Sunday, February 28, 2010

Screamin' babies

Everyone in the house is fully mobile now. Charlotte will now deign to crawl for more than a couple of feet. Claire is getting faster, and she enjoys scooting her way towards plugs and electrical sockets when Mummy & Daddy aren't looking.

On Saturday, Louise & Daddy left the house to run errands whilst a half dozen "screamin babies," as Louise dubbed them (aka the K14 North Durham/Orange group from Trianglemommies.com) came to visit the music factory. Charlotte & Claire enjoyed the company. The other babies (who didn't scream at all) were all developmentally more advanced, and one of them showed Claire what fun stairs could be (Mummy was delighted).

Louise enjoys visiting the new house and inspecting the work. Mummy surreptitiously snapped a picture of Louise on an inspection trip, before Louise began shouting "not me, Mummy! Take pictures of the wood!"

Mummy has adopted a superstitious and entirely unscientific conviction that fresh air helps babies sleep. So Charlotte & Claire were treated to a 25 minute wagon ride today despite the brisk wind.



Sunday, February 21, 2010

Party time

Louise had a birthday party last Friday at daycare with her good friend Katie.

Louise was very excited to get cupcakes, with a choice of vanilla or chocolate (she had one of each) and Elmo or Spiderman (Elmo won both times). She also enjoyed receiving lots of presents throughout the week with plenty of Thomas the Tank Engine toys to go on her new train set.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Louise is three!!

Louise enjoyed her third birthday. She received some wonderful presents from friends and grandparents. Louise was sometimes blunt in her assessment of a few of the gifts, but "me no like it" changed in every instance to "mine!" or "me like it!" either overnight or once her sisters showed an interest. The fun continues tomorrow: she's having a joint birthday party at day care with her good friend Katie.

Yesterday, Louise had her three year old "well child checkup" with Dr Greene. She is no longer a giant. She weighed 36.8 lbs (75th percentile), was 38.5 inches tall (75th percentile), and had a BMI of 17.4 (85th percentile - yes, we're not sure how that works either). She was very brave during her vaccination and finger stick, and she was very proud to show Mummy her battle trophies (band-aids/plasters).

Claire has learned how to wave, but she waves towards herself! (It's perhaps too soon to take her to a child psychiatrist). Charlotte has a double ear infection; we're hoping the antibiotics help her to feel better soon.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Louise's future in marketing

To Mummy's disgust, many American businesses are altering the English language. They take perfectly good nouns, like "leverage", and turn them into verbs that take direct objects. Now Louise has started down that treacherous path; worse, she's doing it with adjectives. This evening, she found a stuffed bear in her sisters' room that had removable clothing. She knew she needed to brush her teeth, but when she returned she wanted to remove the bear's clothing. "Me going to naked the bear!!" she proclaimed.

Claire continues to become better at crawling. Charlotte is starting to seem mildly miffed that she cannot get around as well as her sisters (though she does well with standing).


Friday, February 12, 2010

Baby on the move

This week Claire has made great progress and is now crawling around. We caught one occasion on video (see below). Charlotte is still content to roll around and crawl up on anything that is remotely stationary, but she isn't crawling yet. Louise continues to "help" her sisters as she sees fit!

Charlotte & Claire exchanged Valentine's Day cards with their classmates today. Louise helped Mommy last night by sealing all of the cards with heart-shaped stickers. She was delighted to receive cards from her sisters this morning. Daddy might despise the holiday for its crass commercialism and artificiality. But it has Louise's full approval. It combines mail (post) and candy: the perfect holiday!!!

Today we also went to Louise's daycare to meet her new teacher, Ms Meg, in the Preschool class that Louise will gradually join next week. She will be moving with her good friend Katie, which is great since they have been together since they were three months old.

Louise and Katie are having a joint 3 year birthday party next Friday at daycare, organised by Katie's mom. We will aim to get some photos. Elmo (Louise's favourite character) and Spiderman (Katie's favourite) cupcakes will make an appearance.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

The magic of snow

"Those cars need to scrape the snow off, Mommy!" Louise told me today.

"Why is that, Louise?"

"Because if they don't, the cars will melt, and a big truck will come and scrape them up."