Day at the Farm...

Our little country pumpkins



Just my size!


Ah.. maman.. can I have one...please?

Our very own Pippi Longstocking!

It took a while.. and they are not yet very long... but here they are...Annabelle's first set of pigtails...a la Fiffi Brindacier/Pippi Longstocking!! She was rather pleased with this new look.

Today's new adventure

The bikes get bigger and bigger! Her new words of the weekend "A l'aide" - help - will probably come in handy!

Anna's first English word....

Our little polyglot continues to amaze us.. remnants of Russian, loads of French, a liten svenska.. and now English....Leave it to Sven. I sent him and the kids grocery shopping and Anna bursts into the house, shouting "Cookie" Cookie"!!! Now I am trying to convince her that it is a "biscuit" in French... but no, the kind lady behind the counter at the bakery offered her a "cookie"... and she is beyond thrilled to learn this new word! There is no way of changing her mind... She understand too well that if you say this SPECIAL word, they give you something soooo delicious to eat;0))

Here are the rascals...rather pleased with themselves...

A new grin!

For those of you who noticed Yannik's peculiar smile of late....he was anxiously waiting for his baby teeth to fall out. His new front teeth had come in while the others had yet to fall out and were overlapping. I just noticed that he is grimacing in some of the pictures lately, especially the one on his first day of school. That being said, I asked him to show off his new adult teeth. Tu es beau comme un coeur, Yannik!!!

Let's just say that Annabelle played a major role in how those two stubborn front baby teeth finally fell out ;0))) A good head butt does the trick everytime!!! Have never seen a sibling so happy to receive a blow in the face before. Annabelle was so happy with herself since Yannik gave her the biggest hug. I just have to make sure that she understand that she can't do that again!!!!She now thinks she was helping out.. and she did... but it's a one shot only deal ;0)))

Memories from childhood....

When cleaning out Annabelle's closet last evening, I came across this little treasure, purchased way back.....while waiting for one littlest one. I had a very similar one growing up and couldn't pass it up - I think I got it at a yard sale. I had put it away after our first unsuccessful trip as it was too painful.... and forgot about it!

Knowing Annabelle's new fondness of jewels, I thought it would be a nice surprise. And it was... She is completely mesmerized by the ballerina. Perhaps we have some ballet lessons in the near future ;0)

Language update... The last remnants of Russian seem to be fading away. Ironically, Sven and I are sad to see the "da" (yes) be replaced by "oui". I have been working at improving her vocabulary and it seems to be working. She is repeating everything these days...I used to mark down every single word she learned.. now I have completely lost count.

In other news, our dear friends from Paris are currently in Petro, on day 2 of bonding with a beautiful little girl and no doubt, a future little friend to Annabelle!! Like us, it took a bit of patience.. did I just say " a bit"...??? ok... a whole lot of patience.. but they have just met the newest member of their family and we are simply overjoyed!!!

A serious little girl no longer....

Guess who is now the comedian in the family! Annabelle loves to tease. It's amazing to see how radiant she has become. She is a little girl full of laughter. I was struck by how I had described her as a serious little girl in our first post after meeting her!

In retrospect, perhaps we mistook saddeness for seriousness...

She radiates pure sunshine these days....A serious little girl.....no longer!

PS - We found a "mate" for our bouncy Kazak zebra...it appears that Annabelle enjoys this one as well!