there are still several she can't reach very well.) Here's one of her special drawers...


Yes, Sam sometimes has trouble judging exactly what she can fit in her new drawers. The chair didn't make it for long. Too bad.


One of our very first visitors came an awfully long way to see our place... Our friend, Marissa Turley Benson from Boston was over here for a work conference, so we arranged to get together while she was in town. What fun to catch up! Here we are in the kitchen, along with Sara Weyland, our mutual friend.
 

Goodbye, old house of fond memories

It was actually quite sad to see our flat completely empty, after it had been so cosy and lovely for us. We were happy to go, and yet sad to leave. We packed and moved everything on a Saturday, then I went back on Monday to do the final cleaning with the help of a couple friends. Here are the last shots...


Our dining area/ living room.
That lovely little kitchen with all the "hidden" appliances behind wooden doors.

Our bedroom, shot of the closets and the windows where our bet used to be.

The front porch with the cute flowers and 13 steps. Woops, it's sideways.
 

Packing and Moving

For those of you who noticed our long absence from blogging, you probably already knew we were moving to a new flat. What you probably didn't know (WE didn't) is that our new internet connection would take THREE WEEKS to get installed! Imagine what it must have been like for me to be cut off from the online world all that long time.

Well, so we have packed and moved and I have so much to catch up now! Here are some cute pictures of Sam helping with the packing. She was MORE helpful with UNpacking, actually... any boxes not properly taped up were happily emptied by Samantha. :) Here she is (below) helping to move a box of pans in the kitchen. She thought it was especially helpful to put a pen through a little hole on the side, but then was disappointed when she couldn't get it back out.
I think she was hoping to be packed in fragile styrofoam packing, or something? Handle with care.

Ah yes, she discovered the joy of packing peanuts! And Mom discovered the joy of picking up packing peanuts from all over the kitchen floor.

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard... but it wasn't entirely bare! Sam was THRILLED to find that Mom finally let her open the kitchen cupboards (this one used to house our glass bowls and was off-limits), and even more excited to climb up inside.
 

Interrupting Spain for a minute

Before I forget, I wanted to put up these cute, last pictures that we took while we were still in Utah. Yes, Alicia and I got to see our twinner girlies play together for a few minutes. It was so much fun to watch them wander around Scott and Alicia's house together, curiously playing with all Brielle's toys. They especially loved it when we put them in Brie's crib together. They thought they were putting on a show for us or something... tag-team comedians!
Both girls were at the end of a lot of revved up "family" time, so they were pretty tired and ready to sleep. But Brielle managed to show Samantha around for a while. Here she is showing Sam her new ball blowing toy. Sam didn't like the noise (remember how she's scared of loud noises that sound anything remotely like a vacuum), but after she saw Brielle wasn't afraid of it, she toughened up a bit and acted like she thought it was cool.

Here's Alicia and me, trying to get the girls to pose for a picture with us. As you can tell, it wasn't working. Samantha cried every time I tried to get the phone off her face, and Brielle had a hard time wanting to sit on Alicia's lap. Oh well.

And here's one of the two cute little baby bottoms together. We were all amazed at how much taller Samantha is than Brielle. (And we won't say anything to compare the amount of hair, will we?)

We had such a good time visiting with Alicia and Scott. It was a perfect way to end our visit home... only it was waaaaay too short, just like the rest of the trip! 

Córdoba -- la Mesquita

Our first stop in Spain was to Córdoba, a lovely village with cobbled streets and winding ally-ways. The central square of the town is a gorgeous, massive church/cathedral/mosque (not sure what to call it, actually) the official name is la Mesquita. It was built in the 13th century as a mosque, but later turned into a Christian church during the crusades. The architecture was fabulous, both outside and in.

Here's the front courtyard, notice the palms and the orange trees! Truly Mediterranean.
Okay, so this picture below is not about me (blurry, dark and not smiling), but about the gorgeous red and grey arches framing the building, hundreds of archways in perfect symmetry. (I made Brian put me in the picture after he took several without anyone, just because I like pictures with people... and I love to pose, of course). We could hardly see from one end to the other. Brian said that when this was a mosque, on specific prayer days, the entire building-- as well as the courtyard outside-- would have been filled with people praying on prayer rugs.
A more artistic view...
Tucked away inside this massive framework is an intricately carved chapel, with amazing lighting and murals on the walls and ceilings. Apparently this chapel was added after the Crusades, when they turned the building into a Christian cathedral. The place is so large that we were walking around for a good 8 to 10 minutes before we even came to the chapel, hidden away in the center of the building.

Here's Sam and Kam in the chapel. It was all decorated for Christmas, with poinsettas and lights everywhere. It is sad to me that it's a building rarely used for worship now, even though that was its obvious function.

Back from Spain

After our trip home for Christmas, Brian took one more week off work so we could enjoy a relaxing getaway to Southern Spain. We flew into Granada and spent time in Cordoba and Malaga as well. It was soooo nice to relax, to be on the beach, to sit in the sun! We really loved everything we saw and did there. We visited some of the most gorgeous ruins from the 12th and 13th centuries... mosques and palaces built by the Moorish people who used to live there before the Crusades in the 14th century. It was all just gorgeous!!

I want to write pages about every place we visited and everything we did. But not right now, unfortunately. We are in the process of moving to a new flat this week, so I should technically be packing boxes right this very second instead of writing a blog. (shame on me!) Well, so I'm just adding a brief intro here, then I'll add more pictures and commentary later on.

Here's the fantastic view from our hotel in Malaga. We stayed there two nights and relaxed on the beach and by the pool. (actually, Brian relaxed by the pool, and I relaxed in our room since I forgot my suit and Samantha's, of all things!)

Here's Brian outside of one of the palaces at Alhambra in Granada. It was seriously one of the most fascinating, beautiful places I've ever seen. I'll add more picts of the place later.

And here's Brian and Samantha with part of the Alhambra complex in the background. Keep in mind it's January, and just imagine what this place must look like in the middle of the summer! Even being January, it was still quite lush and green.