8 years old

Last Wednesday Bluet had a birthday, which as Bluet informed us now means she has been around the sun 8 times. Bluet and Ilona were both very excited for the day - Ilona drew lots of pictures as presents, and wanted to be involved in the preparation - she asked to be woken up at 5AM to make sure she had time to prepare - we did not do this. We did however bake a cake, which upon Bluet's request was a strawberry cake with pink icing. It was pretty delicious. She had been preparing her birthday wishes for months in advance so it took her a second to prepare to blow out the candles on her cake, to make sure all the wishes were in order, then they were out in one blow. Our neighbours with 2 girls the same ages as ours came over to help us celebrate, and everyone had a good time. Yesterday Bluet told me that she was used to being 8 at last.

For the record, this is the last picture I have of Bluet, aged 7. We went for lunch the day before in the nearby town of Bethel.

We bought Bluet a CD player for her birthday, and one CD (Bowie's greatest hits). Since then we have heard a lot of Bowie from Bluet's room, played at maximum volume.

Ilona eating a pickle

Videos of Connecticut life

The last few days have been very cold here, and the water in our garden amongst the trees is frozen into what Bluet regards as an ice skating rink:

Meanwhile, Wilder is continuing to learn everything about the world. First, here is how he says goodbye to his sisters every morning when they board the school bus:

And here is how I entertained him for half an hour whilst his sisters were in German class:

And finally, Wilder shows you how to enjoy music: First, get the volume and sound right, and then you can dance, putting your hands in the air like you just don't care

Bluet's Music

The last few months Bluet has been having extra music lessons with "Mr Jason" at her school. For a while whenever we asked her what instrument she had played, she would say 'a tambourine', so we were a bit worried we were wasting our money, as we have one of those at home. However, it turns out Bluet actually got to play lots of instruments and sing lots of songs, including playing the bass guitar (below).

Also in the car there are a small select group of songs Bluet will let us listen too. They are the "maybe baby song", "Come On Come On", "Raindrops", "The Doctor Who song", and occasionally "I Love it". As you can see they all now have massive play counts on my iTunes (The higher the play count, the earlier Bluet discovered the song)

We also sing "Raindrops" and "Come On Come On" every night before bed.

New classroom, and other photos

This week, Bluet started in her new classroom - she goes from being the oldest in her class (some other kids still can't walk) to being the youngest. So far she has done pretty well with the changes - the teachers tell us she is settling in.

Anyway, here she is ready for her first day in the new class:

Also, last week, Bluet learnt all about fire hydrants

Pressed buttons at the Zoo

Practised swimming (she even sticks her head in the water all by herself)

And listened to some music (Carly Rae Jepson) on my new headphones

Highly recommended things to watch and listen to

A few odds and ends from the last week. First, last Sunday Bluet got to meet a real life horse in the park, part of some public safety patrol. He was called Monty, and although Bluet wanted to stick her fingers up his nose, she did get to pat him gently on the side and was very impressed. As long as this doesn't make her want to have a pony when she is older, I'm happy, as she was rapt.

Then in the last couple of days Bluet has started to say 'no way' which is by far the cutest of all her tricks. To be honest, she seems to be over it this evening, but I captured it this morning - highly recommended for your listening pleasure:



Then there is also this video from last weekend, of Bluet feeding the goats at the central park zoo - also marvellous:

Finally, a slighly older video of Bluet (i.e. a couple of weeks forgotten about on the phone). Here, she plays music - some of the playgrounds have these musical bells incorporated into the climbing machinery. It is possible to use them to play 'twinkle twinkle little star' (or 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY and Zed' or 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' as all 3 are the same song) if you are an accomplished musician. Bluet prefers improvisation to these cliched tunes.

Bluet the DJ