That's neat, that's neat, that's neat....

WALKING!
IT'S EASY!
When I feel like it......
I'm getting about quite well now on my own two feet without holding on! Sometimes though, it is just quicker to crawl.
My manky old dry skinned back seems to be a bit better at the moment too, which is nice as I don't have to scratch quite so much.
We went out for a picnic on Sunday evening:

Here I am starting on my sarnie....

Here I am mid-way through the sarnie....

Here I am off for a jaunt accross the common....

And here's mum cleaning the wet cow pat from the underside of my car. Dad wasn't very happy about it the miserable old git but Mum got it all off with the aid of 274 wet wipes and a pointy stick.
Well it's that time again, we're off to Cornwall for two whole weeks this coming Friday so there'll be no update next week or the week after but expect a special bumper photo extravaganza in the near future.
The first week i'll only have mum and dad for company, but the full gang are on board for the second week so that'll be really smart!

Phew what a scorcher!

How's it going?
The weathers been pretty warm hasn't it?
Had a busy few days recently. Mum and Dad went out on friday night so Andy came round to look after me, so that was good fun.
On saturday, mum went to work so dad made a picnic and we met her in the park for lunch. I ate loads of strawberries and made sure I smeared the cream into dad's fresh black t-shirt and mum's smart work skirt.
They went out again saturday night so Nanny came over with her handbag...that means chocolate!
On sunday it was fathers day! I got him a very 'pudding heavy' cook book to keep me and mum happy and a bike DVD to keep him queit.
They got my paddling pool out for me to cool off:

It was a bit cold at first but I soon got into it. They did let me have loads of toys in it as well although they aren't in the picture. Later on all the usual suspects came over for a barbecue and poker. Auntie Hanna cleared it with mum and dad so I could get back in the pool even though they had changed me and I had a proper nappy on, not a swimming one. By the time i'd been in there a while I could barely move because the nappy had absorbed so much water, it weighed a ton.
I got put to bed before the cards started, I was having none of that! I cried for ages until they gave in, mum took me out onto the patio where they were playing until way past my bedtime. It was okay though as I didn't have to get up for nursery on Monday.
Mum was off again on Monday, so I slept for Britain. When dad got home we had lunch and then I played in the sandpit. It would probably be more accurate to call it just a 'pit' now as I manged to excavate most of the sand onto the lawn....
Mum was a bit worried about me at nursery since i've gone up a room, but today I was well up for it and was my usual keen, smiley self again.
Until next time.....keep filling your pants and get someone else to change it!
Ned.

Hmmmmm....

Well hello once again!
A bit more back to normal this week, no trips away or anything.
Nanny looked after me on Saturday while dad tiled the kitchen floor (that means chocolate buttons) I didn't hear too much bad language so I assume it must have gone reasonably well, although Andy did have to come round and help him out a little bit.
On saturday night we went to a barbecue at Nick and Carols. I did some mingling, copied mummy by dipping my dinner into a pool of ketchup and then bedded down in the travel cot. I didn't go much on the chili flavour kettle chips either by the way.
Mum had Monday off, so when dad finished work we went to Milletts farm again to see the animals (it's free).
I saw a peacock with all his feathers out and got a fright from a goat coming at me a bit rapid! The geese were pretty good but the sheep, cows and horses were dull, even though Mum was talking them up. The slide in the playground was a different matter though! They put me up on the platform and then I threw myself down the chute headfirst! It was great fun, I had a good few goes before they called time out on me and we retired to the coffee shop. I shared a cream scone with dad, I can't believe the greedy pig let me have any at all, he must like me!

Back on the westside

Hello!
I had a special treat this week, uncle Alan came to look after me while mum and dad went to see a band. Mind you, 10 minutes after they left, I had a quick play with the cat flap and fell asleep in the hallway! So I wasn't much company really. Sorry Alan, i'll try harder next time!
Been back off holiday a week and then it was back off to Cornwall on friday night for the weekend.
I had a great time and plenty of fresh air in my lungs. I think I took my first unaided step as well in the caravan but haven't repeated it again yet.


Here's me with Mum and Andy, I expect the dialogue is going something along the lines of:
Andy: 'I reckon it'll get better at high tide'
Mum: 'Can we go to the cafe now?'
I got to see John and Sarah again before getting dragged off to Polzeath for the umptenth time for mum's pilgrimage.
I mentioned before that I had a rubbishy old carrier bag for nursery with the promise of something a bit more special on the way, and here it is:

Mum did a cracking job on the sewing machine and with dad's artistic input the reults are pretty good, which was something of a surprise.

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.