Swimming with Kath

On Friday, Helen and her friend Kath went swimming with Emma. Here's Kath playing with Emma.



And here are some photos Kath took with her mobile phone. Awww cute!

Thuper Thursday

Here's a quick update on a nice Dolittle Day!

Emma enjoyed a play with her push a long tractor that a nice neighbour called Ann gave us. In the next one she's just been enjoying an abacus from Jane, Jasper, Rosie and Billy.

Here she is trying to escape from her barnacle boat.

Auntie Bex came by just before lunch and helped to feed Emma. She'd got Emma a lovely purple knitted cardigan, just visible in this picture!

Emma had had enough of lunch at this point and was dressed in this Tigger hat while waiting for her pudding. Thanks for the hat Kath!

Helen's had just about enough of pushchairs that don't squash down properly, either because they're second hand and too old, or because they are a bit cheap and don't let you walk properly behind them. So we invested in a new Maclaren pushchair which ticks all the boxes. Emma gave it her seal of approval too.

Here's Emma enjoying Superdrug.

This blog reads a bit like the Oscars - "And I would like to thank...." But we are very grateful for all the presents and help that our friends and relations have given us along the way - ta everybody!

New Shoes?

Hope the wait is worth it, blog watchers, I'm giving you two weeks for the price of one! The last fortnight has been a good one. I (David) had two days off last week, and I'm having two days off this week too, using up some annual leave in a pleasant home based baby sitting and fettling way.

Last weekend we went to see my parents down at Wallmead and had a good old traditional roast lamb lunch, followed by lots of hide and seek in the garden with the kids which Emma enjoyed!

Last week was Valentine's Day and Helen cooked me a tasty Beef Wellington in the evening, then the next I'd booked for her to have some reflexology in Nailsea, so she went off and I looked after Emma, taking lots of photos of course! Emma's looking more and more relaxed on her front now - not quite crawling yet though.



The light's just right in these pictures to bring out her big blue eyes!

And here she is with a face smeared with food! Tigger joined us for this feed. I found some excellent bibs in Tchibo which have sleeves! Helen's managed to get feeding into a clean business now but when I do it it seems to end up smeared over baby, seat and walls! At least she's smiling....

On to today now. Emma REALLY enjoys standing and holding onto tables to support herself. She is steady enough now to supervise from a small distance. She does tend to get distracted and topple over occassionally though.

Here she is pulling her duck whilst standing. Click here for a video of her playing with the duck. I'm most impressed with the way she puts the egg onto it's back. (Having trouble with the video hosting, watch this space!)




Here she is playing peek-a-boo with Mummy. She'd just been laid in her cot after lunch but instead of having her normal nap, she flipped over onto her stomach for the first time on her cot and started calling us. She had no intention of sleeping at all despite all the eye rubbing she'd done during her jelly and custard pudding.

And here she is proudly displaying her size two and a half Clark shoes. Her first pair of properly fitted shoes!

Here she is using the clothes horse for support. She seems to be admiring my boxer shorts!




Until next time then folks, byeee!

A Day at Home (at last!)

I've really enjoyed today. It's been a while since I had a full day off when I've been able to skulk about the house. Today was even better than the average skulk as I enjoyed a good game of rugby on television and played lots and lots with Emma! Here are some cute photos. The first is from last night when Bryony and Andrew visited. Helen cooked a curry which was very tasty.
They had some excellent news - their engagement! Congratulations to them. They proved their relationship calibre in a game of "Know Your Partner" - they didn't get a single question wrong about each other!

Helen and I spent today letting each other sleep! Helen was on the morning shift with Emma from 6.30 until 8.30am. Then I took her while Helen had a nap until 11am. We went for a bracing walk after a hearty brunch and fed some mouldy bread to the seagulls whilst Emma slept.


Helen managed a nice siesta in the afternoon whilst Emma and I got down to some serious playing. Here she is pulling on a string to get her duck. (Click on the underlined bit to see it.)

And here she is pushing her trolley along. She can do this without me having to hold onto her now. I just control the speed of the trolley.


She has been teething for about 4 months now with no teeth visible as yet! She likes to chew on things, my glasses case was just the right texture!


Check out this picture of Emma playing with my money. Not for the last time I'm sure...

And one from just a few minutes ago of Emma being fed. Thanks to Lin, Mike and Ria for the feeding chair! Today she's had porridge, milk and banana for breakfast. Sausage, sweet potato and cheese for lunch and finally sweet potato, avocado, broccoli and cheese for supper. She's had a really good appetite and eaten whole bowls full!