Down the beach

So Wednesday morning Mum took me into nursery to drop Ned off. He gave me a big kiss to show off in front of his friends, I’m not sure what he thought when they lined up to all give me a kiss goodbye as well!
Once we had gone to pick him up we took advantage of some dry weather (I thought I had been born in the summer?) and headed off to the seaside for the afternoon:

Here’s me having my first ever feed on the sand, I’m sure I’ll be getting used to this over the coming months.

And here I am playing with my truck, I had a great time even though I didn’t fancy going for a paddle as there were little bits of pebbly beach that made my little delicate feet hurt. As is normal in these situations I tried to join another family with two young girls but sadly they went off home without me….one day I’ll escape.

Thursday was a big day for me....I went to the barbers! Mum had been on about me going for ages but Dad has not been so keen, fearing all sorts of tears and lopped off ears. He shouldn't have worried, I loved it. I had to wear a big black blanket and sit on a special chair while the lady made my hair wet and chopped it all off. It really tickled my face and I loved blowing it onto the floor. Most of all though I liked smiling at myself in the big mirror. I even got to help myself from the sweetie tin afterwards because I was such a good boy. I was so pleased with my new look we marched straight round to show Auntie Chris at her work.
On Friday we went to the library to get some books, I picked the ones I wanted in record time and they were all about tigers. On the way out we also rented the ‘Cars’ DVD at long last. I couldn’t wait to watch it. Dad put it on after tea, and after the massive excitement of seeing Lightning McQueen race and the total disappointment that he didn’t win I was soon asleep and missed the end (actually, I missed the middle as well).
Saturday we went to Windsor to do some shopping. I was a really good boy! Dad and I saw the soldiers in their big furry hats and red jackets marching while Mum and Ellis looked at delicate things in a girls shop. One great thing about Windsor is that it has a pasty shop just like the one in Newbury (only it doesn’t have any chairs in it?)

So they all stuffed their face with pasties, and just for a change I had some delicious milk while we tried to take shelter from the lashing rain…..glamorous!
Once we got home we popped round to see Nanny, we had a lovely cuddle.
Sunday we went up the woods to splash in the puddles…but there weren’t that many to be found. We had to search long and hard and eventually struck gold with this beauty:

We all had a good old splash about and I did my favourite trick of going in too deep for my wellies and getting wet feet.
I slept. Had a little cry and then slept again.
We came home and I decided my legs looked a little un-interesting, I decided to cover them in stickers:

After that I ate a big roast dinner, even the vegetables! Once that was out of the way we watched Cars again. Once more I had the roller coaster ride of the first race and then fell asleep. I did see the end this time though.
Monday the health visitor came to test my hearing. Apparently you need to be asleep for it to be done….no trouble there then. I was also weighed and am putting on weight nicely now.
We picked up that Ned from nursery and went straight to see my Great Grandma. Ned is very rude, he walked in and made no secret of the fact he wanted the chocolate out of her fridge. He loves it, I don’t know what it tastes like but Mum seems to like it too….maybe I’ll get to try it one day?
I had a bit of a sing song in the afternoon, I don’t know what Mum and Dad found so funny about:
I’m a little teapot short and stout,
Here’s my handle, here’s my stump!
Once Ned had gone to bed Alan and Sonia came to see me. They bought me some presents, some lovely clothes and a ‘Bumbo’

It’s pretty weird but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Ned tried it out on Tuesday morning, I’m surprised he didn’t get his big bum stuck in it!
I love Ellis’ Bumbo, it’ll be great for her to be able to sit up and watch me go about my business.
I rang Dad at work on Tuesday morning, he loves talking to me on the phone, I make so much sense and never have long awkward pauses. I didn’t go to nursery, instead Grandad and Anne took me out to the Beale park. I had a great day out with them even if poor old Grandad could only afford one ice cream that I ate in front of him while he went without. We saw meerkats, rode on a train and had a great time riding around the playground in the pedal cars. I also chased some rogue chickens, although I didn’t like it when they chased me back.
While Ned was out, Mum and I went visiting her friend Jean, she cuddled me all morning so that gave mum’s arms a rest. Once Dad was home the three of us went out for lunch, it was so civilised without that hooligan brother of mine.

Here I am getting a cuddle with Grandad.
Oh yes, and another thing Mum says I have ‘Bingo wings’ if anyone could help enlighten me as to what they are I’d be most grateful.

Introducing Ellis!

Did you all miss me? Wonder if we’d been abducted by little green aliens from outer space? Or maybe Dad sold me on Ebay? As I’m sure you’re all aware by now there has been a new arrival in the household, but more of that later. In addition to all this excitement Dad managed to break the computer, tried to fix it and only made it worse the fool. So a big thank you to uncle Alan who sorted it all out for me.
Okay then, get comfy because here comes a big update!
Going back three Fridays ago, Owen came round with his new bike. Well I was told it was a new bike but it looked more like a big box to me. I helped them unpack it and then supervised Dad and Owen putting it together. It was quite a nice looking bike, but not as nice as mine! Soon after the house started to fill up as England were playing their first match at the new Wembley stadium. It was pretty dull so Chard and I did skateboarding in the garden instead for most of the first half. When we came in I realised Kimi and Abi had come round to see me too, so I ‘shared’ my toys with them nicely (if a bit reluctantly).
Saturday morning we were all set for a picnic, we had the food and the bikes loaded ready to hit the road when Mum decided we should probably stay a bit more local. You can’t get much more local than the garden. By late afternoon things were starting to happen, it looked like I was soon going to get my new brother! Laura and James came to look after me for a bit while Dad took Mum to the hospital, we had an ace time playing in James’ fancy new car. Mum and Dad were soon home again and Mum still had her tummy so it looked like another in a long line of false alarms. I turned in for the night……
….and when I woke up Mum and Dad were gone and Auntie Chris was at home with me. She fixed me a lovely breakfast before taking me back to her house to do some baking, We got a call from Dad mid morning to say I had new sister called Ellis.
For all you stats fans out there, my official weight was 8lb 4oz's, I was born at 07:05 on the 3rd June 2007 at Basingstoke hospital. My name came to Mum one morning when she woke up apparently, i'm glad she gave it plenty of thought.
I wasn’t too pleased with the news to begin with as I really did have my heart set on a little brother to play with but I soon came round to the idea. We made some extra special shaped biscuits for everyone (Dad got a bike, Mum got a boat after her more ambitious umbrella broke and I made little Ellis a teddy bear) and then went out for a drive, during which I promptly fell asleep. I woke up when we got to McDonalds though and impressed Uncle Ian with my impeccable food presentation techniques. Dad came and picked me and Auntie Chris up in the evening so we could go and have a look at the new one:

Here she is with a very relaxed looking Mum

Here she is with a very tired looking Dad

And here’s one of her by herself in her little crate in the hospital, she looks a bit mean here I think, I better watch myself in future. She has more hair than Dad!
I'd better speak up for myself here I think, I had been through it a bit that morning and I think I look pretty good!

And here’s one of all of us!
Auntie Chris finally came in to see us after hanging about in the corridor for an age and switched between dishing out the blessings, crying, speaking to all the other new mums on the ward and having a good old nosey about the place. She looked to be in her element. Ellis was really tiny but I wasted no time in getting a cuddle with her and giving her a load of kisses. I guess a little sister isn’t quite so bad after all. Dad and I went home to bed on our own, the boys club in session for one last time….
Ned's cuddles were really lovely, if a little 'enthusiastic'
Next day was Monday, so it was back to nursery to for me to show off to my friends about my new little sister, or ‘My Ellis’ as I was now calling her. Dad came to pick me up but I was in for quite a surprise when I got back to the car, Mum and Ellis were there!

Here we are in the back of the car together for the first time. Once we were all home it was bath time! Ellis had her first ever bath and I washed her hair for her, I made a good job of it too. I then had a bath myself and even made my own hair wet by going under water to show Ellis how brave I was, I think she was impressed. We’ve started a new bedtime ritual where Ellis gets into bed with me to hear my bedtime story:

I think she knows the Lion King word for word already.
Hmm, I think he must only have one book.....
So Tuesday saw the start of the social whirlwind of visitors. It was great to see you all but it’s all a bit blurry to go into detail. I’d like to say a great big thanks to everyone who came round and had a little play with me and bought me and Ellis a present, it was like having another birthday!
Yes, i'd also like to thank everyone for all the lovely cuddles and presents, what a lovely welcome to the world I had.
After a few days Ellis started to look a lot nicer than she did when she first popped out!

Saturday was barbecue time at Andy’s. I had a great day, running around like a loony all day with Yanna and Fen:

I decided to sleep all day.
Sunday was back to the social whirlwind again with visits from Slim and Trace and Nick, Carol and Abi.
Monday after nursery we went to Bucklebury farm park.

Mum helped me dig in the sand.

Dad cuddled Ellis for a bit.
I like quite like cuddling Dad, Mum reckons i'm a Daddy's girl already as he can normally stop me crying.

I showed Ellis how good I was at climbing and Mum explain to her exactly what I was doing.
I decided to sleep though it all, except for the climbing demonstration.
Wednesday we took Ellis for her first trip to the supermarket, what a lucky girl.
Yeah, guess what? I slept through it! We did go and 'register' me in the morning though at Mum's old school. I'm all official now!
Thursday I didn’t got to nursery, we went to a theme park near Bournemouth airport instead. It was brilliant. I have a pretty poor track record with fairground rides as most of you will probably remember, but this was different!


















I had such a good time, we rode on elephants, bounced on trampolines, rode a space ride, raced cars, crawled into a crocodiles mouth and best of all we rode on the rollerskate (or rollercoaster as Dad insisted on calling it) even though I wasn’t quite tall enough!
I thought i'd carry on doing what I do best and slept through it!
Friday night Andy, Ben, Rach and Kimi came round for a curry. I tried most of the things on offer……..except the curry!
Saturday we had a bit of a lazy one. Mum helped me wrap dad’s fathers day present which I struggled to keep secret. The issue of muzzies also came to a bit of head today. I’ve been nicking Ellis’ at every opportunity which has lead to a bit of a crack down from Dad resulting in me only being allowed one white one at a time and zero tolerance of my clean washing basket raids.
Thanks to Nick and Carol for getting me the nice pink and yellow muzzies, the toe-rag still tries to pinch them though. I do much more spewing than him so I think I should get first dibs!
Sunday was father’s day, we gave him his present (boring old t-shirt and shorts) before getting him to sort out our picnic, we were off to see Sonia ride her horse Jim:





She made Jim dance, jump and race and it was all very impressive. I really enjoyed it all with Alan showing me around. Jim even had his own lorry to ride home in!
Guess what.....I slept!
In the afternoon Max and Leo brought Emma and Dean around. Max and I went wild as usual.
So then it was all back to near normal on Monday with Dad going back to work.
I've been pretty good at night but made sure i'd give Dad a hard time by having a very uncharecteristc noisy night, just what he needed!
So that’s all for now, I hope you’ve all managed to get this far and we’ll be back to more manageable updates next week. As you can see i've decided to be really good and let her share my blog with me!
Maybe i'll do more than just sleeping this week and i'll some more to tell you about next week......but then agai.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

False alarm...

Another week of Mum at home and no Baby then.

Here’s me and Mum discussing the finer points of breakfast cereals. The weather was lovely, so when we got home I persuaded Dad to get my paddling pool out:

I had a good old splash about but couldn’t tempt anyone else in with me. We had to take Mum for a doctors appointment to have a check the baby was okay and as usual it ended up with them having to have a hospital visit for what turned out to be another false alarm. Alan was drafted in to look after me at very short notice in case Mum had to have the baby that night so it did act as a good practice run (don’t worry Auntie Chris, you’ll be involved when it happens for real).
Thursday morning and everything was back to normal, no new baby and back to nursery. I think Mum was a bit disappointed so Dad and I did our best to lay low (but didn’t really succeed).
Friday afternoon we went to the pub:

I’m not sure what sort of shoddy establishment it was but they didn’t serve Ribena, or indeed any form of blackcurrant at all. They tried to fob me off with lemonade:

But I wasn’t too sure if I liked it:

Still, the garden was ace and we played on the swings:

After that it was Alan’s birthday, we went to Pizza Hut (he’s very classy)

As an added bonus Andy turned up with John and Sarah as well as Abi with Nick and Carol and Chris and Katie. I didn’t bother with a Pizza and just had cheesey garlic bread and the ice cream factory:

Saturday morning we all had a massive cuddle up-lie in session until half past ten and then I helped dad wash the car. We went to town in the afternoon and popped in to see Auntie Chris, this week in the loony bin they were dressed as pirates! Mustn’t complain though, I got a sack load of chocolate coins and a pirates pistol, Jim Lad!
Sunday was wet, so wet Dad didn’t even go out on his bike. We hung about the house, watched the motor racing on telly (rubbish, no crashes) and then went to see Nanny who had just got back from her holidays.
Monday was wet. Very wet. We went to the big city bright lights of Basingstoke to get the new baby a buggy to ride around in, got a bag of free Spiderman stuff from the Sony shop (Spiderman 2 on DVD, a Spiderman Alarm clock/colouring book/poster) had a McDonalds for lunch and then went to Toys R Us.

I rode the bikes, scooters and pedal cars around like a loony at racing speeds. Dad was proud (or at least relieved I didn’t break someone’s leg). I spent the last of my birthday money on Emily the engine and a Lightning McQueen racing car so I was very happy indeed. We all love Toys R Us. After that we dropped in on Trish and Al:

Poor Trish even braved the elements to get me some ribena and some lovely biscuits from the shop. We played with my new toys and Al’s ‘vintage’ Lego before I sniffed out the grapes…
When we got home, the ‘pit crew’ of Dad and I assembled the new buggy and I performed a full 74 point safety inspection (by sitting in it and cuddling up with a muzzy):

It seems to be fit for purpose.
Tuesday was back to nursery again and once we were home I decided I would like to ride my scooter to the local park. I scooted really well and stopped nicely at all the road crossing points, they were really pleased with me. We didn’t stay at the park long and I was soon enjoying going down the big hill on the way home. We pooped round to see Kimi:

I understand Dad has copped some stick for not providing pictures of him so I hope this one will do. He’s two weeks old now, and Dad told me to watch and learn as Ben sorted out his nappy as this would be my job when the new baby of ours arrived. Not sure about that…..

Welcome aboard Kimi!

Been loving my horse lately:

He’s been in bed with me and everything.
Big news on Wednesday was the arrival of little Kimi! (He belongs to Ben and Rach) How cool is that? A new little friend for us to play with, I’m pretty excited about it all I can tell you.
In the afternoon we took mum food shopping for the first time. She loved it, makes a nice change for her. We managed to spend more than twice as much as normal though so I don’t know if she’ll be allowed to come again. I managed to turn the passport photo booth into a seaside rescue helicopter…..
Thursday afternoon we had Nanny round for tea. We decided my hair looked a bit drab so we did it up a bit with mum’s fancy paperclips:

She let me eat her ice cream as well:

Friday we went to the races after nursery!

we sat and watched the horses going around the parade ring before going to put a bet on the ones I liked the look of….it didn’t really pay off. We didn’t have a single winner.

I must admit to shedding a few tears after my umpteenth disappointment, I’m sure I’m not the only one to do so at the races. In the evening ‘My’ Andy came round to look after me while Mum and Dad went out. Everyone’s a winner.
Saturday we met up with Alan and cleard the last few bits and bobs out of Grandma’s flat before going round to Chard and Kaz’s for an FA cup Barbecue. The football was rubbish by all accounts but the company was ace:

I had a great time going through the fridge with Chard and watering the garden with Kaz:

Sunday morning dad went out on his bike, he was gone such a long time Mum and I were going to send out a search party! When he did finally arrive home, Mum and I decided to hide from him. He came in and called out hello and I managed to stay silent. He walked around the front room to see where we were without noticing that we were under the table and headed off upstairs. I couldn’t keep quiet much longer and he must have heard my stifled shrieks from upstairs and came looking for us again, firstly in the toilet before finally finding us under the table. Ace hiding Mum! We popped out to find a present for my new friend Kimi! I managed to slither up onto the sofa between Ben and Rach to get a ring side view of the little chap. Photo’s soon I promise…..
Monday we went to town in the afternoon and popped in to see auntie Chris. She’s got some more cooking supplies in for me to make some fancy pastry with her soon. I’m looking forward to that already….Once town was done and dusted we went to Fantasy Land because it was pretty rainy. I gave Dad a special treat and let him play with me (well, there wasn’t many other kids to play with). I had a great time.
Tuesday Dad came to get me from nursery on his own, on the bike because Mum had gone out in the car! I was pretty distraught, it’s the first time they haven’t come to get me together since Mum has been off. I soon got over it once we were on the move and enjoyed the ride home. Mum was home by the time we got back and I wasted no time helping her finish her lunch before settling down for a cuddle up session and a nice snooze. We had an early tea and went to the Nature Discovery Centre in Thatcham:

I played on the big slide, ordered Mum and Dad about and had a great time playing with three older boys who raced me to the top of the castle, I beat them every time!

Then it was time for bed.
It’s been pretty non-stop since Mum’s been off, I reckon Dad and I will be pleased when the baby gets here, Mum goes back to work and we can have a rest!