It's been a very exciting week here at A Puppet Opera Industries. We're still enjoying the company of Grandma and Grandpa Manley, and have been keeping ourselves occupied doing both chores and fun stuff. There's soooooooooooo much to do! And yet it's so much more fun to play with Isabelle than to cut the grass...
Number One Most Excellent Grandma has been a lifesaver, not only with her help keeping the house together while I've been looking after Isabelle, but also with her invaluable medical knowledge and wisdom about what to do with baby. Many tips and tricks have been shared, and she didn't even mind when Isabelle projectile pooed up her arm. We don't know what we're going to do when she goes back home... fortunately we have cheap long-distance calls, so we'll be able to keep her on speed dial when we need her help! Isabelle looks truly happy sleeping on her shoulder. I think it's because she knows she's in safe hands... Jules and I are still complete bunglers. Isabelle seems to understand that it's Grandma who actually knows what she's doing.
We all took a trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew the other day, the first time we've been able to go since Isabelle was born because the weather has been so crappy. Look how big Isabelle is already! It's hard to believe she'll be a month old tomorrow. Look how much she's changed! She looks like a real honest-to-god baby now, not like the little turnip she's resembled for most of the past month. Cute! She's modeling her Venetian Doge hat and Grandma-made knitted blanket in this photo. Such a cute baby!
She was a good girl in the park; she loves riding in her buggy. Totally worth having lugged that thing back from Joliet! We saw many excellent things at Kew, not least of which was this peahen who posed for pictures long after it had become amusing to take photos of her.
Issy with Grandma and Grandpa:
When we got home from Kew we made spaghetti for dinner--from scratch. My mom has the same kind of Kitchenaid pasta maker that I do, but for some reason she'd struggled with it. So we had a masterclass in tagliatelle.
She got the hang of it very quickly; check out all this pasta! Enough for the four of us and the Italian army. It was goooooood too. It's so worth making your own pasta if you have the opportunity. It is a bit of a hassle, especially when dried pasta is so convenient, but not that time-consuming, and definitely worth trying if you can. The Jamie Oliver basic pasta recipe is fail-safe: 100 grams flour, pinch of salt and 1 egg per person, knead into a smooth dough and run through the pasta machine. Takes about as much time to make up from scratch as the dried stuff takes to boil. Well, if you're a practiced hand, anyway. Still, it's very, very easy. And so much fun to do.
Jules took this photo this morning. Look at Isabelle's feet! What a perfect third position. Looks like she's ready for ballet lessons already. So cute!
Isabelle is crazy about her daddy. I know she looks a bit suspicious in this photo, but on the inside she's having a great time.
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