Smirnoff the Chinese baby

A: Two in the front and two in the back. Here the girls from Chloë's travel group are playing in Tate's ice-cream shop.

After Chloë has her bath, she applies lotion to her body to keep her skin soft.

You can only begin to imagine the mess.

  

You couldn't make this up. She really did this, all by herself.

  

August 1st was Chloë's 3rd birthday. We celebrated on the following Sunday afternoon with a party featuring Chloë's chosen theme of "blue", and here at last are some pictures. About 10 of her friends were in attendance (drinking apple juice), along with their adult hangers-on (drinking Pimm's). I reached the conclusion that the collective noun for a group of toddlers is a "racket".

Here you see Chloë and some of her friends playing "Ring around the rosie", or "Ring-a-ring o' roses" as I was taught in England. I looked into the difference in words, and I was surprised to learn that the popular belief about the song describing the symptoms of bubonic plague is complete nonsense. Husher! Husher! Cuckoo!

Don't get me started on the complete mess they make of the Hokey Cokey over here. Here's the real thing: Knees bent, arms stretched, ra ra ra!

Cake, blue, toddlers for the consumption of:

No birthday party in our house would be complete without a mandatory literacy program.