Right – so first off an apology. Daddy’s got a new computer and it took me a while to hack around his pasword (should have guessed it was a simple combination of Mummy’s name, my birthday and a random 30 character string – obvious really 🙂 ).   Oh and the fact that I couldn’t reach the keyboard from my BumBo.

Quite a lot has happened in the last 3 months – in fact it’s all been a bit of a blur. Some of the big events for me were:

• Meeting the Relatives for the first time

 My first exposure to my new family happened in April. Talk about overwhelming. I went from having a family of 2 (Mummy and Daddy) to a family of more than I’ve got fingers to count on. Good news was that they all seemed very lovely as I got lots of cuddles, plenty of feeds and was almost blinded by the camera flashes. A good day all in.

• Josh’s Birthday Party

Another first – my first “first birthday” party. Cousin Josh (who’s crown I’ve stolen as the newest Holdsworth – I’m the king of the castle etc) turned one and very kindly invited me to his birthday party. We had a good chat (well more gurgle really) about things and he told me that getting to the advanced old age of one wasn’t much of problem. You still have to wear nappies, you get the freedom of the garden (think I need to learn to walk first) and you get presents and cake. Cake sounds lovely but I don’t have any teeth yet so only good as a dribble producer.

• Activities with Mummy

Gosh, Mummy keeps me busy. I meet up with all my pals at least three times a week. I do:

“Swimming” – seems like a dip in a big, slightly cold bath. Must be the cold, but without meaning to I’ve had a couple of tinkles in my nappy. Mummy seemed not to notice – phew :).

“Pushy Mums” or as I like to call it – snooze around a sports field in the sun. Mummy seems to go a bit mad during this as she’s leaping around, doing lunges and getting very red in the face.Seems like hard work to me. All I have to do is sit in the pram and stay awake (no mean feat when it’s warm, your’e all comfortable and your tum is full of milk 🙂 ).

Gymboree – such fun. All the boys are there!!! There’s lots of toys to play with, Mummy sings (err- more on that later) and I now have a new playmate called Gymbo the Clown at home.

It’s funny how that after all these activities me and the boys seem to end up with all our Mummies in something called a “restaurant”. I’m not entirely sure what happens here, but something called wine is drunk by all the mummies and they all seem to have a good laugh as well. They must all be talking about our Daddies….

• My first trip to the pub

Just thought I’d mention this one as it shows how very mature I am at 5 months.  Apparently though I’ll need some form of “ID”? next time I want to go in ( I have no idea what ID is , but it sounds important). I thought I’d got away with it due to my cunning disguise.

• Jabs

What can you say about jabs other than ouch and waaaaa !!!!

• The Christenings

My friend Alfie was christened in a big building called a Church.  There was a chap at the front wearing a dress who splashed water over Alfie’s head and then told Alfie that he was called Alfie. Silly man – we already know he’s called Alfie.  Mind you Alfie took getting splashed quite well – I’d have probably cried a bit. Alfie who had his party in a pub (wonder if he had this ID thing) and had a lovely cake made by his Daddy.

I also went to Chloe’s christening  (she’s the lovely girl from next door).  This time it was a woman wearing a collar who splashed water all over Chloe’s head and then told Chloe she was called Chloe (I’m starting to spot a trend here). Chloe didn’t like getting her hair wet (hmmm, wonder if that’s a girl thing as Alfie was ok) and cried a bit. Chloe’s Mummy and Daddy had a party at their house and I got to get my feet wet in this large plastic pond thingy (might have been called a paddling pool – I’m not sure).

• My first cold

I once heard Mummy telling Dad “that he wasn’t going to die, it’s only Manflu”. If Manuflu is worse than the cold I’ve had, I don’t ever want to get it.  Everytime I tried to get a decent load of milk, I couldn’t  breathe because my nose was so bunged up, so I had to stop. It took an age to finish my breakfast / lunch / tea and then I was never really hungry.  Apparently I “dropped off the percentile” according to the health visit lady. I don’t know what the percentile is, but I don’t have any bruises so dropping off it can’t have been that bad.

Right, have to go now as Mummy’s coming to put me in the bouncer (which I absolutely love).  See you all soon.

Having had a good week at home, I was looking forward to a quiet spell of eating, growing and possibly some good sleeping. However this wasn’t to be.

One  evening, whilst just snuggling down in my Moses basket,  Daddy picked me up in the basket and headed for the stairs. As we headed through the kitchen, I felt a great lurch and suddenly one side of my bedroom dropped. End result – your’s truly was flung (and I mean flung !!) out straight onto the cold (and very hard) kitchen floor.  From snuggled to face plant in no time at all !!!!!

This was rather a shock and with a bit of a bump on my face, I took the matter up with Daddy in no uncertain terms. Well, I would have done if I hadn’t been crying so much.

Daddy looked competely horrified and shocked. He scooped me up, ran upstairs, yelled something at Mummy about “going to A&E now” – the last time we went there it was Mummy’s turn.  So I think it must be Daddy’s turn next. Anyway about 10 minutes later (and a lot of sobbing on my part – yes I did cry like a baby) we arrived.  It was very busy and very warm at A&E and I drifted off to sleep (which didn’t help Daddy’s nerves apparently).  We were there for ages before I was seen by a nice man who give me an initial check over. Luckily I didn’t have to get naked and no heel prick !!! The nice man said that a Doctor would come and see me just to make sure that I was ok – I thought this was very nice – I must be an important baby as Doctors always seem very busy in this A&E place.

A few hours later (I think as I had drifted off again) I was seen by “The Doctor” who I rate most highly as his advice to Mummy and Daddy was to feed me and make sure I wasn’t sick.  If that’s what happens at this A&E place, I’m all for it. After I’d been feed, “The Doctor” checked me over and told Mummy and Daddy to take me home.  I think Daddy was quite relieved as he’d cried a little bit earlier in the evening.

All in a quite busy evening. I have a small bruise on the side of my face. I only hope that the gorgeous girls I’ve been introduced to (Chloe and Hermione) don’t notice (although I’m not sure when I’m seeing them again). Daddy is also being very very careful when he picks me up at the moment. I think he’s learnt his lesson.

The best bit about this week; no visits to the hospital horray !!!

I’ve had a lovely week with Mummy and Daddy.  I think the stress of the past couple of weeks has affected Mummy and Daddy as they’ve been calling me a range of different names this week. I’d just about got used to being called Pip when the next minute it’s Hugo, then Toby, William, Ben and Sam.  It’s quite confusing so I’ve been staunchly ignoring them.

Mind you, by the end of the week they seemed to have settled on one name – Toby. Well I say one name because no sooner had they agreed on that then it became Toby James Justin.   I mean, what am I supposed to do ? Which name do they want me to gurgle to ?  The good news is they are only calling me Toby (or Tobes or Munchkin or Squidgly – PURLEEEEASE …!). Daddy did also call me fartypants once (pot-kettle-black or so I’m told).

Grandma and Grandpa also popped in for a visit this week and we all went on a trip together to the village shop. It seems that I’m destined for a life of luxury as I don’t have to walk anywhere – Mummy and Daddy very carefully tuck me up and then push me everywhere in my pram which is a most excellent way to travel.  Mind you,  Daddy occasionally leaves the sun flap open when I’m in the moses basket on the cot. It’s not that I mind getting a bit of sun, it’s just that sunlight in the eyes makes it rather difficult to snooze.  I have also pointed out a number of times to Mummy and Daddy that the roads and pavements around our house are really quite bumpy and that they need to push the pram more slowly as I’ve occasionally been woken up with a rude jolt.

Mummy and Daddy decided that I needed a”bath” this week. I  didn’t know what a bath was, but was in for a bit of a surprise.  Daddy had to do the bathing thing as Mummy’s tummy still wasn’t strong enough to carry me. Nevertheless, baths – what fun !!!!!!!!  Daddy carefully dunked my toes in this warm stuff (I think it’s called water but it feels nearly the same as the paddling pool I had when I was inside Mummy’s tummy).  Because I didn’t cry (well, big strong lads like me don’t cry except when we’re hungry),  Daddy then dunked me in up to my bum.  It all seemed rather nice so I wigggled my legs quite vigorously.  Mummy and Daddy seemed happy at this and the next thing I know I’ve been put in a white chair-type thingy and Daddy is giving me a tickle with a piece of cloth with a big smily face on it.

I have to say that being splashed with water was rather fun, even when Daddy did manage to get some in my eye (thanks Daddy !!).  The only scary moment was when I had by back washed, which involved being held in the air (goodbye comfy chair) face towards the warm water and being rubbed with the cloth.   Not a bad feeling just different and I wasn”t really ready for the flying lesson. After the back rub I splashed about a bit more and then Mummy wrapped me up in  a nice warm towel and dried me off.  My overall opinion:  having a bath seems to be a fun thing and not unpleasant at all.  In fact I’m looking forward to the next one.

The other piece of good news is that I can finally get my toes to the end of some of the clothes that Mummy and Daddy have bought me.  A few weeks ago I kept getting both legs stuck in one leg hole (really infuriating!), but now I can definitely reach the end.  I think I’m growing. Hopefully this growth thing will be finished by next week  as I rather like my green stripy suit and don’t want to grow out of it.