October 2013 - Annick 17 months, Luca 3yrs5mths

Almost summer!

Annick:
- has manners and says, "sivutay" and "messy" and "peese" and "takoo" in appropriate situations.
- absolute favourite word at the moment is 'Annick', although final consonants are still a challenge, so it's more like Anni'.
- second favourite word, and a close second, is 'd'autre' or 'more'
- other favourite words include, sit, happy, baby (babbeh!), truck, roar!, souliers, lait, l'eau, jus, pomme, Humpty
- sentences!  Puts words together that make sense.  "Appeh babbeh book mama, Anni' sit!" then she hands over her Happy Babies Book, sticks her little butt lapwards and plonks herself down to settle in for a story.
- kisses with her TEETH
- loves to have her hair tied up, sits patiently while it's combed and bunched.
- is definitely not weaning.

Luca
- still always trying to get Annick into trouble.
- loves cuddles, particularly with mama or Annick
- very into Charlie and Lola and Dr Seuss at the moment
- gets particularly angry when told that he might be tired.  Bellows "I NOT TIRED!" or "I NOT FATIGUÉ!", thereby proving us right all along.
- doesn't like to do what he is told
- still asks every day if we will go to the airport soon.  Sometimes goes to the airport with papa just for kicks.

Les petits artistes font les peintures.

 After a while Annick was more interested in painting herself.

I read a tip that if you want to keep toddlers occupied for HOURS, give them a colander and a bunch of pipe cleaners.  The first time I did this, it lasted about 30 seconds, but the second time I got a good 15 minutes of silent insertion, so yes!

Luca has a t-shirt covered in vehicles called his 'bicycle t-shirt' which he would wear every single day, every single hour if it were magically self-cleaning and/or I let him.  I have been scouring K-Mart in the hope they will stock it again, and one day we were in luck!  Almost the same t-shirt, but with BONUS DINOSAURS.  Clearly they know their target market well.

Not wanting to leave Annick out, she left the shop with a pair of discounted shark slippers which she was INCREDIBLY pleased with.

The swing is Luca's FAVOURITE THING.  The swing is something Annick likes moderately.

Eating al fresco!

Annick is very fond of having her hair tied in bunches, but then spends all her time touching them and they end up falling out and then she gets upset.

Sometimes it is just easier for everyone's sanity to seat them at opposite ends of the table.

But sometimes proximity results in awesome cuddles.

Checking out the world's biggest stained glass ceiling at the NGV.

Mango was one of Luca's first ever real foods.  He hated it.  He continued to hate it for three entire summers, then all of a sudden this year he LOVES MANGO.

Every night, Annick places her night-time reading in her bed before going for the dodos.

Cool little lady, eating bomboline at a cafe.

Summertime Luca and summertime Annick are summery.

Les yeux sexy sont encore la!

Papa fait les couettes.

Luca and Annick are helpful.

CHICKEN LEG.

September 2013 - Annick 16 months, Luca 3yrs4mths

Annick:
- picking up language so fast, making connections, learning new words.  Still coming to grips with some concepts (she will give you something and then say, 'tak oo!') but makes unexpected links elsewhere (points to a picture of a fire engine and says, 'nee nar nee nar!')
- they are not 'Annick and Luca', they are 'Nannie and Tootar'
- adorably cuddly
- has learned how to give a proper lip-smacking kiss and has been joyously trying it out on mama and papa, looking delighted after each one.  Mama and papa are also delighted, but find it also a bit... wet.
- proving to not be the easy-going, accepting and obedient type like Luca
- in the morning, she is Grumpy Annick.  Once she has had breakfast, she is Happy Annick (Luca likes to point this out every morning, "look mama!  It's Grumpy Annick!  I'm Happy Luca!")
- has discovered the joy of books and loves to pick ones out for mama and papa to read, then plonk her little bottom in a lap for a good story
- PAPA: Qui est mon petit rat?  ANNICK: Annick!

Luca:
- having the best conversations, comes up with all sorts of unexpected comments - polite feedback: "mama, you very helpful.  You give me blocks for my tower."  Surprised observation: (after I was away for a couple of days) "Mama, you came back to my house!"  Angry reprimand: "Annick, you listen to my words!  You know that!" Dismissive frustration: (handing mama a particularly crunchy carrot) "You have it, it RIDICULOUS this one."
- one night in the bath, Luca amused himself by making the toy boat have a conversation with the shampoo bottle:
SHAMPOO: Hello!
BOAT: Hello!
SHAMPOO: What you doing?
BOAT: I floating!
SHAMPOO: I floating too!
BOAT: I floating like a sailing boat!
 - when asked to smile for the camera, will say "smile!" but not actually smile.  Luca has the best camera face.
- is incredibly naughty when tired
- loves getting Annick into trouble
- loves to watch aeroplanes on youtube with papa
- went to the Royal Melbourne Show with Angus and had a FANTASTIC time.  Was very keen to ride the scary rides, was very disappointed to be too short to do so (parents = relieved)
- was very excited about the new Planes movie and totally sucked in by the blanket advertising pre-school holidays - went with papa for a special papa-garcon afternoon to see it at the cinema!
- has watched the movie Cars about a gajillion times in the last fortnight

Annick is learning how to climb ladders - UH OH.

The dressing up basket is a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Morning Luca and Morning Annick take their morning milk.

Annick is beginning to love books as much as Luca.  She takes one to bed every night, just like Luca, and 'reads' in the dark.

Luca does zumba at the Mexican festival in Fed Square!

The aquarium!

Annick's first ever photo.  Artistic.

 

 Playground Annick and Playground Luca are busy.

Luca is all about the apples at the moment.  On Saturday mornings at the market, he will eat three.

Luca and Angus go to the Royal Melbourne Show and feed the goats!

Casual hatwear for playtime.

Truck-watching.

Annick loves her apron made by Aunty Charmaine, she wears it everywhere.

Annick is still obsessed with shoes, anybody's shoes.

Luca and Annick love going to the library.  Luca likes to read books.  Annick likes to take all the books off the shelves and put them on the floor.  Fortunately both of these activities are catered for at the library

She gives you that look quite often really.

Luca LOVES the swing.

August 2013 - Annick 15 months, Luca 3yrs3mths

Nos petits cheris x

Annick:
- walks like a champion!  Is desperate to wear shoes like everyone else - to hell with mama's belief that 'you learn in your feet darling'.
- trying really hard to talk like a champion too.  Words she definitely has, in her tiny little adorable voice are: shoes ('soos'), pates, lait, l'eau, bain/bath, tralalire (yes!), woof woof/ouah ouah whenever she sees anything resembling a dog, chaise/chair, toast, tata (which means helicopter), teddy, shark, cat/chat, baby/bebe, there ('dere'), that one ('dat one'), yes/oui, please ('peese') and thank you ('tak oo') and really quite a lot more.
- climbing up and down the sofa and the bed
- has thrown her first ever proper tantrums and is conscientiously practising so as to be an expert by the end of the year.
- a little clown this one, full of laughs and jokes.  Thinks farts are HILARIOUS.
- is George from Peppa Pig - LOVES dinosaurs and every time she hears the word dinosaur will bellow out her tiny little roar
- perhaps doesn't look like weaning after all
- a week of gastro boooooooo

Luca
- talking up a storm, explaining things, describing things, abstract concepts, future, past, present - WOW.
- likes to help, but does not always ask what he should do to help, just does whatever he thinks might be helpful, which usually is not actually very helpful at all.
- still completely obsessed with rubbish trucks - we have books about rubbish trucks, we borrow toy rubbish trucks from the library, we watch the rubbish trucks when they do their pickup Tuesday mornings, we play rubbish trucks with all our blocks, we have a rubbish truck app on ah ma's ipad...
- asks mama every day "we go on aeroplane soon?"
- has entire books memorised but still wants mama to read them to him
- favourite books at the moment are: Rubbish Trucks, Fire Engines, Jon Klassen's 'Hat' books, all the Margaret Mayo books especially 'Emergency!'
- Mr Picky Eater - boh!

Animal dress up day at daycare for the daycare bunny's 5th birthday.

Mama gets a duplo plane off ebay and Luca takes the little dog stunt flying.

Relaxed and comfortable.

With papa's little watermelon boy.

Annick leads a parade!

Luca is a babycino connoisseur.

Papa does the double carry.

We go to the science museum and Luca spends most of it at his usual spot, in front of the video about the rubbish trucks.

Babycino, zuppadelle at DOC Espresso.

Luca insists on carrying the box of pastries from D. Chirico.  Responsible!

A beautiful day at the Point Cook Air Museum.

"Take a photo of me at the fountain mama!"

At the Melbourne Museum, playing with the giant duplo (completely worth getting the yearly membership for).

Fait dodo, Colas mon petit frere...

Fillette!

Mostly playing really well together, apart from when they're not.

Annick tries on mama's soos, since she's not always allowed to wear her own.

Luca bakes cupcakes, decorates them, eats them.

And the first day of spring was also the first day back out on the balcony for eating!  And the season's first shorts day (compared to October last year)!  And Father's Day!

We go to Cacao for a Father's Day snack and Papa and Luca go 'sourcils a sourcils'.

Annick a la plage!

At Luna Park - the aeroplane ride was a small consolation for being too short for the ferris wheel or the bumper cars.