First Day...

...of Reception (Kindergarten). 

He was very excited to set out in his big kid uniform with his own book bag.

I went up the hill to have a nice hot cuppa in a cafe with one of the other mothers.  Then C and I went home, made lunch, and picked E up at the gates at 11:45.  He can go half-days until he becomes acclimated... but given his gung-ho attitude I don't think he'll be needing to do many half-days!

The teacher assessed his reading skills and started him on Level 2 Blue, whatever that means... but he liked the book he got today so much that he read it right away after lunch.  He will be bringing a reading book home every night, and two for the weekends. 

Exciting times!

The Last...

...day of preschool for E was in mid-July.  The summer holidays are shorter in the UK than I'm used to (6 weeks).  Although for E it will be more like 8-9 weeks total because he'll only be starting full-time in mid-September, to give him a chance to be gradually introduced into Reception (Kindergarten).

Here he is, with his "smile face" on his last day of preschool.

 And with little sister....

We have been busy in the run-up to E's 4th birthday on Sunday.  Last weekend we went to Legoland.  Tomorrow we are going to ride on the London Eye because under-4's are free, and this will be E's last chance to get on without paying.  On Monday we're going to be having a party at our local soft-play area - have invited a bunch of his school friends.  Looking forward to the chaos without resulting clean-up!

Dec Misc

We are counting down to Christmas, with several packages from the USA under the tree and one slightly impatient little boy. He wakes up and asks "Is it Christmas yet?" although he is somewhat mollified by being able to open the advent calendars. (Yes, plural. We have two! Why not?)

Both kids are a little under the weather - today and yesterday E has been coughing, and C's been hoarse and snotty. I caught it too, but was able to shake it off after a few days... hoping it won't last long for the kids.

This little girl turned 1 on the 9th:

She very much enjoyed her chocolate cake.

She would like to let everyone know that this is what a proper kiss looks like:


This little boy went to his school's fete (winter fundraiser) and requested "stars" on his face. He wound up with a gorgeous night sky and stood out most wonderfully from all the generic Spidermans running around.


He is off preschool until January. We hit the Museum of London yesterday which he enjoyed, but was feeling too under the weather to really get into. We also recently tried out the fondue set that B and I received as a wedding present. It was an interesting experiment. I think E enjoyed it more than B or I did. He kept dipping and dipping and forgetting to eat!

He and his sister do get along splendidly overall, despite photos like the following....


C continues to keep us on our toes by carrying out frequent fridge raids:

"Hmm? Blueberries? On the floor? Who coulda done that?"

"Okay, I admit it. I'm triumphant...

"...and I ate THIS many before you made it into the room!"

And I'm off to bed before one of the hooligans wakes.

2 and a Half

2 1/2 is a fun age so far.

It's the age where he says things like...

"I'm going to go hide behind that tree over there!"

and

"I'm sneaking up on you!"

He is getting more and more confident every week. We can see a marked difference between today and just a few months ago - he can climb the ladders in the park by himself, negotiate tricky rope bridges without hand-holding, and is running at warp speed now.

A few photos from the Imperial War Museum last weekend:

At the controls of the submarine.

More submarine antics.

Big tank. Don't ask me what kind, I was too busy chasing after him to read about it.

Going through the air raid shelter.

Listening to air raid alarms.

Callie's wheels, compared to those of bygone days.


Watching WW2-era cartoons.


Text reads: The day will come when the joybells will ring again throughout Europe, and when victorious nations, masters not only of their foes but of themselves, will plan and build in justice, in tradition, and in freedom - Winston S. Churchill, Jan 20th, 1940.

Gadding about outside.

Today we took a long walk on the nearby common. Even though it was still chilly, the sun was out and made a noticeable difference. We all really enjoyed being outside.

Callie is growing.


And things in general, are going well. B and I celebrated our 4th anniversary this week :)

Haircut

Still behind on emails... sorry... I have a fair few in the Drafts folder half-finished and then I lose my train of thought and feel the need to start a new email altogether and then something crops up and...

Well, I'd better finish this post before it's too late!

E got a haircut on Friday. He went from mop-top...

...to this:

Callie is doing well. We had one bad night where both of us were roused at midnight and didn't really get any sleep after that, but fortunately that hasn't happened since. We think it was because she was sick. Now, however, she seems fine, and even quite smiley...

Today (Sunday) was a bit of a miserable day. We went to the Imperial War Museum but E goes downhill in the afternoons (lack of nap) so by the time we were back home we were all a bit snipy and run down.

Saturday, however...





Ok - picture overload, and it's bedtime for me.

Brain Mush

C is not a bad sleeper at all, but I do miss getting large chunks of uninterrupted sleep. It makes some things harder. For example:

E: "What's dat?" *pointing at a wet, decaying leaf on the ground*
Me: "That's a decomposing leaf."
E: ?
Me: "Oh. Uh, it's disintegrating.
E: ?
Me: "...er, it's... old... and falling apart."
E: "OK."

Lately we have been....

...cooking and decorating gooey (too gooey, didn't cut well, but tasted good!) gingerbread men and cookies.


Having elaborate tea parties with bears, monkeys, etc. (All practice for cooking me breakfast in bed at some point.)

Eating pasta out of new bowls with forks, at the grownup table.

Sort-of-playing board games, which at E's age consists of lining up the little tokens and knocking them over with dice.


And enjoying smiley baby, of course!

Will leave you with one last conversation:

E: "I want to go up through the roof in a rocket to the sky very high."
B: "In a rocket? It might be scary."
E: "Yes, it would be scary. There might be an owl."

Birthday

E turned two this week. We had a barbecue on Saturday, which got rained out 2/3 of the way through but was enjoyable anyhow. A certain young gentleman needed a nap halfway through, so we saved half the cake with candles for him to blow out...

Sunday we went for a late morning ramble on Wimbledon Common.



After all that, he was tired, demanded "cuggles" and was carried back to the windmill/tearoom


...where he drank half a strawberry smoothie and snacked on fruit/pitta bread. Nothing like a walk in nature to make a day better.