A Birthday Party

Daddy's taking photos again
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

So many birthdays these days. I wonder who's next! We went to Galway this weekend for Simon's birthday party. It was a lot of driving - all the way down on Saturday morning and then all the way back on Sunday morning so that Mammy & Daddy could go to a match. I entertained myself in the back of the car, had lots of chats and even talked to Ríodhna occasionally. There were loads of people at the Crumps - mostly adults and boys - the Crump boys and their cousin Ruadhrí and their friend Aengus.

But that's ok because I had Liam's full attention and we played lots of games, ran around in the garden, played on the slide, watched a video and after the food and the cake, I even had a snooze in his room with Ríodhna asleep in the cot until Mammy and Daddy decided it was time to go back to the B&B. It was a lovely B&B but it was the middle of the night and it was lashing rain and really windy when they finally decided to go. I was glad I had my raincover for my buggy but even wrapped up inside there it was a bit scary and I was glad when we got back to the lovely room we were staying in. Don't ask me how many candles were on the lovely chocolate cake - it looked like quite a few.

It's not summer any more. It's autumn. You can tell because when it stops raining in autumn, it's not as sunny as it is when it stops raining in summer and at night I need my proper quilt covering me. On Sunday Jill brought me up to the green near the house we're staying in to find conkers. I got loads. I know all about conkers because in creche we've been talking about autumn and making hedgehog pictures with proper spikes and painting leaves.

My two front teeth

My two front teeth
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

On Sunday Auntie Emma thought she felt a 2nd tooth. And when Mammy looked for it yesterday, there it was just peeping through. So we did a little photo shoot and I smiled a lot so that we could get a picture to show you all what I look like with my teeth.

I was at the cinema with my mammy today. I think she enjoyed the film - I squealed quite a lot to try to distract her but she's well used to that now. I did have a little snooze during the quiet bit but not for too long. It was actually my third time at the cinema. We go at a special time when there are lots of babies there. I've seen the Bourne Ultimatum (very exciting), Knocked Up (not very funny) and Atonement (very dramatic). Mammy is going back to work (whatever that means) in just over two weeks so we have to fit as many fun things in as possible before then. Mind you yesterday we spent a lot of time driving around to collect the dogs and then to look at windows which wasn't much fun at all so we had to make up for that.

As well as growing teeth and getting very vocal, I've been eating a lot more food - I have 3 meals a day now. And I have lots of bottles too although I rarely finish a whole one. All this food is making me sleep for a very long time at nigh time again - something I haven't been doing for a little while now.

Last week twice when we went to Ella's creche I stayed in the baby room for a little while. It was good fun. Magda and Elva looked after me and I got to look at lots of other babies too. I might go again some day... I think they'd like me too because they had told Anna all about how good and smiley I am when she came back from her holidays.

Can I share?

Can I share
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

When we came back from Wexford, we went to see some of Mammy's friends and I met a little girl called Caitríona who is only half my age while Ella played with Leela who she knows quite well now. Ella went back to creche then and Mammy and I have been hanging out. Yesterday we called to Peter's house. His Mummy was there but his big sister was in creche too so we had the place to ourselves. Peter in only two days older than me but he can crawl already. He shared his toys and when he saw me play with my purple and gold ball (in honour of the Wexford camoige players) but he was well able to crawl over to take it from me. I like sharing.

I can see rock pools

I can see rock pools
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

We were in Wexford last week. For nearly a whole week. First at the weekend Emma dn Jamie and Daddy were there too but they left on Sunday and Mammy, Ríodhna, the dogs and me stayed for a few days more. I went to the church a couple of times because they were praying for Daideo. I was very quiet and well-behaved.

I've discovered a new favourite food - Mamó makes straganoff with rice and I ate a huge bowl of it 2 days. It might even be better than pizza! Emma and Mamó brought me to a farm to see and feed loads of animals while Mammy and Daddy went looking for tiles. We got lovely apple jiuce and ice cream and I got to go in a bouncy castle which was really fab.

Apart from the usual chores (watering the garden, helping to hang up the clothes by giving Mamó one peg at the time in a colour co-ordinated with whatever she's hanging up). we also found the time to go to the beach and to go back to the playground with the trampolines. The beach was St Helens - it's a great place. There are loads of rocks you can climb in with rock pools. We made sandcastles and I paddled in the sea. I dstill don't like seaweed but I"m getting better at avoiding it.

A Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba

or in other words, it's been a busy week. All the changes started last Wednesday when Mammy gave me a bottle. I've had bottles before from Daddy and from other people but never from Mammy and this one tasted different. I like it quite a lot which is just as wellbecause I'm getting one every day now. But they try to give me quite a lot and I'm not always thristy enough for that much. And I'm so busy eating 2 meals a day (which going much better now that Mammy is watering the food down a bit more) that I don't have time for whole bottles.

Then on Thursday when I was in the park with Mammy and Ella and Ruth and Stephanie, Mammy noticed my first tooth peeping through. She nearly missed it because it was on the bottom - it's the front tooth on the right hand side at the bottom - and she had been keeping an eye on the top. So it's out now but it's only peeping up a little bit so far. I'd say it'll be razor sharp. And it probably explains why I wasn't so happy sleeping a few nights last week. And why my nappies were extra specially horrible on Wednesday.

To top it all, yesterday morning I decided to try out talking. At about half seven in the morning I said, a ba ba ba to Daddy. He woke Mammy up to tell her but of course she didn't believe it because she hadn't heard it herself. So I said it again another few times during the day and again today because I like the sound of it. I can also say something that sounds like "va va va" and if you listen very carfeully, Mammy and Emma think I can also say "a ma ma" although Emma's sure this is my version of "em ma".

That was a lot of progress for just one week. And as you can see from the photo, I'm getting very good at spending time on my tummy now too...