My Birthday

It was my birthday on Monday. "Two in April", as I've been telling everybody. Here's the official birthday portrait, taken two years-exactly-to-the-minute after I was born.

With great age comes great responsibility, so I though I ought to start cultivating a grown up look. What do you think?
I had my favourite breakfast - Seedy bread and butter.

And Mummy made me a fantastic cake: nice enough to live in! (This was at tea-time, not breakfast time)

Shopping

In Asda today:

"What's this Mummy?"
"I think you know what those are!"
"Mummy, please have Barbie cakes for party"

(It's my Birthday next week, in case you haven't remembered)

Sharing with Mummy

Granny is a pushover. I only have to look in the direction of Greggs the Bakers in town, and she buys me a cake. Or sometimes a biscuit, as she did the other day when I went shopping with her an Mummy.

Only being a nibble-of-the-corners hungry, I soon handed the chewed biscuit to Mummy, who looked at it hungrily. Anybody would think I sometimes forgot to leave bits on my plate after meals for her. I didn't see what she did with it, but later on, I began to feel peckish again.

"Mummy, Bic-Bic, please", I said, being careful of my manners.

"Mummy's eaten all the Biscuit. You said you didn't want it." I hadn't said that at all. Mummy just takes advantage of my uncertain pronunciation when it suits her.

What to do? Then I thought of the Mummy penguins I read about with Daddy in his animal book.

"Spit it out then", I said.

Nightime diversions

I'm getting a little better a settling to sleep now, but I still have to go and see Mummy and Daddy a couple of times every night. They don't seem pleased to see me.

My favourite requests at the moment are for Daddy to "Tell a little story" or "Sing a little Song". Or in my more incoherent moments "Tell a little song" and "Sing a little Story"!

My Dark Side

Mummy and Daddy have been seeing a little of my dark side recently. Fittingly enough, it happens in the middle of the night. Around 3am.

I get fustrated because I can't sleep. I go to get Mummy or Daddy, and they come into my room to try to help, but often it gets too much. Last night I composed a kind of song, set to my roaring in fustration that Daddy was in the room and not Mummy. It went something like this:

Mummy come in soon
Mummy come in soon
Mummy come in soon
Mummy come in later

Chorus:
No like Daddy anymore
No like Daddy anymore
No like Daddy
No like Daddy
No like Daddy anymore

Hurt finger
Mummy come in soon
Hurt finger
Mummy come in soon
Mummy come in soon

Hurt toe
Mummy come in later
Hurt toe
Mummy come in later
Mummy come in later

etc.

My contribution

It suddenly struck me this morning how much I contribute to family life.

I often make sure Daddy dresses himself properly in the mornings. Things like finding his shoes for him, fetching his glasses, useful things like that.

And so, as I handed Daddy his belt this morning, I reminded him:

"The things I do..."!

Educating Mummy

Sometimes I wonder about my parents. Take yesterday for example.

I was digging a hole in my corner of the lounge.

"What are you doing?", says Mummy.
"Digging a hole"
"Why?", asks Mummy.
"In garden"
"Why?", asks Mummy.
"Put Cherry in"
"Why?" asks Mummy. Persistent isn't she?
"Make it grow"
"What will it grow into?"
"A Tree!".

Honestly. Doesn't she know anything?

New bed

Two weeks ago, I stopped being a baby, and became a little girl.
Here are the pictures to prove it.

Note that I was only pretending to sleep.

This is what a bed is really for:

The best thing is that I don't have to wait for Mummy and Daddy to come and get me in the morning. I can take the party to them, as it were...

Breakfast time is story time

You wouldn't have thought there was much scope for the imagination in a bowl of breakfast cereal would you?

Think again.

Meet Sophie and Susie. There they are in the picture, between my fingers: they were my friends for the morning, until the milk made them too soggy, and they went squishy. They are rice crispies.

I told Daddy all about them, whilst I was eating the other crispies. Then Sophie and Susie went for a ride on the Spoonmobile.

Susie even bounced around the edge of my bowl, and played "bouncy ball, catch" with Sophie.

Me in the snow

Someone asked for snaps of me in the snow.
Well here you go.

It was jolly cold,
And as I'm not very old
I had to wrap up warm
From the effects of the storm.

You'll see Mummy on a sledge-
"Watch out- there's a hedge"-
And me in my blue suit
With wellies to boot!

Getting out of it: the direct approach

Sometimes the humorous approach to getting out of it doesn't work. Then you have to fall back on the direct approach. Like this:

Mummy was quizzing me on her favourite subject (my nappy).

"I'm reading a book", I said, "Mummy go in kitchen"

She ought to know her place.

Hospitality

Mummy had some friends visit her today. Usually I like visitors. But this friend had a baby, and it crawled. Towards me. So when the friend said she'd have to leave I agreed:

"Go home. Bye Bye"

And when they finally got up to leave, I said

"Hooray. Watch Noddy!"

Conjunctions

I've been going through Daddy's grammer book recently (made sense after I'd read the book on Punc-tu-a-tion). I've been learning about conjuctions. So when I want Daddy to give me Rice Crispies with my Cornflakes, I have to say

"And Crispies And Cornclakes"!

Another example:

Mummy: "What do you want for tea, Peas or Beans?"
Me: "And Peas and Beans and Peas"

Getting out of it

Sometimes I'm busy when Mummy asks me to do something (or tells me that something is going to be done to me). It is inconvenient, and I don't want to. But for the good of both parties, it is best to avoid direct confrontation.

I've found that humour is a good technique to try. My favourite example recently:

Mummy: "Can I smell something?"
Me: "Teddy" [or "Dolly", or "Daddy"!]
Mummy: "I think it's you. Come with Mummy, and we'll change your nappy."
Me: "No thank you, Mrs Tubby Bear!"

Inspired, don't you think? I think I must have got that one from my Noddy videators.

(Note if you want to try this at home: If it's Daddy you're talking to, you need to say, "No thank you, Mr Tubby Bear")

Knowing Me, Knowing You!

Me and You are two words that will not stay in the right order.

So I say to Mummy, "Mummy, read book to you".

Mummy replies "Read book to me".

And I think, "I can't read the book to you, I want you to read it to me.". But anyway, she still seems to get the message.

Apologising

Some words are more important than others, so important in fact, that they insist on being used all the time. Words like "Sorry", for example.

So this evening, as I walked passed Mummy I squashed her foot a bit. Now I'm sure I didn't hurt her, but that word insisted on coming out.

"Sorry Mummy. Trod on you!"

More Guess what?

What's this?


A radiator!

Now you should be able to guess what this is:



A videator!

It plays Noddy and Postman Pat Videos! 

Guess what?

What is this?

A Fridge! What's this?

A Full Stop! And do you know what this is?

Well, it's a star now, but it used to be called an Uppa. As in
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,
How I wonder what you are,
UP Above the world so high...

So there you go. 

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was very exciting. I learnt several new words including "another", as in "another present!". I even remembered "please" on occasions.

The most exciting part was my new baby. Here you see me giving her the first of several breakfasts she had that morning. Cornflakes and Crispies, I think it was.

Another of my presents, a book about Little Owl, had flown all the way over from Canada. Thank you Aunty Aileen!


And then Mummy cooked us all a beautiful Christmas Dinner. What you are looking at was just the Appertiser! 

Christmas - the warm up

Daddy had a long Christmas holiday. Two whole weeks to spend with me. He broke up on the Tuesday before Christmas, so on the Wednesday we went to a German market. They'd brought it all the way over to where near we lived, because they know I don't like flying yet.


Later that week, our friends Lynn and Harry visited, and they brought us lots of presents. I was given an iron and an ironing board so that I can help mummy. Here you see me finding out what it's like being a Christmas Present.


On Sunday we went to Nana and Grandad's. Nana cooked us all a nice dinner (I ate loads of sprouts - way more than Daddy!), and then I sat on her lap to open my present.

That night as Mummy put me to bed, I told her "Me Sleeping. Ho Ho come. Presents for Me!" 

Practising for Christmas

You only get one second Christmas, so it is important to make it a good one. I have been practising getting into the Christmas spirit, and also into my fairy outfit, which is considerably more difficult. Christmas spririt fits me better I think.

I have also begun wishing people a "Merry Christmas" and a "Happy new Year". And they wish me one in return. So that's all hunky dorey. 

Anticipation

Dad snapped this shot of me whilst I was waiting for something.


Something delicious! 

Bouncing

Some people belive that beds are a good place to sleep. How mistaken they are. Beds are for bouncing!

We have a bit of a tradition in our family, stretching back over several generations, of the sunday afternoon bed-bounce. I do the energetic bit, and Mummy and Granny flap up and down the edge of the bed saying "don't fall". As if I would- silly thing to do. 

Autumn Leaves

Doesn't Autumn make you excited? 

Swinging

 

Encouragement

As you know, I am endevouring to bring up my parents as well as I can. I subscribe to the school of thought that says that there is nothing wrong with lavishing praise for even small achievements.

Consequently, when daddy managed to tap out "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" on my xylophone the other day, I rewarded him with a hearty "Well done"!

Encouragement

As you know, I am endevouring to bring up my parents as well as I can. I subscribe to the school of thought that says that there is nothing wrong with lavishing praise for even small achievements.

Consequently, when daddy managed to tap out "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" on my xylophone the other day, I rewarded him with a hearty "Well done"!

Living out of a suitcase

I have been living out of a suitcase for the last couple of days. As you can see, I managed to cram in all the essentials: teapot, cups, donuts, stethoscope, mobile phone, building blocks (you never know when you might be called upon to build Babel Mark II).


The purpose of our visit was to see my Great Great Aunty Joan. I think I rather surprised her.


We also managed a bit of sightseeing as well - here you see me patrolling the grounds of Bolton Abbey.

Thinking

From Squiggler

Mummy flying

Mummy hasn't got wings, so she has to use a trampoline when she wants to fly. 

Breakfast

There's nothing like having the whole family sit down together for breakfast. 

Feeling Bouncy

Me and Daddy on a Trampoline.

Daddy on a Trampoline is a sight, I can tell you.

Congestion

Yes, I have had a bit of a snuffly nose, but I'm not talking about that kind of congestion.

The other day I set off shopping, as I do many times in an afternoon. But I soon returned from the shop (if you don't know better, it looks like a shed at the bottom of our garden) empty handed.

"No Milk", I informed Mummy.

"Why couldn't you get any Milk?" she asked.

"No parking space!", I sighed.

On a walk

We went on our annual visit to the Arboretum today, with Nana and Grandad. I had lots of fun running around and kicking the leaves. 

Learning my Apple Baby Cat

I started learning my letters a few weeks ago. Most people like to start at the beginning of the alphabet. But why be conventional? I decided to start with W. I think its the most interesting sounding letter. It made me giggle the first time Daddy said it, and showed me in my Yak-Yak book (that's what I call it - every letter has its animal).

Then I learnt Em for Mouse (or Mummy), and Ecks for Fox (I think they cheated a bit with that one. Didn't they know about the Xerus?).

My favourite game to play with Daddy was pointing to the letters and getting him to say them. Then I discovered that he knew a song about them. So I added a new command to my vocabulary: "Sing!".

The other day, Granny bought me a new toy. It's a big picture with the letters on, and when I press them, it speaks them out for me. I think that's called cheating, Daddy!

Girl in Training

I pick up my little purple shopping basket and walk into the kitchen where Mummy is doing the washing up.

"Bye, Bye", I say.

Mummy turns to look at me.

"Shopping", I explain. "Milk".

I hold out my hand. "Money?"

In the Dark

I've recently discovered these amazing things called lightswitches. Don't you know what a lightswitch is? It's a button for turning the dark off.

Recently the sun has been too lazy to get out of bed in the morning - I think it must be a little bit cold, like me. So when Mummy comes into my room, the place is full of dark. "Dark", I say to Mummy, and she agrees, and presses the magic button. Then all the dark runs away, and hides under the bed, and under my cot.

Think pink