Today, I shall be ... mischievous!

Here is our little cherub... life is such fun!

Sitting in a sunbeam

This tousled look can be found each morning before Mummy puts the hairbrush to work.

Dancing on the quilt

Ana's Nana has pulled off a masterpiece of patchwork quilting - from tiny shards (or is that swatches?) of cloth she has produced a lovely blanket.

Here is Ana showing her appreciation by dancing on it and going "ohhhh".

She likes nice looking things. (This is why she likes her Daddy...) (Lara - Stop laughing.)

Story Time with Great Nana

Story Time is a wonderful time.

Calm descends upon the house for a moment or two as we loose ourselves in yet another gripping tale of 1 apple shared by 2 bears, chased by 3 canaries and 4 dogs... but to be fair, some of the books are really excellent.

The clue to recognising a terrible book is if it has NO author. This is a bad sign. Avoid books where the people who wrote them are ashamed to admit it!

But here Ana is engrossed in a nursery rhyme book with Great Nana. Lovely.

Making Houses!

Yes, astonishingly enough, Ana is already enjoying making houses (albeit with a little help from her parents) out of cushions! Here she is doing one of her many circles through her front and back door.

Taking care of the dolls

Ana has been developing her caring instinct recently, and can now rarely be separated from her 2 dolls: Molly Dolly ("Moi Doi") and Sophie Dolly ("Sophie Doi"). Here she is using her hairbrush to beautify them before an outing.

Woe betide anyone trying to put her to bed without them both!!!

Harvest Time Again!

Yesterday, when we said that we should pick an apple for desert, our little Ana, who has been so patient all season, somehow knew this was her cue. She leapt from her chair and ran through the kitchen to the garden to get her apple! Daddy caught her up to assist in the selection of the perfect specimen.

Concentration

Here is our little artiste completely absorbed in one of her masterpieces. Her style is certainly abstract, with a strong focus on the edges of the paper. Her pencil control is exceptional, so our table only suffers when she means it to, hence why we now have a lovely blue and white spotty plastic cloth covering it temporarily : )

Though this temporary cover may last a good 10 years, it is, none the less, temporary...

Ana and the brocolli

The other week we discovered that Ana is a BIG fan of brocolli! We had tried this a while ago and she disliked it, but gave her some recently and all she could say was 'bocci, bocci, more!'

Crazy Uncle Dom!

Ana has had a whale of a time with Uncle Dom and Aunty Crystal this weekend - they even got up at 6:30 with her and gave us a lie in!!! What joy : )

And the sponsor for this week is...

...from the land of coffee extraordinaire... the one and only giantissimo STARBUCKS!!! Ana rather enjoyed her strawberry milkshake, and, as she was teething and needed her mind taking off this, it worked wonderfully.

Uncle Simon - El Championo!

Ana had a lovely fun day at the tennis - watching Uncle Simon play and having a go herself. The day was definitely topped off by 'SiSi' winning the under 21s men's singles tournament, hurrah!

A piddlingly small cup for such a great achievement...

Does my bum look big in this?

On a beautiful sunny day a few weeks ago Ana was running round the garden in her lovely sunny nappy wrap... too cute not to blog : )

A bit more DIY

Here is our lovely new fence to keep a certain vivacious toddler within the bounds of our garden. A couple of weeks ago when Tim was on holiday he set about toddler-proofing (as much as possible) our patio area. Wonderful Uncle Simon also came along and helped, and a beautiful bay tree was donated by Nana to complete the nicely finished effect. Now we can stand back and admire...

Cornering at speed

Tim was going to title this 'She drives like her Mummy', but I cunningly commandeered the computer mid-blog...

Ana ADORES her pushchair, whether it is empty, or has dolls or teddys in does not seem to matter. And woe betide any other toddler who thinks they may like to push it, Ana's a match for any of them! She loved pushing it round Great-Grandpa's garden, only leaving it to run up and down the ramp to the garden many many times (which she fell off, twice).

Lifting the X-Wing from the swamp

So, Ana's too young to watch Star Wars, but we're hoping that if they make a new film they'll consider her for a role... here she is demonstrating how to lift a spaceship out of the swamp with nought but the force....

Coke Sponsors this Blog...

In order to pay for the ever increasing cost of shoes (not to mention college fees) we've taken to leasing advertising space on our blog to reputable large multinational corporations.

Today's friendly sponsor is the lovable, furry Coca-Cola Drinks Company.

For those people gasping with shock that our toddler is drinking coke, let me reassure you that her grandparents gave her the can, so that's ok.

Don't you think we got the product placement perfect?!

(And no, the can was NOT open...)

Just look at this rock, Ana!

So, Tim spent a few holidays on field trips to the Lakes, huddling for shelter from the driving wind and hail behind small outcrops of rock like this. It is amazing how interesting a feldspar can be when it means you don't have to stand up into the wet onslaught for another few minutes...

In this case, Ana wasn't that interested in this rock. She wanted to chase the sheep.

Happy, Sunny Family Photo

So, yes, the latest family photo...

Thanks go to the local Herdwick Sheep for taking this picture.

Teaching her the way to go...

So, the important things about walks are certainly (1) the scenery, but that is not always guaranteed to be wonderful (in this case it was) and (2) the inevitably melted chocolate bar.

Here I am introducing Ana to (2) - a sticky, messy Tunnock's Caramel Wafer Bar...

She seemed to like it. A lot!

Beautiful mountains

We did a gorgeous walk near the top of the Kentmere Valley on this lovely sunny day. We did discover that hiking with a toddler and a pregnant lady are slightly inhibiting to climbing mountains and doing long excursions, but we still saw some great scenery! Walks had to fit between naps, meals, nappy changes, and the changeable Lakeland weather - maybe we'll try again in a few years!

Ana did very much enjoy shouting at the sheep and cows as loudly as she could - the valley rang to cries of "BAA, BAA! MOOOO!"

"Mummy, can I get off now?"

On a sugar high from all his chocolate, Tim decided to take Ana on a flying fox zipwire. Unfortunately all the chocolate also meant that Tim and Ana nearly grounded at this point.

Ana loved it, really, um, well, perhaps not as much as Daddy... but Daddy REALLY wanted a go, and Ana was his ticket to jump the queue!

Fascinated

Ana adored Windermere, and was enthralled by the comings and goings on it (especially by the ducks, who, by their mass migration towards her, are clearly overfed by small children throughout the summer months).

The trouble was that she desperately wanted the 'balls' floating on the lake, and had to be held back to stop her leaping over the edge!

The trip...

In her haste to jump into Lake Windermere and get the giant 'balls' (buoys), Ana took a flying trip across the park. She's getting really fast!

The bean is growing and so is the bump!

All that Nutella must be doing the trick as the bump is coming on apace, trying to catch up with its rather tall big sister we think!

How does he keep his figure?!

While on holiday in the Lake District Tim decided to indulge in his favourite gastronomical treat... yes, that does say 1 kg of pure unadulterated Dairy Milk, mmmmmmmmmmm

Lara ate three quarters of it in one sitting...

(not really, but she is currently working on a huge pot of Nutella.... apparently, the baby needs hazelnuts.)