Smiling

K: Well, we've been pretty busy since the last update. Mainly, I've been growing. As you can see from my very flattering passport photo, below, I am working hard on cheeks and chins, but am also too long for 'newborn' babygroes. The growing seems to have been accompanied by some better sleeping but Mummy doesn't want too much said about that, in case it doesn't last.

I am also doing quite a lot of Being Awake and generally waving my arms and legs around.

Sometimes I hit things. I like my playmat.

And I have discovered that my fingers are most delicious.

And that ceilings are good for staring at.

I have also continued my mastery of the Bottle. Granny Jenny came and gave me one, too (usually it is Daddy). I have a bottle every other day.

Colin came with Granny Jenny. He is good for sitting on.

Oh, and I have learned how to smile, too, but obviously not when there's a camera around. I did one smile for Mummy yesterday and we think I might have smiled twice today. Mummy gets wildly over-excited when I smile. I can also blow raspberries quite well.

UPDATE: I accidentally got caught on camera. Here you are:

F: We've been doing quite a lot of Playing At Home now that the clocks have changed and the men from the Parks Department come and shut all the parks at what they consider to be dusk. This makes Mummy mutter crossly to herself a lot. Still, we have fun at home. For instance, I can play with my doctor's set. It is amazing how much my bears get ill and have to be injected and have their blood pressure taken and hearts checked.

I also like playing with my jewellery from My Own Bag. Here I am wearing all of it at once - I then strode up and down announcing 'I'm lookin very stylish'.

We've also done more cooking. We made pumpkin pie for Halloween, and jam tarts, and then I made some cakes. I like them to be blue. I also put one sweetie on each cake, very very carefully. It took a lot of concentration but I did it All By Myself. We also made Cheesy Caterpillars and I brushed them with a pastry brush.  

I continue to spend a lot of time gathering and playing with sticks and leaves. It seems that there are a lot of them about. I quite often say 'The leaves are fallin off the trees, because it is Autumn'. I am getting good at statements about cause and effect. I am also starting to utter the dreaded 'Why?' quite a bit. Here I am using a stick as an umbrella:

We had a lovely visit from Granny Jenny and Colin. We took them to Prospect Park.

There is a Very Big Slide there. Both Mummy and Daddy have taken me all the way up. They get quite scared, but I don't. It really is very fast indeed.

Katy is getting quite interesting. She has her eyes open more, and she cries less. I always remark on it when she does cry, and quite often instruct Mummy to feed her some 'milk from Mummy's nipples'. If Mummy tries to convince me she is crying for a reason other than hunger, I am sceptical. But I will sing 'Twinkle, twinkle, traffic light' to try to make her happy again and quite often it works. I also read her a story recently, which got all the grown-ups taking pictures like crazy:

Granny Mary also came round a couple of times recently. Mummy told me Granny was about to go to New Zealand for a long time, so as a special treat for her, I let her read my bedtime stories. She is quite good at it. I'll definitely miss her while she's away, and not just because she brings new books every time she comes...

In other news I continue to be very taken with Gym, where I run around like a crazy person for hours on end. I can do a forward roll All On My Own. Mummy and Daddy think I am getting a bit bored at swimming but fortunately Jason says he thinks I should go up to the next class after Christmas. It is really for people who are three, and it involves being in the water without a Mummy or Daddy, but everyone thinks I am ready for this (and that it might stop me messing about, too). What else? We went to see Jenni and Christophe and Marianne last weekend, which was good. Daddy has done quite a lot of working, so Mummy has been practising her two-child wrangling. I am Very Helpful, especially at changing nappies and putting Mummy's shoes away. On Friday I went to Dancing instead of Piccolo - I liked it, but I am not sure whether it was better than Piccolo - it's a bit of a shame they happen at the same time, really. Oh, and I had a Two Year Old Development Check. I was a bit worried about this in prospect, but it turned out to involve me painting pictures while someone asked Mummy questions, so it was all right. Apparantly she got most of the answers right, as well.