My weekend: By Evie

Evie here. My mom is always talking about me like I'm not here, so today I'm going to tell the story of my oh so exciting weekend myself.

So, my parents inherited this thing called a jumparoo from our next door neighbors. It's basically a giant hanging thing with flashing lights and music and other silly things and when my parents put me in it, I sink down really far and my arms stick up and my feet dangle because I'm TOO SMALL. They don't seem to get that, though, so they keep putting me in it and then talking in high pitched voices, which they think will make it all better. Unfortunately, because I am so little, I can't do anything about this except make this noise, which I think gets my point across:


My parents also got this rocking chair. I like it, but they say it is uncomfortable. Since I like it, though, it stays. That's the way things work around here.


Since we got the rocking chair, it was necessary to do some rearranging. I wish I could say that I helped with this arrangement, but my parents seem to think that I'm not capable of making interior design decisions, so they put me in the stupid jumparoo again while they moved furniture around. Finchley likes the new set up, obviously.


I also wasn't consulted about dinner, as I went to bed way before they got around to making it. Personally, I would have eaten sweet potatoes, but my Dad had a different idea. He made tuna steaks and asparagus and mashed potatoes.

He's very proud of his grilling:


Finchley thought that he was going to go outside and have an all night party like he sometimes does, but he couldn't figure out how to get his morbidly obese body through that small crack.


So he settled for staying inside.


Jack never gets to go outside and that makes him really mad. He tried to lazer my parents in an attempt to make a break for it, but it didn't work out for him. He took his frustration out on the kitty litter.


The next day my mom dressed me up like a farmer and we went to visit our friends Apollo, Alex and Ruth. We forgot to take pictures, but they really do exist. And fortunately my mom got some fashion sense and put me in a different onesie before we left in the house (so I looked like a farmer girl instead of a farmer boy).


We had a picnic in a park and I showed off by eating lots of apple sauce.

After our picnic, we had to take the tube back home. It was hot and boring and I decided that the only way I was going to get through it was by sticking my hand in my mom's mouth. For some reason, I think this is really funny. Usually my mom won't do it, but yesterday she humored me.


We also danced. As you can see, I was strapped to my mom, so I really had no control over this situation at all. When I'm older, I'll be embarrassed by this kind of behavior, but since I don't really understand that concept yet, I'm willing to tolerate it.


After all that action, I had to take a nap. Napping while dangling from a baby carrier in a hot and smelly tube is not ideal...especially when your diaper is leaking. But you've got to do what you've got to do when your parents are schlepping you around London during your nap time.



Family picture:


When we got home, I took another nap and then it was party time! First I partied in my high chair. I have to say, I was a little underwhelmed by my high chair and kept throwing my toys onto the floor to show that I would prefer to be rolling around. My parents didn't get it, though.


The real party was in the bathtub with Dad. He makes me laugh and I didn't even mind when he accidentally dunked me (if Mom had done that I would have screamed bloody murder). Mom took some PG pictures of Dad and me in the bathtub, but says we have to save them for when we need to blackmail Dad. I'm learning young about the power of photography!

Carrots extravaganza

After a couple of weeks of being awakened at 3am and 5am, we put two and two together and realized that Evie was hungry. So this week we started giving her a little rice cereal in her bottle and TODAY she had her first carrot puree. At first she didn't know what to think:

Or how to deal with the spoon:

But in the end she was really happy (and covered in carrot):


I think it must be very fun to have Jim as a Dad.

Our new neighbors!

Back before Evie was born, Jackie and Piotrek came to visit and we joked about how they should quit their jobs in Manchester and move to London. That isn't exactly how it happened, but now Jackie is working with Jim and they ARE moving to London. We are excited! On Saturday, we met them for dinner, during which an episode straight out of COPS happened right next to our table. Short version: Two grown women were dressed in hooker fairy costumes (they were hosting a fairy-themed birthday party for one of their daughters). For some reason that we never figured out, they were stopped by the police, at which point the fluorescent yellow fairy mom with fishnets and no panties started screaming obscenities, talking about how she was dying of lupus and the police were going to hell and then, in her six inch heels, ran off into traffic and down the street with a shortish cop chasing behind her. We were amazed at how fast she was, despite the heels, skimpy outfit and fairy wings. What drama! If I could have done it tactfully, I would have taken a picture of the slutty fairies, but a passer-by almost was beaten up by the boyfriend of one of them after doing just that (very obviously...not a smooth move), so I decided to keep my camera in my purse.

After our peaceful dinner, we wandered into the park, where a funfair was taking place (that explained the rough crowd in fairy costumes). Evie liked all the lights!


What a bizarre evening. Jackie said that she felt like she was in the twilight zone. It was fun anyway!

Country Walk!!!!

After over a year of not going for a country walk for various perfectly logical reasons (too sick with morning sickness, too pregnant, too overwhelmed by parenthood, bad weather)we rounded up Aurelie, packed up Evie and all that she needs and headed to the village of Guildford, where we embarked on our first 'family' country walk.

Evie was more interested in looking out of the train window than she was of hearing about the historic castle, WWII pill boxes and churches along the walk (she takes after her mama!)


Then she went to sleep (she takes after her Dad, too!)


Guildford near the train station is not the prettiest place, but it definitely got better!


Our first stop was just a few minutes into the walk at what Jim termed a Norman "Starbucks" castle. Apparently they were trying to take over as much territory as possible, so they built a bunch of castles, quick and dirty-like.


Evie was PSYCHED to be in a Norman castle.


After climbing a narrow spiral staircase, we reached the roof, where the number of people far exceeded the 12 person limit AND we were caged in...so we didn't stay up there very long.


It was a warm and sunny spring day yesterday, which we all really enjoyed.

Carrying a fifteen pound baby for seven miles is not an easy task, so we stopped frequently so that she and we could rest.

Evie took every opportunity to practice rolling over.


She also had no qualms about when and where she HAD to eat. Here she enjoyed a tasty bottle next to a huge pile of horse poop and alongside a pasture. There was no waiting!


Ferns provide a good diversion during brief meltdowns.


Just after we said how glad we were that there weren't lots of stiles to climb over, we came upon an abundance of stiles. Evie slept through all of them, but I didn't!


Aurelie insisted that we have a family picture, after which the camera died. The rest of the pictures in this blog were taken with my Iphone. The quality is pretty good!


We stopped for lunch at a pub called The White Horse in a very cute little village called Shere. The pub claimed to be haunted by a ghost of a little girl named Emma, who's body was found in the chimney during a refurb project in 1950. Evie did NOT like the pub at all, which we attributed to the ghost. She also is, I discovered while changing her diaper in the pub bathroom, terrified of automatic hand dryers. So Jim and I took turns walking around outside with her, where she happily looked at the trees and bushes. As soon as she came inside the pub, she started wailing...maybe she could see something we couldn't see? Here she is with Jim in front of the haunted pub.


It was necessary to 'ford' a small river to get through the town (pedestrian bridges were provided), so Jim decided to wade right in with Evie. Evie's reaction to having her toes dipped into a cold stream was to squeal in a way which made it very clear that if Jim did it again she would do more than just squeal. So Jim didn't do it again.


The train ride home was uneventful, although we did manage to randomly sit next to two French guys, which caused Aurelie to roll her eyes. She confirmed that they were talking about girls, their studies and what they were doing for the weekend. They also were talking about how they wished they had some cookies (when they saw Aurelie and Jim eating some), so Aurelie offered them some as well. They still didn't catch on that she was French.


It was great to be out walking again and Evie seemed to enjoy her first country walk. Hopefully we'll do it again soon!

Evie's rolling

I didn't catch the actual roll on film, but today Evie rolled over onto her stomach and explored her jungle gym from a new angle.

Olympics pride!

The stadium!

The Aquatics Centre!

Evie hearts Finchley

Much to Finchley's dismay, Evie has finally started noticing him. He is a patient cat and will put up with a little hair pulling before he vacates the premises.