A foggy Sunday

On Saturday Simon took Della to the library for lunch and I met them for a little playtime. Della made a new friend and they followed each other around, stopping to sit down and look at each. This caused proper laughter between them as they looked at each others faces. It was very amusing and a little too cute. 

Then on Sunday we took a walk to the park. It was wet and foggy and amazingly for a sunday afternoon there was no one else there!

A quiet week

So we haven't blogged much recently because it's all been quite quiet. Early last week we visited Simon at the office and Della played with Dan's drum machine. She liked this a lot and quickly picked up how to make a beat...

In other news Della has had a tummy bug which meant that she wasn't allowed to nursery. It was a tricky week for everyone but we are out of the woods now and Della will be returning to nursery this week!

Things that have happened

So since Simon and Della went away last week not much has happened. We've been to work, della has been to nursery and then it was the weekend. Before this, she decided that the best place to sit was on my knitting bag - in her slippers!

Simon headed up to Aberdeen to work on the strawbale with his Dad and me and Della went for a night in Durham. We played some and Ethan came to say hello. Here she is after a nice long walk with grandad

Back from Cambs

Well we made it back safely to York after a nice leisurely Sunday morning in Cambridge. Della once again was a brilliant travelling companion - mainly entertaining the middle aged ladies she met on the train...

Here are a few more pics from the weekend:

Don't know what it was doing, but there was a Gorilla in the Grafton Centre

Cambridge library - great place to test out my driving skills...

Always keen to learn!

I love Peterborough station!!

Hi Mam, good to be back

And a couple of videos too:

Della's journey by rail




Della doing her silly walk



And because I noticed these while uploading the previous ones, this is Della and Uncle Nick while he stopped with us for a few days last week.

Della on her travels South

Della is asleep upstairs after her second day in Cambridge with Simon and Gran Helen. So far she's been brilliant. She slept from York, through a change of trains in Doncaster (the best way to see Doncaster) until close to Peterborough. She only spent 5 mins at Peterborough before getting on a train to Cambridge. A friendly Southerner (proving they do exist) gave up his seat for us and so she got to eat and draw her way to Cambridge where she was met by Gran Helen and an exciting bus journey to Auckland Road. Which was the best possible outcome from a journey which could have been a bit of a nightmare!!

Napping and En Route to Peterborough

Awake and En Route to Peterborough

A spot of work while on the commute to Cambridge

"I'll just sign this here and here..."

Mmmm Cheerios!

Yesterday we took a walk to the swings, saw some cows and dogs and forgot to bring bread for the ducks. Today Della had a big breakfast of bagels and scrambled eggs and we then walked into town in bright sunshine to try out Cambridge library. She had lots of fun picking up random books and DVDs, and interacting with the other 2ft tall library users. The journey back to the house for bed was a bit fraught, but jetlag was probably catching up on her by then.

After that we went for another walk to the swings, saw more dogs, cows and lots of University rowers, and forgot to bring bread for the ducks a second time. She tried to take a penalty in a park game of football, and developed her John Cleese style silly walk a bit further. Bathtime gave her an opportunity to make sure her baby dolly was as clean as she was.

Favourite words this weekend: BaBa (Baby), Moo, Woof, Zeza (Zebra). She has also learnt to positively identify cats, which is very pleasing to Gran Helen. She can also find the frog in the kitchen and her hat wherever it is.

Gordon Lambsy has been a constant companion this weekend and may need next week off to recover (and a spin in the washing machine)...

More pics to follow once the internet has been fully wound up...

Insta blog from the station

Della is on her way to Cambridge to see her Gran with Simon. Here she is waiting for her train.

More of her adventures to follow

A weekend in Durham

We went up to Durham last weekend giving Simon some long overdue time on his allotment and Della some fun time with Ethan (her cousin). They did lots together - mainly eating, looking at the fish and playing on the trike.

everyone wants to touch a fish!

Della gets a baccy

Proper Sundays dinner for Della including yorkshire pudding and roast beef

Della shows off her new pram - she loves putting Gordon in and rocking him to sleep 

Della chatting, laughing and falling asleep

Inspired by the Bluet audio library, here are some sounds from Della a couple of months ago...

BABBLES AND LAUGHING

BATHTIME

TOOTHBRUSHING

SAYING MAMA

MORE BABBLE

ROW ROW THE BOAT

DELLA FALLS ASLEEP - A suprisingly noisy job, with supporting roles from Lambsy and Dolly

Development Update

We are just back from a nice walk into town and drop in at the library. Della is having a little nap and I thought I would give you a development update on the things Della can and cannot do!

So some of the things she can do:

• Brush her hair and teeth
• Dry her hands
• Collect simons slippers as soon as he walks in the door and put them on him
• Hang washing on the dryer (socks are the perfect size for her to out on right)
• Pretend to be a monkey by shaking her arms and making a kinda monkey sound
• Say dog whenever she sees one - this includes pictures of them in a book
• Line up her small animals on her shelf and bring you the one you ask for
• make a sound like a piggy whenever asked
• Very nearly put her shoes on - although this can get frustrating for her (video below)
• Have her milk out of her cup not her bottle (it's a sad time - no more cosy bottle in bed on a morning)
• Use her spoon and eat her food by herself - although it is messy and takes a very long time
• Say a variety of words including Mama, Baba (which is her word for Simon), Dog, row row (to command her favourite song) and apple. Although she mainly say 'Ba' for everything
• Take her coat off if you help her with the first arm
• Tidy up (worringly well!)

Some of the things she can't do:

• Sit down by herself (although she does squat now and can sit down on your knee so that won't be long)
• Stand up (she is showing no signs of being able to do this anytime soon)
• Climb the stairs (she might get this within the next couple of weeks I think)

Here she is trying to put her shoes on:


And here are a few shots of Della mainly putting books away at the library...

Happy Birthday Helen

It was our friend Helen's birthday party this weekend. We had prepared early and got my mam and dad down to babysit to make sure we could have a fun filled evening enjoying a dance and a drink with our friends.

We went a little early and took Della with to say hello to everyone. She helped Andy fill the ice bucket for the beer outside. She took her role very seriously and hand check every piece of ice to make sure it was cold enough.

We didn't get back until very late (especially by our standards!) so we were very thankful that my parents got Della up, gave her breakfast and took her out for a few hours so we could rest and recuperate.

In the afternoon Granda made a paper airplane which entertained Della for a very long time. He threw it, she chased after it and took it back and so it went on. To make sure we all got some fresh air we then went to the park (our favourite one this time) and did some playing - well me and Simon mainly sat down and Grananne and Granda did some playing.

Della has also decided her favourite fruit is either apples picked form our tree or blackberries picked from any bush she can see...