Celebrating Steve's birthday and Chinese New Year

Our little teddy bear

Loving her toys

Elly is starting to laugh and play more as she gets older and this is the look we are seeing more often these days. How lucky are we!

Snow cute!

Snow gone!

Snow!

Splashing

Following Australian tradition, we're keen to teach Elly to swim. Maybe not an Olympic swimmer just yet, but she'll have to learn to out-swim all those killer Australian aquatic animals - with all the teeth, tentacles and spines. And that's just in the backyard pool.

So we went to the local pool for the first time today. It was a nice quiet day, and was a great chance to introduce her to the new sights and smells without too much chaos.

Things we learnt today:
- Elly is just fine in the water. There was wiggling and kicking and a determined look on her face.
- Her parents are also fine in the water, though ultra paranoid.
- The pram is too wide and doesn't fit in the change rooms.
- Then the pram then has to be parked in another part of the gym completely.
- It is a two person operation to juggle everything.

An interesting side-effect is that Elly now splashes a lot more in her bath, coating the floor. It is like she has discovered her swimming legs and wants to use them in small confined spaces.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Bridie, Steve, Elly and... Santa.

We introduced Elly to Santa today. She was clearly aware that she was in the company of someone who would be bringing her presents, and was on her best behaviour. After all, it is important to give a good first impression.

Santa Skate 2008

Once a year the London skate community have their special Santa Skate. Hundreds of skaters donate some money to the skate, get a Santa outfit and go on a tour of the major sites of London. But this year was different - I went along too!

The weather threatened icy rain, the roads threatened slippery surfaces, and Santa threatened never to visit me again. Still I braved the elements and put on my big one-size-fits-all Santa suit, complete with white fluffy beard. Fully dressed I felt as warm as Santa, especially after he drinks the sherry.


It was a great skate - mainly for attracting onlookers and bemused motorists. Good clean fun was had by all. Though it is a pity I'm going to be getting coal this year in my stocking.

Shakin' a Tailfeather - part 2

Well, since Elly was all dressed up and it was the first Friday of the month, we actually watched the Blues Brothers movie. There should be no surprise that we have it on DVD.

Elly watched on bemused as her parents got up and danced the Tailfeather together, it has been a while but the moves are still there.

Shakin' a Tailfeather

It's the first Friday of the month and Elly is ready to shake her tailfeather.

Are you my mummy?

That's right, we have been to the Dr Who exhibit at Earls Court. Steve had a day off, so we prepared for a big day out with scary monsters and special effects. Prepare to be amazed!

The exhibit focuses on the latest series with Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant - with their sets, costumes and creatures. For example the gas mask from possibly the spookiest episode ever, where a child follows people around asking "Are you my Mummy?"

The exhibit has been on for a while.... and it shows. The moving parts of the exhibit just seemed to creak, if they moved at all. But it was good to be there on a weekday - there were only 3 other people and we barely saw them. So we had K9, Cybermen and Daleks to ourselves.

Along the way we made some buff new friends. Here's Bridie up on stage with some metallic gogo dancers:

Even Elly got to meet a Dalek. Though clearly she is immune to the terror associated with the Supreme Commanders of the Universe...

Hoodie

...and Dad's been teaching me to poke my tongue out!

Look what my Nanny knitted for me

Don't I look pretty - Nanny Shirley knitted this for me and it arrived yesterday - I couldn't wait to try it on!

Check out my groovy tights

Sounds like...

Happy Halloween

Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween - hope you like my outfit - what you can't see are the cute socks that look like orange cowboy boots - Mum's crap with a camera sometimes.

Love Elly xxx

Look who's smiling

Despite the rumours of grumbles and grizzles, Elly is starting to smile - and it is no longer wind!

We've met Humphrey

Whilst out and about in John Lewis, we ran into Humphrey

Humphrey is 3 years old.

He is a gentle and soft elephant.

Sometimes he gets a bit noisy (if he is being an indian) or grumpy when he gets tired but usually Mummy says what a good boy he is.

Contrasted with Elly who is 6 weeks old, a gentle and soft siren who tends to be noisy and grumpy when she is not asleep. Otherwise Bridie will agree that she is a perfect princess.

PS. We still didn't find what we wanted at John Lewis.

Pink

Our house is slowly going pink.

Bridie has never been a pink person. I think it has always been a bit too girly for her. And since we didn't know if we would have an Ally or Elly, we had managed to avoid pink presents too.

But no longer.

Not only do we now get lots of pink presents (which I find adorable), I have also taken the step of washing my red T-shirt with lightly coloured clothes. As a result we now have lots of pink stuff.

Except for the angry red look Bridie gives me whenever the topic of T-shirts comes up.