Diapered Defiance

Grandma Cooper's been admiring our new car for a little while now, and talking about getting one herself. She came home from Costco with this beauty last week. Somehow I was expecting something a little bigger.

Paige has been enjoying it though. It's the first toy she plays with when she wakes up, and she rides or pushes it around for quite a while, stopping to rev the engine and dance to the music every once in a while. She even gives her dolly a turn...sometimes.

I'm afraid though that with all this new freedom Grandma's car has given her, she's gone a little bit wild.
I guess it was only a matter of time before our baby would come home with wild accessories,

crazy hair,

and absolutely no manners.

*Sigh*. Our little rebel. It's just a phase, right?...Right?

Picture This

I would say that we don't have any pictures because our SD card is not in the camera right now, but the truth of the matter is that we're really just bad at remembering to take pictures since we've been back, even though a lot of things have happened that would have been worth photographing (like, oh, my sister's wedding and the birth of my new nephew). At least those two biggies are covered on the other blogs, right?

So while a post with pictures would obviously be preferable, it could be a while before we got one of those, so just...imagine for second, kay?

Paige is becoming more and more of a toddler every day:

- Grandma Tucker gave her a little pink tutu and some plastic bracelets, which she's been wearing non-stop for the last week. She loves hats, glasses, necklaces, shoes, talking on the phone, and she's been stealing my hairbrush and headbands.

- She's talking up a storm. Her favorite word right now is "doggie". We're working on "please," but she doesn't think that one is as useful.

- She loves to explore and to disobey lately, and is increasingly independent, going up and down stairs and insisting on feeding herself. She has a baby-sized rocking chair in her room where she loves to sit, because she can do it herself and it's her size.

- The real kicker though is I was checking my email the other day and I looked over at Paige and she was reading Grandma Cooper's AP Calculus book...

We might have our hands full with this one.

Last Looks

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy, and though we're already back in the US, we thought we'd give you a few glances at our last week in London.

Paige was definitely ready to go. Or just loving additions to her jungle-gym.



We walked past this every day on the way to the store or the doctor or the library or anywhere, and every time it made me think, "Just to be on the street where you live..." I love window boxes, and especially loved them in London.

Ah, Cathedral Mansions. You were good to us. I'm glad that we've been added to the list of people that have lived there in its hundred years of existence.

Five, Four, Three, Two....

One of the reasons why we haven't blogged for a while is because we're in that awkward phase of moving where you feel like you should be doing something productive like packing, but you're using all the stuff that you have left to pack, so you end up watching movies instead.
Actually, we've been doing quite a bit lately, including going to Wicked, and out to tea, getting Indian food, going to the park...but we don't have any pictures because we're bad about that sometimes. By way of a last send-off, my friend took me out to get a fish pedicure, and she took a picture, so there's that, at least:

It was an odd experience.
Hopefully we'll get some final pictures in before we leave. For now though, you'll have to make do with an old picture of us eating sausage rolls. Sorry.

The Cow Goes Vroom

As soon as Paige sees that we're actually going to get her in the morning instead of rolling over and pretending we can't hear her, she picks up Lovey-Bear, gives him a hug, and tosses him over the side. She looks over to make sure he made it, looks at us, and then points to go down too. Partners in crime are awake.

Jeff let Paige play with the cell phone the other morning and made the mistake of not watching her very closely. When I went to take the phone to the store later in the day, it was not to be found. Three hours later, we'd torn the house apart and still not found it. Jeff looked up how to email a text, and we played Marco Polo for a while until we found it in...the cereal box. Jeff leaves it on the floor when he eats sometimes and Paige will usually swoop in for the kill if we don't pay attention.

I was feeding Paige raisins, of which she is fond, and she very deliberately took one and hung it over the edge of her highchair to throw it overboard. Before I could say a word though, she cracked a smile and shook her head, saying, "Uh uh," and popping it in her mouth. Psych! This happens pretty often now.

Jeff went to put on his shoes yesterday and found a spoon in one. As he put on the other, he found a teething ring. My shoes were in the in box where we keep the vacuum, along with a stuffed koala.

Paige has been learning some little words and sounds lately. Somewhere along the line, she picked up that the car goes vroom, and the cow goes moo, which is what she has them say most of the time. But sometimes, we catch the cow driving down the road, the car chewing its cud and softly mooing in the pasture, and little Paige giggling to herself in the corner.

First Steps!!

Okay, well maybe not the very first, but pretty darn close. Paige has been standing on her own for a couple of weeks now, but it's been spotty - a few seconds here, a few minutes there, and nary a clue from us as to when she'd do it. She's got strong little legs though, and Rebecca and I have been telling each other for weeks that we'll wake up one day and our little girl will decide that she's finally ready to walk. Well, today was that day - or at least today was the first time she's been willing to walk for us. Usually our pretty little miss is quite content to sit on her bum and laugh at us - but today she thought she'd put on a show, so we decided to get out the camera.

We sure do love our big little girl!

I made a chocolate cake on Wednesday without cocoa powder, and frosted it without frosting. I was proud of myself. Paige seemed to enjoy it too, when she wasn't dropping it on the floor. It made a good breakfast and lunch for the next couple days.


As for the birthday girl herself, she's been working on some new skills:






Just today, she's been standing by herself for a long period of time. She was pretty proud of herself.


To make matters more exciting, my friend who's been in London on study abroad stayed with us for a couple days before heading back home. Her friend Lauren also stayed with us for a night, meaning Jeff was outnumbered four to one. He put up a good front for our girl talk, and even watched a chick flick with us, but I think he's probably glad to be back to just two silly girlies in the house.