The Waterbaby

Yesterday James had his first swimming lesson. No floats or arm bands - he was literally in at the deep end. Click on the picture to play the video. I don't think he was awfully impressed with his first underwater experience!

The Cowboy

Here is James all ready for bed in his new cow-boy suit.

Yum yum in my tum

I now eat rice, oats, banana, apple, potato, sweet potato, butternut squash, courgette, brocoli and carrots. Mummy now doesn't give me any milk when I ask her during the night, so I have decided there's not much point waking up until the morning.

Happy 30th Birthday Ivor!

Thank you for inviting us to your birthday barbeque. We had lots of fun. It was great to see Molly again.





As you can see she has grown in size and cuteness!









James was very pleased to see his playmate again. We discovered that his obsession for feet is not limited to his own pair - Molly's are just as much fun.
Molly, on the other hand, prefers her thumb. See Ivor and Bex's blog for more piccies of the weekend.

Sleep success

We have had almost a week of sleepless nights due to the stiffling temperatures. James has not been able to sleep and hence neither have we. However, today it has been more than ten degrees cooler than of late, and twice today we have put James to bed without being swaddled, shushed or rocked. He squawked for about two minutes then fell sound asleep. What an angel.

Baby acrobatics

James demonstrates his talent for yoga

The First Day of Solids

At 4.30am this morning when James was yet again thinking it was the start of breakfast time we decided that enough was enough and started him on the long journey of eating proper food (although baby cac cac baby rice can hardly be called proper).








As you can see the first sitting was more about pulling faces than eating but by tea time he was putting a brave face on it and hoofing it down (so far not back up again). Long may this continue and soon our sleep be restored.

Bouncing baby!

Thank you Nanna and Grandpopps for my baby bouncer. I've had lots of fun and I even managed a couple of little jumps today. I also rolled onto my front, and then back again twice today for the first time!

My new chair

Look at my new chair - isn't it nice? I will get to sit at the table and eat grown up food soon.

Happy Birthday Daniel!

A year ago today we had a most exciting phonecall telling us that a big white stork had flown all the way to Lyne Riggs cottage in Cumbria and delivered a beautiful apple-cheeked baby boy. We met young Daniel at his pre-birthday birthday party at his grandparents in Chelmsford last Sunday.

Camping & Canoeing in Algonquin

A few more pics of the trip.













Looks like Gilbert has sat on something
painful and Eric is doing his bear impression.
































A great campfire.












The last day and although we had sun it was quite cold. This was confirmed when it snowed on us as we canoed out. No moose was spotted in the end, doh.

Canoeing In Canada - Day 2. The Stealth Moose.

Due to the weather now being like that found in Alaska, we changed our planned route which meant another long day canoeing (always head on into the wind) and no guaranteed campsite at the end of it. Due to the rain the portages were now very wet underfoot but it looked like we were homing in on the moose as they had left hoof prints everywhere.



The canoeing was great fun and the scenery was wowtastic and although no moose was yet spotted, the Loons (black seagull look alike feathered things with red eyes which make the best bird call ever) made up for it.











The weather wasn't the only thing against us. The beavers had been hard at work making little obstacles for us. We even managed to canoe up one of them (left) without anyone falling in, even though I had the camera ready.




The word Moose comes from a native Algonquin Indian word meaning "twig eater". We were canoeing in an area called Algonquin so you would think that there might be at least some sort of sighting (apart from hoof prints and droppings) but nothing, diddly squat, they really were the best at playing hide and seek.

By mid afternoon the weather had improved but our priority now was to find a campsite that we shouldn't really be at and claim it for ourselves. This took quite alot of paddling and by the end we were all knackered.

The campsite was great and now we had clear blue skies. The fire was on and ready for our steaks and out came the entertainment with the guitar.