As yet unnamed!

Then and Now

What a difference 7 months makes! The first photo was on her way to nursery and the second photo was taken the day after her last day. I'll admit I forgot to take a photo on her last day.   

So grown up! 

Yet another catch up

Noemie finished nursery for the summer so Kirk and I bought her a whole bunch of "people" -- she likes the little toy people and makes them line up for things, go in her toy airplane on holiday or to playdates, etc, along with an amusement park toy set. Charlie got a pirate ship which somehow became part of the amusement park set up. Here is Noemie before bedtime lining up all her people to have a turn on the merry go round. It actually turns and plays music as well. There was another part to it, the ferris wheel, which I will buy soon to add to the collection. It's part of the ELC's Happyland set and she has a few other bits of it already. I'd love to collect all of the set as they are just so cute, durable and Charlie loves it all too. 

I've taken a photo of Noemie from her last day at Nursery so I will have to download that and do a comparison with the photo we took on her first day of nursery in January. She starts again on September 1st and has one of her teachers again and then a new teacher. I'm happy she has one of her former teachers but sad that our favorite teacher won't be with her as she teaches the younger class. Noemie is all excited to go back to school already. In fact, on Thursday we had a playdate here and the other girls go to school afterwards. Noemie asked if she could go as well so I called and they had space for her she went for an extra afternoon! Makes a change from the early days when she hated going.

Over the weekend we went to her friend Hannah's house for lunch and enjoyed some gorgeous Japanese food. Hannah's Mom is Japanese so we have great fun chatting to each other in Japanese as well. Another friend of theirs, Silvana, was also there with her parents and it was her birthday on Saturday so I made some cupcakes so we could all sing happy birthday to her. It was a lovely time!

Yesterday we had Hannah and her Mom over in the afternoon. Noemie had earned herself a bicycle for successfully pooing on the toilet for a number of times. Long may it continue! There is a local bicycle shop so we all went there for a test pedal and this is the one Noemie chose. There were other nicer ones that I would've preferred for her to have, but this was the one she insisted on and as it had the safety features and there was nothing wrong with it, I figured it's her bike so she should get to choose it. I think the sparkly streamers on the hand bars and the dolly chair on the back not to mention the purple color were the decisive factors. And yes, she has a helmet, in fact she now has two, but she was just posing for the photo hence the lack of head gear. She needs to practice a little bit as she doesn't understand that she can pedal in full circle. Meaning, she will start with her right foot, pedal until her leg is extended then rather than repeat with her left leg, she will stop, return the pedal to the starting position and go again with her right leg. Doesn't go too far! She loves it though so that's all that really matters. After buying the bicycle they had to tune it, etc., so we all went to Baskin Robbins for some icecream. We are there so often that they all know us there. Charlie had his usual vanilla, Noemie had her chocolate and Hannah got the blueberry icecream and ended up with a very nice blue mouth. Hannah and Noemie both insisted on sitting next to Charlie. He is such a lucky boy to have a nice big sister like Noemie and all her lovely little friends who love him and take care of him as well. Hannah stayed for dinner and then it was bathtime/bedtime for everyone. I was on my own last night as Kirk was gone on a business trip but the kids went to bed so easily and slept until 8am. 

I have a busy few days ahead of me with Knit Nation which starts this Thursday. I'm signed up for 6 classes and some hardcore yarn shopping. So excited but have a bit of homework left to do (need to make a few swatches for my bind off class) so I better get back to it! 

Disneyland? Nah, just Waitrose

I forgot to share this from last week. Having got my car started again, Noemie really wanted to go somewhere so she could sit in her "red chair". We have two of the same carseats but I had bought a black one for Noemie and then when it was time for Charlie's I bought a red one. Noemie has decided she likes the red one better though at times she'll sit in the black one. She calls the red one the "new" carseat and says Charlie can have the "old" one. Neither one have been used very much so they're both kinda new. 

Anyway, I needed stuff for the house so we decided to go to Waitrose by car. The kids then sat in the trolley and I'm not sure the weight limit was 15kg total or 15kg per child but in any case they both sat and thought it was the coolest thing. It was like I had taken them to Disneyland or something. Usually I see kids crying in grocery stores as they don't want to be there but these two were being so noisy with their laughing and tickling each other. Poor Susanna was trying to manouver the trolley around the store which must've been quite heavy. 

Playdate, dancing Charlie and our weekend so far

As usual, we had a playdate this past week. We went to her friend Silvana's house and there were about 9 kids there total. It was a bit insane and just a few too many kids. 5 seems like a good number as most of the Moms agree. Sometimes it's hard not to invite more though as they all get along so well and you don't really want to leave anyone out. Luckily it's not often that 9 kids show up. 

This is Noemie with her boyfriend Nicolas. We went to his birthday party back in March and they have been playing together ever since. They go to school on the same days as well. He has had a big crush on her and is often seen chasing her around trying to give her hugs and kisses. Sometimes she reciprocates, other times she plays hard to get. The other little girls like him too but they do all the chasing. He is a very polite and well mannered little boy and his Mom and I get along really well. He adores Charlie as well (Nicolas has a kid brother also). Next Fall some of the girls are going to school in the morning but luckily Noemie and Nicolas will be going together in the afternoon so they will have each other to play with. 

Charlie loves to dance. I think he learned from Noemie but he has moves of his own. This was the other morning when Noemie was still asleep and before Susanna showed up. He likes to have his morning milk (still out of a bottle which is not a good thing, but hey, we're lazy) while walking around the kitchen so I asked him to dance and dance he did! Such a sweet little fella.

Today we went to Westfield's Mall and the kids spent some quality time at the Disney Store. Charlie was really into the Princess stuff so Kirk dragged him off to the Cars section. At one point though Charlie wandered over to the Tinkerbell display and I saw him kiss a picture of her. We had lunch at Byron which was yummy (burgers but really good ones) and then we wandered around. We ended up at ELC where I bought a tricycle which Noemie rode out to the park. I got it so she could practice for when we get her a bicycle and then Charlie can have the tricycle. He tried riding on it but hasn't quite worked out the steering. We kept going into a wall. 

Time to go knit. Have to finish something by tomorrow night... cutting it close. 

Sports Day

Noemie had her Sports Day on Wednesday which started out with a picnic lunch with a bunch of her little friends and the Mommies and Daddies. They also had pony rides which Noemie and her 2 best friends all went on together (she looked so cute with the riding hat, I think I need to look into riding lessons for her when she is a bit older), a petting zoo with bunnies, goats, chickens, guinea pigs, a huge snake which Noemie actually touched and some large spiders which I am fairly sure she didn't touch. After all of that fun they had their various races which she participated in though not always how she was supposed to. They had a crawling event and no chance of her crawling in the grass... she walked of course. In the above video, Noemie is the one in the outside lane (sorry, bit blurry). We had a really fun time despite a couple of light showers. I caught up with a long lost friend who's son goes to the same nursery but goes to the morning sessions. Oh, and I nearly forgot... they also had an icecream van there so we enjoyed a couple of soft serves with a flake bar! Kirk had a few beers as they also had a bar set up. It was really well organized and hopefully next year it will be sunny! (sorry about yet another head tilting video!)

Starbucks juice

Kirk took these photos over the weekend when him and Charlie were up earlier than Noemie and I so they did a Starbucks run. The kids have a thing where they HAVE to have some juice each time we go to Starbucks. This means they drink a ton of juice. It's nothing special...just the Innocent Kid's Smoothies that you can get anywhere but at Starbucks you get it for the special price of £1.45. Starbucks must make a killing on the juice. I think on Saturday they had 3 each. They won't drink it if I buy it and keep it in the fridge but we might've found a way around that by telling them it's "Starbucks Juice" as Noemie agreed to drink one out of the fridge over the weekend. Charlie has to get out of his stroller and sit on the chair like a big boy to have his juice. He used to only drink half of it and Noemie would be so helpful and drink his left overs. That's a feat in itself as she is so not into his icky leftovers. Lately he is able to drink the entire thing much to Noemie's dismay. She even sits there asking him for his juice while he's still working on it. It's fair enough though as he tries to stick his spoon into her fruit pots at meal times as he finishes his a lot faster than hers and wants more.   

Today Charlie had his MMR shot. A couple of months late but better late than never. Last night Noemie was insisting she was going to go into the nurse's room with Charlie and hold his hand while he got his jab jabs and that if he cried she would give him hugs to make it better. She said it all again this morning but of course when the time came she refused to go into the room and opted to play with the toys in the waiting room instead. Charlie did great, no tears or anything and he was thrilled he got to explore the nurse's room. 

Yep, we went to Starbucks afterwards for some juice and treats. 

How can they be so cute yet so horrible?

Here's a video of Noemie at bedtime, reading her Dinosaurs Love Underpants book. She has a favorite line "I don't want to eat you up, I want your underpants" and she kept saying it last night so I recorded it thinking how sweet and cute she is. 10 minutes later she was screaming and shouting that she didn't want to go to sleep, screeching and being a general pain in the ass. I took away her dollhouse, her toys and that did nothing so I took away her night light. That freaked her out as she hates the dark so I let her cry it out for a while and went back up to give her the light back and asked her what she would do if I gave it to her. She said she would stay in bed, be a good girl and go to sleep. Yeah right. It took another try of removing her light and letting her howl for longer (I swear the neighbors must think we torture the children). Finally she was so exhausted, I plugged her light back in and she was fast asleep. I sat down to eat dinner and 15 minutes later, Charlie woke up. And was up until 3am. Perfectly happy and wanting to play other than if I put him back in bed and left his room. I tried letting him cry it out but after 20 minutes, I gave up as *I* couldn't fall asleep through the noise. So I took him back to the kitchen to play and burn off some energy and made myself a bed of towels on the kitchen floor but he kept climbing on me and tickling me so I couldn't sleep. Then Noemie woke up at one point during all of this so I had to go back up to her. Kirk was gone on a business trip. I hope he slept last night as I am going to need all the sleep I can get tonight! 

The kids are gone on a playdate and I am enjoying the peace and quiet. Maybe some crochet and knitting and perhaps a nap are in my plans for the day. In any case, I'm glad not to have the kids around as they may be cute but they are on my shit list today. 

The kids

Noemie recently has insisted we call her Noemie and not Mimi. She can't even pronounce her own name yet, she says No-Mi but she loves her name and is no longer Mimi. She corrected Susanne several times today so now we are all making the effort. She's only 3, what's she going to be like next year?!? She has taken a strong interest in my big dollhouse and asks to look inside it every night. Today she carefully (being a relative term here) took things out of one room so she could dust the room for me and then put stuff back in the room. She managed 2 rooms and from what I could tell, nothing was broken. I leave her to it... maybe not the best idea but I want her to feel like she is trusted to look and touch and be careful. She tells me how pretty everything is and I told her she could have it all one day when she is a bit older. She asks if that is going to be tomorrow.  

Charlie got a much needed haircut this afternoon. It was back to being long and curly and messy and in his eyes. He got to sit in a silver sports car this time and the same gal cut his hair. Does this mean Charlie has a stylist that he goes to? Noemie refused a haircut... she has yet to have one in her life. At least she is a girl so long hair is fine and she lets us clip it back out of her face these days.

Charlie has become very Mommy focused lately. He gives me lots of hugs and kisses and loves to say "Mommy (or mamee as he says it) and then I respond with "Charlie" and he giggles. I try to imitate whatever tone he uses to say Mommy when I reply as he finds that extra funny. When they all come back from an outing I can hear Charlie shouting Mamee from outside. It's really sweet so I have been enjoying every minute of his affection for me. 

Butterflies and Dinosaurs

We took the kids to the Natural Science Museum again as Mimi has been asking to see the "big moving dinosaur" for a while now. She spends some quality time roaring like she's a dinosaur. We went but unfortunately the T-Rex was gone on holiday (operation apparently but we told her holiday as it was easier to explain). Charlie fell asleep pretty much when we got there but he woke up in time to go and visit a temporary exhibition that they had in an outdoor marquis type setting. It was for a bunch of different types of butterflies. The space was super hot and humid and there were tons of butterflies flying around everywhere. Noemie went in and screamed at the top of her lungs when she realized they were flying all around her. So I had to go back out with her while Kirk took Charlie in. I made sure to ask the lady at the ticket area if I could go back in once Kirk came back out so I didn't miss out, though I will admit I was a bit weirded out by having these butterflies so close to me. I know they don't bite but I was worried about stepping on one. I have a bad memory from stepping on a dragonfly (I know, not the same but still...) with my bare feet at the club we went to when we lived in Japan. I was around 10 at the time I think. I had shoes on yesterday of course but was still a bit nervous. Of course I was acting all brave for Noemie's benefit. Charlie had a great time pointing and waving at them and saying bye bye. He has very little fear for anything. It was a hot but fun weekend!

I took 2 videos but for some reason they both turned sideways and I can't figure out how to rotate them so please just tilt your head in whatever direction is necessary!