Can you tell I've been to a party?

Can you tell I've been to a party
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

My friend Joanna had her 3rd birthday party last Saturday. Her mammy invited all the children in the 2 montessori rooms to the party. I missed Charles party because it was on the day of Ríodhna's christening so I wasn't missing this one. Mammy thought she might need to stay for a while with me - but I didn't want her spoiling the fun so once I'd given my present to Joanna, I ran into the kitchen with her to see what else was going on so she took the hint and left. When she arrived back a few hours later, wed just been given our goody bags so I was sitting on the floor with Clara doing some colouring and investigating our loot. I did agree to go home with her but I was pretty hyper for the rest of the night.

Before that we were in Wexford. It was Mammo's birthday - everyone is having birthdays recently. We had loads of fun, playing all day long. Mammo is great. She will let you dress up in all her jewellery and play with make-up as soon as you decide it's morning. We went to a great playground that had a trampoline - if it hadn't started to rain really heavily, I never would have left. It's done that a lot this year.

Also we went to Caoimhe and Ronan's house and that day it didn't rain so we had a fab time on bikes and scooters and taking turns racing down the hill on the tractor and trailer, two at a time.

I stayed at home on Wednesday this week too. Auntie Jill came to the swimming pool with me and Mammy and Ríodhna which was pretty good because we let her mind Ríodhna while Mammy swam around with me. Afterwards I was doing some colouring in and I wrote my name. I thought I had written something else but Mammy seemed to think it was my name. She was very excited about it.

The Sarah and baby Grace came for some lunch. Grace is a little bit smaller than Ríodhna - she's a very good baby too and played on the playmat while we had lunch.

Am I a big girl now?

Am I a big girl now?
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

Finally Mammy has noticed that I was getting too big for my carrycot and suddenly a buggy appeared? Do you like it? I think it's great fun. I can sit up really well - although not when there's nothing to support me. Now when we go out, I can see everything that's going on around me. There are lots of interesting things to look at. Sometimes I think Ella doesn't want me to see everything that's going on. Yesterday on the way home from creche, she pulled the hood so far forward that I couldn't see a thing. But she was doing it to take care of me because she was afraid that the wind was too cold for me. And she might have been right because today I have a little sniffle.

Food is going well. I've had things called fruit and things called veg - carrot, parsnip, sweet potato, apple, pear and banana. I haven't seen any baby rice for a while although sometimes I think Mammy sneaks a little bit into the other things.

I've been spending a bit more time on the floor and not so much in the car. I'm pretty good at rolling over now although I can't roll back. I talk a lot and I must post some video soon so you can hear my pretty laugh. I chat with my feet when Mammy's changing my nappy - although sometimes she's very quick and I don't even get a chance.

Food, at last

i think i like this
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

Well at long last they gave me food today. Mammy and Ella. They made such a song and dance out of getting it ready and who was going to feed me (Mammy first, then Ella) that you would think they thought I wasn't going to like it, I had to think about it for a minute. But it's baby rice - what's not to like! It mostly tastes like milk from a spoon anyway. I liked it enough to get Mammy to make some more and I ate that too. As I'm 5 months old already, I've been waiting for this moment and staring at everyone else eating, not to mention waking at night time for more than 3 weeks now even though I used to sleep through before that. So I was well ready to get my hands on a spoon of my own.

I guess I get more baby rice tomorrow. Looking forward to it already.

Then we went to Galway

Do you know how many photos it takes to get us all smiling?
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

We went to stay in Oughterard. Last time we went there it was very sunny, Monica, Simon, Conor, Séan and Liam were there and I got sick in the car when Daddy was driving. This time the weather wasn't very good, the Crumps were in Germany and I got sick in the car when Mammy was driving. And Ríodhna is bigger and much more fun to play with now.

Despite the Connaught-induced car-sickess, I like Galway and we had a good time. Nana Kathleen came with us too so we always had either Mammy or Nana squashed between our two car seats in the back of the car having a chat. We chilled out a lot. I tried out most of the games I could find in the games cupboard. Ríodhna practised rolling around on the nice soft carpeted floor in the living room. She has found her feet (they're on the end of her legs!), can roll over and when she does she can lift her head up for a while but that's pretty tiring and then someone has to help her to roll back again - I help her when I'm not too busy. Now that rolling is sorted, she's never quite in the same place for very long when you lie her down somewhere.

We went to the Galway Races - not Ladies Day but the day after and we watched lots of horses running round the track.

We went to the beach too and did a lot of sandcastle building and fetching water while trying not to go near any seaweed. That was hard work. As Noel and Damian know, if you build something not quite how Daddy wants it, you have to re-do it until he's happy that it's right. Once my dress was wet from fetching water anyway, I put on my swimswim (swimsuit to you) and had a dip in the Atlantic.

We went to a museum where you could see all about what people did in the olden days. We wouldn't swap with those children - their toys or chairs or clothes didn't look as nice as ours. We did a lot of driving there holidays so I was quite glad to get home and asked not to go in the car again! On Thursday we had to go in the car to get the dogs and we went to the beach too for more sandcastles so that was fine really.

Today I went to the creche to get a break from the car and the showrooms for house stuff. It was good to see everyone again. They had a sports day while I was away but I was having much more fun so that's ok. I got my 2nd birthday party invitation. I missed Charles' 3rd birthday because of Ríodhna's christening so if I can make it to Joanna's it will be my 1st birhday party as a guest. Can I Mam?

Our trip to the zoo

Our trip to the zoo
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

Daddy has been off work for the last two weeks. It's called holidays. So we did loads of stuff. Nana Kathleen was here and she minded us a lot while Mammy & Daddy went to boring tile shops. One time Ella stayed at home while I went with them - lucky her!

When we came back, Ella led an expedition to Airfield to get us all in the mood for animals - luckily we did that before the zoo because even the shetland foal wouldn't have seemed so exciting afterwards. Ella brought some bread too and threw it all in to the chickens and ducks who got very excited over it. I thought some of them were going to fly over the fence so I stayed well back in my pram.

There is a new baby elephant at the zoo. I've never even seen a big elephant and neither has Ella because the other times she was there, they were building the elephants a new house so they must have all been at a different zoo for a while. Building their house took even longer than fixing up our house.

And just after they moved back in they got a new baby. Like me, only a whole lot bigger and nowhere near as cute. There were lots of people there to see them but Ella got a really good view on Daddy's shoulders. You can't see the baby elephant eating because, like me, she can't have any real food yet. I'm getting pretty hungry with just milk now though. While we were there, they had showers and went for a swim and ate apples and generally performed very well for the crowd.