Happy Birthday Simon and baby parties

So Simon celebrated his birthday this week. We began the celebrations on Sunday with a meal out with a few of our friends - it was lovely.

Then we had Della's cousin arrive which was very very exciting but before thi Della went to a Christmas party at her Under one's group. Fancy dress was essential...

Della just wanted to snuggle with Henry

Della meet Bluet

The first meeting of Della and Bluet is drawing to a close. They went to the railway museum, a library storytime, had a pub lunch, met up with Della's grandparents, and have pretty much synchronised their eating and sleeping times.

At the moment they are both asleep upstairs while their parents recover on the sofa with a glass of whisky. It's obvious they've enjoyed meeting each other, and especially each others toes.

For a bit of fun we also got the paint out. The picture here is the result of their artistic efforts - Della in red and Bluet in blue...

Della's beautiful new teething ring

Della received a lovely present yesterday - a fine silver teething ring hand made by Nik Stanbury, the jeweller we made our wedding rings with. Simon's been making a film with Nik over the past year, and this beautiful gift has come at just the right time - having started teething about 3 months ago, we're all hoping she has teeth for Christmas! It's covered in dribble now, which proves she likes it!

(our wedding rings - not quite this shiny anymore!)

Della and her first Christmas party

So last Saturday we got Della all dressed up in suitable attire and went to her first Christmas party.

She met lots of new people and although on the whole she was quite happy the new smells, sounds and people got her a little upset. She is also still teething, although no teeth yet so she had to leave the party a little early and missed out on all the drunken antics. Even though she was a little bit grumpy she still enjoyed some cuddles...

Della and her experiment

Following on from our session in the lab at the university Della brought home her vest and mic. She looks like a foreign correspondent in a war zone with a bullet proof vest on I think.

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She tried to eat it a few times and we did have to turn it off when we went to a Christmas party but all in all she did very well with it. It didn't stop her wanting a cuddle or playing with her toys.

When the chap came to pick it up he explained what they were actually going to be listening out for. It turned out it was how and when we said her name in a hope of understanding how babies build sentences around words they like - mainly their own name. They were also listening out for nicknames we give her. Della Doodle is a favourite of Simons. I'm genuinely looking forward to hearing the results.

An eventful couple of days

In a great family tradition Della went to university for the first time today. She is taking part in a linguistics study for babbling babies. We sat in a soundproof box (me with headphones on) and Della heard fun sounds and looked at pretty lights. The next stage of the study involves her wearing a vest with a mic in all weekend. This should be interesting!

Before this Nick and Sarah had a little visit on Sunday and brought curly fries - this was perfect for me as I had managed to stay out in town until 2.30am on a night out with the girls so all I wanted was hangover food.

We then went up to Durham for a few days - apart from Della and her grizzly gums - it was a lovely couple of days.  Della also wrote her christmas list for Santa while we were there. Mainly she wants some new toes - her's are staring to run out:

She also did some chuckling in her new stripy jumper. If you look closely you can also see the dribble pouring from her mouth!

giggles

Me and Della are off up to Durham for couple of days. In the meantime I hope you enjoy this little video...

Does Della know her name...

... Or does she just like the sound of my voice?

Dolly friends

Before our DIY adventures Mille, Rich and their Daughter Asta came for a little visit. Millie is 7 months pregnant and looking incredible on it. When Asta left she decided to rename one of her Doll's Della. This is perhaps one of the cutest things ever and I can't wait to tell Della this when she is older. Here they are having a cuddle...