some photos from february in london… (a “life snapshot” from the first few months of 2021 is here…)

there were a few euphoric days at the beginning of the month that felt really spring-y, with the crocuses and daffodils blooming in brompton cemetery (where i often ran while the babies napped in the buggy and the boys were at school):

and then we got more snow! the same place felt totally different!

so we continued to bundle up the babies any time we left the house…

but still got some good play time in our garden square, which started blooming right away!

primary schools and most retail businesses were covid closed on through february, and we were asked to stay at home so we were at home most of the month.

moses working on some school work that his reception teacher sent home in a packet each week, while it snowed outside!:

first magnolia buds showing up, and a screenshot from the online parenting course ian and i had started working through together:

fun in the snow in the garden:

and on the way to school:

and around the neighbourhood:

chilly mornings feeding the ducks at the round pond in kensington gardens:

and more time at home, taking photos of our growing babies:

and making a slide out of the armchair and “heart attacking the walls” with paper hearts that said things we love about each other on them:

taking photos of outfits gifted to our babies to send to the gifters:

valentine’s day! we made heart-shaped pizzas the night before:

and of course our traditional heart-shaped cinnamon rolls in the morning! the kids had heart-shaped chicken nuggets and heart-shaped strawberries for lunch 🙂 :

we had our friends’ kids over for the morning, as their mama had recently had a baby.

we had done an at-home valentine’s day date night the night before. not a lot of ability for grand celebration given the covid lockdown and newborn twins, but we tried 🙂

some photos from a run to westminster abbey, which helped me feel alive amidst the bitter cold weather and the sleep deprivation that came with the babies hitting the four-month sleep regression:

our angel family-friends the schwartzes had moses and gabriel stay over at their house for two nights and three days, to give us a little break. and even though we still had two babies to care for, it really did feel like a tropical vacation! amy and rob and their girls had done the same thing back in january when we were in the middle of our move. they are absolute *angels*. i honestly have never met anyone as generous as the schwartzes – not even remotely close. they were our family in england and we love them so dearly!! here’s the boys with amy and elsa when they returned home after having such a blast:

more blooming flowers and fun in the garden – one day our friends skye, claire and grant came over and skye did face paint on all the kids! our boys were overjoyed.

gabriel being sweet with evie:

and moses reading with dad! they got through several chapter books in the early months of the year.

tummy time …

the rug is covered in plastic because gabriel potty trained in february! ian took a day off and i had a long weekend to focus on gabey and his new big-boy underwear. there were a few bumps along the way, but it went mostly smooth and our almost-three-year-old was thrilled to be done with diapers!

another afternoon in the garden… trying our hand at a family selfie and failing miserably but kind of awesomely…

ian had taken the boys to st. james’s park one sunday afternoon and sent me a photo of mo in the sea of daffodils. i knew i had to go see that yellow splendor myself so i took the babies on a run there just a few days later! evie was fast asleep when we got to the park, but auggie was awake and got to take a photo in the flowers 🙂

can you spot the london eye?

how about here, with those incredible purple crocuses?

a few mornings after daddy got the babies dressed 🙂 in clothes their aunt gifted them:

a little bit of iconic london and i need to figure out what these yellow blossoming trees are – i’m obsessed! sooo pretty:

more blooms in the garden:

and more tummy time (and loving on eve’s chub – we’d never had an even slightly chubby baby before!)

the most exciting thing that happened in february was that all four of the kids got their british passports! all officially dual citizens (we applied for citizenship for moses and gabriel when we got our permanent residency, and the babies were born brits!):

some outtakes (among the dozens i snapped to try to get a good one of all four kids, ha!):

at the end of the month we spent a saturday in the city of london (a borough of london, where most of the skyscrapers are, is called “the city of london”). ian had been wanting to run the perimeter of the city of london, the boundary of which is marked by thirteen dragon statues. i played with the boys at the tower of london playground while he did his run with the babies in the buggy, and then we took a long walk exploring.

we stumbled upon the street (which is more of an alleyway! pic on the right below) that we stayed in our very first week in london (when ian’s employer put us up in a temp housing flat):

the gherkin is by far my favourite modern building in london. i love it so much! the juxtaposition of the old and new in the city is so cool. ian was excited to find this plaque marking where the stock market was located waaaay back in 1282!:

our last stop was st. paul’s, where we got everyone out of the buggy and carriers and let them roll and run around in the sunshine. i had to take a photo of our little traveling circus as we got on the tube to go home:

and that’s a wrap on february! we were sad to miss our usual february beach vacation, but tried to make the most of cold days in london with four kids four and under!