Maybe this time...?

That'll teach us to get blase about Ted's sleep. Yesterday evening (the first proper sleep in his bed) proved a little more troublesome, despite the earlier success of the nap.

Everything seemed to be going as normal; splashy in the bath, wriggly on the changing table, milk and story time - all normal. Then we put him into bed.

Hoo boy!

Apparently that was a bad idea. First comes the air raid siren, then the thump of little feet hitting the floor, then fingers appear around the not-quite-closed door. Finally, the little face appears in the doorway.

After a few of these episodes (the standard controlled crying approach) Nikki struck upon the solution - he didn't like sleeping with his head under the curtains. Maybe it was the light, maybe it was the "fabric of Damocles" - who knows? In any event, Nikki turned him around, tucked him in, shut the door and that was that. Same again this evening, so I guess that's that.

Not quite got the hang of this

"That seemed to go well" we thought.

"Let's go wake him up" we thought.

Ha!

Even though he hadn't squeaked, it seems we still need to work on the posture.

I just want to wake... and go

So the old-timers finally realised I've been feeling a little "constrained" recently.

Dad needed a bit of a hand with some of the parts, but I kept him on the right track and in next to no time, I finally got myself a bed. I'll just get things nicely set up for nap time, then I'm off!

A monkey called Peter

Uncle Peter... You lied! You said you were in New Zealand!

Trip to Twycross Zoo

Someone at my nursery decided it would be nice to all go to the zoo together, so I got my Mummy and Daddy ready and after dropping Dave at the airport (I was rather hoping he'd be joining us, but he wouldn't be persuaded... something about cycling and mountains) we headed off to Twycross Zoo.

It was a great day out, with lots of animals to see and especially lots of monkeys (or primates as Daddy insisted I should call them as they weren't all monkeys, apparently).

  

We all met up again for a picnic and that was great, too, with lots of chances to catch up with friends who're older than me and thus in the "next room" at the moment.

 

Rather tired this evening...

...But nevertheless, here I am in my new jumper! It was finally cool enough to wear it today - how grown up do I look? I'm nearly two now, you know.

Ice cream a go-go

Seems our Ted has finally got the hang of ice cream cones.

17:00:01 - Before. Note the subject's clean face.

17:05:07 - During. Note the obvious "spotting" around the face from the subject's tentative licking of the cone. Further examination will also reveal the ice cream stains on the left chest area of the cardigan.

17:25:56 - Pretty much after. Only the cone remaining. And so ends our first successful encounter (of the third kind) with an ice cream.

Typically enough, of course, it was on the coolest day of the last two weeks or so (not to mention the fantastic weather we had in Toronto where he also completely failed to get the hang of a cone).

Now all we have to work on is this "sharing" malarkey.

Happy Birthday, chuck

It was my friend Talka's birthday this weekend. Fab party with hot dogs, trains, crisps, trains, cake and trains... oh, and Talka, too.

What more could a boy ask for?

Saw this and chuckled

Just reading an article on the BBC site about an upcoming event called "TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Global". I know it's completely coincidental, but it made me laugh when the co-producer Bruno Giussani said that

...Tedsters are not just brilliant, successful and influential; they are inventive, curious, open-minded, even playful, and want to have an impact...

Sorry, just couldn't help myself. The full article (in context) is available here on the BBC site.

How can it be raining?

There's not a cloud in the sky (which is why Daddy agreed to get the paddling pool out, I assume) and yet I'm sure I can hear rain. Hmm... I wonder why that would be.

It's my birthday soon, is it?

Right, well, many thanks to Great Aunties Hil and Di, yes?

Here's a photo I managed to arrange (my Dad - he's so hopeless at taking a hint, sometimes) sitting on the new bench that the aforementioned ladies dropped off the other evening when they popped in to see me. It's fab - makes just the right sort of resting place for the odd chocolate frog (and some grapes... got to keep Mum happy, you know).

So, thanks again ladies.

This just up... I mean "in"

Ted's just had his first nap under a duvet rather than in his grobag. Seems it went reasonably well... he hadn't managed to bunch everything down at the foot of the bed.

Let's call it a success.

As snug as a...

...oooh, I dunno... as snug as a me in a duvet, I reckon.

Mummy and Daddy have finally taken the hint and accepted that I'm much too grown-up to need a grobag these days, so they've given me this duvet-thing instead. It's great - I can move around much more easily.

Perhaps it's now time to start thinking on how I can get over the sides...