Of Relatives And Restaurants

I was pleased to receive a special Award from Mummy and Daddy last week. It was Best Behaved Baby Girl In A Restaurant Ever (Nine Months Category). I am teh Big Girl!

Yep, Grandad B and Granny She came down all the way from Yorkshire to see me, and finally persuaded Mummy and Daddy to abandon their 'no Lulu in restaurants because it isn't fair on the other customers' policy for teatime. So off we went for teatime at the Somerford, and were ushered to the far end of the restaurant to sit round a big round table for our dinner after a bit of a wait.

The highchair the nice lady bought for me was blue, and very open indeed. Not that I can't find ways to circumvent the straps on my own chair at home if I feel like it, but this one made it really easy! However I tipped my hand a bit too soon for my own good with an attempt at the floor, so Mummy tightened up the straps, really tight. I couldn't even get both my feet up on the food tray or anything.

As grownup food takes a while to cook and it was already my dinnertime, Mummy asked the lady to bring me some bread while we waited. So everyone else watched me eat, and looked all envious as I munched my way steadily through a couple of slices of bready goodness. In fact I've taken to plain bread so much now that I keep stealing Daddy's when he has broth for lunch...

Soon however my food arrived. I had a kiddywiddy portion of fish bites, chips and beans, and it was really yummy. Daddy says food always tastes better when someone else cooks it, Mummy says that's just because his cooking isn't very good...

Mummy had a nice healthy salad as she usually does, Amber and Grandad B had the giant Burger thingies, Granny She had a traditional haddock and chips, and Daddy had the Mixed Grill, a meal he describes as being able to make your arteries go "Kerchuuung" just by looking at it for too long. I didn't catch what all of its ingredients were, but there was definitely meat involved. Lots and lots of meat.

Thing was, I didn't go true to form. In fact Daddy wryly remarked that I ate much more neatly and tidily than I do when he feeds me at home. Everyone, the waitress and even the people at the next table (except for the teenage girl who kept worrying loudly about how she looked and if her hair was nice - she was really annoying) said how well I was behaving. And I was quiet too, no shrieking, no yelling or trying to wrench the tray free from the chair - which yes I have to admit is something I do quite often at home.

Unfortunately there was a very naughty boy a few tables down who was much bigger than I am who made far more noise. He was being really mean to his brother and his Mummy didnt seem to want to do much about it, and when she did tell him off he started fake coughing really, really loudly until she stopped. Daddy quietly made a very cutting remark about how well behaved I was by comparison, can't say I blame him really.

Try not to let the glare from my halo hurt your eyes there.

After you have your grownup meal at a restaurant, you can have your pudding as well. Daddy got some pie, Amber had some ice cream and Grandad B and Granny She shared a huge ice cream and even gave me some - my first ever taste of ice cream. It was so yummy I even forgot that I'm not supposed to let anyone who isn't Mummy, Daddy or Amber hold me for more than two minutes and let Granny She hold me the whole way through pudding time!

Once we were done we said goodnight to Grandad B and Granny She and Mummy drove us home, and then she went back to have more time with them. Poor Mummy does miss them very much, she is always upset when they have to leave again and wishes they could be with us for longer.

In the morning I was supposed to get an early breakfast so I could leave room for a brunch (which is like my Tenses used to be before Daddy started giving me my toast instead of a bottle first and then cut them out of our day, the meanie), but wouldn't you know it, I decided to lie in for ages and eat every last crumb of my toast as well, so when everyone else was sitting down salivating at the thought of a nice brunch I wasn't that hungry, so I settled for a slice of Daddy's bread and one of his Hash Browns.

Brunch was at a place called the Cliffhanger. It sits on top of the cliffs that Highcliffe (where Granny and Grandad Williams live) is named after. You can also see Naish, where the famous Conception takes place, from there as well, and even the bits where the cliffs on that side have all collapsed. If it happened this side as well Granny and Grandad would be living in Crumblecliffe or Fallencliffe instead.

Once upon a time Daddy used to walk the whole way from Highcliffe to Barton-on-Sea along the beach. Now you literally can't do that any more because the cliffs have collapsed and jutted so far out into the sea. It started happening during the winter Granny and Grandad moved down, which just happened to be the stormiest winter for decades - bad timing on their part there...

Naish is smaller now than it was back then. This is because it owns the land the collapsing cliffs are part of, and during the scary stormy winter some of its holiday apartments actually fell down the cliffs! I kid you not, there used to be thirty-foot pipe sections jutting out of the cliff wall a few years back, and to this day there is a roadway that used to lead to those apartments which just...ends. Yes, there is a sign and stuff but its still a bit scary, frankly!

Anyway, once again I was a little angel. I really have got this whole eating out business down to a fine art now, I rock at it! In fact I could put certain much bigger people than I to shame, Daddy says. Even when I had finished and should theoretically have been getting ready for my midday nap by getting all snippy, I was still a little angel as long as I was still getting Daddy snuggles. Besides they have a huge mirror behind the bar which kept me entertained for ages :)

However after brunch it was the sad time again (see above). Mummy was very upset about Granny She and Grandad B having to leave, so she went back to the house while Daddy and Amber walked me up to see Granny and Grandad Williams for a nice visit. After an hour or so Mummy came over there too and we had another first - I graciously let Granny and Grandad babysit me for a whole ten minutes while Mummy and Daddy went to look at carpets round the corner. Yes, Amber was there too and her and Granny were sat down on the rug with me and a whole box full of toys, and yes, I didn't realise that Mummy and Daddy had pulled a fast one and slipped out until they were actually backa agin, but that's not the point. It was technically genuine babysitting time, so there's another milestone crossed...

So that was my last week's midweek, you might say. Good food, great rellies and lots of polishing the old halo. It's not a bad old life really, when you think about it.

My First Christmas Day

I did that Christmas thing for the first time a few days ago. It seemed to consist of rellies, shiny bright wrapping paper and lots of food. I think I liked the paper best - no offence to the rellies but they did move to Scotland after all and apparently that's bad. Certainly Daddy seems to get a little...cutting, when he refers to 'the whinging, leeching parasites', which he insists is the collective noun for a group of Scottish people.

(I am now sat on daddy's shoulders with my legs wrapped around his head, with my hands ripping at his hair. This is Mummy's way of ensuring there are typos unless Daddy stops typing and gets me undressed so she can run my bathwater.)

It started off like any other day - Daddy got me up for my first bottle, I noshed it, I fell asleep, he took me back to bed. But when we woke up my sissy got to come onto the bed and open a shiny present and a card with lots of special Gift Certificates in. That was new!

The Gift Certificates weren't like normal ones for buying stuff at Arghs and Weeweestones. They entitled Amber to special things like 'Kick Daddy off the computer for an hour' and 'Daddy cleans the rabbits out today'. She is biding her time with them though, I reckon she'll leave the bunny ones until it's raining so hard you can barely even look outside without wanting to dry off.

After I had my Tenses (which are like elevenses but a bit earlier, and a lot messier) and had the traditional screamy cleanup session after smearing myself thoroughly with nana as usual we went over to Granny and Grandad's. Once we got there we sat down in the living room and we really got down to present unwrapping in a very serious way.

I got books. I got toys. I got toys I can chew on, including a strange crabby thing with lots of little nobbly bits and a bit you can push to squeak. That was my favourite of all. It has hardly left my side, or my mouth for that matter. I have really enjoyed dribbling all over it.

The best bit was of course the wrapping paper. I lost count of how many times I gobbed my dummy out and then had it popped back in again before I could nosh some of it down - anything that pretty and shiny just has to taste good, right? I swear I only left a nanosecond between the dummy coming out and paper going in, but Mummy and Daddy were always there to make sure it didn't happen. They are annoyingly efficient sometimes, it really hacks me off!

I had a whole new load of things to chew on through the day, but the best teeth-related part of it was the lunch. It was my very own portion of Granny's special roasty dinner - chicken, sausage, veggies, taters and special Baby Gravy. Sure it took me twice as long as everyone else to plough through it but at least I wasn't groaning under the strain of not throwing up like everyone else seemed to be. I paced myself, see?

Granny doesn't half do a massive spread. Daddy said he'd go and pick the bones of the chicken after we were done so it didn't go to waste, but this most definitely didn't happen, in fact it looked more like we'd be picking his bones up off a stretcher by the time he'd noshed a couple of mince pies after the main course. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

After such a huge nosh I had to have a good kip, but I was determined to stick around for more presents so Daddy had to take me into the little bedroom where Amber stays when she is at Granny's away from everyone else, and rock me off to sleep. I stayed down on him for ages, but oddly when I woke up I was on Mummy. I think she gets a little jealous when I am asleep on Daddy sometimes, but stealing me off him when I'm asleep is a bit much.

I was feeling so well disposed after all this noshing and napping that I even let Grandad cuddle me for, oooh, must have been a whole two minutes. Scary, huh? I definitely must have been filled up with that Christmas spirit that's in all those films Mummy keeps insisting we watch lately on the telly. As well as the sausage.

As time drew close for teatime though we decided to go home to give me my tea. This decision was slightly influenced by Mummy and Daddy's realisation that they had managed to leave the bag with my bottles in at home...so off we went back to our little house for tea.

Inevitably however one of Amber's special christmas pressies hadnt made it to Granny's, and it turned out that Mummy and Daddy had hidden it at the bottom end of my cot so well that they had forgotten where they had actually put it. About par for the course really, that.

When we did eventually open the present, it was the DVD of a film called the Dark Knight, and it had a very funny looking man in a black suit with small bunny ears on who seemed to be very upset all the time. The other person in it was a very strange man with makeup on, who talked in a funny voice in the bits I could see. Daddy says soon I will start 'getting' films, and won't be able to watch as much telly as I do now.

(Today a funny thing happened. My sister was being a bit of a sulkydraws and Daddy went up to her and licked his lips in a funny way, then said "Why so serious?" in exactly the same voice as the man with the makeup on from the film! Amber raised her eyebrows at him, and they went even higher when he started crowing about how well he had done the impression. I got the distinct impression from her that she wanted to find the makeup stick the man in the film used and insert it where the sun doesn't shine, even from my radiant Daddy.)

So that was my first Christmas. I got to see Granny and Grandad, and even the people who gave us their old high chair which I now sit in for dinnertime popped in from over the road to pay homage to the awesome wondrousness that is me, so Mummy and Daddy could say thank you in person for them giving it to us. A proper old cooing fest, all things considered.

I think I am still full of Christmas spirit, you know. I gave Mummy the present of a huge weewee all over her this morning when she changed me as Daddy got my morning bottle ready downstairs, so I know my generosity still hasn't diminished just yet...

Night night and sleep tight everyone.

Bournemouth Bournemouth Bournemouth

Yes Bournemouth, Lulu was back! You see my big sister had managed to leave her Peebag on the bus (still having trouble getting why she carries a bag of wee around to school three times a fortnight, but there you go) but luckily it had been handed in to the driver and so Mummy and Daddy took me into Bournemouth to get it and decided to make an afternoon of it.

I didn't want to go in the car at first, and had a righteous mimp about it. Well all right, to be precise I didn't want to have any clothes on at all and had a righteous mimp about that, and then had a righteous mimp about getting in my coat and the car seat. However Daddy cheered me up from the back seat by pulling silly faces at me and talking to me as usual and my mood soon improved.

When we got to Bournemouth we parked opposite one of Daddy and Amber's favourite places - the great big Ohdeeon. This is a place where you go to watch films on great big giant screens and you dont have to put tapes or DVDs in them first. Daddy and Amber used to go there on a Sunday morning to see lots of films because they did very cheap movie tickets for kiddiewid films. They even had an 'on the way to the cinema' song and everything!

After Daddy reminisced about the Ohdeeon we walked down to a bookshop called Waterstones and bought some books about children who have misplaced their things but take a while to find them, like "That's Not My Dragon" and "That's Not My Rabbit". I guess they must be for my sister as she is always losing things. Maybe there's one called "That's Not My Peebag".

I started to get a bit mimpy in Waterstones as Mummy got to the counter then asked about 10,000 more books. That's what Daddy said, anyway. She said it was only one or two but she was in there an awfully long time so Daddy wheeled me backwards and forwards outside untul she was done.

I was still a bit mimpy when we walked down to get Amber's peebag from the Yellow Bus office near the big Square. I soon got distracted though, as there were lots and lots of things to see. Every year in Bournemouth as December draws near there are lots and lots of new stalls that spring up outside, both in the Square and leading up Commercial Hill. They are all in neat wooden booths that look like mini-cabins, and they sell lots of food and drink and christmassy things for all the people that flood Bournemouth looking for presents at this time of year. People were just starting to put them up when we got there, so if we go back again before Christmas there will be lots and lots of cool food and shiny things to play with, yay Bournemouth!

After going to get the peebag and seeing the stalls being put up, we went inside a shopping mall on Commercial Hill. Mummy went upstairs to the sports shop and Daddy took me into a place called Humv to look at the Metal CDs. Apparently one of his fave bands from when he was young and had hair down to his bottom (still have trouble picturing that) has a new album out and he got all excited, bless him.

However by this point I was getting tired and just like last time everybody seemed far too busy to coo over me, so I started turning heads by conducting our conversation in Yell. Daddy stopped looking through the CDs and talked to me for a minute, and a very miserable looking boy with the floppiest fringe ever bumped into the Tank and gave Daddy a really evil stare, as if it was his fault that he missed seeing a four foot tall ABV (Armoured Baby Vehicle). Daddy politely suggested that if he cut his fringe he might be able to avoid stationary objects, and he stalked off with his lip wobbling.

I think Daddy made him cry. I know I'd cry if I had a haircut that stupid.

We went outside of Humv to wait for Mummy, but she took ages and ages upstairs doing her shopping (again). When she eventually did emerge we went to have our lunch in the Moon! Twas funny, I always imagined it would be more cratery and white, but instead this Moon was full of people having drinkies and nosh.

We found a little table in the corner of the Family Area, and the momentous occasion of my first ever sit down meal occurred. Mummy went to order her and Daddy's food and get some hot water to heat my bottle up, and when she had got it Daddy gave my bottle while Mummy went outside for some potential lung cancer, as Daddy puts it. I really don't think Daddy likes her smoking again, you know.

Well, I can tell you I felt very grown up indeed, having my bottle in a proper restaurant like the grownups do. I am a proper Big Girl now!

Mummy and Daddy both like eating out, as Daddy says that food always tastes better when someone else has cooked it, and Mummy generally adds that with his cooking it's pretty much a certainty. They both like Chinese and Italian food, though Daddy still likes Rice even when he has Italian food. He usually has something meaty whereas Mummy has something Spaghetti-like. His favourite is a special Seafood Risotto, Mummy's is Spaghetti Bolognese. Unfortunately these dishes are from two different restaurants, but that's Mummy and Daddy for you.

After we all had our lunches, we went back home and I fell asleep in the car. It did seem to me that my big sister was back early, and Daddy said that this was because she had been on a whistle-stop tour of lots of different places where people worship God. Or Gods. Or ancestors. I think he must mean like her Dungeons and Dragons playing Lamb worships Azuth. I wonder if she went to an Azuthan Temple?

After all that excitement I really didn't want to go to sleep and kept waking myself up to play with Daddy after my last feed. I managed to get up, do a big stinky weewee so as to require a big bum change, then fight the sleepiness until Mummy got home from hockey practice. It's a great talent of mine, that is.

Today I did really well with my baby rice, and Mummy and Daddy were very pleased. I think they wish taking these luverly solids would help me sleep better, but you can't have everything.

Grandad is very pleased with my insomniac tendencies of course. He says I am his revenge on Daddy for not going to sleep until he was 4 1/2 years old. Daddy says it wasn't his fault, he didn't know better. Grandad says neither do I, so that all works out in the end. Not sure I follow the logic there, but Grandad seems very pleased with it so who am I to argue?

Night night and sleep tight everyone.

The First Word

At 5 months and nineteen days old there was the Word. And the Word was 'Daddy'.

Grandad says we're on the slippery slope now, and no one will be able to shut me up until the 22nd century.

Beaches, Buggies, More Shiny Things, Apologies And Shameless Plugging

I walked the beach to Granny and Grandad's today! Yep, I got to do that thing that Daddy and Amber often do but Mummy will never do.

Well, I say walked, what that means obviously is that Daddy pushed me along in the Tank for ages and ages and I got to enjoy sun, sea and sand. Bits of it must have hurt as well, cos even though the Tank is an all-terrain vehicle with big wheels and suspension and all that jazz, its still not easy pushing a quarter-ton of buggy and baby through soft sand for several hundred metres, which is what Daddy had to do when we got to the bit where Amber and Daddy normally play chicken with the tide (and Amber loses, bless her).

Pity in many ways that I slept through most of it really.

I missed the Big Digger doing its digging too, Daddy says. I reckon I would have liked that a lot. Ah well, maybe next time. What I did manage to see was the two Coastal Protection chappies and their doggy. Their doggy is a big black doggy, and Amber and Daddy met them before when they were having a tea break by the bench Amber and Daddy had a rest on.

You see Amber and Daddy were admiring the doggy, who was sat behind their van. Then the two men started the engine and Daddy jumped up and yelled at them because he thought they were going to leave the doggy behind or even worse maybe run her over! But it turns out that she is used to them doing this and she runs along the promenade behind the van all day when they are working. She looked like a very good runner when Daddy pointed her out to me.

The waves were really pounding in, and Daddy kept trying to get me to look out at the sea. But I preferred looking up at the cliffs, because Daddy told me they have loads and loads of wild bunny rabbits in them. Apparently the bunnies make loads of burrows in the lower slopes of the cliffs (and trust me, there's a good reason why the place Granny and Grandad live is called 'Highcliffe'). I was a bit disappointed when we couldn't spot any, but then again Daddy was looking out over the sea and being all awestruck and wussy so he probably wouldn't have seen anything if ten of them had stood on the slopes and recited Pocoyo scripts with a bullhorn.

Once we reached the end of the promenade we had to go up the roadway that the Diggers and the Coastal Protection people use to get down to the beach. It is very steep indeed and Daddy was looking a little...red when we reached the end.

When we got to Granny's she cooked Daddy his favourite lunch - boiled egg sandwiches. We sat in the dining room like civilised folk in Grandad's computer chair and I demonstrated my alien superstrength by managing to grab and pull the entire tablecloth with everyone's lunch on it several inches towards me. I'd have had the whole lot down if Daddy hadn't stopped me, the big spoilsport.

I actually let Grandad have a good cuddle today for once. It was only when he put me higher up to lay my head on his shoulder that I realised that Daddy had strayed at least six feet away from me. I wasn't having any of that nonsense so I let the bottom lip wobble like the opening note of a dodgy folk song, then let rip.

Daddy cuddles are just better.

Later on Mummy came over to Granny's after finishing her revision for the day. She and Daddy took me to see the other purveyor of the shiny things, not-Auntie-Christine. She is the lady that sold Amber her huge poster of 75 gemstones when Amber was only about five and was really amazed at how much she already knew about shiny things. She has a huge black doggy called Hendrix who is sometimes in the shop and is really sweet.

Unfortunately I wasn't...brilliantly behaved, let's say. After a few minutes of cooing Mummy took me over to see some of the gemstones in the thick glass containers just in case there happens to be one or two that Amber actually doesn't have, and I managed to get hold of the Carnelian container and sort tip them all onto the floor. A bit.

Daddy did that thing where his eyebrows go up at Mummy and explained that it might be a bit better if I wasn't allowed within tentacle's reach of anything grabbable. So Mummy handed me over to him and he showed me more shiny things. From a distance.

Thing was, I was feeling a bit hard done by. It was only one container full after all, its not like they were really shiny, after all. So I decided to show my displeasure with a nice big chunder. All over Daddy's arm. And down his trousers. And on the carpet too.

Mummy and Daddy were very embarassed and very apologetic. So they should be too, not letting me play with all the shininess! So we went back to Granny's and went home to await the return of Amber so we could tell her all about our day.

Night night and sleep tight everyone.

Daddy's Note: The store in question is Precious Pebbles, and the owner has always made time for Amber and explained/discussed mining and extraction processes, markets, artificial growing and all kinds of technical stuff to her from a very early age, when a lot of proprietors might have been completely disinterested in engaging with a small child. She has given us many discounts and directed us to new and rare stones to add to Amber's collection, and has enhanced her education in her Gemology/Geology hobby no end. So if you are looking for something shiny to give for Christmas, please click the link and I am sure you will agree you could do a lot worse than this as a way to say thanks on our behalf. And also, sorry about the chunder on the carpet.

Cooing Party

A strange thing happened last night. Mummy and Daddy put together a special surprise for me at my big sister's school. They got hundreds of Mummies and Daddies together in the Hall to come and coo over me! Wasn't that nice?

Granny and Grandad came over to look after Amber while we were gone and we drove off to the school in the dark. I spent a lot of time looking around at all the lights from the cars and streetlights and the like. When we got there I was confused when Daddy got me in my coat and out of the car because normally when we go to Amber's school I stay in the car and wait for her to come out. This time she didn't come out because she was already at home, and I got to go in!

Well, what a gathering. There were hundreds of Mummies and Daddies, and lots of banners with the grown-up 'rytin' on. I'm not sure but I guess they must have said 'Welcome Lulu' or something like that.

Lots of Mummies and Daddies smiled at me as we walked through the crowd, and some of them stopped Mummy and Daddy so they could have a quick coo. Frankie's Mummy was there too, and she cooed a lot and said how big I'd got even in the last few weeks since she'd seen me.

Mummy and Daddy talked to some of the Mummies and Daddies for quite a long time, especially the ones with the big badges on. But here was the funny thing - whenever Mummy and Daddy talked to the people with the big badges, all they seemed to want to talk about was my big sister! I hardly got a mention at all, it was most annoying.

I was still miffed about this when we left the school, and decided to be really crabby in the car on the way home. Unfortunately Mummy went straight off to hockey practice when we got home so I couldn't continue to vent at her, but once Granny and Grandad had gone home and Amber had gone to bed I decided to let Daddy feel the full force of my displeasure by refusing to touch half my last feed and then detonating a very pasty Size Seven in my nappy. Late night pooing, that's the new way to assert myself, yeah baby!

Hopefully now Mummy and Daddy have learned their lesson and next time they throw me a party they won't be rude enough to talk about how my big sister's doing at school instead of how wonderful and cute I am.

Fighting Back Against The System. Man.

Yep, that's what I've been doing today. Asserting my Baby Rights against the Matriarchal/Patriarchal Hierarchy. Right on!

See I'm supposed to have a daytime sleep for at least an hour or so as well as my little naps or I get really cranky by the evening. That's what Mummy and Daddy aka the Parental Oppressors say. But would I succumb to the demands of the System today? No, I wouldn't!

What's brought all this on? Weeeell, I got my first ever black T-Shirt today. As I am a proper Gothy rebel now I have the clothing to prove it, I thought I'd better get with the struggle. Or Something.

Apart from the general snippiness caused by my lack of a proper kip, and my poopy teeth still giving me serious issues I had another fun day, actually. I stayed with Daddy while Mummy took Amber and her schoolfriend Frankie to the swimming pool they go to on a Friday morning and then Mummy went swimming with her other friend at a different pool, just to be confusing. Once I had my 10 o'clock feed Daddy took me into Christchurch in the Tank (well that's what Daddy calls my Buggy/Car Seat combo anyway). Apparently when Grandad was in the Army he drove Tanks, which means he was a bit of a funny soldier to be pushing baby buggies about the place. When he learns to speak Gurgle I shall ask him about it.

When we got to Christchurch we went to the Library. That's a place where you have to be really quiet and not make any noise, Daddy says, so I decided to be good and hardly made a sound the whole time we were in there. Daddy was so pleased with me that he took me to see one of my top Cooing friends, the lady who runs the Chilly Wizard shop.

She is a very nice lady, who always spends ages talking to me in between customers. The Chilly Wizard is one of Daddy's favourite food places as it sells special Sorbets that he can eat because they have no Dairy in them to hurt his tummy, and also they sell Ice Cream for Diabetic people (who must be from Diabia or somewhere else exotic) as well as regular ice cream.

They make the best Ice Cream in Dorset Daddy says. When they say they are offering Strawberry flavour, they really mean made with fresh strawberries, right there in the store. Sometimes you can watch them making it if you are there at the right time, and whenever the Lady is trying out new flavours she always offers some to Mummy, Daddy and Amber so they can try them out and tell her what they think.

Daddy's friends always come in pairs. Yesterday we walked out of the Sports Shop from seeing one friend and then saw another, and today as soon as we left the Chilly Wizard we saw another friend of Daddy's. Daddy hadn't seen her since I was born as apparently she works very long hours and he hardly ever bumps into her anymore.

She gave me very big smiles and Cooed over me lots and lots, and I gave her great big smiles back again too. I think she is very nice and I hope we will bump into her again soon so I can have more Cooing. She thought me having my own Blog was a very funny idea and said she would come and read all about the rest of my day. So if she does come and see what I've been up to, then hello and big hugs to her :)

We popped into the jewellers for yet more Cooing (I have so many fans) and then Daddy walked me back home again to see Mummy. Mummy gave me my next feed and then we went shopping for more clothes for me in Boscombe. This was when I got the black T-shirt I mentioned above, and felt like a proper Goth Baby. I also got a new sleepsuit, two more tops and a really cute pair of jeans. Bonus!

It was all go though, and Mummy had to go and pick my sister up from school and then came back to collect me and took us both over to Granny and Grandad's house so Daddy could get on with some jobs he had to do. I let Granny hold me for a whole five minutes without screaming the place down, wasn't I good? Course I screamed the place down the second she'd used up her five minute goodwill quota, but that's not the point.

Once I came home with Mummy (Amber stays over at Granny's on a Friday night normally) I finally succumbed to tiredness during my feed and fell asleep for a while. But when I did wake up, my was I a cranky little soul. Daddy had to wrap me up in my lovely yellow Blanky and take me out to the back garden. It was very dark outside, but the clouds were only thin and weedy so I could see the gorgeous moon again. It was very bright tonight and I stared at it for ages, couldn't take my eyes off it in fact. In fact it was so relaxing that I dozed off again, right there in Daddy's arms!

When I woke up I still wasn't a happy camper because I just hadn't had enough sleep, and I was virtually ready for my last feed before bedtime, too. I was so wrecked that I went to sleep in my cot while Mummy and Daddy sorted out loads of washing on the bed next to me.

Mummy and Daddy are very tired so I may give them a lie-in tomorrow. I'm thinking that giving into the demands of the System may earn me more cuddles, now I come to think of it...

Night night and sleep tight everyone.

My Busy Day

We never found the salesman, in the end. Daddy seemed a bit dissappointed. I looked and looked from my little car seat when we went down to Mudeford Quay this morning, but I just couldn't see him.

When we got to the Quay we did just about my favourite thing ever - feeding the birdies. At Mudeford there are the big white ones with the wings that are twice the size of me, and the little ones that go quack a lot and stay clear of the big white ones, and of course the best ones - the shrieky white ones that snatch the bread right out of the air and hover in front of me almost close enough to touch.

I say almost because no matter how hard I try, Daddy never lets me get quite close enough to grab one to take home and play with. It'd be great to have my own birdie to speak Shriek with, but the little guys never seem to want to let me cuddle them, even when I stick out my little arms, kick my little legs and use my most persuasive Shriek speeches. I can feel the beat of their wings on my little face, but they always fly off a bit just when I think I can get one of them to be my new friend.

There are lots of people at the Quay. Some of them coo over me, and Mummy likes it. But when some of the old ladies ask how old I am, but they always seem to think I'm a boy, which is probably why Mummy keeps making me wear pink even though Daddy says she swore blind I was going to be a tomboy from the day I was born.

After we fed the birdies, Mummy took me home for my feed and Daddy and big sister Amber went off to walk the beach from Mudeford to Highcliffe (where my Granny and Grandad live) because Amber wanted to build a barrier to stop the sea coming in. When they got to Granny and Grandad's Amber had very wet feet and Daddy said it had worked really well except for the bits when the sea washed over it and it crumbled away.

Going to Granny's is sometimes fun. Sometimes I get lots of cuddles from Mummy and Daddy and they take me into the huge garden which has an actual wood at the end, yay the Grannygarden! I also get to sit in Granny's little house which lives in the Grannygarden and has very creaky chairs in it.

Sometimes it isn't fun. Sometimes they let Granny cuddle me, and I scream my freaking head off. Grandad thinks this is very funny, Mummy feels guilty and Daddy mutters about babies being scared of Dragons. I don't think he means Granny to hear, but he always seems to talk loudly enough for her to just about hear it, and she thumps him around the ear and he says 'ow' just like when Mummy does it.

Today was a fun day. I had lots of giggles in the little house in the garden with Mummy and Amber and Granny, while Daddy ate his lunch with Grandad. Mummy rolled her eyes and said they were talking about Pottylicks again, which doesn't make much sense because I've heard about potties, and I don't know why anyone would want to lick one, I mean really!

Then Mummy went inside and Daddy came out to cuddle me, and Amber ran away from a spider that was inside a bucket. I thought this was very funny, especially when Daddy pantomined the tiny spider jumping out and ripping Amber's face off and said not to worry, it was about the size of his fingernail and he could definitely beat it in a fair fight.

Then I had my feed and I fell asleep. When I woke up we were in the big place with all the people and the things to buy, and I smiled at everyone and they made Squee noises. I don't speak Squee yet, I think it must be for grownups only.

But my day wasn't over yet...after my next feed we went back to Mudeford again, joy! This time it was getting dark as we arrived, and we went to the harbour side of the Quay where there were lots and lots of swans, double joy!

Daddy counted 21 of them all trying to grab the bread off us and fight each other for it. Swans bite each others necks when they fight, they are mean birdies sometimes.

But there was also two ducks having a *huge* fight, Mummy even filmed it on the camera. I felt quite dizzy watching them go round and round in a big circle, flapping and quacking. The swans stopped eating our bread to watch them too, I think they were taking bets on the winner.

Daddy took pictures of Mummy and I kneeling down to feed them, then Mummy tried to use the timer on the camera to take some of all of us. But Daddy wouldn't stand still and kept being really silly when Mummy asked him to stand in a certain place with me. No matter how hard she tried to explain it to him, he seemed to keep getting it wrong. Amber thought it was very funny, and Daddy seemed to laugh a lot as Mummy got all annoyed with him. I wonder about my Daddy sometimes, I thought he was cleverer than that.


Then I went home and had a bath with Mummy, and then, and this is the funny thing, Daddy got all annoyed with her instead because she forgot everything for my bath - soap, shampoo, my ducks, my sponge, towels, everything! And Daddy seemed to get more and more miffed every time she asked him to bring up something new that she had forgotten. She whispered something to me about 'revenge' which is a funny word she uses a lot. So does Daddy in fact.

They both seemed to be a bit tired after all the excitement of the bath, so as I was having my last feed I decided to give them a nice big present to cheer them up and detonated a Size Four in my nappy. I'm sure they were very grateful.

Night night and sleep tight everyone.