MERRY CHRISTMAS

Where has December gone? This month has just flown by, and now Christmas is here and almost gone. Sheesh.

We've been having a lovely time with Amma, Afi & Kiddi. Anna and Elsa were so excited to see them. I have a lot of wonderful picture, but they were taken on our new camera and I haven't yet loaded the software for it on my computer. Hopefully, I'll upload them tomorrow.

I wish everyone happiness, health, joy and peace for the rest of this holiday season!

What????

Over the course of this last week, the most frequent word uttered by Anna has been: "WHAT?!?" At first I thought she was just being extra-spacey, but after a few days of feeling like she wasn't really hearing anything I said, I figured she must be having a problem with her ears. Thankfully, Anna has been free of ear infections her whole life, but now she really really has one. Poor thing.

I took her to my local GP on Thursday to have him look in her ears. The visit just confirmed my suspicions that he takes laissez-faire doctoring to the extreme. I think a child's ear drum would have to actually blow up in his face for him to say that the child has an ear infection! This doctor looked at the one ear that Anna said hurt and proclaimed that there was nothing wrong. Just get back to him in a week if she's still complaining. On Friday, Anna still complained about her ear and on Saturday morning, it looked like there was dried blood in her ear. I knew what that meant -- she did indeed have an ear infection and probably a perforated ear drum! Great. I have a private pediatrician that I have taken the girls to see, but she doesn't have Saturday hours and she is in Kensington (about 20 minutes by Tube). Not terribly convenient. Thankfully, I remembered that a friend of mine had mentioned that there is a private medical clinic in Richmond not too far from my house. So, I called over there to see if they were open on Saturdays. Hurray -- they were. We were able to schedule an appointment and Anna saw a really lovely pediatrician who actually looked at both her ears (and at her throat and listened to her chest -- not something the local NHS GP has ever done when I've taken Anna to see him). Anna does in fact have a perforated ear drum on the right side and an infection on the left side. Wonderful. But, after just a day and a half of antibiotics, she is already seeming much more like her old self.

Lesson Learned

When this little person is around . . .

Do not leave butter unattended on the countertop. Or else, you'll get this:

4 Years

Four years ago, yesterday, at 12:51 am on December 4th of 2003, I met this little person for the first time.

Somehow, in the blink of an eye, this little person, has become this little four-year old girl.

Poor Anna didn't have the most exciting of birthdays yesterday because Carlos and I both had things at work that could not be rescheduled. So, we sang happy birthday and blew out candles in the morning before work, and we gave her the birthday present (a doll house which has been a huge hit).

On Monday after school, we're going to have a birthday party with some of her friends from nursery school. As usual, I'm getting overly excited for the party -- I'm planning a treasure hunt.

Happy birthday my dear little Anna!

How could you not love it?

Cbeebies (the BBC children's TV channel) has a new program called In the Night Garden. Anna and Elsa both love it. I have never seen either of them react so positively, instantaneously. The first time they saw the program, they were hooked. And, frankly, so was I. It is wonderful. How could you not love a program where the character's names are: Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka, the Tombliboos, the Pontipines, the Ninky Nonk, the Pinky Ponk and the Haahoos. The Sunday Observer magazine did an interesting article about the program (you can read it here). Turns out the people behind this program are the same people who did the Teletubbies. But, the Night Garden is infinitely better.

Thoughts . . .

Am I ever going to manage to get to bed before midnight? Or 11 pm? Every day I wake up wishing that I could sleep for another hour or two. As I drag myself out of bed, I tell myself that I am going to go to bed early. And what happens? I don't know. I feel like I get sucked into some black hole and suddenly it is 11:45 pm. Ok, tomorrow, I'm going to go to bed early, I swear.

Anna has taken to calling Elsa "sister" instead of calling her by her name. Makes for funny-sounding conversations. "Come on sister! Give me back the doll!"

Elsa has decided that it is her job to shush Anna when she is having a melt-down. When Anna goes into tantrum mode, Elsa says to her (complete with an outstretched index finger): "Quiet! Quiet!" I had to bite my lips really hard not to laugh the first time she did this. Now, she even tells babies to be quiet when we're out shopping. Yikes!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day to those of you in the US!

Elsa's on the mend, and I managed to get the report done.

Fever, Deadline & Pimples

Ugh. It is almost 1 am, and I'm sitting in bed with my laptop. Lying next to me is a small furnace, formerly known as Elsa. Poor thing has had some terrible bug since Sunday night that has involved a pretty high fever that has been difficult to control. She has needed a lot of snuggling and cuddling over the last two days, and rightly so. However, that has not been conducive to writing a report to the foundation that gave the grant that pays for my job! This mid-term report for our two year grant is basically due now. Yikes. I've been working on it all day, but at the moment I am having serious writer's block.

One thing I've learned over the last two days. No sleep and stress is an excellent way to ensure that I get at least three huge pimples on my face. Lovely.

20 Months

Elsa turned 20 months on the 12th. It is difficult to get photos of her these days because as soon as she sees the camera, she starts running toward it at full speed saying "CHEEEEESE". Here are some pictures taken yesterday and today.

Elsa is also saying all sorts of new words every day. She always wants to know "what happen?" and tells you to be "very careful". Today she tried to sing happy birthday and managed "happy to you". She really cracks us up.

Terrace Gardens

The Terrace Gardens are one of my favorite places in Richmond, and the girls love it there too. Here are some pictures of them taken at the gardens last week. They were loving running down the gardens' steep hills.

Doin' the pigeon

I love Sesame Street and the Muppets. In fact, I think I may have been a Muppet in a previous life.

Jim Henson was a genius.

All of this said, if I had to pick a Sesame Street/Muppet song to have stuck in my head all day, this is not the song I would pick (even though it is funny):

It's true, organic is better

Last Sunday, the Times on Sunday ran a story about a 4 year study funded by the European Union has found that organic food is better. It found that organic foods generally have a higher nutritional content than their non-organic counterparts. For instance, organic milk was found to have higher levels of vitamin E than non-organic.

At last, evidence that supports why I've been so insistent on buying organic whenever possible!

Eat your words, all who scoff at organic food

Official: organic really is better

Next step, I want to finally sign up for a box delivery scheme that will deliver local, in season (and mostly organic) produce to me on a weekly basis. I've been wanting to sign up for this for ages, but I just haven't gotten around to doing the research to figure out which company I want to use. It seems that there two companies that offer this service for my area, but I haven't figured out what the major difference between the companies is. Interestingly enough, I think the prices are reasonable -- I think I spend a similar amount at my local grocery store. Plus, for me it is a benefit not to have to go to the store because I find that I often purchase things on impulse that just end up going to waste. Having my fresh food delivered to me (I can also order milk and meat through this service), I avoid being suckered into purchases that I wouldn't have otherwise made.

Friends

I'm a very lucky person.

I have made some really good friends here in London, and I also made some good friends during my short stay in New Haven.

Then I have good friends from my law firm days (friends who made that experience infinitely more bearable), and I have good friends from my law school days (in fact, one of them introduced me to Carlos). Luck was in my corner at McGill, too -- I made some very good friends during my four years in Montreal.

However, Lady Luck really outdid herself with my oldest friends -- the "Ladies" (aka, Alice, Alison, Joanne and Liz). We have all known each since kindergarten, except Liz, the newcomer, who we've known since 3rd grade. These women are an incredibly special part of my life, and I value our friendship immensely. We may not see each other very often since it is hard to coordinate schedules and since we live all over the place (Seattle, NY, Boston, DC & London), but as soon as I hear one of their voices or see their lovely faces, I feel like no time has passed. In fact, as I'm sure they would readily attest, I often feel rather juvenile when I'm with them.

Last weekend I had my first weekend away from la familia. Solo. Alone. I had forgotten how easy it is to travel when you are only responsible for yourself. It was nice. I missed the girls and Carlos (I missed the girls a bit more than I missed the hubby), but it was nice to get away. It was especially nice to get away to see the Ladies (minus Joanne ... sadness). Alice, Alison and I descended upon Liz's house in the Boston suburbs, and basically behaved like complete nerds the whole weekend. Poor Joanne was feeling icky and couldn't join. So, we phoned her a lot and pestered her to the point that she probably was glad not to see us! It was really wonderful to get to hang out and just talk about everything and anything.



I hope Lady Luck is as generous with my girls as she has been with me.



Here we are at the end of the weekend (all a little squinty because we were looking directly into the sun).


(from L to R: me, Alice, Liz, Alison)

Nose knowledge

Elsa definitely knows her nose.

If you ask her: "Elsa, where is your nose?" She will smile, point at her nose and say "nose".

If you ask her: "Elsa, where are you eyes?" She will smile, point at her nose and say "nose".

If you ask her: "Elsa, where is your mouth?" She will smile, point at her nose and say "nose".

I think you get the picture. Despite the nose obsession, Elsa is starting to say a lot of words and some short phrases. For instance, one morning when Carlos left for work very early, Elsa was looking around asking "Where Papa?" She seemed mystified that he had disappeared before she could give him her early morning snuggle.

birthday

Happy birthday to Carlos!!

Picky picky picky = Picky picky picky DNA

Here's the New York Times weighing in on the picky eater debate: Picky Eaters? They Get It From You.

No willpower

I know Halloween is a few weeks away, but I couldn't resist putting their costumes on for a test run. I totally caved on the "no more Disney princess" stance. Anna got a Snow White outfit from Marks and Spencer. I have to say, the reason I changed my mind was that the M&S costume was really good quality -- especially when you compare it to the quality of the outfits from the Disney store (which I think disintegrate as soon as they make epidermal contact). Anna LOVES this outfit. I think she would wear it all day every day and all night every night if I would let her. Unfortunately, due to some unbelievable tantrums and bad behavior, the Snow White oufit is now locked up, waiting for Anna to earn it back (and boy, does she want it back)!

Here's my little snow fairy. Poor Elsa only gets hand-me-downs from Anna. So I got her a dressing up outfit all of her own. She was in heaven! Elsa paraded around the house in her fairy outfit telling anyone who would listen how nice she looked. Doesn't she have the most mischevious eyes you have ever seen?!?!
Here's the dynamic duo - ready for action!

Did you know?

Naan bread makes an excellent pizza base for homemade pizzas. Thanks to Nigella Lawson, now I know. We made naan bread pizzas for dinner over the weekend and they were delicious (especially the ones made with garlic & coriander naan).

Carlos just bought Nigella's new book (Nigella Express) for me, and we've been working our way through a bunch of the recipes. I have to say that so far all of them have turned out pretty well.

I've been on a bit of a recipe book kick lately. I've been taking out various popular recipe books from the library to see if I can find any new recipes that the girls will eat. I feel like I am in such a rut with them, always feeding them the same old stuff (especially in the veg department -- cucumbers and baby plum tomatoes are the only things that go down with no fuss). So far, I haven't really hit on any winners with the girls. However, I found out that I quite like turkey meatballs (out of the Dinner Lady cookbook) (but making them wasn't so much fun - I don't like the texture of ground turkey). Anyone have any recipes out there that their kids love???

What would you do with a corn kernel?

The answer, if you are Anna, is: stare at it, push it around your plate, bargain with Mamma as to what you can get for eating one kernel of corn, and shove it to the side of your plate and leave it.

The answer, if you are Elsa, is: pick it up, play with it, figure out that it is roughly the same size as your nostril, pop it into your nostril, stick your finger in there to make sure that you get the corn kernel sufficiently far up the nasal cavity to cause you discomfort, sneeze 8 times in a row, and sneeze a 9th time causing a corn kernel to come flying out of your nostril (missing Mamma by mere millimeters).

Yikes. Is Elsa going to be one of those kids that I'm going to be taking to the doctor's on a regular basis to get things extracted out of her nose?!?!

Two good reads

Two excellent things that I read over the weekend. Worth having a look.

NY Times Op-Ed by Thomas L. Friedman: 9/11 is Over.

Sunday Observer Magazine column by Barbara Ellen: A 21st Century Problem: The Too-Smart Woman [I love her column]