Esperanto may be the “International Language” and “Klingon” is spoken by Trek Geeks everywhere – but what is the International Boy Language? I believe it originated on the Isle of Sodor – and if you have a boy, you know immediately the language to which I refer: Thomas & Friends. Thomas the Tank Engine was created by a father for his son 67 years ago and has since been translated into 30 languages and is found across the globe. In Chicago, our boys would play with their Thomas train track, and Sir Topham Hatt – and speak to their friends…
Tags: language, playtime, thomas and friends, videos
My 4 yr old son had an ear infection a few weeks back in Belgium (you can read about it here). His eardrum perforated – but hasn’t healed yet. In fact there is almost no eardrum – it’s a giant hole. We have taken him to the GP and ENT because it hasn’t healed. One of his favorite activities at school is swimming – but because of the perforation, upon doctors orders he’s not allowed to swim until it’s healed. We gave his teacher a letter explaining this and and that upon our request and Dr’s orders he not be…
Tags: ear primary teacher
Travelling with Car Seats doesn’t have to be a logistical nightmare. Our boys each started travelling with us at around 6 weeks of age. Since then we’ve been going non-stop. Amazingly, babies come with a bunch of stuff! Who knew? One of the things we found most challenging if it wasn’t a road-trip was what to do with our car seats? When we first flew from Chicago to Belgium with both of the boys to visit their Grandparents – the Grandparents were confused about why we wanted to either bring carseats – or have them borrow a set. Why couldn’t…
Often it feels like the only “ME” time I have to enjoy media is when travelling. Planes – trains, automobiles you name it – that’s when the channel is my choice! You wouldn’t think I’d have to travel half-way around the world to enjoy a little Oscar-nominated time, but there you go! Each year I have a conference that falls about 2 weeks after the Oscars. As I have moved further and further away from the venue, my travel times have increased. The last 2 years it was a 13 hr flight each way (including a 1 hr layover). This…
Tags: airplanes, London, media, romance novels, tube, underground
So I’m really looking forward to tonight’s #MumsNight – Spring Cleaning Hacks and I had perused quite a few spring cleaning checklists – but none of them incorporated everything I wanted so I’ve made my own to share with you. Feel free to download, print, use and share it. While I didn’t go into the detailed steps of how to do everything it lists out the activities by room. It also assumes that this is a 1 time deep clean and that you’re regularly cleaning and dusting etc. If you need to get organized for your weekly clean here are…
Tags: #mumsnight, checklist, spring cleaning
So I was very inspired by last week’s #MumsNight – Slow Cook / No Cook lazy cooking ideas. Everyone shared so many fantastic recipes and ideas! While I only intended to spend about half the time on slow cooking – it became the conversation focus. Having not been a big slow cooker previously – I realized I must be truly missing out. But that’s not what sealed the deal for me. You see – with my husband and I working all day, someone else picks up our kids and serves them tea before we get home. Quite frequently my husband…
Tags: chicken, french onion soup, ramen noodles, recipes, slow cooker
Holidays are a strange bag. Whatever country you’re in – there are always going to be people who do/don’t celebrate the national holidays or even the holidays that you do. While there are some holidays that are just plain different in the US vs UK (think Halloween and Boxing Day), surprisingly I’ve found it’s the ones that should be the same that are so different for me. Having grown up in the U.S. I’m used to Christmas being more about Santa than baby Jesus. In fact – the older I got – the further secularized this holiday was. In the…
Tags: Baby Jesus, Christmas Pageant, Christmas Play, cultural differences, Easter Bonnet, Nativity, UK, US
Last week while visiting the Grandparents in Belgium, my 4yr old came down with an earache. It was Sunday, late – and a holiday weekend to boot. This meant there would be absolutely nothing open. No place to get pain meds for a child. It’s not like they are anti-meds, they whole a whole cupboard dedicated to meds – it’s like a small pharmacy, but what they didn’t have was pain reliever or fever reducer for children. (It is times like these I truly miss the 24hr stores in the US – and in the UK we live within a…
Tags: ear ache, ear infection
If you haven’t read about my “Comment Anxiety”, go here first. Ok right – so by now you know I’m working to overcome my Comment Anxiety – so I’ve created a plan that I thought some of you might find helpful. Let me know what you think or if there are any other steps worth adding. (I’m ok if this becomes a 10+ step plan) Comment on every blog post I read – (even if I think my comment is lame) Reply to all comments received on my blog For everyone who comments on my blog and leaves a link…
Tags: comment anxiety, plan
So we’ve taken the boys on plenty of flights – that best way I can describe it is “it’s like aligator wrestling.” There’s a whole lot of flailing and sometimes teeth involved – and when you least expect it they can turn on you! It’s not just the flight though – usually by the time we get on the plane we’re already exhausted by what it took to get there. The days of the kids asking – are we going now? The packing, the making our way to the airport, through security, past all the shops with amazing stuff they…
Tags: airplane nanny, travel
