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.

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."

Boy.

All boy.

'Scuse the flash making the letters hard to read.

He loves "the typing laptop" and asks to use it often. It's B's old work laptop so it's a clunker and stands up fairly well to, shall we say, inexperienced hands.

Dad is now in NY and planning to Amtrak it back West at some point. Having an extra pair of hands to change diapers (yes, he did! lots!), wash dishes etc was a big help! Fortunately E wasn't too traumatized by his departure and now often says "Granddad schleeping" to explain away the mysterious lack of grandfatherly presence.

B brought home a pumpkin from the local farmer's market today. I don't think they really "do" pumpkin patches here in the UK. Certainly not like they do Stateside. There isn't much of a buildup to Halloween here, which I find is refreshing yet disappointing. I don't mind the lack of emphasis on trick-or-treating, but some people are such GROUCHES about it, going so far as to put up signs on their doors warning people off. Given that there's no Thanksgiving here, as an American I always feel a little bit bereft in the autumn months... Halloween is kinda skimmed over by the majority of people, there's no late-November feast, so Christmas is a long, hyped-up wait.

Regardless, we'll be baking pumpkin pie this season (probably quite soon, with that fresh pumpkin) and I'll introduce B and E to toasted pumpkin seeds. Nom. Speaking of E and expat living, he was watching a signing show on TV (Makaton signs designed for toddlers and special-needs kids). "Giraffe" popped up. E turned to me, pointed, said "GirAffe." Turned back to the TV, said "GirAHffe." Great! Just great. At 2 and a quarter, dude already recognizes his mama talks different. Won't be long till he quits humoring me and starts correcting me. (And at that time I'll probably be tempted to suggest B takes a year-long sabbatical from work so that we can go back to MV to live for a year, for re-education, if you will.)

Speaking of the young gentleman, his quotes have been getting more convoluted, though no less funny. "OHH! Stubbed my tickles!" was a recent one. He calls the bottom of his feet his "tickles." Which tickles us. Obviously.

Another one - Dadden: "That toy has to stay in the bath for now...it's probably sleeping!" E turns, shakes his head and says "It probably wake up now!"

And he has taken to teasing me by mimicking a high-pitched yelp whenever he sees a speck-that-might-be-a-spider. Oh, the shame.

Well, we're all off to a baby event tomorrow in London since B got a free ticket through a friend. I expect it will mostly be overpriced and overhyped, but there will be deals and freebies and, apparently, play-spots with lots of toddler toys. Plus, I'm 33 weeks along now (that's technically 4 weeks until I'm considered "term") so it's probably time to look at buying a few things. Like, you know, diapers and a Moses basket. Cotton wool for wipes. Yadda yadda. And with that, swollen-ankled me is off to bed.

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

(after having refused his nap, he then crawled under the desk in the spare room... for about half of this impromptu you-aren't-the-boss-of-me nap he used my foot as a pillow)

Finally

I have one of THOSE pictures.

This kid is not much of a sleeper and never has been. He is always on the go. Today, he was so on the go that he didn't take a nap. I gave him some spaghetti for dinner. A few minutes later I looked around, only to find him keeled over, 98% done with dinner and fast asleep.

He never falls asleep in random places so I am very tickled.

"Hi, Bird!"

Splashing

"Fun 'till the Last Drop" or "Hey, Where'd All My Water Go?" - a brief photo-essay.

Dec 31, 2009

Elijah stared at the court jester, suspicion in every line of his body. But when the man bent down and lit a torch, sudden understanding flared in Elijah's eyes. He raised a tentative finger, shifted his weight expectantly.

The jester tossed the burning torch into the air and caught it. The small knot of onlookers applauded politely.

"HOT!" bellowed Elijah, pointing in earnest.

A small tittering swept the crowd. The jester turned to us and bowed. "This young gentleman is correct, good ladies and gentlemen. It is, verily, hot."

"HOT!" bellowed Elijah, still pointing.

The jester nodded again, then turned to the bulk of the crowd and began to juggle again.

"HOOOOOTTTT!!" The tiny finger waggled, whether in excitement or disapproval I could not say. Still, we beat a retreat from the courtyard, up the steps to the Great Hall....


...where Henry the 8th danced centuries ago, in Hampton Court Palace. Since we'd come early, there wasn't much going on yet, but it was far less crowded. And we did get to see some of the costumed folk and check out some other activities.

Besides, the scenery was pretty great:

And we were able to wear out a certain young fellow by letting him roam around. After this, he slept for 2 hours!


Anyhow, happy 2010 to everyone. I will catch up on some emails tomorrow, but for tonight I think I'm going to head to bed. B and I are just sitting here waiting for the clock to tick over to midnight, having watched a DVD. I've been doing a lot of cooking lately - pesto pizza, banana cake (modified from Dad's recipe), homemade bread, and, to challenge myself, a vegan meal of sweet potato and carrot soup. Which actually turned out pretty good.

This is making me sound... really... old. Well, I had a glass of wine tonight, so ha. Um, yeah. Maybe I'd better stop now. Mmhm. Good night, and happy New Year to all!

Hiccups and Pizzettes

I am awake.

I am awake because I watched the BBC's latest adaptation of Day of the Triffids (pt 1).

I am awake because I tucked my husband into bed after the show ended. As usual, we had a brief chat about our respective days (he spent his with friends out of town) and something that E did today had us in stitches of laughter.

I subsequently got the hiccups.

"There's a scratching at the window!" B said.

S... Scratching?! Triffids make scratching noises!

I yelped. Loudly. Meanwhile, B dissolved into a paroxysm of laughter, apparently under the impression that he was "curing my hiccups" by scaring me witless. Well, he cured them all right, but now I've got insomnia while he's peacefully drifting off to sleep. I oughta break out the ol' airhorn, but I thought I'd take the higher road and update my blog. (Besides, I don't even have an airhorn.)

So. Since B was away all day, I had to think of something cool for dinner. I settled on Dad's pizza recipe, which I modified slightly to make pizzettes for a certain young gentleman. Quick and easy (as long as you prep the dough and chop the ingredients in advance), they cook in less than 10 minutes.

I used a cupcake tray (oiled) and put dough bases in:


Loaded the bases with some pesto, grated mozzarella, and a bit of (cooked) sausage:


The finished product:


He couldn't wait to eat them, so I had to tear the pizettes into smaller chunks so that they cooled faster.



E's contribution to the cooking process was to drag a large amount of his toys into the kitchen and mix them up among things that he considers toys but which really aren't - like the dustpan and brush, fork, and dirty laundry that he helpfully unloaded from the washing machine. The latter isn't really his fault because I've been letting him help me unload the washing when it's done. It's actually somewhat helpful. But he's not at the stage where I can let him help me cook quite yet. He understands that the oven is hot but all those cool ingredients? They find their way to his gullet instead of into the pot.

So for now, I get this:


And that's all for now. I shall fight the urge to go out into the bitter cold and scratch at the window outside. Instead, I'll brush my teeth and go to sleep. Someone had better be grateful for this in the morning and COOK ME BREAKFAST IN BED. Just sayin'.

Overheard.... (PG13)

This morning, while B let me have a nice lie-in (we were both up with E last night at varying points). While I was lying there, I realized yet again why I am married to him.

"Come here, Mister. Do I smell something? Yes, yes I do. Ewwwww. Come here. Uuuup. Hnng, come on then. This is the second time today; how unfair! Down you go. No, don't wriggle around. Here... here's an item to hold. Oh, what a thumping chunk that is, yuck. Don't wriggle. Right, all done, up you go."

The Consequences Of...

...an extra 15 minutes of sleep:

Kaboom?

Elijah reached for Daddy's Blackberry with toddlerish determination.

Upon wresting it from his hands, he looked up excitedly and pronounced his most interesting word yet.

"Kaboom?" he asked.

"No," Daddy said. "At least, I hope not."

Washing Hands

Today we discovered a much more fun way of getting clean after one's lunch than hovering over a silly old grownup-sized sink.


He even made sure to use up allll the water in the bowl.

Mmhmmm

You haven't truly lived until you've sat through a high-falutin', gourmet breakfast in a crowded restaurant with a constantly and unrepentantly farting almost-toddler.

Strange Happenings

This morning I rose at 5:50am and took an hour and a half walk before breakfast.

Sounds romantic, doesn't it? Want to know the reality?

A certain young gentleman arose at 5:30, wanted feeding, and then was just too wide awake to go back to sleep. I wanted to let B sleep in since he needed it, and I didn't fancy riding herd on an active boy in a non-babyproofed flat. So out we went, and then I had a midmorning nap when I came back... and was awoken with a nice breakfast of French toast and tea.

The second strange happening occurred just before noon. B and I were sitting in the living room when we heard drums. My first thought was Oh NO... is it the neighbors? Are we going to have problems again?!

B sat upright and said, "Is that... a brass band marching down the road? Because it sure sounds like one."

Turns out, he was right. It was a brass band.



This evening, I expect there'll be a circus trundling through the neighborhood, or perhaps a skydiver landing on the roof, or maybe I'll run into Michael Jackson or something. Don't strange things tend to happen in threes? Stay tuned!

WRIGGLE

An after-bath wriggle:

Still catching up on reams of email, life is massively busy, but good.