Spring 2015

Things to remember for now:
- How when they hear something they like, they say "yoo hoo!" to celebrate.  "We're going to eat some cake?  Yoo hoo!"
- How Annick is all about her doudou mouton these days.
- How Luca pretends to be a little motorboat who is tired after a long day before going to bed, and has to turn off his motor (his tired little legs)
- How Luca makes up convoluted and often baffling narrations to his play
- How Annick sets her ridiculous narration to song
- How we thought the crazy tantrum phase had passed, but really, it hadn't.  And how Annick spends a lot of any supermarket visit wailing in self-pity on the floor.
- How Luca loves to wear runners because they make him "so fast!"
- How Annick teaches mama songs from daycare - "Mini, mini, mini, big red bus!  Ferrari Ferrari."
- How Annick is all about the casual nudity
- Conversations as we walk the back streets of Richmond and pass a company called Rocket Catering, who have a rocket in their window:
  - Luca: Look, there is a rocket!  Why is there a rocket??
  - Annick: Well, a long long time ago, around here there were no houses.  Only wocket ships."
- How Annick is full of good advice: "Mama, if you eat honey and then you brush your teeth, that's more good."  "Mama, if you do this," *makes fist, punches wall* "then it will hurt."
- How Luca is all about the ships right now, seriously, so many boats.
- How Luca has his little ritual dance that has to be done just right when we read Tralalire and say, "Bienvenue chez Cacahouete, Pouet Pouet et Patatras!"
- How their concept of time is still off - if they have never done something before, they have not done it "for a long long time" and if they did something at any point in the past, it always happened "the other day".
- How Annick calls dessert "second clourse" and how one of her friends at daycare is "Claitlin" and her swim teacher is "Grabbi".
- How Luca is all about numbers and counting, although "after nointeen mama is twenty-two".  But he has grasped basic concepts of addition and subtraction and can count several hundreds up in both languages with only minimal assistance.
- How they will talk and talk and talk in the dark in their little beds (or sometimes hop in together) when they have been apart for the day, because there is so much to catch up on.  (and sometimes, if you tell them to go to sleep, Annick will tell you, "I am telling Luca about my day!")  I think Luca going to school next year is going to be a big deal.
- How for Annick, 'any' means 'none', as in "there is anything in this box mama" or "there is anyone who wants that"

July/August 2015

Things to remember this month (and the next):

- How their languages still mélange un peu, so Luca will say things like, "when are my Octonauts culottes sechées so I can put them in my drawer of underwear?" or speaks about his "pyjamas of space".
- How Annick has taken to putting Luca in his room for "two minutes!" punishment in a tone worryingly similar to papa or maman when they are angry.
- How Annick is all about exploring and rescuing and being a firefighter in her outdoor play at the moment - "let's go to the park!  I will SAVE A CAT."  (and then Luca says, "and I will save TWENTY THREE DOGS.")
- How Luca is super-competitive and everything has to be equal unless he is gaining an advantage, in which case it is totally fair.  Even coming down to how many sips from a cup of juice he or Annick might have.
- Maman: what do you want for breakfast darling?
  Annick: A bun and an egg!
  Maman: OK, what kind of egg?
  Annick: (thinks for a while) ...a chicken egg!
  Maman: Er, that's not quite what I meant...
  Annick: It comes out of the BUTT!
- How Annick is super-adorable at the moment, with her little songs and her funny stories and her daggy dancing.  And we've realised she is past the crazy tantrum phase she was stuck in for... MONTHS.  Meltdowns still take place, but with far less frequency.
- How Luca is all about the extremely wet kisses, joyously so
- How Annick toilet trained in about three days thanks to the additional pressure of daycare.  If I'd known that's all it was going to take, I would have sent her to daycare in knickers months ago.
- How Luca has started to do basic addition and is showing great pride in his skills.  His phonics seems to have actually come along a bit too.
- How the two of them have decided they will just sleep in the same bed now, to facilitate story-telling, giggling, adventures and chats.  Sometimes it gets out of hand and they have to go back to their own beds, but otherwise they like to snooze next to each other.

Annick's drawings continue to improve - here is the family (starting with little Papa and ending with tall gigantic Annick)

Trampolining at Kennett River

Deluxe babycinos with faces, sprinkles and marshmallow.

Hanging out in the park.

Looking dubious on the tram.

Exploring South Melbourne's parks with papa.

Sampling babycinos in Albert Park.

Still all about the eyelashes.

No more nappies!  The unexpected last nappy wash - both a relief and a tragedy.

We go to Kennett River.

Reading Tintin together.

My little tiger does some activities.

June 2015

Things to remember:
- How when asked what his favourite apple was, Luca's response was "the shiny delicious!" (and Annick added that hers was "the one with the lady")
- all the bisous
- how the post-bath nudie 'tadam!' for guests is still going strong
- the endemic gender play - Luca borrows a pirate cave from the toy library and Annick borrows a fairy treehouse, and the conversation goes along the lines of, "arrr matey, get away from here!"; "twinkle twinkle sprinkly sprinkly!"; "arr, the pirates are hungry, can we eat something";"if you are kind you can eat something here"; "arr, look at the scary pirate face!"; "can I see the face?  Hello dear!"
- The world's politest pirates and the world's most hospitable fairies had a picnic and lunch together and it turned out it was the pirates' birthday!  "I have cake for you pirates!" says Annick.  "Is it pirate cake?" asks Luca.  "It is pirate cake!"  "Ooh, we love pirate cake, arrrrr!  Thank you very much!"
- How later on, when asked "what is pirate cake?", we find out that it is cake made out of pirates.
- Annick: I will have three moneys, because I am three years old.
  Luca: Ohhh, then I can have five moneys!
  Annick: it's OK Luca, we will go to the piggy banks.

Annick spent a lot of time being a shark dentist, primarily because it meant she got to play with the flexy bedside light on mama and papa's bed.  Luca was a very patient patient.

The shark costume from the toy library has been one of his favourite borrows.

Still eats pasta like he means it.

Doing Melbourne things like the Melbourne kids they are.

Dog riding.

Making fruit art, just like Mr Maker!  Or was it Playschool.  Either way, both shows make lots of work for mama to live up to.

Little Blue Jays.

Annick's art is coming on brilliantly.  Apparently she has become quite the inspiration for the budding artists in her daycare class.  She is particularly good at drawing happy suns.

Sometimes you just have to get your brother's goggles and be silly.

Not lacking in personality this little lady.

Luca can name all the planets in the solar system in French, including poor forsaken Pluto.  He currently has three concurrent obsessions - space, pirates and construction, with a side order of dinosaurs.

Finally, here is Annick's monkey.  You can tell it is a monkey because of the ears apparently.

May 2015

Calvin and Hobbes and Luca and Annick.

Things to remember for this month:

- How they love the Octonauts and both of them claim Barnacles as their favourite character (although Annick has a soft spot for Kwaazi and does a great 'Aye aye matey' when required and Luca is fond of caring little Peso) leading to statements in the bath from Annick such as, "No, I'm Barnacles Luca and you can be my buddy."
- Luca: We need a baby!
  Annick: It's OK, I will go to the shop and I will get a baby.
- How we made rockets out of bottles and construction paper and Luca was launching a space mission, "we are going to a planet!"  "What planet Luca?"  "The planet... the planet BOB!  FSSSHHHHHH here we go to the Planet Bob..."
- How Papa reads Tintin to them in the evenings (or during the day) and does all the voices.
- How Luca likes to go 'ARRRRRR' like a pirate, but cannot say his Rs, so sounds more like Elmer Fudd being a pirate. 
- How the 'aquarium' is still up on the walls and even two months later the two of them went on a tour, exclaiming, "look, a shark!" "scuttle scuttle little crab!" "ooh, jellyfish!" "look, I see a turtle!" 
- How Luca has returned to playing the good papa for his toutous and when you go in to check on him at night, he has carefully laid them upon cushions at his feet and they are all sleeping peacefully together. 
- How Annick's ultimate pleasure if a 'cosy and warm' bed.
- How Luca calls DVDs "deeverdees"
- How Annick's most used word is 'sprinkly', meaning either sparkly or covered in dots or water from the shower.
- How we have finally worked out that Annick's song 'Round the coconut' is actually just a mishearing of 'Wind the bobbin up'. 

Public transport is their home.

Buses as well as trams.

80s poster girl.

Luca and Papa blast off!

Apparently this is 'helping'.

Still loves this dress.  Dress now actually fits!

As do polar bears!!

Luca's default crinkly-nosed smile.

Looking after their babies.

Making rockets!

Luca's literacy skills improving every day.

Still building some amazing structures.

Still struggling with the loss of her afternoon nap (her decision, not ours!)

Fashionista.

Le petit lecteur.

Luca avec son avion de Nonno.

When Luca is in time out, Annick takes advantage of the pirate ship access.

Sometimes everyone is sick.

Making stop motion pony movies at the NGV!

Mademoiselle.

Papa follows instructions to draw Elsa and Anna while Annick does more important things.

UN REQUIN.

Ce fromage papa.