More visits to Santa...

Santa has been popping up all over the place this week, usually looking slightly different and having a range of accents. We've been in full party mode as both toddler groups we go to had their Christmas parties, and we have Amie's nursery party to look forward to tomorrow!

Visit to Santa

Amie lost for words for once...


.. but she soon found some. Noah was busy trying to impress Santa with his ballon animal. It wasn't really that impressive because Noah made it look more like a balloon snake, but Santa did a good job of not looking too disappointed.


Monkey see, monkey do!




We made a visit to a very special person today, and I don't mean Vicky and John (though Amie in particular was very happy to see them and almost couldn't contain herself in the cafe, almost sending cups of coffee flying in all directions). We went to see Santa because we had to be sure to tell him to come down Nana and Pa's chimney this year. Amie was a little over awed at first, but soon got into the swing of things and started chatting to him.

Boo

Having fun at the Wokingham Winter Carnival... it's a pity the weather was so cold and wet, but Amie seemed to enjoy laughing at the Morris dancers and going on her airplane.


Noah looking like a doggie with no bone


The next David Blane (I hope not!).. having fun at the local science museum




Eating their teacakes with a straw, not very effective but it does make a big mess, so amusing (for them)

Amie trying to put a brave face on despite the cold

Ok we're back online, a combination of laziness and disorganisation.. and did I mention laziness already? has meant that we haven't had any new pictures up here of the two little pipsqueaks. Both are currently in bed asleep, and I'm off to join them. I'll try to upload a few more, with stories to go with them, during the week!

We're back online

We've been off-line for the last 7 weeks, and a lot has happened in that time. We've left Germany and have found a lovely house to rent in Wokingham, Berkshire (pronounced Barkshire, for some reason). Amie has started at a new nursery, called Yellow Brick Nursery. She has settled in really well there and seems to enjoy it. Her confidence has grown a lot, especially since she can now communicate with people directly, and not rely on her mum's very dodgy translation skills. Which can be a blessing or a curse. She pestered the woman at a house where we were doing a house viewing for a chocolate biscuit, telling her that she hadn't had any lunch.. which was a blatant lie. But it's great to see her come out of herself, I think it was also tough on her living in a country where we didn't understand the language.


Granny O'Brien came over to Wedel, to fly back to Ireland with the kids and I. We went there so Rich and his dad could get on with getting the house in Wedel in order to hand back to the rental company.


Making friends with Granny and Grandad O'Brien's cat "Cissy"


Having fun on Supergranny O'Brien's bike.


Amie having great fun with Jack at Imaginosity... certainly worth a visit if you are in Dublin with children.


Amie on a merry-go-round in Reading.

Rich is getting on well in his new role as Operations Director .. though I still don't think he can really explain what it is he actually DOES there.. apart from drink tea and arrange yet another company evening out..and eh, direct operations. I'm sure that's my slightly biased view though.


Ben and Kirsteen made the trip up (or is it down) from London for the weekend, and bravely offered to babysit. I hope they don't think we've forgotten ;)


Another Jess, and her husband Maz

I'm getting on quite well with my driving lessons, not sure if my instructor would agree :) Still having a bit of trouble taking the correct exit off roundabouts, and knowing my left from my right, which I've found is something that can be quite important. I'm enjoying learning to drive and look forward to the day I can load the kids up in the car and not have to lug them around with the buggy in the lashing rain.

It's amazing how quickly Amie is starting to pick up the local accent. I'm now 'mummy' rather than 'mammy'... and she has a habit of saying time with an 'o' in there... making it sometoimes. I guess there are worse accents to be picking up :)

Noah is a very bright little chap. He speaks in sentances.. mostly to do with food. "I like grapes" or "I'm thirsty/hungry/cold".. on the swings he says "Look at me flying mammy".. and with a bit of prompting he'll also say "I love you mummy" (which I think is my favourite).


Jessie cuddles up to Amie (or rather Amie's blanket)
Jessie cat is also really happy here, and becoming rather content and fat (as are we all).


Sally has her hands full!


Enjoying a walk with Sally and Tjeerd to Wokingham town centre. Amie flies along on her bike now.. will need to upgrade to one with pedals soon.


Amie's friend from Holland, Lewis, paid a visit.. along with his little brother Aidan (and his mum and dad)


Noah's feet just keep growing.. am at Clarks every week.


Still in touch with his Dutch roots.

But enough of all that, I'm sure you want to see photos.. best get uploading!

Euuuugh

Amie LOVES bugs of all kinds, especially snails... she spends hours out in the back garden hunting them down, and then rehoming them. She tells them little stories, and relocates them with their friends and families in nicer bushes. She also loves spiders, and doesn't seem to be afraid of them, which is good. She can put them out of the house for me :)

Holiday in France

Amie swam very well with her arm bands on. She has no fear of the water at all and insisted on diving in herself, telling her daddy not to catch her... so she really needed to be wearing them. Noah also took to the water like a duck, would be great to get them both to swimming lessons once we're in the UK.


Amie and Noah were the palest children on the beach, no surprise really when you look at what Noah was wearing... but they both are blessed with their mother's Celtic skin.. so no point in him getting burnt really, it's not like he's going to ge ta nice tan anyway :)



Both of the children now have colds, which isn't surprising. It was 30+ in France, and today it's 13 degrees and LASHING rain. I've to go now and get the bus to collect Amie from Kindergarten. A huge incentive for me to learn to drive asap once we get to the UK!!



We had a really lovely time, the kids all had great fun. It was really nice to see Amie playing with her cousins, she's been short of playmates since we moved to Germany. Though we did forget to book car seats, so had to shell out 250euros to buy some.. and then I lost Richards 80G iPod in the airport. I'm really dissapointed about that because I'd bought him a new docking station/alarm clock to go with it for his birthday, and now he just has that an no iPod to go with it. But that's life, it seems when we go on holiday there's always some minor disaster.. and it could be alot worse than a lost mp3 player.



The drive to the airport on Saturday was pretty stressful. 20 minutes in we stopped the car because Amie didn't feel well.. which was lucky as she vomited when she got out of the car.. Then 20 minutes later Noah got sick all over himself, and his new carseat. It wasn't a pleasent drive, but we made it to the airport in the end and everything went smoothly after that.

I've figured out how to put up videos

This is from when we were in Wokingham looking at houses. For those of you not used to YOUTUBE, if it keeps stopping and starting best just to leave it running and come back to it when it's played though (the red line has to be full for it to play faultlessly)


Amie teaching Noah how to use the potty, this is from a few weeks ago. I like in particular Amie's Cheshire Cat grin, and the fact that you get to see just how quickly our little guy goes from smiles to tantrums!. Amie is smacking him on the bum at the end of the video :)

If wishing made it so... Amie and Noah both got distracted on their walk by the toy shop window.


Noah buzzing around at the chilren's museum on Sunday.


Amie looks a little disappointed with her prince charming