Grapes

I like grapes.  I ask for them all the time.  Mummy and Daddy often say there are none left, but I never believe them.  Anyway, now I am big enough to climb up on the chair and reach the fruit bowl.  Turns out there are lots of grapes left!

Thatway

Marisca continues to learn her own mind and to inform us of it.  I think she's just starting to show how she favours either Elspeth or I at any given moment for any given task.  Yesterday was a day where I was to do bath, and mummy was to read stories afterwards.  After trying a few times to get her to come to my lap for a story, I gave up and said goodnight: "Night night Marisca".  "Nightnight daddy." is the standard response, but this time it had a little postscript: "Thatway", pointing at the door.

Walks

We've had a quiet couple of weekends since last posting.  The grownup(ish)es have both been poorly since new year, and so the most we have achieved has been our new year commitment to a weekly walk in the lovely surroundings of our news house.  Last week we went up to Menston on the train and had a beautiful sunny frosty walk over to Ilkley.  Really really lovely.  This weekend, well we're about to go down to the canal to walk to Bingley now that Marisca is awake, but we did manage a very short walk to a local cafe for a cake yesterday...

Christmas

Christmas was great fun this year. We had so many guests come to stay - the benfits of having a large house - and it was lovely to be able to host so many people.

Risky also got the hang of presents this year. She loved her stocking:

And rapidly got the hang of opening presents:

Present unwrapping was spread over a few days as the family gradually gathered.  Here we all are, shivering in the garden for the obligatory group photo:

Merry Christmas!

New Year

My friend Leo came to visit for New Year. I haven't seen him for ages and ages and ages, not since we were babies. He brought his Mummy and Daddy with him, and Auntie Mary and Uncle Stewart, but there aren't any photos of them because they are old and don't do cute things.

Leo really likes his food. It was fun sitting next to him for meals. I even tried some pasta, which I don't usually eat. Leo had five helpings!

I don't usually like sharing my toys, but Leo was fun to play with and made me giggle.  I showed him all my toys and we made lots of mess.

I also showed him how easy it is to get a whole cake when you go to the coffee shop.  Just wait until no one is looking, and take it off the plate!  They're not getting this back I can tell you...

Twenty months

We've been having trouble finding sleepsuits for Marisca: not many places seem to do them for age 18 months plus.  So here she is in her new pyjamas (18 - 23 months).  There is plenty of room to grow into these!

After all the fun and excitement of Christmas it's hard to look back and work out what's new this month.  It's all a bit of a blur... there's been lots of building on the things mentioned last month - Risky can now climb up and down the stairs by herself, and sometimes does so if she particularly wants to be elsewhere (usually into the kitchen as she wants a snack).  She can also count from one to ten and recognise all the numbers.  We're not getting two words together yet, unless you count adding 'yes' to add emphasis, such as 'Milk.  Yes.' or 'Biscuit. Yes' Which translates as 'I want milk/a biscuit.  Give it to me NOW'.  But there are lots more words there now, and she often tell us what she wants.

One word we need to work on is 'share'.  Risky has started to use this when playing with other children, however what she means by it is 'give that to me, I want it, take the other child away, I do not want to play with them'.  We'll have to work on it's true meaning I think!

Adorable Explorer

I've always liked thinking of Risky as an explorer.  I'm not sure it's quite as true as I make out,. at least at the moment, when she seems happier to hang back a little rather than throwing herself into new situations with gusto.  But she certainly looks the part.