Halloween and other fun

Another week, another load of fun.  It started with last weekend.  Evie was allowed a lollipop for some excellent toilet behavior. I think you can guess the colour/flavour! Rest assured we only give Evie healthy, all natural foods :-)  To be honest, given the toilet training nightmare that was, I was willing to offer almost anything as a bribe.

 

On Saturday night Auggie and I were off at a Democrats fundraiser so Evie got to live one of her favourite dreams of having a sleepover at Tori's house. She also got to see the very end of a Rice football game with Uncle Robbie, Auntie Elisa and Tori.  We went over the next morning to collect her, and the girls were dressing up. I'm not entirely sure what is going on here but Tori doesn't look to sure about it at all.

 

 

 We also thought it might be fun to make an apple and cranberry crumble.  Evie likes making these because she can get her hands in the mixture and get all gooey.  For those lucky enough to have a piece, at least you know all the germs were cooked out at a very high temperature! I think this was one of our better efforts - Papa definitely agreed! Evie did manage to fall of the stool and almost took the mixing bowl with her but luckily I caught it in time. I told Evie we would have eaten Evie Crumble had it fallen on her.

 

  Finally we got most of our Christmas shopping done last weekend, along with some fun time on the carousel.  Yes, we are feeling very pleased with ourselves for being so organised!!  

 

and then of course there was Halloween. Auggie calls me the "Scrooge" of Halloween as I turn off all the lights, and don't allow the TV on in case anyone knocks on our door. To be honest, I HATE it. I don't want to be bothered by rude children in weird costumes.  Sadly, Evie thinks it is wonderful so we got a costume and participated in the "trunk or treat" at school.  This is much more like it. You play a few games, then go around to a few cars and get some sweets. Then you go home. Perfect.  Tori came along too!  Pies came up to my office to get changed and found a pink mirror so naturally wanted a photo of the mirror.  Also therefore is a rare glimpse of my soulless work office!

Skating anyone???

This weekend was the highly anticipated event of Evie's first skating lesson.  We figured that this would either be highly successful or a complete nightmare. We arrived at the skating place and disaster threatened when all the other little girls had white boots and Evie had rented brown ones. Luckily she didn't really notice until the end.   We had signed up for two classes and the first class was for the end of year show (the Nutcracker).  It turned out Evie was the only beginner in the show. Yikes.  So, we sent her out on the ice anyway (great parenting) and a kind older girl took her by the hand. So, they were then put into groups and Evie had to skate with a zimmer frame while looking enviously at the other.  She actually did very well. So well in fact . . .

She quickly progressed to no zimmer frame! When she did fall down it turned out that Evie is fairly dreadful at getting back up again.  You shouldn't laugh at your own children quite so uncontrollably but it REALLY was funny.  Overall though, she did very well.

And was very tired at the end of it all!

 

 

I have a doctor's appointment this week so I can give you another exciting baby update, hopefully not one that starts with being in trouble for being a heifer again!! Sadly no ultrasound but hopefully a nice heartbeat.  I will also add some stuff from the Daughters of the British Empire Christmas Bazaar that we attended today. Punch and Judy anyone??

 

 

Janexxx

Building stuff

 

This weekend we got all organized and decided to do something about baby boy's room.  The first step is moving out all the crap from his room into another room.  So, of course, we needed more furniture.  Auggie practiced building stuff with Evie and her log thingies that Ma and Pa bought.  As you can see it was a serious business and Lelly was exhausted by the whole thing.  It did result in a nice looking house though!

 

 Deep thought and concentration while the architects consider the design.  Actually, I think at this point they were lining up the "babies" which Evie insisted upon. It very regimented; Nana would be proud.

 Then came the serious building upstairs. We needed a bookshelf/cupboard for the zillions of books currently in baby's room. Here is Auggie hard at work. To be fair to me, I helped. And to be fair to Evie, she wanted to help and was certain she knew more about hanging the cupboard doors straight than either of us did. In the end we were relieved to get it built without too many mishaps or injuries to small children.

This is Evie being "helpful"!

Taking advantage of some very nice weather, Evie went out for a bike ride on Sunday morning looking tres chic in her hood and sunglasses. We also fed some very fat ducks.

 And this is just cute. Evie is modeling a new number we bought a couple of weeks ago.

 Last but not least, baby boy. He is currently practicing drop goals. Probably something to do with the mincemeat I just had as an evening snack.  But he is definitely wiggling a lot. He is also partial to peas. I hope he likes them as much as Evie who for dinner yesterday had pea sandwiches.  I also feel like he is massive. I guess we will find out in two weeks when I have my next appointment.  Hopefully I won't be in trouble for being a fatso again :-)

Jane xxx

I am biased but this is far too cute not to share!

Twinkle in Spanish!

Big girl getting bigger

Well, this week we went to our first school open house.  We are ever so slightly in denial that Evie could possibly be old enough to go to school.  We took Evie with us though and on the way she announced that she can only go to a school with bikes.  Thankfully Auggie found a large stash of bikes in the playground so all was, apparently, well.  We liked the school and have applied there and one other place. Fingers crossed she gets in. 

 

Today was my fabulous 9/80 Friday off so I got to play with Evie, Nana and Tori.  Evie wore the boots that I bought her AGES ago in a second hand shop. I've been dying for her to fit into them so it was an exciting moment. Excitement was hampered slightly by her refusal to wear socks and subsequent blister (which would have been avoided had Evie been willing to listen to my suggestion that she wear socks but what do I know??).  But thanks to an emergency sock purchase from GAP clearance bucket complete disaster was averted. 

 

 

 

And on that note . . .yee haw  xxx

Snakes, spaceships, skating etc

Excuses, excuses - but we really have been busy! Auggie wrote a paper and gave a speech at the Texas Water Superconference and I organized a large offsite meeting at work so our time has been zapped.  There has been plenty to fill you (all two of you who read this) in on too.  So I will do my best!  We've had a visit from Ma and Pa (back in August!) which was very lovely. Evie wanted to make Pa a birthday cake so we worked some dairy free magic and make a double chocolate layer cake. It was rather nice if I do say so myself.  Grandma came to stay a few weeks back and to continue the baking theme, we made rhubarb and cherry crumble with custard. also yum.  And if you read the previous post regarding pregnancy weight gain, this series of events may explain the answer to question 1 . . .

 

So here's what you really care about:

 

 

 

 Evie  being cute. She wanted a photo snuggling with Daddy.

 Evie being a classy bird. Nana just happened to have this hat in the back of her car!

 Auggie had a meeting in Galveston this past weekend held at the Moody Gardens Hotel.  So Evie and I decided to go along for the ride and spent the night at the hotel and the day at Moody Gardens.  First of all, Pie and I got room service Friday night which she thought was quite the thing. I had to explain that we couldn't be doing that EVERY time we stayed at a hotel.  I am fairly sure she doesn't believe me. The next day was a lot of fun too. Evie liked the pink birds in the rainforest pyramid.  Luckily we avoided getting pooed on. Some of our fellow attendees were not so fortunate.

The discovery pyramid is currently home to a music exhibit.  There were TONS of fun things for kids to play with. This was one of her favorites. Billy Joel/Elton John eat your heart out!

On Labor Day we went to NASA and as you would expect at a Space Center, there were snakes to play with.  Evie liked these rather a lot. That bad-boy they are holding weighed in at 80 pounds.   There were also lots of other fun things to do including landing a space shuttle and going to look at rockets. I think Evie left with lots of good memories but a small, albeit serious, regret that we didn't actually get to go into space.

 

While Ma and Pa were here we took Evie ice skating. And by "we" I mean Auggie took Evie skating while the rest off us watched from the bleachers. Evie enjoyed this rather a lot so we have signed her up to start lessons in November.  Assuming she is willing to cooperate (and let's be honest, this is Evie so you never know), she will make her ice debut in the "Nutcracker" this December as a Gingerbread Girl.  I will have the video camera at the ready!

 

 



 And last but in no way least, here is our alien baby.  He would not cooperate at ALL for photos at our scan last week so I am putting this one up despite it looking less than human.  The good news is that all of his measurements are normal and so far he is measuring as he should. Good boy.


Enjoy the pictures! I will try not to leave it so long next time

Jane xxx

Poor, already ignored, second baby

I was looking back at some old blog posts and realized that by this point in my Eviepie pregnancy, there were a great many blog posts about it. Poor baby boy is lagging behind. So, here's a small update . . .

19 1/2 Weeks

Weight Gain:  According to my doctor, too much.

How big is baby? 8oz - head to bottom the size of an heirloom tomato. If only one knew how big one of those is

Maternity Clothes? Definitely for trousers. Still squeezing into some other non-maternity stuff. Avoiding the maternity wear price monopoly this time though by buying second hand on ebay and purchasing some slightly larger regular clothes on clearance. This is the big advantage of living in a "fat" city - lots of larger stuff to choose from ;-)

Stretch marks? Not yet

Sleep? Pretty good as long as baby is not dancing a jig

Best Moment of the week? Buying boy a nice new toy

Movement? lots! I am convinced that he is either 1. practicing his bowling action for a future career as captain of the England Cricket team OR 2. practicing his drop-kick action for a future career in helping England beat Australia at rugby. Either is permissible.  Daddy would prefer Rugby.

Food Cravings? None! yay!

Labor signs? none

Belly button in or out? in

What I miss? Honestly? Gin

Milestone: None but looking forward to a scan on Thursday!

So there you go. We have not cleared out his room yet, neither have we picked a colour. I have found the most AMAZING chair though so perhaps I will just plan it around that. All babies like grey velvet with sparky trim, right? 

I promise more photos of Evie soon. I know that's what you really logged on for . . .

Jane xx

Evie's new top and a visit from a friend

Evie's school did an art project this week. We took in a t-shirt and the children tie-dyed them! Evie was so excited by her new creation. We were pretty impressed with it as according to Ms. Celeste, Evie did all the knots herself.  He she is modeling her new style!

 This is fairly amusing. Evie pops wanted to help Daddy do some gardening but naturally would not demean herself to wearing "garden clothes" so she did the weeding and rose pruning in her Spanish girl dress. That's my girl!! It didn't seem to matter all that much as Daddy did the lion's share of the work and Evie tried to take credit for it all.

 Evie wanted a bun on the top of her head. So I did one. Then she decided it would be a problem for nap time and had something of strop about it. So like all good parents should, we took a photo. She looks vaguely ghost like on this too which is a bit weird.

Last weekend we were treated with a visit from Evie's Godfather, Chris, and his son, Dakoda. They played very nicely together, especially when Dakoda did exactly what Evie wanted him to do.  Here Evie is issuing specific instruction as to how one should correctly pay the puppiepiano.

And finally, here's a snap to highlight Auggie's gladiatorial strength. Evie likes to do her "hip hip hurray" jumps with Daddy which started when she weighed in the region of 22 pounds and are more of a work out now that she tops that scale at 38. Thankfully Auggie is man enough for the task and as you can see from the look on her face, there are few things more fun. I'm wondering if her form is a good indicator of her future as in pairs figure skating??





I heard baby boy's heartbeat today after 5 minutes of failed attempts and a change of machinery. He did NOT want to corporate. Naughty boy.  Once he did though, we heard a nice healthy heartbeat. No more appointments for 4 weeks. I miss my ultrasounds!

On that note . . . until next time xxxx

Baby!

For all of his future admirers . . 

Some new adventures

 

This past weekend Evie was invited to Damien's birthday party - a little boy in her class at school. They started out bowling.  After attaching herself to me for a while, Auggie was able to coax Evie into trying in and she LOVED it!! I think she and Auggie are talking strategy. As you can see from the picture, bowling alleys have moved on rather from the last time I went bowling. 

 

 

We next moved onto the games. Auggie enjoyed the snowmobile, but Evie was not having it at all. She had to be removed, screaming!

 

Evie wanted me to talk a photo of her princess gloves. I am not sure why.  She likes to wear them at home for slightly random activities including caring for Lelly, making tea, and making medicine for when she decides I am sick!

 SAM has been with us for a few days! Among other fun events, they have been sword fighting.  They have also played with water pistols, gone on a train, carousel, and spent a day at the Schlitterbahn water park. We wish he could stay longer! 

 This is just a cute picture :-)

 

Evie's latest favorite thing to do is to make "books."  They usually have multiple pages which we stick together. Magically, the stories change each time we read them, varying from adventures of the "Stegasaurus" to Princesses getting married. She's started writing some words too which is exciting! Here she is showing off her work for you in this picture.

I hope that there are enough photos for now. Since Evie likes me to take random photos of her, I should have more for the blog.  As for baby boy, I hope that I will get a photo from tomorrow's ultrasound and if so, I will post it on here!! He's being a good boy and not making me feel sick any more although I could still happily spend most of the day sleeping! If only . . .

xxx

So, what has Evie been up to?

 

 

Since our most recent post in December (!! sorry!!), Evie has been up to all kinds of fun.  There is obviously too much to list here, but I thought I would add a few recent photos you may not have seen. Since we are now expecting baby number 2, we thought it was about time we got around to updating.  

 

 Last weekend Evie and I went to the Aquarium with Evie's friend Abby and Abby's mum, Michelle. Evie liked the tigers best - the real ones and the fake photo op one!

 You notice a theme from Evie's birthday. Fairies are still a huge favourite and this dress was just perfect for her! Evie likes to fly around the room with her magic wings.  I'm going to be honest here, I really do wish that things like this had been available in New Ash Green around 1984 or so. Perhaps Santa will bring me one for Christmas.

 Auggie and I took Evie for her first brewery visit while our friend Robert was staying with us.  Evie was a big fan of the "beer" - root beer that is - and had a lot of fun.  A girl after her Daddy's heart, perhaps?

 We wish you a merry . . .

 

Evie is already excited about Christmas. I suspect this is more to do with mince pies and Santa than anything that occurred in Bethlehem. Even so, Auggie and I keep forgetting to confiscate the Mickey Mouse that plays "we wish you a merry Christmas" and Evie has been doing her best to wear out his batteries.  Sadly (for us), these batteries appear to have some kind of magic power that allows them to last years longer than any other battery known to the human race. Deep joy.  Here is a sweet candid shot of Evie doing some Christmas ballet to the theme of Christmas Mickey.

 

 

Cat anyone? This guy showed up at our house last week. I thought there was a package on the doorstep but it turned out to be a kitty.  Because I'm stupid, I fed him and guess what?? Now he thinks he lives here!! Evie is highly amused by our new friend but we will have to find him a home. He's a sweet kitty though who likes to snuggly up against our house.  I will not give in to his cute face though - our house is a cat free zone!

 

And moving on to "bean." He is now 11 weeks and has been dancing on the last two ultrasounds.  He even waved to Nana at the last one.  I have not really felt sick but I'm tired most of the time and my tummy is massive! I know "they" say that with the second one you show faster, but this is just silly. So much so, in fact, I have no intention of sharing a photo!!   We are excited to be almost out of the first trimester and look forward to seeing baby boy at our next ultrasound :-)

 

Until next time. . . .

 

 

3 already!

 It might seem as if it was only three weeks ago that we welcomed Evie into the world but our Angel is 3!! She was pretty excited about her birthday this year and has been talking about it for ages.  She has a favourite book that I found her in a charity ship in Rochester that is about Violet - a fairy who had a secret birthday party. So, Evie decided that she wanted a secret birthday party. So, on the Saturday before her birthday, we took Evie to Moody Gardens in Galveston for the Festival of Lights but didn't tell her until we got there.  She was very excited and even more so when we provided a pair of light up wings!! I think a good time was had by all.

 On her birthday, we had a fun party at Nana's house.  Evie and Tori made jelly.

 And Mummy and Daddy decorated a cake. I'm glad we did it and it came out very nicely, but next year I might just stop being cheap and pay for the decorated cake.  The stars said "Evie".  Original, right?

We also had dinner and a champagne (or sprite in Evie's case) toast!

 

 Evie played her 3 year doctors appointment perfectly, telling Dr. Herman that she likes to eat peas and carrots and to drink milk. She also told him she can speak French and Spanish and talked the poor man's ear of for 10 minutes.  We were just pleased she didn't tell him how much she likes wine and champagne.  She measures in at around 39 inches tall and weighs about 35lbs 7oz.  This puts her around the 90th percentile for both weight and height so clearly she's still planning to be a linebacker. She could talk for England and LOVES to dance. In fact just today we went to hear Nana's choir sing and Evie treated the audience to so hula girl moves.  She also love ponies, princesses and cooking. She is often found in Papa's kitchen, telling him what to do and what he's doing wrong.  She is also very sweet but with a naughty streak (don't know where she gets that from?)  She's also pretty into puzzles (as long as they have pictures of Thomas the Tank Engine or Mickey Mouse on them) and likes to colour. She makes a lot of crafts at school from which we have selected examples on display. She is very proud of her acorn collage :-)

And here are a few Christmas pictures.  We dressed Evie up and went off in torrential rain at 9am this morning to the photographers only to be told there was no room for us. Nice of them to tell us in advance right? So, we went to Chez Cottam for some alternative studio shots.  Evie liked posing but insisted on me joining her for a few pictures. I tend to think that the ones of her alone are better.  Either way, we got some good ones so enjoy!!

We're off to see Grandma on Friday night and on to West Texas for the weekend and then back to see Grandma on Christmas Day. I think Evie is excited! I'm sure there will be lots and lots of photos to share after the festivities. 

Merry Christmas!