Ana is becoming more 'helpful' around the house. She loves to assist Mummy with the onerous task of sorting the washing. She loves to remove her (almost dry) nappies from the radiators. She loves to hoover up the occasional clot of mud tracked in on Daddy's shoe and puts them nicely out of sight. In her mouth.
Ana had her first taste of Christmas this weekend when we put up our Christmas decorations! During the festive fun of decorating the tree and hanging tinsel and lights, Tim came across an old book - a family favourite - and soon Ana was enthralled with the story. We hope she will be as enthralled with the real Christmas story one day as well.
Ana has been doing scientific experiments with helium encased in pink rubber with string attached (also known as balloons). We were given 2 of these at the Olney 'Dickens of a Christmas' event in town on Sunday, and Ana loves them! At first she was very wary of them, I presume because they defy one of the only things she has learnt about: gravity. But once she got over this she enjoyed very much pulling them down on their strings and banging them around, they certainly made her day, whereas what probably made Tim and my day was a ride in an old-fashioned horse-drawn carriage (while Nana and Grampa pushed Ana, thank you!) - great fun!
Ana's growing up fast. She really isn't a little baby anymore. With phrases such as 'dada', 'mum mum' and 'goo gir' (good girl) her language is developing too, and it is a joy to experience. And this is even being said after a long week of Ana being quite feverous and ill, and then seriously teething! The thing is, when she gives you cuddles of her own , it really is lovely.
Our lovely little bean is no longer so little, in fact, at just over 10 months, she is wearing clothes for 18 month olds! Our 'long tall Sally' stands currently at 74 cm tall for those of you with wall charts keeping track of her progress.
Having mastered speed crawling (usually towards anything dangerous/ dirty), Ana has found herself a new challenge - the Kilimanjaro of the Farewell household. With the draughts howling down them they can feel like the great north face of Everest, but are in reality our stairs. She has managed to get onto the first step a couple of times, and we are sure it won't be long before she is able to get much further, and another stairgate will need to be invested in to keep the little cherub out of mischeif : )
We are pleased to announce that, yes, just in time for Christmas, Lara's jewellery design business is now up and running. For those of you who haven't had a chance to see it yet - you can reach it at www.larafarewell.co.uk and do please let us know what you think of it!
The other day we found that getting 4 babies (and their mummys!) to sit vaguely still for the camera was a bit of a mission! Here was Ana making a streak across the carpet to get her daddy and his camera. This was the group formerly known as the 'bumpy ladies' (due to our pregnant tummies) when I was working. Getting together for coffee was certainly less noisy before the babies arrived, but not quite so much fun!
We wanted to play on the monkey bars but we found they were created for shorter people than us, so decided to see if we could dangle off them without touching the ground instead; chin-ups anyone?
Our daughter is destined to like roller-coasters, swing-boats and all manner of fairground rides if her recent enjoyment of pram-racing and swings are anything to go by! When we tried to take her out she would not let go, and her hands had to be prised from the chains.
Bowling last weekend was rather exciting for our little daughter... shown here with "crazy" Uncle Dom and Aunty Crystal. The lights. The music. The cries of dismay as Daddy's bowling ball missed all the pins again... such fun!
It is a good thing Lara's Nana keeps her windows so clean. And she'll certainly have to clean them again after our recent visit when Ana tried to consume the french windows. This really was SO funny, and this photo is one of the more flattering ones...
Here we are enjoying the glorious autumnal weather near Cissbury Ring in Sussex. And such beautiful views from the top!
Diligent Uncle Dom was trying to do some marking for his students, when Ana decided she would like to help. That in fact she would help. That nothing would stop her from helping. So, she helped. In her own way.
I was trying to take a picture of my daughter crawling, but unfortunately, show Ana the camera and a mild frenzy overtakes her... her speed increased from a gentle amble to an outright gallop, and she overtook me. This was the result!
We are finally unpacked! The last box got emptied last night and we are officially moved in. Ana loved this empty box and had great fun peeking out the top. She's wasn't quite on our wedding gift list from John Lewis, but it's funny how these things come around!
Here's our little pickle showing off her lovely new teeth. We're hoping the worst of the teething is over and we'll have more nights like last night where she slept from 7pm until 4:30am - the longest sleep ever! Must go now as she has just stolen one slipper and is trying to obtain my other...
While Ana has grand designs for her blocks, her current hand-eye coordination skills limit her to more destructive tendencies, such as knocking over the towers which Mummy and Daddy have lovingly built. But with such an impish grin that makes you build them again and again and again...
When Daddy thought it would be nice to move to the other side of the room, Ana had different ideas. She held on as tightly as she could, pulled her most angelic face and would... not... let... go...
Do you remember all the fun that can be had playing peekaboo? Ana's discovering this for herself by hiding her head under the furniture... lifting up the flap, and lowering it, and raising it... giggling, squirming, squealing with delight! 
Rather than throwing all of her toys out of the pram, Ana likes to deliberately pick all of her toys out of her toy basket. She started this a couple of weeks ago when Tim sat her next to her basket (with all the toys in), looked up 15 minutes later and she only had one left in the basket! She'd been incredibly quiet for the 15 minutes (normally a sign she's got something she shouldn't have!), and was surrounded by a sea of toys. We couldn't resist blogging this picture of her little cheeky grin : )
This has been a very exciting week Ana-wise. She now has 6 teeth, can crawl, and has stood unaided for a record length of 17 seconds!!! Oh, and I almost forgot, she can clap too! We're taking her to baby sign-language classes in the hopes of deep and meaningful conversations shortly (or maybe just 'milk please' would do for a start...)
Toys are so passé! Mobile phones? Now they are worth chasing. As are books, which she is not allowed to chew...
"A little sea-bathing would set me up for ever." quoth Mrs Bennet. Ana seemed to agree, except for when a little wave splashed her and she decided Daddy's arms were far preferable to a little sea-bathing!
On our holiday in Devon, there was a lovely warm swimming pool in which Ana got her first taste of chlorine, I mean swimming. She loved it! (The swimming, not the chlorine.) She giggled, kicked, splashed and laughed - particularly enjoying going forwards. In subsequent swims she was less excited, but thoroughly enjoyed it. So then, on to the sea for some surfing...
