Yes, that's my excuse for not blogging for SUCH a long time. But really, although the freakish Icelandic ash cloud has been significantly disrupting many people's lives, I've just been super busy and super tired. I'll try to make up for the lack of blogging with this one, which will give a recap of the past week.
Evie learned about English animals in her Culture Kids class. For some reason the bunny ears that she not so enthusiastically donned looked like something that would be perfect for Mardi Gras. I liked them!
A few days later, Evie and I went with our neighbors Simon and Jack to see some REAL English animals--rare English breeds at a farm outside of London.
A couple of turkeys:
Some friendly chickens:
A toddler game that involved squatting:
Peering at some goats:
Running up and down the ramps through the animal corals was very exciting:
Evie decided to brave sticking her fingers through the mesh, despite the warning sign which read, 'these geese peck.' Fortunately her mother was around to prevent said pecking.
She also insisted on bringing her bag of moldy bread for the ducks, which was a very good idea and much appreciated by the friendly lake ducks and geese!
From the looks of it, these two had a good, tiring time. They both took epic naps which started in their car seats and lasted into the afternoon.
We've been having really nice (sunny, not rainy) weather lately, so my homeys decided to take advantage of it on Saturday and head out for a walk and to the picnic. I also took advantage of their departure to go to the gym and take an extended shower, during which there was not a small person peering at me through the glass shower door or doing something that she was not supposed to be doing while I frantically tried to get the shampoo out of my hair so that I could leap out and intervene. Ahh...it's the little things.
The binky is ever present these days and that is something that we will address when we get back from America...but not before because I need the binky for the plane ride! I keep seeing these kids who are way too old with binkies, though and it makes me determined that Evie will kick her habit sooner rather than later. She still looks cute, despite her oral fixation.
Playing in our garden (in her socks! You can tell that I wasn't around for this! Jim was probably out there in his socks, too. Sigh...).
More potting...but our garden is pretty shabby and unkempt at this point (note the dead plant in the pot that Evie is diligently tending), so I'm sure it wasn't as satisfying as her gardening experience in Italy.
Sunday morning was also nice because Jim let me sleep in...hooray! When I rounded the corner of the living room, I caught Evie's eye and she gave me this big, wonderful, pleased grin. She and Jim were playing in the free and, so far, most successful toy of all: the box.
Another beautiful day so much fun was to be had at the playground. Evie can climb up the stairs onto the top of the slide and then, without any hesitation to make sure that there is someone at the bottom, will catapult down head first. She is very fast so we have to be very fast, too.
Sitting on some steps with the ever present pink ball:
A new way to travel--she LOVES the giant backpack that Jim bought her. Good thing we now have every baby carrier known to man...
We met our friends Jackie and Piotrek and some of their friends (who were very nice!)in Hampstead Heath for a warm picnic. There were lots of lobster red people all over the place, enjoying the sunshine and taking advantage of the fact that it also wasn't cold. We've had a lot of sun lately, but it hasn't exactly been WARM sun. I'm not complaining (too much) though, because sun beats rain and it's so much easier when it's not raining to get through the day with Evie. Anyway, at our picnic, Evie was in her element.
She really thinks willow trees are funny:
The picnickers!
The cutest two headed monster heading home.
And my homegirl, who put my sweaty Cleveland Indians hat on all by herself and proceeded to drag her giant legos around the house. She's funny!
SO, as you can see, life has not been super exciting since we got back from Italy, which is why I haven't been super motivated to blog. But we LIKE it that way. After all the excitement, illnesses, delayed flights and general exhaustion we are happy to just be bored for a while. We DO have some weddings coming up, so that at least Jim and I will get to be glamorous Jim and Claire and can pretend like we actually sometimes groom ourselves and have nice clothes. You may have noticed the absence of pictures of me in this blog. That's because I'm sick of haggard looking pictures of me so until a really good one comes along, I am staying incognito.
Until next time! Which will be soon! I promise! Especially if Kate and Andy send me some pictures of that baby!
