As yet unnamed!

Hot Hot Hot!

Oh my gosh it's been hot. 31 today I think and forecasted to get hotter as the week goes on. Thank goodness we have 3 portable aircon units, one for each bedroom. Most shops are sold out now so I'm glad I bought back when it was still barely even warm. Noemie's room was 29 this afternoon without the aircon on with her windows wide open. Charlie's was a bit better at 25. I dread to think how badly they would be sleeping if we couldn't cool their rooms off. I stopped by the ELC this afternoon to buy a paddling pool and though this wasn't quite what I had in mind, it's cute and Noemie loves it. I was going to get a plain blue one without the roof on it but this was literally the last pool that the ELC store in Chelsea had left. No pumps either so I had to blow it up though our nanny helped. My lungs are a tad stronger than hers I think. All my years as a swimmer paid off! We had it ready for when Noemie woke up from her nap and she was so excited when she realized there was water in the big pink car. She spent a good 2 hours in there today. Despite being cold toward the end and her lips turning blue and her shaking, she refused to get out. Tomorrow I think we will add some warm water to the pool in the morning to take the edge off of the chilly water. And the insane heat from the sun should also help a bit.

Charlie hated the pool. I think it was more the cold water that he hated as he loves being in the bath and lately has been taking longer baths than Noemie. Perhaps if the water is warmer tomorrow he will be okay. He showed us his latest party trick in the kitchen today. He was able to pull up on all fours in Noemie's room over the weekend as it is carpeted but so far had been unable to do it on a more slippery surface. Today he did this on the towel on the kitchen floor and the first time he slipped but then got the hang of it. Not long until he starts crawling though he's been able to get around by doing the army crawl of sorts for a few weeks now. I'm guessing he will be walking earlier than Noemie. Guess that's not hard though considering she took her sweet old time and was 15 months! 

Off to a friend's to do some quilting tomorrow and then more fun in the paddling pool in the afternoon. Hope to get some better photos as Noemie isn't as cooperative with the photos these days. Charlie on the other hand.... he sees the camera and stops whatever he is doing and grins.

Belated Father's Day (for my Dad)

We had a lovely BBQ today with my parents. Kirk cooked up a feast and I made the usual red velvet cupcakes. Noemie was having a wonderful time playing with her grandpa. Anytime they are here my Dad gets grabbed by the hand and led around the garden and playroom and Noemie tells him what she would like him to do. Today they did a lot of puzzles and looking at books and such. Of course Noemie wanted my Dad to wear her hat as well and my Dad pretty much is happy to do anything Noemie wants him to do. 

Baba (my Mom) sat next to Noemie at lunch time and helped her with her food. The kids both went for a nap and my parents left while they were sleeping. Noemie woke up and looked around the house saying "Baba! Baba?" and then looked very sad when she couldn't find Baba. She'll see them again soon as I see my folks just about weekly.

Here is a photo of Charlie looking at Baba who was making funny faces and sounds at him. I couldn't get a good angle to fit them both into the photo unfortunately as it would've made a cute shot. Charlie was thrilled to have someone sit in the garden with him as usually he watches all the activity of his sister from his stroller or highchair. Do you like his new hat? It's the "serious" one I bought along with the fedora that Noemie has claimed (she wore it almost all day today).

Earlier in the day he was in Noemie's room (which is carpeted unlike pretty much the rest of the house) and managed to get up on all fours and rocked back and forth. Wonder when he'll start crawling? Or maybe he will be like Noemie and not bother to really crawl. Stay tuned!

Poor Charlie... what we do to him!

I went out to lunch yesterday and on my way home, I stopped to buy Charlie some more hats as the other ones we bought a few months ago are already too small! I bought one proper hat and then bought one fun one. It's a cowboy style hat made from straw with a blue gingham print fabric band around it. We made him wear it, posed him in the pink beanbag chair in Noemie's room and of course out came the camera. He was loving the attention and didn't think the hat was too bad. Noemie LOVES the hat and she kept taking it off his head. You can see her hand in the photo. Luckily Charlie isn't overly attached to things yet so the hat is now Noemie's and Charlie can wear the other one I got for him. I'll sew on a few flowers onto the cowboy hat and turn it into a cowgirl hat.




Charlie gets better and better at holding onto things and standing. We still put him in that position but he hangs on for ages, looks around, lets go with one hand from time to time, etc. I wish this photo was less fuzzy and that we could see Noemie's face more, but it's still a sweet photo nonetheless so I'm glad I got it. 

On the paint walk and other stuff

Noemie did some painting in the garden yesterday. The nanny put down a runway of paper and Noemie was running around on it with paint on her feet. We then of course told her to touch her nose, touch her cheeks and so forth and Noemie played right along. She had paint everywhere, including her hair. Luckily it all washed out easily. Our nanny was covered in paint as well, hopefully it washed out of her clothing.Our garden hose doesn't stay connected very well so Noemie just stood at the tap and played. The water is SO cold but she didn't mind. She was shivering after a while though but was so focused on splashing everyone else that it was only when she stopped that she realized how cold she was.

I managed to get what is now my favorite photo of Noemie. The lighting worked out well for once. I think I will get an enlarged print of this photo and put it up on display in the living room. She's got such a healthy glow about her from spending so much time outdoors!

Last but not least, here is Charlie enjoying some cupcake crumbs. I made some chocolate and vanilla swirled cupcakes earlier in the week and we gave him a small piece to try. Moments later he had smushed it all and was trying to put what he could into his mouth. Then he'd grimace as the texture is still strange for him. I have yet more photos taken today that are super cute but haven't had a chance to edit them just yet. Hope to do so tomorrow so I can share them.

Cute little girl!

These were taken yesterday afternoon when the kids went to the park. Noemie insisted on carrying her bag (which is full of empty plastic easter eggs). You can see Charlie in the background on the first photo. I also finally managed a photo of Noemie sniffing flowers. She loves to do this and will sniff anything that looks like a flower... so stickers, silk flowers on my scrapbook pages, etc. So cute. The last photo I had to share as it shows her cool hat. Last month we had one of the first sunny days and Noemie had no hat. So I gave the nanny some money and asked her to get a hat as they were walking past the baby shop on their way to playgroup. Totally great choice (same nanny who took the photos in my previous blog entry). 

I have more cute photos from today but it's late so I will edit and share them tomorrow!

Are we related?

I think Noemie looks quite concerned about being related to Charlie and I. Especially in the second photo! We were goofing around before bathtime and our nanny grabbed the camera and started taking photos. How's that for a well trained nanny?

Time is zooming away

I did a blog entry this morning but forgot to publish it and it's now gone so I guess I'll start over. I don't think it was anything interesting (is it ever?!?). I think I talked about this ring I bought for myself. My wedding and engagement rings get a bit snug in the summer time so I wanted a temporary ring to wear. I didn't want to spend much at all so I walked down North End Road (not the nicest place by far) and found this scary jewelry store which I think is also a pawn shop. I bought a £10 silver ring, very plain and simple, looks like a wedding band without any diamonds, etc. I was just hoping not to get mugged while in there though the couple who own the store were very nice. Kirk calls it my ghetto ring. I love that it has a story to it. It's like a souvenir of the time I didn't get mugged. 

I also shared a photo in my missing post of Noemie on the new buggy board I bought for the Bugaboo. This was taken the other day on their way out for the morning. Noemie insisted on wearing her pink high top sneakers which are a nightmare to put on. She loves them though so she got her way. 

This was taken this morning after breakfast. I think it's my latest favorite photo of Noemie. She's sitting in her old high chair which is now Charlie's chair. He had gone up for a nap and she insisted on getting into the chair again. I love her skin tone and she was having a good hair day today. I'll have to try for a photo of one of her wild hair-do's next time she wakes up with bed head.

Last but not least, Charlie shaking his maracas. I took a series of photos but thought I'd share my fav one of the lot. He gets so excited when you hand him anything musical. I swear we have the Lindstrom 2 (as opposed to the Jackson 5) in the making. Noemie loves her instruments as well so you often get the two of them banging on things in the playroom. So glad we don't have neighbors at the moment! 

Time to go to bed. It's my turn to get up in the morning with Charlie, especially as it's Father's Day! Looking forward to a fun family day tomorrow and a web cam with Nana J in the afternoon!

Nana is in an airplane!

Nana went home this afternoon much to everyone's dismay. The car service usually picks her up while Noemie is having her afternoon nap. Last visit, Noemie went for her nap and said night night and bye bye to Nana but didn't realize bye bye wasn't just a case of "see you in 2 hours". I remember her coming down after her nap, looking for her nana. I think I blogged about it. It was so sad to see, so today we decided to try another way. We kept Noemie up a tiny bit later so she could see Nana get into the car and wave as she drove off. She was a bit unsure about why Nana was getting into a car and didn't want to wave at first but finally did. She went for her nap and then when she came back down a bit later, she asked for Nana. Luckily a plane flew overhead at that moment so I pointed up and said "look! Nana is on an airplane again! Wave at Nana!" So Noemie was frantically waving and grinning. I took this photo later on when she was playing in the conservatory. The planes flew overhead every 5 minutes or so, so Noemie was pretty much waving bye bye non stop. It was cute, seemed to help her understand that Nana didn't just disappear, etc. We'll see Nana again very soon and I explained that to Noemie but who knows what she understood! 

She has been wearing her tutu for the past 3 days or so. She wakes up and wants to wear it, takes it off for her nap then it goes right back on. Tonight she was upset to have to remove it for her bath but she managed to convince the nanny to let her wear it over her pajamas after her bath. We'll see how long this obsession lasts! 

I've replied to all emails so far asking about the password for this blog so if you have emailed me and I have no replied, please try again. I'll set the password on Friday. Must go do some more sewing and then go to sleep. Am going to an all day crop tomorrow so will have to pack up some stash in the morning and hope to get a few pages done.

Family Photo and update about this blog

I thought it was time we had an updated family photo so we had Nana take a photo of us in the garden after dinner. I can't believe how much most of us have changed in the 7 months since our last family photo when Charlie was just about a month old. Noemie has grown up so much. Charlie doesn't even resemble himself. Kirk looks the same. I look a lot less fat. I swear in the older photo of myself, I look like I ate another person or something. Must get back to WW to lose the last 2-3lbs to reach goal. I'm still managing to maintain though so I have very little motivation to go back to counting points to lose more weight. Oh well. As an aside, thank goodness for Photoshop. Charlie had spit up a bit right before we took these photos but no one noticed. It was dripping down Kirk's hand and Charlie's chin (ewwwww) so I edited it all out. 

In a couple of days time, I am going to set this blog to be password protected. As the kids get older, I feel less comfortable with their photos being accessible by any random blog reader. For some reason when they were both teeny tiny, it just didn't worry me much as they almost were just little "blobs". Now Noemie is a little girl more than a baby. So, if you want to continue reading, please email me for the password.

Super busy but not much to tell!

I know I haven't blogged in a little while, just been super busy though it's nothing major that has kept me busy. Just little projects, baking, cooking and Nana J is visiting us again much to everyones delight. 

Charlie's favorite toy at the moment is this spinning top. He is mesmerized and spends ages focused on it. He isn't able to work it himself yet but when someone does it for him, he reaches out to grab it and then watches it as it comes to a stop. He had his first taste of beef today and LOVED it. He had chicken last week and thought that was pretty good as well. The thing he isn't a big fan of is breakfast. Yogurt and his milk is about all he will agree to so we don't force him. He does just fine otherwise. He has also started to sleep on his tummy and seems to sleep better that way. He took a nap this afternoon starting out on his back but then he flips over and is on his belly. I suppose as he can roll back and can also lift his head, etc., it's not a risk like it is when they are newborn. 

Noemie did a lot of painting today and Nana was her assistant, standing by to take the used brushes from her and such. Noemie is really focused on circles and dabbing her paint brush and loves all the different colored paints. Some of her finished projects look like she has painted roses so I was excited to see that this photo shows the roses outside the playroom. It's almost like she is painting them, lol! 

I've been working on a sewing project and hope to share photos soon. I'm going to an all day scrapbooking crop on Wednesday so I need to get my stuff together for that soon. It's been so long since I scrapped, I hope I can remember how to do it! Time to go to bed though I am not sure what we're doing tomorrow.