A couple of cute, random pictures

Tommy and Aunt Sue at the carnival:

The Superman cape sewn by Grandma Nancy is very popular these days.

How to feed your small children any type of red sauce. Naked, obviously.

See the marinara on Tommy's upper arm?

On the way to football. He has swimming goggles and one of my elastic headbands around his mouth? He said he was Ben 10? No idea.

I scream, you scream...

At St. James's park on Sunday, I was overcome by something and suggested to Eli that we get Tommy an ice cream cone. Eli said fine, but that I'd better get one for Lizzie too, as she doesn't react well when she doesn't get exactly what anyone else gets (including cocktails, wine and coffee though we obviously don't give in on those things). They both ate the whole cone, with minimal help from me or Eli.

Again, my pictures are out of order, and this is Tommy running laps after finishing his ice cream:

Moorhens

My pictures are in the wrong order, sorry.

A few weeks ago, while walking through our secret park, Tommy, Lizzie and I discovered a bird with chicks. I thought it looked very exotic -- my pictures don't really show you why I thought that -- with a brightly colored beak and legs, and HUGE feet. The feet weren't webbed, so I didn't think it was a water bird, and when I came home and attempted to find the bird on the internet, I had no luck. BUT, then over the weekend we went to St. James's park, and in addition to seeing pelicans, herons and nests out in the middle of the pond, we found big posters of bird types. And discovered that the birds are indeed water birds and that they are called Moorhens.

We check in on our little family of birds twice a day, and sometimes feed them. They come VERY close so it's VERY exciting to feed them especially if you are Lizzie.

But then yesterday, while Tommy was out exploring in their little area, he got some nettles, so we have to be more careful. (He was great about it -- minimal complaining -- but I fear his sister would not have such a calm reaction.)

Nettles:

The mommy and a baby:
The family -- five babies!

Blah, blah, blah

Hi, everybody. Have I told you how our kids are waking up at 5am these days? We have tried EVERYTHING, including very ugly blankets hanging over Lulu's already heavy and dark drapes, waking Tommy up to go potty before we go to bed, white noise ... any suggestions? It's really starting to kill me, especially as my anxiety about going back to work (less than two weeks!!) has kicked in and keeps me up at night.

I know.

But, we are surprisingly cheerful around here, considering our lack of sleep. (Lizzie doesn't count as she has been napping three hours per day.)

We had a very nice visit from Aunt Sue and Uncle Ben last weekend. They swooped in, bearing Legos and other very fun toys, and then played with the kids for hours. Oh, and took us to lunch and to a carnival. Tommy is still talking about them. And Lulu would be if she could talk (lots of "WOW" from her these days, though, and she does use it appropriately). Here is Lulu with Aunt Sue:

Our other big news is that Tommy is signed up for two weeks of crash-course swimming lessons. As my dad said, this is good news given his absolute confidence in the fact that he can swim, when in reality, he cannot. (Did I tell the story about how I jumped into the pool in Palm Springs in my clothes because he let go of his floatie?) Let's cross our fingers that he at least can float on his back by the time the two weeks are up. (These are daily, private lessons, so my hope is he'll be able to actually swim. But no pressure, swim instructor.)

Tommy has been in time out for two days in a row when I picked him up at school, for running in the classroom. He also had three breakfasts, two lunches and an amazingly huge dinner tonight. Growth spurt? Or is he using a lot of energy running in the classroom?

Another cute thing about Tommy: he got some chapter books from Ovie and he LOVES them. She sent four, we read them in a week, and now we've read them multiple times. They are the Magic Tree House series, and I recommend them to all of you with kids Tommy's age (all three of you, or whatever). Super cute, and so impressive that he can imagine his own pictures.

I'll leave you with photos of our children in the shower (nothing explicit). It's their new favorite thing.

At the London Transport Museum

Eli took Tommy on his school trip this morning, to the Transport Museum, and sent this picture of Tommy with his friend Sienna.

Sommerset House

A couple of weekends ago --

Tommy tripped over the baby gate and hit the edge of the door jamb. He was a trooper about it, but YIKES.

Just a random cute one of Lulu.

Yes, I have another child, and he is terrific

Despite four posts in a row that feature Lizzie, I am madly in love with Tommy lately.

This morning Tommy almost made me cry when he cleared his plate AND my plate after breakfast. He is also back to being sweet to Lizzie ("Mommy, wait a second, I need to pick this daisy for Lizzie!"). When I asked him what he likes best about school, he said, "the food." Which made me laugh because the food he gets at school for lunch IS better than the food he gets for dinner during the week (when I'm cooking). We took an eight-minute movie of him reading "The Gruffalo's Child" this weekend. He knows more dinosaurs than I do, and also that there are volcanos on Mars.

More meowing plus some barking

Sweater

Grandma Sid knit a sweater for Lizzie that has cat buttons. Lizzie wore it today and pointed out the cats to plenty of people, always including her sound effects.

Frustrated no more.

Singing...