This babe was made for walkin'....

And that's just what he did.... on American soil!

We had just arrived on gorgeous Kiawah Island to join the rest of the Rothman clan to celebrate Anne and Lew's 50th wedding anniversary, and on Day 2 Hugo just up and walked... like he'd always known how, he just hadn't felt like it.  And thus ended life as we knew it.

We had been not concerned exactly, but a tad surprised that the boy who sat up, stood, crawled, and cruised so early was lagging behind his sister's walking age by 2 months. I guess he didn't have anywhere important to be! And now, oyyyyyy. He walks everywhere, across rooms, in the tub, into the crashing surf of the Atlantic Ocean. If he's anything like his sister he'll soon be RUNNING away from me as fast as possible, so I suppose I should pause and count my blessings while I still can.

But let me back up - it was a crazy exhausting month of travel and activity. In early June we tooted over to Le Beaux Paris for the Queen's Jubilee weekend -- treasonous, I know -- hoping to escape the rain and grey for good friends and great food. Sadly the weather didn't cooperate for long, but we did reunite with les filles Bell (Virginia Mom et famille) in the Luxembourg Gardens for carousel, ice cream, and sand pits. While they initially stood around staring at each other, fingers in noses, they quickly got comfy and chased each other around, sharing ice cream licks and flinging sand at each other. Ah, the good old days.

The Three Horsemen

 La glace! Oh la la!

 Hugo looooves the sand

Good golly, Miss Molly!

We stayed not too far from our old 'hood, on Boulevard Montparnasse, in a holiday flat that was sadly not air-conditioned nor equipped with that modern convenience they call a fan. Still, it was a hop-skip from most of our old haunts, like La Coupole, the Raspail market (where Jeff still had to wrangle hot cakes in a bag from Cranky Potato Pancake Man) and all the great shops around Boulevard St. Germain and Rue de Rennes, which Jeff let me have an afternoon to explore.

We had a great time with C, my British and first Parisienne Pal -- a surreal Sunday afternoon was spent watching the Queen's flotilla on their Sky network dish, eating treats from the new Marks and Spencer on the Champs-Elysees, while her son W taught Josie some classic Jedi maneuvers.

It was great to be back in Gay Paree, but honestly for the first time we all felt like tourists. Lots had already changed as far as shops, etc., a few of our friends had left as well, and Josie really didn't remember anything, which felt so shocking! But I still loved it more than ever. Loved strolling through the Luxembourg Garden -- an especially French afternoon as it was "L'Exposition des Jouets" or something, which was basically all these dorky guys and gals in matching T-shirts demonstrating various sports (Frenchies playing b-ball - something to see, lemme tell ya) to BLARING LOUD horrible French synth-pop. We ate les macarons at every opportunity, yelled at mothers of kids with no socks, and cringed at every loud American in white tennies (which don't get me wrong, in Bath I am happy to be, yoga pants, scrunchie and all!).

(you'll notice I am borrowing heavily from my homegirl MJ in this post, but what can I say, she noticed and noted way more wacky French sh*t than I did!)

Macarons on the steps of the Opera Garnier 

Dinner with Virginia Mom at Hotel du Nord

Without much of a break, we were again packing and trekking to Heathrow for our long-awaited 2-week sojourn to the States. As aforementioned we started in gorgeous (hot! sunny! Thank God!) Kiawah Island. Our 22-hour itinerary looked something like this: wake up at 5:30 am, 2 hour drive to Heathrow, 9 hour flight to Miami, 3.5 hour layover (with Miami Spice and family, thank goodness!), 2 hour flight to Charleston, 1 hour drive to Kiawah Island, arrival around midnight! You can imagine what we looked like when we arrived.

Despite warnings about alligators (and severe penalties for "taunting them"), three-inch "palmetto bugs" (mm-hmm, that's Southern for good old cucaracha, mi amigos!) the resort was gorgeous and comfortable. Our three-building complex  had its own pool, which Josie in particular never wanted to exit.

Both kids had an amazing time with their grandparents, aunts and uncles and crazy cousins.  Anne and Lew were celebrating 50 years of marriage, so we serenaded them to a bastardized version of James Taylor's "Goin' to Carolina in my mind" and they in turn re-enacted their first date, dressed in character.

 

It's true... after this long you do start to look alike! 

The beach was also gorgeous, and Hugo quickly demonstrated a strong and horrifying affinity for the ocean, skuppering as fast as humanly -- or more accurately crably -- possible towards the waves.

Out of my way!!!!

There were no shortage of activities -- we biked all over the resort, got ice creams and massages and painted pottery and generally soaked up all the sunshine we could since it had been about 34 weeks since we'd glimpsed that elusive orb in Merry Olde England. Just what the doctor ordered.

Then after a week of Southern Hospitality (I even got to eat grits!! mmmm!) it was another psychotically early wake up (4:30 this time!) to catch a 7:15 flight to Martha's Vineyard via Washington, D.C.  Other than shop for really cheesy crap in the airport store (I got some awesome Michelle Bachmann Tea Party mints) there wasn't much to do, so Josie cruelly decorated her snoozing brother.

Though we didn't go "home" this vacation, the Vineyard felt pretty close. Nom and Pee-pa were waiting at the arrival gate, ready to whisk us off for our first lobster rolls of the season. We stayed in a great condo complex (where we'd stayed back in '08) with its own pool and tennis court. The weather was super HOT again so as much as we love the Vineyard's gorgeous beaches it was also great to have a pool.

 Gorgeous Gay Head Cliffs (yeah, no lame Aquinnah nonsense for us!)

 Placid State Beach

 Idyllic Menemsha (I took a 2 second break from 

stuffing fried oysters in my piehole to snap this)

 

Hugo loves da pool 

Though it was actually our third Fourth of July on the Vineyard, we'd never before been to the famed Edgartown parade. Edgartown is small, uber-preppy and already kind of a parking nightmare, so I guess we'd never felt it worth the pain and effort, but once you've got 2 kids, you gotta hit the parade! Sooooo glad we did. The day was classic Americana. Bunting everywhere, flags, everyone dressed in their most patriotic Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren shirts (plus one old, weird-looking guy sporting that classic "Harvard: the Michigan of the East" but even my mom thought he looked too kooky to approach with a "Go Blue").  

We had to grab prized and shady curbside seats and chill for about an hour, but with sandwiches from a completely classic old deli and a grassy yard to play catch, it wasn't a terrible wait.

 Edgartown Deli....classic Americana!

 Waiting patiently for the Main Event

Here come the Rebels! (I hope they're not coming for us! 

Cover Hugo's Union Jack T-shirt!)

No one enjoying the parade more than Hugo

Though Josie had been to the Vineyard twice before, this was the first time she could really remember... so we've promised to return every summer that we can! We just love this place. Biking, beaching, lookin' for wild turkeys, shopping for cool folk art and antiques, it's got everything this wacky side of the family needs!

Now it's back to gloomy England, where the rainiest June on record followed the rainiest May followed the rainiest April. Sheesh!!  But between chasing Hugo, work and Olympic fever, the weeks before our next trip (Stockholm!) should fly by.

 

Just like Josie's kite flew high over Oak Bluffs Memorial Park

He is One, going on Two....

April and May involved both mucho miles and major milestones!


After months of breathless anticipation, we finally took our long-awaited trip to Austria in April (the morning after Jeff did a fabulous job leading the Bath Community Seder) -- both to take The Sound of Music Tour and experience the whole Kinderhotel concept touted by many of our ex-pat friends. Neither disappointed!

Although I must say we were quite surprised to wake up on the first morning of our "spring break" to find this mularkey:

Happy.... Easter?

Our hotel was actually right over the border in Germany, and the accommodations were perfect for a family with 2 small children. The restaurant was family-style and Josie quickly gained back the weight she had lost during her illness the week prior. She loved German food; I have never seen the kid eat so much in her short life. Boiled beef, schnitzel with noodles, crisp apple strudel, she loved it all.

The kids' club was a mixed bag -- such a great deal, 10-5pm daily as much as you needed, and lots of great activities like pottery, necklace-making, etc. BUT we didn't really anticipate how few Anglophones there would be. Actually there were exactly three - a Northern Irish dad married to a Luxembourgian mom and their two children, who weren't always at the kids' club at the same time. So that limited Josie's playing and friend-making capabilities significantly. At the beginning she didn't want to go and Hugo was great, but that dynamic gradually flipped until Josie had befriended enough of the teachers to have fun and Hugo, feeling acute separation anxiety, would start to wail as soon as we hit the hallway where the club was!

Pay no attention to the boy behind the curtain.....

Honestly, we were so busy sightseeing we didn't use the club as much as we otherwise might have anyway. Salzburg is a lovely city, super clean, easy to get around, lots to do -- so we went in pretty much every morning to sightsee, starting with the way cool Fortress Hohensalzburg, built in the 800s by the "Prince-Archbishops" who ruled Salzburg when it was still an independent municipality. You'll recognize it from any iconic Salzburg shot (like... from the intro shots in The Sound of Music. If you're already sick of hearing about The Sound of Music, FYI, you might just want to stop reading now!)

The Fortress boasts both the city's most amazing views...

And the slightly cool, slightly creepy Marionette museum, which supplied the marionettes in the Sound of Music "Lonely Goatherd" scene!

We also explored the city's Modern Art Museums looking for a Klimt or 2... sadly, they had all been shipped to Vienna for the birthday boy's 200th celebration, but instead there was a monster exhibit for kids!

Why be content with this....

When you could see this?

But let's get right to the heart of the matter -- THE TOUR. OMG, it was everything we could have hoped for and more. The tour guide was dressed in traditional Bavarian garb. She played all the music and everyone (except a few mortified husbands) sang along with gusto. We hit all the filming locations in the area, including...

The Hills are Alive! (Intro scenery)

Church where Maria gets married

Back of the house, where lake scenes were filmed

 

So, a needle pulling thread (Mirabell Gardens)

 Front of the Von Trapp House

 

I am Sixteen, going on Seventeen....

It was a blast... I think even Jeff would grudgingly admit he enjoyed it. And we even got to re-enact walking up the Mirabell Garden steps to sing the finale of "Do a Deer."

Of course, there IS more to Salzburg than the Sound of Music (though devotees of the film represent 300,000 of the city's 1 million visitors annually). Mozart was born and raised here, and we visited his childhood home, to see his first piano and lots of family heirlooms.

The kinderhotel, as I said was fab, and while we didn't use the kids' club as much as we thought, there were 2 nice perks, one of them being Giant Beers Without Children At 4pm, which we attended religiously:

Ahhh... childless beers. And look at the blanket they bring out in case 
you get chilly.  How cute is this place?

And the other being Josie's really cute, daily semi-private swimming lesson. Here in Europe they appear to begin lessons with the breaststroke, which doesn't seem overly intuitive, but hearing "Frog Josie, Frog! Ja! Ja voll!" was pretty motivating, though half the time she would just break down and giggle because her teacher was really cute.

You want me to do what, swim? (batbatbat eyelashes)

Meaty, on the other hand, had tons of fun crawling around, but he didn't sleep very well. Literally, he slept like a total weirdo:

 And after a week, Josie was starting to sound like Herman Cain: 
"Nein, nein, nein!"

Alas, after about 316 Giant Beers, 127 glasses of Riesling and 563 renditions of "Edelweiss," (not to mention 23 episodes of Rescue Me watched on the iPad because German TV SUCKS) it was time to go home, and celebrate Meaty's first birthday!  Josie and I had originally decided upon a Curious George theme, because every time we read a Curious George Story we think he looks like Hugo, with a banana cake (get it) and George-themed decorations. But Mommy failed to read the fine print on the Amazon website, and the decorations were coming from California and destined to arrive sometime in June.

SO it was on to Plan B: Dinosaurs! But I had already bought everything for the monkey-banana cake, so that stayed in place, along with an attempted "jungle" icing that from the pix I posted on Facebook everyone thought was guacamole.

Prehistoric Monsters on the Avocado Gateau of Death

 Whatever, I didn't hear any complaints....

until it was over!

Hard to believe Hugo is one already! That went fast. He doesn't walk yet, but cruises with confidence. He doesn't really talk yet, but sings, raps, and tickles the ivories. He still probably best loves to eat.

Then the always-adventurous Hanna and Papa came to visit, and we all piled in a Ford minivan (which doesn't exist in America, sadly, because it is way cool and I would totally buy one) for our first trip to Cornwall! Cornwall is on the western coast of England and Fowey, where we were, is home to Daphne Du Maurier, and chock-full of cute shops, fishing boats, cobblestoned streets and sweet little houses. 

Sticking with the "kinder" theme, we stayed at a great hotel catering to families. Josie got to go look for eggs from the hotel chicken coop every morning, there was a play room and a trampoline and all you had to do for a cream tea or puree for Hugo or glass of chardonnay, any time day or night, was snap your fingers. Best of all - they came TO OUR ROOM and collected the kids at 8am that Sunday morning so we could relax, read the paper and have a quiet breakfast.

Wow, we are starting to sound like people who never want to spend time with our children. This is NOT the case. They are delightful little humans. But we will never pass on a real chance to spend time with each OTHER, if offered. We also call that more of a "vacation" instead of merely a "trip."

Josie's favorite activity by far was crabbing. I'm not trying to draw any distinctions here, but when she crabbed with Daddy she caught one and when she crabbed with Mommy she caught three.

Beautiful view of the harbor from our hotel

Rainbow Brite!

We also visited the Eden Project, which is a truly amazing research and education center exploring different ecosystems and obviously hoping to inspire conservationist tendencies among its visitors. It's HUGE - we only had time to visit the Rainforest and Mediterranean biodomes, so we're eager to go back!

 The incredible Eden Project

No rest for Daddy --  he was off to Miami for a well-deserved 40th birthday junket with his college friends, and after a brief return to Bath yesterday flew the other direction to Beijing for a business conference. We're looking forward to those photos!

Today we got to see the Olympic Torch pass through Bath - that was pretty cool.  Quick shot of that:

No, that is not Orlando Bloom running with it

And after a brief break from travel for the kids and Mommy, we're looking forward to a busy summer, with trips to Paris, SC, Martha's Vineyard, Stockhom and yes, back to Cornwall! See you soon, probably from the road! A bientot!

March Madness

Barista at Caffe Nero: Where's that accent from? Are you American?
Beth: Yes, guilty.
Barista: I'm taking my first trip to America next month. That's why I asked. I can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop talking about it.
Beth: Oh, great! Where are you going?
Barista (rolls eyes in ecstasy): Orlando.
Beth (surprised): Oh, Orlando! Are you going to Disney?
Barista: Yes. I'm a bit of a Harry Potter nut, so I'm planning on spending an entire day on that bit.

Oh, you Brits. Sometimes you are so ironical I can't hardly stand it. I couldn't even bring myself to ask my favorite barista, who makes all my skinny lattes and lets me hide in the downstairs seating for hours hunched over my laptop, if she knew that lots of the Harry Potters were filmed just miles from HERE. Lacock, Castle Combe, and in fact I have laughed to see dozens of costumed American Harrys visiting THOSE places in search of a little Hogwarts magic.

Lacock Abbey, where Harry Potter was filmed,
hence all the little Hogwarts

If I had asked, she would have looked at me like the loon I am. Why drive twenty minutes to one of the loveliest spots in the English countryside when you could spend 9 hours in coach, then battle crowds of cranky spring breakers to wait in line for hours for one ride, eat terrible food, and THEN find out Snow White's Scary Adventure has been closed down (thank God!). Silly me!

March '10: Lady, I do not like what went down on that ride.

We've been plenty busy here this winter. I'm still working away, while spending all the free time I can with these crazy kids. Hugo and I are enrolled in a kids' program at one of the museums here in Bath. It's called "Yearlings" and it's so super-crunchy I keep thinking I'll see one of my fellow Nyack mums pop up. We've learned lots of nature songs, made snowdrop finger puppets and we've been practicing a Maypole dance which we'll put to the test in about a month.

The idea behind this class is that we spend the first half-hour or so singing, then crafting together with finger paints or clay, then most of the mums peel off to work on a more grownup project (I've been sewing the same "Seed Baby" for about three weeks) while the babes play on the floor. Last week, while I was stitching the head on, I heard an 18-month-old girl to my right burst into tears. I turned and her mum, hovering over the Easter basket they were assembling together, gazed up at me mournfully. "Excuse me," she said as evenly as possible, "but your son just bit the head off our baby chick." Hugo, clinging to the side of the table, grinned and then swallowed in a loud gulp, cotton wool, beak, googly eyes and all, as the poor girl howled. My son, the budding artist. I'm so proud.

He's musical, too!

We've been out twice to the countryside to visit our dear friends, E and Belgian Dad of scarf-tossing, candy-nabbing AMIP fame. There are always plenty of dirty jokes and scrumptious meals, and E's daughter C and Josie each time reunite like they just saw each other last week. It's really sweet. E's family manse is lovely and comfortable and set on a bucolic piece of property with flowers and ancient, crumbly outbuildings and loads of streams perfect for racing Pooh sticks.

Apparently that wasn't what Josie pictured when we suggested
"Pooh Sticks", but she liked it anyway!

Belgian Dad: The Perfect Specimen of English Countryside Manliness

The second day of our Countryside Weekend Away was "Mothering Sunday," England's (earlier) version of Mother's Day. Let's rewind a week first, and review a conversation with Josie in which I reminded her that I was the ONLY person in our family for whom she didn't craft a lovely Valentine. She pertly replied, "Well surely I won't forget to make you a Mother's Day card, Mommy, because you're my only Mommy." Well hmmph then!

Given that Mothering Sunday followed a Belgian Dadding Saturday Night (read: wine-soaked and wholly inappropriate), I was really only looking forward to the "lie-in," and perhaps coffee and Hello! magazine in bed. Lo and behold, at about 8:03 the door bursts open and American Dad announces, "Emily is having breakfast in bed. But I figured you wouldn't want to eat breakfast in someone else's bed." So while this was not quite the decadent, lazy morning I had in mind, I did get some lovely cards and an extra 3 minutes of sleep.

Hmmm...I guess that bedding is a tad pristine
for breakfast with my children

The weather has gotten quite warm and sunny (until yesterday when it all turned crap) and since we have our lovely new garden, we bit the bullet and bought an overpriced wooden playhouse for Josie (they're called Wendy Houses here). Jeff was nervous given the company offered a playhouse construction service for about 150 quid, but I was confident after reading the reviews and the instructions that we could do it ourselves. After all, we've constructed two sets of bookshelves, a nightstand and a dining room table since moving to Britain, how much harder could this be?

Frank Gehry -- ok, Mike Brady -- look out!

The answer, and I'm not being at all sarcastic, is not that much harder! The instructions were in English, well-written and relatively straightforward. Frankly, the only buzzkill was when we dragged the convalescing Josie (home and on the couch with what turned out to be a horrible, 6-day case of tonsillitis, raging fever and ear infection) outside to say "Surprise! Happy Children's Day" and she half-opened her eyes to mumble, "very nice garden shed." (we'd had to explain away the various playhouse-shaped parts being stained and treated in the garden over several days).

Seriously, we did this!

The finished product

Josie recovered just in tie for the various end-of-winter-term, Easter-themed activities. While this time of year does require lots of 'splaining about why the E. Bunny doesn't visit Northern Hampton, it this year also brought out my competitive nature with the annual Easter Bonnet competition. Last year, hugely pregnant and feeling less than creative, I literally cut out an oval of pink felt, glued a ribbon on each side to tie under Josie's chin, and helped her craft pipe-cleaner bows and tissue paper flowers to stick haphazardly onto it.

Thankfully no pictures of this atrocity survive. And more thankfully, I was too busy humiliating myself at the easel in Painting 100 to attend the Easter Bonnet Parade at school to be humiliated by my substandard haberdashery skills (if this year's entries indicate the level of construction demonstrated at last year's parade).

This year I wasn't about to play, child. I started browsing on Amazon early for straw hats and embellishments. Actually it was Josie who discovered our central design element -- finding rose-shaped pinecones in a friend's front garden, which we painted and sparkle-penned to heights of beauty. Claire pitched in while attending the still-poorly Josie and constructed some lovely, complementary tissue flowers (nothing like the third-week-of-a-bad-head-cold-looking crumples I constructed last year). The result was quite fetching, we thought. Of course, just as I was ready to call it "complet" girlfriend insisted on beadazzling the whole thing. Must be the Jersey in her DNA.

Sorry, Martha. I know your eyeballs just burst into flames.

Slightly waifish from her week of illness, but always ready for a parade

Oh, I love a parade!

The updates on Hugo... Hugo has more teeth than Donny Osmond, can cross a room on all fours in about three seconds, and inhales every meal like it's his last. He isn't walking yet; his favorite activity is cruising around the coffee table, throwing every book and coaster on the floor and chewing on all the remotes. Our gorgeous table also now boasts little tooth marks all around the edges. It looks like we live with a beaver. But he's full of beans, absolutely sweet and most importantly CHILL.

Mmmmmm is for magazine!

I should wrap it up 'cuz we're off a$$-early on Saturday (mere hours after Jeff leads the Bath Seder, which should resemble, um, NO seder ever attended by these unsuspecting locals) for our Spring holiday in Salzburg! Well, the hotel (a Kinderhotel very popular with some of my Parisian pals, sounds like Club Med with fewer "Crazy Signs" and more sausages) is in Germany but right on the border, and the driving force behind this trip is, indeed, the Sound of Music and our daughter's love for everything that comes with it. We'll snip up our curtains, damage deposit be damned, climb trees in the Royal gardens and skip around the fountain, twirl on the hilltops, and halfheartedly attempt to keep Passover (door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with...matzoh?)

I don't think so.

The real appeal of this trip is the kids' and baby clubs included in the cost of our stay. We'll see how Hugo does, but Josie is already excited for swimming and pony trekking, and -- hopefully -- learning German!

So, promise to return sooner, sometime after our return from Von Trappland, with lots of pics. And hopefully by then this silver white winter will have melted once and for all into spring!