As yet unnamed!

Weekend Update

N was asked to bring in a photo of her family to school last week. When I picked her up one of the afternoons, she showed me what they did... a family portrait :) All the portraits are up on the hallway wall that her classmates did. So cute. I especially like what Daddy is wearing. I must buy him a pair of green trousers for his birthday gift next week. 

K and I went to a drinks get together at the school this past week to meet other parents and the teachers in an informal setting. I was chatting to our neighbors who have kids at the same school and they were commenting on how weird it is to them that there was alcohol served at the get together. As I've never had a child in school in the US, I didn't really think about it until they commented and I have to agree... it is weird. Alcohol and school aren't two things that I'd put together. I don't drink anyway so it wouldn't have made a difference to me in any case. Perhaps I'm just so used to just about everything in this country involving alcohol. 

 

C had his first swimming lesson on Friday and did really well. I know it's not nice to compare the two kids but he was doing stuff on his first day that N was doing after about 10 lessons. She was petrified of the water which he isn't overly scared of. He doesn't really enjoy being dunked underwater but I think he liked his teacher, Daniel, so he went along with it. He had a bit of his lesson in the baby pool and some of it in the main pool. He practiced swimming on his back and kicking, front and kicking and plenty of underwater moments. He asked to come out once but was soon distracted by some water toys. 

My folks came over for lunch today to celerbate K's birthday a few days early. We went to the pub for lunch as always. Afterwards the kids played outside with the neighbor's 2 kids. Lots of fun though N did fall and scraped her knee pretty badly. She was very brave though and let me clean it out with disinfectant. N is in total awe and adores the girl next doors who is a few years older. They all play really nicely together though so it's been really great having them as neighbors! 

 

A morning person and a non morning person

The kids on the morning Nana left to go back to the US earlier this week. Neither kid was overly pleased about it but C doesn't get it as much as N does. N was upset and cried after Nana dropped her off at school, the first time she's cried since she started at big girl school. She's been fine since then though and adores her teacher and is making friends. C still shouts out "Nana, where are you?" when he walks through the house. Then when we remind him Nana has gone home he says "She's in an airplane?" I remember back when N used to think that Nana flew around in an airplane in between visits to us. 

It's amazing how different the two kids are in the morning. The boys in our house are totally morning people. C is super happy each morning and has so much energy like he's been shot out of a cannon. He goes a million miles a minute, chatting up a storm and loves to eat breakfast. N on the other hand is more like me. We hate the mornings and would much rather stay up late at night doing stuff. We're both half asleep for a while when we get up. She doesn't like to eat breakfast (though I force her to at least have a banana and some juice) and she's somewhat grumpy as well. I'm much the same way so we make an amusing pair in the mornings while getting ready for school. 

Nana got C a scooter for his birthday. He is so in love with it and wants to take it everywhere. When he got to nursery on Monday he was telling his little friends about his scooter. He always wears his helmet (in fact, both kids ask for theirs before they get on a scooter or on their tricycle/bicycles). I see so many kids on the way to school without their helmets while scooting along rapidly on busy streets. I dread the day I see one of them with their skulls cracked open. Not sure why a parent wouldn't insist on a helmet, especially on our busy streets... I suppose they think it won't happen to them. Well, it has to happen to someone right? So why take a chance? Stepping off my soapbox now!

N has her short day today so when I pick her up we are going to the pottery painting place on our way home. Daddy took her into school this morning so Mommy has been kicking back so far. Time to get going and getting a few things done before it's time for pick up! 

Tallie Tuesday

Changing gears once again with my "One a Day" project... I started some bunting for N's bedroom. She wanted some and I had the perfect yarn for it already so I started this last week sometime. I am not sure how many I need as we're not sure where on her wall it will go but I want to make at least enough to do one wall in her room. I also plan to make little flowers or butterflies to attach to the middle of each flag. 

I'm working on other stuff as well (mainly a dress for N for Xmas and a cardi for myself but as there isn't much progress to speak of, I'll save photos for another time).

To check out more fabulous work done by others this week, take a look at Carole's blog where you can find links to more blogs!

Making Monday/One a Day

I know this has been done many times by others, but it was the first time for N and I. We bought a shadow box frame from Ikea last week and decided to make something for her big girl room. She loves butterflies and I have tons of scrapbook papers and a butterfly punch (or three) so she punched out what she wanted to and I glued the butterflies down for her. She was really excited so we're going to make some bunting this week as well as another shadow box or two. I need to find a source for these frames that doesn't require me to drive back to Ikea again. We had so much fun making this and I'm so glad my little girl loves crafty things!

 

I've taken the "one a day" philosophy slightly differently than it was intended and have been trying various blocks here and there but not really managing to get anything done in particular. I suppose I've done 5 blocks towards one blanket so all is not lost but I keep finding new things I want to try and then have to remind myself I don't need to have 10 things on the go at once! 

I've started a blanket for C using a pattern called Groovyghan that I found for free on Ravelry. I am going to make more circle squares in place for the flowerly ones though as it is a boy blanket. I'm using Vanna's Choice Baby yarn in worsted weight in various colors. I love this yarn despite the fact it's 100% acrylic. It's a joy to work with and I'll definitely get more when I go to the US this Christmas! 

I found a tutorial for the Japanese Flower blocks (the two pink ones in the photo) on a blog and I really enjoy making them so am hoping to do at least a pillow cover with them, if not a blanket. We'll see if I still love them in about 10 more flowers. The 3 hexagons are for my ongoing Hexagon blanket using Lucy's tutorial. Then I found another blog (yes, I spend lots of time surfing for tutorials and inspiration!) which had a tutorial on how to do the puffy petaled flowers (little pink thing with the yellow center).  I might make a few to use up some little 25gr of yarn I have laying around. They are super fast and easy to make and look really cute! I used cotton on my practice one but will use acrylic for the real ones as the cotton makes them less puffy. 

 

Good times!

Wow what a week it has been. It's been such a change in routine, I feel like there are less hours in the day all of a sudden! N and I are NOT morning people so getting up at 7am has been a bit difficult. It takes us a while to get going to get out of the house by 8am. N doesn't like to eat breakfast but as she can't snack mid morning at school, I force her to eat. Hopefully it gets easier as time goes on. She's enjoying school so far and told me she likes it there and that everyone is very nice. She is happy with her teacher so that is also nice. She's enjoyed going to the music room this week where they sing and dance. The cafeteria food also sounds pretty good other than the appearance of green peas twice this week which she doesn't like. I can't encourage her to eat them as I really dislike them as well. It's sweet watching her at drop off and pick up as she has to shake her teacher's hand and say "good morning" on arrival and "good afternoon" on departure. Hopefully she has another good week. On Fridays she always finishes early (the entire school does) so she had time to bake some chocolate chip cookies to welcome our new neighbors before she went for her swimming lesson. 

We had an American family move in next doors and their 2 kids go to the same school as N. They are close-ish in age which will be fun for impromptu playdates. We had them over this morning and they played together and then we all went out for a pub lunch. It's great having friendly people next doors. 

C had his first real playdate on Friday morning. He's been to many with his sister in the past with her friends but this one was with one of his little friends from nursery that lives one street away from us. It was interesting to watch 4 boys together rather than a group of girls which is what we've been used to. Totally different scene! He plays football with his little friend as well so hopefully we'll have many more playdates in the future. C misses his sister during the day so I've also booked him into swimming lessons to try and keep him busy. I think we just need to find our groove.

K was gone this weekend so Nana and I took the kids to the Natural History Museum. They wanted to see T-Rex and the mammals. We saw T-Rex twice but had to say no when they asked to go for a third time. I promised N instead that I'd take her after school one afternoon this term as she finishes early on Wednesdays just for this term. We also went to the butterfly exhibit as it was closing this weekend. N begged to go in despite me reminding her how scared she was last time around. Well, this time around she was fine and C was a bit unsure (he was fine last time). We saw tons of butterflies. Last time there were around 200 floating around. This time there was apparently well over 1000 of them. I can believe it as they were all around us en masse. N and C wanted a magnifying glass each to take a closer look and be "butterfly detectives" (they have been watching Scooby Doo Mystery shows on TV lately) so we bought one each before we went in. Here are some photos:

I was chatting to one of the workers in the butterfly enclosure when she pointed out something to me. It was the coolest thing....

See the brown "leaf" in the first photo... not so much of a leaf really. To begin with I was trying to work out why the woman was pointing out a brown leaf to me and then thought perhaps she was surprised that there was one totally brown leaf amidst all the green ones. I was trying to be polite and enthusiastic and working on a way to escape when the "leaf" spread it's wings. It kept opening and closing it's wings for a while while I stood there totally impressed. I really wish I had taken my good camera with me but all I had was my iPhone which I guess is better than nothing!

One last photo... of this beautiful blue butterfly. Of course I have no idea of what any of these are called but this one was my favourite. There were several of them all flying around together. then I peered down under this slightly sheltered area and saw one taking a break. 

We had a really fun time and once we got home, Nana and C went out to play at the park and N and I went up to Ikea as I needed some more storage boxes that I had bought last weekend. It was pretty crowded but we had a good time together. We got home in time for bathtime and bedtime so it was a pretty busy day.

I better go to bed as I have to be up in 7 hours. I like to get up 30 minutes before N so I have a moment to drink coffee and just get mentally prepared for the day. Once I drop her off I have a gym training session in the morning. In fact I think it's a relatively easy day tomorrow. Perhaps I'll spend a bit of time decluttering as the house is a tad overwhelmed again! 

N's First Day at Pre-Prep

Hard to believe it but N has started pre-prep school today! She had a warm up morning so was only there for 2 hours and K, Nana and I took her in and took loads of photos. Some are on Nana's camera so will be shared once they are downloaded. 

I think she had a good time. She said they all had to introduce themselves and tell everyone their favorite color. She was thrilled they got biscuits and drinks in the mid morning (and this is something they get each day so she was even happier to hear that). 

She was with two little kids she knows already but said she sat and played with girls as well though she doesn't know their names yet. 

She goes back tomorrow from earlier in the morning but finishes at lunch time. Papa and Grandma will be coming down to meet us all for lunch and then C has to go off to nursery in the afternoon. It's such a change in routine for all of us and will take a bit of time to get used to it all. 

N was a bit hyper (understatement) once we picked her up. I'm guessing it's an adjusting thing but can only hope it passes. Looking at K in the first photo though, I might just be overly hopeful. 

C goes back to Nursery and says bye bye to something

C went back to Nursery on Friday and I think we all were a bit confused because N didn't go back! C is used to having his sister there and I'm not used to having her home when she used to have Nursery on Fridays. All very weird. C used to be in a class on a lower floor but this year he's upstairs in the classroom where N was last year. We took him up and he kept wanting to go downstairs to see his old teachers. Not sure he understands yet that each year, it all changes. His new teacher is lovely and C seems to have settled in quite nicely already. He has one little friend from last year in his class and it was one of his favorite little guys so it's worked out well. 

Earlier in the day, C said bye bye to something that's been quite important to him in his 3 years. His baby bottle. I know that you're supposed to wean them off the bottle when they are a year old, but we're pretty relaxed and figured he'd give it up soon enough. Well, we figured wrong! He wouldn't drink his milk out of a sippy cup but finally I found one cup he'll use so I had him throw out his bottle on his own and he was okay with it all. He asked for it again this weekend but seemed fine when I reminded him we threw it away as he's a big boy now. Next will be to get him to give up his dummy but I am guessing that might be a bit harder as he's been super attached to them since he was born. It drives K crazy that his son is still using a dummy, albeit only at nighttime. Me, I'm not all that bothered. I figure he'll give it up when he's ready and it's only at night time so it's not like he's walking around in public with it. THAT would bother me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a fun weekend. N and I went shopping to Ikea and Hobbycraft yesterday and bought loads of goodies. She loves to shop and lunch with me, so we had a good time. K took C out to lunch at a pub and then they played at home. There is great excitement here as Nana arrives this morning from the US for a nice long visit and then N starts big girl school tomorrow. Reminds me, I must sew her name labels into her uniform and such. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

Making Monday meets One a Day

  Along with the Making Monday blog updates, I've also joined a group over on Ravelry called "One a Day".  The idea is to make large projects less daunting, so rather than get overwhelmed by having to make a bazillion blocks for a blanket, you focus on doing one block a day. The first 3 days I worked on blocks for my Hexagon quilt from the tutorial on Lucy's blog:

 

Then I decided to start on another blanket, this time for N. She's getting her new big girl furniture in the next few months and she wanted me to make her a quilt and a crocheted blanket. Of course within a few hours she's already asking me "is it finished yet? why is it taking so long?" I wanted something cute and girlie that also wouldn't be boring to work on and I found this pattern on another blog. I did a practice run last night using spare yarn and it turned out okay so I will get started today using the actual yarn N and I picked out yesterday. 

As for knitting... no progress on any of that at the moment! 

Siblings

N and C crack us up with their silly antics. C is going through a phase when he wants to hug and kiss his sister and N reacts with a vehement "No!" He puckers up anyway and moves in on her... I can't blame her for shying away as he gives wet sloppy kisses. In this case he kissed her on her shoulder. Moments later all was good again though and they were back to cuddling. 

It totally sucks to be back in London. At least it's not raining but it's cold compared to what we had in Crete and I miss the sounds of the ocean waves. The view is also a bit different in the morning. In Crete I sat up in bed and the ocean was outside my window. Here, it's our mirrored wardrobe doors. N keeps telling me she misses the pool and the cicadas. C is perhaps the only one happy to be home so he can play with his trains and the stuff in the playroom. 

C starts back at Nursery this afternoon and he's very excited to see his little friends again. I'm taking N shopping for some more stuff for her big girl room. Her new stuff should be here in about 2-1/2 months. Luckily she's not all together aware of just how long that is!