Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Going to America: Texas by Evie

Even though I was born in England and have only lived in England, my parents have always told me that I'm American (and shown me this book that has a very embarrassing picture of me when I was very tiny, looking not so happy about it all). They have also always told me about all these people who love me in America--naturally--so finally after all the talk we went!

My parents were smart for once and didn't book an early flight, so we were all rested and happy when we got to the airport. I assumed my favorite position: 2 headed monster mode.


Finger puppets only go so far when it comes to entertaining me...


so my dad let me watch a video and also spent a lot of time walking around with me. I was pretty good, but I waited to poop until we took off and my parents couldn't get up, so Daddy had to sit with me in his lap for about 20 minutes when I was at my smelliest. Muhahhahhahhah.


When we got to Texas, Nana and Papa were there! I stayed in a good mood and when we got to their house they gave me lots of fun new toys and played with me. I was in a toy frenzy for a little while.


We also went swimming. When we swim in London we either have to swim inside or we swim outside in a heated pool and then freeze when we get out of the water. In Texas the water is warm AND the air is warm. I was a happy swimmer!


More about swimming later, though. First I have to tell you about Jet lag! Even though I went to bed at my usual time (in Texas) I decided that waking up at the usual time was out of the question. So I woke up at 3:45 for a few days. Lucky for me, my Nana is usually up that early, too, so I had lots of people to hang out with. My parents were glad, though, when I got back to sleeping in.

On my second day in Texas, my Aunt Mendy and my cousin Jenna came over to see me. I was taking a really long nap when they got there and Jenna was really patient about waiting for me to wake up. Finally we met! I think she is very cute! By the way, the hairy leg in this picture belongs to my Dad and not to my Aunt Mendy.


Aunt Mendy knows that the way to my heart is through my bottle. Jenna knows it's very important stroke my head. Together they made me feel very welcome!


I never knew my Dad could do this:


And I am going to try to be just like Jenna when I can swim and learn to fly:


Even at the pool, Aunt Mendy and Jenna kept me very happy! My parents weren't doing anything. They can be so lazy sometimes.


Another exciting moment was when I met my new friend Ella and her parents Kristian and Jaime. It turns out that Ella is going to have a little sister, so she practiced on me. I told her little sister that it was going to be alright when she gets out of the warm and dark place. I remember how overwhelming that whole experience was.


Our Dads compared double chins and had some beers for old times sake.


We girls were more refined.


Ella also gave me my favorite toy of all time--the eggs. Here I am posing with my glamorous Aunt Mendy and the eggs. In time, I will post a video of myself 'scrambling the eggs,' which is now a daily pastime.


It turns out I have ANOTHER cousin--Olivia! She is tall and beautiful and she came over and exercised with my parents. She's a lot younger than they are, so they had to try really hard to look good next to her (clearly they failed).


Liza came to visit! Mom and she were so busy taking silly pictures of themselves that they almost forgot to take some of me with Liza.


I'm not one to stand by idly and not be photographed, though:


My Nana knows that I'm a growing girl and need to eat A LOT. Plus she snuck me my first cookie AND let me eat ice cream. I am so lucky!


Papa and I had some heart to hearts about his technique for scrambling eggs (my eggs, that is). I tasted some of his real scrambled eggs and was not a fan. I'm sure I'll like them later in life, so don't be discouraged Papa!


Mom kept talking about something called Tex Mex and finally we went to eat some! Fortunately, my parents forgot to bring my food, so I got to eat my first refried beans!


My pretty cousins Olivia and Jenna:




And all the beautiful Avant women...of which I am one! (my mom is an impostor, but they still let her in the picture):


I love Texas and my wonderful Texas family. I was lucky that I got to go back at the end of the trip and see everyone again! Stay tuned...

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Oh the excitement...

Well, last weekend we did a lot, but not a lot that is very blogworthy. On Friday night, Jim and I, big party people that we are, watched the Alfred Hitchcock movie Frenzy. Well...we didn't quite finish it because some of us can't stay up that late these days. So we watched most of it.

Saturday was a movie night for us, again..but this time we left the house! We saw Bruno, which was funny, but not as funny as Borat and we experienced Gourmet Burger Kitchen for the first time. I liked it! Plus our friends Julie and Simon had coupons, so it was a relatively cheap night out. The babysitting cost more than the actual going out part...sigh.

Since this is likely the most boring blog I've ever written (unless you consider Evie pictures and videos to be boring...in which case this is going to be a doubly boring blog), I give you EVIE!

There is no envy like the envy of Finchley when he discovered that he does not have first dibs to empty boxes in the house anymore. This box doubles as a spaceship, car and now, since we caught Evie trying to eat the straw laundry basket we put her toys in, a toy box.


On Sunday we went to Covent Garden and Evie was really excited about it:


Julie T (confusing now that we have two friends named Julie) made Evie a beautiful quilt. She looks pretty posh playing on it with her silver rattle.


And, of course, more videos for your viewing pleasure.

She has a great driver.


Is plotting her next move:


And knows how to control her mom...just take her by the lip and pull!

Friday, July 10, 2009

What to do with supper

Chicken with spinach is more fun to play with than to eat.

Just Evie

Evie shows off her many talents:

She can sit up, make rude noises and pet Finchley. What a girl!

Monday, July 06, 2009

Bath time

Bath time for Evie is a really great experience now that she can sit up!

And yes, she did kind of fall over at the end of that video, but she got right back up and did some more splashing!

Wimbledon

Last year we actually saw Roddick playing at Wimbledon on Court 2 (he lost), but this year, as 'babes in arms' are specifically not invited to Wimbledon, we watched from our living room. Again, he lost. Evie seemed to enjoy it, although she was a little alarmed when we yelled:



More interesting, though, was her pacifier.

Fourth of July

Well, we're not patriotic and we live in England, but we are American and this year Fourth of July fell on a Saturday, so we decided to DO SOMETHING (in the form of a BBQ).

Julie helped Evie enjoy her first piece of watermelon:


And Phil was our first guest to arrive! Joe came, too, but I had forgotten to take
pictures by then.

There was much frantic rolling:


And couple of other lapsed/partial Americans (Julie 2, in the red dress and Jackie, who isn't actually American, but pretty much has been in Houston her whole life...plus their boyfriends Simon and Piotrek):


Jackie and Evie tried again. This is what they looked like the first time they met:

And this is what they looked like on Saturday. Jackie still isn't quite sure....


But Piotrek was totally at ease:


And Finchley...well, he just got drunk.

Happy Fourth of July from London!