Did you miss us? Sorry, we were having such a good time in Cornwall last weekend that we didn't get home until 11pm on Tuesday night, much to late to be thinking about this Blog malarkey. It's been pretty much non stop since then too so the update has had to wait nearly two whole weeks. How have you managed without us?
Preparation for school has been pretty thorough to be honest, even going as far as some new pants (or 'Alan's' as Dad and I also like to call them). These ones are sporting a Wall-E design. I'm obsessed by the Wall-E film even though I haven't actually seen it. Anyway, I deemed the underpants so fine that they should be overpants instead, just for good measure I thought it best to wear them on my head as well (it's okay, they were fresh out of the packet).

We were dragged out of bed at some unearthly hour on the saturday morning, force fed breakfast in a rather undignified manner and then bundled into the car along with what appeared to be all our worldy possesions befroe hitting the road and heading west. It was wortht the early start though when we got there in time to take lunch on the grass outside the caravan:

We pretty soon hit the beach, the weather was glorious with barely any wind at all, most unlike Cornwall:

Andy got press ganged into digging:

In the afternoon John and Sarah came over too, Ned had suggetsed a barbecue for the evening and it turned out to be a great idea. It was actually warm enough and dry enough to sit outside for a change!

On Sunday we went rock pooling, our catch was greatly bolstered this time around, no doubt due to the locals that we had helping us (John and Sarah, and later their Mum and Dad). We caught loads of crabs, and an enormous fish. We failed to net the eel living under the rock although we did manage to lure him out of his hiding place so we could get a good look at him with our specialist bait (left over sausages from the barbecue, well the bits that we didn't eat on the way to the beach).

The weather was still good, so lunch was once again taken al-fresco!

Supper was indoors though, it was the first time we had stayed in Abi's caravan, and very agreeable it was too:

I didn't get quite as messy as Ellis:

The weather wasn't quite so good on Monday (well we had already had two lovely dry sunny days) so we went to the Pony Centre.....wahey!

I got to ride the ponies, all on my own (well, with Mum):

I must have had the greediest pony ever, he was called Munchkin, and thats what he did, munch! As much green grass as he could.

There were loads of other things too, a train ride, racing ducks, an indoor play area and trampolines:

There were also rowing boats. There aren't any pictures of this though as the whole thing was just too traumatic. First of all we cast off from the jetty, only to find that on of the oars wasn't attached properly. After rowing around in circles for a good few minutes we finally managed to get back to shore and changed boats. When Dad got in, he managed to smack mum over the head with an oar so hard i think he nearly knocked her out!!! By this time I was crying with fear, once we got into clear water I was almost starting to enjoy it, when we managed to go into an involuntary spin and ended up ploughing through some low hanging foliage. Still, we all laughed about it once we were out of the boat!
I petted loads of animals as well, i'm getting really brave:

Although you don't have to be particularly brave to cuddle a Guinea Pig:

As is usual with our trips away, the pace was relentless and we had to snatch rest when we could, in the car seems favourite:

The usual trip to Polzeath was notable by it's abscence last time we came down so it was no surprise to end up there at all. I don't mind, they sell ice cream on the beach and we can do digging:

We stayed on the beach so late that we didn't arrive home in Newbury until after 11 o'clock at night, at least we got the most out of our day.

So, big changes were afoot when we got back, school was fast approaching! I baked cakes to take to nursery for all my friends on my last day, Here I am keeping a careful eye on them to make sure they didn't burn......

While i'm switching off the washing machine mid-cycle, Mum was really pleased!

My cakes were perfect and fantastically decorated, just the job then. So then, my last day at nursery. Mum and Dad reckon it's gone so fast, I don't know about that. I got given my development folder which shows all my achievements and lots of pictures from along the way. I also got a report to show my school written by Roses (my nursery key worker). It makes for interesting reading. It says that i'm very arty and creative, have a good vocabulary, I like books (especially adventures about pirates or policemen), I am confident with numbers and like to play board games, I am a competent user of the computer, I am apparently very physical and like to play outside and I was very competitive in the recent Olympic themed races. She also told Mum that I was certainly a 'Character' and that she would miss me. When Dad came to collect me we had to empty my tray and say out goodbyes, I let Roses have a little cuddle and kiss with me as a special treat!

Apart from one night earlier in the week I had been pretty cool about going to school and wasn't at all worried. I did have one little wobble along the way but Mum assured me everything was going to be okay......

So here I am, reluctantly modelling my new uniform:

And again, a little less camera shy:

And another one of me in full outdoor mode with luggage:

So then, we were off, Mum and Dad both accompanied me on my first day (to make sure I didn't escape on the way perhaps?) Turns out i'm in the same class as Alastair and Hugo and our teachers name is Mrs. Fright! Once I was in through the door I was shown to my very own peg. It had a picture of a dinosaur on it, how awesome! It was next to Hugo's too, awesome! Then Alastair burst into the cloakroom and dragged me off to show me round....awesome!!!! Mum and Dad were then kicked out by the headmistress and that was that. As a boy, my standard answer to all 'what did you do at school' questions is 'nothing' So they won't ever find out just what it is I get up to apart form at something called parents evening? When Dad came to pick me up and asked me how I had got on, I told it him it was fantastic, that seemed good enough for him so I phoned Mum and told her too. The only downer was that as my forst day was a friday, i'd have to wait a whole weekend before I could go back!

Still, there was plenty of weekend excitement to tide us over, Laura's wedding for a start! What a great day out we had. We got to dress up all nice and go out with all the family. The wedding was at a very smart hotel, so smart in fact that they didn't have a baby changing room in one of the toilets, we got to use one of the suites:

The ceremony itself was in a big room, we'd never been to a wedding before so didn't know what to expect at all. All I knew was that I had to be quiet until James kissed Laura, Owen had told me that at this point we could make loud yuck sounds. I missed this great oppurtunity though as I was so engrossed in the whole thing (thanks Auntie Gail for moving my chair so I could have an unobstructed view of the whole thing).

I had to make do with smiling at evryone, poing uncle Slim in the back for a laugh and a little bit of low level walking:

So once that was all done and dusted it was photo time:

It appears the family scrub up quite well actually:

I managed to worm myself into a special photo opurtunity:

While I tried to convince Sue that she hadn't been sacked as a babysitter, it's just that Mum and Dad are too dull and poor to go out anymore:

I'm glad James is getting in touch with his feminine side these days (I wore some of mums sparkly lipgloss to the big day):

I got to steal a quick cuddle with the bride:

Hopefully no one has managed to get any footage of my three attempts to climb into a hammock on the lawn have they?

And then it was inside for a feed!!!

Ellis and I had special kids meals, three big juicy sausages and a lovely big dollop of creamy mash....delicious! We had to fight off several attempts to relieve us of our grub! Eventually it was time for the main event....Eton Mess! Wahey, lovely jubbly. I managed to eat 'several' as well.

As if she didn't have enough to think about, Auntie Christine also got us loads of toys, magazines and goodness knows what else to play with to keep us entertained which was lovely of her, thanks!

Eventually tiredness got the better of us, I crashed out in the buggy:

And I shunned the other seat of the buggy in favour of my self arranged two chair perch:

Mum and Dad apparently were off dancing to the band, good job we slept through that, the scars would have taken years to heal I think.

We had a lovely time, and by the looks of it so did everyone else. We were so glad to have been part of the day!

Alan invited everyone round for lunch on sunday, I wonder what he wants?

Grandma and I had a messiest face competition, I think I just edged the judges decision:

I had an ace game of hide and seek, my game has come on a lot lately, I don't even aske people where to hide anymore!

So back to school for me on Monday....

And i've gone up a room at nursery, no more crying babies for me to listen to!

Next on the rollercoaster of excitement was the Tour of Britain finishing in Newbury. Park Way was a bit different to normal:

It filled up pretty quickly, Mum did great job getting us a spot at the front near the finish line before she had to go back to work and missed the all the action:

It was all over very quickly in a blur of zooming bikes. We headed into the park afterwards to have alook around. It had been converted into a makeshift pit area and all the teams were loading up ready to move on to the next stage tomorrow:

And then we spotted the man from the Olypmics, next to the Cafe hut, Bradley Wiggins. I got him to sign our team sheet, congratulated him on his gold medals and wished him luck for the rest of the race...Dad was a lot more excited about it than me I think.

I was more interested in the inflatibles:

And I was more interested in sleeping in my buggy and pretty much missed it all!

I've been getting even more nobile lately, apart from all the walking i've been experimenting with my posture in the high chair as well:

I'm not sure just how condusive this particular position is to actually eating. Speaking of eating, i've now decided that I don't want to be fed by mum or dad or even Ned anymore. I want to do it myself, sometimes with a spoon, sometimes with my hand and sometimes by just sticking my face directly into the bowl.
Friday was a very exciting day, we were going out with Grandad and Anne to the Beale park. We left as soon as we got home from nursery, Mum and Dad were off to a wedding. I was jealous for a little while as I thought that they were going to have Eton Mess like we are going to at Laura's. I was soon won over by the lure of animals, playgrounds and ice creams though.
I did loads of walking, Grandad and Anne have obviously got lots more energy than mum and dad and let me out of the buggy and walked me round, it made a lovely change from being stuck in the buggy.
We stayed until the park shut and we got thrown out, it was brilliant, thanks very much for taking us!
As if that wasn't enough excitement it was Edwards party saturday afternoon, we had to wear super hero costumes. I finally used up the last of my birthday vouchers on this rather snazzy little power rangers number:

Dad thought they were very brave to have the party at their home for some reason? He was so worried about it all he went off to do gardening leaving Mum to come with us.
I got to go along too as i'm friends with Eva, Edward's little sister, at nursery:

They had a bouncy slide in their garden:

Balloon model spiders were proper smart:

Obviously there was pass the parcel, I didn't win the main prize but did get a big bouncy ball:

I got to try on some more novelty eye wear, this time a pair of sportacus goggles:

Here I am 'sharing' the sandpit with Eva:

There was even a spider themed cake:

What a great party!
In the evening we had another party to go to, a lady at Mum's work was 21. Although a different sort of party it was still great fun. It had all the essential party ingredients, little sausages, crisps, sweets, fizzy drinks, old people to have fun with and some music to dance to.
I did quite a bit of dancing inbetween walking Dad ragged up and down the decking outside.
I made myself so at home I even helped the party girl cut her cake!
More action on Sunday when we went swimming again. This time they had big floating mats out in the pool for a while before the slide opened. We even took a bouncy ball to play with this time, it's not really as good as the Coral Reef though...maybe next time?
I was a bit tired and revived the old Ned tradition of falling asleep in the pool. It's not easy.
In the afternoon Dad went out to the pub with James for a drink before his wedding or something so the rest of us had a lazy afternoon. Well, it was a lazy afternoon until it turned into a near emergency situation afternoon. I had somehow managed to get my leg stuck in the bars of my cot and got into quite a state about it all. Mum struggled for a bit and was about to ring dad to come home and get the saw out (hopefully to cut the cot and not my leg) when she had a flash of inspiration and went to get the crisp and dry! That soon had me free, with a lovely bruise to show for my efforts....
Once Dad was home he fired up the barbecue and we sat outside eating sausages, brilliant.
Of course it was bank holiday, so we had another day to fill with top notch excitement. Or not. How about a grey and windy picnic at Lepe? Go on then. Andy came too, poor soul.
It wasn't all bad, we had a play on the park, ate some sandwiches and eventually it did brighten up a bit.
We went for a walk along the beach and found our own little bit where we could shelter from the wind. I haven't been walking long but I was soon toddling up and down the sloping beach, over the sand a nd pebbles with no trouble at all. I also decided a tidy up was in order and sat sytematically picking up the shells and pebbles from my immediate area and placing them in the bucket. It was a bigger job than I had anticipated though and soon had to admit defeat.
Then of course we rounded off our trip with an ice cream. Andy had an oyster just to upset Dad and I had a whippy covered in hundreds and thousands. It has to be one one of the most exciting ice cream discoveries of all time.
You'll notice there's no photographic evidence of this outing, the paparazzi left the camera at home!!!!
Guess what? Someone actually stayed for tea as well! As if Andy hadn't had enough of us all day, he also endured a roast beef dinner with us too.
So today was back to nursery, do you know I only have 5 more days left at nursery before I go to school?

They had a leavers party at nursery last week for all the kids that are off to school in September......they had it in the afternoon so I missed it!!! How rubbish is that? Dad thought quickly on his feet and arranged a quick tea party/indoor picnic for us at home instead. It turned out to be much better than the nursery party probably was anyway:

Dad also had to go through with something he said he couldn't ever bring himself to do.....buy me some plimsolls for school. I tried them out by belting around the house at top speed, they seem okay so far, I don't know what he was so worried about:

We went off to the park on a special after tea mission again to make the most of a rare sunny evening. I got all brave in the park and went up on the climbing frame with Ned:

Mum had to singlehandedly make sure I didn't topple to my doom as Dad has hurt his shoulder falling off his bike.
We also had a trip to the park with the Halford boys, we weren't too interested in the park but we had a great time running about and seeing who could fall over in the most spectacular fashion. Even better than all this though was the ice creams! I tried to invite Max round for tea but it was poo-pooed by the boring old grown ups. I'm inviting everyone round for tea at the moment but it never seems to come off......
Friday night was a bit special, we all went to Andy's. Ellis was asleep when we got there so she got put straight in her travel cot and i got to blow up my ready bed. Had a bit of a play while Ben and Rach and then Nick, Carol and Abi came round. We had some great news, Kimi is going to get a little brother or sister!!!! Then I was off to bed and sleep while the grown ups stuffed themselves with all their lovely food. Abi came to bed for a bit but from what i've heard she decided to get back up again and cause a litle tiny bit of mayhem downstairs all on her own. Sorry Abi, I let you down but I really was very tired, I promise i'll help you next time. And Andy, thanks for making sure they sabed me some chocolate cake!
Saturday we got taken shopping, a very brave move by the parents in light of our last trip shopping. We went to Kingston on Thames and parked the car underground in such a tight parking space I couldn't even get out of my own door! Anyway, we were both really good, we helped Dad buy a new pair of trainers (must have been jealous of my plimsolls) had lunch out and then sat in the sunshine eating a delicious ice cream.
Even I was allowed one of my own this time (thanks Mum).
Sunday was party time, this time for Martha and Toby. As usual I was soooo excited about it I could hardly contain myself.
I sneaked in for nothing even though I didn't have an official invite, I had a great time, here I am with the birthday boy:

Spot the Ned:

Food time, very noisy. There was a lot of oppurtunistic hiding of food in other peoples containers in a really rather pathetic attempt to get pudding quicker...

Ted and I stayed until the bitter end and eventually just collapsed on the floor. I invited him to dinner, guess what? He didn't come but I think he is going to soon.....

Monday was Olympic day at nursery. I won the sack race, came second in the egg and spoon race and got enough 'place' finishes in the other events to be crowned overall champion as well! Here I am with all my medals:

Roses (my lady at nursery) told Mum I was 'Kangaroo boy' because of my super speedy bouncing and jumping.
I was telling Mum all about it on the phone until she bought up the egg and spoon race. I did not want to talk about coming second so handed her over to Dad without another word.

While we're on the subject of great achievments, they finally managed to catch me walking on video at long last. It's not my finest effort by a long chalk but it will have to do for now:

Enjoying our beautiful summer then? It was drier in our bath than it has been outside lately:

Pretty sweet hairstyle or what?
Auntie Christine finally came to our rescue and looked after us one light last week while Mum and Dad went out shopping or something? As always we had a lovely time, and just as a treat for her I decided to have a lovely turnout!
I had a lovely time too, we talked about the Olympics, all about China and the birds nest. I've been really interested in it ever since and am enjoying my regular phone conversations with Auntie Christine where we discuss the latest happenings at the games. Maybe we should be on the BBC?
Friday was a huuuuuge day, Lightning McQueen was in town (well, Reading anyway). We went along with Emma and Halford boys too, it was brilliant. We got to stand on the podium:

We sneaked under the barriers to get up close and personal before the man came over to tell us off:

Even Dad and I got in on the act for a bit with Mater:

I got stage fright during my turn at the Karaoke competition:

But it was still good enough for a prize, a Lightning McQueen book.
Once we were back home, Max came to play in my room with me for a bit which was ace:

Dad roughed me up, it made me chuckle, i'm a hard nut:

Then Leo came to join me in MY play room, I love it out here and spend many happy hours all on my own while Ned is asleep or watching telly just exploring all the toys and making a fantastic mess:

Saturday morning we went to JJ's, it's the first time we've been since i've been a bit more mobile and I really enjoyed it:

I even did a bit of public walking! I've still managed to keep any evidence of my walking closely under wraps by point blank refusing to perform for the camera, i'm doing really well on that score.
We also had a bit of quiet time, watching the Olympics so I can talk to Auntie Christine about and doing some colouring in my Lightning McQueen book:

Sunday we had a trip to the swimming pool, not the usual trip to Bracknell either, no, this time it was Thatcham! I don't know if this is down to reducing our carbon footprint (I somehow doubt it) or what but it was great fun! I can't understand why we haven't been here before.
I got to use Ned's armbands as no one bothered to get me any....
.....and I got to go without, it was brilliant. I don't need them anyway. They had long floats that I could wrap around my body and under my arms and off I swam. I did loads of jumping in, knocked Dad over a lot and even went on the flume slide a couple of times before it closed again. All that fun and no 45 minute drive home afterwards, great.
I loved it too, the water was probably a bit colder than i'm used to but it was fine. I struggled to recognise Mum without her glasses on for a while though.....
Once we were home I decided I wanted to help Mum sort the veg out fo dinner, she was very brave and let me use a really sharp knife to chop the ends off of the beans:

I still have a a full complement of 10 fingers i'm pleased to report!
Then this afternoon we went to 'The Chase' for a walk round with the Halfords. Due to poor parenting I didn't have any wellies to wear (well I suppose it is August) so had to make do in the slippery mud in my shoes and turned up trousers. We had the worst game of pooh sticks in the world, we dropped the sticks in one side of the bridge, rushed to the other side and anxiously waited for them to appear to see who would claim victory.....we waited some more....and a little longer.....and a LOT longer before giving up and deciding the sticks must have all got stuck somewhere under the bridge.

I had a lovely relaxing ride around in my buggy, my walking is okay but I don't think i'm quite up to these sort of expeditions just yet.
We got chased by crocodile's, Gruffalo's, Bears, Werewolves and all sorts of other mysterious monsters lurking in the trees and id a a lot of running away:

Here you go, you can have a video this week, but don't hold your breath for any walking footage:

Well first of all, this weeks big news is that Mum has started giving me pocket money of my very own. I get to save it if I like, or spend it (which I like more). For my first week I bought a Kung Fu Panda book and a packet of percy pigs for my favourite lady at nursery, Roses. She was really pleased with them.
How about buying your little sister something nice?
Dad did his annual 'messy' activity with me as I wanted to build a model city for mum:

We'd been saving up the boxes and tubes for a while. Here I am sticking some windows on:

We were so organised the other evening that we even managed a trip to the park after tea and before bed. I made Mum walk me about and push me on the swing:

And I looked for victims to race around the bike track. There was one girl, she was much bigger than me and a good bit faster accross the field.....

I can now count as far as 24 all on my own! I didn't need to count quite that far for the cookies mum and I made:

They were lovely. I also wanted to make sure Max and Leo got one as a moving back to Newbury present! Dad was helping them move some of their stuff so we had mum to ourselves all day. We made a den with the sofa cushions:

We went to the big park in the buggy, I made sure I told Mum that Dad would have made us drive!

We were supposed to be feeding the ducks, but Ned's friend from nursery Hugo was there and I ate most of the bread myself so we scrapped that idea, sorry ducks!

Ned gets told off for this....I don't!

Sunday morning we took Leo his car bed back, Emma was really excited about it as Leo loves cars. When I saw Max he was really excited to be back in Newbury full time, we screamed a bit and had a little hug about it. We'll even be going to the same school (although he'll be going to the big boys bit).

After all that we went to Grandad and Anne's for lunch, we hadn't been for a while so it was nice to catch up. Here I am trying on Grandad's glasses:

And one of Anne's shopping bags:

I had a great time exploring their garden, there were bird feeders, strawberries and runner beans growing amongst other things, it was really interesting, especially when I came inside and watched the birds at the feeders through the binoculars.

We went for a walk down their park and had a great time until it started raining and we had to dash back. I think it always rains in Wanborough?

Okay then, on to the Ellis news, i've been having the occasional day visit to the next room up at nursery and loving it. I expect when Ned and all his mates go to school next month we'll all get shunted up a room......i'm not sure how Jess will cope without me though.

One of my favourite moves is to grind my lovely new teeth together as loud as I can, Mum and Dad love to listen to that!

I'm also walking fairly regularly all on my own as well now, well, when I can be bothered that is. Mum, Dad and Ned seem really excited about it when I do but quite honestly it's just easier to crawl. I haven't let them have any video footage as yet though, ha ha!