January 2011-1st Half

*Amaia is working hard to pronounce 'L' correctly-for now all the 'L' words start with a 'Y': yion; yizard; yundon, etc

*She is officially un potty trained! Yay-NOT. Even before Solia was born, she would start "leaking"-just a little bit would end up in her underwear but she would still put most of it in the toilet. Then it just kept getting worse and worse until one day this month she full on peed her pants (on Justin's lap, no less). She's officially in pull ups but still poops in the toilet

*Instead of calling me 'mommy' it's 'honey Em'

*When you pick up Solia, she puts her arms around your neck and squeezes in the cutest little hug.

*Justin got a promotion this month! Just up to the next level of awesomeness (I don't really understand it all) but it's still good!

*Bedtime routine consists of yogurt and milk, scriptures, telling Cinderella plus one other story. It makes for a long routine.

*Amaia always says "I need to make my tummy full" when she's eating.

Solia Only

Girls Together

365 Photo-Set 1

365 Photo-Set 2

Amaia Only

Trip to see Big Ben/Buckingham Palace. It was really

cold on the bridge where we took pics in front of Big Ben so we didn't

get the girls out of the carriers to do a picture.

Spot the Difference {2}

All of the bathrooms in the homes have these heated towel racks for you to hang your towel on. White-Out is called Tippex. It's the brand, just like White Out brand, but no one will have any idea what you're talking about if you ask for White Out. Also, a vacuum is called a Hoover, and you don't vacuum the floors, you hoover them. Every one knows they spell things funny here: realize vs realise; color vs colour; fiber vs fibre; favorite vs favourite, etc Gasoline is called petrol here-but in reality most cars here run on diesel. Petrol is sold by the litre-not the gallon. Last I checked, it was 130pence (so 1pound 30 pence) per litre, which of course is ridiculous. It cost us over 80 pounds to fill our car, and the tank wasn't even empty.

Kids Say the Darndest Things-{3}

"Daddy, don't throw me in the yucky water (the river out back)-that no make any sense". The funny part is-Justin never said anything about throwing her in the water-not even as a joke like he normally would. It was so out of the blue.

"Dat's just yucky Solia-don't eat my pants you silly little goobies"

"Oh my gosh frickin A!" I know it's in the December video, but I had to write it down. I most certainly have never said that all in a row like that, but I do get carried away sometimes....

Me: Amaia stop freaking out and calm down! Amaia: I just NEED to freak out.

One day I was nursing Solia, and when she was done I didn't immediately cover myself up again. Amaia comes over and starts messing with my shirt, telling me to "put you boob away"

"Stop crying Solia and show me a happy face right now!"

I told Amaia to come inside b/c it was a little chilly (nothing to terrible I just didn't want to be outside anymore) and she says "It's NOT cold outside it's freezing!"

December 2010-2nd Half with Video

We actually got a Christmas tree this year! It was only 10 pounds (so 15ish bucks) at Tesco (the grocery store/Wal-Mart) and it was already pre-lit. We didn't realize it was prelit with BLUE lights (lame) so we took them off and went and bought white ones. Of course, we bought a nice red and gold ornament set and matching wrapping paper to go with it. Justin even unwrapped the presents from his mother for the girls and wrapped it back up in the matching paper, so that it would all look good under the tree!

Poor Solia was super sick there for a while. Justin took her to some walk in clinic who tried to get us to collect her urine (they gave us a plastic bag and a little tube....ya didn't work out so well). When we took her back they decided she had something (which they never told us) but they prescribed her some pill form of the swine flu vaccine! I guess it was going around here and sinc she was already sick and so young they wanted to make sure. It was awful though-I had just started giving her baby food and I was supposed to mash this powder into her food. It was so gross though she never ate it all. I ended up mixing the flu pill powder with the strawberry flavored prescription fever reducer and stuck it all in a syringe. As long as she was sucking her two fingers, I could just squirt it in there and she would swallow it.

Two days before Christmas we got our stuff! Our sea shipment had arrived a week or so before, but was randomly selected for x-ray, so it didn't get to us until the 23rd. We spent the next couple days doing nothing but unpacking so that our house was nice and clean and organized for Christmas. It never made it completely done, but definately all done by the end of the year.

We also got a little bit of snow! It started coming down like crazy, and by the time I got the girls all bundled up and took them out, it was completely done. lame. but it snowed later so we got to go out and make little snow angels and stuff (for like 5 minutes) :)

Oh ya, did I mention that our house rocks? We have a river in our backyard? And we get all sorts of birds? Ducks, Geese, Swans, Seagulls, Pigeons, and some black duck thing that's not a duck but looks just like one. Oh. And one big egret looking like thing. But it's awesome. I'm hoping to get the home video tour finished for the next post, and with that I'll include some video footage of our little menagerie!

Our Christmas photos-Amaia put all of the ornaments in one huge clump there on the bottom. Are we bad parents if we took them all off after she went to bed and made it look nice?

Some random pics of the girls-poor naked Solia with a rag on her head-she was like 103. That was while we were trying to collect a urine sample before we got the meds. The Tylenol I gave her did nothing at all. You'll also notice Solia is not a huge fan of sitting in that bouncer-every time she goes in, she immediately rolls over.

Amaia

*DVDs are called DVDVs

*When Solia spits or poos, it's "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeew dat's nasgy So-wee-uh"

*Red buses are now "Yundon Bus"

*If she needs something she'll say "stuffin" instead of 'something'

*Every night I tell her my homemade version of Cinderella, along with reciting from memory the "Hand Hand Fingers Thumb" book

*She's started pretend cooking. She'll try to get us to taste it and will tell us to "just uh-tend a eat it"

*When she wakes up she'll say "I had a good nap, Em!"

*If she's going to tell you a secret, she'll put her ear on your ear, or even on your mouth :)

*She'll say "it's reedy easy a my talk" and then she'll just start babbling nonsense

*She's stopped calling me "Mommy". She either calls me "Em" like Justin does, or "Momma" like the little kitties say in the movie Aristocats.

*She had a really rough patch where she was very abusive to poor Solia :( hope it doesn't last

*As soon as we got our furniture we put Solia's crib into the bedroom with Amaia, so they now share a room.

365 Pics #1

365 Pics # 2

Here's the video-it's a long one but a good one. And I'll have you know, I did not teach her that at the end. She did that all on her own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gtKwg-Cy14

Bedtime Stories

I'd thought I'd share (mostly for record keeping purposes) the versions of the stories I tell Amaia. Keep in mind these are my versions of the story, told as to the point as possible, and lots of details missing so that it's easy to explain to a two year old.

Cinderella (or as Amaia likes to call it-Cinder Bella):

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Cinderella. Her mommy and daddy loved her so much, but one day her mommy got sick and died. Her dad got married again, and then her daddy died. Cinderella was left with her step mother and her two daughters, and they were SO mean to Cinderella. They always said "Cinderella, come clean my room." "Cinderella, go make me breakfast." Or "Cinderella, come do my laundry" (These three chores were different every night). Cinderella was so sad, and she didn't like living with them, but she didn't have anywhere else to go, so she just stayed there.

Then, one day, the Prince decided to have a dance, and he invited ALL the ladies to come dance with him. Cinderella was SO excited! She even had a pretty dress. But when it got to be time to go to the dance, the step mother said "No way, Cinderella. You can't go to the dance. You have to stay here and do the dishes." And there were a LOT of dishes. The step mother closed the door and locked it behind her, and took the key. Cinderella was so sad, she went and cried on her bed.

Then, POOF! like the Genie, the Fairy Godmother came. She said, "Don't worry, Cinderella. I've got the things you need to go to the dance. Here's a pretty dress, and some pretty shoes, and a car. Just make sure you are home by midnight, or all this stuff with go away." Cinderella was so happy. She said, "Thank you so much Fairy Godmother! And don't worry, I'll be home by midnight" So she got in her car and drove to the dance.

When she got there, there were SO many ladies! They were all taking turns dancing with the prince. Cinderella got a turn, too! The Prince liked Cinderella so much that they danced for a long time, when all of a sudden: DING, DING, DING! It was midnight!!! Cinderella said, "Oh Crap! I gotta go!" and she started running. The Prince said "Wait, I don't even know your name, you can't leave!" but Cinderella kept running. And while she was running, she lost her shoe in the middle of the street! But she couldn't stop to pick it up, so she just left it there.

The Prince found her shoe in the street, and he picked it up and took it home with him. Then, the next morning, he took it to every single house and tried that shoe on every single foot, but it didn't fit anyone. Then, he got to the last house, and tried it on Cinderella, and it FIT! The Prince and Cinderella were so happy. They kissed each other (this is where I'd give her a big kiss) and hugged each other (and she'd get a big hug too) and they went to the Prince's castle and got married, and they all lived happily ever after. The End.



The Princess and the Frog:

Once upon a time, there was a princess named Amaia. She was taking a walk in the forest, while playing with her little red ball. She accidentally dropped her ball, and it rolled and rolled until it went PLOP in a pond. When she bent over to get the ball, there was a frog. The frog said, "Hey princess! Pick me up!" So Princess Amaia picked up the frog. "I'm not really a frog," said the frog. "I'm really a handsome prince, and if you just kiss me, I'll turn back into a Prince." Princess Amaia wasn't sure what to do. She really wanted a handsome prince, but the frogs lips were so slimy and yucky and green. She decided to do it. As soon as she kissed him, he went POOF and turned into a handsome prince, just like he said! He was so happy to not be a frog anymore, and Princess Amaia was so happy to find a handsome prince. And they all lived happily ever after.

Spot the Difference- UK v USA {1}

As soon as we moved here we immediately noticed that things were different here! Duh. As if they would all be the same. BUT I decided to keep a list, and share them with you a little at a time. It's really interesting all of the things that are different-things that you would never have even thought about.

*One of the biggest things you will notice right off the bat about the food is how bland it is compared to the States. Everything is less salty and less sugary.

*To go along with that-even if it's the same brand, that doesn't mean it tastes the same. For example, they have Cinnamon Toast Crunch (by General Mills/Nestle-it's actually called Curiously Cinnamon here). It' tastes more like cinnamon candy flavor than actual cinnamon, and it's NOT cinnamon/sugar like the cereal is in the States. Nesquick Choclate milk powder they have, except it's like halfway between Nesquick in the States and regular plain old coco powder. We mix granulated sugar in it to make it palatable :)

*Every shower here has one dial for temperature, and one dial that controls the pressure. Which is awesome.

*They use a universal health care system here-although you obviously have the choice to use it or to use private doctors. We still have insurance so we can use whoever we want thank goodness.

Last but definately not least....

SALES TAX IS 20% HERE!!!!!

You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. That's why everything here is that much more expensive than buying the same thing in the states. Since the sales tax is so insane, it is included in the price of the item in the store. So if you go grab a box of cereal for 3.75, you'll pay exactly 3.75 since the tax is already included. That way you don't get to the check out and realize that you are X amount short because you didn't account for the 20% sales tax.

More to come!
*

i heart faces-sun flare

This week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces is sun flare! What do you think?