We know how to live, last week instead of going to Tesco Mum decided we should go to Asda in Basingstoke. How about that then globe trotters?
One of my favourite recent tricks has been to remove my trousers and pants and then hanging my bare bum out of Poppy’s cat flap. I bet Dad would like a go but he’s got no chance with a bum that big.
I’ve been for a weigh and put on half a pound in a week, a good performance by all accounts. The health visitor also said I could give up on solid food for a bit, that’s a result. That slop was inedible!
Friday and everything started turning a bit Christmassy….hooray! Auntie Trish came round with a Christmas Mr Man book and a book with a special kit for sending letters to santa in it.

We read all the stories and I listened really intently. Once we had a good old read we headed off to town to see Santa turn on the Christmas lights. We stopped by Auntie Christine’s shop and got pretend snow thrown over us (it’s still in my car seat) and she gave me a pair of fluffy reindeer antlers to wear:

We were having such a good time in the shop we nearly missed Santa go by and Dad had to run up the street with me to catch up. Did I mention it was raining…hard!!! We hung about in the market place for a bit in the rain before the lights went on and then we tried to find Santa again but he had gone…disappeared! What a shame, and my reindeer antlers got pretty soggy as well.
I slept through all the excitement, and rain.
When we got home Auntie Christine and Owen came round, they had a special present for Ellis and I that Nanny had sorted out for us a little while back. It was a big lorry with 24 little drawers in the back, all numbered. Now apparently a special Christmas fairy makes a visit once a day to leave us a little something in the drawer. Yeah right…..
So Saturday was party day, I was so excited I probably could have burst. But first of all there was the advent calendar to open, how exciting (for Mum). We always have to guess what will be behind the door. Now i'm still pretty new to this Christmas lark so i'm not so good with the guessing as Mum and Dad with their years of advent calendar experience. Finally it was time to go to Judes party, we got to the racecourse early but the party had already kicked off. There was a bouncy castle, a load of sports equipment, some slides and a load of other things to play with, but best of all there was a face painter. I started off as Ned but soon became a scary tiger:

I was in character too, chasing my prey around the hall and roaring as loud as I could. It lasted a little while, until I got a bit of a bump on the bouncy castle, had a cry and rubbed my eyes….
Jude, Alistair, Hugo and I were definitely the party animals, our finest scheme was using the skipping ropes to drag each other around the floor and attempting to remove each others heads with them, in the end the man came and put them away!

After we had worked up an appetite it was off to another room for some food. As if that wasn’t good enough we had a great view of the horse racing too and every time a group of horses charged past the window I led the cheering. Once the food was done and dusted we played pass the parcel.

We got a bit bored without anything to unwrap for ages but we all got a go in the end.

Even if I had heard enough of the terrible music (Dad says it was Shakira). It was the best party ever, even the party bags were ace, they had model aeroplane gliders in them which gave dad and I hours of fun target practice with Ellis at home.
The low point of the whole event was when one of Neds friends, I think it was Edward pointed out that I had a bogey attached to my nose starting a chorus of bo-gey! bo-gey! bo-gey! By all the rest of them. In the evening Andy,Ben, Rach and Kimi came round and I performed my party piece. It involves being put onmy back in a distant part of the room and then rolling over onto my tummy, then my back, then my tummy again, over and over until I have covered several feet accross the floor. To be honest, i've given it up again now though, it's too much effort. If I sit and look a little bit dejected and distant someone will come and get me anyway.
Fairy update: She must have come while I was at the party, she left me a santa chocolate!!! Maybe they were telling the truth?
Is it time for my close up yet:

So after the highs of Saturday we were back down to earth with a bump on Sunday, shopping….urrrgh!!! Dad, Ellis and I did manage to have a bit of laugh as we rode around in the trolley though. Once we got home it was time to watch Shrek. I can’t believe they kept it from me for so long, I loved it. It has made me ask lots and lots of questions though, I think I may need to see it again.
Fairy update: She left a snow man chocolate during Shrek, I must have been really engrossed in the film as I didn’t see a thing!
Back to nursery on Monday and Roses (our ‘teacher’) had also really got the Christmas bug, we had santa suits to wear and she had done a makeover on the home corner to make it look more christmassy, we’ll be whipped up into a frenzy!! Owen came round in the afternoon, he helped Dad cook curry for tea…..I had fishcakes instead!
Fairy update: She must have come during dinner, there was nothing in the truck before tea when I checked but by the time we were finished there was another Santa chocolate. I don’t know how she does it……

Okay, first off an apology, we haven’t been doing much this last week and as a consequence pictures are pretty thin on the ground.
First of all, I was weighed last week and my graph showed a bit of a dip! Oh dear I’d actually lost weight. I blame Ned for bringing home every tummy bug, sniffle and sneeze going. I was told I’d have to eat more real food such as advocado’s (horrible), Cheesey creamy mash potato (horrible), Bananas (horrible), pears (horrible) and carrots (the best of a bad bunch).




I’ll stick to my sandwiches!

Actually, I’ve been pretty good lately and have been eating almost everything put in front of me…or hiding in the cupboard!
We went boring shopping in boring Newbury last week, but Santa had taken up residence in the Kennet Centre, how exciting. This year I wasn’t even scared of his moving polar bears either, Nanny would be so proud of me. I kept sidling up to Santa trying to stay un-noticed but he saw me every time, I really think he can see everything.
Oh yeah, guess what…I’ve got another tooth already! Still, I’m not going to use it to eat anything anytime soon, i'll just use it to bite Mum's fingers when she's silly enough to let them go near my mouth..
Saturday Dad went out on his bike all day long so Mum was stuck in the house with us without the car or anything. We were going to make jam tarts but didn’t have the proper ingredients so we thought we’d make a chocolate cake instead. We didn’t have the right things for that either so we made scones. They were lovely and Mum and I had a great time making a massive amount of mess, it’s a good job Dad was out.
We went to Grandad and Anne’s on Sunday for an impromptu visit. We would have had some nice pictures of us playing in the park if Dad had remembered to put the battery in the camera.
I made Grandad show me his model railway a few times, we watched black beauty (I was agog!) and we went for a walk to see the horses. Sadly they were fenced off from us so we put a pear that Anne had found and a cabbage leaf that I found in a nearby field where Anne assured me that the horses would eventually find them. I hope they enjoyed them. We also got to stay for tea and I had my favourite…SAUSAGES!!!! and then chocolate brownies AND trifle, what a great afternoon out.
We sat and looked at the baby scan pictures of Ellis and I when we were in mum’s tummy on the computer the other day, we looked like little aliens in there! I asked whether Ellis used to walk around in there...........
Today was swimming day, I was much more up for it than last time when all I did was puke up all the time. Ned splashed me loads and I found it really funny even though Mum and Dad tried to stop him. I had a lovely ‘upright’ float around in my inflatable seat that I normally flop around in before having a poolside cuddle with Mum while the boys carried on playing.
Yeah, I dragged Dad out to the deep water and pushed him over, that’ll teach him for splashing me!
I told mum that I had something to tell her tonight when she’d tucked me up in bed. After she had got down on the floor and placed her ear within whispering range I told her that ‘Racing cars are fast’ She seemed really pleased that I’d let her in on this little secret of mine.
Okay that’s about it I think other than to say that I’m really looking forward to going to Jude’s birthday party this Saturday.
As a final treat for you, here’s a few pictures of us after our bath the other night :

This weeks big news……I’ve got a tooth. It’s only little, but it’s there! In line with this I’ve had renewed interest in solid foods, well baby rice anyway. They’ve even got the high chair out for me at the table now, that’s a bit more dignified than being dumped in a Bumbo on the table. I also had a really good go at crawling tonight on my play mat so things are coming along pretty nicely really all round.
We went on a visit around a school for me last week, two children showed us round and told us all about it. They had a great playground so that’s me sold. After that we had grandma round for tea. I pulled all the cushions off the sofa and made a running and jumping track to show her my skills, she was impressed.
My new favourite words are ‘Quality’ as in ‘this slide is quality’ and ‘delicious’ in regard to anything nice to eat (such as shrek spaghetti, or beans as I call it).
Okay then, onto the weekend….we went off to see Max and Leo (and Emma and Dean) with Andy. I talked to Andy all the way through the Friday night traffic before we arrived and was served sausage and mash and beans for tea…how great is that? Max and I had a great time and didn’t make each other cry once!
I loved it too, I sat in my chair and watched the three boys going about their business, picking up a few tips on how to make the grown ups agitated (switching off the sky+ box seemed to be the most effective, good work Leo).

We went out for a walk in the leaves and collected enough sticks to make a raft capable of crossing the atlantic.

We fed the ducks, and ate some of the bread ourselves, even though Emma told us it was special ‘Duck’ bread and we’d start to grow feathers and quack.

Leo and I just sat and chilled out a bit, until we got to the playground and Leo made a good attempt at becoming the worlds dirtiest boy, while the other two terrorised the place:

Mum helped me on some of the bigger stuff:

We had some lunch sat outside even though it was the coldest day ever and then went for a walk around the animal section, where there some really lovely baby piggies!

There were loads of other animals too, some of them we even saw as Max and I ran around the place at 130mph.

As always the toys are ace, we played for hours upstairs on our own with no grown ups or babies to spoil anything.
Sunday we went to the RAF museum at Hendon:

I even woke up for this one, even though I didn’t know what we were really looking at.
Max and I continued our 130mph visiting theme by running around the place like a pair of loonies, we did stop a bit more often though as there were a few things you could climb into.

So that was another mad hectic weekend in the city and I didn’t want to come home Sunday night at all. Even when I got up Monday morning I wanted to go back and see Max again, but had to make do with having the morning off from nursery and staying home with Mum.

Well I thought I’d get in on the spewing act this week after Ned’s outburst last week. Mum took me to the doctors as I was looking proper sorry for myself and everything. As soon as we got to the doctors though I perked up and gave him a lovely smile. He gave me a good old check over and decided I was pretty much okay. I haven’t had much appetite for milk or any of the more solid stuff they’ve been trying me on though, sorry Mum I’ll get there in the end.

I’ve felt much better this week thank you.
Saturday morning we went to JJ’s in Basingstoke. We hadn’t been for ages and I had a really good time playing in there. I am still a little bit delicate so I made sure I enlisted Mum or Dad to help me explore the ball pools and slides, even though Dad put his back out chasing after me. I think he’s getting too old for it really but I have to humour him I suppose. Saturday afternoon we got word that Uncle Slim and Uncle Den had gone fishing!

They had wrigglers, which I was intrigued with. They were really soft and, well, wriggly! Den had the upper hand with the fishing and poor old Slim had been having a pretty torrid time of it by all accounts, never mind, there’s always next time!!

I had a quick go but didn’t catch anything….except a wriggler!
We were supposed to be going to the fireworks on Saturday night, but then Mum decided to start being sick as well,,,,what a downer. We watched them from the window in Ellis’ bedroom, we had an excellent view but I made sure Dad shut the window just in case one came in through the window at us.
Sunday we had a rather quiet day in, until Alan came round to babysit for us! He gets all the really good baby sitting jobs, Sunday Nights or the really late ones, he’s good like that. We had a game of cars and then Sonia came round in time for our bedtime story. On behalf of Ellis and myself I’d like to thank them for a bumper session with 3 whole Mr Man books (that’s a record, the most if ever got before is 2), you can come again!
Monday was swimming day, we haven’t been for a while and quite honestly I couldn’t be bothered with it all. I’m not one to complain rally so I kept quiet while I had a little splash about but I soon decided to spice things up by throwing small milky little sicks out. It was great fun making mum take me out of the pool, clean me up and bring me back again only to do it all over again. Best of all though was making Dad try and clear me up, he took me to the toilet and tried to clean me up with some toilet roll on his sopping wet hands. It completely disintegrated and we both ended up covered in it.
I loved it, splashing about, going down the slides backwards, throwing armbands into the water and all the rest of it. I even walked up all the steps to the flume slides on my own twice. I think Dad’s arms will return to their real length inside the next couple of years or so.
Dad had a day off today, so we went to Monkey World!

Here’s a family of four after the keepers had decided to feed them.

I shared my cheesy wotsits with the monkeys.

I climbed like a monkey.

I slept like a sleepy monkey (even though Dad reckoned I look like an Orang-utang with my long straggly hair).

We played on this massive swing thing, although I decided it was actually a horsey.

I nearly nodded off on a swing with Mum.

We even saw some monkeys! They were great actually. The Gibbons made a really funny noise and one of them had a great game with me where he would hide at the back of his cage, before leaping down to the window and give it a bang. Every time he did it, it made me jump, so he did it again and again and I kept on jumping.

Okay then, what have we got for you all this week….
Lets see, first off we went down the park, I rode my bike and the big news is that I can get to the top of the ramp without a push now:

So that’s another job Dad is relieved of!
I’ve had another trip to the health visitor, I’m still putting on enough weight apparently. Mum and Dad reckon I’m becoming nicely chunky now (like them). My milk indifference seems to have paid off though and I’m allowed to start having some real food at last!

Ned was the best at feeding me, I played Dad up a bit:

They started me on Baby Rice which was okay for a one off, but I wouldn’t really want to make a habit of it. They tried me on mashed up carrot yesterday which was much better, it made a lovely orange mess which was so much more satisfying than the dull white rice slop. They tried to get to eat banana today but I really wasn’t that keen on it at all.
Other than that, I’ve been mostly chilling out:

While we’re talking about mashed up mess, I was very ill on Thursday. I spewed all over myself and my bed clothes in the middle of the night. Mum sorted me out nice and quick, Dad was less than useless in such a situation. I had Friday off nursery and did a bit more spewing which wasn’t very nice. Still, I was feeling a bit better on Saturday so we went off to Lepe country park again:

It was a lovely sunny day, I rode my bike loads, played football and went on the playground:

After that we had a picnic and then went for a walk along the beach:


I topped up my tan…hooray! Didn’t think I’d get another one of those in this year!

We were then loaded up:

And taken home:

Sunday we had a firework party at Abi’s house. Everyone was there and I had been excited about it all day. Once the noises started though I was off indoors like last year:

I had a lovely time with Kaz and Abi’s toys though (sorry about the mess Nick)
I had to deal with something even more scary than the fireworks though, a cuddle with uncle Alan:

Wednesday afternoon was bike time. Dad and I raced around the close for ages, of course I won all the races we had. I’m getting really good at going fast, using the brakes and even throwing in the occasional small wheelie.
Thursday afternoon we got all creative and Dad and I made a racing car:

It was pretty good I suppose, but I was quite disappointed when I couldn’t actually drive it around the house.
I thought it was okay, but the steering wheel was an unnecessary luxury and promptly pulled it off.
Friday Mum broke the washing machine, so I had to go shopping with her to get another one.
And in the afternoon Dad and I fitted it…..he loved my helpful advice, especially when he skinned his knuckles. It didn’t matter though because Auntie Christine came round for a flying visit as well.
So then it was Saturday and we went to the races. We met up with Andy who had John and Sarah with him. As soon as we got in John decided he wanted to go to the bar, I don’t know what they teach them down in the west country. When we got there, there was loads of us!


Mum and Dad had a few winners but none of my selections came in. Never mind, I was allowed an ice cream anyway.
An ice cream? I had a carton of milk warmed up under Dad’s armpit!
We had a brilliant game of jumping off the picnic bench with Max, Fen, Yanna, John and Sarah:

But uncle Al was a real star, running around and around and around with us.

Leo performed in a way to make his Dad proud, chatting up the girls with a drink in his hand:

Oh yes, if anyone could tell me what sort of animal Carrie-Anne’s blue fluffy boots were made of I’d love to see one!
In the evening Auntie Christine came round to look after us at long last! Laura and James also turned up and we had a lovely time while Mum and Dad went out to the pub.
I decided to cry as well, as a test for them. They passed with flying colours!
Sunday was Dad’s birthday. Mum hadn’t told me what we’d got him as she knew I’d blab it out so Sunday morning, early o’clock I was trying to force presents into his hands. I had also made him a lovely card all on my own. His presents were rubbish of course, no toys! We took him to McDonalds for breakfast and we had sausage mcmuffins…lovely.
Slim and Tracey came round, I had a lovely cuddle with Tracey….
…and I played Tennis on the Wii with Slim.
Then it was lunchtime and cake!!!

Which I actually didn’t really like. He should have a chocolate one.
In the afternoon we went round to Chris and Katies for Jase’s music quiz. They all seemed to like it but us kids thought it was rubbish. Abi, Kimi and I all decided to have a really good loud cry to cause as much disruption as possible.
I didn’t want to get involved with them, so decided to go to sleep instead.
For once, Dad wasn’t on the winning side, not sure he liked that too much…but I’m sure he’ll get over it.
On Monday I got my invite to Jude’s birthday party in December, how exciting is that, I love a good party.
Grandad and Anne came round on Monday afternoon so it was nice to see them, even if they did bring Dad another non-toy present. Grown up birthdays are rubbish.
Okay then in general news this week, I have been quite poorly with a stinking cold but I’ve tried to stay happy. I’ve started laughing properly now rather than just a gurgle, especially when mum gives me a good old tickle., and finally I’ve really started to eye up everyone’s real food when they’re eating. It looks lovely, so much more varied than milk, milk, milk and more milk.
I’ve have been pretty much sleeping most of the time….see you next week if I can stay awake long enough!