October #2: Legoland

Probably what has to be considered the main event of October was the trip to London and Legoland.

As was said in the last post, we all had to go to England for the sake of Oshin's American passport etc., so it seemed like a sensible thing to add on the once-in-a-lifetime trip to Legoland as well, calling it both of the boys' presents for their birthdays.
So, with this background, we were only going for a few days, with the first day simply getting into London and getting to our hotel in Victoria...

It was strange to reflect on the fact that this was Oshin's first plane flight. Both Finn and Orry had flown much earlier than this so it seemed strange to be at Oshin's first flight. He didn't seem to mind though - he slept happily through most of it once Cori sorted him out.
Our embassy appointment went smoothly in the morning (despite the Pret a Manger coffee spilt over everything!).

With Finn feeling very special to call himself an American, and Oshin happily on the way to being a full-blooded American baby, we had time to kill. We didn't fancy the tube, so we walked over the bridge and had a very enjoyable hour or so in Tate Britain, most of which was spend sitting with Finn and Orry discussing what was going on in the pictures - a lovely art gallery experience for us all, especially having not done it for over two years:

Once we were done with that, we went off to Windsor, to the Legland hotel, via a hellish wait at Vauxhall, tired and hungry, with Oshin desperate for food, and nowhere to do any of it. Without patience (or money) for other options, Cori sat down on the floor by the tube entrance with the boys to feed Oshin as I went into the Tesco's Local. Although rather dirtier than would have been hoped for, it sorted the situation. However, Cori was asked a number of times if she needed help in some form or other, with people obviously taking her as homeless or thereabouts!
Getting to eat was wonderful, and getting on the train at long last was a long-awaited joy!

Obviously Legoland was a great hit with the boys. When we arrived, we were just going to the hotel, ready for the trip into the park in the morning. Happily upon arrival they told us that there was a problem with our room, so we had to suffer the inconvenience of being upgraded to the swankier hotel next door. So it was that we stayed at the Lego Castle hotel, which was great. (Great as the kids loved it, but also great as the level of Lego-ness of the one we'd booked was very low, we realised on reflection and would have been rather disappointing):

The room was nice enough, with bunk beds and a Lego area to play at. But the best thing about it was the little puzzle thing the boys had to do, spotting things around the room to work out the code to unlock the safe which hid Lego sets for them all. Lovely!

The hotel was on the resort, which is in the middle of nowhere (when you don't have a car, at least). Cori had the genius idea of ordering in pizza, which we ate in front of the TV, enjoying everything about it - the saving of (a lot of) money, the pizza, the TV, Oshin kicking about on the floor on his own for the time it took to eat etc.

In the morning we were into the park as it opened and we spent the whole day there. We had lots of fun, doing things like...
admiring the Duplo area...

... driving cars (which the boys had been asking about for about a year, as pictures of the Lego cars are on the back of cereal packets)...

... going on relaxing trains & boats...

... driving helicopters...

... putting out fires...

... admiring the world in Lego (my favourite bit)...

... and going on entirely inappropriate rides for young children...

This last one was entirely Cori's idea. However, she did a very poor job of re-imaging the ride not as herself or a younger version thereof but as the boys. Of course, they hated it. Orry screamed in horror throughout and Finn simpered in fear in the corner. So much so that this is how they were left after getting off it:

They are not ride children!
But at least this meant that Finn had absolutely all of his bravado about going on big rides beaten out of him, and we could all happily go on things which everyone could enjoy:

Oshin enjoyed it also and was happy enough in the pushchair and in the carrier, for the most part.

It was a very long day though, so we were all pretty much done at the end of it.  - Legoland well done!

After that, we had a day off, in the closest place where we could afford to stay (especially on the weekend of the wedding of Harry & Meghan) - Slough. A terrible place, but at least we got to watch a film in the cinema.
Then we went back through Windsor to see what it was all about, including a nice sit down in the park:

After that we were into London for my highlight of the trip - a visit to the Little Angel puppet theatre. We went to this once before and it was a magical experience. This was again - Finn and Orry were so into it and they were transfixed by it all. A lovely experience for us all.

After that we went to a friends house for lunch (for the first time in over two years, of course). And then back on the plane home again, but not before seeing some of our old places of home:

A lovely trip away, for everyone (even Cori, who seemingly doesn't appear much in these pictures - it must have been her taking them for a change. Sorry!)

October #1: Before Legoland

October had lots happening, including two birthdays, cousin Georgie's visit, Hop tu Naa and a trip to Legoland. There's no hope to cover it all in one post, so this will be just what happened before the trip to Legoland, in the first nine days of October...

The start of the month saw Finn lose one of his front teeth (which you can just about see in this picture):

Finn is here about midway between Peel & St. John's, on our weekly walk to school along the old train line on Mondays. It's a lovely walk, and a lovely time to be just Finn and I, though I sometimes end up spoiling it by having us set off late and so having to rush too much.
However, one Monday early in October we gathered in some of the abundance of blackberries along the walk for a tub for Finn's class to enjoy. A lovely thing to do, but it ended up making us late again!
As you will see from the picture, we wear boots for the walk, and change into our school/work shoes when in St. John's. This particular journey didn't go so well for my parenting points, as these were the shoes which emerged from the bag after the walk of an hour and more:

Luckily, Cori and the other two go to her Manx play group on Mondays in St. John's, so she was able to save the day and bring in the pair to the new school shoe!

We've already gone too far in a post without something about the baby, so here is Oshin doing a fine fidgeting about on Cori's lap:

And, to level it out, here is that middle child showing off his fine Manx skills, counting from one to ten:

Orry learnt this seemingly very easily at nursery, coming home one day happily saying it to himself. He was very pleased with himself. However, he was somewhat confused when he tried to name the numbers he saw written down when he got to 9 and 10, as he'd taken '... Nuy as Jeih' ('Nine and Ten') as meaning '... Nine, Ten, Jeih', leaving him baffled as to what the eleventh word was for!

The time when we filmed Orry's counting was also when he decided that we should take pictures of him being a statue. Of course, perhaps a picture is not the best way to demonstrate his brilliantly still statuesque posing (and also Cori's here), so you'll probably just have to take me on my word that he was excellent:

Because of where it landed in the week, we delayed the marking of Finn's birthday a few days, and had a lovely home-made family party on the 5th, which looked much like this:

The cake was Orry-edible, as you might be able to surmise from the following picture:

In case you want a video of the blowing out of the candles, here it is:

Finn got a nice collection of little presents, including this genius idea & excellent creation from an old bedsheet - an instant den cover for the kitchen table:

But there was no party for Finn, and no Big Present, as that all went into a very special gift all the same:

We had to go to the American Embassy to register Oshin's birth, and for his passport, so we thought that it made sense to go to London (instead of Edinburgh or Belfast) and to tie it into a trip to Legoland.
As you will have seen in the video, Finn was very excited, and Orry eventually actually understood what he was being excited about!
The good thing about the timing of this reveal was that there was only five or so days to wait, which was perfect for their levels of anticipation.

Those five days on the Island saw lots going on though, including something which was rather frightening for me - my first Heritage Open Day tours. In the end my tour of Sophia Morrison's Peel went quite successfully - I needn't have been as terribly nervous about it as I was!

Of course, we also enjoyed going on a few Heritage Open Day tours ourselves, including ones of a mill in Castletown, and of World War II Peel:

Without the elegance of narrative flow, here are three other things which deserve mention...
Cori & Oshin's fine matching onesies:

Cori & Oshin would be in onsies as it was getting very cold, and we'd determined that we were not going to turn on the heating until at least Hop tu Naa. Though scenes like this made us feel somewhat guilty to stumble upon in the play room:

The two older boys still very much love Oshin, so there is an inevitable supply of pictures of them adoring him, such as this one:

However, sometimes their adoration can be somewhat suffocating for Oshin and the boys have to be constantly reminded not to make him cry from their loving. So it is that the reverse angle of that last picture actually looked like this:

A problem which presented itself for the trip to Legoland was the need to pack lightly and the fact that we knew Orry would want to bring his beloved 'Noodle' with him. However, Cori solved the problem by finding a small version of the same toy online, and then working out the perfect way to make Orry accept his new smaller size - magic!
(Although Orry's request to "shrink me now!" was a bit harder to indulge).

... So, on to the Legoland adventure!