Happy Fourth, Eddy John

 Dear Eddy,

It seems like just a few days ago we were celebrating your third birthday, and a few days before that you were born.  I remember so much about your life and who you have been.  Best of all I absolutely adore who you are today and who I see you becoming.

Let me tell you a few things I most like about you right now.

First on my mind is your clumsiness.  I know, that doesn't sound like something I should bring up as a favorite about you, but really, you make me smile often as you stumble over your own feet constantly.  I think I like it because it reminds me you are still little, though you are growing faster than you can keep up with.  Overnight you'll be inches taller and you just don't seem to recollect when or how that happened.

Even though you are growing at a reckless speed, you still tuck yourself up into my lap as small and tidy as can be.  You hug me in public with no concern.

You put off falling asleep (and thereby growing more) at all costs.  You are consistently the last child asleep and come up with all sorts of excuses not to be in bed.  When you do fall asleep it is as if you are dead to the waking world.  Sometimes we find you half off your bed, feet dangling, as though you finally passed out while climbing in.  Every now and then when you happen to still need a nap (always at the worst possible time) waking you up is an effort not to be undertaken lightly.

You are a quick learner.  You love your school work.  Well, you love what you love and don't what you don't.  Right now you love doing your work book of letters and numbers, cutting, and Latin.

Your smile is truly one of my favorites in the whole world.  I think in part because it reminds me of your dad's smile, but it is all your own.  Your eyes crinkle deep in the corners and your dark eyes sparkle like garnets (or something poetic).  

You are the greatest helper.  You see a problem, you fix it.  You offer help in the kitchen.  You jump to do your jobs with little reminder.

You have your own fashion sense.  That is, you have your own comfortable clothes sense.  You'd stay in your pjs all day.  Barring that you want shorts and t-shirts.  Now that it's cold weather it's a fight every day to wear appropriate clothes.  But I love hearing your reasons why you would prefer not to wear clothes at all.  You're a thinker, that's for sure.

Edward, you really are such a fun kid to be around.  I love being your mom and you are so good at showing me you like being my kid.  Thank you.  Love you.

Love, Mom

Stonehaven and Dunnottar Castle (Scotland part three)

First off, let's get the pronunciation of Dunnottar Castle.  Because it's not at all what you think.  Like French or Welsh or other languages where there is nothing phonetic about it, this castle's name is not how it looks.  So try this:  Duh-naugh-er.  That's right, swallow the t's completely.  Add the accent on the second syllable instead of the first.  Put in some real Sco[tt]-ish lilt and you've got it.

This castle.  Whoa.  I thought Urquhart was as picturesque as we were going to get.  This fortress on the cliffs was unbelievable.  Like a movie come to life.

Actually, the Disney movie Brave (about the curly red-headed princess and the bear?) was based on this castle.  

The Keith clan held this castle for a long time.  Centuries, I think.  More or less.  Anyway, they are somehow-way-back-there related to me.  So I felt right at home.

Confession time.  We didn't actually go in the castle.  We fully intended to.  We were steps away--and miles away from home and had come all this way--but we didn't actually go in.  You see, after the morning drive and the number of castles we have been to in the last few weeks but mostly because we stopped on a neighboring cliff meadow to picnic and drink in the scenery, we felt full to the brim with the place.

I'm sure more would have been nice too.  Inside the castle promised more adventure with passages and stairways and cool objects and crowds and noise and information. 

In the end we just didn't push it.  The quiet on the hilltop, the rustle of the tall weeds and wildflowers.  The parents saw that the kids were having the time of their lives.  Mom got more than enough pictures.  We all sat contentedly in the sunshine or the shade, as the clouds drifted overhead.  It was more than satisfactory, being on that cliff beside the magnificent ruin.   Together, just ourselves. 

 

 

Collin promised Davy that I would jump while he took pictures.  With Davy behind the lens I couldn't disappoint.  I failed miserably.  Then Eddy showed us all how it's done.

In other news, the children were delighted when we found and "Oreo cow" in the fields just outside the castle.  I stepped out to take some pictures of the rolling hills and Davy peeked his head out the window and told me I was his favorite person.  And then I got caught on camera myself.

We took a seven hour train ride home.  I loved seeing the countryside.  It would have been very relaxing without the children.  We totally made the kids sit and look out the window and play games and be bored the first three hours.  Then we were all all done. This is when I'm so grateful we have technology for a last resort entertainment option.

A Visit to Nessie (Scotland part two)

 
We started out for Loch Ness early in the morning.  The drive was glorious.  Foggy and mysterious to begin with, then as the sun peeked out and burned off the mist the landscape became sparkly and shiny with all the different greens and goldens.  There were sheep and cows on every turn, and we could count on Eliza to always be game for animal sounds. 

When we stopped off at a rest place on the shores of Loch Ness to eat our picnic lunch Eliza had a large and messy surprise for us.  Think major wardrobe malfunction.  Completely unprepared for the catastrophe, we looked around us to behold souvenir shops that stocked baby kilts.  I would never have known we needed one until we needed one.  Once she was in the pleated plaid though, I knew we'd never run into such a fortuitous diaper disaster before (and aren't likely to again!).  I can't tell you how much attention she got as she paraded around Urquhart Castle in her tartan skirt.  One old grandma-lady (who spoke Portuguese, maybe?) even tried to go in for a hug.  Eliza put her in her place quickly, but then turned up the charm again once boundaries were clear.

The boys were way into the violent history of the castle.  It seems so ironic that such fighting could take place on the peaceful shores of the loch.  Davy got a round of hearty laughter from the other visitors when the museum attendant asked which languages to add subtitles for the introductory movie.  Davy quipped loudly, "Japanese!" and when no one else requested differently, Japanese subtitles appeared.  Man, I love kids.

The MacDonald clan was a major player in the long, violent history of the castle.  We didn't know if it was the same MacDonald clan Collin's descended from, but it was still cool to think maybe.  Clearly we need to refresh ourselves on some basic family history, past those easy four-generation charts.

As part of mommy school the weeks before our trip we learned about the legend of the Loch Ness monster and created pictures.  The boys, in typical fashion, expanded the original story of Nessie.  Their monsters are friends of Nessie, but Davy's was named George (you can call him Georgie) and Eddy's was Jordan.  George likes to swim with the ducks and what do you know? on the shores of the loch we met the most friendly duck.  I'm sure it was a sign that Nessie (and friends?) were happy to meet the Lambourne kids.

One thing I wish I'd gotten a snippet clip of was the boys doing some Scottish Highland dancing.  Either in our living room while we played YouTube videos to learn the week before, or somewhere on some romantic hillside.  Either would have been fine.  You'll just have to imagine it.  And then know it was ten times more adorable and hilarious than whatever you are imagining.

Also at the gift shop, while we were overspending on Eliza's outfit, the boys chose pocket sized stuffed Nessies and they were the best purchase.  So much mileage out of teeny toys.

We each drank a little sip of the water, for we were told it has magical properties.  And no one (except me) got sick, so maybe it did.  I would have to say that our time down on the shores of Loch Ness were the most idyllic of the day, and worth whatever cost to be there.  I hadn't even planned it into our day (and I plan pretty loosely) but it often seems that those spontaneous moments when the kids are most happy doing what they do best (being kids) are the most blissful.

 

Facts and trivia we learned about Scotland: 

The national flower is a thistle. 

The national animal is a unicorn.  (How come America's can't be that cool?) 

Haggis, neeps and tatties are actually eaten by people.  As food. 

Scotland voted to stay in the UK.  (I was honestly kind of disappointed by that decision.  Around the country the "yes" signs seemed to outnumber and out-passion the "no" but I suppose that doesn't mean much when people hit the polls.) 

Scottish people call lots of things "bits"--like body parts, foods, etc. (things we would call things or stuff I guess.)