What...

have we been up to in November so far? Well... playing with B's iPad (both kids love it, although we're limiting its use)...


...eating a BIG chocolatey Halloween treat...

...playing lots. This girl loves to push buttons. She seems to have quite a bit of manual dexterity. If she looks stern in that photo, it's only because she's about to make a move for my camera, which has lovely shiny buttons...

...and eating us out of house and home.

I turned around for 5 seconds and there she was rummaging away! Once I determined there was nothing open (read: messy) she could grab, I got the camera. Please excuse her brother's hand-me-down pyjamas. They were so comfy, I had to keep them. Pure fleece, which is great with the weather getting colder.

In and around all this, we're coping with a broken dishwasher. Yes, it's completely borked, fixing it would cost as much as buying a new one, BUT here's the thing - it's an integrated dishwasher, so it's going to be damned difficult (and expensive) to replace. It's the landlady's responsibility, but on the other hand, she's not raised the rent in two years.... so frankly, rather than be priced out of the area, I'd rather do dishes by hand. Which we are, and have been doing, for the past several weeks. Coping. Yes, just about. My hands are really clean. Unfortunately, however, it looks like the washer/dryer is on the fritz too. Fortunately, it's just the dryer part... so far. Great timing with winter, but... could be worse. Right? Did I just jinx myself? I probably did.

Baby C took two unaided steps yesterday. I don't think she meant to, but she did anyway - from one cruising point to another. She turns 11 months tomorrow. My instinct says she'll be awhile yet before taking more unaided steps, but I'll be keeping my eyes peeled. Speaking of big moments and milestones, her first word may have been "Wow." I've heard it on two different occasions but I'm not 100% sure, because she doesn't tend to repeat it on command.

Well, off to catch up on emails... okay, who am I kidding... I'm going to read some, promise mentally to reply, and then fall into bed anyway.