Stunt Riding

This is Rose stunt riding on her horse. She loves to stand up on the back and rock as hard as she can!

Speaking of standing up, Rose has taken her first steps! We were in Durham on the weekend and she took one step there. Then yesterday she took another, and then today at her music class she took one more!

All very exciting!

Measuring everything

We had the measuring tape out the other day, and Ana quite took to the idea of measuring things. She measured the horse, Rose (though we thought this was not such a good idea with the sharp metal...) and then she held the tape above her head.

I asked her what she was measuring, and she said, "the sky". Awwwww.

I've got a horse and another tooth!

Rose loves her ride-on toys, and we love the fact her lastest tooth has now come through - hopefully we will have a sleep through night tonight. Her latest tooth brings her up to an even eight. Not bad going...

Oh, the other day, Ana and Rose were both riding on this horse; Rose on the seat, Ana on the back, and yes, the inevitable happened. They went over backwards. The horse landed on Rose. And she just crawled out from underneath and tried to get back on... Lara tells me that this is the mark of a great horse-woman.

Gardening with Auntie Esme

Ana adores gardening and was so pleased to be able to 'help' Auntie Esme with planting her onions. Gardening has all the best ingredients - mud, water, fresh air and more mud...

Farewell babies

Here are Ana and Rose with their baby cousin Leia! Ana simply adores babies and was determined to hold her, though she did slide further and further down as the photo-shoot progressed : )

Incidentally, Ana did pick up Rose today, and very nearly dropped her on her head! Thankfully intervention happened just in time and Rose didn't seem to mind at all.

Playing together

Here are Ana and Rose enjoying matching their hands together through the french windows.

Water play

On our recent holiday in Bristol we went on a trip to the zoo. Ana did like the animals, but far better were Postman Pat, the park, and the amazing water play area! Thankfully it was a lovely hot day so she joined the other children paddling up little creeks and stepping between pools - what a fun afternoon.

Who needs Jess the cat

when you can have Ana instead?!

Sitting next to Postman Pat in his van was definitely one of the highlights for Ana at her trip to the zoo. She wailed when we took her off to see the cool monkeys because she wanted to sit with Postman Pat again!!

Ana the lion

Suits her!

Stunning weather

Tim took this shot out of the car window while in a traffic jam on the way home. What an awesome rainbow!

DIY strikes again!

Here we are finally painting our back doors - we've needed to do it since we moved in! Ana had the joy of putting the first few strokes of paint on, and then mummy commandeered the brush to complete the task.

Ana holding a rainbow

Precious moments of fascination.

I am just SO happy!

Happy happy me. I love the garden!

Rambunctious Rose

Our little Rose-bud is becoming rather adventurous in her own quiet way... Turn your back for a moment and she will be climbing up one thing or another (the higher the better!). Here she is climbing up the garden slide; she even made it to the top and had to be rescued!

Running down the road!

One of the great things about having children is an excuse to be childish again!

Rambling with Nana

And Papa and Great Grampa on the bridge in the background...

Lazy summer days...

Well here we are, still blogging from late August - life has been pretty hectic. I guess there weren't many of those lazy summer days!

Here we are enjoying some time with Lara's family, walking across the meadows and playing poohsticks from Rainbow Bridge.

The virtuoso

Rose has a new method of plucking the ukelele (or, according to Ana, 'the gidar'). This energetic method of playing necessitates constant retuning of the instrument, so this musical style may not catch on...

Ana and friends

Ana is a very sociable little girl, and loves to be with her friends.

Jumping bean!

Jumping in a sunbeam, very very high!

Chasing the croquet mallet

With all the excitement of croquet, Rose was not one to be left out. She sped across the lawn towards her sister's unattended mallet, seized it, and promptly whacked herself in the face with it. Isn't croquet fun?

Don't worry, after a cuddle with Daddy she was soon chasing mallets again.

Ana on the bouncy castle

One of the great delights of childhood...

(By the way, this is still from our holiday in Cambridge in early August. Yes, we are THAT far behind!)

A really big slide...

Ana provided the perfect excuse for Mummy and Zoe to go down this wonderful giant slide : )

An Ana snapshot

We had to blog this; it is just SO Ana!

Concentration

Ana loves cutting up paper.

She spends such a long time, for a toddler, in extreme concentration snipping off little bits of paper. A little bit off here, a little bit off there...

The other day, when I asked her what she was doing, she told me that she was "making kites", and indeed, she was - hundreds of tiny triangles scattered everywhere.