Cheeky Bocephus

Julia Elise, also known as Bocephus, Sheep, Bobo, and a plethora of other names is now 16 1/2 months old. She celebrated her first birthday mostly in Chicago's O'Hare airport, delayed on our trip from St. Louis to London. Albeit frustrating at the time, in retrospect, it is quite fitting seeing how much this little girl has traveled.

To Julia, I dedicate this post.

Julia,

Your first year of life has been the most unique year of mama's life. Dada moved to England to start a new chapter in all of our lives in November of 2009 while you were busy growing in mama's belly. On December 30, big sister Lexie and mama moved into our new home in Somersham. Your adventurous life began from there. Before you were born, you traveled to both London and Paris. You were due to be born on the 6th of March 2010, and mama began seeing our midwife, Sharon, at our local surgery to prepare for your arrival. I should have known from your impromptu but amazing delivery that these would be key characteristics of you! You made your grand entrance at the Rosy Hospital in Cambridge, which happens to be mama's favorite city in all the world. You came home with mama and dada about 7 hours after your birth. This once again parallels your personality as a quick recovery is a key trait of yours. Big sister and Nina eagerly awaited your arrival home with much cuddles and love.

We took our first trip as a family of 4 a month later. We visited York which has proved one of my favorite holidays within England. As a result of this trip, mama and dada realized we really could manage and ENJOY life and traveling with two children, and we have never thought otherwise!

In April, Mawmaw and Pawpaw arrived to meet you. They were here for your baptism at St. Ephraim the Syrian Orthodox Church in Cambridge.

Your travels continued with a rainy weekend in London.

At the end of May, we took a wonderful family holiday staying in Bath, Bristol, and Southeast Wales. We also made a quick stop to see Stonehenge.

Visiting the Roman Baths in Bath
Stonehenge
Julia and Lexie at Tintern Abbey in Wales
Taking a break in the King's chair inside Caerphilly Castle, Wales
Some meerkats at the Bristol Zoo

With July came your next adventure up North to Scotland. We spent a long weekend in Edinburgh, exploring the Royal Mile and in the slightly less touristy gold capital, St Andrews.

At the end of July, we traveled within England once more, this time to Lyme Park and Liverpool. You behaved as well as ever, making mommy and daddy very proud!

Our next holiday came in August and September and was your longest trip yet. We flew on a big airplane to America to visit our family and friends there and introduce many of them to you for the first time. There you enjoyed loads of cuddles from Nina, Mawmaw, and Pawpaw. You met your Aunt Kay, Aunt Christy, cousins Erin, Harry, Matt, and Brody, GG, Grandma Huniak, Uncle Nick, Aunt Megan, Tori, Drew, Scotty, Uncle Phil and Aunt Anna, Elijah, and Abigail, and lots more extended family and friends! You also attended church at our home parish, Nativity of the Virgin Mary and attended your very first St. Louis Cardinals baseball game.

With October came daddy's birthday, more travels, and a more mobile baby. We drove down to Dover England, took the ferry to Calais, France, and drove to Brugge, Belgium, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, Trier, Germany, and drove back through the Champagne region of France. It was in our German hotel room that you crawled for the first time. You went from one side of the room with mommy to big sister Lexie on the other side. We were all so proud of you, and you were quite pleased with yourself as well!

For your first Halloween, you dressed as a sheep and Lexie was "Lexie Bo Peep." We celebrated with a party at home with many of our American friends here in England and even managed to do a bit of trick or treating.

And then came November, with our biggest European excursion yet to Rome, Italy. We had heard rumors that Rome was not kid friendly, but boy were the rumors wrong! Everyone there loved you! At each cafe and restaurant we visited, the servers continually came around to talk and play with you, their "Bello bambino!"

Finally, it was time for some down time. We spent Christmas and New Years celebrating quietly at home. All 4 of us enjoyed the time together!

With 2011, came another visit from Nina and more travels together. Nina arrived in February and helped us celebrate Lexie's birthday. We took a trip to France visiting Rouen and many of the D-day sites. We learned the French's secret to keeping their kids quiet an well behaved... the baguette, which you loved!

When it came time for Nina to return to America, you, mommy, and Lexie all went with her! We were able to visit family and friends once again and be there for Uncle Nick and Aunt Megan's wedding. We also celebrated your 1st birthday there at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house.

Over your first year of life, you became quite the cheeky adventurous little girl, and we wouldn't have it any other way! My hope for you is that these experiences are only the start to an amazing adventure-filled life!

Ode to a 4 year old

It is time again for an annual post dedicated to the completion of another year of life by one Alexandria Diane. Every day of every year this little girl amazes me with her knowledge and compassion. I feel continually blessed to be her mother. Lexie's entire 4th year of life was spent living in England. This makes 1/4 of her entire life in another country, and by the time we move back to America, that number will double to 1/2.

Alexandria,

You became a big sister just 1 month after your 3rd birthday. You took to your baby sister straight away showing very little jealousy and overwhelming amounts of love and care. Watching you and Julia over this past year has been the greatest joy in my life. You spent many months talking and dreaming of the things "your baby" would one day do. Not once during those early months did you expect too much of Julia. You showered her with patience and love every step of the way. As she began to roll, crawl, and talk, you beamed with pride. I still recall sitting in a German hotel room in October 2010 when Julia first crawled. It was you to whom she crawled. You sat across the room cheering, "Come on Julia, come on!" again and again as she crawled her way to you. Then you would run to the other side of the room and repeat the process. Today you are by far Julia's favorite person, and it is not hard to see why.

In June, you began preschool at First Step Playgroup. Play group has been the catalyst of so much growth in the past year. Going to preschool was the first time you and mommy were ever apart, and you did so well being away. During school (as well as in Tumble Tots classes) you were very much a quiet observer at first. You were well behaved and enjoyed doing many activities, but you preferred working alone or alongside your "friends" Katie Watie, Tatie Watie, and Brother Matthew. I will always remember the day your teacher approached me concerned about your playing and singing on your own. That evening I asked you about it, and you very eagerly told me Katie, Tatie, and Matthew all joined you at school. After that, those friends began attending their own school, and you so very quickly turned the corner with confidence. You have completely conquered every bit of preschool and are now ready to begin "big school" in the fall. You are excellent with recognition of letters, numbers, shapes, rhyming words, opposites, basic addition and subtraction, and so much more. You enjoy writing, drawing, and coloring now as well.

Your first day of school, June 2010

During your 4th year of life you traveled to York, London, Bath, Stonehenge, Bristol, Northern Wales (Tintern Abbey), Scotland (Edinburgh and St. Andrews), Lyme Park, Liverpool, Richmond, St. Louis, France (Champagne region), Belgium (Brugge), Luxembourg, Germany (Trier), and Italy (Rome). You travel extremely well, and are certainly a pro by now!

Bath
Edinburgh, Scotland
Trier, Germany
Rome, Italy

For your 4th birthday, we planned a party at home. When I asked you who you wanted to invite, you began rattling off names of friends from school. The day before your planned party, you came down with pink eye. Fortunately, mommy was the only one disappointed, and you were such a big girl about it all! We rescheduled your party about a week later. It was a Peppa Pig themed party, and you had a blast with your friends! It was your first non-family party. Your actual birthday fell on a Wednesday. Nina was visiting, and we had a small celebration at home with a homemade cake, presents from mommy, daddy, and Nina, and a special outing with just you and mommy. I took you to your very first movie at the theater. We saw Tangled, and then went to Pizza Hut for dinner in Peterborough.

When you turned 3, I still considered you a toddler. Now that you are 4, you are all little girl. You have changed so much over the past year in so many ways. Your vocabulary is tremendous. Every time we use a word with which you are unfamiliar you immediately ask for the definition and context. You hate not knowing something and like to think you are always right. We're still working on that one. You are so full of love and compassion for your family. You give mommy a hug and a kiss to start each day (although you claim to only give hugs and kisses on school days). You like to play it cool with daddy but are a daddy's girl in secret. You love to sit with him and have some cuddles in the evenings when he comes home from work. With Julia, you are a shining example of patience and love. Julia often pulls your hair, and you respond by very calmly telling her "We don't pull hair" or "Be gentle, Julia," never by yelling or getting upset. I am so very proud of the girl you are and am looking so forward to sharing this next year of growth and changes with you. God grant you many years!

Catching up March

Time for an attempt at catching up. As I mentioned in the previous post, we made a trip back "home" earlier in the year. Ryan was not able to go with us due to lack of leave time from work, but fortunately for me, my girls have the most wonderful grandmas in the world!

Starting in February, 'Nina' came for a visit. Her visit included both girls acquiring and recovering from pink eye (twice), a trip to France to visit some of the D-day sights, and Alexandria's 4th birthday party (see next post).

At the end of February, the girls and Lauren joined mom on the plane back to St. Louis. Though there were a few hiccups with gate changes and delays, the trip was an overall success. Back in St. Louis, we had another birthday party this time in celebration of Alexandria's 4th birthday and Julia's 1st. Though sad not to have daddy with us, it was incredibly wonderful to celebrate with family and friends.

Lexie with her birthday Build-a-Bear from Mawmaw

The primary purpose of our trip was to share in the wedding of Nick and Megan. They had a gorgeous wedding with perfect weather!

The rest of our visit was spent catching up with family and friends. I cherished every second of it. As I write this (some 3 months later), Ryan is now home creating similar memories of his own. I am so happy for him that he has been able to make this trip home after missing out on our March trip. Time with cousins and grandparents simply cannot be bought for anything in the world. It is so precious to know that even living 4000 miles away, my girls still know and love their American family. Here are just a few of the many memories we created in March:

Cousins, Lexie, Julia, and Brody
Cousins, Abby and Julia
Cousins, Elijah and Lexie
GG and Lexie
Pawpaw and Julia

After a 2 week stay in St. Louis, it was back to England, this time with Mawmaw in tow. The trip home was a bit stressful with multiple missed flights, all of which were out of our control, but we finally made it, and boy was I glad to have my mom along for the ride! We made it back on Julia's 1st birthday, just in time to celebrate with daddy. Mom and Lauren also enjoyed some quality mother daughter time with their own trip to London for some sightseeing and Phantom of the Opera. Before heading back to America, we all made a trip to Liverpool where mom and Lauren again got to cut loose from the family for a visit to the Cavern Club!