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Heidi Chronicles

Life (In London), Medicated

We’re bah-aaack. (Have been for a while now. Oops.)

Filed under: Aaron, BackBlogging, Blah Blah Blah, Elena, Family, Liam, Life In London, Medicated, Mommyhood, Travel, Ugh — Heidi at 5:09 pm on Sunday, July 13, 2008

We made it - and without much drama, from the children anyway. I can absolutely do the fly-by-myself-with-two-kids thing again.

It did suck that when we got to the airport and tried to check in our tickets had been canceled, but fortunately Aaron’s dad got us on the overbooked flight. Bless that man.

I wish you could have seen my trying to get through security with two squirrelly kids, a stroller, and two carry on bags - one with a laptop that I forgot to remove, not to mention the removal of three pairs of shoes, liquids, and the sneaking in of Starbucks in sippy cups.

I have to say, for as much as people complain about TSA, they certainly were nice to me. And so was everyone else. Some woman helped me get my luggage up on the security belt, and people were talking to the kids to keep them occupied so that Elena wouldn’t run away from me.  Liam also did a good job of keeping her in check with his arms wrapped around her neck.  Fortunately that was the most stressful part of the trip…everything else was just annoying.

We got into Chicago early, but our flight out was delayed an hour and a half. I walked all over that airport with my rolling bag attached to the stroller and my 50 pound backpack creating sweat marks where the straps came across my front.

Liam and Elena both fell asleep in the stroller while I was pushing it and of course woke up as soon as I stopped, but I had to slow down so that I could hear what the announcement was. Basically they were looking for people to take the first flight out the next day. I didn’t even bother talking to them about it until I heard them call for three more people. Thank goodness by the time I got up there they just needed two more, so it wasn’t even an option. Whew!

I have to say, the kids did great on the flight. Liam made friends with his seat mates, and we all three slept.  I didn’t even pull out the DVD players!

So, that said, our next trip is planned for October 24-November 9 (Aaron will come back earlier.), and our first trip in 2009 is planned for January 15th-ish through Feb 6th-ish.  I will be flying both ways alone with the kids.

“Alone with the kids….”  Ha.  Such an appropriate statement.    I can’t even express how happy I was to see Aaron waiting for us when we arrived - with bagels and water, no less!

And now I must go and try to catch up a bit with pictures from our trip.  It was crazy, but fun.

At least they won’t think we beat them.

Filed under: Elena, Family, Mommyhood, Travel — Heidi at 3:19 pm on Saturday, July 5, 2008

Today Elena went to the emergency room - but only because it is Saturday and there aren’t any urgent care centers at Mom and Dad’s house.

She woke with a fever and it went up to 103.1 early this afternoon.  Since we fly in a week, I didn’t want to risk an ear infection, so in we went.  No ear infection at this point, but she does have fluid back there, which the dr. said feels like an infection.

She told us to get guaifenesin, which is nearly impossible to find, and to load her up with ibuprofen and acetaminophen.  The ibuprofen has helped much more this afternoon as I didn’t know her weight and wasn’t giving her the correct dosage.  So that’s one good thing that came out of it.

I’m really just glad we were in a different town.  The number of times we’ve been to the emergency room in the past year is enough to make ME wonder if we’re making them sick!

Five Days of Family

Filed under: Aaron, BackBlogging, Blah Blah Blah, Elena, Family, Food, Friends, Liam, Life In London, Mommyhood, Projects — Heidi at 11:29 pm on Sunday, June 1, 2008

My mom and sis were here this week. It was lovely and relaxing.k

Some things we did:

  • Babysat for Jenn and Noah.
  • Purchased and put together what Aaron has termed “the white trash Howard Johnson’s play set” for the kids.





  • Had afternoon tea at the Lanesborough.
  • Saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament.
  • Drank three bottles of wine and two liters of Bailey’s.
  • Ate a lot of chocolate brownies with coffee frosting.
  • Went to ToysRUs and Tesco.
  • Walked down the the main street to change money and go to the bus station to get pictures of the buses for Ethan.
  • Played with the kids.

  • Ignored the kids. (Or was he ignoring us?)

  • Nothing.

Some things we did not do:

  • Leave the sidewalk where we were standing to actually cross over to go look at Buckingham Palace.
  • Feel one bit guilty about counting seeing the tips of Westminster Abbey and Parliament over the treetops as actually seeing them.
  • Realize that the Lanesborough was across the street from our Tube stop until we’d walked almost to the next stop.
  • Go to tea on the day of our reservation because I was SURE I’d made the reservation for Saturday.
  • Realize that my mother was walking around with her skirt tucked in her underwear as we were waiting to be seated for tea. (Fortunately a nice woman did whisper in her ear that she “had a problem with her skirt.” I must be blind…I was walking behind her as she came out of the bathroom and didn’t even notice.)

Oh, and Elena clarified a few things for us.

These are “Gwammy’s e-ah-wings,”

and these are “Gwammy’s noo-sies.”



She also showed us Liam’s, mine, and Aaron’s when I asked her where they were. Heather’s was by far the best though: she was tickling E and E got into nursing position by accident. She looked at Heather’s face…and looked at her boobs and looked at her face…and looked back at her boobs, and finally declared “Auntie Heh-dah’s NOOSIES!!!”  She was quite pleased with herself.

Grandma’s Visit: Day 5

Filed under: Aaron, BackBlogging, Family, Liam, Life In London, Mommyhood — Heidi at 11:18 pm on Sunday, May 4, 2008

Jeanne had to head home today, but not before she taught Liam how to play poker.  (Actually, I think Aaron taught him last night - but she didn’t discourage it!)

I spent the morning organizing files and watching Naked Chef and Jimmy’s Pig Farm on UK Food Network.  I like to watch TV because I get to hear proper pronunciation and what they call things.  (”Coriander” has  come in quite handy once or twice.)

The rest of the afternoon I spent messing around in the yard, because it was at least 70 degrees and sunny. Gotta take it when I can get it.

Aaron and I watched a movie this evening:  There Will be Blood.  It’s about an oil baron and it was fascinating to me to see the way that they used to drill oil wells and transport the oil.  The story was good as well, and I found myself completely pissed off at the main character by the end of the film.  He treated his son horribly and thinking about it made me want to crawl in Liam’s bed and cuddle up next to him.

I’m a sucker for that kid when he’s sleeping.  He’s so sweet.

Grandma’s Visit: Day 4

Filed under: Aaron, BackBlogging, Blah Blah Blah, Elena, Family, Food, Liam, Life In London, Mommyhood — Heidi at 10:18 pm on Saturday, May 3, 2008

This morning we took our sweet time getting ready and headed out around 11.30. I had already decided that Elena could just sleep in the stroller and we’d deal, so I wasn’t worried about that, and we’d determined that we simply HAD to see the Transit Museum while Jeanne is here. (It’s very kid friendly.)

So, we hoofed it to the Tube station,

picked up a train and headed directly to the museum. Elena was cashed out and L enjoyed himself thoroughly.

Dig the cheeseball grin.

Would love to find a copy of this poster somewhere since it’s our ‘hood.

Certainly makes it look lovely and spacious, doesn’t it? Mmmm, just not so, my friends.

Driving the London Bus

Of course the displays accurately depict the clientèle. What would the subway in England be without a drunk guy passed out after a long day at the pub?

Evidently this is how the conductors drive the trains. That little red thing swivels and makes it go. Also, note that the driver sits on the LEFT side of the car. Make up your minds, Brits.

This is just an example of transit advertising.

Another London Bus

The Tube as we know it.

We stopped at Tesco and grabbed some grub and sat on these lovely stairs with a nice view of the Thames to enjoy it.

The Thames wasn’t the only scenery in the area.

It was absolutely gorgeous weather and the flowers and trees were as happy as I was to be outside.

We walked past the horse guards in Westminster. People were running up and standing by the guy and the horse to get pics. It was a little ridiculous. This worked just fine for us.

Clearly they serve no purpose other than to impress tourists. This guy was standing off to the side a bit.

I love this building completely covered in ivy.

We made our way into Regents Park. It was beautiful.

We let the kids run free and they were both impressed by the rocks.

And this, my friends, is why I spend hundreds of dollars on toys every year.

We walked on and off for about three hours. Got home around 4.30 , ordered some pizza and spent the rest of the evening relaxing. It was a long day, but really, really good.

Oh, and Liam did poo today.  He did it in his pants because he was afraid it would hurt so he waited too long, but I didn’t care.  He came to the back door from being outside and yelled in the midst of tears, “Mah-om…there’s poop bumps rolling around in my pants.”

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