Life with Lotus Maria and Lucian Stone

We had a couple days in London before we left and though I swore I wouldn’t do any shopping since the US dollar is in pathetic shape and the exchange rate was the worst I had ever experienced. With that said I still couldn’t resist a quick troll through the huge Oxford Circus Topshop. Kate Moss had released a line of clothing that I couldn't care less about, but that seemed to be enough to convince my husband that I needed to go in. Oh and it was raining and he didn't want to get wet. Nate was sufficiently annoyed and traumatized by the sheer size of it all. After that experience we needed a quieter stroll than the Oxford Street hustle and bustle, so Nate ducked down a side street with Lotus in the stroller and ended up right in front of Vivienne Westwood (see I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried) I popped in quickly and though I could never in my wildest dreams afford anything there for myself these adorable shirts for Lotus and Logan fit into my budget.


We met up with Andrea, Glen and Logan a bit later by Buckingham Palace. I wanted to make sure I got some photos of Lotus in front of touristy places, since a) she will never remember this trip and b) if the US dollar keeps tanking this might be her only visit to the UK. I now have proof that she has been to England.



After our photo op The Stanton-Pearls and Covington-Burrows spent some time wandering around galleries until both children had enough. As we headed back to the tube I saw a woman walking towards us that looked remarkably like Chelsea Clinton and then I looked at the man she was talking to and he looked like Bill Clinton. Yup, we walked past Bill and Chelsea Clinton and I even got to say hello. I am not ashamed to say that I screamed so loud for Andrea that she thought something had happened to Lotus. We ran back after them, so she could bask in the glory of the former president. I wished I had been quicker and gotten a photo with Lo, but Chelsea had this universal look on her face that all daughters have towards their fathers, no matter how famous, of can’t we just do what we came to do and stop dawdling.

I have to assume that he was there to be part of the Tony Blair resignation that took place during our visit. Most of the people we talked to seemed mixed about Blair's resignation, that felt he had done great things, but his legacy will be the Iraq War. The English seemed pleased with Gordon Brown as his replacement, but as always when I travel no one in England or Portugal was mixed when it came to US politics and they would have preferred our president was stepping down

It was a great sighting to end a great trip. The next morning we boarded our flight home.


The flight home was not nearly as easy as the flight there. You are chasing the sun, so it's always light and thus Lotus never slept. At hour seven she kept pointing to the door of the plane and saying "Mommy, go." She didn't quite get that we were moving and we weren't just keeping her in this space as some sort of psychological torture. She never broke down, but did jump up and down in her seat for an hour. The Virgin airlines staff was a great help at keeping her entertained.

Needless to say we survived and now we are home.

I was determined to get at least one family photo on our trip.

And I think this photo of Andrea and Glen is just too cute. They are obnoxiously perfect.

Our trip was wonderful in many ways, but the best was having Lotus meet her Auntie Andrea and Uncle Glen. Glen was so wonderful with Lotus and she adored him as you can see in these photos.

Playing at the playground
Lotus in her new swim suit. Having fun in Olheu
Drawing with the boys
The movie star

A few shots from our days at the beach

Photographer turned model




The Pearl Stanton clan
Lotus walking to the beach

I love these pictures of Lotus in Loule.

Hip Hop Lotus


Happy Lotus

Market day in Loule.

We went to the saturday market in Loule, a small town in the hills. We mixed in with the Portuguese shoppers and the German tourists.





Lotus with her new Italian friend Greta.


Logan rocking out by the pool

Our week in Portugal was amazing. We had an adorable condo that was perfect with a kitchen and laundry. It also had a large pool complex with a playground, so the first day as we all got accustomed to our surroundings we hung out there. After the kids went to sleep we cooked dinner which we ate on the lovely the outdoor patio. There was a great beach very close by and a better one not far off.

Every other day we explored a nearby town. Each one was picturesque, the architecture was amazing with beautiful Moorish buildings and cobblestone streets filled every tiny village. Every town had a pedestrian area so we didn’t have to worry about cars mowing down our kids. A lot of the towns felt very similar to central america, but with out all the people with big guns.

And the people were wonderful. It wasn’t quite tourist season so most towns were pretty quiet and we had the beaches almost to ourselves. Restaurant staff did the best to entertain the kids or give us big tables to spread out. At the condominium complex we were probably the youngest guests by 20 years, so we either the staff that was happy to have some younger company or the guests that missed their grand kids.

It took a few tries before Lotus got the hang of the beach. Nate kept getting stressed out that she was eating the sand, but after showing her how to dig, make sand piles or collect shells her taste for sand started to fade. She wasn’t crazy enough to try to go into the freezing water. Only Nate and Glen thought that was a good idea. The last day there it was pretty hot, so I dove in for a second, but the Atlantic is not my thing. I love the water and the ocean, but I have now been in the Atlantic a few times and I must say it’s mean and nasty as far as oceans go.

We all flew to Portugal together on Thursday May 3rd. The flight was a breeze. There were a ton of kids on the flight. We flew Easy Jet, which has open seating, like Southwest Airlines, but they encourage all the families to sit in the same area of the plane and allow you to take an extra seat for your kid, even though you didn’t pay for it. Which made the 3-hour flight effortless. Lotus was great and so was Logan on his very first plane ride. It makes it so much easier to travel with four adults. Sometimes Andrea and Glen had all the kids, sometimes we did, and sometimes we had each other’s children. You get the point. Maybe polygamy isn’t such a bad idea…you’d have a couple extra wives or husbands to help out with the kids, but I guess the odds are if you had additional spouses you’d have additional kids as well.

In Andrea's copious amount of spare time with a new kid, who doesn't sleep, she some how managed to throw a launch party for her friend's photography book. So we stashed the babies with a sitter and got a night out. Oh how times have changed, one night out in London and we were home by 11pm, but we had a blast.

Lotus and the Millennium Bridge



Lotus and the Hyde Park Geese


Dancing in Hyde Park


Lotus and Bay-bee Logan

Once Glen got home we put the kidlet’s to bed and had a birthday dinner for Nate with several bottles of wine.

Nate celebrated his 37th birthday while we were in London. Glen had to work but the rest of us boarded the tube in the morning and headed to the Tate Modern. Now in SF to ride public transportation you are supposed to take the child out of the stroller (or push chair in Londonese) fold up the stroller and then somehow pick up your kid and your stroller when you board and then hold on to both as the MUNI lunges about. (I never do this by the way, people can glare all the want, but my kid should be strapped into a stroller if I don’t want her running all over the train car) On the tube they have designated areas for both Wheelchairs and Strollers. And though there are stairs on some of the Tube stops, the actual Tube doesn’t have any, so you can just wheel the damn thing on. This is just one of the many reasons families do not leave London in the droves that they leave SF, even though it’s just as if not more expensive to live there.
When we arrived at the Tate Modern tube stop it was another beautiful day. We sat outside for coffee and to let Lotus blow off steam time before venturing in to my most favorite modern art museum. May 1st, along with being my love’s birthday, is World Worker Day, so some of the galleries were closed in solidarity with the unions, but we did see some fabulous art in the open galleries. The museum is so huge I doubt we would have even made it into additional galleries, even if they were open. The best part was they have these amazing kids stations to get the children interested in the art and thinking about the impact of art and keep them happy in an art museum. Nate and I would take turns playing with Lotus at the stations while the other checked out the galleries. We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around and got Nate a bday pint in a cute pub with outdoor seating.

Several months ago we applied for Lotus Maria’s U.S. Passport and I have to give the US passport agency big props. We applied just after the passport regulations changed which meant that everyone traveling to Mexico and Canada now needed a passport. Thus a lot more people were applying for passports and the applications for US citizens born in another country were getting thoroughly scrutinized and often the applicants were requested to supply additional paperwork. A few weeks after we sent in Lotus’ application we got a letter stating that her application was incomplete and we needed to supply additional information. I headed down to the passport agency with Lotus’ adoption file in hand and a very nice woman took some of the my most prized possessions, Lotus’ Guatemalan passport, her original birth certificate and many of her adoption documents. Lotus’ name is different on every single one of these pieces of paper and I can barely keep it straight. I begged her to make copies and let me keep the originals, she smiled very nicely, told me not to worry they would keep it all straight and return it with her US passport. Having great trust issues with government agencies I doubted ever word she said and decided that since she was so nice was she had to be completely incompetent.
I came home and told Nate that not only would Lotus never get a passport, but also every piece of paper proving that she was a citizen was out of my possession, and in all likelihood gone forever. I followed up with some calls, but since Lotus didn’t have a social security number yet there was no way to track her file. Then one glorious morning the FedEx man delivered a package and in it was Lotus’ passport and all of her paperwork. So I say US passport Agency you rock!
As they say have passport will travel, so we traveled.






The end of April we hopped a flight to London to visit my very good friends Andrea and Glen and their new adorable kiddo Logan. Lotus was awesome of the flight to London. She didn’t make a peep; she played with her new toys and slept for a good portion of the 10 ½ hour trip. Though our little one is a seat hog and took up all her seat and most of ours as well.

We arrived in London and were blessed with several days of amazing weather. Thank god global warming is paying off somewhere. We chilled in Andrea and Glen’s amazing yard and went to their nearby park. Lotus was great with baby Logan (or Bay-bee as she called him). And Lotus immediately fell in love with Andrea and Glen, though I think in all fairness Glen is her new favorite person on the planet.