Bumbo Disinterest

When we introduced Evie to her Bumbo, her initial reaction was excitement and to tackle the objects in front of her:


Not so much with Millie. Despite my best efforts and the most tempting and exciting baby toys in my regime, she really was not impressed. In fact, I think she was bored!

True and Uncritical Love

If you ever want to feel good about yourself, have young children around. Not only do they think you are endless fun and interesting, but they also don't care what you look like or what you wear or whether or not you are a big dork. They always want to be with you. They think you are funny. There is nothing that you can do to tarnish their golden view of you (until they are about 12 and then it all goes to hell).

Yesterday Evie and I were playing "Cinderella" in the living room. In this game, Evie is obviously Cinderella and I get to alternate between the roles of fairy godmother and prince. One day I will video Evie doing her reenactment of the prince and Cinderella dancing at the ball, because she takes it very seriously and, for a 2 year old, it's pretty impressive. Anyway, yesterday I was dressed like this to be the fairy godmother:
Upon seeing my getup, Evie came up to me, looked me in the eyes (sunglasses) and said, in an awestruck voice, "Mommy...BEAUTIFUL!"

Now that's love.

(Millie also enjoys gazing into my eyes and thinks it's hilarious when use my hair to be a carwash on her face. I must be even more beautiful than I thought!)

All better

Luckily, yesterday ended on a high note,with Evie enjoying milk and other delicious snack items and Millie enjoying her finger:

(Don't worry. I'm not going to add music to every video.)

Grouch-fest

Evie has been sick this week. This video pretty much captures the mood and also gives a good snapshot of what my week has been like.

I'm looking forward to when good health and happiness once again return to our household!

The end of February

This year is flying by and I'm wondering if this is how the rest of life is going to be for us. Lately I've been having a complex about turning 35 because I keep seeing people on TV who are 35 and wondering "Do I look that old?!!!" A recent example: Aileen Wuornos (you know, the serial killer, lesbian prostitute). She was 35! Yes, she had a rough life and the mullet that she sported was not really the most feminine or youthful look, but...she was 35! Jim assures me that I look just like her.

It's not just turning 35 that is freaking me out. It's that I keep thinking about college and high school and wondering how it is that it's been almost 20 years since Jim and I met. It doesn't FEEL like it's been 20 years. Life shouldn't be allowed to do this! We keep making comments like, 'When Millie is 10, we'll be in our mid-40's," moment of silence while we contemplate this and then I point out how much gray hair Jim has (mine is dyed, so you can't see it as much) and he points out that mine is thinning (thanks to Millie, I'm losing my hair by the handful these days. Not to worry..it will grow back and to make me feel better, she seems to be losing a lot of hers, too) and reminds me that I look like Aileen Wuornos.

Despite the lack of photographic evidence in this particular blog, all is well on the home front. Evie has entered the "That's Mine" phase of life and every playgroup devolves into a micromanaged tussle between 2 year olds who don't understand the concept of sharing and who don't WANT to understand either. The other day when Evie snatched a toy out of my hand while emphatically stating that it was hers, I snatched it back and, in my most whiny voice said, "NO! That's MIIIIINE!!!!" Cue the waterworks. I'm not sure it was the best way to teach a lesson, in retrospect, but I was trying to show her that it wasn't an nice thing to do. The result was that she started sobbing and saying "Miine...Miine..Miine" over and over again. I guess your mom isn't supposed to be the bad guy. Since then she has moved on to focusing all of her "that's mine" energy on her baby sister who has neither the interest or the ability to a. take Evie's things or b. defend herself. Sharing is the word of the week.

Potty training has also been a hot topic around here. Despite the purchase of a brand new shiny duck potty, which sings songs when it is used and can also be used as a stool, Evie is just not that interested. Plus she knows how to make the potty sing without actually using it, which defeats the whole purpose. Even tempting her with chocolate mini-eggs could not convince her to sit on her potty without a tantrum. After an exhausting weekend, we surrendered and will try again eventually.

Pictures to come soon. And maybe the weather will get better so we can go out and do something and I don't have to blog about what is going on in our living room all the time. So boring...

Videos

I'll start with some comparison videos of Evie and Millie at the same age and with the same toys. Evie LOVED her maraca when she was a baby and Millie also seems to like to play with it. It is a great distraction during screaming fits!

The Bumbo is also experiencing it's second life. We haven't tried putting Millie in it with the tray yet, but she enjoys sitting in it and looking around.

I took this video of Evie giving Millie kisses while I was fixing dinner the other night. They really do love each other.

And, Evierella cleans her kitchen...all because she wants to see herself on video, cleaning her kitchen. HAH!

A week in February

February in London is not usually very warm, but we are trying our best to do some things. Unfortunately, the best day we had this week was Friday, but I forgot my camera. At least there are a few pictures and videos to share from the past week, if nothing too exciting to report.

Millie continues to grow like a weed and even did some tummy time without becoming hysterical. Lala will also be happy to know that she is now taking two baths a week (but still becoming hysterical):
Evie's Kookaburra also proves to be fun second hand (Millie's cute outfit is courtesy of Nana and Papa):
One day the sun came out and Evie wore her cool shades (thanks, Kate, Andy and Cora)!
We entertained ourselves by defacing some extra passport photos we had hanging around. Unfortunately we didn't have any spare ones of Millie to draw mustaches on, but she'll get one eventually. I especially like the one of me looking like a Mexican drug lord:
Millie can now sit in her Bumbo and has moved into the back seat of the double stroller, where she is much happier than she was when she was under the stroller in her 'cocoon'.
Here is Evie in her Valentine's Day Eve Cupcake Party attire. Blue headband (known as her 'blue crown'), heart accessories and new red wellies were selected by Evie. I made her take off the two pink tutus she was wearing before we left the house. She is getting very opinionated about her wardrobe, which leads to some ridiculous tantrums on occasion...
Both girls looked very pretty for the cupcake party we attended. Evie managed to sneak two cupcakes by charming one of the dads at the party after I told her she couldn't have a second one. She's already adept at the art of manipulation.
Finchley wasn't invited to the party, but he still looked good. I think he was a little jealous of Millie's ruffly shirt:
Sometime in the not too distant future, we are going to take some trips and spice this blog up a little, but until then we'll keep updating with the mundane. If the sun would come out, we might even venture out for some country walks or something...