: : : Here is the news for April : : :

Friday 30th April
I had a lovely time doing "wind the bobbin up" today. Mum was helping me by holding my hands and making sure that they didn't bang into each other when the winding action was occuring.

We went to a big shop today and Dad met us there so that we didn't have to walk all the way home. I was very very tired and fell asleep with my head hanging over the edge of the pushchair. Dad and Mum kept trying to straighten it up for me but there was no way to keep it in a straight line.

Thursday 29th April
I enjoyed playing with a pegboard today. It's a board with lots and lots of tiny holes in it. There are little pegs to push into the holes- just like that "mastermind" game but without all the complications. Basically you just have to make patterns. It's lovely.

We also played with some paydog. I made some squashy shapes and I didn't eat too much.

Dad came home early today 0 how lovely . He brought one of his crazy work friends with him. I pretended to be really shy, but actually I wasn't really. I hoped that Dad's friend would think that I was really sweet. My plan worked.

Wednesday 28th April
I can do all the actions to "Wind the bobbin up" now - including all the pointing - I can even sing some of the words, although they do tend to blur into one another. Sometimes the winding goes a little bit wrong because of all the moving hands in different directions business. Still - I like to think that I look quite stylish. As long as I get the claps in the right place I'm happy.

My teeth STILL hurt - this time it's the ones at the bottom that are hurting me. When will it all be over - Dad says when I get 6 more teeth. Surely 14 are enough for anyone.

Tuesday 27th April
We went to Hugo's party this afternoon and I got given a piece of cake which was all chocolatey. I squidged it in my hand so that it came out between my fingers. That way I could walk around the room occasionally eating a piece that came out between a finger or two without the inconvenience of... something or other.

I can now recognise at least two or three colours. Red, Green, Blue and Yellow which is my current favourite. I'm not much good at counting though.

Monday 26th April
I had to get up very very early today to be sure not to miss the start of Teletubbies. I've missed the start of it in recent days and in displeases me to do so. I sat on the sofa and played with Dad's toes as he snored away beside me. Teletubbies were good too.

Sunday 25th April
I'm still not feeling very well this morning as there was a great disturbance in my sleep pattern. Usually I wake up and go to sleep but last night I woke up and stayed awake. Eventually, as I was complaining so much, I came downstairs and had a wonder around. I was a little bit wobbly though.

I still had a cold today but I din't let it spoil my afternoon in the park. I wandered free around the tiny golf course. THen I had a few goes on the slide. There was a small boy sitting on the slide ahead of me and he was there for ages. He was a bit older than me but not much bigger so I sat down on the slide and used my weight to help push him down.

Saturday 24th April
I'm not feeling very well today either. I'm covered in some kind of gooeey substance and my head is feeling very hot. Dad and Mum bought me a special hat that will keep my head covered up in the hot weather. It's very easy to take it off and throw it on the floor.

Friday 23rd April
Today was the day that it as very hot and I got slightly dunburned ears because I wouldn't even wear my hat. Calpol will take the sting out of that. Also Dad rubbed Aoe Vera plant juice on my head. He says it will work wonders. I think that it just made my head sticky.

Thursday 22nd April
Happy Birthday Grandad! You are about 58 or something. I am only 1. That means you are 58 times as old as me. IN YOUR FACE!!!!

I can now identify two facial body areas. EARS and NOSE.I demonstrated this ability by grabing Dad's ears when he was "watching" Teletubbies this morning and said "EARS" in a loud voice. Dad said "yesears"

I'm not very well for the rest of the day. There is goo.

Wednesday 21st April
I got up early as usual so that I could come down stairs with Dad to watch the teletubbies. He was a bit lazt at getting up today so I had to miss the first bit. I bonked him on the head with a metal dumper truck to make up for it.

I was a bit grumpy for most of the rest of the day and I didn't even eat my tea. I expect someone can make up an excuse for me other than just plain grumpiness. Perhaps it will be teeth. I did build a really big tower out of megabloks though.

Tuesday 20th April
I pressed a bee today - I found it in the park. It was on the floor on a flower and I was having a little look at it. I wondered what it felt like so I gave in a little poke. It felt a bit furry. Mum spent the rest of the time gently guiding bees out of my way because I kept trying to stroke them.

I had lots of lovely slides on the tubey slide today. Peter has just learnt to climb up on his own so I get to go up with him. I get lifted up though. We spent a long time inside the tube, some of the time I was on top of Peter and some of the time he was on top of me.

I was very tired and very grumpy in the evening.

Monday 19th April
I went in the big moving doughnut at the park today. I cuddled Peter as we were going round as he had been so nice to me today. I also gave Mum a little piece of bark that I'd found on the floor. Amazingly she was very very pleased with it. I had a sudden realisation that the whole place was covered in little bits of bark. An easy way to please Mum struck me. I gave her lots of pieces of bark one by one.

I had a lovely game of football with Dad and Peter this evening. They were kicking it to each other and I was standing in the middle chasing the ball. Sometimes I managed to grab hold of the ball (with my hands obviously - kicking it will only make me fall over). Anyway - when I got the ball I always gave it to Peter because he's so nice to me.

Sunday 18th April
You must never ever do a handstand in sharp pointy gravel. If your hands slip then you get a mouthful of sharp pointy gravel. You may also get some mudd on your head. I found this out the hard way when we went with Grandma to my first stately home visit. We went to the cake eating place where I ate Mum's slice of cake. It was very delicious. As I was sitting by the door of the cafe I made friends with everyone who came into the building. I'm sure they all thought I was lovely - especially as I hadn't had my gravel related accident yet.

Saturday 17th April
I went on a massive trip to the supermarket with Dad today. I had a few grapes and even a crust of bread. We were there for absolutely ages and if it wasn't for the fact that Dad had thought to bring some chocolate buttons, I fear I would have reached the end of my tether. It's not as if I wanted to go very much in the first place.

When we got back from the shops Grandma was in our house so I had to learn to say "Grandma" which I managed to do quite quickly. I said it ten times to keep everyone happy.

We had some unexpected visitor in the evening including a baby. |Toby. He seemed keen to play with all my toys but I wasn't so sure. He even started to play with Dads toes so I had to take Dad's toes away from him as well as my stacking cups.

Friday 16th April
Dad brought me downstairs early this morning and while he was snoozing on the sofa I found that someone had kindly left the outside chalks just behind the curtain. I drew Dad a massive picture on the carpet. There were lots of colours and the picture was about 4 metres wide. He was very pleased.

I am now an expert kisser. I can coordinate the sound, suction and movement of the actual kiss to make the receiver very happy. Unless of course I am covered in goo, which I sometimes am. So beware!

Thursday 15th April
Peter and I were standing looking at the things on Dad's desk today - one of thethings there was a little cardboard cutout of dipsy and one of tinky whatsit. Peter explained very carefully about twenty times that "Yes, that's right Andrew, it's Dipsy, good boy". He was very kindto me. I felt sort of heartless saying "lala" all the time whether it was lala or not. Oh well.

My favourite game at the moment is burying myself under lots of cushions on the sofa. It's both amusing and comfortable.

I feel some sort of celebration is in order - I have slept through the night all the way through mind, until the morning for two whole nights in a row, and that is a big fat turn up for the books.

Wednesday 14th April
I'm getting very good at singing and doing actions. If Dad plays the first few notes from Old MacDonald I can sing EIEIO mostly in tune. I can also accomplish the actions from many a song - I can wind a bobbin up AND make a twinkly star too. Ask me about wheels on the bus... Beep beep. Doors shut, babies shouting. EVERYTHING.

I sat on a horse today. It was very high up.

If I push the washing basket into the front room I can climb up on to it and press the button that turns the telelvision off. It really very funny and a very good game. Someone always comes along to switch it on again so that I can give it another go.

Tuesday 13th April
I've been using my brain to get me as high up as possible in the house. I've been using the washing basket and one of the chairs together to allow me access to some of the more out of the way surfaces in the kitchen. Surprisingly no one is ever very pleased to find me sitting on the table or half way on to the draining board.

I had a lovely dance in the sandpit today. I was a little tiny bit worried about getting my feet into it at first but I soon realised that it actually felt quite nice.

I was quite grumpy in the late afternoon. I think there's a tooth on the way somewhere.

Monday 12th April
I went to a Safari park today. I think I went once before but I may have been too small to remember. Anyway - there were lots of things to look at, just not so much aimed at the one year old. Everything is " you must be 0.8m to go on this ride" Sadly I'm only 0.78m to not go on a ride. Apart from Mum took me on the bob the builder and tweenie rides which not even Peter went on. I also saw some hippos.

Afterwards we went on the shortest safari ever due to all the carsthat were there. I saw some lions, but my favourites were definately the giraffes. One of them wanted to get into the car but Mum wouldn't let it. Ther wasn't any room.

When we got home I played football with Dad in the garden. He is obviously a great fan of the sport and his control of the ball within the confines of the garden is second to none. He can bounce it on his foot up to three times in a row. I can't catch it yet but I can give it a good hefty kick.

I was very tired, so I went to bed early. I've only woken up so far at: 8.30; 10.00; 11.00 and 11.30. Thins aren't looking so good for Dad and Mum this evening.

Sunday 11th April
It's been another very busy day today. First we spent a long time in the garden where I had several exciting goes on the slide. I have perfected a way of sliding down the slide which includes all the permitted methods of sliding in one go. First the normal sitting position, then rotate around to lying on my tummy, and then, if there's time roll over onto my back. It's only a little slide so |I have to do this very fast. It makes Dad nervous.

Next we went out to the other park where I ran around and climbed up lots of things that I probably shouldn't have done. I didn't fall down too many things though becuase of Mum and Dad always being there to catch me. After a restful ice cream which I didn't want we went to a different park and climbed up to the top of a big hill. Then I ran down it at top speed.

Saturday 10th April
We went to the best place in the world today - it's a shop in Stratford where the Teletubbies live. Everything is there, there's a litle rotating grass dome to sit on, a giant nu-nu to sit on and a giant speaker to shout into. I was so excited I couldn't stop clapping my hands. There was a bunch of other stuff there too, but mostly I was interested in the Teletubbies. It seemed a shame that they couldn't find room to stick a few rabbits.

Friday 9th April
I made a few more diamonds in the sky today before Mum played with me in the garden. I spent a long time going up and down the slide although I did need a bit of help at the top of the sldie. Sometimes it's quite tricky to sit down at the top of the slide without sliding all the way down before you quite mean to.

Thursday 8th April
I have said and sung a few things today (including POOH BEAR). Firstly I can sing bits of old macdonald AND bits of wind the bobbin up (a popular tune which you may be familiar with) and I can sing bits of twinkle twinkle WHILE I make a diamond shape with my fingers. I can even do the twinkling bit.

Dad was wearing his t-shirt with a big B on it when he put me to bed. I pointed to it and said "BEE...BEE..B.B.B.B.BEE...BEE". Imagine how ashamed i felt when he told me it was an 8.

Wednesday 7th April
Peter and I walked around in the inside bit of a fountain today. It was mostly empty apart from one little bit which had a bit of water in it. We splashed around in the little water that was in it for ages and ages until, inevitably, I fell over in the deepest part. I managed to soak my jumper, shirt, trousers, socks, shoes, and everything. Peter very kindly lent me his jumper and luckily Mum had a spare pair of trousers in her bag. I was very cold to start with, but warmed up soon after.

I was very nice to Dad when he put me to bed tonight. I gave him lots of hugs and kisses and even blew Mum AND Dad some kisses when Dad eventually took me off to my cot. Dad and I played lots of games at drying baby time though. I found my nose a few times and even showed Dad where his nose was. I also sung eieio to him. Mum told him that I could sing it so I felt obliged to prove it to him.

Tuesday 6th April
Today I may or may not have said "blue flowers". That's what it sounded like, and I was looking at blue flowers, so maybe that's what I said. No one knows for sure.

I am a very useful boy. Because I can say "shoes" and I know who's shoes are whos I can fetch everyone's shoes for them when it's time to go out. I usually get Peter's first, because it takes longer for him to put them on than anyone else - mostly because he always takes the shoelaces out.

I've been sleeping a bit better recently, but I still sometimes wake up not knowing where I am. I'm usually standing in my cot facing a wall. Dad or Mum comes in and turns me the right way round and tucks me in.

Monday 5th April
Today was the day that I fell into a very big muddy puddle. It was a different one from the one that Peter fell into though. I managed to get my trousers and some of my jumper very wet. My shoes and socks also suffered from a great wetness and muddyness.

On the plus side, I can now say digger, la-la and bear and even more specifically - Pooh Bear. He's probably my favourite. I can't say Po though.

I played good game with Dad today. He sang a note to me and I copied it. I did two correctly and then some that weren't quite so correct. Dad shouldn't sing notes that don't even exist though, so I blame him partially.

Sunday 4th April
I can now confirm that the two cards that Dad uses in his camera to take photographs of us all have amazingly survived their journey through the washing machine. I wasn't to know that they were hidden inside - as far as I knew the camera case was just something i found on the floor, which looked like it needed putting inside the washing machine.

Today I have another new tooth - top right canine. thankyouverymuch.

Saturday 3rd April
I had a lovely time on the slide at the park today. I was actually quite daring and turned round at the top of the slide in a precarious manner and went down on my tummy as I have seen Peter do on several occasions. I was right to do so too, as the times that I went down on my bottom resulted in my shooting off the end of the slide. I gather great speed when no one is watching.

I think I may be getting a few freckles under my eyes. Mum didn't know what they were and she was trying to wash them off at bathtime. I'm also getting a little tiny bit more hair than I had. My little tufty white bit at the back is coming along and there's a few extra wispy bits at the top too.

Friday 2nd April
I have found my nose. It's quite hard to find because of it being so small, but there it is right where i left it on the front of my face. Also - if anyone were ever to ask me where it was I'd be able to tell them too. Dad wants me to work out where my ears are next - this is more confusing as there are two of them and that's more to remember.

I said "pear" today. I'm slowly getting around to trying out a few words here and there. I can nearly say "cheese" to, and I'm not far off saying "juice".

Thursday 1st April
I had to concentrate very hard at tea this evening because I was trying to balance pasta on my head. Not the safe hard kind either - that's too difficult because it keeps rolling off. I find that it all balances much better when it is covered in some kind of cool sticky cheese sauce. I managed to get eight pieces on my head - some of them were even in a tower. Then I ate them, and very tasty they were too.