She's Full of Personality...And Then Some!

Madeline is going through a phase (I hope) right now where she at least claims she doesn't like to have her diaper changed. I think it's more about obstinacy than anything, but whatever.
She was due for a diaper change yesterday afternoon when we were playing some computer games (one of her favorite pastimes), so we finished the one we were on, and I told her I was going to send a quick email, and then we were going to change her diaper.
About a minute later, I was plunged into total darkness as Madeline turned off the light, which she can now reach (!), and shut the door. She then triumphantly exclaimed, and I quote: "You'll never change my diaper now!!!"
I nearly busted a gut laughing.
But we did change her diaper.

REAL snow in England!

We did have a little bit of snow here a couple of days ago, but today, unexpectedly, we woke up to REAL snow. Enough snow to make a true snowman. So we did! With a few breaks in between to go out front and watch all the "big kids" (teenagers) having a neighborhood-wide snowball fight in celebration of school being cancelled. They have no snow removal equipment here, so anything over an inch or two pretty much closes things down. Needless to say, Bill still went in to work today, even so!
Madeline has quickly picked up on the tradition of hot chocolate after playing in the snow. She wanted "five" marshmallows in it today. She usually asks for things in quantities of three or five: not sure why, but I sure get a kick out of it!

Yes, I Am Alive...

...And yes, Christmas in the US was wonderful!

I post this blog not because I feel a huge need to document our trip back home, but because if I don't put SOMETHING up on my blog soon, I am in serious danger of being disowned by certain friends and family--you know who you are...!

We flew out of the UK on December 13th, and nearly 24 hours after leaving our home in Peterborough, arrived at Bill's parents' home in Ponca City (as a TOTALLY unrelated, but somewhat interesting side note: here is a list of the cities that Bill has lived in: Ponca City, Provo, Madison, Peoria, Peterborough. Other than that one little blip there, anyone notice a pattern? Pittsburgh, here we come? Or maybe Portland?). Anyway, it was a long and exhausting day of travel, but it could have been worse.

We enjoyed two weeks with Bill's family, including their traditional Christmas Eve get-together with the Foy family, consisting of lots of soup, a pinata, and a reading of the Luke 2 Christmas story. Madeline wasn't totally sure about the pinata, until the candy came out--then she had fun going around and helping herself to things out of everyone else's piles! The privilege of being the only one of her generation there, I suppose... She helped Grandma Hardy illustrate the Christmas story with the Little People nativity Grandma had bought for her to play with--right down to having Mary ride the donkey! I wish we had some video footage of that; it was really cute.

Madeline really enjoyed getting to spend time with her relatives, and her uncles, in particular, were a big hit! They may now never have children of their own, after helping us keep Madeline entertained. :-)

The day after Christmas we left Oklahoma to fly up to Wisconsin to see my family. Madeline and I almost missed our connecting flight because I'd taken her to the play area in the airport not realizing that our flight was so full they decided to board everyone a half hour early (nearly giving Bill a heart attack in the process), but other than that the trip went quite smoothly!

We had a fantastic time with the VanCleaves as well. We finally got to meet "Baby Caitlin", Madeline's new cousin, for the first time (and sent her to the emergency room a half hour after she got there, when Madeline accidentally fell on her face--don't worry, no real damage done). Madeline also got to experience the joys of sledding and snowmen for the first time.

Bill only got to stay in Wisconsin for a week, as he had to get back to the UK and his job, but Madeline and I stayed on a week longer, and had a wonderful, relaxing, fun time with just us and Grandma and Grandpa VanCleave. Madeline especially liked Grandpa's trains, and spent lots of time down in the basement with him, watching them go, pushing the button to make the train whistle sound, and saying "All Aboard!" We even got to make a trip to the zoo, where we had a great time despite the cold weather.

But all good things come to an end, and on January 9th, Madeline and I packed up whatever we hadn't sent home with Bill (we'd spent our entire "Economic Stimulus Check" and then some while in the US, stocking up on clothing, food, etc., so I'd say we did our part for the US economy), and started the long journey home. Apart from a cancelled flight from Milwaukee to Chicago and a resultant bus ride, the trip, even as a solo parent, really wasn't too bad, all things considered.

Madeline was very excited to see her Daddy again, and I think also to be home, although she does talk about missing Grandma and Grandpa a lot, and wants to go back to their house again. Mommy was somewhat less excited to be home, though I suppose it is good to be back in a "normal" routine again, or at least to have all of our "stuff" instead of just what we could fit in the suitcases.

Santa Brought a Tricycle!

Yes, I know it's still 19 days until Christmas. But since we're flying out early next Saturday, we decided to have a mini-Christmas for our family today, with the presents we weren't going to pack along with us on our trip back to the US.
And the biggest of those was...Madeline's first bike! Okay, trike, but still, it was exciting. Thanks to Murphy's Law, the camcorder was inexplicably not working, so all we have are some photos, but that's better than nothing.

The tree (yes, we need to get a star for the top of it)...

The trike...

First sight...

Whee!!...

Hell's Angels, watch out?!?...

And here she is, all ready for her first ride outside. She has a lot of fun making the horn honk, and it's very, very loud. Sigh. At least we bought a trike with a parent handle, since she has yet to learn the finer points of pedaling or steering! All things with time and practice, right?

So, one final funny story about our "Christmas" day: We used Madeline's nap this afternoon to get everything ready (assemble the trike, put the presents out, etc.) since we've told her Santa brings presents while you're asleep. When she woke up, Bill was busy finishing up a project outside, so I told her we had to wait upstairs for Daddy, since Santa had come while she was sleeping. Well, she decided she did NOT want to go downstairs. Eventually I figured out it was because she thought Santa was still down there! So I told her that Santa wasn't there any more: he'd gone bye-bye, but had left the presents for her. Then she was all ready to head down the stairs and check it out. Evidently, while she's all about Santa Claus in the abstract, or in photos, or TV, she is not so sure about hanging out with him in her house, face-to-face!

A New Way to Get Clean

Yes, that is my child trying to climb into the washing machine. I have absolutely no idea what prompted her to do so, but then, she's been full of strange and unpredictable ideas lately (i.e. "Let's smear large quantities of lip balm all over the pictures in my room while Mommy's cleaning the bathrooms").

Thankfully, although she really was trying awfully hard, she's just too big to actually fit into the drum, let alone get the door shut behind her, so I was able to simply stand back, watch, snap a few photos, and have a good laugh!

Family Outing

Bill decided to take the day after Thanksgiving off, since he had one day of vacation left over, and would lose it if he didn't use it. I planned to use that weekend to get him to get all the Christmas decorations and the Christmas tree, etc. down from the area above the garage so I could decorate. He found a new and creative way to side-step "honey-do" lists: propose a family outing instead!
We drove a little over two hours to the area of Stoke-on-Trent, where there is a hotel with a water park inside it. The hotel is part of Alton Towers, which is an amusement park here in England.
Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the weekend, as photography was not allowed inside the water park, and there didn't seem much point in taking a picture just of our hotel room. Sorry!
We had a very good time, though--Madeline loves the water just as much as her daddy does, so she got to do lots of "swimming". She really has no fear at all, so we were grateful for the lifejacket-type vests they make for kids these days! The kiddie water slide in particular was a big hit. My only complaint was that they didn't have the place heated quite as much as I would have liked, so we had to stop to warm up a little too often. But it was still a fun weekend. And Bill and Madeline humored me by letting me have a few hours on the way home to stop at Spode and Wedgwood for a little browsing!
Oh, and we did still get the Christmas decorations down that weekend after we got home, so I guess Bill's little trick didn't work after all...

Thanksgiving, a Little Early...

Today was our annual ISE Thanksgiving dinner. It was SO different for me than last year's! Last year, we'd been here for all of two weeks or so. I knew almost no one. We didn't have any of our stuff (our shipment hadn't arrived yet). I was so homesick, and so overwhelmed, and it was so hard listening to everyone talking about how they were all going home for Christmas, when I knew I wouldn't be going home for over a year.
This year, I knew nearly all of the people there, and many of them are good friends. We're about as settled into this country as we're going to get, and I'm leaving to go back home for Christmas in three weeks! Needless to say, it was much more relaxed and much more fun for me than last year.
So, I am thankful for: the new friends I've made in the past year. Having our own furniture, etc. and not having had to pay to get it here ourselves! The opportunity to go home and see our families soon. Being used to living in England, even if I do still like the USA better. :-) And, of course, all of the other blessings we have, even if I am too lazy to type them all in here.
I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few to give an idea of just how many of us there are--I think they said there were about 130 people there today.




I know it looks like Bill's glaring at me for taking a picture, but really, he's not! Those are our friends, the Dobberfuhls, across the table from us--Lana, thanks for smiling so it looks like someone, at least, wanted this picture taken...

And this last picture was taken/made by one of our ISE friends whose hobby is photography. Thanks, Laurie! If you click on it to enlarge it, I think you'll find it's pretty easy to find Madeline...