Ballet Class

Pascale has ballet class at her preschool every Tuesday. Today when I asked her about it, she said, "We didn't do the whole ballet because the kids were being too stressful." I have been cracking myself up all day thinking about what this might mean. Were they staging a full-length production of Swan Lake and the ancient Russian choreographer couldn't get the 3-year-olds to pirouette in unison?

Josephine is experiencing some terrible two's issues. She refuses to consider pedaling the tricycle herself. Every time I take her feet and pedal with them she says "No! No!" like she's being tortured.

Settling into a schedule

Pascale told me last Friday that a little girl in her school was giving her a hard time at recess. She was calling Pascale a bad girl. These are 3-year-olds, mind you. I talked to Pascale's teacher about it, and it stopped for a few days. Then on Friday, Pascale told me that this little girl called her a bad girl, but another girl in the class said, "No, she's a nice girl!" So now Pascale has her posse to protect her.

We've started taking the bus home from her school when I pick Pascale up, so it's going much better on the way home.

Here's some pics from this week. Notice Josephine's new shoes.

School days

We're settling into a schedule with Pascale in school. We've been without a routine for so long now, and it feels nice to actually have somewhere to be at a certain time. She goes 5 days a week, half days MWF and full days (9-3) TT. The best part is running into the other kids and moms at the playground and actually knowing people.

Some friends of ours from New Jersey are in London for a wedding, so we've been meeting them for play dates for a couple of days. Yesterday's play date was at the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. Here they are:


Pascale has been working on her artistic skills:


They had fireworks the other night that I could see from the window:


And here are some random pics so you remember what the kids look like:

rollerblade parade

I just looked out the window and saw around 200 people rollerblading down King's Road. At 10:00 at night. I wonder how I could find out what sort of event that was?

First Day of School

As predicted, Pascale's first day of school went very well. The most difficult part was trying to get Josephine to leave when she wanted to stay at school with Pascale. Pascale's favorite part of the day was when they all lined up and went outside. Not that going outside part, the getting in line part. It made her feel like part of the group.


Josephine has started falling asleep half out of her bed. It's really cute. This photo is actually of her sleeping.

hats and boots

In the new book Pascale got the other day, Maisy was wearing a conical hat with moons and stars, so naturally Pascale and Josephine had to have hats like Maisy's. Here they are:

We went to the Violet Melchett Center today, which is where I met the nanny who watched the kids last week. She was there today with the kid she normally watches (who was on vacation last week). Josephine threw her body at Vicky numerous times. It's amazing how quickly she got used to being with someone else, and even got to prefer Vicky to me in some situations.

Here's a pic of Pascale scooting down the street, and Josephine cleaning up the play house at the Violet Melchett Center:


Pascale starts school tomorrow! She is very much looking forward to making some friends.

Greeting Card

I had to go back to the States last week because my dad was sick. It was a long week, esp since I've never been away from my kids for more than a few hours. Their nanny helped Pascale make this card for me. I love it!


At the playground today, Pascale made a big mound of wood chips so she could use it as a step stool to reach the monkey bars. She's so resourceful! Josephine is wearing the new cowboy boots that Nonna bought for her.

Designing Bracelets over the weekend.

This past weekend, we had gone to a store called the Early Learning Center where they had a Arts & Crafts section. After a lot of discussions, Pascale picked out a Design your own bracelets kit. This was a much better decision then the ill-fated water beads incident, which we won't go into detail. So while Josephine took her marathon afternoon nap of 4 hours (new record!), Pascale diligently created the masterpieces. It looks like she has a budding future in jewelry design!