Hanging Out With Adam

We headed over to cousin Adam's house on Saturday for a play (and to experiment with potty training in a 'safe environment'). The weather has been really hot and muggy so it was lovely to get over closer to the sea where there was more of a breeze. We had a walk down to the beach, as you can see the mist was still hanging over the coast - Beth, Adam and their daddies were on the beach when the pic was taken! After a little play and a picnic lunch we walked back to spend the rest of the day in the garden.

As you can see, with the start of potty training, Beth and Adam are now very grown-up - almost teenagers in their stance. :) Hopefully by the time they are teenagers they won't be having accidents in the bouncy house (not that it bothered them, I'm sure it was actually very nice and cooling with the weather being so warm!!!).

Toby is fine and seems to have learnt his name. He still hasn't quite worked out the purpose of nighttime and the hot weather doesn't help. Just in the last week we worked out that he is teething, he is actually fairly cheerful with it though must be producing buckets of drool each day. Beth seems to have become somewhat attached to Toby and is getting better at not sitting/squashing him. Sometimes she seems to miss him - yesterday we went swimming and Toby went to the creche at the pool. Beth was most insistent that he come with us next time though I suspect it's more that she wants to showoff her poolside skills rather than is actually missing him. More often that not she wants him on the sidelines, telling me to 'put him there' while pointing to his little chair or mat. I suppose the fun will really start once he's crawling and starts messing with her toys.

Dresses, 'B' for Beth and Other Bits

It seems that since the wedding and Beth's experience wearing a dress, she has fallen in love with them - especially pink ones. She is no longer happy with the outfits I choose and insists on picking her own. I suppose it's not a bad thing since potty training is on the horizon and it might make the process easier. At the rate she goes through them I'll have to go on a shopping trip to stock up on pink ones (the frillier the better). The main drawback at the moment is the weather as it's pretty miserable and a little summer dress isn't the best protection from pouring rain!

This piece of news brings out the competitive 'my child's better than your child' streak! ;) It was my birthday last weekend and Steve bought a card for Beth and Toby to give me. He asked for Beth to write part of it and perhaps do a B for Beth. This is the result - one that was duplicated on the side of the bath with her bath crayons to prove she could do it. Obviously she's a genius . . .

Toby is doing great though we suspect he's teething (already!!) as he always has his fist stuck in his mouth and drools a great deal. Of course he might just be being a baby and slobbering! Today we went swimming again. Toby was quite happy to float on his back (a hand supporting his head) kicking his legs. I think he stayed like that for at least 20 minutes. Beth also had fun with her armbands but became a bit clingy after grandma accidentally let her go under. Grandma and grandpa are visiting for a few days as we are going to Steve's (other) cousin, Kate's, wedding tomorrow and it's an adult affair (what on earth will we find to occupy us without children - we're out of practice and won't know what to talk about that doesn't involve a bodily function!). Anyway, grandma brought up a bucket of spuds from their garden for our dinner tonight and here Beth is digging them up.

To finish up, here are two pics I couldn't resist including. The one of Beth just cracks me up - she seems to be impersonating Amy Winehouse (or someone of a similar constitution) and I promise she has not consumed anything containing alcohol. The one of Toby is from this afternoon. I thought that since he can hold his head up well and never stops moving that he might enjoy going in the bouncer. It did keep him amused for quite a while and he spun himself round not quite understanding who had hold of him!

Water Fun

Knowing Beth's love of water, we invested in a water table for in the garden. Yesterday was the grand unveiling and it seemed to be a hit. Despite it threatening to rain, Beth happily splashed and poured and sploshed all afternoon and only came when it was time for tea (she sounds like a child out of a storybook!).

Toby wasn't quite as keen, he doesn't really enjoy being outside. I think he finds it too bright so he's a bit of an indoor boy (perhaps he's going to be a sensitive bookish type . . .). Toby, as you can see, is very smiley at the moment and just loves being talked to - poor boy sometimes gets rather neglected due to a demanding two-foot creature who also lives in the house.

J & C's Wedding

Friday we all went down to near Hull to see Steve's cousin Jonny get married to Caroline. Beth woke up rather early so we decided to head straight off as it takes a couple of hours to get down there. The wedding was being held at a manor house and thankfully it had plenty of garden for Beth and cousin Adam to hurtle around in and use up a bit of energy. They are quite a pair when they get together and I dread to think of the damage and commotion they'll cause when they can properly collaborate! Having said that, they do scrub up well . . .

Both the ceremony and the reception were held at the same location and it was a really nice and relaxed day (well, as relaxed as it can be when you're chasing toddlers all over - if you could see my feet you'd notice my outfit is missing a nice pair of heels, I almost just went with the trainers for maximum speed). Grandad did a great job of herding and entertaining Beth and Adam, giving dad a rare chance to drink a beer in (relative) peace.

Through the entire day, Beth decided that she didn't need a nap or even a quiet sit down (the rest of us did not agree). The highlight of her entire day was the dancing - a highlight of ours too as both her and Adam had some nifty moves! Please notice the twirl that is being executed in one of the photos. :) I think, given the chance, she would have danced into the early hours. I think we'll have to find somewhere to go on holiday that does children's discos every night, enroll her at a dancing school or bribe lots of our friends to get married so Beth can continue with her new hobby. Oh, I should give mention to that terrific electric pink dress Beth is sporting in these last two pics. When we went to buy her wedding outfit she decided that this was the dress she had to have. I tried to 'acidentally' leave it back on the rack at the shop but she was having none of that and cried the entire time I paid for it until the bag was safely in her hands! I suppose every little girl should have at least one electric pink dress.

Cowpen Bewley Woodland Park

Today we went to a park about 30 minutes from the house. It was really lovely (especially when you consider it is a reclaimed landfill) and there was a lot of wildlife to look at. Toby as always was in the Bjorn and Beth on her own two pins (most of the time until she got whiny and tired).

Grandad met us there for the walk and as our guide as we had never been before and he had explored last week with cousin Adam. On our amble we found lots of very tall, hayfevery grass, flowers of every colour and the tiniest frogs I've ever seen. At first I thought they were some sort of fly. I'm not sure if they were just very young, so still small or if they were just a small type of frog. Beth was rather interested in them but was a bit unsure about actually having one on her hand.

A bit further on we found an enormous dandelion clock that Beth had a good go at blowing away - she's getting quite good at blowing as she knows that's what you do with the candles on a birthday cake! I think she would like it to be her birthday again but I'm afraid she'll have to wait a while for that. We eventually headed home after a good walk as Beth was getting grumpy, Toby was getting hungry and the rest of us were getting really itchy eyes from all the pollen.

Comparison

After lots of comments from various people about how similar Beth and Toby look and inspired by Neri sending me early pics of Beth (thanks Neri), I thought I'd do a post comparing photos of them! To make it easy I'll put all pics of Beth on the left of the post and ones of Toby on the right. Apologies to those of you (myself included before these two came along) who are under the impression that all babies look alike anyway. For you, the pics will be rather boring!

There isn't all that much to comment on so I thought I would mention Toby's first (and second) trip to the swimming pool. It was while we were down in Leicester and grandma and grandpa came along to 'supervise' Beth. I got some swim nappies - the smallest size are two pounds less than Toby but they seemed to fit okay. I was expecting him to be unhappy getting changed but Toby took it in his stride and wasn't too bothered. His expression didn't even change when his toes got wet. The only time he registered anything was when his tummy got wet and even then he only opened his eyes wide.

We spent about half an hour in the pool floating around and although Toby didn't actually smile, he did seem to rather enjoy it. I can also say that he didn't even fuss when we got out and got changed. He's obviously a water baby. Beth had a good time too. Grandma invested in a pair of arm bands for her and they really boosted her confidence - at one point she was even heard to mutter 'get off' so she could explore on her own.

I'm quite tempted to look round for swimming lessons (the word lessons being used in the loosest of terms) for them both but they seem to enjoy just splashing around and doing their own thing that I'm not sure it's worth it at the moment.

Leicester & Allsorts

We're just back from a week at my parents in Leicester. We drove down last Friday and Steve came back and picked us up yesterday. It was a lovely week with the grandparents chasing round after Beth, all our meals cooked for us and no cleaning for us to do . . . perfect!

We spent a lot of time around the house mostly playing in the garden. Beth found grandma's umbrella and thoroughly enjoyed posing and playing with it. Unfortunately it is no longer capable of shielding off the rain but it was great fun while it lasted. The other great garden entertainment was courtesy of grandpa (thank you grandpa!) who showed off his skills by building Beth a sandpit. It was a hit and both Beth and Molly (the dolly and grandma + grandpa) spent many a happy hour playing in it. Beth also spent a while doing her experiments . . . she loves doing footprints on the mat after her bath so decided to try and do sand footprints on the lid of the sandpit. First she put her foot in the sand, walked across the grass and tried to make a print - it didn't work. Next she put her foot in the sand, kept it off the grass and tried to make one that way. Again no luck. Finally she put some sand on the lid then put her foot on that, whoopee, it worked! It looks like she will be taking after her auntie Jane and become a scientist.

Also in the garden, grandma designed and built a kite for her and Beth to fly. It was a very intricate design - plastic grocery bag and string :) but seemed to work brilliantly. I'm not sure who got more exercise from that activity but I do know that grandma slept well that night!! On a final note about the garden, here is a picture of the fruit and veg patch - it's fantastic and would make anyone want to take up gardening. During the week we ate quite a few things from it though some things aren't quite ready. Here's a list of what's growing on it: strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, rhubarb, beetroot, lettuce, courgettes, potatoes, leeks, tomatoes, sweet corn, coriander, basil, thyme, cucumber, and mange-tout (I'm sure I've left something out but you get the picture). Also, this picture was taken at 10pm - as you can imagine it can be quite difficult persuading a toddler that she should be in bed when it gets dark so late and starts getting light just after 3am!

On two occasions we went to Beacon Hill Country Park. It has a mixture of fields and woods to walk around and more importantly, a rhododendron labyrinth. There are little hidey holes, walkways, houses and wooden sculptures all around it. Beth had a fantastic time exploring - ducking under branches and loosing us all. It's amazing that we actually found her to bring her home.

Toby had a good week, too. He had his first bath with Beth - I'm not sure if either of them were pleased to be sharing their bath. Beth was very good and didn't splash or jump on him though she did become aware of the male anatomy even if she did just think Toby had done a poo!! Toby, who loves his bath, just seemed a mixture of a little amused at Beth being there and a little annoyed that she was getting attention meant for him.

Toby also had visits from a couple of friends. Abigail is a month younger than Toby and is the daughter of a friend from school - I'm sure they won't mind us setting them up . . . We also saw Jessie again, she is actually just over a year old so between Beth and Toby but still a baby to Beth as she wanted to pick her up and carry her around the garden.

One last thing, I managed to have Beth stand still long enough to put her hair up in pig tails. She was very proud of them and insisted on looking in the mirror for a considerable amount of time. And, here is a rare picture of me with Toby.