On the floor

Ana now loves to play on her front, especially when there are others at her level.

Anyone can suck their thumb...

... but can you suck your big toe?

Ana can.

And does.

Frequently.

Yummy.

Learning to Roll

For the last week or so, Ana has been learning how to roll, both to and from her back. This is very exciting for us, though our friends with older kids are telling us to start moving things up and out of reach...

But our Ana would never grab anything she wasn't meant to...

Little button nose

We'll let this photo speak for itself!

Crokinole Question

Ok, a question for you Canadians out there (or others who know Crokinole).

My cunning shot (black) ended up on top of Lara's white one -never had this happened before. This was quite good (for me) as it meant mine was impossible to hit! Is this a valid play, or should my piece have been removed?

Answer carefully, for the happiness of at least one Tim depends on your answer.

Angelic little sleeper...

With an expression like this; the sheer joy of going to bed, who would have thought we would be appreciating a book called "Solving your child's sleep problems"?

We're trying to wean her off waking up every two hours for a feed in the night, and actually, it seems to be going quite well. We're leaving her half an hour longer each night between feeds (now up to 3.5 hours) and she seems to be responding ok to it.

By the end of next week (we hope) she'll be sleeping through the night.

Somehow that seems unrealistic, but what a goal to aim for! (Your prayers are appreciated!)

Teething

"Who, me?" she seems to be saying as she stuffs our fingers, once more, into her mouth.

Most things seems to end up in there these days. To her there seems nothing wrong with giving any old thing (or finger) a good chew.

We'll be holding her, playing away, and then all of a sudden, you'll realise that she has wingled your finger back into her mouth! Very cute, but very slobbery.

Coco pops and Ana... a messy combination

On the morning of my birthday, greatly desiring to be 'young' I decided to have some coco pops. Ana, who redefines 'young' decided that she, rather than I, should be eating the coco pops. A raging battle ensued. I tried to keep the bowl beyond the reach of her small arms. But she had been practicing lunging whilst I was at work, and once she had distracted me by some cunning means, she leapt forward, grabbed the bowl and poured it all over herself, myself, the table, chair and carpet...

As Ana had put on her party dress that morning, she now has a pretty white and pink (and chocolate-coloured) party dress...

Ain't she cute?

Notice how I was cut out of the picture?

And yes, I do want another cake! (It was YUMMY!)

Tim's birthday cake

Now, not being the best person at baking cakes I decided to opt for an easy chocolate recipe... apart from the state of the kitchen all seemed to be going well - the cake had risen beautifully and smelt delicious. Then I made my big mistake, I should have just left it in the tin. I'm sure we could have eaten it straight out of the tin, it would have been fine! But no, I turned it out and the cake ended up in lots of little bits. Here's me making the icing to stick it all back together. Tim says it was yummy though (I think he wants me to bake another...)

She should be in bed...

It's nine o'clock and well past her bed time... though she is enjoying cuddles with her daddy. Poor Ana hasn't been herself the past two days. She normally is very talkative (I wonder where she gets that from?) but has been very quiet and today slept the better part of the day, after not sleeping too well last night.

So here we are. Cuddles, a bedtime story and we try once more.

Trying to get things done...

Getting things done is much harder with the little pickle-bean around. We are devising new ways to try to keep her happy while we unload the dishwasher / vacuum, etc. This attempt was to prop the mirror against Ana's bouncy chair. She loves looking at her 'friend' in the mirror - don't think she has quite realised the connection between her smiles and her friend's...

This bought me about three precious minutes...

which I used to take this photo because she was so cute!

Sleeping Cutie

You've all heard of the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty, well now we have a new tale of Sleeping Cutie. Unfortunately she's more cutie than sleeping most of the time, but here is a rare opportunity to see her flat out after a hard day's socialising.

Marshall B Reunion 2007

The motley crew is reunited once more, with another new addition (not shown here as she was taking the photograph... or maybe it was because she was sleeping). Most have now left to leave Gav time to recover before being shipped back to Cambridge.

If he's lucky, Simon will be driving...

Keep ups!

Her uncles would be proud! With a number of car journeys to practice her keep-up skills, her abilities with the football are coming along nicely. Will she follow her mother in a path of college football?

(for the international readers, by football, I mean soccer. I would dread to see either Lara or Ana playing American football... The opponents wouldn't stand a chance...)

Heading for Academia?

With a thoughtful pose like this, she is destined to go far in the world of academia.

The Happy Little Girly

Ana has now gone to sleep -hence the blogging. We have just come through about two weeks of quite awful nights - Ana wanting to be fed every 2.5-3 hours. Thankfully she is sleeping for a bit longer now - though I am still not sure how many full sleep cycles we are getting through.

Still Ana seems to be doing well on it - she is growing up as a bonny bouncing baby with lovely rosy cheeks.

Ana loves her Mummy!

Ana loves a lot of people, but especially her lovely Mummy. Mummy plays all day long with little Ana. Caught here with an increasingly common expression (smiling) Ana is telling her mother just how wonderful she is.

You should see the smiles she gives to her Daddy! (he said, not to be left out...)

(Though these are surpassed by those she gives to Mr. Turtle and Mr. Starfish)

Oh well...

Dancing with Daddy

Tim has discovered that if you hold Ana's hands she will happily wobble around all over the place, holding herself up on her little legs but unable to balance. This leads to a delightfully cute dance, made even more wonderful when she stomps her little feet too!

The Baby likes Music

It was discovered on a recent trip to the wilds of Cardiff that Ana likes piano music. Except when uncle Daniel plays 'twinkle twinkle little star' in a minor key...

At least she has discerning taste.

Smiling at Nana

We've known for some time that Ana is very popular with her grandparents, but now it's clear that they are also popular with her! Uncles, aunts, relations and friends also seem to go down pretty well...

The cutest baby in the world - ever

(you'll note this site is completely free from bias...) Ana's just got really smiley, which makes all those sleepless nights completely worthwhile. She's currently fast asleep on her daddy, curled up in a little ball being adorable. She is growing tremendously and is now in the 3-6 month sleepsuits; my little baby's all grown up!

Great-grandmother's day

Mother's day, Grandmother's day, Great-Grandmother's day!

We were pondering the effect that each of us has on others, and realised that, had it not been for Lara's Nana, 10 people would have never come into existence. Which is quite stunning really. And then on thinking about it further, there would be about the same number of people who would be really lonely without those!

So, a heartfelt 'thanks' to parent, grandparents and great-grandparents.

Horticultural exploits

The garden finally got some much-needed attention this weekend, made possible by Uncle Ben holding the baby and Uncle Gav assisting with the planting! Our lovely apple tree from Nana and Grumpy finally took up permanent residence in the border - we're now very hopeful of another bumper harvest in the autumn (nice timing - apple puree for Ana!).

Oh Canada...

Ana got all dressed up in the clothes of her Daddy's favourite hockey nation... they may have slightly clashed but neither Ana nor Tim seemed to mind!

Playing with Gran

Yesterday we had a lovely visit from Nancy, Hilary and Gran. After being put in her coat to go on our walk, Ana decided it was time for more standing - so standing she did!