Christmas

F: After we came back from Manchester, it was time to start getting ready for Christmas. We got a tree, and decorated it.

K: Mummy got Daddy to see if I would be a good fairy on top of the tree. I was not all that impressed. 

F: We went to try to see Father Christmas at Canary Wharf. I waited in a long queue. There were very strange people doing things to entertain the queue - but it was just too long, so in the end Daddy took me to get a snowman painted on my hand instead. 

Mummy promised that we would track Father Christmas down elsewhere - and indeed we did. We went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and he was there! I also went on rides, and best of all we went to the circus! I got Mummy and Daddy to explain what we had seen at the circus about 1000 times afterwards. I liked the man on the very big swing the best. He made it rain on us by touching the top of the tent with his feet upside down. Then we went to find Father Christmas. In the queue, I checked that Mummy didn't have any illusions by saying 'Is it a man dressed up as Faver Chrissmas, Mummy?' but she got a bit of a cough at that point so I didn't get a very clear response. Father Christmas asked me if I wanted a dolly, but I said I wanted a sword for killing dragons with. After that, we did some fishing and I won a pink-and-white dog. 

 Mummy and Daddy weren't all that sure we were going to make it down to Somerset, because of all the snow. We had to go shopping on the sledge! I liked the snow for a bit but then it got quite cold. 

Luckily the snow cleared up in time and we drove down to Somerset. It was still pretty snowy there, though. 

On Christmas Eve I went to a party. I got very excited (and a bit worried) beforehand, but once I was there it was great. There were games and there was a lovely tea and then Father Christmas came! He looked different from the one at Winter Wonderland but I didn't seem to mind. He gave me a present and he even knew my name.

K: Christmas morning was a bit different. Everyone piled into bed (including several Grannies) and there were these ginormous socks everywhere. For a very small person, it was all a bit perplexing. Mummy took things out of a big sock and waved them at me. Frances also had a big sock with a lot of stuff in it, which seemed to please her. Frankly, as long as I still got my morning milk, I was happy. 

After a bit we got up, but everyone made Daddy go back to bed because he wasn't very well. He kept trying to cook things but people pointed out that as his illness was gastric, this wasn't a very good idea. So everyone did bits of cooking and then there were more presents in the sitting room. I had a very nice sit on Granny Mary. 

 F: I got so many presents I had to have a rest in between opening them. I particularly liked my zoo, and the ambulance Uncle John sent.
 

I also got a sword for killing dragons with. After lunch (which was good, but I was a bit tired, and Katy was very very very tired so that Mummy had to walk up and down the passage with her in a sling) I had my rest; and after that I went outside to do some dragon-killing. I was a bit over-wrought but in the end we did find a dragon under a tree and slew him. 

 K: By Boxing Day, Daddy was feeling better, and we had a very nice time with everyone not doing anything terribly much. The day started well, because Frances's dinosaur egg was clearly hatching. Granny Jenny had given it to her and Frances likes it very much and was very patient about it.

After lunch, Granny Jenny and Colin and James had to go home, which was a shame, but I still had Granny Mary to entertain me: 

 

 My big sister found all the windy-up men from the crackers and put them in a row: 

 F: The next excitement was the Pantomime. It was Puss in Boots. I didn't go to all of it because I was having my nap, but I got there for all the most exciting bits. There was King Rat in it and he was a bit scary but I didn't cry. There was also a lot of singing and a cat. I liked it. Afterwards, I got a cat mask to wear (and an ice-cream). Miaow!

 The next day we had to go home. Luckily, Graunty Lizzy had given us a NEW CAR!!! This was a very big present indeed, and without it I am not sure how Mummy and Daddy would have got us and all our lovely new things home. It is a very exciting car and we are very pleased.

 

 

Manchester

K: Once we were back from Somerset there was time for a quick breather, and then it was off to Manchester. As far as I was concerned this meant some long sleeps in the car (which I seem to be quite ok about) and some more admirers (which I am very positive about). There were also some interesting trips. We went shopping, and we went to Chester Zoo, both of which I seemed to like. I am definitely interested in variety and get a bit tetchy if there's too much of the same thing.

I am becoming a very smiley and conversational small person. I do a lot of grinning if you smile at me, or wriggle me about, and I like having very long conversations, especially if you copy what I say (Ah-ghhhzzz. Ah-boo! Ahggghh. Ghur ghur ghur. Ah! Ah! Cackle.) I enjoyed Granny Jenny and Colin and James very much indeed.

The parents insisted on persisting with this bottle thing while we were in Manchester, despite me making my feelings on the subject very clear indeed. I got to the stage where I would shout my head off at the sight of the bottle, and indeed was beginning to cry at the sight of Daddy. That's what broke them. They seem to have decided to give it a bit of a rest since then.

In other news, I quite like being on my front, and can get my head some way off the floor now, which makes it more enjoyable. I like to push vigorously with my increasingly fat legs and sometimes this results in very small amounts of progress across the floor, about which I get unreasonably excited. I can also Hold Things. This takes a lot of concentration but is very pleasing, and makes life much more interesting. Sometimes the things go 'jingle' or 'rattle', and that is good too.

F: I had a brilliant time with Granny Jenny and Colin and James in Manchester. I especially liked the zoo. We saw a teeny tiny baby elephant and we saw chimpanzees and one of them was two, JUST LIKE ME! That was very exciting.

There was a very good playground where I could be a monkey myself, with help from Colin.

I liked the snakes as well, and lions, and the butterflies - I spent ages in the butterfly house. We had delicious lunch with CHIPS and then we saw the penguins.

Then I made a very half-hearted attempt to nap in my pushchair (mainly involving turning around and sticking my bottom in the air) and then we saw rhinos and meerkats and more elephants, and I made Colin read out every single label on the elephant enclosure. Granny Jenny bought me my very own meerkat in the shop and I was thrilled.

After the zoo Daddy and I were quite tired.

On Sunday we went to the Museum where they have a Tyrannosaurus Rex and lots of other things. There was a Monitor lizard and he was my friend. Daddy and Granny and Colin and Mummy kept trying to get me to look at other things but I just wanted to stay with my friend. He was very nice. There was a big boy who told me all sorts of somewhat suspect facts about monitor lizards (they can eat a lion, you know) and I looked at him with big serious eyes and took it all in.

Later I made mince pies with Granny Jenny and Colin, which was a lot of fun. I was a little unconventionally dressed for cooking, but I resisted efforts to introduce unnecessary encumbrances like trousers. Afterwards I ate mince pies with great enjoyment, saying "I like mince pies - oh yes".

 On Monday morning we went to the amazing soft play place and I climbed and swung and slid for ages. Then James came and I had a very nice time with him too. I am very much into lining things up at the moment, so we did quite a lot of that.

We also went to Chorlton Water Park to feed the ducks and geese. There were a lot of them there and they waddled after me. Geese still make me look rather small. I enjoyed making speeches to the ducks, and swinging on the swings.

I continue to enjoy independent time without my parents more and more. Quite often now they get sent away if they try to interfere with my private Granny-time - for example, while Granny and I are wrapping and unwrapping ducks in the bath and talking about how they are birthday presents.

Vists and snow

K: It's been a while since Mummy got round to updating the blog, so I am now approximately twice as big as I was before. I have big cheeks too. However on occasion I still look like a tiny munchkin-type person:

My smiling is getting very proficient. I can say 'gghhhee' and 'ah-boo' and I can stick my tongue out. There is some controversy about whether or not I wave my arms extra if you wave at me. Mummy and Daddy think it's not very likely but Frances is pretty sure that if she waves, I wave back.

We have been visiting Nice People. We went to see Clare and Ellen and Catrin which was lovely - I got lots of very nice cuddles from everyone, and we even managed to get a photo of the whole family looking fairly reasonable.

A bit later we went a long way in the car and ended up in Somerset. I got lots of cuddles again, from Graunty Baa and Gruncle Robin (who is very good at helping me go to sleep). I make his arms go numb. I am also very interested in Hebe-the-Dog (nearly as keen as my Big Sister).

Mummy dressed me in a frilly dress and so I did my best to look cute.

In other news, I have rather gone off my bottle all of a sudden, and make a big fuss and basically skip a meal rather than drink any significant amount of milk from it. This was a tad inconvenient as Mummy outrageously chose to go out in the evening on Monday. Daddy was all set for three hours of crying, but fortunately even though I didn't drink anything, I passed out in my cot, and Mummy had to work really quite hard to wake me up and feed me at 11. Mummy doesn't want me to tell you in case it all goes wrong, but I am quite often sleeping most of the night now - from 8ish until 5ish and sometimes all the way to 7. When I have a long sleep I am particularly giggly, and so is Mummy.

F: I have been having a nice time too. Helen-from-Mummy's-work came to see us and brought me a fairy outfit, which I like a lot:

I went to 'dancing' and met Matilda (and then we also went round to Matilda's house, which was good). I like Matilda and have been talking about her quite a lot. I also enjoyed the visit to Clare, Ellen and Catrin very much indeed.

I'm donig a lot of cutting and sticking at the moment. I am a bit suspicious, as Mummy keeps giving me Christmas-themed stickers and pieces of folded card to stick them on. Doesn't she know that child labour is illegal? Must find out more about the minimum wage...

Last week was particularly exciting. Nursery gave me Paddington to look after. I had to take him home and take pictures of what we did together. Mummy didn't actually send in this picture of her feeding Katy on a park bench while I attended to Paddington, but we did use the one of Paddington having a very large cup of coffee after Piccolo. Mummy wishes it to be known that breastfeeding on park benches can be chilly.

 We also took Paddington with us down to Somerset, where we introduced him to the joys of the countryside. Mummy took me for a long walk to a wood. Half way there, I announced 'I am a little bit bored'. Mummy is concerned that I am working on teenagerdom already. However once we got to the wood I was very much engrossed in fishing in a small stream with sticks, so she was reassured, even if we did have to pretend to be Gordon and Edward ("I can't do it.... I can't do it... We'll do it together!!") to get me back up the hill.

We had quite a bit of snow in Somerset so we made a snowman and did some sledging (actually Mummy had to push the sledge pretty much all the way down the hill as the snow was rather thin, but I pretended I hadn't noticed so as not to spoil her fun).

I also enjoyed the snowy garden and did a lot of rushing about in my snowsuit and boots. Mummy has snowsuit-envy. I played with Hebe the Dog a lot (I was a bit nervous at first, but it soon wore off). I also fed the chickens, which was a major highlight.

When the snow went away I reassured Mummy by saying 'Don't worry, the snow will come back'. It was still pretty cold though so we spent a lot of time inside. Baa and Robin gave me a very excellent CD which says my name which I have listened to approximately 400,000 times. I can recite a lot of it now. It makes me very happy indeed.

 Apart from that, we did quite a bit of cooking - we made yellow cakes and some very nice peppermints. I LIKE peppermints, as I will tell you with enthusiastic nodding. I also discovered the joy of the hairdryer, with Robin drying my hair and Baa showing me the effect in a mirror (my hair flies upwards). Mummy wasn't there the first time (she was feeding Baby Katy) and so when she tried to join in the second time I sent her away, very sternly ("No! You go back in dat room, Mummy"). And Mummy also took me swimming in the Big Pool and instead of complaining that I couldn't stand up, I did a lot of swimming on my own and said "I'm practicising swimming on my own - Mummy go further away". Mummy thinks I may be quite independent.

Since coming back to London I have been particularly thrilled with Daddy, who I missed a lot (I told him so). I was impeccably-behaved on the night Mummy went out even though Baby Katy cried a bit, and we also had a lovely time at gym All Together. I was also utterly delighted to be back at nursery today - so all in all, things are quite sunny at present. Oh, and my sentences are getting longer and longer and I am asking some very excellent questions (example from today, on spotting the telephone on the sofa: "Who were you telephonin while I was at nursery?"). I am also increasingly asking 'Why...?'...