Family picture at 13 months

We had another lovely weekend being spoiled by Great Auntie Janice and Nana and Grandpa babysat two evenings and one morning so Mummy and Daddy could go and have some fun without me. Spoil sports.

Daddy's home!

Now I'm safe in Daddy's arms I can just about get over my fear of the two big shells we have in our house. Just about.
Daddy got home about 10pm so of course I was asleep. But not for long... at about midnight I woke up and as soon as I saw Daddy in bed I thought it must be playtime! We had a lot of cuddles and it took me a long time to get back to sleep as I was so excited!
Next day we went to Black Park and had a lovely walk round the lake (freezing cold though) and I walked about 50 metres holding on to Mummy and Daddys' hands.
After that we went to an indoor play area where I got to enjoy my newfound love of slides and also indulge my ongoing passion for ball pools.

Daddy goes away...

Daddy had to go to France for 3 weeks with his course the day after my birthday. We took advantage of the situation and went visiting! First we spent 4 days with Emma, Dan and Meg in Wyton which also meant we could see all our other friends there too. This was brilliant as I had a playmate on-hand constantly. It also gave me an opportunity to show off my skill of animal noises - 'what does the cow say Eva?' 'mmmmoo' etc.
En route to Kent we stopped off to see Uncle Matt and Auntie Kim for the day, then we spent 5 days at Nana and Grandpa's where we went to the Rare Breeds Farm and had a great time exploring local ball pools. We also managed to see Nan and Pops despite my nasty cold trying to prevent us. And to cap it all off we stayed at Matt and Kim's for the weekend and Uncle Dan came too for the Benns Birthday Bonanza celebrations, and then we went to Old Macdonald's Farm. Then there was only a week left until Daddy came home! Phew.

My 1st birthday party

So many wonderful friends joined us to celebrate my birthday. Mummy and Daddy rented the village hall at Penn Street near where we live and we took lots of toys to play with and had lots of yummy food including a lot my favourite snacks (shreddies, peas, sweetcorn, rice cakes). Mummy made me a cake decorated with stars and I actually said star when I saw it, proving it wasn't just mummy who understood me! Daddy's lessons in blowing out the candles didn't pay off as I was a bit stunned by all the attention when it came to the big moment but luckily mummy and daddy were on hand to help. I loved playing with everyone and didn't sleep at all the WHOLE day but remained in very high spirits the whole time nonetheless! It must have been the sugar.

MY FIRST BIRTHDAY!

That's right! I'm one! I'm now the proud possessor of 8 teeth (at which I can point reliably), and I can crawl at last (though usually opt to bottom shuffle), climb stairs, cruise at speed, play peepo with the best of them (and for the longest time), give lots of kisses and cuddles, say several words (including ball, flower, wow, bye bye, star, Mummy, Daddy and Nana), try to get my own shoes on (no success at this so far), and elicit a smile from pretty much anyone I meet. Not bad for 12 short months.

My birthday was great because Mummy and Nana and Grandpa took me to the ball pool at Jungle Mania; I got lots of pressies (including a BOX FULL from Gt. Auntie Janice and Margaret), and then went swimming with Mummy and Daddy and Nana in the afternoon. All my favourite things.

I managed to open a lot of my presents myself with only a little bit of help, and I really loved every single one and was full of smiles all day. My froggie socks all the way from Alex in Argentina made me laugh a lot (and also made me lift my feet really high in the air as I was walking as I liked the jingling sound they made!)

Back to the coffee mornings and baby groups

Our lovely neighbours Hannah and Lotte invited us to a new coffee morning run by the NCT. I liked it because they have a ball pool (I LOVE ball pools. In fact, ball is one of my latest words). And also a climbing frame, which I liked playing peepo through.

New Year

We spent New Year's Eve at Emma, Ian and Joseph's house with Maddy. I loved the chance to read all Joseph's books and was so excited I couldn't sleep very well - Mummy came in at about 11pm to find me up and about so I came down to join the party and see in the new year! All this learning to move has got me very excited, I'm crawling in my sleep these days!