Reasons Kate has gotten out of bed this evening

1. Go potty. This one is legitimate, I'll grant her.

2. The band-aid (or plaster, as they call them here) on her finger was falling off.

3. She forgot to hang up her coat.

4. Her finger was hurting. She got a paper cut earlier this evening. When I went up to her room to see what was wrong this time, I told her I'd put some ointment on it. However, she was unable to isolate exactly which finger it was that was cut and thus hurting. So she told me to put medicine on all the fingers.

5. She forgot to pick out her outfit for tomorrow.

6. We forgot to say her prayers. She has a pretty usual list of people she prays for at night (Daddy, Michael, Mommy, Paddington Bear), but tonight she threw in a new one. After Tyler, Lesley and Baby Alex, she solemnly added "and their black stroller".

It's been 90 minutes since I put her to bed, and she is averaging an excuse every 15 minutes, so we'll see what the next one is. Stay tuned.

See the resemblance?

Today on the walk home from school, Kate was rattling off the names of various people she knows and loves. She thinks it is hilarious when she calls her daddy "Danny". I asked her if she knew my name, and she said "Aurora" [sharp intake of breath] "Mommy!! You have the same name as Sleeping Beauty! That means YOU ARE A PRINCESS!"


Evidently Danny needs to work on his enunciation skills.

A Real Live Turkeyhead

Today I took the kids down to Chelsea to visit Battersea Park Children's Zoo. Kate was really excited about getting there "before the monkeys take their nap".

We had a lovely day out, and both of the kids had a blast.
Michael shrieked with laughter and excitement at the monkeys. I think they must remind him of someone he knows. Kate was amazed to discover that the little spider monkey had hands "just like ours, but smaller. Smaller even than Baby Alex's hands".

Her favorite animals by far were the pigs and the emus. She even tried to climb into the pig pen.





When I told her that these were Turkeys, she started cracking up and didn't believe me. "A real live turkeyhead? Nooooo mommy!". She even told me to take a photo of her next to the turkey and send it to Tyler, Lesley & Alex.



(We love to call people turkeyheads for those of you who are wondering what the deal is with Turkeys).


Petting the world's biggest bunny. "Please Mommy, can we bring him home?"




They had a meerkat manor, and there was this tunnel you could crawl through and then stand up and you were in a bubble that was in the middle of the meerkat compound.



Michael was too young for the playground, but he did enjoy the mulch:

Hopelessly Devoted to You...

I've often posted about how sweet and loving Kate is to Michael. She loves to give him lots of cuddles, and is forever trying to help by providing him with endless amounts of blankets, toys and "small bites for Michael" (breaking off a minuscule portion of whatever she is eating for him to taste).

But he has been usurped. While Alex was here, she was 100% devoted only to him.
Our days were filled with questions of "Where is Alex? Can Alex eat this? Here Alex, this will make you feel better" (said while shoving passaphire, sippy cup, Legos, Paddington Bear in his face). "Lesley, Alex is crying. You need to give him his water bottle to make him feel better", and so on and so on.

And so I leave you with photos of Kate, Alex and poor Michael, who was relegated to B Team status while Alex occupied Kate's full attention.









She even wanted in their family photos:

It's Official; I'm a Soccer Mom

Like the proper British residents that she is, Kate is really into Football (aka Soccer). She started her Little Kickers Football program on Thursday, and she absolutely loved it. She does get a tad confused by the soccer/football terms, since we still refer to American Football as "football" in our house, and of course "football" here refers to soccer.

She is the only girl on her team, but that didn't seem to bother her and she sure showed those boys some fancy footwork. She was 100% on her goal drills!

Representing the Big XII

They may cheer for different teams (uh, once they learn how to talk, that is), but they are still best buds:


They even wore matching Union Jack shirts.




Kate wonders where her Union Jack shirt is.

The big O-N-E

Michael turned one on 6 September. We celebrated by going to our favorite pub for pizza and then coming back to the house for carrot cake (which we all know is really just a vehicle to get cream cheese frosting into our mouths!).



Winding the Bobbin Up at the pub:



Kate was so excited about cake. Michael didn't know what was going on, but he got into it very quickly. I was shocked at how small of a mess he made, since he is probably the World's Messiest Baby. I guess he thought the cake was too yummy to waste by rubbing in his hair.





We asked Kate what she thought Michael wished for, and she replied, "He is wishing for Pooh Jammies". Lucky for him, wishes do come true! His sister got him a pair of Pooh jammies for his birthday.


Tyler & Lesley got him an adorable fleece jacket and hat, so that he will stay nice and toasty during the cold English autumn/winter/spring/summers.

Kate insisted he try the hat on right away.



Another one, just because I love baby profile shots.

Thank you for Michael's Birthday Present Nonni

Kate loves the dress that came for her in Michael's birthday package. She even found a matching lolly.



I've so much to update on here: Michael turned one, our best friend's visit, and our trip to Belgium. But our washing machine broke last Thursday and just got repaired today, so that means I have approximately eleventy billion loads of laundry to catch up on. So off I go for my evening date with Surf and stain treatments.

Michael 11 Months

Since he turns the big ONE on Saturday, I thought I'd better post his 11 month picture.



Keen observers will notice that his pants are unbuttoned. I should have just stuck a remote control & a beer in his hand to make the whole ensemble complete.

11 months was big for him.
He:
-Started crawling. Everywhere.
-Pulls up to standing. On everything.
-Got his 4 top teeth. Ouch.
-Can now sign "more". He asks for more, more, more of everything he is being fed, unless it is potatoes. I get a big bag of taters in my weekly veg box, so I make all kinds of them. He doesn't like them in any form. Strange, no? Who doesn't like french fries?
-Laughs hysterically at his sister. They chase each other around the house and shriek and laugh and it makes my heart smile.
-Shrieks a lot. When I call Danny, he tells me that I sound like I'm in a monkey cage.
-Has started holding his own with Kate. If she is playing with something he wants, he will grab her by the shoulder and try to pull her down out of the way. It's hilarious to watch.

Hey Pen Pals...

I've been meaning to post that although it "officially" costs around US $0.94 to mail something to us here in London, all of our mail has been forwarded with just the regular old $0.42/whatever it is now stamps.
So break out your stationary and send us a letter.

In case you didn't hear, A&M lost the season opener to....Arkansas State. Danny stayed up to listen to the game on the internet and it made for a very grumpy Sunday around here. Danny is convinced that we jinxed our team because we all forgot to wear our Game Day shirts.

We're busy this week getting ready for our visitors. Tyler, Lesley and Baby Alex are coming on Friday! We are soo excited and Kate is beside herself. Every morning she wakes up and asks "How many more days?". She wanted to pick out all the outfits she could wear while they are here. Which means that she may look like this most days. She loves her some accessories.

She even wanted to save some cheerios for Baby Alex this morning ("We'll just leave these here until Saturday for Baby Alex").

Today when I dropped her off at preschool, she was quite sad because her little best friend's last day was last week. She was crying and asking where Rohan was, and I reminded her that he wasn't there anymore because he moved to Africa with his family. She asked me why they moved there, and I told her I didn't know, that maybe his daddy got a new job, or they wanted to be closer to their family. Kate stopped crying and looked up at me and said through her tears: "Or maybe Rohan just needed to go get a haircut". Uh, okay.