Castle Howard

On Sunday we braved the frost and cold and went Castle Howard for a few hours. We enjoyed a lovely coffee and and scone and Della enjoyed watching/ staring at all the other people in the cafe whilst eating her dinner.

 Della then met her first Peacock. I was more scared than her. I'm not a fan of birds!

With such huge tree's we thought it only right to run around them...

Few trips with a toddler go off without the odd cry/scream - here Della just wants my camera!

Homemade haircut

Della has only had her hair cut once and that was by a professional. Her fringe was getting a bit long and in her eyes so yesterday we decided that the traditional dodgy/wobbly/certainly not straight home cutting of the fringe should take place.

Now I have not had professional training and you will be able to see this but at least we are saving £7 and Della will have embarrassing wobbly fringe photos (like the rest of us) to laugh at when she is older... Although I can't say she found it hilarious, she didn't complain too much.

And here is a video of the live action...

Where's Smokey Robinson gone?

Della learns to say 'Bubble'

A video of Della just having learnt to say the word 'Bubble' and being very proud of it...

She also said today

Bath, Daddy, Toes, Zip, Button, Dog, Baba (mummy), Raff (giraffe), More, Yep, Hot, Shoes, Trousers (ish), Rarrr (like a lion), There it is (ish)

Fun with a pram, buggy and pushchair

Della loves her toy pram. I've crocheted a little blanket for her to put over the top of her dolls and toys. She pops them in the pram, puts the blanket over them and then rocks them to sleep or runs around the house with them.

Here she takes this a step further and decides to have a pram race with her Granda Len. She stood waiting for the three, two, one countdown and then ran as fast as she could with her pushchair. She found this very funny and entertaining...

Here she takes rocking Dolly to sleep to new extremes...

Whilst winning the pushchair races Della decides to learn how to get into her own food and bowl draw. This is very exciting for her...

Like Mother, like Daughter

The other day Della picked up her magazine and did some reading on the way back from the supermarket...

Della has also learnt that as soon as we say open your mouth (and make the action ourselves) she does this - it is very cute...

Autumn illness

The last week as pretty much been a write off for all the Heworth Collins Family. Della has had a sickness bug and then a terrible cold. She past the sickness bug onto Simon which culminated in a terrible night for him during the week and a full day spent in bed. She past her cold onto me which resulted in swollen glands and very painful sinus problems. This meant that an small operation I was meant to be having on Wednesday was called off and I have spent a few days lying on the sofa.

It seems all the children at nursery are the same. Della has been off her food so much that she has lost some weight, she is going to the Health Visitor next week to get weighed to make sure she hasn't lost too much. On the plus side yesterday she ate a lot and seems to want to make up for all her lost food!

Here we try and convince Della that food is not evil - trying everything we could think of did not work!

Here we give up on food!

                                      

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...