Daisy's birthday today

Today is Daisy's birthday, she is 3 years old.
Bless.
Here she is at her first Diddi Dance class with her friend Lex.













Here is a video of them with pom pom's:


Strangely i just came across a link to making your own pom pom's, i thought i'd post it here in case i want to make some at any random point in the future.

Daisy's birthday BBQ

We had a small BBQ today and obviously left it to the last minute and only managed to round up Lucy, Gordon and Lex, to come over and join us, but in actual fact as we suspected it was so so nice to keep it small.
My mum told me that you should only invite as many friends as their age including themselves, so Daisy had herself, her friend Lex and there was room for one more, but hey, her little sister would have to do.

This was Daisy's birthday cake, it was a Madeira cake taken from Nigella, and it actually tasted very nice, but our oven is rather powerful and i keep forgetting to adjust the time and heat accordingly so some cakes come out slightly singed around the edges but fine inside.
Oh and that's a pink dollop of butter icing in the middle and then the girls had more butter icing and sprinkles to decorate their slices with.


Here they are in their pretty dresses.













They are actually shouting 'sausages', which is something i make children say for some reason when i'm about to take their photograph, it tends to make them smile or even better laugh, but Daisy and Lex like to shout.



Actually if your wondering where Iris is in these photo's / video's she was probably asleep.


Here you can see just how bossy Daisy can be to her good friend Lex.
Lex has quite obligingly started copying Daisy in singing 'happy birthday to me' but Daisy has picked up on it and is just making sure that everyone knows exactly who's birthday it is.

Happy Birthday to Vicky

Happy birthday to sister-of-mine, auntie of Daisy and Iris, brother-in-law to husband-of-mine.

Here is a pic that Daisy did this morning for you.










And here is a video of Daisy singing happy birthday to you.
Turn the volume up.

No nursery today

Yet again i forgot that there was no nursery today, it is an inset (training) day today.
doh!
i'm so rubbish!
Ah well at least we can record Vicky her birthday message.

Iris held her arms up to me

For the first time Iris actually held her arms up to me, to indicate that she wanted to be picked up.
I will get a pic of this momentous occasion and add it in later.


Oh and don't worry Daisy, we will have lots and lots of photographs of you added tomorrow, they are waiting to be downloaded on the camera.

Hospitals are hot, noisy and smelly

Oh my, Iris and me have now had our first ever overnight stay in hospital, and i can report that it was hot, noisy and smelly all night.

Firstly let me say she is absolutely fine.
In a nutshell it was an unexplained virus that gave her some dodgy looking spots under her left nipple which caused concern for a nurse who thought they weren't blanching and could therefore be a sign of meningitis.

We went in on Sunday early evening because she seemed really floppy, it was only when they stripped her off that the spots became apparent and the nurse who saw us first, was worried they weren't blanching. Suddenly two doctors appeared and examined Iris but the spots were in fact blanching, the docs just pressed harder with their glass.
They sent us home on the Sunday night, but the next day Marc noticed that her lips and hands were a bit blue so we got an emergency appointment at the doctorx and then the doc in turn saw the spots and she thought we should again go and get them checked out at A&E, so we did.
The docs at the hospital said that the spots were fine, but seeing as this was our second visit we should get some blood tests done and stay in so that Iris could be monitored overnight.
That night her temperature did keep peeking suddenly to 38+ and she slept (of sorts) in just a nappy but she's fine now, and we've come home with antibiotics.

I have to say Homerton hospital were fab.

Here are some photos taken on my phone of the very poorly baby, laughing and giggling at her feet mostly.




























Here is a photograph of Iris that i took when she went a little bit floppy at Karen's and Luthers house just before i took her to the hospital for the first time. I feel a bit embarrassed that she actually looks quite poorly in this photo and it was only when we went to go home and took her out to the car that we realised she was perhaps a bit too floppy and we should take her to the hospital.

Poor Iris, what bad parents we are.

Karen's lovely belly

Here is Karen's lovely belly, she's due with a little baby boy in two weeks time and she came round on Tuesday so that i could take some photographs of her lovely round tummy.

Here are a few of them:

The very funny ones














The nearly serious ones (as serious as Karen gets)

Iris had her last jab

Oh dear, Iris had her 8 month assessment at the health clinic yesterdat and guess what? She was the only one who wasn't rolling or crawling, all of the others were either rolling, crawling, or at least commando style moving across the floor like action man.
Iris is officially lazy.

She weighs over 7KG (i'll convert it later on)
She's on the 50th percentile (lighter than Daisy ever was)
She is officially the smiliest baby though.

Then the health visitor came at us with injections and said "shall we give her, her last set of immunisations?" and i said very tentatively "ok", and then she plunged them into poor Iris's thighs much to Iris's horror.
Iris screamed the place down as she has done with the previous injections.

Today Iris is very grumpy, clingy and grizzly, the only person who has brought a smile to her face all day is Daisy in the bath tonight.

hopefully she will cheer up tomorrow.

Iris shoot

I stuck Iris in the bumbo and tested the lights on her before Karen came around for her little belly shoot (baby boy due 01/05/07)
Don't she look cute. (Iris that is, not Karen)
If Karen lets me put up a photograph then i will.

Here is Iris:

Daisy is in a girl band

Daisy, Lex and Winnie have started a girl band together.
Here they are practicing their new song titled "We want chocolate and we want it now!"

Iris the lazy monkey

Rachel just sent me a link to her little girl Pippa who is the same age as Iris, and Pippa is not only rolling over but also comando style crawling!!!
Iris can sit, and screech and grin and say mama and dada and Aiisssseeee.

Iris come on you lazy monkey.

Here she is enjoying a swing.

There was a little girl...

There was a little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead,
and when she was good she was very very good, and when she was bad she was horrid.

I think that says it all really.

Enjoy the movie below when it appears :

What Iris is up to

I thought i would tell you what Iris is up to at the moment.
She's now just over 7 months and is just sitting up on her own, although she still falls backwards or sideways regularly and even ends up on her belly sometimes.
She is trying to speak a lot, most of the time it is gobble-de-gook but other times you can clearly make out 'da da' 'ma ma' and even 'aiiisssssiee' much to Daisy's delight.
Before we went to Devon she wasn't very into solid food, but the sea air must have given her an appetite cos now she's well up for food, so much so that i need to find the children's cookery books and start cooking some nice meals for her rather than just vegetables or fruit mushed up.


Here is a slideshow of some photos of Iris:


Here is a video of Iris talking:

Girls in the pub

Here is a pic of the girls in the bar of Auntie Vicky's hotel Quayside Hotel

The sea, the sea & mussels

Here are some photos of the wonderful sea in Brixham, you can see the lighthouse at the end of the breakwater.










Also a couple of photos of Daisy looking at the lighthouse.













And another pic of Daisy and Iris with Nana & Grandad upstairs from where the mussels are cleaned.





Oooh that reminds me i must dig out those photos i took of Dad and Nick and Steve on the boat pulling up mussels.
Remind me Dad.

Pennywell Farm

Pennywell farm photos and info coming very soon.
http://www.pennywellfarm.co.uk/

Devon - The Zoo

We are in Devon on a little holiday staying with Nana and Grandad by-the-sea.
It's been fun fun fun since we got here, if a little tiring.
Daisy is missing Daddy quite a bit as am i, but we can't go back yet cos we're having a bit of work done in the kitchen which will be very exciting when we come back.

Today's post is backdated to the day we went to the Zoo.
Firstly here are photos of us people at the zoo: Daisy, Iris, Vicky, Nana and me.

Daisy & Iris in the armchair

Here are the girls in the armchair having fun.

































Daisy is somewhat delighted that Iris likes sucking Daisy's thumb as well as her own.

A walk around Tottenham marshes.

It was a sunny day and we decided to go for a walk around Tottenham Marshes.
Friends of Tottenham Marshes website
Tottenham Marshes is right next to the River Lea, which is just up a bit from where the 2012 Olympics will take place.
Money is apparently being pumped all the way up here too.

Here are some photo's from our lovely walk.

Marc and Daisy walking along the canal.








Barges moored on the canal.



















Iris in the backpack















Daisy picking up sticks.











Gas works.