Looking after my baby sister

Isn't she cute? But at the moment she's sick. Last Friday she got a sore eye. We took her to the doctor and he said she had to stay at home for the week. So our Nana came over to mind her. By Monday her eye was better but then she got sicker. Now she has something called bronchitis. She's not very happy about it. She can't breathe very well and she keeps coughing all the time. Sometimes she even coughs herself awake. I don't think Mammy and Daddy are getting too much sleep. And she's hot all the time. I think while I was asleep the other night, Mammy and Daddy had her in the bath in the middle of the night to cool her down. We're so glad Nana is here to look after her.

Newsflash: Tooth No 8 is here

Am I the best baby for teething or wha'? I have a full on tooth production line going and no-one would even know it.

Backing myself into a corner

Now I'm stuck
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

Yes I'm 10 months old and I'm still backing myself into corners. But that's ok because all babies do different things at different times. So I thought I'd update you all on what I've learnt to do since last March:

- moving about: I can push myself backwards when I'm sitting up and when I'm on my tummy. If I have to, I can slide myself around the room on my tummy, roll over and roll back. But basically if I sit still and call for things, I generally get them. And I'm quite flexible so I can reach things without moving that you'd never think I could get to. So that's what I do.

- playing with toys: I love to play with my toys. Sometime I have to battle with Ella to get hold of them but it's worth the effort. I like looking at books too. But I'm specially good with loud toys like drums and tambourines.

- laughing and screaming: What can I say? I'm loud

- talking: I can say lots. I can use the same few words to mean lots of different things. And when my family talk to me or to each other I join in and try to copy any sound I hear. And of course they understand exactly what I'm saying.

- standing up: My latest fascination is with standing up. Any time I can get someone to hold my hands, I prefer to pull myself up to stand up now. I can stand perfectly for ages until they take their hands away...

- eating and drinking: I love to chew crusts of bread. This is handy because Ella likes to leave the crusts (or the skin as she calls it). But don't worry - they give me proper food too. I've a reasonably good appetite. Obviously sometimes I'm just not hungry but then they do seem to be constantly trying to feed me. I like my bottles but I rarely finish a whole one.

- growing: I got another tooth last week. No 7, on the left hand side of the 2 bottom middle ones. I think Mammy wasn't paying attention because by the time she spotted that I had one pink cheek, it was already through. I seem to grow out of my clothes reasonably quickly too but that's ok because there are always plenty of new ones for me to wear.

Did we say Happy New Year?

I like my drink too
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

Well Happy New Year everybody. We were in Wexford for the New Year. Mammy says this is my 4th year but it's only Riodhna's first year. She hasn't had a January before. Last year she was in Mammy's tummy - she wouldn't fit back in there now. She's too huge for that.

There were loads of people in Mammo's house for the new year. We didn't think everyone would be there again but Jill made Mark go away on his own and come back to us again so that she could stay and play extra games.

At night time I think there must have been extra people - I could hear laughing and singing in my dreams (not great singing, Ross & Denise - and I'm being nice by putting this photo of the Hills here!) But Riodhna and me mostly slept through it. I slept in the extra bed in the room with Jill. She was quite good. I might let her sleep in the room with me again.

We also went to visit the Hills. To play with all of their toys. And eat their food. And dress up. And get more presents. Mammy says we don't get to do Christmas again now for another year. I hope that's not a long time away because it's great fun.

Look at Ella's bike

The maiden voyage
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

we had great fun with it over the rest of the holidays. One day she just went out with Daddy while Mammy and I stayed inside. But a few other times Mammy and Ella and me all went out together. I went in Ella's little buggy and Mammy pushed me. She can go very fast so sometimes Mammy has to run with me to keep up - I like that a lot. We tried to go to feed the ponies but the farm was closed for a Christmas holiday too so we just had to whizz home again.

We went swimming a few times too. All 4 of us. Ella has had a few lessons so she can do some good moves now like the starfish and kicking off the side of the pool. I have a few tricks of my own though. I don't wear armbands. I laugh a lot. I splash and clap a lot too. And when Mammy or Daddy carries me through the water I kick my legs to try to kick like Ella.

We went to visit "Ella's house" a few times too. I don't know why she calls it Ella's house. Surely if it's her house, it's mine too? Anyway it doesn't seem to be anyone's house at all at the moment because there's no-oneliving there and there's no furniture, not all the windows are there and there's no toys at all. So I'm not sure who would live in a house like that. We only went to a few shops to buy things for that house so that was ok.

One of the days went for a drive and brought Ella to her friend Oisin's house. It was his 4th birthday so she went to his party and she told me afterwards that there was a puppet show and a disco where she showed all her best hip hops moves and then there was loads of nice things to eat. She also got to wear the big girl's red party dress that Auntie Nic sent her. While she was doing that, Mammy and Daddy and me went and had some lunch ourselves. And then we looked at lots of toys and other interesting coloured things. I haven't worn my baby girls red party dress yet but I have given my new biog teddy lots of cuddles.

On the twelfth day of Christmas...

...we finally updated our blog. Just as it's time to get back to normal. We took the Christmas tree down today and all the other decorations too. We seem to have eaten all the chocolate in the house - mostly Mammy and me - Daddy is a bit more restrained on the chocolate and Riodhna hasn't had any chocolate yet. But let me go back to the beginning...

On Christmas Eve we had to get ready for Santa Claus. So we were very good all day and then at bedtime, while Daddy put Riodhna to bed, Mammy and I set out a little table for Santa. We left a bottle of beer and some mince pies for Santa and a big carrot for Rudolph. When I was about to go asleep, I suddenly remembered that Santa has more than 1 reindeer and we only left out 1 carrot. But Mammy said it would be ok - that other children would have left out carrots too so there would be plenty for all the reindeer.

That allowed me to sleep soundly. In fact I slept till nearly 9 in the morning. Riodhna woke Mammy and Daddy though so then they all came in to wake me up. And Santa had come. All the food and drink was gone and we had presents - I got a bike. I thought Santa forgot my helmet but it was hiding in my stocking with a necklace (although it wasn't a princess one). I also got a selection box and a puppet show toy and a book and some slippers. Riodhna got an animal train and stacking toys and a book and some slippers too. I almost like her toys as much as I like mine.

So what else happens at Christmas. Well you get presents from everyone else too. Some many toys, so little time... And so many clothes that we have tons of pretty things to wear now. Thank you everybody.

Also we all went to Emma and Jamie's for dinner and Ross and Jill and Mark and Mammo were there too. We had lots of food and drink and there were loads of people to play with Riodhna and me and all our toys. So we got to try nearly everything out. By the time we all came home, we were in bed and asleep in about 20 mins which I think Mammy and Daddy were happy about.

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