Tea party

 

Here is Anna, hitting a developmental milestone. It isn't the first time she's set up a tea party for her dolls and stuffed animals. But it is the first time I have ever heard her offering (and pretending to serve from the large teapot) chicken and leek pie. 

 

That's my girl. 

Bedtime can wait

When you're having this much fun, why go to sleep? Too bad it isn't Friday night...

Bath time is fun!

What more can I say? This is a girl who loves the bathtub!

The extraordinary ordinary

Lucy has discovered she likes food. She'll try whatever everyone else is eating, if I'll let her. So the past several weeks have been a time of discovery for her: rice was a big hit, and so was carrot cake. (No big surprise there!)

Some days life with four children feels like--in the words of an amusing quotation that I didn't quite grasp before I had two children--'being pecked to death by a chicken.' And how! There is a relentlessness about it. There is also something magical about it. This week Iain played me his version of the appropriate music for the scene in which Batman meets the vampire. Thomas made a power point slide show about mammals--on Saturday morning, just for fun. In the meantime, Anna and Iain were busy creating a fashion show downstairs. Lucy never lacks for entertainment. We have a few of the baby Einstein videos the others watched as babies, but I think she's just as happy watching what goes on around her.

After all, it is pretty amazing.

Scarborough via Whitby

Walking to the shops in Bearpark village this afternoon with Lucy, I saw the number 48 bus, traveling towards Durham on the Bearpark Road. I know it pretty well, and could tell you the bus times from about 7.00am until 11.00am. Lucy and I catch the bus into Durham a couple of mornings a week. There's a stop just across the street from her nursery. Occasionally the double-decker bus comes at 8.02: we can't get on that one with the stroller (or, as the bus driver might say, the buggy-- a word that still conjures images of dune buggies in my mind). These are the sorts of things you pick up. I wish I could say the bus driver is always apologetic. Usually, yes, but every once in a while a driver will look at me as if I am wanting to board the bus with a crocodile. 

This afternoon, though, I wondered about that bus. The front of the bus always displays something involving Durham city (via Bearpark) or New Brancepeth (if heading out of town). Never before have I seen it say anything so wildly inaccurate as 'Scarborough via Whitby'.

At least I know where Whitby is, though I don't have any idea how to get from there to Scarborough. I guess if I were in Whitby, now I know I could catch the bus.

A broken finger

It hasn't slowed Thomas down too much. He did, however, break his left ring finger playing a schoolyard version of hockey. Nothing too spectacular: he fell down. So he was off school on Wednesday. I was glad of his company as I waited for Lucy's check up (just a weigh in, really). We played an epic game of go fish. And the best bit: when the only other person in the waiting room came over to chat, Thomas asked where she was from. 'Bangladesh,' she answered. 'Have you heard of it?' I smiled, and said to Thomas, 'What's the capital of Bangladesh?' 

Without hesitation, Thomas replied, 'Dhaka.' 

The look on the woman's face made my week. 

Snack time!

I did my homework. Somewhere in the back of my mind was a concern about feeding eggs to babies under the age of 1. So that's egg yolk on the toast. Turns out Lucy enjoyed it until the novelty wore off. In general, though, she's doing well with food. Although she eats baby food (in interesting combinations from Ella's Kitchen), she prefers to join in the family meals whenever possible. Fortunately, we eat a lot of pasta!

If only her older siblings were so eager to try green beans...

A sloshy stroll

It was meant to be a walk. Really. I insisted on Wellington boots for all (even wore mine) because I knew how soggy it would be. Unfortunately wellies seem to be a license to stomp in muddy puddles with reckless abandon. Unlike our New Year's Day walk two years ago in the snow, this sojourn ended with dirty children, with boots full of murky water. And yes, that's mud on Thomas' face.