Lex & Gordon

I'm practicing shooting portraits with my bigger camera, in preperation for Saturday's Anorak shoot.
Doesn't Lex look angelic, like butter wouldn't melt and all that malarky, i think we all know the real Lex.

Banana bread from Lisa P.

Lisa P came to visit today and brought with her Ben (2 and a half) and Danny (13 months) and some banana bread.
She cut me a slice and then buttered it, and i ate it with a cup of tea, and i remember thinking it was good, but it went down too quick for me to fully comprehend how good it was.
It was only when Lisa's car pulled away on her drive back to West London, that i scuttled back into the kitchen and cut myself a half slice and buttered it thick and i realised, my goodness, this is damn good.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos of her boys, i got my camera out far too late to get any decent ones, her boys are constantly on the move, they don't stop, ever, it is therefore quite hard for my autofocus to automatically focus on a small moving child.

But as you can see, her boys are really quite amusing, especially that little chubby one.

Summer hats

As the sunshine waves bye bye whilst rapidly leaving through the back door, i finally finish the girls' summer hats.
Here is Iris modeling her orange version, Daisy's is pink (obviously) and will turn up in future photographs.
Iris has a mucky face cos she is eating a frozen smoothie ice lolly pop.

Southend on Sea

Marc and Daisy went with Gordon and Lex to a fun fair place called Adventure Island in Southend today.
By all accounts they had a lot of fun together.
Here are a few pics that Marc took.

Daisy

Lex

I eat all my Lunch Today

This photo is from a few weeks ago, Daisy came back from nursery with this sticker on.
This sticker is amusing in two ways,
1) she always eats all her lunch at nursery, they always tell me this when i pick her up so why bother to put a sticker on her saying so. She always eats all her lunch to the extent that i wouldn't mind some cookery lessons from the cook cos i can't say Daisy always eats my lunches.
2) it is just wrong in so many ways.
you could say : i ate all my lunch or i have eaten all my lunch, but also why is there a capital L for lunch and a capital T for today.

Stats

Hello everyone.

i love stats
when i worked at Carlton Interactive on a games website which doesn't exist anymore 'jamba.co.uk', part of my job was monitoring the stats and trying to predict which prizes attracted more people, stats are fab.

I have stats set up on this blog and my other website and it's amazing who visits.

This month

I am utterly astounded (and slightly pleased) that there are at least two people in the US who have happened upon this blog, i think one person in Missouri has visited 5 times, either that or 5 different people in Missouri has found themselves here.
Another little person in Nebraska has even visited.

Hello there you peeps, how is it going over there?
Do you dare leave me a comment?


Lots from the UK, which is probably family and friends etc..., I see that Grandma has visited from France recently, some peeps from South Africa has stopped by, another person from Aussie land has popped in (perhaps Mary or Uncle Derek and Auntie Linda) and friends from New Zealand have visited (Sophie, Sarah)

hello to everyone who has happened upon this blog, it's nice that you have visited.

xx

Pretty girls

Here are some recent pics of the girls.
The pics of Daisy were actually taken in the playground at Ikea, and the pics of Iris were taken on the same day but in Springfield park, it was a lovely day.
Yes i have been playing with photoshop.

Iris singing Peter Rabbit

Today i emptied out our bag of hats to sort through and find some hats that no longer fit the littlest head, both girls ended up trying on lots of hats.
Daisy automatically told me not to give them away, she knows i do give old clothes and toys away to charity or freecycle, the poor thing lives in fear of me giving away her favouite clothes and toys.

Here is a photograph of Iris wearing an old hat and mitts combo that incidentally didn't get put into the charity bag.

Here is a video of her singing a bit of "Peter Rabbit" in this hat, this is currently one of her favourite songs.


Other favourite songs include: Tommy Thumb, Yellow Submarine, Zoom Zoom Zoom, Twinkle Twinkle, The ants go marching one by one, and a few others that i have forgotten, they are all sung in a similar fashion where most of the words are missing.

Oh by the way, Marc took the pic and the video, i cannot take any credit.

Beds beds beds

I remember seeing Harry Hill live in Watford years ago and he did a sketch all about his dads shop that sold beds, the shop was called "Beds Beds Beds", then some bloke opened up a shop opposite called "Beds Beds Beds Beds" so his dad added an extra two Beds to his sign, and on it went, and on and on and on and it really was very funny, i remember crying with laughter, but somehow it doesn't sound so funny now i've written it down.
Hmmm.... moving on swiftly.


Here are the girls in their beds with duvets and pillows etc...
You can clearly see poor old Olli Chicken who has mostly lost his stripey trousers now.
and Iris is clearly still very pleased about her new sleeping arrangements.

Iris under a duvet

Last night Iris slept under a duvet for the first time.
She didn't wear a grobag as she has done up until now, no instead she was a very pleased little girl to be sleeping under a duvet.

She had a mighty big smile on her face.

I will try to take a photo tonight.

and so it starts again... potty training

hmmm.... i might be a bit early considering she is not quite two yet (22 and half months) but, she does seem quite clued up on what happens in her nappies, she is often quite happy to have her nappy changed if she has done a poo, and sometimes asks for it and even lies down on her change mat ready and waiting.

But actually training is of course another matter.

I've started letting her have 'a bit of fresh' as my cousin Lucy says, and running around nappy-less, and she is quite good, she doesn't often wet herself, she seems to be able to hold herself for ages and ages.

Today (literally 30 mins ago) she managed to do a wee on the potty, i think it was largely co-incidental seeing as she stood up half way through and told me she was weeing and it went all over the wooden floor, but still a wee on the potty is a wee on the potty and must be encouraged at all times.

(yes i know the photograph is completely unrelated to the post, but it is kind of cute)

Neil Young at Hop Farm (Kent)

Here are the few photographs i took of our day at Hop Farm where Neil Young played.

This is Neil Young, yes 'The Neil Young', you can clearly make out a blurry face on the large television screen.

Daisy is standing in the buggy on her tip toes trying to see more of the strange face on the big television, she is just too small, she can barely see over all the heads.
Not too sure what the girls are doing here, perhaps some kind of Neil Young appreciation dance.
Floss with somebody else's umbrella. Note the Lidl's bag hanging on a bugaboo behind, yes that did belong to our party.
Iris with her current favourite hat, she calls it her rabbit hat.

The car is all sparkly and new

£60 later and a whole lot of scrubbing and the car and the car seats are now all sparkly and new again.

The car had to go in for valeting at the local car wash, honestly, there was no way i could have gotten the smell out before this weekend where we will be off to 'A day at the Hop Farm' where Neil Young will be playing.

Daisy and I scrubbed and scrubbed and hosed and hosed and scrubbed and scrubbed those car seats, we pulled as much of the fabric back as we could and hosed inside and out and found sick and raisins and bread sticks and all sorts of other strange stuff down behind the lining.
They are now very clean, the cleanest they have been for a long time, i just hope they dry in time.

Update - Iris' seat does still smell a little bit, but hopefully not too bad, we might have to have windows open when we travel down to see Lisa and Run tomorrow.

Spectacular Sickness everywhere

Girls caught a virus down in Devon somewhere, Daisy was sick on Monday morning but insisted she was fine to still go to the zoo, so we went, however she was sick again that night. Iris was sick on Tuesday morning and then again that night, so we did nothing that day except hung out in Nana and Grandad by-the-sea's ample garden.

But they seemed ok on Wednesday so we decided to go ahead with the drive home. I stopped at a services on the M3 near to London, and the girls had a bowl of chips to share and an apple juice, which i now realise was a fatal combination.
Five mins after getting back in the car, Iris started to be sick into her lap, then she was sick again, and again, and again, and again. Then Daisy startws to be sick all over herself as well, i think only once but it was sufficient.
All i could do was watch the poor things, in my rear view mirror cos there was no sign of another junction to turn off at. It was probably about 20 mins of driving really quite fast, before i came across the next junction, and then all i could do was pull over in a tiny little lay-by on a main road and try to clean them up, then sit them in the front of the car and try to clean up their soaking wet car seats with wet wipes.

The sick was everywhere, it had even gone into the top of Iris' nappy, that's how bad.

Bloody hell, i tell you, bloody hell.