Our peanut

This is my second post about Lizzie in a row -- you'd think she was the eldest. She will tell you the truth.

She had her 1 year old visit at the doctor today and she remains tiny. She weighs just 17 lbs, 6 oz, which puts her in the second percentile. She is 29" tall and in the 50th percentile for height. The doctor was impressed that she says "ball." He said that he is not worried about her size because she is obviously thriving. (I tried to explain that she's not doing most of the things that her brother was doing at this age, and he cut me off with, "she doesn't have to walk until she's eighteen months old.")

Here she is after my run yesterday, asleep:

This is yesterday as well, but I think before the run?

It's raining here today, but I promised to walk to pick up Tommy so he could nap in the buggy on the way home (I wonder how many parents are trying to talk their kids out of naps? It feels so odd). He was excited to stay at school for lunch bunch, I'm sure partially because the food is so good -- it's from an all-organic restaurant that is near our house. I told the owner that I love it when Tommy has lunch at school because I know I can feed him peanut butter and jelly for dinner.

BALL!

So we've been trying to understand Lizzie for a while now. She clearly says "ma-ma" and "da-dee" and I think she says "hiya!" But after Tommy's football class today, it is certain that her first word is "ball" and she says it with enthusiasm. She loves that football class and as we walk up the stairs to get to the room, she flaps her arms and bounces and smiles. And once we're in the room, she turns away from me and lunges toward the ground (so far, I have not dropped her, but it can be tricky).

Tommy went back to school today and Lizzie missed him, but she likes being able to play with all the little lego guys without having them snatched away from her. She also likes my undivided attention.

Accident-prone?

So we had the scooter crash two days ago, then yesterday I gave Tommy his toothbrush and he stuck it in his mouth and took off running. And he of course fell and cut the back of his mouth with the toothbrush. I heard him start crying and I actually could barely bring myself to look at him because I was so worried it would be an awful injury and require an immediate trip to the emergency room. (We had a long talk about running with things in his mouth, and then two more long talks on the same topic today.) Then, after he got home from school today, he was playing in the kitchen while I made lunch, and he somehow put his fingers in the door of the refrigerator when I had it open and then when I closed it, he started screaming. Horrible. He has one of those smashed-looking bruises on his finger. (When he gets hurt, Tommy wants "something soft" to make him feel better. Thus far, we've used fleece blankets, but today I hit on the genius idea of giving him a dry washcloth and he walked around with that for 15 minutes or so. What is so great about this, you ask?? LESS LAUNDRY.) So my question is: is this just one of those bad-things-come-in-threes situations, or are we looking at an-injury-a-day-in-2011 situation?

Scooter crash

Today we all went out for a walk. Tommy rode his scooter. He crashed. He rode down a ramp, didn't brake at the bottom, and crashed into a wall at the bottom, smacking his nose on the handrail. His nose immediately started to bleed -- a lot -- and he cried which meant it was serious as he doesn't cry normally. Anyway, we both felt horribly for not catching him (but it was impossible) and so we bought him a cookie.

Happy New Year!

Eli and I managed to stay up until midnight, and it's a good thing because people here set off fireworks. Somehow, the kids stayed asleep. But, we started the new year this morning at 5:45 because that's when Tommy woke up (Eli says that more fireworks were set off, but I am skeptical because they did not wake me up). Lizzie followed shortly and Eli and I groggily started the morning routine. We had a dutch baby for breakfast, and then went for a long run. Both kids fell asleep in the jogger -- probably because they woke up before 6 -- and so we kept walking until they were done with their naps. Anyway, we've had a very fun week. We went to Winter Wonderland, which is a huge amusement park that is set up in Hyde Park during December. It's actually really impressive given that it's temporary. Tommy's favorite ride was the snowman bouncy house and he jumped until he passed out, almost. (Actually, he jumped until I saw him slug some girl in the back and I climbed in there and got him, but he was exhausted.) We also went to the British Museum, which did not go over so well with the three year old in our house. He liked the building, but the mummies creeped him out. Our strategy is to stick with the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum (and possibly a couple of others) so that Tommy continues to look forward to museums and not decide that they are boring or scary. On Tuesday, Eli and I went to Oxford Street (and also to the gym so Eli could give me some pointers on my swimming) while the kids stayed with Miss Alina. Oxford Street was pretty horrible -- so crowded it felt like we were at a concert, not walking down a sidewalk. Our fault, but we had to do some returning and exchanging, and not dragging the kids along was too temping. The other high point of our weekend has been cooking from the cookbook the kids got Eli for Christmas -- Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals. So far, it's pretty great.

Christmas (a post for grandparents, aunties and uncles)

Christmas eve:

Tommy's huge pile of gifts:

James, a popular gift:

Elizabeth, another gift that earned a pause:

My new super comfortable and cute boots!! Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Dinosaurs!!

Advent calendars

Here's the advent calendar I can't wait to throw away (in fact, already have) because it's been destroyed by Tommy and gives him a sugar high each day:

Here's the advent calendar I LOVE, sent by Grandma Nancy. Each day is an ornament to decorate the tree with -- and I'm going to keep it for next year (though I'm not sure we can use it again, it will just be a decoration).

Here's a cute story from this morning. Tommy and I wrapped Eli's gifts yesterday and put them under the tree. Before Eli went to work, we had pancakes, and as I was mixing them up, Tommy told Eli to come in the living room, "I got somethin to show you, Dad!"

He then pointed to a box under the tree and said, "those are your new shoes!" And Eli said, "well, you're not really supposed to tell me what's in there, honey." And Tommy said, "oh. [pause] what's in that box?"