17 February 2019

York - Old and New

October 2014
In October 2014, we went on our first ‘big’ trip with our older kid. She was 2 years and 2 months old. We went to York. It was a 2 1/2 to 3-hour train journey. She sat on the train, watched Peppa Pig, we got there, she played in a play park the evening we got there, went to the National Railway Museum the next day, took the train back. I remember nothing significant about the trip, in regards to our kid, except that I had to change her on a bench in a park the evening we were in town.

In February 2019, we went on our first ‘big’ trip with our younger kid. He was 2 years and 2 months old. We went to York. It was a 3 to 4-hour car journey. It was not as pleasant of a trip.

Our second kid doesn’t travel well.

There was a the 30-min tantrum that went on in the car while we were driving down to England. There was the not wanting to sit on during the 30-min train ride from where we were staying into York. There was the (short) loud tantrum (including throwing things) at the National Railway Museum. There was the seemingly never-ending crying/whining/complaining that happened on the drive back to Edinburgh.

Other than that, the trips were very similar. I took our buggy (same buggy, BTW), with a kid in it, up a bunch of stairs to get onto the walls of York, and down again. We went to National Railway Museum. We saw Geese.

Other than the fact that I will always remember our first trip with one kid as being very easy, and our first trip with the other kid as being very difficult, they were basically the same.

But that one thing, though.

I’m not looking forward to flying anywhere with our kids, like, say New York...at least not anytime soon.

February 2019

09 February 2019

Court

A few days ago, I sat in the courtroom at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court, for the fifth time. The first four times are documented here.

This time around, things (at least in court) went the way they are supposed to go. We were in the presence of the judge for less than 5 minutes and, just like that, our second kid was adopted.

Getting to this stage was quite another story. With our older kid, our first court appearance was about 6 months after she moved in with us. In this case, it was nearly a year. I thought about going into why it took so long, but I’m not really sure, other than shoddy social work being done, at every step of the way.

I’m glad it’s done, and now our lives can move on, and I hope I never need to be in the Edinburgh Sheriff Court again.