Portugal!

Sorry for the lack of updates last week, but I was living it up on the Algarve! My first trip abroad.

As you can see, I was a load of help with the packing.
They woke me up in the middle of the night, and the living room was full of people. We got in the car and drove to the airport. By the time we got there, it was daylight. I had to use my passport for the first time, the picture in it is terrible.....

On my way to the aeroplane, pretty exciting.....

Here I am in the air! I was a good boy, especially when I sat on Andy's lap and could look out of the window. Thanks Andy. The take off and ear popping didn't bother me in the least.
A long 2 hours and forty minutes saw us land at Faro airport.
We picked up a hire car and dad drove on the wrong side of the road all the way to the villa! Pretty dangerous I thought, but there you go, we escaped unscathed.

And here's where we stayed for a week! Not bad at all. If you look closely you can see me in the pool.
On one of our first outings, we managed to gatecrash the local hockey clubs presentation barbecue or something, we had chicken, chips, various other 'meats' and some rather lovely chocolate mouse...

...rather lovely until I had a reaction to it and my face went blotchy, eyes went red and top lip ballooned! Mum gave me some Piriton and it soon went down so that was okay.

We went for a meal at the Marina, I had my own fishcakes to eat and a rather nice young blonde waitress caught my eye. I pulled all my best moves i've honed at Tesco's on the old dears and it was in the bag! Then they took me home.....alone!!!
One of the main purposes of the holiday was apparently to play some golf, Dad (and indeed mum) only played 'minigolf' here at a mock Roman course and avoided the more lenghty full size version.

Here I am on the beach:

I ate loads of sand, you can probably make out my sand Goatee on the picture. Mum took me for a paddle but it was even colder than the swimming pool.
We had leisurley breakfast on the patio every morning which made a change from having rice krispies and toast shoved down my throat.

Here I am in the pool, i'm glad my waitress friend couldn't see me done up like this, a wetsuit (well the pool was cold and I did shiver in just my swimmers) and a stupid hat with a flap, as well as the heavy smearing of white emulsion that they called sunblock or something?

I shouldn't complain as they managed to keep me from getting burnt all week,
In the second installment of 'Neds occasional bad habits' I can be seen here taking advantage of duty free snouts!

We had a really good week, i'd like to thank Andy, Ben, Carol, Chrissy, Nick and Rach for all helping to look after me, I know you all helped mum and dad have a nice time too and I hope I didn't disrupt your holiday too much.

Anyway, back home now and up a room at nursery! All the kids in this room are between 1 and 2, so i'm one of the youngest again, but that doesn't bother me. I have to have a bag to hang on my own peg now, but because of the poor organisation on the parents part, I had to take a carrier bag! The shame of it! At least it was from a nice surf shop in Cornwall I suppose and not Tesco. They have promised me something a bit special for my gear next week, so fingers crossed.

Sunshine!

Good day!
The sun's been out, it's been really nice. Dad took me up Snelsmore on Thursday afternoon to see loads of trees. It was really nice up there:

Dad held me up and we ran through the leaves, I then had little walk around on the old acorn shells on the floor which made a smart crunching sound and then we threw some stones into the pond.
We also saw a little foal with it's mum, it kept coming up to me to say hello but I wasn't quite sure about him. He could certainly walk around a lot better than I could though...
Dad took an arty picture, but we all know the real reason we went up there was to spot any new bits to ride his bike on.....

Nanny looked after me Friday night while mum and dad went out, so that was a result. She gave me chocolate buttons.
Saturday morning we went to town and down the park. I had a go on the swings, slide and they even took me on the roundabout (which made mum feel sick). In the afternoon we went over to see Yanna and Fen. Yanna was great fun with her dancing and running about, I tried to keep up with her the best I could. Dad played GT4 and made a complete fool of himself, i'm glad he doesn't drive like that in real life. We went home and had a barbecue and I had my first burger (homemade one at at that).
Sunday was a lovely day, they sat out in the garden and I played with the sand/water pit. I got soaked and very gritty. Auntie Chris and Uncle Ian came round in the afternoon:

I had to play in the sand again and dirty my second lot of clothes!
Nanny had to have her eyes operated on yesterday, so dad and I went round to sit with her this afternoon to make sure she was okay. In an effort to take her mind off of her own suffering I decided not to have an afternoon nap and get really grizzly instead. I'll have to watch my step in future now she can see what i'm up to!
I don't know if we'll get another update in this week and we're off on holiday Saturday morning, so probably be back the following week with holiday snaps!

Nothing to Declare!

Welcome once again friends.
We went shopping in Southampton on Thursday afternoon. Just for once I thought i'd be a right pain and I cried for Britain. I got myself into a right state and they couldn't do anything with me. I eventually got bored of it and started smiling before dozing off in my pushchair.
I had a lovely night with auntie Tracey on Friday though. I've not let on to mum and dad about what we got up to, but I slept in until 9 am on saturday morning, so they know I must have been tired.
I've gone off roast dinners at the moment, but i'm really into cheese spread rolls (or marmite). I also give them a hard time unless we all sit down to eat together, I don't want them putting me to bed and having a nice cosy civilised meal on their own.
Here I am in action with the remnants of a bun:

I've just discovered trees, they're great! They flap about in the wind and make a cool rustling noise and everything. I keep wanting to go and touch them all the time.
And here's some of my handy work!
Smallest occupant of the house+smallest room in the house=big carnage!

I was quite pleased with it!
Thats all for now. I don't know what they've got planned for me this coming weekend, we'll have to wait and see.

Hello again, what's new? I'm going up a room at Nursery when we get back off holiday (which is apparently 2 weeks and four days away as i'm reliably informed by mum at every oppurtunity).
While we're on holiday related business, they're trying to 'train' me to wear my sun hat before we go away. If i've got something else to do, i'll tolerate it otherwise i'll whip it off quick-smart.
Well it was a bank holiday weekend! On Saturday, they took me up Coombe Gibbet, dad muttered something about there being no rope so we'll have to take him home again....

On Sunday we had Great Grandma and Nanny round for Sunday lunch. great Grandma fed me masses of ice cream and i'm surprised I didn't spew it back up. Dad didn't seem to happy as it meant less for him the pig.
Look closely at my t-shirt, it certainly seems to do exactly as it says on the tin:

After lunch Uncle Slim and Aunty Trace came round to try out their new tent in the garden. An 8 berth dome affair (with no instructions!). It was really funny watching dad 'help' put it up, especially when Slim got stuck inside it with a huge bee!
They took me to the Crafty Craft race on Monday (for reasons best known to themselves). The basic idea of it seemed to be that people navigated the canal on completely unsuitable watercraft. Very odd indeed. Anyway, we had a nice picnic in the park:

They let me eat a yogurt by myself tonight with my own spoon. I think i've almost got the hang of feeding myself after missing my mouth a good few times.
The walking seems to be coming along nicely now too, I can waddle quite convincingly across the floor if someone holds my hands and can manage a few seconds stationery on my own as well. It won't be long and then the real fun can begin.......

New Shoes!

Having seen me slip slide my way around for long enough, my custodians finally decide to shell out on a decent pair of shoes for me at last. I had to get measured up and everything by a nice young lady, she took a picture for us as it was my first proper pair:

Apparently i'm a 3 1/2 G! (Whatever that means?) Anyway, they're proper smart.
Food and drink! Dad's now put the blender away so i'm having to eat real food, not mush. I don't mind really. I'm really enjoying marmite sarnies as well but it takes an age for me to eat them. As i'm now one, they've also stopped giving me baby milk and I have to have cow's milk instead.
Changes at nursery too, I no longer have a cot for my morning nap as i'm getting to be one of the older ones in my room, I do have a nice mat and blanket combo though. It seem's that just as I get my head down for a few zzzzz's, dad appears and wakes me up to go home though.....

Happy birthday to me!

Well Mum had last week off so I didn't go to nursery. She had an action packed programme of events planned for me instead.
Monday we went to Reading in the afternoon to do some shopping and we popped in to see Auntie Chris at work.
Tuesday she took me out for lunch with one of her friends while dad went out on his bike.
Then there was Wednesday, my birthday, I'm now one! Everyone keeps saying where has the last year gone....
We went to the Coral Reef in Bracknell for a splash about. It was pretty good and a lot better than Northcroft thats for sure. After that we went home and had some presents, and about time too!

On Thursday we went to the park to play on the swings and on Friday we went down the town and then to Jase's pop quiz and I stayed up really late. Dad was on the winning side and he said I was to make the most of it as he doesn't ever win much else (especially his bike racing the poor deluded fool)!
Saturday was party time! Mum and Dad were pretty nervous that I wouldn't have a kip in the morning but I had plenty of stamina for the big day!
It was a very well attended affair, even though the caterers let me down by not manging to get the jelly's turned out of the moulds in one piece.

Here I am with my Thomas the Tank Engine cake. I'm not sure that a child of my tender years should be eating that much blue icing.

Click here for the full photo album of my birthday shenannigans: http://uk.geocities.com/dhtraildigger/nedsbirthday.htm

I had a great time!

I now have a forward facing car seat! It's much nicer to be able to see what's going on rather than looking up at the back window. I made it as difficult as possible for the first few times they put me into it, but i've started to make it a bit easier for them now.

Anyway, I think that'll do for now as it's taken it out of me going back to nursery this week.

I'll just say a big thank you to everyone who came to see me and for all the lovely presents.

It was mum's birthday this week! We went out to Chili's in Reading. We got great seats near the window so I could watch everybody outside as well as everyone in the restaurant. Instead of me having some re-heated concoction as I normally do when we go out for dinner, I was allowed a proper meal from the menu!

I had cheese and tomato pizza and mashed potato! Thought of by many as an odd combination but I loved it. I also got another balloon, my collection is now well into double figures.
The fools that i've been saddled with as parents managed to leave my eye drops at nursery for the weekend! We ended up watching a James Bond film in Newbury hospital waiting room until 10pm on friday night to get a prescription for some more to tide me over the weekend.
We went down the park on Saturday afternoon. Dad was keen to make amends for not getting any pictures last time:

The swings are really good, but the slide was a bit dull. We also went over to town and got some jelly moulds in preparation for my birthday party next week.
I think i've just about got over the trauma of my haircut this morning. Mum and dad both had theirs on Friday, so I wasn't going to escape for much longer. Mum (tried) to clamp me down while dad got all 'Tony and Guy' with the scissors. I made sure I stuffed a few hand fulls of hair into Mum's mouth for a laugh. The front and top doesn't look too bad to be honest, but apparently the back isn't so good.....never mind, I can't see it anyway!

Eye bogey's!

I've had conjunctivitis:

Uncle Alan's been going on like i've got the plague or something, at least auntie Hanna was still up for a cuddle.
I've had to have eye drops four times a day which I didn't mind at first, but I've had enough of it now....
We went out for my great grandma's birthday. They gave her a balloon because they had no candles to put on her pudding but I soon had that away!
For a laugh at the weekend I pulled the plug out of my baby bath! It took them ages to realise and the carpet was soaked. It was really funny watching them frantically trying to get the plug back in, so much so I did it again! Mum muttered something about me having to go in the proper bath if i'm going to caryy on like that.....ha!

Easter

My first Easter:

....and here I am getting busy with the chocolate!
We went of to Cornwall for a few days over the Easter break. We stayed in a caravan, I loved it because there wasn't anything in there for me to break or pull over.
My stupid parents went in the sea, it looked freezing to me but they seemed to enjoy it. They bought me a wetsuit too, but I won't be going in until the summer that's for sure.

I had a great time and leaned lots about dinosaurs from John and had a good sing-song with Sarah.
Oh well we're back home now....until next time!

Me and Dad checking out the surf.

Mummy and me at Polzeath, she loves it here.....

Spring has sprung

Hello, well the weathers certainly got better and I don't have to go to nursery quite so well wrapped up anymore.
I got sent home from Nursery on Thursday with an exploding backside! All the other kids seemed to have it as well. I'm on the mend now, but I made sure Mum and Dad copped for it as well....
I went out in my car on Saturday:

It was the first time i'd taken it outside and hit the open patio.
On Sunday we went down the park. They bought me a loaf of bread to feed to the ducks but I scoffed most of it myself! I then had my first go on the swings and slide. We probably would have had some lovely pictures to prove it as well if dad hadn't left the memory card stuck in the computer at home.