A new adventure...

It's the end of an era! After almost ten years living in Edinburgh, I am heading back to the good ol' USA in April. 

I arrived in this beautiful city in 2005 — a fresh-faced 22-year-old whose biggest worry was understanding her Scottish professors. I thoroughly enjoyed my Master's degree, working in several different labs and transitioning from science to children and freelance writing. 

I've fully embraced life here (I even got a British drivers license after all) and really love the laid-back, international feel of Edinburgh. The architecture (everything and I mean everything looks like a castle), the accents and, above all, the people make it really hard to leave. 

To all my friends here — THANK YOU! You have been like family to me. You really have. Please know you have an open invitation to visit us in Seattle any time you can (well, maybe wait a few months until we are moved out of my parent's house!). 

To all my friends in Seattle — sorry for being a beast about keeping in touch! Can we be friends again? If you're reading this, then there's a chance. I'm still fairly cool, just with more squinty eye wrinkles and a huge dependence on tea.

Some of the many memories:

Halloween 2010. No caption needed really. Wow. 

March 2012. The top of Arthur's Seat (7 mths pregnant).

June 2010. The Edinburgh half marathon.

2006. Snagged myself a trendy Irish bf.

August 2010. Francie visiting for the Fringe!

December 2010. Making snowmen on our lunch break. 

May 2012. Baby Freddie. 

December 2014. Elsie and Santa at Dad's Rock.

June 2011. Breakthrough lab. 

November 2014. On the way to the City Chambers!

2008. Sistahs out on the town.

October 2014. Quite a different Halloween than in the pic above!

December 2013. With Freddie's friend Rhea in Holyrood Park.

Happy 9 months, Elsie!

Elsie is 9 months old! Woahhhhhhhhh. How did that happen? If my math is correct, that means she'll be a year old in just 3 more months. She's a busy gal these days — crawling, 'speaking' (gagagaga, dadadada), pulling herself up, standing and snuggling. She loves playing with the train set with her older bro, splashing in the bath (and during swimming lessons), reading Goodnight Moon, standing up by the toy kitchen, trying to get her hands on Freddie's Big Bird and Baby Kearns, crawling away as fast as she can when it's time to change her diaper and eating rice cakes. What a gal! Boy do we love her. Happy 9 months Els!

Can't believe Mama found the sticker!

Go Hawks! Excited for the big game Sunday.

We know that one!

Huddling together for warmth

Freddie has been really into music lately. He always sings himself a few songs before he falls asleep at night, sometimes adjusting the lyrics to fit the day/his mood ('Twinkle twinkle little pizza'). And one of our favorite activities is an after-dinner dance party — we blast 'Skip to My Loo' and take off down the hall or get every stuffed animal down from the shelves and throw them in the air (watch out Elsie!) while singing along to Raffi's version of 'Pick a Bale O'Cotton.'

Speaking of perhaps the biggest musical influence of my childhood other than my dad, we recently received some fantastic Raffi CDs from my parents. Some kids songs can really grate on your nerves, with the overly enthusiastic vocals and extremely peppy music, but Raffi is actually quite enjoyable to listen to. 

A lot of the songs on the CDs were new to us, but every time one was played that Freddie knew (either because we have it on another CD or I sing it around the house), he shouted "We know that one!!!!" very excitedly. It's like he's so into his own world that he can't believe that other people (my parents) know the same songs we do. 

'Baby Beluga' came on. "We know that one!" Then 'Apples and Bananas' and 'Down on Grandpa's Farm.' "WE KNOW THAT ONE!!!" "WE KNOW THAT ONE!!!" It was really cute to see him so excited.

Then, yesterday when we were out in the FREEZING cold (I cannot stress enough how cold it was) watching William run the Edinburgh Great Winter Run, he waddled (in a pair of sweats, sweater, snowsuit, jacket over the snowsuit, hat, wellies, etc.) through the snow and hail with me and Elsie over to watch the runners get warmed up to go. As usual, they had a very fit individual leading the shivering public in some pre-run exercises to some very loud, high-energy music. 

With the song blasting in our ears, Freddie in his semi-frozen state looked up at me with a huge smile on his face and said "Mama - We know that one!!!" It was Taylor Swift's "Shake it Out." 

Right before it started snowing

Wishing I'd brought my hat.