Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We hope everyone had a great Christmas. We had a busy time (hence slow to update this site). Louise, Charlotte and Claire enjoyed themselves. Louise was really into Christmas this year. We all went on the Santa Train at the Durham museum of life and science which was a great hit. Louise got to meet Santa and some of his elves. She asked Santa for a pair of sunglasses.

Louise also enjoyed the children's Christmas service at Duke Chapel, though she thought the bass singer was "too loud". (She kept shouting out "I want to see baby Jesus!!) She was so excited afterwards that she charged down the hill to the parking lot and tumbled over before Mummy and Nana could catch up with her (thus the band-aid on her nose in the Christmas day pictures).

We've had lots of visitors. Nana and Granddad have come over from England to stay with us for two weeks. Pops and Mary also came down to see us for a couple of days. Pops' sister Candy joined us for dinner last night, and we'll see his sister Nancy tomorrow evening.

A collection of photos are below including one Louise took - see if you can guess which one! Also there are two videos including one of Louise playing the recorder (Alison's gift idea!)

Louise's accent

Louise's accent is interesting. She follows Daddy's lead on some words ("to-MAH-to" and "GEH-redge"). On others, she is entirely Apple Pie (the back of a car is the "trunk", and she helps Daddy take "trash" to the "dump"). Sometimes she's a local (she thinks "milk" is a two-syllable word). But occasionally she is pure Louise. Yesterday she walked around the house with our neighbour Judy's stethoscope saying "my being noyrse!" (nurse).

Charlotte singing with Mummy's cousin Sarah:





















Daddy's Stephen Colbert impression ("my small friends"):

Getting ready for Christmas

9 December: We had a wonderful weekend; we visited Mummy's cousin Sarah and her family. Louise had a wonderful time playing dress-up with her cousin Lily, and Charlotte ate pizza for the first time in her life (she was very impressed). Charlotte & Claire now have two and three teeth (respectively).

Louise is very excited about Christmas. She quickly picked up the lyrics to a few Christmas songs, and she's been teaching Mummy all about Santa. (He has a sleigh and reindeer, and they all ride on his Santa train). This evening, Louise and Daddy took a walk down the road, where they admired the neighbours' Christmas lights. ("The deer's heads move, Mummy! All by themselves!!")

Louise has also learnt how to put on her coat by herself. Mr Brandon at daycare has taught her a trick way to do it, very nifty (see video below) :

Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated a lovely Thanksgiving with our neighbour Judy. We had a non-traditional feast of chicken curry, rice, cornbread, and apple pie. We're also enjoying the dry weather and spending quite a bit of time outside, to Louise's delight. We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday.

A few days ago, Mummy noticed that Claire has a tooth! After many false alarms Claire finally did it. Charlotte is quite fussy, but she can lag quite a bit behind her big little sister in physical things.

Leaf removal season

This week has been one of coughs and colds with everyone being hit by something. Claire is recovering from an ear infection.
We have been busy blowing leaves off our lawn and helping neighbours as well. Louise has enjoyed helping, which can be seen in one of the videos below. She also enjoys rolling about in the leaves! We are looking forward to the long Thanksgiving weekend and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

Louise is also developing an entrepreneurial spirit. She announced on Saturday, "I want to sell my bike."
"How much are you asking for it?" Mummy enquired.
"$30."
"I don't know," said Mummy. "That's a lot for a used bike. I'll give you $0.05"
"No, I need $30," Louise insisted.