Talia's first cracker

Talia just passed the 6 month mark...so to celebrate that (and the two new teeth coming in) we gave her her first finger food: a cracker! She has quite good hand-eye coordination and was able to get it into her mouth, and pick it back up after dropping it. She gummed it for nearly 10 minutes before deciding she would rather have something else to play with. Bring on the Cheerios!!

Taking exercise (as they say in England)

Proof I didn't do it

Talia's 4th Roll

Talia Laughing

An Uneventful Week

The week started out usual enough...work, some evening engagements for B.D., and loads of plans for the weekend. Max has been behaving really well at home and at school, and Talia is happy as can be with still no interest in rolling and bright red cheeks (teething pain).

On Wednesday we noticed a small, sharp object in Talia's mouth, her first tooth was poking through (bottom centre)! Result! All that teething pain wasn't in vain.

On Thursday we noticed Talia was definitely trying to sit up for longer periods of time without falling over, and would get really upset whenever we'd lay her on her back.

Friday evening we had everyone over for Sam's birthday party; Max and Talia were the life of the party until their bedtime, helping Sam open gifts and sharing storybooks.

Then this weekend we were surprised again....Talia has not one, but TWO, teeth coming through. And she rolled over! All this and she is just 6 months this coming week, how exciting!

Videos to follow.....enjoy! xo

To Celebrate

To celebrate the birth of our two beautiful children, my wonderful husband had a gorgeous ring designed for me sporting a peridot (green, for Talia) and an aquamarine (blue, for Max). Max took a couple pictures of it today so those of you who haven't seen it would have a chance. I love it!

A typical morning at the UK Dalton's house

Saturday morning

Every time I look at Max I am amazed at how big he has gotten, and how clever he is (not that I'm biased or anything).
Here he is showing off his Kung Fu Panda moves, and giving Mono a tour of the backyard full of snow.

Snow, snow, snow

Monday morning we woke to 2 inches of snow, yippee! The BMW is rubbish on ice and snow, and after being up until 4am watching the SuperBowl, B.D. was in no condition to drive to work. I had half a day at work, but then the nursery called to say they were closing at noon. I picked the kids up and we went into Harborne to spend some time in the office with papa.
Once back home, the boys decided to try out a make-shift sled (called a sledge here), while Talia and mama enjoyed the warmth of the house!

Max's first movie

Last weekend we took Max to see his first movie. Thinking 45 minutes was a good length for a first go, we opted for Safari Animals at the Imax cinema. We didn't realise it was a 3D movie, which means everyone had to wear 3D glasses, which is very difficult for a 3 year old trying to watch his first-ever movie! Anyway, the first half of the movie went really well as B.D. got Max his own bag of sweets.....Max just sat, watching the movie and shovelling sweet after sweet into his mouth.
I took a couple of pictures on my phone but they are at work, check back later for pictures of the boys in their glasses.

Growing Children

We've made it through three weeks with me back to work full time, and somehow we seem to be managing pretty well. The kids are doing great at nursery: Max has been riding bikes, pretend shopping and dressing up like a policeman; and Talia has been doing sponge painting and playing with musical instruments.
At home Max has been doing a lot of water play, which includes washing his dinosaurs in the sink and dumping water from cup to cup - good fun! Talia has been showing us how strong she is with lots of having 'tummy time'.
Last week we had family weigh in time, and while I'm NOT going to report the parents' weight, Max is a lean 32.6lbs and Talia is a solid 15lbs.
Enjoy the pictures!

My first pie

Graham, Matt's brother, turned 50 two weeks ago and I baked my first pie for the celebration...and it turned out ok!! It was an apple pie, nothing too exotic (I did want people to at least eat it). I got the recipe from epicurious, and it included triple sec in the apple mixture, brown and white sugar, and some cinnamon. Turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.