I love dressing up!

Here is Ana, rather pleased with herself. She has Nana's scarf and is gloriously happy!

Scones, scones, glorious scones...

Ohhh!!!! Scones with double cream and strawberry jam!

ok, he did help a bit with this too...

So, to be fair to Nigel, he did help rather a lot with the tiling in the kitchen too.

Nana and Grampa Nigel come to help

We've appreciated Jenny and Nigel's help over the last few days. Jenny has been keeping us well fed and clean, Nigel has been keeping our garden chairs warm...

Yes, it is true...

I'm....

(this top courtesy of Auntie Crystal)

Daddy, can we go in now please?

Ana had had enough by the time Mr Snowman was finished, she did knock over the first by cuddling it, but number 2 was safe as Ana was done playing with snow... The plastic bags were just too embarrassing ; )

Ana in the snow

It snowed last weekend and Ana and Daddy went out to play in it. Ana wasn't too sure about the snow (or maybe it was the outfit?!), but here she is toddling about in it. To stop her getting soaked Tim dressed her in a bag over her bottom and bags taped on her feet - poor Ana clearly knew this was not the latest fashion...

Wow!

Ana likes the Fisher Price garage as much as her mummy did... Here you can see she's rather excited, though not quite dexterous enough to use the lift yet.

Are these ALL for me?!!!

Yesterday Ana got a huge treat - her first ever taste of chocolate! As there were over 400 Easter eggs (this is a literal figure) in the house yesterday, we feel it would have been rather mean of us to deprive her any longer from this delectable treat. Needless to say she loved it and went round everyone else asking for their Easter eggs once she'd had hers!

Ana the explorer

Ana likes to explore. Here she is emptying yet another drawer, this time of our keys - let's hope she didn't hide them afterwards! In the background you can see our latest DIY achievement - glazing and hanging a reclaimed Victorian door. It's not quite finished, as it needs a handle (may be useful!) and a little sanding.

Uncle Simon, You're Even Better than this Biscuit! (at Tennis)

Uncle Simon, today, claimed the match / championship point for Hills Road at the Boys National School Tennis Championships. A glorious victory, by all accounts!

His parents, who gallantly arose at 4:30 this morning to support him at this historic sporting event, were treated to a nerve-tingling, epic, four hour, hard fought battle by the team through the semi-finals, and then to the final - and beyond!

Well done Mr. Simon!

She's a-walking

Well, that day arrived - Ana is now walking! It all started on Thursday when she took two steps in a row. Friday brought seven consecutive steps, and Saturday, fourteen.

The cutest thing is when she overbalances slightly, and thrusts her arms out to rebalance herself, then stands up straight once more. Very cute.

She's still much faster at crawling than walking, but I expect that will change in the next few weeks. It is easier to get into the drawers if you can stand up all the time!

A hat from Peru

Gavin recently came to stay and brought a beautiful Peruvian alpaca hat back (from his wanderings in Peru) for Ana , which she LOVES.

This is rare, as she normally hates hats. We actually have wanted a hat similar to this for some time so that we could tie it on her head, but so far, we haven't needed to tie it on as she is so reluctant to remove it.

She has also taken to trying to put her gloves on her head now too...

Pink shoes and happiness

Ana's pink shoes; Mummy's happiness.

Here is a picture of Ana's first pair of proper shoes, purchased just the other day. You can see that we've gone for sensible, brown, hard-wearing shoes that will last her for the next 17 years.

...thankfully they are a lot more comfortable than Mma Makutsi's pair...

The squirting starfish of delight

Ana loves her bath toys, but discovered the other day that Mr Starfish has hidden talents - he can squirt water all the way across the bathroom. As you can see, Ana was stunned at this display.

Enjoying the fruits of her labour

Having emptied her drawer, Ana proceeded to 'try' all her clothes on. Here she is trying to get a top on, I think she has a little way to go though before I let her out in public having dressed herself!

Ana loves clothes

Ana really is a very girly girl sometimes, and loves nothing more than going through her drawer and taking out all of her clothes. Here she is getting the last couple of items out (which required diving head-first into her very deep drawer!). A career in fashion maybe?!

I love staying with Nana...

...she feeds me yummy pizza!

On a Tim-and-Lara induced deviation from healthy eating, Ana got her first taste of pizza at the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Daddy, now that I'm one....

Oh Daddy... don't you think that now that I am one year old, I should be allowed some of your chocolate? Daddy? Don't you? Huh?

Pleeeaaasse?



(Poor me.)

I'll go ask Mummy now...

Hi Ho Silver!

Can you see the excitment in our quiet, reserved little child? Ok, well, she may not be quiet or reserved, but exicted - oh yes! She sure does love her new horse.

We're thinking of calling it "Bilbo", though Lara doesn't like that name. Nor does Ana. And actually, come to think of it, it really isn't that great a horse's name.

How 'bout "Chuck"?

"Rainbow"?

"Flautist"?

"Lighting"?

The lines are open at 21:30. Texts cost £10,000 plus standard network fee. Calls charges at £200,000 per minute. At least 1.5% of profits go to a random horse fund for Ana's second, real pony.

Lots of Presents!

Ana had a LOT of excitement today opening all her colourful cards and parcels. Books, puzzles, toys... wow! She won't know what to play with first tomorrow (After her milk, (dragged-out) breakfast and mandatory two nappy changes...)

'Officially' (I am told), Ana is no longer a 'baby'.

(sigh)

All growing up. And yes, we are thinking of saving for her college fees...

Bring on year two!

(And she is sleeping SO much better now - 50% of the nights, 7pm til 6am)

Our little baby is 1!!!

Today we celebrated Ana's very first birthday - what a special occassion! Here she is enjoying her birthday cake with its single candle, though we must admit that she burst into tears when it got blown out...

That aside, we've enjoyed such a wonderful day with family and friends. Parcels, phonecalls, and cards galore! Thank you all so much!

Christmas Morning 2007

Ok, so the computer was a bit mangled over the festive season, but, yes, here is a Christmas shot...

Ana's first Christmas morning. After a slow start, she quickly got the knack for opening presents at great speed (obviously one of the Kerridge traits) and was eager to help all and sundry with their presents too.

What a joy!

Almost a year old!

Tomorrow is Ana's first Birthday! In preparation for this momentous day, she felt she should have a nice long nap today. Here she is looking adorable (as usual, of course) with her dolly.

We look forward to seeing what this next year will hold.

Belated Christmas and New Year's Greetings

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!

Due to technical difficulties, we have not been able to post to this blog for some time, so we apologise to those faithful visitors who have not seen a new post in weeks!

Anyway, we're back now (for the moment) and I'm sure we'll be blogging millions of photos for your delicatition and delight.

Love from us all.