Family Fun

Nanny & grandad arrived safely today at the start of our big weekend together. We all spent a wonderful Saturday in the sunshine. Firstly indulging in a gloriously tasty lunch at The Plough in Shepreth followed by a rather splendid tour of Shepreth Wildlife Park.

Pancake Day

Coby couldn't wait to get his hands on my promised treat of pancakes, strawberries, banana, cream and toffee sauce, Naughty, but rather nice!

IT'S A BOY!

Big congratulations to our friends Paul and Tafa on the birth of their gorgeous son, Taanaye Rufaro. He was born on Monday 5th May at 7.40am....

Coby & Louis Part XVIIII

Today, Maddy and I took the boys to Fairlands Valley Park to enjoy the beautiful sunshine. We collected Louis from nursery where Coby shouted his name across the room and said "Louis, Louis, its Coby here". Then we took a leisurely stroll into the park and fed the ducks. The boys love hanging out together but it ended in tears when I told Coby we were going home for tea. He grabbed Maddy's hand and said "no, don't want it, want tea at Louis' house!"..

You Are My Sunshine

Enjoying the beautiful sunshine on Saturday, I blitzed the garden, mowing the lawn and pulling up some weeds. In the afternoon we took a stroll around Hitchin where Coby and I had a giggle on the bouncy castle in the market square. Al and I treated him to a bubble machine and some books and we sat and lazed in the sun, sipping coffee and munching on cakes...


And on Sunday, we grabbed the last of the rays of sun and played in the garden. We seem to have acquired a resident male pheasant. He keeps turning up, usually in the evenings and today he settled in the pine tree making horrendous noises. Coby kept asking "what's that noise?" and when I lifted him up to the window to show him the pheasant, he exclaimed "oh no - he's stuck in tree - help him mummy!"

Ladies Night

On Thursday evening I volunteered at a Ladies Night of Indulgence in support of the North Hertfordshire branch of the National Childbirth Trust. It was held at the Priory Barn in Little Wymondley near Hitchin and bought together therapists specialising in Indian head massage, reiki, reflexology, hot stones and aromatherapy. There was also Scrap Revolution, a scrapbooking business that can show you how to turn your photos and memories into keepsake albums, Splat, a business specialising in cooking parties, Mama Baby Bliss who are dedicated to the wellbeing of mums, babies and mums-to-be and an array of beauty therapists and craft stools. There was a tombola and raffle, a performance from a local belly dancing group, Imajica, and a treat for the ladies from the male members of GL-14 Health Club who performed on stage stripped to the waist holding weights! The biggest attraction though was the chocolate fountain and fondue dips. Personally, I was too busy to check out any of the other delights. I was able to gaze over at the chocolate fountain every once and a while though!

Reflexology with the two Sarah's

Relaxing the client in preparation

Working the head reflex and sinuses

Fellow reflexologist, Sarah Holland, works on Alison,
one of the event organisers

Toddle Waddle

So, here is Coby yesterday just before we took him to see the dentist. He seemed quite keen to be going and kept saying "I go dentist" and "my teeth". He was very well behaved in the surgery and made friends with a lovely little girl and her daddy. The dentist's verdict was better than expected. He agreed that Coby had taken quite a knock to his teeth and worst case scenario is that he may have damaged the nerve and killed the tooth, but we won't know unless the tooth becomes discoloured and as its his baby teeth, it won't matter as it will just drop out and be replaced by his adult teeth. So all we can do is hope that they correct themselves over time.

As soon as we left the dentist, I raced to work and daddy took Coby to nursery where they were eagerly awaiting news of the verdict. I have to say that Coby's nursery have been wonderful and have shown a tremendous amount of love and care for Coby. One of his key workers, Kirsty, told us that she couldn't stop thinking of him on the day of the accident and tears welled up in her eyes when she saw us arrive and burst into tears. And both the nursery manager and another key worker, Sam, have called us several times to see how he is.

Anyway, Coby's afternoon at nursery was very important as he took part in a sponsored Toddle Waddle for the Meningitis Trust. All of the kids and staff wore yellow, hence Coby's stripey trousers in the pictures. He also wore a yellow t-shirt. The Trust encourage under 5's to promote awareness of meningitis and this is their 9th Waddle raising nearly £2 million in the process. The kids all got individual certificates and a sticker and a balloon, which, Coby spent the rest of his evening playing with!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA

Grandma Wendy celebrates her birthday today and we would also like to thank her for cooking lovely dinners for Pesach. Happy Birthday!!!!

Coby & Louis Again!

Maddy invited Coby and I for tea recently. I picked Coby up from nursery after work and we headed over with Coby repeatedly asking 'Maddy Louis house mummy?". When we arrived, Maddy also said that Louis had been asking for Coby and Jane all day long!

The terrible twosome got to work on the train set and, as suspected, Coby glimpsed Louis' Bob the Builder bike in the kitchen and was off like a shot. Even though it belongs to Louis, Coby is a little bit precious about this bike and as you will see from the video below, it only has room for one...

Teatime: Louis pinches Coby's toast and marmite!

Bathtime: Coby sprays Louis with water

Bedtime: "Quick Louis, hide!"

Happy, Happy, Birthdays!

Happy Birthdays a plenty lately. Happy 40th birthday to both Olly's mum Vicki (10th) and Alicia's mum, Angela (17th). Hope you both had a great day girls! Louis' dad, Justin also celebrated on the 17th. Coby's friend Hannah was 9 yesterday and grandma Wendy celebrates her birthday on Monday, shared with Her Majesty the Queen!

April Showers

We love to wake up in the morning and spend a couple of minutes looking out of the bedroom window at the garden and the view beyond. We had a pleasant surprise the other morning when a pretty white sprinkling of snow greeted us. Snow in April is rather unusual, but it has been pretty cold lately.

The Future's Bright...

"One has a rock start look and attitude to maintain"

Coby's Little Accident

We've had a rather traumatic couple of days after Coby fell at nursery on Thursday afternoon and injured his mouth. He banged his teeth on a table and, unfortunately, has caused a little bit of damage to them. Nursery did a fantastic job of looking after Coby while Al and I rushed across town to get to him. Then we made a frantic dash to hospital so Coby could be assessed in A&E. The paediatrician consulted the facial maxillary department and they decided that because his baby teeth would grow through he could go home but we would need to consult a dentist as soon as possible. On Friday we managed to get an emergency appointment at the dentist and she thought Coby should have been sent home from hospital with antibiotics. She prescribed some for him and we need to take him back next Friday when the swelling has subsided so she can take x-rays and assess what may or may not need to be done!

Generally, Coby seems well. He has no temperature and, much to our surprise, slept through the night on Thursday and last night too. His appetite is fine, however, he is unable to eat anything solid, so its been back to Stage 1 baby food, mashed banana and smoothies. He is playing as normal and watching his favourite films. It has to be said though that he has been functioning 'as normal' while dosed up with Calpol, Nurofen and antibiotics. When the medicine wears off, he is a grumpy little thing, but obviously in a lot of discomfort.

With regards to the inside of his mouth, it does look as though he may have lost a tooth and a couple of others have been knocked out of alignment, but its hard to establish exactly what is going on due to swelling and congealed blood, his bottom teeth are still beautiful and we're pretty confident that his adult teeth won't be affected - we'll keep you posted.

Coby plays the drums

Coby lets 'er rip on the drumkit Uncle Justin bought him for his second birthday.

Louis Came For Tea One Day...

Wonder Pets

We're not sure which is more bizarre, CBeebies 'In the Night Garden' or Nick Jnr's 'Wonder Pets', which mesmerises not just Coby, but Al and I too - we especially love Ming Ming, the duck with a lisp! The phone, the phone is ringing...

Brown Eyed Boy

It's been a fair while since I posted an update on Coby...and here is the result.....he's amazing!
He will be two and a half on 16th May and firstly we are very proud to report that Coby no longer has a dummy!! He has been without them for over a week now and although he still asks for them, we just remind him that the fairies have got them and he can't have them now he is a big boy, to which he replies, "yes, fairies got dummy - ok". The main thing is that he goes to sleep without one, although we have had a couple of tricky nights, but I think we've cracked it this time, our third attempt!


Coby loves naming everyone that he knows, mainly grandad, nanny, Tony, grandma, Justin, Stacey, mummy and daddy. Or more to the point "my grandad, my nanny etc". His favourite expression at the moment is announcing his name very proudly to all who will listen! He swaggers into nursery in the morning, bursting with confidence and announces his arrival "Helllloooo, I'm Coby Tepper"
He also enjoys having 'conversations' on the phone - "hello, I'm Coby, how are you? yes, I'm fine, ok, bye". He is excellent at naming colours, shapes and characters. His counting is not too hot, he says the numbers in a Coby kind of fashion and he is a long way yet from reciting the alphabet, but judging by the surprises he gives us every day with new learned words and expressions, I expect he will come home from nursery one day and reel off his ABC just like that!

Coby is a thinker, dreamer and an old soul who, both Al & I feel, has a lot to teach everybody. He loves to sing, loves the outdoors, loves socialising, but also playing on his own. He loves books, loves his familiar characters, particularly Woody and Buzz from Toy Story, his favourite film - ever! He loves his family and friends, especially Louis, he loves tickling, hide and seek and being chased. He loves rabbits and sheep and can do the best imitation of an elephant!

We love Coby!

Flora London Marathon 2008

Loads of luck and best wishes to Michaela, Laura & Coral who are running this morning. They are aiming to finish in under 5 hours and I hear they may have spent yesterday filling up on plates of pasta!

GOOD LUCK LADIES!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARTIN

Happy, happy birthday to Martin who is celebrating today. Hope you have a fabulous day cous!

It's A Boy

More congratulations, this time to Anthony & Simone. Sim has given birth to Elijah, a baby brother for Jacob. He weighed 8lbs, 9oz.

It's A Girl

Many congratulations to Michelle and Jason who had a baby girl, Rose, today. I'm hoping the reflexology treatment I gave Michelle the night before helped to start things off.....

Happy Birthday Courtney

Coby's pal Courtney celebrated his 2nd birthday today with a Disney themed party. Mum, Bobbie, was exceedingly creative and produced a menu that included Hey Howdy Hey Ham Sandwiches!

Buzz Lightyear opens his present from Coby

Scott produces the cake!

Buzz & Woody in icing

Five week old Heath slept soundly

Anya was a little Tinkerbell

Alyssa in her piglet outfit

One too many cup cakes!

Horton Hears A Who

As a child I never really saw the appeal with Dr Seuss. This was probably because my dad often expressed his disdain at the absurdity of the whole creation. Al recently bought Coby a book called The Lorax and I have to be honest, its a work of genius! Coby was also bought, as a gift some time ago, a book called Go, Dog, Go - insane, yet hilariously funny. My dad, who will no doubt be reading this at some point, may well roll his eyes and think "No! Not Dr Seuss!"....ha ha ha

Today sees the release of Horton Hears a Who the story of an elephant who believes he can hear a speck of dust crying for help. He wants to help, however, quite understandably, his community think he's a little bit mad. So, if you've never really considered the mind and tales of Dr Seuss, perhaps now is a good time to start.

I Stand Corrected

I always go mad buying Coby books or borrowing them from the library, where you can now loan as many as 12 at a time!!! Anyhow, I bought home some new books for Coby yesterday and this morning we sat looking through them. One of them was Little Robots, based on the CBeebies TV show. Coby hasn't seen the show for some time and as far as I am aware, doesn't really know the names of the characters. We flicked through and near the end is a picture of all the robots together. Coby pointed to one and said "whose that mummy?" to which I replied "I think its Rusty". Coby responded "No mummy, its Noisy", of course I checked back and he was right!

Gingerbread Men

Al bought Coby some ready made gingerbread men today which they both enjoyed decorating. Unfortunately, Coby's gingerbread man soon lost his arms and legs when he decided he couldn't wait any longer to eat him....

A splodge here and a splodge there

More splodges

Ta da!

Ok, now he gets it!

Guess which is Coby's...

Just the torso remains

Coby Talks to the Animals

Coby enjoys his little walks near our home, especially when he takes his bike. "Teresa's turn" he gestured the other day, so of course, poor Teresa had to squeeze onto the seat while Coby pushed her down the road (above). Last week we spotted a black cat in a neighbouring garden. Coby boldly walked up the path, bent down and said "hey cat, are you alright?" before trying to open the front door of the house. Fortunately there was nobody home and the cat continued to purr and miaow on the door step. Coby sat down and decided to chat to him, "Mummy, daddy, Teresa, bike, are you alright, want food, poor kitten, oh no, whats that noise". I happily stood on the sidelines observing Coby's interaction - very amusing.

The Demon Barber

Our lovely friend Jason very kindly cut Coby's hair recently. Coby, of course, is becoming a pro in the barber's chair and happily sat for at least 2 minutes before pushing Jason away and exclaiming "No, I don't want it"....