We've got our hands on Harry Potter!

The last Harry Potter book, that is. Aileen & I pre-ordered our copies on Amazon (why push and shove with others at the bookstores?) and the mailman rang our doorbell promptly at 8:15am on the day of publication to deliver them. A gleeful Aileen ran up the stairs to share her bounty with a still half-asleep me.

Being the busy and highly-demanded girls we are, we have not started reading the book yet, but the mundane hermit YL, aka my husband, immediately dived into the book's last few pages and is now evil-ly insisting on telling us the ending every chance he gets. I heard it's good. Or bad, depending on how you see it. Or whether my husband is lying through his teeth. Again.

Anyways, here's to the last and hopefully satisfying Harry Poter book!

Dozing Off

Sophie loves her grapes, and nothing is going to come between them and her. Even sleep.

Watch out everyone, Sophie is 22 months

Enjoying an apple while Baba indulges in a forbidden game of Sanitarium

Happy with her new desk

Watching the clouds and planes with Baba at the garden near our flat

Question: Why is 22-months old something to fear?

Answer: Because it is 2 months away from the terrible two's.

In reality, Sophie IS already exhibiting all the exasperating, every-parent's-nightmare, fearsome characteristics of a Terrible Two. Yesterday YL started to wage a psychological warfare with her, ignoring her, hoping to get her to understand why she must share her grapes when asked. As if. Today I used my most seriously-pissed-off, authoritative, matriach tone with her to get her to see why she cannot use her red, blue & green crayons to draw O's and I's on the doors of the kitchen cabinets. Everyday Popo tries to get her to obey her instructions to take her shower, stop jumping around on the bed, eat her porridge, cease throwing her toys on the floor and go to the potty when she needs to. She answers all and sundries with an earth-shattering, convicted "NO". No amount of cajoling, threatening, or incentivizing worked.

Popo is ready to surrender, I am out of my wits, YL is scheming even more ways to discipline her, but she is as cool as cucumber. Don't let these photos fool you - she is cute, but she is also a villian in disguise (she certainly did not get that from me...).