Lately

Eve has been on a scooter kick for the past couple of weeks. She’s had her scooter for a year but just started riding it confidently. Almost a little too confidently. She is so fast riding it that we have a hard time keeping up, which causes regular scares on the street.
She is very intrigued by what things are made of, which she frames as “what is in [thing]?” So the body for instance is full of bones and blood. This background info will help you understand how Eve cracked me up the other morning, making up a song on a random melody while she was having breakfast: “lait chaudzz* and candies… mix in our tummies… with bones”…
*warm milk in French
Eve adore sa trottinette ces jours-ci. Elle l’a eue l’an dernier, mais commence tout juste être à l’aise dessus. Presque un peu trop à l’aise. Elle est si rapide avec que nous avons du mal à suivre, ce qui nous cause régulièrement des frayeurs.
Elle est très intriguée par de quoi les choses sont faites, « Qu’est-ce qu’il y a dans [chose]?” Ainsi le corps, par exemple, est plein d’os et de sang. Cette information vous aidera à comprendre la chansonnette d’Eve l’autre matin, composée sur une mélodie inventée alors qu’elle prenait son petit déjeuner: “laits chaudzz and candies mix in our tummies with bones”.

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Daycare fun

Girls will be girls… Hair and make-up pretend play.

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Baby Bird

Yesterday morning, I had a really slow start. Woken up at 6:30 by Eve, even a bagels run didn’t manage to wake me up and I was just dragging myself around the apartment. Which led to this surreal, and yet oh so familiar to people with young kids, I’m sure, scene: Erik and I laying on our bed, each reading on our phone and laptop. And Eve, jumping on the bed between our two lifeless bodies, flapping her arms shouting “I’m a baby bird! I’m a baby bird! I’m learning to flap my wings!”
I eventually got out of my apathy and we made it to the Rockridge street festival. No pics as my phone battery was low.
Instead, here are some pictures of some of Eve’s careful set-ups at home lately.
Hier matin, j’ai eu du mal à démarrer. Debout à 6h30 grâce à une Ève matinale, même une sortie bagels n’a pas réussi à me réveiller. Ce qui a donné cette scène surréelle un peu plus tard: Erik et moi zonant allongé sur le lit, lisant moi mon téléphone lui son ordinateur et, entre nos longs corps sans âmes, Ève sautant en battant des bras et criant à tue tête “Je suis un bébé oiseau! Je suis un bébé oiseau qui apprend à voler!”… Nous avons fini par sortir de cette apathie dominicale et à aller au festival de Rockridge pour déjeuner. Pas de photos car plus de batterie. À la place voici donc quelques photos des installations d’Eve ces derniers temps.

PS: I had extra time for this bonus post this morning, as I got on the WRONG TRAIN and almost made it to the end of the WRONG line. But it is an outside line, so it was sunny and actually quite lovely to take care of some unfinished business (Cherlyn – you, me, October 14) on my phone all that time. Happy Monday!
PS: J’ai eu un peu plus de temps ce matin pour ce post en plus parce que j’ai pris le mauvais train et me suis quasiment retrouvée au bout de la mauvaise ligne… Mais c’est une ligne en extérieure, il faisait beau et donc c’était finalement plutôt agréable de régler quelques affaires par téléphone (sortie avec Cherlyn le 14 octobre) pendant ce temps. Bon lundi!

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Eve is 2!!

Eve’s birthday is tomorrow, but we had her birthday party today, so I’m posting now. Yup, Eve is two tomorrow and we can’t believe it. More on that later, with a general update.
The party went great despite a few mishaps. First of, we had originally reserved a picnic table at a park but the weather forecast said it was going to rain, so we moved the party to our place yesterday. A park… Our place… different square footage. Second mishap: On Friday night Erik made Babycakes cupcakes from their recipe book which turned out really disappointing (sorry Babycakes, I’m certain yours taste much better), so we turned to Bob’s Red Mill (Bob never disappoints… sorry Babycakes) for gluten free mixes. 60 cupcakes later, Erik figured out the best baking time, mix and frosting and our honor was safe. Third mishap: even though I first said I would not do party favors (cuz they’re most often than not junk and parents hate them for that), I changed my mind thinking that crayon rolls should be easy enough to make and a clever idea (we had one ourselves for Christmas and use it all the time). This could be developed in another post, but long story short, I made four prototypes between Wednesday and Saturday before figuring out the sturdiest, quickest pattern, sewed until 1am on Saturday and finished my 10 crayon rolls Sunday morning.
In the end, the party was a success, I thought. Our beloved friends had helped us with food and errands (Thank youuu again!). The kids had a great time. No biting, hitting, falling down. And you know what’s good about cozy spaces? Since everyone is in one room, you actually get to talk to other grown-ups versus chasing your kid around the play structure like on any other day at the park.

Xander, one of Eve’s friends at her new daycare

James and Maximo, one of Eve’s friends at her new daycare

I love that Luciano is doing stunts while grown-ups aren’t paying attention

Jax and Eve playing in Eve’s room

Luciano brushing his mom’s hair

At the end of the day, Eve retreated to her bedroom to read a book… Cute.

(Accidently just found the “gallery” feature… HUGE time saver…)
Version française à venir!

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Cats

A couple of friends, whom we met on the bus to our old daycare over a year ago, regularly foster kittens. We went to visit their most recent batch. Last time she scared the crap out of their kittens. I’m sure they all had to be placed in families with no kids because of us. They were all hiding and hissing by the time we left. This time went better but Eve still looked like Godzilla next to these 7-week old tiny fragile little creatures. I caught the few tender moments they had on film; the rest was pretty much screaming, arm-waving, and heavy steps.

Un couple d’amis, deux étudiants de Berkeley rencontrés dans le bus du temps de l’ancienne crèche il y a plus d’un an, recueillent régulièrement des chatons le temps qu’ils soient en âge d’être adoptés. On est allé voir leur dernière fournée hier. La fois d’avant, Eve ne marchait pas encore mais avait réussi à traumatiser les chatons. Cette fois-ci, c’était un peu mieux, même si Eve ressemblait toujours à Godzilla à côté de ces petites créatures fragiles âgées de sept semaines. J’ai capturé leurs quelques tendres moments ; le reste était fait de cris, de bras agités et de pas lourds.

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March Miscellaneous

The doll stroller is a keeper. Eve loves to push it around the apartment, empty or with a baby in. She of course tried to sit in it, but quickly gave up, thankfully.
Enfin un jouet qui a conquit Eve : la poussette pour poupées. Eve la pousse vide ou pleine dans toutes les directions. Elle a bien essayé de s’y asseoir aussi au début, mais heureusement s’est vite résignée.

One of Eve’s favorite games remains to show her belly button (“bellon”).
Eve ne se lasse pas de montrer son nombril.

Practicing more circus tricks with Erik…
Eve et Erik s’entraînant pour le cirque…

This is one of Eve’s last drawings. I like how she really tried to use all the space.
Un des derniers dessins d’Eve. J’aime la façon dont elle a essayé d’utiliser tout l’espace.

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Sunday Giggles

Videos from Sunday with Jax and Co.
Daddy-Go-Round
Spinning-Baby

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iLove

Eve and the ipad… video.
Big favorites on the ipad: Duck Duck Moose apps Itsy Bitsy Spider and The Wheels on the Bus.
We’re going to try more soon.

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Reading to Eve

Erik loves a challenge. Including reading a book to Eve in a creative position in which he can’t see the pictures or the text, which is in French on top of it. He actually made up a story that was even better than the real one, with rhymes and everything.

Erik est toujours prêt pour un nouveau défi. Comme par exemple lire un livre à Eve dans une position originale qui l’empêche de voir les images ou le texte, qui en plus est en français. Il a donc brodé, et au final son histoire (en anglais) était même mieux que celle de départ, avec rimes et tout et tout.

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Playing with the Papa

Video

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