Lazy Weekends in a Grey City

London is edging into winter. The quickly shortening days have taken on a monotonous quality of overcast skies and pervasive dampness. Sometimes it rains here, sometimes not, but no matter - it always seems wet. The clouds above Britain rest lower in the sky than anywhere else I know. They are clamped down on this city like a heavy lead plank; I've wondered whether it's claustrophobia and not the greyness that compels so many here to covet sunnier climes.

It's too soon to rank our new daily endurance against the notorious (though overated) Chicago winter. Certainly it's warmer here and the climate is less volatile. No big differences day to day, week to week. No surprises of waking up to 6 inches of snow or tempatures sharply dipping below zero. In London, it is what it is - every day.

During this transition, we have begun to cherish some quiet, lazy weekends at home on Hamilton Terrace. Like for all of you, the autumnal chill sparks the preturnatural urge to nest - a welcome reprieve from the weather and a perennial coda to the flurry of endless summer activities and the new school year routine. So much so and more for us this year as we have (dare I say) successfully transitioned to a different life far from Chicago. Our new home is all set; there's not much more for us to do in terms of fixing up and reorganizing. Not owning a car (nor intending to get one) is part of our experience; though we get around town just fine it clearly impacts how we live every day. It slows us down but don't jump to the conclusion that's a bad thing.

The family didn't leave the house yesterday. After a typically tiring work/school week for all of us, Saturday was a blissful mix of sleeping in, building towering skyscrapers out of Legos, painting, Chutes & Ladders, eating, napping, Peppa Pig, tidying up, bathtime, reading, and moments of doing absolutely nothing. Take one guess at Daddy Pig's favorite activity.

In this cheerful slow moving time, the kids continue to grow, to express themselves, to become whomever they'll be next, at least for a short while. Sarah is not walking yet, but she's close. She can now climb an entire flight of steps. She knows us by name, even if she can't yet speak. She's into everything her brothers do; there is no scrum she'll avoid no matter what potential harm she might incur. She is a little lady and she is one of the boys. Zach is Spiderman. With his precarious balancing moves on steps, walls, bathtubs, and bunkbeds, he most certainly will hurt himself someday. He is a chef and a grocer, so filled with joy at the mini-grocery cart and kitchen we gave him for Hanukkah. He is a big brother with a heart of gold and hands of steel; he is a little brother with such reverence for Ben. He is our court jester and our sensitive little boy. Ben is our artist, our painter, our speller and nascent reader, our serious one who belly laughs at Zach's goofiness. Ben is a kickboxer. He loves his Sunday morning class, to which he and I take the bus (the 46 or 187, he always reminds me) each week. Ben flags down the bus on the way there and presses the stop button on the way home. He loves challenges and games and will tell you the most important thing is having fun - when he loses. He's our little leader and so very, very sweet.

Tracy and I are loving watching all of this unfold before us. And on occasion getting away ourselves. Indeed, last night, Zoe, our sitter, watched the kids for the evening and we met up with some of the fellow parents from LJS for drinks at The Freemasons Arms, a lovely gastropub in Hampstead. Really nice people, really nice time.

We leave for the States in five days from now - a 3 week trip to Chicago, Michigan, and Arizona. We're so looking forward to seeing family and friends. A good remedy for some of the post-Thanksgiving homesickness that has crept up on us. After that long of a trip I'm sure we'll be ready to get back to "normal" life in London in early 2008, but for now we're excited to get through this busy week and land at O'Hare on Friday afternoon. See many of you soon.