Tent

One of Naomi's recent favourite activities has been hiding in a den of some kind. As it's easy to do, we've mostly been using her baby gym with a blanket over it for this. She really likes sitting in there playing with dolly, or the spider toy that's a part of the gym. It also combines well with the hiding / seeking / chasing which she's really keen on just now. It's quite fun to watch her dive into the tent, then peek out again!

She's also getting very good at communicating what she wants. For this activity, that means pulling on the baby gym (which we keep tucked behind an armchair) until it falls out, or a parent is kind enough to remove it for her.

Nothing to do with Naomi!

I have a new hair do, thought you might like to see.  It's a good bit shorter than it was before but I absolutely love it!

EAT update

It was a very long time ago we started so if you need to remind yourself what it is all about then you can read about it here but Naomi is still part of a study run by Guys and St Thomas's hospital in London looking at food allergies in babies/children.  We had to go back to the hospital in London recently for them to do a check up and a few blood tests.

As is the way with an active toddler I didn't get so many photos but I have a few to share, you'll be pleased to know, too, that Naomi is still allergy free!

Naomi and dolly enjoying a snack and a drink on the train

It's lots of fun to sit on Mummy's knee!

while negotiating London it all became a bit too much so we had to have a sleep!

Exploring the train

Refusing to stay still to allow for a non-blurry photo!

And to finish, a photo of Naomi feeding herself, she has recently become very adept at a spoon, which is quite nice as it now means Sandy and I can concentrate on feeding ourselves while Naomi sorts herself out!  Of course, she now refuses to be fed by us which can be an issue if the food in question is particularly tricky.  Thankfully she's getting better and better every day!

Sunny Days!

Recently I did a post telling you about the kinds of things that Naomi and I get up to on rainy days but by far our favourite days are where we are able to get out and about.  We've had a really good run of good days recently (although not so much this week) so I thought you'd like to see some photos I've taken of Naomi while we've been out on our various walks and trips.

This day we went to the park which has a large area of sand which is good for digging and walking around (it also has a slide in it which is increasingly Naomi's favourite thing to play on).  At the time Naomi didn't own a bucket or spade but some other boys and girls were happy to share theirs, so here Naomi does lots of digging and patting of sand, she was having a blast!

Naomi just loves walking around, so we went for a walk to a wee play area near the house, we don't go there very often as it technically belongs to some houses that all pay for it's upkeep, but sometimes we go for a cheeky wee play as it rarely seems to get used.  This day Naomi seemed to discover she had a shadow and we spent about 5 minutes just chasing our shadows, I wish you could have seen the way she was flapping her arms and being fascinated that when she did something her shadow did the same!

We wondered a bit further later on but when we got to a place where it was safe I let Naomi out the buggy to have a bit of a wander.  Great fun was had by pushing on the nappy bag which was hanging on the back of the buggy, this was the day we discovered that even though we are small we are able to make the buggy go places!

Another recent discovery is kicking/running after a ball, great fun to be had.  I'm particularly fond of this game as it can be played in our back garden so it doesn't need to be a huge expedition!

Finally, if all else fails, we can have a snack in the sun

Thanks for reading!

Park

More recently, this past weekend across the UK has been ridiculously warm (I gather this even applies back home too). On Saturday we went to the park. It's always fun to watch Naomi on such trips as she knows from some distance away that the park is near and starts getting very excited. She really likes the slide and roundabout, and though she still enjoys the swing is less keen on it now as it means she can't walk about freely.

Thanks to Liz for buying Naomi's an ice cream! Here she is...

Walk

Here's some pictures we meant to post ages ago, the post has been sitting in draft form for about two months!

There's a big pond not far from our house (Charnwood Water), which we decided it was about time we took a look at. For the experience, we made use of the baby carrying device that the Freelands gave us before we left Aberdeen. Helpfully, I managed to take pictures of the walk to the pond but not the pond itself, that'll have to wait... Of course, with the pond being outside, Naomi very much enjoyed the occasion :)

Easterish

We had been planning to head back up to Scotland for Easter, but having realised that a friend's wedding (James and Kim - this is the wedding associated with the stag do in Milan) was happening a month earlier, we moved the trip to allow Jay and me to go to attend. So it was an "Easter-ish" trip.

After the success of a single day trek at Christmas, and given the reduced time we had due to running low on annual leave, we drove all the way from Loughborough to Jay's parents' house on 1 March. We managed the trip in record time since Naomi arrived (only 9 and a half hours), with only two stops. I actually quite enjoyed it! First stop was at a service area near Carlisle, and the second stop was for a lovely cup of tea at Peggy Scott's, a wee bit after Dundee.

Here's Naomi eagerly investigating everything happening at the service area (she likes these places - LOTS to look at):

 

Here she is at Peggy Scott's. Naomi's become a great fan of hiding and chasing, and as the place was fairly empty it was great for doing those things. She also had fun distracting all the staff from their work with her usual cuteness...

On to the wedding, which took place at St Machar's cathedral in Aberdeen and the reception was at Norwood Hall Hotel. Here's Jay looking even more beautiful than normal...

...and an award winning idea, a free tuck shop for guests during the bit where everyone is waiting for the photos to be done.

Here's one of the reasons I really like being back home:

Now on to a roundup of the other activities on our holiday...

Meeting more people... Naomi must think she's met everyone in the world by now! Here she is with Willow and Logan, children of our good friends Tom and Laura.

Naomi's got her own special seat at Granny and Granddad's

Uncle Ian's Creationary game. Pictionary, but with Lego. Absolutely genius.

Girls and their technology

"Dinner was lovely"

At the park with Grandma

On returning home to Loughborough, we've hit the ground running again. It must have thrown Naomi a bit, because now she's trying to use a whale as a telephone...

It made me smile at the end of a long day :)

Finally, worth a mention is that it's a couple of weeks since Jay gave her first sermon at church, on Acts 8. I'm really proud of her, she gave a really good message and God was right at the centre of it. I'd hoped to put a recording of it online so folks back home could hear it but unfortunately the usual one that's taken didn't work and I didn't think to make one at the time. I'll try to get one the next time she speaks!