crooked house

Vivi Models

We got this fancy dress at the Giant Baby and Children's Sale last Saturday for 4 bucks and it may very well have been the best 4 bucks we have ever spent. Vivi has worn it pretty much every day since then. This is the selection of jewelry she almost always wears with it. The pony bandaid is a deliberate choice.  She asked me to take pictures of her in this outfit today. The pursed lip thing is something I'm afraid she picked up from me when I look in the mirror.

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This is one of her more artistic shots. When she viewed this photo, she expressed displeasure about the slightly rolled sock so please keep that in mind when judging the styling here.

Anguish.

During the shoot, she inexplicably ran to get a comb, which she matter-of-factly inserted in the keyhole and proceeded to pose next to. During further discussion I gleaned it is supposed to be Alice's key.

Fiddling dramatically with the "key."

Pose with light switch.

Solitude.

A slightly Toulouse Lautrec effect.

Sylvie and the iPhone

Over the weekend, Sylvie discovered the iPhone, which, up until now, has been monopolized by her brother (when it is not being used by yours truly). She particularly likes Animatch (currently her favourite), the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Old McDonald, and Draw and Tell from Duck, Duck Moose, Monkey Preschool Lunchbox, and the e-picture book The Monster at the End of this Book. (That book is over 30 years old and seems finally to have  found its true medium. Everyone in the family loves it.) Do you have any favourite iPhone apps for kids?

For some reason, every time she plays on the iPhone she has to wear her Anne of Green Gables hat. We are now calling it her iPhone hat.

Vivi's Hello Kitty Kitten Heels

This pair of black patent leather kitten heels belongs to Vivi's stuffed Hello Kitty doll. She likes to wear them around the house. If she'd been one of Cinderella's stepsisters, she would've MADE that glass slipper fit.

Alice in "Underland" Shoes

Vivi has officially switched her allegiance from Dorothy to Alice, as evidenced by the fact that she now wears black Mary Janes all the time instead of ruby slippers. She's also been toying with headbands. Time to purchase a blue dress with a white apron coverall. Do you think she got all those cuts and bruises falling down the rabbit hole?

Dreams of Riches

Grampa: Steph, how does it feel to be rich?

Steph (puzzled): What do you mean?

Grampa (laughing): Last night I dreamed you won the lottery.

Steph: Oh wow, I hope your dream comes true. Wouldn't that be nice, Sylvie, if we were all rich?

Sylvie: Grampa have bad dream? Like my dream treasure cat?

Steph: No, honey, Grampa had a good dream. Not a nightmare, like your bad dream about the Cheshire cat [from Alice in Wonderland]. He dreamed we were rich!

Sylvie: That bad dream.

Steph: No, it's a good dream! I was rich and Daddy was rich and Lukie was rich and Vivi was rich!

Sylvie (looks appalled and insulted, screeches at the top of her lungs): I NOT A WITCH! (bursts into tears.)

First Day of Spring...

And baby's got a new pair of shoes. Rainbow glitter with bright pink bows.

Plans for Vivi

Vivi, wearing Mrs. Potato Head's lips upside-down and talking on her set of plastic car keys.

Vivi is reading aloud to her friend Eden, who is also two years old. "Point to the black cat!" she instructs Eden.

"Sylvie, are you going to be a teacher, like your mom?" asks Eden's mom, Kat.

"No," Sylvie replies.

"Well, what are you going to be when you grow up, then?" asks Kat.

"Doctor," says Vivi.

"Oh that's great!" says Kat. "Doctors make lots of money! You will have a fabulous house and a really big collection of shoes!"

I laugh.

"What?" says Kat. "She LOVES shoes."

It's true, she does.

 

Snow Day

Not much school this week for residents of the crooked house. First there was the annual twenty-four-hour stomach flu vomit-a-thon on Wednesday, then the early lunch-time dismissal on Thursday due to an impending snow storm, and now school is cancelled today while they clean up the streets. We just made the obligatory snowman. He looks like he is bleeding because we tried to use red smarties for his mouth but they proved to be too irresistible and had to be eaten, leaving nothing but red dye smears across the snow. We replaced them with uncooked rotini noodles, which aren't as palatable.

Nothing says "fun" like a giant fake smile.

See, she actually does have a normal face.

"Ah yes, the 2010s," future photography historians will say, "when the likes of hipstamatic made even joyous childhood activities such as the making of snow angels look bleak and ominous."

The angry birds are quite pissed off about it. Well, the red one is. The green pig is mildly annoyed, the blue bird, concerned.

 

They Grow Up So Fast

Vivi and I are already having disagreements about how much lipstick she should wear.

Potty Girls

Sylvie and her friend, Eden, on the left.

From her perch on the potty, Vivi, all twinkly-eyed, announces, "I have a surprise for you!" Then, leaping up and gesturing with a flourish toward the urine she has just deposited in the pot, she exclaims, "Happy birthday!"

I think we've been expressing a little too much delight at her efforts.