Today's the day

That Ilona finally mastered walking. We knew it was coming - here is a photo of Ilona standing by herself from a couple of days ago, but today she did her first real walking, back and forth between us as we held out our arms. It made her very very happy. Even when she had only one shoe on and walked like a pirate

And then it snowed

Last weekend we finally had enough snow to play in. So first thing we headed out to build a snowman. Ilona was initially very keen on the snow, but refused to wear gloves. So, mid-snow building her hands get cold and we head back inside, snowman incomplete. Ilona goes for a nap, and we are straight back outside to build our snowman. This is fortunate as later on it gets to cold and wet, and the snowman slowly leans backwards as it melts - it is still there, but currently at an almost 90' angle from where he started. Hopefully it will snow more and we can build another. Later we walked up the hill and saw more snow; after running around and making some footprints, Bluet inexplicably sat down in.

This is what we do

At the end of everyday as we get home from work and bedtime approaches we all crash out in the living room and watch 'pointless', or 'the counting programme' live on BBC1. This is fun for us as we get to answer the quiz questions and see how many pointless answers we can get (if we can hear the questions over the general background noise), and fun for Bluet who likes to watch the numbers count down and see if the contestants are happy or unhappy with their score, or even get a pointless answer - she knows this is the best. Usually Ilona doesn't make it to the end as it is less captivating for her, and interrupts her going to bed as early as possible plans.

Here is everyone on one chair watching pointless. If you want to join us, it is on at 18:15 European time or 17:15 UK time, every day except Sunday, when we watch an archived one on youtube.

Old news/new news

How to catch up? So the end of our time in Missouri allowed Bluet and Ilona to catch up with their cousins. One day we went down the road next door to visit Thane, and Bluet and Ilona got to open more presents


I think that they got to open new presents every day (it seemed like it anyway), which was fun for them. Then Ilona brushed her teeth. And we headed to the Brunot farm once more. After entertaining the cows and children, I headed back to St Louis with Scott to visit record shops and play with lego, and then onwards to New York for three days catching up with the city.

Then Bluet and Ilona and Emily joined me and did Bluet see snow? Yes at the end of her holiday, Bluet did eventually get to see snow, and discover that making snowballs makes your hands cold

breakfast in the diner attached to the hotel (the New Yorker hotel, it is very cool)

Of course in New York we stopped in the Lego store

Snow in Bryant Park

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////and then back to Zurich, where Bluet and Ilona now have a nanny (Alexandra) looking after them. She is from Slovakia but wants to speak German with them, so they are learning something. Bluet apparently even replied to a question in German, not that she will tell us she knows any German. It is going very well. Bluet even managed to bake us all some muffins

Sandcastles

More American photos coming up. In the meantime here is a video of Bluet in the sand pit. Remarkably in one minute it has a beginning, middle and end.....

New Tricks

Here is a video of Ilona from today doing her tricks.

Happy New Year!

We are back. Not only online, but also as of this morning, back in Zurich (after an overnight flight where no-one got much sleep, so we might go to bed very soon). The weather here is almost springlike, you don't need a hat, coat or gloves, or even a jumper, really. However, in Missouri and New York on our way home it was very very very cold. Over the next day or two I will put up some pictures of our last week in the U.S. and you will discover whether or not Bluet finally met some snow she could jump in.

To start, here are some more pictures from Nana and Wayne's house, last week just after we returned from the winter float trip (canoeing in the new year). Whilst we were away on the 30th and 31st December, Emily's sister Abatha kindly looked after both our kids and two of her own. It was much appreciated by us, and they both had lots of fun (you can see more here). Afterwards whenever Ilona saw a photo of Abatha, she would say 'Abba' and a photo of Lila would elicit a 'Yaya'. Nate is perhaps a little too difficult but we think she said Scott one time. In fact her talking is coming along almost better than the walking - she says 'Nana' every morning around breakfast time when she sees a banana, says 'Mama' and 'Dadn' (obviously), attempts Bluet, says 'ball' and almost certainly some others I forgot. Also she seems to understand almost everything (including 'suck your thumb, which is v. useful when she is tired) and has started to identify body parts.

Bluet upstairs, Ilona downstairs. Neither can get past the barrier alone, both want to. 

Bluet in her Christmas dress, drinking hot chocolate for the first time

Ilona eating breakfast

Ilona and her wheeled elephant. Mainly used to walk around

Bluet getting her nails cut

Bluet post new haircut