Thursday, August 30, 2007

Its.......Boys!!!

Double congratulations to our friends Sandie & Gary!

Sandie gave birth to identical twin boys, Archie and Rafferty by caesarean section
on Monday at 23.58 and 23.59 - they very nearly could have had different birthdays!

Cute babies, but who is who?
Archie Samuel weighed 5lbs 5oz
Rafferty Joseph weighed 4lbs 11oz

Enjoy your new arrivals guys and love from our clan!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

How Am I Doing?

Inspired by Lola's blog and the update on how she is doing at 21 months, I thought I would do the same for Coby. We're overly impressed by Lola's vocabulary and she is way ahead with her numbers and colours, but young Coby is catching up.

He can count to 10 and especially likes the number 9. He can say red, yellow, blue, green and pink, but cannot quite identify the word to the right colour, everything is yellow! He can identify most CBeebies characters and can say their names along with Noddy, Mickey Mouse, Nemo (obviously), Dory (obviously) and Bart.

He absolutely adores cars! And can also say lorry, truck, taxi, train, tractor and plane. He points to the sky when he sees planes and makes the sound effects. He likes running too and shouts go, go, go!

Food wise, he loves fruit, particularly pears, bananas and strawberries. His favourite food is cheese and can munch happily away on chunks of strong cheddar. He likes to go into the food cupboard and drag things out, mainly the juice and boxes of cereal or crackers.

His manners are impeccable. Please, thank you and sorry feature many times during his day. And he does the sign as he says the word, rubbing his chest in a circle while saying sorry.

We've used the naughty step a few times and it seems to work so far, but as he approaches two years of age, I dare say the step will come into use a whole lot more.

Losing Nemo

Coby has gone mad for DVDs at the moment. As soon as he comes downstairs each morning, he cries 'Nemo' or 'Story' which means Toy Story. The tally for viewings so far is as follows:

Finding Nemo - 20 times
Monsters Inc: 8 times
Toy Story: 6 times
Toy Story 2: 6 times

Now lets be honest, these are wonderful films. Superb animation and very funny and entertaining, but when you know the dialogue by heart and you've seen them 20 times over, you can start to feel a little exasperated. Even more so when Coby starts to watch one film and then 10 minutes in, wants to watch another. As I write this, we're watching Finding Nemo and he has just handed Toy Story to me saying "yes please", "yes please".

Thanks Disney Pixar!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Bank Holiday Happenings

We had such an eventful weekend and saw lots of our friends. On Saturday it was daddy's birthday so mummy prepared the garden for our party and daddy did lots of cooking. Auntie Ceri arrived from Manchester in the evening and she and auntie Teresa looked after me while mummy and daddy went for a romantic dinner.

On Sunday, mummy had to work, but grandma, Justin & Stacey came over to help us with the party preparations. It was very exciting!

I played with Louis in the garden most of the afternoon because it was empty - all the boys were watching the Spurs match in the lounge.

Luckily the sun was shining and I got to hang out with all of my little friends including Courtney, Jacob, Rachel, Rebecca and Alyssa. We had a brilliant time.

Uncle Martin stayed with us until Monday and we all played in the garden and then went to the park....

Saturday, August 25, 2007

We Heart BBC

Just wanna say that everyone moans about the BBC licence fee here in the UK but we love the BEEB. It is easily the best £10 a month we spend and Brits should be proud of it and supportive. We get loads of great TV and comedy plus, most importantly, we get CBEEBIES and that alone makes it worth the while. The learning games and puzzles for Coby on the CBEEBIES website is fantastic and until any of the private channels create the same consider us fans of the BEEB, the best public service media utility in the world!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY


Today is daddy's birthday! We're having a party on Sunday to celebrate with all of our friends.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

WE LOVE YOU!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Kids Just Wanna Have Fun

Here are Coby (the most vocal), Louis (the most talented footballer) and Alicia (the most golden hair) playing in the garden this week. If you're wandering why Coby is wearing only his vest, its because he launched himself into the paddling pool fully clothed only minutes before!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Ethical Autumn


Hemp & Cotton T-Shirt - Ethical Fashion from Natural Collection - the eco department storeFairtrade Cotton Hoody - Ethical Fashion from Natural Collection - the eco department store

Forgive the work promo but just to say that Natural Collection - the eco department store that Al works for has just launched their Autumn 07 collection. Well worth a look, especially the gorgeous ethical fashion. Ethical is getting so much cooler these days...hurrah!!!

Al would of course appreciate any feedback...and he says that if anyone wants a discount then just say the word...

Monday, August 13, 2007

Up, Up & Away

Sunday is now my day with daddy. Today he took me to Elstree Aerodrome with grandma Wendy and Uncle Justin. We watched the helicopters taking off and landing - it was brilliant!



Friday, August 10, 2007

A Grand Old Time

Me and mummy had another brilliant time at nanny and grandad's this week. Nanny has just had some more special medicine to help her get better and she looks a little different, so I was a bit confused. Mummy said she was wearing a wig and then she was wearing a pretty scarf around her head, but I know it was still the same old nanny really. We did loads of great stuff. We went to the woods on Tuesday and explored and saw lots of very big and very old trees. Mummy and nanny hugged a few and I soon copied. On Wednesday we went to Sands Farm and had a snack in the cafe before seeing lots of pond fish and some horses. Then we had a picnic in Central Park and grandad had to keep chasing after me. Before heading home, we looked around the big superstore and I had loads of fun in the furniture department bouncing up and down on the mini sofas. Then we went into the garden centre and I was crawling in and out of the tents and tunnels and mummy swung me back and forth in a hammock which made me giggle a lot.

"Come on everyone - keep up"

"Peek-a-boo nanny!"

Home sweet home with grandad
and great uncle Tony

Since my visit to nanny and grandad, I have said a few more words and phrases. I now say "where are we", "more please" and "empty". And if you sing Old McDonald, I sing "Ee I Ee I O" and I sing it all day long! I also hum Twinkle Twinkle, The Wheels on the Bus and Balamory.

Nanny's Little Helper

Here's me and nanny making Postman Pat fairy cakes. Nanny did most of the work, but I mixed up some of the mixture and helped put the rice paper pictures on top of each cake when they had been iced. They were yummy, yummy, yummy!

Aprons on!

Weighing out the ingredients

Beating the eggs

Checking the recipe

Ta Dah!

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Extra Smoothies

I went on the train to London today with daddy! Louis came along too with his mummy and daddy as we all had tickets for the Innocent Village Fete in Regent's Park. It was very, very hot! Me and Louis had to be covered in sun cream and wear our hats, but I still managed to get a tan. We were late picking mummy up from work and she had to sit in the sun for over an hour. Luckily she had a good book and also caught the sun too.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Open House

Our house was like Piccadilly Circus today! First of all Michaela and Lola popped round for tea and a quick catch up. As they were leaving, Angela arrived with Alicia and Samuel. Angela had an appointment in the afternoon, so I offered to look after Alicia while she went off with Samuel. Praise the sun for being so bright and hot this afternoon - I whipped out the paddling pool, threw some toys on the lawn and Coby and Alicia were amused for ages. Alicia was a delight to look after. She and Coby played peek-a-boo with the patio doors and splashed around in the pool. After a while Vicky arrived with Oliver, followed by Maddy with Louis, who bought ice-creams for us all - mmmmmm. Then Angela came back to collect Alicia, but decided to stay a while and chill out with us in the garden. In between all of this, Al was working from home, but snuck down a couple of times to see everyone. Finally, Simon came to pick up Vicky and Olly, but couldn't resist the offer of a cup of tea. Olly was due to have his heart surgery this week, but it has been postponed until later this month as he has an ear infection. Which worked out lovely for us as we got to spend some quality time with them instead.