If You're Happy and You Know it...

We don't believe in using cute euphemisms like "wee wee" for body parts. It is important to me that my children know the anatomically correct names for things on their body. (There has been significant research on the fact that children knowing the correct names for parts of their body helps prevent sexual abuse. Furthermore, I believe it is important that children not be taught that words like "vagina" are dirty or shameful.)

Of course, with a two year old, this can be very amusing sometimes. So yesterday we were singing the favorite "If you're happy and you know it..." song, and were doing the normal things like clap your hands,stomp your feet, etc etc.
Kate burst in with the version of "If you're happy and you know it, touch your nipples". She is also very fond of reciting what people are wearing, and the other day Danny got a narration of a "diamond (argyle) sweater, jeans, and nipples". I could go on for hours with similar stories, it is very hard to keep a straight face sometimes.

Kate & Tye

Tye is my brother's dog. Kate asks for him every couple of days, along with Riley & Fletch (Tyler's dog, and a dog they were watching last time we saw them).
Poor Dexter. He gets no love at home.

She is definitely my daughter...

Danny always gets annoyed with me because, when confronted with a box of chocolates,I like to take a bite of each one and then put it back in the box. I like to know what I'm getting. :-)
I just came downstairs and found Kate's stool in front of the kitchen cupboard. The lid was amiss on the tin of cookies, and I opened it up to survey the damage. There was one bite missing from every cookie. I was wondering why she came upstairs in such a good mood.

Rookie Mistake

The last week has been absolutely beautiful weather. 50+ degree temperatures and mostly sunny. I decided yesterday that I would take the kids on an outing.

My team at work gave me a book of 1000 Things to Do in London, and I intend to try my hand at a fair good number of them.

#647 was to visit a farm in the city. Kate of course would love this, and I'm probably a higher than average animal enthusiast so I thought it sounded like fun too.

I set off with both kids by myself. It was the first time I've braved the tube alone with the stroller and both kids. Michael has graduated to the MacLaren stroller, so it is a lot easier to push and get around. Thankfully there are some very nice souls here who typically help me carry it up and down all the stairs in the tube stations.
Anyway, so we took the tube, changing lines once, and arrived at the location. I had written down the 4 cross streets of where the farm was located, and even what number bus we needed to get there. I located the bus stop and we hopped on. The problem with the bus system here is that there is no way of knowing at which stop you are.
So we hopped off the bus at what I thought was the correct stop, and headed in the direction I thought the farm might be. Once we got off the high street, I quickly realized we might be in a rather dodgy area. It was all council housing (govt. subsidized housing), boarded up shops, & graffiti everywhere. To make the situation worse, Kate started crying that she wanted to "see the animals" and wanted me to carry her.
My rookie mistake was that I had forgot my mini A-Z London guide, so I had no idea where we were going. I stopped and studied the maps on the bus stops, and couldn't locate any of the streets that the farm was located on. We walked on for a bit further before I decided to turn around. Kate was still sobbing, and so we just returned home and decided to give it a go another day. I think next time I'll make sure that Danny is with me. Of course the first thing I did upon returning home was put my A-Z guide (it is like a tiny mapsco of the city) in my bag.

Welcome Alex!

I forgot to mention that the absolute BEST thing that happened over the weekend was our precious Godson Alex made his debut!!!! We can not wait to meet him in person, and we've been having fun seeing him on iChat. I won't post a picture, as he isn't my child to plaster all over the internet, but trust me when I say he is gorgeous!!

Back from the USA

Our trip to Buffalo was great. The only bad part was that we had to fly coach (boo!) and both kids decided that sleeping on the plane did not sound like fun. The really fun part was getting to the airport. Danny & I have always been pretty light packers, but this whole walk-tube-tube-train journey to the airport will no doubt take it to another level. We didnt' bring a stroller, as they are just a pain in the tube stations. So trying to get Kate to walk at anything faster than a snail's pace was a challenge. We were running late of course, and I had Michael in his carrier and his diaper bag, my purse and my rolling suitcase. We were those people who were sprinting through the airport to make our plane. Of course after we boarded, we heard about the BA crash landing, and proceeded to sit on the plane for 2.5 hours. But I digress.

We had a really nice time in Buffalo, considering the circumstances. Kate got to meet her new best mate Aubrie (cousin), and they had a total blast playing together. I can't find my camera just yet, but I'll upload pictures when I do. Coming back from the -15 degree temps in Buffalo makes the 50 degree temps here seem positively tropical.

The only bad thing about the trip is that it has totally jacked with Michael's "schedule". He is now staying up till 11:30 and not wanting to sleep at all. Fun times.

RIP Grandpa P.

On Friday morning we got a message that Danny's grandpa had passed away quite unexpectedly.
We are heading to Buffalo this weekend for the memorial. It will be a quick trip, but it will be nice to see the family.

Bless your soul Grandpa. We'll miss you so very much. I hope the Bills and the Sabres always win in Heaven.

How did that happen?

How is Michael already 4 months old?
He is loving "sitting up" lately, so I'm very anxious for our shipment to arrive. I think he will love the exersaucer. And I'll love having all my stuff!

Kate's New "House"

Kate loves to play in the little kid-sized houses that they have at schools, churches and the library. We don't have the space for one in our home (nor the desire for a big plastic thing in the middle of our living room), so Kate has had to improvise:



The inside is now covered with stickers, and she has her dolls and stuffed animals lined up along the inside wall.

London-ism #15

The t.v. shows start at odd times. A show will run from 11:05-11:25, and then the next one begins at 11:35 or 11:40 or something. It is very bizarre, and as far as I can tell there is no rhyme or reason to it (i.e. the BBC1 doens't begin all their shows at 15 past the hour, etc.)

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a festive & happy New Year's. We drank a bottle of Cava and were alseep by 10p!! Of course we were awoken at midnight by the huge fireworks outside. Poor Dexter was ready to jump out of his skin, so I medicated him with some Xanax. :)

Kate started her new school today. It is a Montessori, and she has loved it the few times she's been there to "settle in". One of the tenets of Montessori is promoting self-sufficiency. The intention behind having children set their own tables and prepare their own food (that which is age-appropriate, anyway), put their own activities away (and properly, too), that kind of environment is incredibly fulfilling for independent kids and is part of the whole-child learning that I love about the philosophy. Well, of course my kid loves the ability to prepare her own food. We walked in this morning and she made a beeline for the snack table to help herself to some carrots & water. She has done that every time. I swore to her teacher that I do in fact feed my kid at home.

Her school was just awarded as having "the best fed children in the UK" of any school!! They have a full time chef who prepares all of the foods from scratch using organic & free range products. No convenience foods (i.e. junky crackers or chex mix) are given. Of course that makes my heart go pitter-patter.

However, this morning she awoke very early when Danny left for work. I told her to come get in bed with me for awhile and she said she was going back downstairs to get her book and she would be right back. Well, I guess I dozed off again because the next thing I knew I heard her clomping back up the stairs and I realized 45 minutes had elapsed. I asked her what she had been doing and she said "Um, eating chocolate". I asked her where she got it, and she said "Um, probably in the kitchen". (Everything is "probably" these days). I went downstairs and realized that I had left the tin of chocolate Chrismas biscuits on the counter last night. I opened it and of course there were only a few remaining. But there were telltale crumbs and chocolate everywhere, including her face, hair & hands, the floor, Dexter's bowl (!), and in my coffee pot too.