Clueless in the UK

Madeline lost her last tooth the other day. She had been getting grief from her fellow classmates because she still believes in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. Her proof for believing in Santa Claus is this: we left for Manchester a few days before Christmas, but when we got back a few days after Christmas there were presents under the tree. That is just a small indication of Sue's love for her children ;-)

So, the morning after her last baby tooth pops out Madeline pops the question to Sue: is the Tooth Fairy real? Sue didn't want to talk about it then, but Madeline insisted and so Sue told her, and she was not happy about it! So I get an inkling something is going on when Sue comes downstairs and Madeline is still on the stairs sobbing quietly. So I headed over to Madeline to talk about it with her, while Sue was keeping Jason occupied some place else. I told her this:

Instead of being sad about it, think about how much your mother cared to make sure that she had something special for you for each of your twenty teeth! And guess what? 20 times I sneaked into your room to try to get that tooth out from under your pillow, and I can't even tell you how many times I freaked out because you rolled over, or opened yours eyes and looked at me and then went back to sleep! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

By then she was laughing but not more than a few seconds went by before she asked me, "Is Santa Claus real?" ARGH!!!!!! Thinking quickly I said, "What do you think?" and she replied, "I think he is" and I just said, "Good!" because "Good!" is exactly what I was thinking at that moment!! But now we are thinking it's time to tell her the truth about that as well. Being able to tell her the truth about that will also enable me to get something off my chest I have wanted to do for years, ever since Madeline thought she must have been bad one year because Jason got more presents that she did: I just want her to know that it was just that we couldn't think of anything to get her that year!

Sue reminds me that Madeline is going to be having sex education next year, and we might want to let her know about Santa Claus before then … 

Jason and T-Ball

Jason is playing T-ball again this year, first time in London though. So in his first game he whacked the ball past everyone and he ran all around the bases for a home run. He did it again his second at bat. So now he wants to get a home run every time he comes up to the plate.

So anyway, his next game I am coaching first base, trying to help the team in the field not block first base for the runners. Jason comes up to bat, hits the ball hard and starts running as fast as he can! (It's so funny for me to remember this, I can barely type.) So, I am trying to get the kid playing first base to get out of the way so Jason doesn't collide with him, but Jason has his sights set on another home run! So when he sees the mess at first base I can see he makes a quick decision and decides, "Screw this!" and turns the corner about 15 feet in front of first base! He was running like a bat out of hell, determined to get to home plate no matter what! It was soooo funny.

So next time I saw him I said, "OK, if you hit the ball way out into the outfield you can run to second base and maybe third but normally we don't allow home runs in T-ball because it's too hard for the fielders to get the ball back in." His next at bat he nailed it really REALLY hard and it hit one of the parent coaches right in the gut out by shortstop. Jason was quite upset but hid it well and accepted the guy's apology for taking away "extra bases". 

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The kids are so different from when we got here. It's tempting or easy to think that England has changed them, and there is probably some truth to that. But, the reality is more likely that they are just a year older.

Madeline is learning to care about other people better than before. Jason is becoming more independent, more confident and cocky. They are both learning a lot in school and even both seem to be liking it.

The school thing is getting interesting for Madeline because next year is her last year before she goes to secondary school. That's a big deal. You have to apply to secondary schools at age 11 (although she will be 10) and get accepted, like going to college. Sue is on top of this as usual, because we have to start this year for secondary school starting after next year. So Sue and I went to see one of the possible schools, and it was something else, it really did feel like a college to me. It felt like … one of those "boarding school" movies we've all seen "O Captain! My Captain!" hopefully without all the drama. (I didn't realize that poem was written for/about Lincoln …) The school we went to was over 300 years old started at the request of Queen Elizabeth, whom you might have heard of, in the 18th century ;-) Anyway, we'll see.

Football

Madeline is trying out for a serious girls football league in Hampstead. It's a competitive league coached by a former Lady Arsenal who played for the English national team against the likes of Mia Hamm. We'll see how it goes. Meanwhile her school has a new coach, a semi-professional or something, who said that Madeline was amazing. I think Madeline has been holding back because she is intimidated by the roughness of the boys of one of the local schools they play around here. But Madeline can kick, man, so hard, it's something to behold. And she is a super fast runner when she turns it on. She's everything I always wanted to be when I was her age … Should I be proud or envious? I think we all know the answer to that one … ;-) 

… however, this might get old pretty quickly … 

Of course, the weather never pans out like this. Instead, it starts out rainy, clears up a while, pours some more later, warms up, cools down, and on and on. Still, one likes to think that it builds character … when one is stuck with it, that is.

Piano

I just deleted four long paragraphs about how much I love learning how to use the pedal on the piano now. I never understood what was the deal with that right-most pedal on the piano, pressed and released at unintuitive times. I am starting to get it now and have been going crazy trying to apply it to my fourth piece, the first one with chords, you know, the exhausting one.

I will say this, just to piss off my father: the piano and drums have increasingly more in common with each other, as I introduce a third major limb into the mix, and I don't think I could have made this much progress with the pedal this quickly if I hadn't already trained my brain to handle hi-hats.

Wales 

I feel it's time to mention Wales, before we head on our next trip, which is the south of France. I remember doing Marimba, meeting with VCs, and - wait a second, I already talked about my Cannes screw-up.

Wales was a ton of fun. It was great because my sister and her family made the trip out to visit us for spring break.

So, we took the train from Euston to Manchester and then rented cars there. Sue and I had the GPS system, automatic transmission and about 100 miles of left side of the road driving experience; my sister Gill and her husband Greg had maps, a manual tranmission and each other ;-) The thing that impressed me the most was Greg didn't show any signs of stress about the whole driving thing. I realized at that moment that I am in fact a complete pussy and he is not.

The GPS was great, but, Sue and I "used it as a crutch" too much, according to my sister. And it's true that we lost confidence in it when it directed us down a long, winding road, a single lane wide with grass growing in the middle just to remind you how lost you are. We turned around in front of a local who must have been amazed, but perhaps not, and eventually found our way to our destination. The GPS had in fact been correct and was just trying to give us a nice, scenic short-cut, and it was just that didn't have confidence in our little device.

Meanwhile, just to prove how hip they were with the maps, we let my sister override the GPS on the way back to Manchester. We ended up going in exactly the wrong directory for about 10 miles, and I was immediately suspicious when the GPS never once said, "OK, you missed that road, go another 5 miles and you can hook back up then …" but instead said, "TURN AROUND YOU IDIOT!" at every possible exit on the highway. Still, they had their maps and their confidence so we let it continue for about 5 miles, which is about the time they figured it out as well. (But then it was 5 miles before the next exit to turn around, don't ya know?)

Anyway, back to Wales … Wales was very green:

 

Wales had some impressive looking mountains. I was amazed what 3500 feet can look and feel like! 

 

The kids took their surroundings very seriously indeed:

We hiked to the edge of the precipice:

(The ground was there a second ago, I swear it was!) 

 

 … and we ate, drank and played pool at pubs by night:

(Ah - the old double-chin pose - my favorite!)

We saw a very old and very awesome castle where Prince Charles was … whatever it is they do to princes when they're ready:

Saw low tide in action:

Here is the obligatory self-timer shot. I was going to say "Everyone Shot" but this was the day Aiden had a fever of 103 and his Mom kept him company back at the B&B: 

I have been putting off this blog entry for a while, because it is too hard to explain how much fun it was. It was just aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, sisters and brothers and cousins. We didn't have too much of it growing up, it is precious when we have it now…