Ana's pink shoes; Mummy's happiness. 
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.
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 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?!
...she feeds me yummy pizza!
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?
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.
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...)
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...
Ok, so the computer was a bit mangled over the festive season, but, yes, here is a Christmas shot...
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.
Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!
Ana is becoming more 'helpful' around the house. She loves to assist Mummy with the onerous task of sorting the washing. She loves to remove her (almost dry) nappies from the radiators. She loves to hoover up the occasional clot of mud tracked in on Daddy's shoe and puts them nicely out of sight. In her mouth.
Ana had her first taste of Christmas this weekend when we put up our Christmas decorations! During the festive fun of decorating the tree and hanging tinsel and lights, Tim came across an old book - a family favourite - and soon Ana was enthralled with the story. We hope she will be as enthralled with the real Christmas story one day as well.
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!
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.
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.
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 : )
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 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!
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?
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.
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!
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...
Here we are enjoying the glorious autumnal weather near Cissbury Ring in Sussex. And such beautiful views from the top!
