10 Weeks tomorrow!

Ok people, let's start with a crowd pleaser - a photo of me looking cute as always!!

Tomorrow I will be 10 weeks old which seems pretty old if you ask me! To mark my grand old age of 10 weeks I've been doing lots more physical stuff, like trying to sit up on my own, trying to dance along with songs, looking at other babies and children around me, and most of all trying to bat/press/grab things around me. Especially mummy's hair and daddy's chest hair!!

A great example of this was on Monday this week when I tried to hit all the beautiful mirror things that were attached to what looked like a kitchen roll holder. It was so pretty I just had to bash it:

The other thing I've been doing is sucking on anything I can find. On Sunday while mummy and daddy went for a coffee, that just so happened to be daddy's arm. Note the live Shadows music in the background Grandad!!

While we were having that coffee we bumped into an old friend of mum and dad's from work, John. He had some of the best funny faces I have ever seen so we spent quite a while teaching each other a few tricks - he showed me how to gurn, I showed him how to stare people out.




On Monday mummy made pizza dough and let daddy do the topping. Mummy is the dough woman and daddy has the artistic pizza spark. She thought you might like to see his creation as it was made, step by step. No idea why.

Step 1 - the sauce

Step 2 - the olives and chorizo

Jamie Oliver eat your heart out!

St David's Day

Happy St David's day everyone!

A host of golden daffoldils...

Today was such a beautiful day that mummy and I decided to spend it outside as much as possible. Actually mummy was much more in favour of this than I was. Being a December baby, I'm the human equivalent of  a barn egg at the moment - not particularly adapted for life outdoor and free-range, but mummy is working hard to change that! So first thing we went for a walk up to the coffee bar where mummy had a coffee and read the Guardian and I had a milk and a sleep. In honour of St David's day, we also did some daffodil spotting:

Big boy in my big pram!

This was also day two in the bigger part of my pram which we plan to take to Italy. It is much better than my carry cot because I can see the world and today I even cried to tell mummy I wanted to face outwards instead of looking at her silly face all the time. This was much more fun as I could nosey around and see what was coming up, instead of getting frustrated about why mummy wasn't picking me up when she was right there in front of me.

Kindness and gifts

This week I've had a few surprise gifts, not least of all a bag of lovely knitted cardigans and waistcoats from a friend of mummy's at the baby group. She gave them to us while we were listening to the baby weaning talk at the surestart centre. It sounds like I'm not going to be getting any food until I'm at least 6 months old as advised by the World Health Organisation, which is fine by me because I prefer mummy's milk to mushed up carrot any day of the week!

Modelling my new waistcoat (in the 60s via clever editing!)

After the weaning talk, we went to the White Swan centre to sing our nursery songs. Good times were had, and this week I even made some sounds along with the singing (in tune of course).
When we got back, we found another present in the post - a lovely special card from Chloe with our names on the front and everything! She said she read our blog so BIG SHOUT TO CHLOE!! WE LOVE YOU!! XXX

Why walk when you have a car? Stupid mum.

Wednesday was baby massage, but as it was tummys and I needed a feed, I sat it out until the legs part. It's such a hard life being a baby! Then as part of my health spa day, mummy took me on a walk up to Sainsburys. As you can see by the photo, I wasn't exactly in favour but I did eventually succumb to sleep on the way up there after some distress calls half way.

Daddy took some great footage of me and mummy having a sing song in the evening but for some reason it's not uploading right now so we'll have to try another day.
Carys and Steve came to tea on Wednesday and they played boring Conservative grown up scrabble while I watched and learned. I had a few great eight letter words but no one could understand what I was saying sadly.

Festival della Pizza Lunedi

Ciao tutti!!

Today started early as Mummy and I had to drive daddy to work (long story which involved daddy trying to jump over a barbed wire fence in the dark at work!).

After that, I had a play with some new toys and books mummy had bought for me and which I like very much. I got rather excited and found that they really helped with my hand eye coordination, especially the crackly noise they make when I touch them.

Me showing off my legs for everyone

In the afternoon we went to see the other babies at the mother and baby group. We played lots of games like a big piece of material over all the babies as a peekaboo game. I didn't like it much but I didn't cry like the other babies (wimps!). I decided to pretend I wanted a feed to get out of having to play for too long at that and rejoined the fun for the nursery rhymes. We sang 'It's raining it's pouring' at mummy's request, because it was.

Pepperoni and olive pizza - Che Buono!

After playgroup, mum and I went to Morrisons for some ingredients for tea, and when we came back we made pizza dough (or mum did while I slept). I oversaw the toppings later on from the superior position of my sling facing outwards for the first time. Daddy seemed to like talking to me eye to eye and we worked through topping the pizza together.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb

In the car wash

In preparation for our journey to see grandma and grandad, on Friday me and Mummy tidied the house. Mummy got me super excited playing a game of waving clothes in front of my eyes as she folded while I sat in my baby bouncer. Later when the housework was done, we went one step further and visited the car wash for the first time since I was born! Can you see me in the mirror?

When we got to Ossett on Friday night, we bought Daddy some new tracksuit bottoms because mummy had forgotten to pack them after putting them in the dryer. After that, we all went to Grandma and Grandad's for some tea. On Saturday I went shopping with mummy and grandma to Dewsbury. Back at home I opened the presents Doris next door had given me as well as Grandma's friend Angela - I got some new clothes as well as a new toy which I absolutely love as it has a song as well as lots of colours and patterns and crunchy ears. Later, we saw the whole Sewell clan - Jamie, Sue, Ellie, Eb and Luke, plus Colette and Simon (we'll let him be an honorary Sewell). I woke up just as dinner was served (my favourite trick!!) so Grandma carried me round while mummy ate dinner for a change. After lots of cuddles from everyone as well as lots of baby talk and playing with my new toy I slept very well at night!

Seen this somewhere before?

On Sunday we got up to lots of fun. My mate Luke came over and we visited the Hepworth museum in Wakefield. Luke gave me a push from the car park to the door:

On the way in, Luke was excited to be able to see the water between the 
wooden slats of the bridge.

How a baby beats art every time

It's a great place because there are lots of interesting sculptures. I particularly liked the room with the big pictures of patterns like wallpaper and I had a good stare at these. If I'm honest, I think I attracted more attention than the art in most rooms. Especially when I got fed up of art and started crying!

Rolling the felt

Things got even Moore fun (great art pun!) downstairs in the activity room where Luke made a piece of felt based on one of the works of art. It took some time so I used this window of opportunity to down some milk in the indoor picnic area. The ladies in the art room were very nice to Luke and helped out with showing him how to do it. They also made a fuss of me (but I'm used to having fans).

Luke's felt art is really pretty and he is taking it home to show his mummy and teacher.

Rhubarb fans in the hub of the Rhubarb triangle

As if that wasn't enough fun, Sunday was also the day of the world famous (sort of) Rhubarb festival in Wakefield. There was lots to do, like circus tricks when Luke showed us all how to throw the diablo, as well as gingerbread decorating. Luke decorated a gingerbread pig but was so hungry that it got eaten before the icing had time to dry! 

Three cheers for Rhubarb!

Out and About

Me and mummy have been busy doing something every day this week!


Monday's child is fair of face

On Monday I felt very active and didn't give mummy a minute's peace. I just felt like I needed to be held all the time. When daddy got home I did a huge poo for him. I squirted everywhere and they had to bath me TWICE to get rid of it all!! Daddy looked after me in the evening and talked to me to give mum's arms a rest. I eventually fell asleep at about 11pm!

I think you'll agree though that I'm still fair of face!

 Tuesday's child is full of grace

Mummy decided that it was the house that made me so fractious so Tuesday was full of activities. In the morning we took a walk around Killingworth lake to feed the swans. We also popped into the sports centre to find out about my future swimming career.
In the afternoon we went to a new singalong rhymes group at the library in the White Swan Centre. I really liked it there and watched all the little boys and girls singing. It was so good that it sent me to sleep!
While tea was in the oven, we popped to weight watchers. All the old ladies crossed my palm with silver (it's a Newcastle tradition) and everyone had a hold including Joanne mum's leader so that mummy didn't weigh extra with me in her arms!
Wednesday's child is full of Woe (Woe is ME!)

Wednesday started with woe when I had to get my first Polio/Tetanus/Diptheria vaccination. Mummy held me down while the nurse stabbed me on both sides of my leg. It wasn't very nice at all but I was a brave boy. The downside was that it made me super sleepy so I basically slept through the rest of the events. I did briefly wake up for baby massage (my first session) which I did enjoy a lot.
That afternoon we went to meet Carolyn, mummy's friend, for a coffee at a pub in Cramlington called the Bay Horse. It will be great for when I'm older as it has a massive soft play area. I continued my sleep. I was very sad in the evening but went to sleep after some stroking.
The Postman also brought a nice surprise today - another letter from my cousin Luke. Me and mummy wrote back to him the next day so I hope the letter gets there quickly.
Thursday's child has far to go...
We did a little bit of shopping today but the furthest I really went was up and down the stairs helping mummy to clean the house! We found a new game waving a ribbon in front of my eyes (or a belt while the washing is getting folded) and it made me laugh a lot. Mummy practiced the baby massage on me and it felt great! I was so relaxed while she stroked my legs with my nappy off that I did a poo!

Weekend of Words

Hello everyone!

Yummy dessert! Bannoffee pie!

This weekend after I went for a walk to the veggie man with daddy, we drove out to Rothbury to meet Steve and Carys who had gone to look at a puppy they are thinking of buying and might be coming to visit our house too. We were going to go for a walk but as I was asleep and it was very cold we just went for some lunch in the nearby pub. I was very good and listened to the grown ups and practiced my smiles on them all.

Two gorgeous guys