History

You'd think that leaving the house with a little kid would be pretty easy for people who pulled off an international move, wouldn't you?  It turns out that struggles of toddlerhood don't change just because the national flag does.

Last Friday my 11 year old, 7 year old, 2 year old, and I  took a field trip into London.
We rode the train in just like the last time, but this time we needed to change stations in London and take a connecting tube ride to our Natural History Museum destination.

Thanks to Google Maps, this should've been pretty simple.
However, people who know me well know that I'm not the best navigator.  My husband really picks up the slack in that department.
He's usually the one keeping us on schedule while I'm the one randomly pointing out stuff we should go see and commenting on the interesting shape of a transom or something.

You have to admit those windows are pretty cool.

I had to really focus to make sure we were on the right path.

I was doing fine until Gracie REFUSED to hold my hand and no form of coercion could get her to cooperate.  

The only reason I didn't throw her over my shoulder and get right back on the train to go home was because I didn't think it would be fair to the big kids.  I relented and let her hold one of their hands instead.

Problem is, she frequently changed her mind about which hand she wanted to hold, and would try to pull away from them.  

It scared both the kids and I every time she tried to jerk away.  

Lots of People + Busy Traffic ≠ Safe Environment for Free-Roaming Preschooler

In the middle of one of the busiest train stations in England, I could be found crouched down on her level giving her my "You WILL hold hands and let me carry you down the (many) stairs, or we will go home" threat.  I'm sure moms throughout history have employed this tactic.

Duchess Kate knows the struggle.

The kids and I were a little huddle of childhood in the middle of a sea of grown-ups buzzing back and forth to catch their trains and get to work.

One time I pierced through that buzz with my "mom-snap," though. 

(In our house a "mom-snap" is when you loudly snap your fingers to get the attention of your child when they aren't alert to what's going on. Usually I save it for when we are in a hurry or something is very important, like their safety.)

When I accompanied my mom-snap with a firm "Pay attention," a professional looking gentleman standing nearby quickly put his phone down and looked up, as if getting himself in line to disembark the train with us.

See, mom-snaps work. 

Anyway, we departed the train and made our way through the posh Kensington neighborhood to the Natural History Museum.

The museum was massive but our favorites exhibits were the dinosaurs.

We saw the most in-tact Stegosaurus skeleton in existence. (Only one leg bone is missing. And those are real bones, not plaster.)

The Diplodocus that previously called Hintze Hall home for the past 40 years has recently been replaced by a 25.2 meter (82.6 foot) blue whale skeleton.

It's presence is "intended to be a reminder to visitors that humanity has a responsibility to protect the biodiversity of our planet."

As anyone with small children knows,  you can't linger in any one spot at a museum.  Luckily I really enjoyed just seeing the Romanesque building itself while we kept moving.  There were many other wings of exhibits, but the central hall was by far my favorite area.

Monkeys scaling the flying buttresses are probably a tribute to Charles Darwin, 

of whom a statue is prominently displayed in the hall.

A slice of a 1,335 year old Giant Sequoia that was cut in 1891 can justify such a majestic display location.

Our trip in to London wasn't a really long one because Gracie, at 2, still NEEDS a nap and I wanted to make it back to the train before she had a meltdown.

On the tube ride back to the train station, she couldn't even keep her head up... and neither could her big sister.

Getting out of the house with Gracie isn't always easy -- she even refused to get in a carseat the other day, resulting in us having to decline a ride by a fellow American mom to go meet some other American moms and kids -- but it will get easier.  We love our girl and want to have lots of fun experiences with her.

Here's proof that she's doing just fine for anyone who thinks she's just cranky all the time.

We've also instituted a zero-tolerance policy on hand-holding in public: she must hold a parent's hand at all times, lest she be carried home like a sack of potatoes.  Jon is fully prepared to pick up groceries on the way home from work if we have to abandon a trip to the store because of this.  

I doubt it will take long for her to get the picture, though. 

As strong-willed as she is, her brother was just as tough and he too hated the carseat.

He grew out of it and turned out pretty sweet. 

Let's just hope history repeats itself.