Ready for summer

I was starting to look a bit shaggy, but mostly I was annoyed that my hair was getting into my eyes. I told Mummy that it was time to see Gilbert.

When she took me, I told Gilbert, "Please cut a lot off." When he asked if I was ready for a summer haircut, I said, "Yes," with a big smile. (Of course I had a traditional hot-weather summer in mind, not a foggy San Franciscan summer.)

BEFORE GILBERT

AFTER GILBERT

You can see that I was happy with the results, as I was still smiling when we returned to the car. Of course, I also had a croissant in my belly by that point, so I had plenty to smile about!

Introducing Samantha

I would like you to meet my friend Samantha. I received her for Christmas and have been so happy to play with her, dress her, and sleep with her. I briefly changed her name to Amber, but now she is Samantha again.


I was very excited to realize that many of my baby dolls' clothes also fit Samantha. She has quite a wardrobe now, including this dress that Grandma made that matches a dress that she made me.

My only concern is that Samantha is quite lonely when I go to school and my other activities. I think she needs a friend who can stay with her when I am busy. I have someone in mind. Her name is Emily, and I have a birthday coming up.......

A lunch date

When our good friend Leona's mother Gwen was visiting from Cork in Ireland, we shared a lovely lunch at Pasta Pomodoro. Gwen had met Charlotte when she was 6 months old, but had not seen Alexander in person yet. We hear that she and Len are faithful readers of this blog, so we're happy that we were able to connect more personally as well.


Leona's husband Larry entertained the children at one end of the table while we had girltalk at the other end. The next day Alexander announced that he was going to buy himself an iPhone so that he could always watch Looney Tunes cartoons too. We asked him how he was going to pay for it. He said, "with a little bit of my money and a little bit of Mummy's money." And a whole lot of whose money?


Thank you for the delicious lunch and the wonderful company. We hope to see you again soon!

Whose education?

It's amazing what one can learn about one's offspring (and oneself!) when the offspring brings her schoolwork home.

Charlotte drew the Cat in the Hat when they learned about Dr. Seuss.

Charlotte wrote her biography.



Charlotte described her favorite breakfast.

She could not understand why I broke out in laughter when she showed me her pancake recipe. It certainly doesn't make me look like Martha Stewart! Then I asked Charlotte what the black ovals were. "Those are the burnt bits," she said. Even better. I don't think I was able to look her teacher in the eye for the rest of that week.

January surprise

One of the first exciting things to happen to us this year was a surprise visit from my friend Krisztina and her family. They were flying home from spending Christmas in Cleveland and missed their connecting flight in San Francisco. After spending a night in an airport hotel, they gave us a call and we happened to be free to get together.

We met up at Fisherman's Wharf and took the kids to the Aquarium at Pier 39. We had never been there, so it was fun to see the kids touching the sea stars and sharks and rays.


We saw the sea lions together. Then we shared a lovely seafood lunch at the Wharf. Tonka and Sándor were fast friends. It was a great day and a great surprise.

Kevin, Sári, Tonka, Mária, Téa, Krisztina

Saving fish, the English language, and my life

I have many excuses for the lack of postings lately, including tiredness, laziness, computer problems, and a husband who has been working almost every evening and weekend since February. (Julian works on the same PC on which our photos are also stored, which is why this posting has no photo attached.)

Charlotte would like to wish everyone a happy Earth Day! She has learned all about what she can do to save the Earth. More specifically, she has learned all about what I should be doing to save the Earth. She had a complete meltdown yesterday when I did not let her walk to school. "Now all the fish in the oceans will die and we'll never be able to eat fish again!" I promised that we would walk one day before the end of the school year. It may only be a mile and a half, but we usually run late even when it's just a 5-minute drive.

Charlotte's other fascination at the moment is looking up words in the Oxford English Dictionary. She then writes them on a slip of paper with the page number so that she can find them more easily the next time. This fascination has worked to my advantage though. She insisted that she learned about "syllable-cation" in school yesterday. I showed her "syllabification" in the dictionary and she actually believed me without a fight.

Alexander asked me yesterday, "will you be dead when I'm 15?" I responded that I hoped to still be alive and we discussed what my age would be. So he stated with certainty, "well then you'll be dead when I'm a grown-up." I reminded him that I'm a grown-up and my mother is still alive, so there's hope that his mother will be too. He has been finding me very boring lately, so I hope it's not wishful thinking on his part.

All dressed up

We girls sure do know how to accessorize!