I've been very slack on my posts lately. It's a sign that we were too busy having a great time this summer. There was a lot of lovely weather, especially in June and August and we spent most of it mastering our picnicing technique. Beaches, parks, pet farms, islands, you name it we picniced there this summer. The best part of the summer was of course the visit from Auntie Alicia! We got her for about 6 weeks which was both a luxury and a pleasure. She unfortunately experienced some on the worst weather of the summer during July but benifited by getting some of the classic Irish experiences such as rainy picnics and beach trips. We miss her loads since she left but luckily we have been occupied by settling back into school, work and creche.
Here are a few pics from the fab summer 2010 including pics of:
"My do it", "My have it", "My eat it", "My get you", "My Mammy" and the big one "My turn" seem to be the sound track to our lives at the moment. Lily is advancing quickly with her words and her ability to boss everyone around. She has her own way of expressing herself already. She likes to double everything like "car car", "pasta pasta" or "more more". She can be very polite and likes to add Mammy to everything for example "please Mammy" "KanKoo Mammy" "Welcome Mammy" and even "Bless you Mammy". She quite regularly mixes up the order of things Yoda style like "Sit down me". She also adds her own nonsense parts to sentences like "Ina Daddy going?" meaning where is daddy going or "Ope-it-a-my" meaning open it. And as she gets more advanced in her sentences she not only adds nonsense, she adds in some fibs too like "Sadie hit me all the time"-Sadie is her doll, and "James pushing me around"-when he is not. Some of our favorite Lilyisms at the moment are:
"dappy"=Nappy "shoeson"=shoes "diff one"=different one "dab o dee"=cup of tea. "Daddy doe"=Daddy and "Mammy-o"=Mammy and "Dosh-y-doe" or "Jis"=James "Speedge Bob"=Sponge Bob "Pinknink"= Picnic "Piggy bank"= piggy back
Another Lily behaviour of the moment is that she won't leave home with out something or should I say lots of things; for example her "pram" with 10 dolls in it... or her "Dora bag" stuffed with dolls, balls, blankets etc. seen below.
James finishes his first year of school next week. He has grown up so much this year. He has finally stopped clinging to his Mammy. I still expect him to be stuck to my side and am surprised when he is not. Recently I went to his sports day in school and on a field trip with him and he more or less ignored me and played with his friends the whole time. I was delighted! He seems confident and independent and he has lots of friends. What more could you want for your child.
I leave you with some clips of Lily singing and a short clip of James' school play where he is being helped along by girl in his class.
The boy is now 6. He had a brilliant birthday. He had a combined birthday party with his best pal in school Dan, who's birthday is 5 days before his. We decided to rent out a party venue (James' after school club) and invite the whole class (26 kids!) It was a great way for us to get to know all the kids in his class a bit better. It was the best day of the year so far weather wise and the party was a total success with face painting, trampoline jumping, disco dancing, a chocolate egg hunt, party games, pizza, popcorn, cake etc.
Because we invited the whole class to the party we didn't want to be overloaded with presents so we asked everyone to give donations to charities instead of bringing gifts. This turned out to be one of the nicest aspects of James' birthday. Many children gave into James' charity of choice, the "save the tiger" fund. And many others gave things such as, sports kits to kids or chickens to families in Africa, or sponsored a tree or donated to the prevention of cruelty of animals etc.
And of course the next morning, on his proper birthday, he got to open plenty of presents including some much loved Lego but also a Michael Jackson dvd which has prompted some new dance moves and a scooter which has been a huge hit!
As for Lily, she is talking up a storm with new words coming every day. The big story of this month has been "cow moo fright me", but she can explain it to you better than I can...
The prettiest girl in town (above) who likes to keep us on our toes (below) and...
Put cream cheese on her toes (below).
Waiting for the train into town (above) to have a St Patrick's Day wrestling match in the park (below).
Tomorrow is James' birthday and today he is having his birthday party. It's a shared birthday party with Dan, his great buddy from school. Photos coming soon.
It's been a tough week for James. It all started on Thursday of the week before last with him receiving his vaccinations in school after which his arm swelled up from shoulder to elbow for a week. They also seemed to leave him feeling sensitive and in bad humour for days. Then last weekend he got lost, or separated from us temporarily while we were at the market in the People's Park in Dun Laoghaire. Luckily we go there most weekends and while there are lots of people around, it's small and he knows it very well. It didn't take long for park wardens and one of his teachers to find him (or he found them). I can't get a straight story out of him. He stares at me blankly when I ask him for the sequence of events that afternoon. Funnily enough he wasn't as upset about it as I thought he might be.
James in the People's Park with Paddy the week before he got lost
However he got very upset on Thursday when he got a bad gash above his lip at his after-school care. Apparently the boys were all running around inside. James stopped (suddenly I am sure) and a boy went crashing into him knocking him to the floor and landing on top of him. James face managed to land just past the carpet on the wooden floor. He got a deep gash under his nose/above his lip. Thank God I wasn't there because there was lots of blood. I left work and brought him to the hospital (it was our first real hospital excursion). The poor boy was weak with fear of the hospital not to mention loss of blood. When we arrived the nurse said he would probably need stitches which nearly sent him over the edge but luckily the doctor thought glue would do the trick. He was delighted when it was all over and to top it off on the way out of the hospital we met a friend from his class who had also got a bad gash on his head from a falling branch. This was quite an exciting end to the whole experience. The two boys exchanged their war stories.
This is about five hours after the accident when we were home from the hospital. The swelling had reduced a good bit by then but as you can see, he was still quite swollen and bleeding.
The recent good news about James is that he is loving learning his letters at school. He is noticing letters and words all around him every day that he can read and I think he feels liberated by this. He also loves practicing writing his letters. This week out of nowhere he produced two Easter cards for us that he wrote in himself without asking for anyone's help. They said "I luv y rina" and "I luv y dad" including dad's "number" on his card.
James has also been to his first proper birthday party. I had to stay with him the whole time and it took him a while to get settled in as it was a girl's party and there were 16 girls running around dancing and playing party games. He did enjoy himself at the party and since then he has started to understand that kids get left at other kids houses to play without their Mammy. So today for the first time he let me leave him at his friends house for a play date. Yay James!
It's been a while since my last post but there seems to be little to report except that we have had freezing cold weather for two months now. It all started with the "Big Freeze" we had in early January. It was the worst cold, snowy weather Ireland has seen since 1947 apparently. James even got a couple of days off school because of the treacherous conditions. Most of the time there was thick ice or compacted snow that froze everywhere. It was terrifying at times trying to walk or drive as grit for the roads and pathways ran out. Lots of people slipped and fell, including Gav who sprained his wrist badly. We were just glad he didn't brake it. In the middle of it all there was one beautiful day of sun and snow. The highlight of which for James was a sleigh (a tub with a rope attached) ride down to the supermarket and a snowball fight on the way home.
Because of the cold weather we have had to spend a lot of time indoors lately and to get a little excercise the kids have taken to having a daily dance session. James insists on rock music like AC/DC or G n' R. Lily asks for "Mia Mia" which refers to 'Mamma Mia' by Abba. Here's a clip below from Christmas day of James and Paddy dancing to 'The boy's are back in town' by Thin Lizzy.
"Sick, I am Sick" is what James exclaimed at 6:30am on Christmas morning upon seeing the table full of gifts that Santa left.
Simon (Gav's bro) came over from Miami this year and helped make a very memerable Christmas at the Wards. Below is a few of us posing, trying to be like a 1950's ad.
On St. Stephens Day Dad and Trish arrived over from California and we spent a few days in Dublin together before braving the icy, snowy conditions to travel to Clare for New Year's.
Here is Lily with the pram she got from Bama which she adores.
By chance it just so happened that all the Spillane's (and crew) were down in Clare at the same time. This is most unusual. We all met on Lahinch beach for a walk on a most spectacular, cold but sunny and calm New Year's Day.
or her "Dora bag" stuffed with dolls, balls, blankets etc. seen below.
The big AC/DC fan with his new t-shirt
James in the People's Park with Paddy the week before he got lost
This is about five hours after the accident when we were home from the hospital. The swelling had reduced a good bit by then but as you can see, he was still quite swollen and bleeding.
It's been a while since my last post but there seems to be little to report except that we have had freezing cold weather for two months now. It all started with the "Big Freeze" we had in early January. It was the worst cold, snowy weather Ireland has seen since 1947 apparently. James even got a couple of days off school because of the treacherous conditions. Most of the time there was thick ice or compacted snow that froze everywhere. It was terrifying at times trying to walk or drive as grit for the roads and pathways ran out. Lots of people slipped and fell, including Gav who sprained his wrist badly. We were just glad he didn't brake it. In the middle of it all there was one beautiful day of sun and snow. The highlight of which for James was a sleigh (a tub with a rope attached) ride down to the supermarket and a snowball fight on the way home.
Here is Lily with the pram she got from Bama which she adores.
