Big weekend

Well, something of a monster update this week.
We’ve had Nanny round for tea, Aunty Chris round for babysitting and uncle Alan has gone.
Last Wednesday after we’d been shopping, Dad and I went out on his bike. I’d been pestering him about it for ages so it was high time he gave in. The weather was lovely and we rode all the way to Thatcham. I really enjoyed the fresh air and made sure I got plenty of snot on the back of dad’s jumper. We went to a park by the side of the A4 and had a go on the swings. I made dad sit in the one next to me but I think his bum was a bit big for it. We looked out over the traffic and I had great fun pointing out lorries, Nee-Nars, bikes and motorbikes. I also enjoyed bellowing out ‘Man’ to an unsuspecting pedestrian. I also set my swing height record which dad managed to propel me to without getting off his own swing, I think his big behind was stuck in it.
Mum went to work on Saturday, I slowly drove dad made throughout the day.
Sunday things were looking up. The sun was out and dad was packing sandwiches…trip out! They were going on about animals, we ended up at Marwell!

I took charge of the map and started issuing the orders. First stop was the penguins. They swam right up to the wall for my amusement, they even had a little underground bit with a window into their pool. They were zooming past the window under the water which made me laugh. After that I demanded Tigers but was fobbed off with a succession of lesser beasts. Not even the giraffes were that good. We saw some leopards that were pretty smart but they weren’t tigers. I also tried to steal one of the golf buggy style vehicles that the zoo keeper had just parked up but she’d taken the keys.

We had lunch overlooking the Zebra’s which was okay, but there was a slight whiff in the air. When we finally got to the tigers I wasn’t that bothered about them even though one of them was having a dip in his pool. I know that they eat MEAT though.
My favourite animals were the sheep in the petting zoo, never mind all these fancy weird looking things.
The best bit of the trip though was the train ride:

After all that we came home and went to Pizza hut, inspired by the diet of the big cats I’d seen at the zoo I demanded the waiter get me MEAT. I had to settle for ham on my pizza. I also pulled two cracking ladies during the course of my meal, they love a boy with tomato puree on his chops.
After I’d had a bath mum frightened the life out of by telling me the ‘Gruffalo’ was coming and banging on the floor to mimic his hefty footsteps. Having spent all day looking at weird and wonderful creatures I think I was a bit more susceptible to this sort of wind up and mum assured me that the Gruffalo was only in the book and not on the landing after all.
Rounding the weekend off we went to the Swimming Pool again yesterday. I was well up for it again and couldn’t wait to get in the water, in fact I’d been wearing my arm bands nearly all morning while we were waiting for Dad to get home from work. It al went sour in the end though when we were walking around the outside of the pool and saw people in the café with chips. I decided chips looked a much better bet than the swimming pool. I was quickly marched back to the changing room and we went home without any chips at all, oh dear.
That’s about it for this week, no update next week I’m afraid as we’re off on holiday. Look out for a special double helping next time.

Paint!

Hello everyone. Hope you are all well.
What have I got to tell you this week.....Well it was Nanny's birthday last Friday so Dad got really brave and let me make her a card with real live paints:

I've done loads of this at nursery and I think I surprised dad with my skills. I'm quite a prolific artist so I produced quite a large number of pieces. Dad was running out of places to put them all with their wet dripping edges. Once i'd had enough I made a break for the sofa covered in paint, Dad frantically chased after me, it was really funny. He caught me just in time and dragged me off to the sink for a good rinse down.
Speaking sinks, I can annoy them really easily by turning on the hot tap of the downstairs toilet and then running off....ha.
On Saturday we went to some really funny places that had loads of bathrooms in them? I climbed in and out of the bath tubs and mum was doing her nut because she didn't my shoes leaving dirty marks. In the last place we visited they even had a bath full of bubbly water. I wasn't allowed to play in it though.
We went out for a walk in the woods on Sunday, it was freezing cold. They wrapped me up nicely in my buggy though and I went to sleep while they shivered their way round.
Dad took me to the pet shop yesterday. I quite liked the fish and the birds, but my favourites were the rabbits and the mice. We then did a bit of trainspotting and saw one of those really big trains with 36 carriages. Dad counted them, I can only get to two on my own....
Nanny came round in the afternoon, we watched some horse racing on the telly and played with my toys. I also had a smashing little tantrum so she's seen that side of me too.
Much to Mum's relief i've learned a new word, instead of endless bouts of 'no' i've also mastered use of the word 'yes' This is in addition to the colours Purple, Pink and Blue.....

One year of Blogging!

Well, thats beena year of Blogs now, can you believe it? Doesn't time fly when you're having fun!
Early with the update as well this week, there’s a turn up for the books!
We went away for the weekend, it was smart. Dad and I went to pick up mum from work on Friday night but we didn’t go back home we went to Max’s house down in Somerset. I had a bit of a kip in the car so I was well up for it when we arrived. I like Max, he’s a good bit older than me so can do loads of cool stuff and has smart toys. Having said that, I must be getting a bit bigger as mum discovered I was in fact too long for my little sleeping bag and couldn’t quite stretch my legs out properly so here I am trying out a duvet for the first time:

Because I was in Mum and Dads room I was able to get them up nice and early, which was a good job because Max had decided he was King Kong and rampaged through our room after escaping from the travel cot/cage I had been sleeping in.
We went out to the playground but I was more interested in getting some food together. Now I must own up to having a bit of a naughty one here. We went to a fancy Pasty shop where they had got me my very own ‘Baby pasty’. The problem was I caught sight of the chocolate brownie first…I wouldn’t entertain the pasty at all and kicked off big time, it ended up with dad whipping me out of the high chair and out of the shop to stand outside until I had calmed down. It didn’t take long and I sat back down and ate my whole pasty before moving on to the brownie.
On Saturday night, Andy turned up too which was good. Dad cooked dinner, Max did some cool breakdancing and I dressed up as Bob The builder:

I had good reason to believe that the grown ups had been up pretty late watching boxing on Saturday night so I let them have a very small lie in on Sunday.
Once we were up and about Max took me out in his car. Just us two, no grown ups. I had a grin a mile wide fixed on my face and loved being driven around:

It was such good fun. I had a go at driving too, but couldn’t quite reach the go pedal so Andy had to run along side pressing it down with a tennis racket, thanks Andy!
I’d like to thank Max, Emma, Dean and Andy for giving me such a lovely weekend, must do it again soon!
I’d also like to thank Grandad and Anne this week for getting me a new coat. Laura got me my last one for Christmas last year and although it’s been a lovely jacket it is now getting a bit short in the arms, in fact it it’s quite a bit short in the arms. Mum and dad had been supposedly looking for a new one but couldn’t find any because it’s all summer stuff in stock or something. I reckon they were just trying to eek it out until the autumn the stinge-bags.

This is becomig quite a habit isn't it?

Late again this week….sorry!
Hmmm, mum and dad are still coughing and spluttering. I’ve been okay so far so fingers crossed.
Haven’t really been doing much, we went shopping in Southampton on Saturday. It was rubbish, they didn’t buy me anything although they did treat me to a Marks and Spencer cheese and ham sandwich which I ate really nicely. I didn’t pick the fillings out first or anything and didn’t even make that much mess down my coat which was a first. Eventually they took me to the park by the sea. It was pretty cold but the sun was out.

Here I am coming down what must be the biggest slide in the world, so big you can’t even see the bottom of it!

They also had a maze, I went straight to the middle with no messing about but we cheated on the back and mum skipped over the wall with me.
Mum has been working her socks off lately and keeps telling me we’re going on holiday soon, to the seaside by all accounts too so that should be nice. I’ve no idea where Scarborough is but I hope it’s as warm and sunny as Portugal was….
We went to Grandad and Anne’s for Sunday lunch and I’m not sure I’ll get invited back again. I was playing about in the kitchen with Anne and while she wasn’t looking turned the hob on….just a little bit. On top of the hob was a wooden chopping board. It made a quite unpleasant burning smell. Oh dear, at least I didn’t burn the house down.

Sorry i'm late again!

A little late this week due to dad’s man-flu. Mum had it first and had Friday and Saturday off work, so at least she didn’t have to do her Saturday. She was a rather pathetic state so it was up to dad to try and keep me busy the poor man, I do think it’s becoming a two person job. Needless to say we didn’t do much over the weekend. Dad and I did venture out for a walk on Saturday afternoon. He must have been feeling brave as we didn’t even take the pushchair. I walked a really long way right round the estate. A jogger ran past us so I decided to inject a little pace into our ambling as I reckon Dad could do with shedding a few pies. I tried to keep up with the jogger but he was long gone and no matter how hard I worked my little legs Dad didn’t even have to try any harder than a moderate stroll to keep up. When we got home I decided I wanted to take off all of my clothes an item at a time. By the time I was in my birthday suit and running up and down the lounge mum was in fits of laughter so I think I cheered her up. Sorry, no pictures of this on the Blog I’m afraid. I don’t want you blackmailing me with shady copies of it in 20 years time thank you.
Here’s what we did Sunday:

Sleeping! Mum was still poorly and dad had been to the pub on Saturday night, he thought he had a mild hangover but it was to be the onset of the dreaded man-flu.
Mum was off Monday so we gave dad a surprise by going to meet him on his walk home from work, he looked really surprised to see us both as once again I shunned the pushchair and let my own feet do the walking.
Walking seems to be a bit of a theme this week, here’s some more foot related news:

I’ve got my first pair of boots. They have Thomas on them and I’m really happy with them. I keep getting them put on for me and then I stomp around the front room staring down at my feet. I’ve also tried to wedge them onto Uncle Alan’s feet, Daddies feet and Mummies feet but they won’t fit any of the great oafs so I guess I’ll keep them all to myself, ha ha ha!

A proper update, with pictures!

Okay then, by way of an apology for last week, this weeks a pictures special. So apologies to all those suckers out there on dial-up connections and get with the program, It’s 2006 for goodness sake!
I’ve got quite a reputation around Tesco’s now due to our regular Wednesday afternoon visit. I’ve got a substantial fan-club of silver haired checkout ladies!
Friday night Auntie Chris came to look after me all on her own, no Nanny to be seen. Having said that, Laura did show up a bit later on so it was a good job I’d saved a right old nappy full for her to enjoy.
Had a bit of a lazy one on Saturday as I was a bit under the weather with a snotty nose etc. We watched the Olympics on telly, what a weird load of activities they are. In the evening Nick, Carol and Andy came round for a low key game of cards. I got everyone’s name right except Carol’s, sorry Carol I’ll make sure I practice for next time.
In line with the way Mum and Dad seem to operate, on Sunday, because it was raining they decided we’d go out.

We went to Didcot Railway centre and rode on a steam train. It was proper smart, I didn’t think these things were even real, just something in my Thomas books. They were massive and noisy, hissing and puffing all over the place.

It was a pretty short ride but long enough for me. After we got off we had a wander around the engine sheds, with Mum’s background she’d seen it all before but Dad seemed to quite like it. After that we rushed back to Auntie Chris’ for Sunday dinner, at tea time. I decided not to eat any of her lovely roast dinner because i’m an attention seeking little monkey and a born show off. Sorry Chris don’t take it personally, I’m sure your dinner was lovely. Again I couldn’t quite get the name thing down, sorry Ian….Just for a change I thought I wouldn’t actually have a massive turnout in Laura’s presence, I’m sure she was relieved, I’ll double up next time! I also fell of one of the dining room chairs whilst supposedly under Chris’s supervision. I understand she’s taken a lot of stick over the matter, but I can assure you I’m quite okay now thanks.
Tuesday was a bleak day at nursery. All of my little gang of friends went up to the next room for a visiting day in preparation for them going up next month (they’re all older than me). I came home in a proper mood, I had to spend all morning with the young ‘uns and I’m far too sophisticated for their brand of enjoyment.
We had a surprise visit from Aunty Trish this afternoon, all the way from the bright lights of Amazingstoke. She certainly cheered me up, she had a soft furry handbag that was just like the cat, re-assuringly there were chocolate buttons inside it.
On nursery matters, here’s some of my art work for you all to marvel over:


Not bad, apparently they pay Dad to put out pictures of this sort of quality, fools. I’d do it for a bag of Buttons and unlimited C Beebies.
Here’s a shot of me having my bedtime story with mum:

It’s the Gruffalo. I always get her to start the story, get about three quarters of the way in and then flick over the last few pages and wander off. It’s driving her mad that she can’t finish it of….ha ha ha ha!

No pictures please!

Well here’s a first, an update with no pictures! I don’t know why, Dad must have forgotten to take the camera anywhere at all, so sorry about that.
Thursday afternoon Dad and I went to Fantasyland. I had a new found air of confidence and made my way for the biggest block in the soft area, climbed on it and then flopped onto the ground in a very graceful fashion. I made my way over to the slide into the ball pool but this was old hat and soon headed for more excitement. I made my way into the upstairs section and soon got to grips with that. There was a bendy tube slide back down to the floor and I thought it was high time I gave it a go. I clambered into the black hole and shot of downwards. All dad could hear was me laughing all the way down. It took him a while to get down to ground level as he was too scared of using the slide in case I was still in it! My special move however was the belly flop into the ball pool. For this I arranged myself on the edge of the pool, outstretched my arms and composed myself before falling forwards into the abyss. I made Dad wince a few times but I loved it, even though I did scrape my chin a bit on one of the edges. I heard some of the other parents down there describe me as ‘a robust little boy’ and asked if I ever cried after seeing me take a tumble and get up as if it was nothing. After that we went to see Nanny for some refreshment and then after tea we went to see Great Grandma and played indoor football in 80 degree heat. Toasty!
Next up the weekend! Saturday morning Alan asked me if I was going to have a bath getting me all excited and then snaked me and went in the shower first! I showed him by getting in the shower with him! By the time dad got home from his bike ride, Uncle Alan had gone and I was in the bath for real. Mum had decided she would stay drier if she actually got in there with me. We went to town in the afternoon to look for some more glasses for mum (did I mention that I broke her existing pair? Ooops). It was really boring and she couldn’t even decide which ones to get in the end. Never mind.
Alan has gone now, so I’ve got my bedroom back but I’ve got no one to wake up in the morning.
Grandad, Anne and Alan came round for tea and then Mum and Dad went out. I played Lego with Grandad for the evening.
Sunday we went to look at cars at a supermarket in Slough of all places. They only take me to the best places. This place was weird, hundreds and hundreds of boring silver or black cars, no red ones to be seen!
Monday afternoon Dad did something I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do before…Gardening! I got given a trowel and dug up nearly all the gravel from the front garden, spreading it across the pavement and the road. It took Dad ages to sweep it all back….
This afternoon we went for a stroll to see the diggers on the building site and the horses in the field, not bad I suppose for the old cheapskate.
In general news, we’ve moved rooms at nursery but it’s only next door. I’m still with my friend the beloved Jude so that’s okay.
My new favourite word is NO! I use it all the time, even when somebody offers me cake, but I don’t mean it most of the time, I just find it really funny. Speaking of cake, I’ve now realised that the letters C – A – K – E spell out CAKE! So that’s spoilt their little code over the dinner table.
Anyway, I’ll endeavour to get my paparazzi to take some snaps for next week…

Nothing to see here, move along....

Hello all, sorry i'm a bit late this week. We decided to honour Nanny with our prescence last Thursday afternoon after dad had difficulty getting hold of her due to her busy social calendar. I made her run up and down the lounge pulling an elephant on a string for ages, while I had a Thomas the tank engine. Dad tried to take over from her but he just didn't cut it, she was proper tired out when we were done. Dad panicked her half to death taking her digi-box to the extreme's of it's ability by going way past the five ordinary channels to find C-Beebies.
The weekend was kind of weird, Uncle Alan is now in my room and i'm in the office with all the audio visual equipment! We've had him playing ring a ring a roses and eveything....
Mum worked Sunday so we had a lazy morning before going up the woods for a walk. The sun was out and it wasn't too cold. We saw the horses pretty close up, they were drinking from their trough thing and were making all sorts of slurping noises i've been trying to replicate. Dad pushed me over all the bits he usually rides his bike over so it was a bit on the bumpy side, we even caught some air at one point! The pond was frozen over and we had great fun throwing stones onto the ice, it made a really funny noise.
We went to see mum for lunch on Tuesday so that was smart. I got to eat some nice cakes in Starbucks and relax on their comfy sofa, very civilised. We also popped in to see Aunty Chris at work. I got my balloon and gave her a kiss without her even having to ask. I know how to keep the laydeez happy.
Thats about it for this week I, maybe i'll have some more exciting adventures this coming week. Here's a couple of pictures for you:

Here's a dinner time shot, there hasn't been one for a while.

Here's one of my favourite indoor activities. It involves holding mum's hand over by the patio doors and then charging across the lounge, shouting like a looney and then flopping on the sofa. It's great fun!

Water water everywhere!

Hello again, plenty to tell you all this week.
Mum worked on Saturday but instead of the usual meeting her for lunch, I went to Bournemouth with Dad and Andy. Andy had been told by the internet that there were going to be good waves! I'm not sure, but I don't think you can believe evrything you read on the internet:

Anyway, Dad and I took up our vantage point on the pier to watch the action and enjoy the sunshine:

I kept pointing at him and shouting 'Andy' as he caught a few waves, it made a change from being miles away on the beach. After he finally saw sense and got out we went to the cafe, I tried to warm him up by feeding him some chips. We then went for play in the sand:

Andy's got a tight grip on my reigns as I really fancied a dip in the sea. The sun was shining so it couldn't have been much colder than last time I was in at the end of last summer could it? I also got the hang of throwing stones into the water, although I did have to get pretty close to the waters edge to get them to splash down.
Dad came back from his bike ride on Sunday morning with a face like a slapped bum, muttering about too much riding uphills or something. Mum and I did our best to cheer him up. In the afternoon we went for a walk by the river in Henley:

We went on this really long, bumpy bridge over some gushing water, it was really good. I liked looking at the all the boats and had a quick go in the playground but it was starting to get dark and a bit cold so I wasn't at all upset when we went back to the car. Shortly after we got home, Sue and Charlote came round so mum and dad went out. I had a great evening of running about and falling over on purpose and climbing all over Sue before cuddling up on the sofa with Charlotte to watch Heartbeat.
Mum had a day off on Monday so I made sure I got her up nice and early. In the afternoon they decided to bite the bullet and take me swimming again. We gave the cold, hostile waters of Northcroft a miss in favour of the Coral Reef in Bracknell. Now this was much more like it, it was much warmer and there were no steps down into the pool so I could go into the water at my own pace.....which turned out to be fast! Another factor was the super slippery slide! I loved this, splashing down into the water again and again and again. I even decided to go down it head first, there was a sign on the side of it banning this, but I can't read yet so it doesn't apply to me! I had a splashing fight with another couple of little ones (which I won easily) and put myself right on top of a water jet. Mum said I had the loudest shriek in the entire pool, uncle Alan would be proud of my decibel level. I was a lot more confident by the end of it and didn't even mind going under water that much.
I'm learning new words pretty quickly now. This week i've learned Kiwi (as in the fruit) and my new favourite is the word 'cold' which i'm having to use quite frequently this time of year.

Let's play darts!

Hello all! Back with a regular update again after the Christmas slackness. What have I to tell you this week? Hmmm, Wednesday dad took me out on the bike alone for the first time without Mum to supervise. I had no idea where we were going but I did quite enjoy the ride. We ended up at the racecourse, and although we didn't actually go into the races we sat right next to the yard and watched the horses coming and going, it was a great afternoons free entertainment in the sunshine. Thursday we went to see Nanny in the afternoon and I even let dad have a few of my chocolate buttons. Friday afternoon uncle Slim came round. We read a book or two, ate a couple of chocolate biscuits and then I sat on his lap for a while to watch the darts. I like the darts, i've got the hand action down and everything. Saturday we went shoe shopping for mum, the ones she got were black and didn't even have lights in them, booooring! Saturday evening Nanny and Aunty Chris came round so I knew Mum and dad were off out. Apparently it was mum's work do, how seasonal! I had another top night in with the 'Tag team' Sunday we had the pleasure of Uncle Alan's company as Hanna has gone to America! He stayed for lunch then we all went over to Grandad's to fix his computer. Well Alan did, dad tried to lok like he knew what was going on and I zoomed lorries accross the super smooth wooden floor. Once we got home the poker gang turned up, it was nice to see them all as it's been a while. I gave them a special treat by filling my nappy and crawling around under the chairs and table to spread the rich aroma.... Monday was a bit of a let down as there was no darts on the telly. However Dad came to the rescue with this:

Mum, dad and I had a cracking game! My enthusiasm for the noble art more than makes up for my current lack of skills and I expect to be a finalist at the Lakeside by the time I start school. Dad took me out on the bike again today. I got pretty excited and started making my loudest clip-clop horse noise but we weren't going the right way for the races. I was pretty upset about it but soon cheered up when we got to the playround in Victoria Park! I think that's it for the time being, see you all soon!