Princess Leah!

Ana has aspirations, and here she is (as she doesn't yet have her own hair) with a toy watermelon on her head in place of buns... It was VERY funny... (not that she's going to be allowed to watch Star Wars until she's 19, but hey, she can dream!).

A rest...

After a mad morning of running around, a momentary rest on the knee... and then she's off again...

We have to catch these peaceful moment when we can!

Boots

Ana loves her new boots. She runs around the house saying "Boos! Boos! Boos!" Very handy for dewy grass.

Baby sign Language

This is Ana signing that Mommy is asleep (pr. Sleee). (Everyone was apparently asleep in church on Sunday too during the prayer time!) very cute...

Quality time with Daddy...

Imagine yourself early in the morning. VERY early in the morning... the whole town is asleep. Except for Ana. And now her Daddy... Yes, it is time for quality time with Daddy. No, sleep means nothing to him... a stupified stumble down the stairs, one hand supporting himself against the wall, the other both holding Ana and preventing her from pulling all the pictures off the wall, 'folding' the air-drying washing or making that last ditch sweep at the pepper grinder....

After milk and books - attempts to stop page-ripping from the Bible (pr. 'Bibul' by the little cherub), failed attempts to stop page ripping from her favourite pop-up books, and the inevitable mountain of library books which need to be read, Daddy drags himself upstairs to change the nappy.

Oh what to play with now? Ah! The camera. Ana LOVES the camera. This kept us occupied for a good few minutes before it was Mummy's turn....

'Mama! Mama! MAMA! MAMA!'

'Mummy's upstairs, Darling.'

'Mama!!!! MAMA! MAMA!'


Another day has begun.

A New Farewell in the Making

We went and had a portrait photo taken today of the newest member of the family - we know it is not a very clear picture, but as it is only the size of your thumb, well, in this instance, we'll let the photographer off.

The new baby is due to make its first appearance in the world on, or around, Lara's birthday at the end of October.

Needless to say, we're very excited, and look forward to introducing him or her to you all.

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...