A Spring in THEIR Steps - Family Update

Hiya Family and Friends,

This blog is mostly a family update - okay, mostly a kids update :) We've been busy in March with weekend trips which we'll blog about soon.
The past two weeks in the Manchester area have been just glorious! Highs of around 18C and sunny - we've all even got some colour! (Probably should have got the kids' sun lotion out) It's been great to go out in T-shirts and hoodies - no coats! Just yesterday and today though it's been a bit rainy and cool so it looks like it's going back to typical English weather. Everyone here is curious about how the weather is back home and what it will be like when we go back in a couple of weeks - they are very surprised to hear there was a huge snowfall last week and it's very possible there will be snow when we get back! We're all looking forward to the Spring double feature.  We just turned the clocks forward on the weekend (two weeks after Canada) so it is extra nice having sunlight into the evening - although it makes it harder to convince Liam that it's bedtime.

Liam had his first ever Dentist appointment last week. It was with a private practice, as opposed to an NHS practice which would have been free since he is under 16 (the NHS is so great!). Liam has a ‘bad tooth’, as we call it, and I wanted it checked out before we left the UK but I left calling the NHS office too late not realizing they would have a 2-3 month waiting list and we would already be back home by then. The visit was only £16.50 but Liam didn’t even get in the chair. He didn’t even go near the Dentist. He wouldn’t even open his mouth for her! I had a Plan B in my back pocket in case this happened – Just Keep on Roaring - yes, like a lion.  So Liam literally roared his way through the appointment whist standing near the chair and holding onto me tightly while the Dentist did her best to look at his bad tooth. From what she could see his tooth is just stained and we can just work on his comfort level at the Dentist back in Canada. And we’ll try to claim the appointment on our health insurance back home although we don’t think Manulife will like the receipt we got – the cost printed on the back of their leaflet with a handwritten ‘Children’s Dental Exam’ – yeah right!

Liam’s embracing his role as a big brother – he gets really protective of Gemma if another child plays with her ‘not gentle’ and if she is upset he sings - without prompting - one of her favourite songs (‘Twinkle Twinkle’ or Upsy Daisy’s song). He also likes holding her hand as we help her walk and wants to help get her dressed and change her nappy – we’ll see how long that one lasts!

He’s really enjoying Nursery and all his friends (I'm totally going to cry on his last day, I know it) He says he knows all the boys’ names but not all the girls’. He is going to a girl’s bday party the day before we come home and has already told her what gift we got her J. Although I think his favourite part of Nursery is finding out I’ve come with a ‘train biscuit’ from the local Potts Family Bakery which happens at least twice a week – always on Friday Treat Day J It's been very exciting at Nursery this week with the arrival of Easter chicks, hatching at the Nursery in an incubator! Seems as though everyone in town with small kids is talking about it:) I heart small towns.

Liam has an English accent on certain words and names that he learns at Nursery like ‘reading record’, the journal I write in about the books he brings home twice a week, Lucar (Luca), Lolar (Lola) and other words that just sound different here like yogurt is ‘yog-hurt’ and to Liam it’s ‘yockit’!

Toilet training is going really well – he made it through our Barcelona and N. Ireland trips in only underwear (during the day) without an accident and has had only 1 accident at Nursery – but I do wonder if it was because his friend Rowan was having accidents and he wanted to have one too! He’s also out of nappies and into Big Boy Pull-Ups for nighttime – some are even dry in the morning too which we seriously didn’t think would happen until he was 5!

 We’ve been talking to Liam a lot about our ‘Guelph House’ and getting him excited about returning to Canada. He’s expecting blue ice cream (hopefully someone still makes ‘Superkid’!) and playing with our new street neighbours Deacon and Ronan lots at the park behind our house. He is excited to do lots of gardening, plant a veggie patch and see the flowers come out from hiding in the ground for the second time this year. He’s also excited about timbits and is desperate to see our dog, OD. He’s been treating the stuffed dog (really a door stop) we got in Scotland which he named Coco Begeone (?) like a real dog! He also talks about visiting his cousin, Ella, in Malaysia, but that’s not happening anytime soon!

Gemma is… wait for it… WALKING! She has been able to take 6 - 10 steps for about 6 weeks but really had to be persuaded to do so. And just this past week she has been convinced that it’s a good idea and is happily walking about on her own. She’s even got the confidence to walk around in the Children’s Centre playgroups and at the playground! There have been lots of falls, some flat on her tummy! We can tell she was trying to run first, just like her brother (and her Daddy)!

On that note, she is now obsessed with doing everything Liam does like drinking leftover cereal milk right from the bowl (Mark, who did they get that from?), and pressing buttons on lifts (elevators) or for automatic doors. She has also started to ‘roar’ with him! We can only hope she will toilet train sooner – although she’ll likely want to stand up like Liam too!

Finally after months of literally having gums the shape of molars, Gemma’s four 1yr molars came through. She arrived in England with 4 teeth and will probably leave with 16 if her last 3 incisors come out in the next 2 weeks!

Now that Gemma’s walking better she’s also ‘talking’ more and will say a new ‘word’ every day or so. The only word she says like Liam did so far is ‘dogga’ (doggie), although unlike Liam, she seems to know the difference between dogs, cats and horses J

Gemma’s really developing personality. She is definitely not a girl that will sit still and colour in the lines. She pinches Liam, hits him, swipes his toys or snack and sometimes does all this just to give him ‘I’m sorry’ cuddles and kisses. She just does it to him so we’re fairly certain she wants his attention.  Liam must really love her because he puts up with a lot.

She's taken an interest in 'helping' in the kitchen - by this I mean taking out all the herbs and spices from the cupboard, placing them on the floor and then putting them back in (and not in the same spot either!) She's fairly careful however a lot of packaging here is still glass so I worry about her dropping one and it breaking. Although the real danger comes from catching her tiny fingers in the door as she plays with that too:)

Aside from not proper walking until she's 19 months, Gemma's showing all signs she's going to be quite athletic (music to Daddy's ears). She's really great at throwing and catching, loves to kick and even tried to before she could stand, loves hockey sticks and has amazing balance. We think she will be a gymnastics girl seeing as she has always been crazy strong for her small size, she's got really good form during 'Cool Tricks' with Daddy (she tucks her head in for landings!) and she loves music and dancing.

The English weather we've had this winter has been really great for Gemma -she's become poorly with the regular cold viruses but didn't get near as bad as last year when she required many nights in hospital. And the warm (and early) Spring we've had here has been great too! For some reason, Gemma, Liam and me all got eczema (pronounced eck-zehma here, not ex-zeema) - having never had it before! All taken care of with free Aveeno lotion (can you believe it?) as prescribed for Gemma - it wasn't Baby Aveeno -they don't have that here- but it worked!

Mark's off work now from an extended P.E. coverage at a Manchester school - it was only supposed to be from 2nd Feb to 2nd March but was extended until 22nd March (and could have been longer but Mark was ready to finish). It was great for him to end his employment in the UK on such a high note. (Special Edition Mark Blog still Coming Soon) So our UK Adventure finishes the way it began for Mark - on holiday and spending time with the family. He did a 10 mile trail race in the Lake District on the weekend (finished 20th just ahead of the first female) and is attempting to bike across England in 3 segments before we leave - he completed the first leg today from Liverpool to New Mills along the Trans Pennine Trail - 70 miles in 6 hours.
Photo of: Mark's Race

The big news in New Mills is the newest cafe, Revive, and despite the fact that it's affiliated with the local 'Revival' Church, I still go:) It's steps from the Nursery and doesn't have any steps to haul the pram over to get in (very important!). Plus they have Chai Lattes. I've already been with 2 different Mummy friends (and many times myself) and picked Liam up sorta-late once because of it - Yikes!

That's all the updating for now - will blog again soon with weekend trip details from York, Belfast, Lincoln and The Lakes.

Photos: Facebook

Cheers,
The Nicholson Family

The Countdown is Really On

Hi Family and Friends,

 

In the last month of our Nicholson Family UK Adventure, we find ourselves reflecting on our stay and taking everything in - even trips to the supermarket - there won't be any sheep on our trip to Zehrs back in Guelph!

 

We have very mixed feelings on leaving. We are really excited to get back onto Canadian soil and see our family, friends and our house in Guelph that we only lived in for 3 weeks before coming to England. We (okay, mostly Mark) sometimes forget what it looks like:) And it'll be nice not to be living on our 'Gap 8 months' budget with Mark returning to work full-time.

On the other hand, we are really, truly going to miss living in New Mills and England. It's been so great seeing so much of our UK friends and family here and meeting new friends too. I've also really gotten into the Stay-at-Home-Mum groove and I have all sorts of mixed feelings about looking for a new job when I get back (I wish Toronto wasn't such a crap commute!).

I'm feeling the stress of moving again when I look at all our stuff and wonder how the H-E-double-hockey-sticks we are going to get it all back? We purposely brought clothes with us that we'll leave here and we're also posting some stuff back to ourselves like Gemma's baby clothes that no longer fit and our Christmas stockings. We're looking into options with Air Transat who we're flying back with in regard to excess baggage. We looked into upgrading our flights to 'club class' for Mark and I, but didn't realize it was their name for first class and we wouldn't want to leave Liam in economy:) It would be way too much for all of us to travel 'club class'.

We're also trying to squeeze everything in while we're still here - visits with friends and family, trips to Ireland, the Lake District and Italy, and of course, one last trip to Thomas Land for Liam. We've been telling Liam since we went the first time that we will go again before we move back to Canada as our transition for him so that trip is a must. Plus, I wouldn't mind going on some of those rides again:)

Things We'll Really Miss:

• Being so close to UK Family and Friends
• The Milk Man
• The Beautiful Scenery of the Peak District and Derbyshire
• Liam's New Friends from Nursery - Liam asked if he could bring Rowan with us:)
• The Children's Centre - I just don't think Ontario Early Years will be the same
• Mark's 'Mr. Canada' Supply Teaching Gig - he's really enjoyed his time teaching here - Special Edition Mark Blog Post Coming Soon!
• Sky Plus - it's like having free PVR
• Sky Atlantic - it's like having free HBO ('Entourage' is Mark's 'show')
• Our local Chippy - best Fish 'n Chips
• Hilly New Mills - I hated the hills at first, but pushing the pram up them got me in really great shape
• Great Train Service
• Great Football (soccer) Coverage
• Comedy on the Tele (Mark will miss his 'Mock the Week')

Things We're Really Looking Forward to:

• Seeing our dog, OD (try to hold in your excited pee when you see us)
• Seeing Family and Friends
• Proper Tim Hortons Coffee - Spar Timmers is just not the same :(
• Proper Timbits - Mummy's banana muffin 'timbits' just aren't the same either
• Getting Our House Set Up - for us this time as opposed to renters
• Swiss Chalet - do you think we can request a Festive Special in April? No?
• Dairy Queen Blizzards - oh yeah!
• Our Subaru - we miss you 2002 Impreza Outback Sport, please work for us when we get home
• Having a Local Bank - Mark has an HSBC account through work and there isn't a branch in New Mills. And bank charges here are ridiculous 
• Getting Cash from an ATM (and not Mark) - I didn't bother getting a bank card through Mark's account so he's been my sugar daddy this whole time
• Making Proper Salaries Again - Mark's supply work has been random and my mat leave benefits finished shortly after we arrived in the UK so it will definitely be nice to bring home the bacon again
• Buying 6 Tins of Baked Beans in one go at the grocery store without shame

We are so thrilled that we had the kahunas to move to the UK for 8 months. We knew it wasn't too long or too short of a time. The stress, effort and expense to get my Visa and the kids' British passports was totally worth it. I will recommend an experience like this to anyone who has the opportunity. All it takes is a bit of a leap and some proper planning. I've already told two different women here who have been 'thinking' of doing something like this in Canada to just go for it and start planning. It's been such a great experience for all of us and at a time in our lives when we really needed it. There was some stress in the autumn when Mark wasn't working as much as we had expected, but we re-evaluated and reminded ourselves why we are really here - to enjoy the experience. We're already 'thinking' about when our next Gap Year can be and where it could take us:)

Tick Tock Tick Tock
Back in Canada in one month on 18th April.

Cheers,
The Nicholson Family

Me Gusta Barcelona

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Where: Barcelona, the capital of the Catalonia region in Spain
When: February Half-Term (Monday 21st - Friday 25th) - this is the first UK spring break - the other is 2 weeks at Easter in between terms! (so lucky, eh?)

Why: We toyed with going to a sun-destination, but we really enjoy visiting large cities (we always have, but we probably also miss Toronto a bit). Liam's been desperate to play on a beach for months and Gemma doesn't care what we're doing as long as she's part of the action. Mark had been to Barcelona before during a 6-week Europe trip with his his BF, Nick, after Uni, but I (Krystal) had never been to Spain at all.

As we left for Manchester Airport in our rental car, it was randomly snowing and we worried that the 'Nicholson' flight cancellation curse which has plighted Mark's brother's family as of late was going to transfer to our Nicholson Family however, lucky for us, this was not the case. Mark had a brilliant idea to rent a car for the weekend, return it at the airport, store our child carseats at the airport in the 'excess baggage' area for 5£/item/day whilst away and hire a car when we got back - more value for money than just taking an airport taxi both ways.

We flew with Lufthansa via Dusseldorf, which Liam pronounced: 'Boosel-doorf?' - he's so funny. We were able to go through the express line with pram (oversized item) for baggage clearance, but got stuck behind a family of Muslims going to UAE with tons of liquids over 100mL (yeah, they totally got drilled by security). We had to open up 2/4 apple sauces, taste and eat straight away since they would spill all over our luggage (note to self: try to stuff them in checked baggage next time). I don't know why they do that - they don't make me use my hand sanitizer or lotion? Annoying.

The actual flights with Lufthansa were great, even though we were split up for the first flight (I sat alone with Gemma on my lap in a two-seater row with an empty seat next to me - sweet!). It was nice flying with a proper airline for once as opposed to the low-cost airlines that we've gone on lately. It's nice to get drinks and snacks and not have to pay for them.

Arriving in Barcelona, we got a taxi from the airport (sans carseats) and held on tight to Gemma. The not-so-funny thing is, it's not illegal to hold onto an infant in the back seat of a taxi - not in UK either! - Yikes! It cost 30 €
(euros) to get to our hotel, including a tip, which we expected from what we read online.

BEST HOTEL EVER! Petit Palace Museum Hotel was modernized 4 years ago and is in a great area of the city, just north of Las Ramblas - the main strip. We had a family room with bunk beds for Liam (he slept on the bottom bunk and we used the other mattress as a crash pad in case of a fall), a travel cot was already set up for Gemma and there was a Dell laptop with WiFi - total selling feature since Mark had a project for his online course due. The hotel also welcomed the kids with cute stuffed hippo and crocodile, and regularly had lollies at the front desk, which Liam (and Mummy) loved.

We got into the city just in time for dinner - most Barcelona locals eat dinner at 8-9pm, although many restaurants are open earlier and we ate at around 6 most nights. We had heard from everyone to watch our wallets in this city so we were really alert the first night - I wore my messanger-style handbag under my rain coat and Mark relived his backpacker days, keeping his wallet in a pocket in shorts he wore under his pants! After feeling absolutely ridiculous and seeing loads of tourists about, carelessly swinging their designer handbags around, I opted to wear mine normally, but keeping the zippers in front of me. Mark noted that we lived in Toronto for a long time and are smart about this sort of stuff. He did opt to keep his wallet under his pants, but I think it was because it made him feel like he was in University again and he did just have a birthday :)

The only sketch part of the whole trip was on our first morning in a cafe for breakfast and a guy who we later found out was from the Congo came over asking for money. That wasn't necessarily the problem - he just continued to talk to us and he still had some white make-up on his face from buskering the day before. Dude, just take the handout and move on.

Onto the real sights: Barcelona is full of amazing architecture (lots of Gaudi) from when the walls of the city opened up and expanded to L'Eixample district in 1860. 

Sights & Experience Highlights:

Las Ramblas - outdoor promenade with buskers, kiosks (some selling caged pets!) a famous drinking fountain (Canaletes), and the entrance to the main market, 'Mercat de St. Josep' or 'La Boquiera' as it's . La Rambla, the street leads to the Port Vell where a statue of Christopher Columbus turning his back on the city stands.

Plaça Catalunya - 2 huge fountains and a large square that Liam loved.

Casa Mila Mila or La Pedrera (Gaudi) - I remembered this one as a favourite from Art History and Mark wanted to see the 'storm trooper-esque' rooftop so we did the tour and actually went inside. They had 'buggy parking' for the pram and offered a carrier for Gemma, although we wanted to get her walking a bit so we declined. It was really interesting Modernisme (Catalan art-nouveau) architecture consisting of wavy concrete and iron, and a good stop for the kids to play around on the rooftop. The craziest is that people actually live there and during the day loads of tourists are trampling through! If you take the stairs, you see notes on doors asking not to knock or enter:)

Basilica de la Sagrada Familia (Gaudi) - This is the unfinished Gaudi legacy - and there were lots of cranes and construction to prove it. There was also lots of reconstruction going on as there always is with older buildings. We didn't go in this one as we had already had a big day and thought it would be too much for the kids. We walked around the entire site. Mum and Dad admired the architecture while Liam admired the cranes and all the work going on (we seriously stopped to watch a crane lift some large steel rods!)

The Markets -We went into two markets but Mercat St. Josep (official name) off Las Ramblas, is the most popular with tourists. We bought a few things on different occassions- coffees, delicious fresh fruit, fruit juices, pasta for lunch and almonds for snicky-snacks. Prices are better before 10am when locals shop. It was great getting such fresh produce - some just shipped in from North Africa:)

Parc de la Ciutadella - the site of a Universal Exposition in 1888, a ginormous public park with an impressive fountain structure (La Cascada) designed by a number of Catalan artists (including Gaudi). The Catalan Parliament meets in one of the buildings here, plus there's a zoo, a few museums, a play park and lots of sculptures. We ate our market lunch by the fountain one day and watched the locals 'siesta' - mostly kids playing football:)

The Beach - the Barceloneta beach is very much like the Toronto beaches in look and function and also has a boardwalk. The area was revitalized for the 1992 Olympics and the residential buildings in this area were created for the Olympic Village. We spent an afternoon at the beach - not warm enough to go for a swim, but we all had fun playing in the sand.

Montjuic - a big hill by the sea and the site of a Jewish cemetary in the Middle Ages (hence the name - Jewish Mountain), a second Universal Exposition in 1929 and most of the Olympic events & celebrations in 1992. We didn't realize the fenicular was part of the metro system and couldn't figure out how to get on it to get up so we walked - yowzers - Mark pushed the pram up! Once up, we took a cable car ride to the very top to explore the Castle and have lunch (Liam enjoyed looking at the shipping docks below). From the cable car we had great views of the city and could see the Palace on Montjuic as well. We took the fenicular down and connected with the metro back into the 'downtown'. 

The Tapas - not Catalonian, but Spanish and great for eating out with kids - you can order lots of variety and the food just keeps on coming! We went to two tapas-style restaurants. We felt confident overall with our restaurant choices as there were quite a few locals dining at each one. Mum and Dad also sampled the Sangria and Cava (Catalan champaign).

Mark went for a run early one morning down La Rambla (street) to the beach and back. He tries to run once or twice in cities we visit on holiday - he only got out once in Barcelona since he needed to finish up his project during our down time:)

My University Spanish prof would be amused at my attempt to speak Spanish in Barcelona. It wasn't required as most people do speak some English, but it definitely helped and I believe that people appreciate and treat you better if you attempt to speak their language. Although locals in Barcelona apparently speak Catalan - a mix of Provencal French and Italian - it all sounded Spanish to me, although I have been known to mix up my French and Spanish anyway.

My Spanish came in handy when ordering our white coffees (with milk - cafe con leche), cold milk (leche frio) for the kids at restaurants as milk in Europe comes warm and with sugar - we saw this in Prague too. It was also useful while shopping and for saying how old the kids were in order for Liam to get a lower chldren's rate for some tickets (Casa Mila, Cable car). The only problem was that numerous times I would be spoken back to in full-on Catalan or Spanish and have no idea what was said, then having to do the meek 'sorry?'

Most transit systems in Europe (and UK too) seem to be free for kids under 5 which is great. We bought a T10 metro pass, which we had read on travel sites was the best value for 9 €. It got us 10 rides on transit and was good for multiple people with pass-back allowed (you reading this, Toronto?) We used it for the subway and the fenicular. We had trouble getting the pram through one of the turnstiles in the metro and a group of young African guys assisted us through the right one - cheers guys!

My Spanish also came in handy when we had to go to the Farmacia (pharmacy) - one time to see if we could get an oral steroid (prednisolone) without a prescription for Gemma's new cough and a second time to get more kids paracetamol (like Tylenol). We got the paracetamol but not the steroid since I couldn't remember what her dosage was, but had I, I would have gotten it. (We took Gemma to the Urgent Care Clinic when we got back to England and she got the meds she needed.)

The only souveniers we bought were an FC Barcelona ball for the kids and a 'windy thing' for Liam - one of those things you stick in the garden and the top spins around with the wind. There were lots of other things we could've bought, but nothing we really fancied enough to lug back with us (we're also being very conservative now that we're coming back home soon and haven't got much room in our luggage).

Our taxi back to the airport was way safer than the first we took - this one was more like a minivan and the back seats had built in booster seat conversions and a child seat on hand for Gemma. Our two flights back to Manchester were similar to the flights we took there and we were split up between Dusseldorf and Manchester. Back in Manchester I had no trouble getting back into the UK with my Visa (didn't ask me if I had a job like last time - being a Stay-at-Home Mum is work enough!). We picked up the kids' car seats from excess baggage for 40£ total (not bad) and got our new car hire. When we got back to New Mills, I took Gemma straight to the Urgent Care Clinic for her cough while Mark and Liam got Fish 'n Chips.

Overall Barcelona was beautiful (the great weather definitely made it more comfortable seeing the city), the food was delicious and the people were lovely.

Photos: Facebook

Adéu,

La Familia Nicholson