The properties of helium...

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!

Growing up...

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.

It's also fun being able to chase her around, and be chased by her, roaring as she comes!

If we could just up the amount of sleep by 107%, we'd probably feel a bit more sane...

Maybe we should have called her Sally...

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.

Can we have a vote please, Tim thinks I made up the saying 'long tall Sally', and is worried people may think we regret calling her Ana. May I say this is not the case. Have you heard the saying?

Oh, and the exciting news of the day is we've had our first on-line jewellery sale - yay!!! And we're booked in to sell at a Christmas craft fair in a few weeks - exciting!

P.S. Lara is so tired that she put a half-eaten avocado in the kitchen drawer the other day and almost tried to put the clingfilm in the fridge before the hygiene police stepped in.

(I'm the hygiene police - Gav - I bet you'd never have guessed that!)

(For those of you who don't know Gav, germs die on sight of him. He cleaned up after the cleaners in college.)

Stairs!

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 : )

Lara's business is up and running!

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 necklace shown here was crafted a night or so ago - so not up on the website yet - but keep checking (and PLEASE tell your friends!!!!) as new designs come on most days.

Oh, and if any of your friends would like to buy something, here is voucher code that you can give them to give them 10% off. Just enter friends into the voucher box at the checkout.

Thanks, all. (and apologies for the lack of Ana in this picture...)

Ana just won't sit still!

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!

Not only Ana gets to enjoy the playground...

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?

Playing on the swings

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.

Excited Girl!

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!

I wonder what glass tastes like...

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...

On the Sussex Downs

Here we are enjoying the glorious autumnal weather near Cissbury Ring in Sussex. And such beautiful views from the top!

Let me help!

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.

Oh! Let me play with the camera!

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!

Gift wrapped

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!

Toothy grin

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...

Ana loves her blocks

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...

"No you can't move"

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...

She also signed her first word today! (And, no, it wasn't 'Food', Uncle Daniel. It was 'Milk'.)

Peekaboo

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!

All the toys out of the basket...

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 : )

A week of developments

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...)

What makes a baby crawl?

Toys are so passé! Mobile phones? Now they are worth chasing. As are books, which she is not allowed to chew...

Although she's still no crawling pro, she can at least move forwards when she puts her mind to it.

Paddling

"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!

Water Baby

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...

Shed Restoration / Redemption

Lara and I love to restore things which have been left to ruin to something of their former glory (or improve upon that). There is something of the divine nature in that, we feel. Our mangy, spider-infested shed desparately needed some love and attention after being neglected for years. After some structural work and a good scrub down, we picked up the paintbrushes and set to work!

Unintentionally it turned out rather like a lovely beach hut, which is amusing considering we're about as far from the sea as is possible in England! In the picture you can see Ana trying to hide, in case we were to give her a paintbrush too.

Surf's up! (somewhere)

Bundle of joy!

Here is Ana having an after-bath snuggle, all bundled up in her towel. You can see two teeth in this picture, and it looks like two more will be joining them shortly...