Dear So And So . . .

I've seen a few posts recently titled Dear So & So, so I checked out 3 Bedroom Bungalow and thought I'd join in.  Here's my effort:

Dear Lovely Nursery Ladies,

I’m sorry you had to tell me off this week.  I understand that sometimes you have to, if I’ve been naughty.  I’ll try and be good next week, really I will.  Mummy would like me to be good, because she doesn’t like talking to you when I’ve been bad. (Normally, she likes talking to you, don’t worry!)  I’ll try to listen and take everything on board.

Yours angelically,

CB x

Dear Other Babies,

I’m not sorry I bit you.  You deserved it.  You don’t touch the toys I’m playing with.  You don’t touch the toys I’ve played with that morning.  In fact, you don’t touch the toys I’ve even looked at.  Comprende?  Good, we’ll get along fine and you can go home without teeth marks on your arms.

Yours . . . In fact, not yours at all; I’m in charge around here!

Mine, all of you,

CB

Dear Friendly Neighbour,

Thank you for letting me play on your trampoline today.  Even though I didn’t really understand how the floor was moving, I still had great fun.  Thanks for spending the time with me.  I always have fun at your house!

Yours appreciatively,

CB x

Dear Wonderful Readers,

Thank you so much for your support.  I really appreciate your comments – I get so excited when I see another one.  I love the thought that there are real, live people out there interested in what I’ve got to say.  Who’d have thought?  Little old me -  a blogger!

I am grateful and flattered every day.

Yours sincerely,

CB x

You can see other people's entries here.

CB x

What? Wednesday

It’s mid-week mayhem over at Mammasaurus and another What? Wednesday.  I was really pleased with this week’s photo until the critical picture didn’t come out.  So you’ll just have to believe it was there.

The first shot is a close-up of the note, and the second is a shot of where I put it, but too far out for you to see.  The shot I’m missing is of the note stuck to Baby’s waist on the big poster beside the door.

Have a look at the other entries here..

CB

Listography - Top 5 Celebrities I'd Like To Have A Beer With

I’m jumping on the Listography bandwagon again this week.  Kate Takes 5 has set the theme as celebrities you’d most like to have a beer  with, but I’m sure I’m allowed to bend the rules as little given my youth.

So, here are the five people I would most like to have a milk with:

Paddington Bear

How cool would that be?!  He’s so well-travelled, coming from Deepest, Darkest Peru, and he knows what he likes (marmalade sandwiches, for the uninitiated amongst you).

Big Nutbrown Hare (and Little Nutbrown Hare, if BNH can’t get childcare)

BNH is just such a caring guy! (I assume he’s a guy – he looks like one to me).  He’s so patient and understanding and he encourages LNH, and sits with him till he falls asleep.

The Cat in The Hat

I love stripes and he wears a very cool hat.  And he looks very smart with his bow-tie.  I think I could learn a lot from him with his ideas for fun and games.  Pretty wacky exuberance!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

He likes food.  I like food.  The conversation would flow, until he started eyeing up my plate.  As long as we met on strawberry day, it would be fine. I’m off them at the moment.

The Gruffalo

I don’t mind that he’s not a looker.  Mummy says it’s what a person’s like on the inside that counts, so who cares if the Gruffalo has prickles all over his back?  He is a cult hero in my circles so I’d love to have a milk with him.

And there you have it.  Check out the other entries here.

CB

Silent Sunday

Saturday Is Caption Day

Saturday is Caption Day again, a chance for you to draw inspiration (and hopefully raise a giggle) by providing captions for the photos posted.  I’ve posted mine below.  You can see the others over at Mammasaurus here..

So, what’s this one saying to you? I’m askin’.

CB

Brace Yourselves . . . (And Apologies In Advance)

If you’re still clinging on to the hope of an Indian Summer, or you’re the sort of person who thrives on the buzz of last-minute, eleventh hour Christmas shopping, please look away now.  Come back and look at another post tomorrow, this one isn’t going to be for you.

Mummy’s already started shopping for Christmas!

Now, before there are too many shrieks of horror, I will put a few things forwards in her defence; we have family abroad so she needs to post that parcel next month if there’s any hope of it being delivered in time.  This year in particular she’s trying to spread the cost because she’ll be “between jobs” by Christmas, so she’s buying things that will last like wrapping paper and sweets.  I spied a chocolate advent in one of the bags that I hope is for me.  Surely she wouldn’t buy one for Daddy?  Or herself!  Would she?

That got me thinking to the inevitable, what to ask Santa for this year!  I can’t really remember last Christmas but I know we spent a lot of time in garden centres looking at all the pretty lights because I liked the displays.  There’s a photo of me meeting The Big Man himself, and I still have the little toy (Friendly Lion) that he gave me.

So, what I’d like to know is, what would you like for Christmas?  Mummy gets so excited about Christmas that I’m sure I’ll do this again at least once before December (if only to catch the people who can’t talk about it yet!) Who knows, if you’re anything like me, you’ll have changed your request at least five times by then, so feel free to join in again.

I’ll start us off; I’d like anything that comes in a big box that I can cast aside to focus on the aforementioned big box.

Mummy would like “something lovely,” whatever that means, and Daddy would like Christmas morning just the three of us – he’s a big softie really.

And you?

CB

What? Wednesday

Here we are, Wednesday again, and my favourite meme of them all!  What? Wednesday!

My first photo shows the note up close, and the second is where I stuck it – the all new parents’ board at my local Tesco.  Not much else going on for them at the moment in these parts!

Have a look at the other entries here.

CB

Stop! Thief!

What is wrong with some people today?  The liberties they take!  The assumptions they make!  I’ll get to the point before I sound too much like a Dr Seuss story.  Chatty Baby is pretty cross today.

Mummy invited friends round for tea and cake.  Great, for her.  For me, it brings all kinds of untold misery, except that I’m about to tell you now.  They bring their babies and start talking grown-up talk with Mummy, leaving me on the floor with the other little people.  They touch my things, and eat my cake, breathe my air . . .  The cheek!

I tried to be patient, I really did, but it’s so difficult.  Mummy hates it when Daddy touches her books.  She says he “doesn’t respect them,” because he bends the covers back and folds the pages down.  I feel the same when other people don’t suck my toys in the right way.  My belongings are precious.  And they’re MINE!

Tea was hard work.  There were two of them, you see.  I couldn’t keep the pace with them both.  No sooner had I ripped a ball about of one pair of hands than the second was clutching a doll.  I toddled as fast as I could to rescue Dolly, and Pair 1 made off with my keyboard!  Stress!

Now, I am fortunate to be a two-car baby.  Both grannies have given me one, but I like to drive them both.  Simultaneously.  Imagine my horror when one of my ‘guests’ tried to hop aboard a ride-on car!  I had to scream. It was the only way to draw Mummy’s attention to the riotous joyriding taking place.

“Share,” Mummy says.  Eh? What?  I don’t know that word yet.  I can’t say it, I don’t understand it. Sounds like a silly notion to me.  She was quite embarrassed by the whole thing, especially when I tried a few distraction tactics (one visitor was of the boy persuasion – see my recent post on what to do with them!) and got a bit carried away.  I can’t tell you what happened because we’re still before the watershed.

There were some positives, though; I learned I can’t rely on Hairy Dog at all.  He didn’t lift a paw but to have his tummy rubbed by the intruders.  He does not have my back in a crisis.  I’ll remember that.  He’ll be sorry when I eat all my breakfast and don’t throw him as much as a measly little crumb.

CB

Save The Children Campaign

I’ve been tagged by Pictorial Mummy and Frankie Parker and today I am happy to make up the numbers.  helloitsgemma and michelletwinmum are trying to get 100 bloggers linked up with a 100 word meme before Tuesday to support the Save the Children campaign to ensure that no child should die through lack of access to a professional health worker.

8 million children die every year. This is the 21^st century – that number is astounding! Doctors, nurses midwives are all crucial to saving children’s lives but there just aren’t enough health workers in the world’s poorest countries.

Save the Children are calling on David Cameron to play his full part in ending the health worker crisis that costs so many lives each year. World leaders are meeting at the UN in New York on Tuesday and we need 60,000 signatures on the petition for them to commit to ending the shortfall in healthcare professionals in the poorest countries.  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Sign the petition!
2. Join in Helloitsgemma and Michelletwinmum’s blogging challenge and write 100 words about a great health professional you have met and link back. Add a link to the petition and follow #Healthworkerscampaign on twitter for more info.
3. Tag some more bloggers and encourage them to spread the word.
4. Get on Twitter and Facebook, and shout.  Loudly.

Here are my 100 words (exact, of course):

The Community Midwife who answered all Mummy’s silly questions, the sonographer who persuaded me to forget my modesty for a moment, the midwife at the birth who took charge when I was distressed – all of them fantastic, well-trained and very professional but my award for the Most Influential Healthcare Professional for my family goes to the health visitor who had the courage to break rank and tell Mummy to give me a bottle.  She noticed my weight loss and heeded my cries.  “Don’t feel bad, it’s not a failing.  See it as pudding after a meal of breast milk.” Thanks.

Many of the bloggers I would tag have already posted!  Slow off the mark again. I haven't seen anything from:

Momma Wears Combat Boots
White Lily Mummy

CB

Saturday Is Caption Day!

Here’s another photo to inspire all you budding caption writers.  No dogs from me this week!  What have you got for this one?

If you liked it, there’s plenty more here, and if you didn't, find another one over at Mammasaurus.

CB

Chatty Baby, Pudding & Pie . . .

. . . kissed the boys and made them cry.  It was a little kiss, that’s all.  I don’t know what all the fuss was about.  They should man-up if you ask me, and get on with it.  No need to sit there and bawl!  Anyone would think I’d bitten them!  I was only being affectionate!  The ladies at nursery told Mummy “flirtatious,” but I think that has connotations and puts me in a bad light.  What’s a little love between friends?  I think they were all surprised I can tell the difference between boys and girls and my age.

I don’t kiss girls.  I paint them, but the only girl that gets a proper Chatty Baby Smacker is Mummy.  And Dolly, if you count her.  Girls can have cuddles, but I like to kiss boys.  I won’t be palmed off with a bit of cheek or hair, either.  I tried to kiss all the boys in the baby room at nursery, and I very nearly managed it!  It’s mostly unrequited, but I gather you have to kiss quite a few frogs in life so I thought I’d start early.  I don’t know how many “a few” is and hey, I had a bit of time on my hands.  I hear it’s “cute” while I’m little, but when I become A Big Girl I think there’s another word for it and Daddy’s told me he’ll lock me away if he ever hears my name and that word in the same sentence.

I did find a very charming young man who didn’t take offence at my version of Kiss Chase.  Each of us was sitting on a knee of our key carer.  I hugged him and sat back, then he hugged me and sat back.  It went on for ages, and I loved it. Mummy says he’s gorgeous, too.  Just don’t tell Daddy.

CB

What? Wednesday

Wednesday’s here already!  That can only mean one thing – the What?Wednesday meme!  Here’s my entry for the week.  A close up first, then the post-it stuck to a poster at a Tube station.  All aboard!

Top 5 Things About Autumn

I think I’m going to love Autumn.  I know Mummy loves it, too.  I can’t really remember last year’s but now I’m walking, it sounds like it’s going to be right up my street. 

I asked Mummy what’s so great about Autumn and she went off on one for ages.  Yeah, yeah, I said, but I’m writing a blog post, not a book – gimme your top five.  So she did.

Mummy’s Top 5 Things About Autumn:

1.     The rugby season starts again, and this year it’s the World Cup! Come on England! 

2.     Curling up on the sofa in front of the fire, listening to the wind and rain outside.  I can’t promise she’ll do much of that, but she’s keeping it on her list.   

3.     Food, and more specifically, puddings.  And custard!  Summer salads just aren’t as satisfying.

4.     And drink.  Lovely, yummy hot chocolate, after a nice brisk walk in the countryside.  So much the better if it’s sunny and frosty.  And hip flasks at the rugby.  And mulled wine after Christmas shopping.  And a Bloody Mary, or two. I’d better stop the list there so you don’t get the wrong idea about her!

5.     Warm, forgiving clothes – no more flesh on display!  And that goes for other people, too! 

I got thinking after that and wrote my own list.  Here are my 5 Top Things About Autumn:

1.     It’s got to be the leaves once they’ve left the trees and they’re all piling up on the ground.  I can’t wait to run through them and kick and throw them everywhere!  Crunch, crunch, crunch!

2.     New clothes!  Each season brings new clothes for me, partly because I’m growing so quickly, but also because Mummy can’t help buying me new kit.  I loved my pretty summer dresses, but I’m itching to get into my new knits – such gorgeous colours!  (Hoping itching isn’t too accurate!)

3.     Speaking of colours, the autumnal colours are something to behold.  Apparently. It’s the trees, again, and I can’t wait to see the explosion of oranges, reds and yellows.  Mummy and Daddy love to visit Ebbor Gorge in Somerset to see the colours.  They took me last year but I don’t remember so I’m looking forward to this year.

4.     And speaking of clothes, how about accessories!  I had my feet measured today and they’ve grown so I’ll need new wellies (yay!).  I also have a new woolly hat with sequins that I got on holiday.  I’m just missing some gorgeous gloves, and I’m good to go!

5.     Bonfire Night.  I’m going for the first time this year.  Mummy and Daddy are going to let me stay up specially so I can see the fireworks.   Ooh, and Halloween.

This post was inspired by the list I read at Adventures of a Working Mum.

CB

It's Saturday Again!

It’s caption day again.  What do you make of this one?  Different from last week, but it struck me enough to take the photo. Have a look at the other entries over at Mammasaurus.

The Gallery - Shoes!

I haven’t taken part in Tara Cain's The Gallery for a while (holiday, forgot, etc) but couldn’t resist this week’s.  Ooh, shoooes!  So many shoes, so little time.  I am a very girly baby already and I do have a bit of a shoe addiction going on despite my youth.  And despite my lack of experience walking!

The first photo here is my favourite party shoes.  Beautiful and comfy.  I wore them with gorgeous dresses and smartened up a boring pair of jeans with them too.  Sadly, my feet grew so I just have to admire them from afar now.

My second homage to lovely shoes is our latest style.  Autumn’s here, with puddles, so Mummy and I are ready.

CB

My Sudden Irrational Fear

I used to be pretty fearless.  Nothing phased me.  I’m Chatty Baby and I’m going to take over the world one rice cake at a time!  I don’t even flinch when Hairy Dog barks. Mummy and Daddy often told people that I’m scared of nothing.

Nothing, that was, until Monday night.  It turns out I am suddenly totally freaked out by the bath!  I couldn’t tell you why, and I’ve not been able to tell Mummy either.  That’s partly because I’m not sure, and partly because I’m screaming so loudly she wouldn’t hear anyway.  Totally flipping out!

Thankfully, after three nights of horrific terror, Mummy’s finally got the message.  She thought I was kidding on Monday, just messing about, so I had to endure it again last night.  Tonight, she thought she was being clever and got in with me.  If you’ve read the post about her tummy (here if you missed it) you’ll know that was pretty terrifying in itself.  I don’t think our bath tub is big enough to support a tsunami, but best not to take any chances!

Anyway, she’s decided that three consecutive nights constitutes a pattern so she’s promised to give it a miss tomorrow.  No chance of dodging the soap completely – apparently I have to have a “Pommie Bath” on the bathroom floor.  Can’t wait.

At least she’s prepared to accept my fear.  She doesn’t need to know why I’m scared, just that I am and that needs to be respected even if she’s brave enough to get in the bath herself.  Perhaps she’s thought of something she’s scared of and can’t give a rational explanation for.

Who knows what’ll happen next time we go swimming . . .
CB

What? Wednesday

So, Wednesday is here for another week and this time I have stealthily posted my note for the Mammasaurus What? Wednesday meme on the Paddington Bear stall at Paddington station. Sneaky. It looks like I’m wearing a massive Jamiroquai-style Paddington Bear hat! I really must learn to draw, but hey, I’m only little.

You’ll probably just about make out the note in the second picture, stuck to a lovely blankie set in the middle.

Silent-ish Sunday

It’s only a Silent-ish Sunday this week.  Mocha Beanie Mummy is away so there will be no linky, but I’m posting my picture anyway because Mummy loves it.

CB

Saturday Is Caption Day!

Everything moves on if I’m not at the computer for a couple of days!  There’s another meme started by Mammasaurus, “Saturday Is Caption Day!”  I’m back just in time!  Better late than never.

So,  here’s a little pic from my personal collection that I thought might inspire a few suggestions.  What does it say to you?

CB

Wibble, Wobble

I’ve upset Mummy this week.  I didn’t mean to, and I suppose I underestimated how much she’d take my ‘feedback’ to heart.

If you asked her, she’d tell you that she’s been struggling with a ‘baby belly’ since I turned up.  She’s gone through worrying about it and now just pretends it isn’t there.  It’s not that she’s particularly fat (cuddly, which is comforting for small person like myself) and she’s the same dress size as she was before me, but her tummy is wobbly.  Really wobbly.

We were lying on the sofa the other day and I’d had enough.  Being still gets boring pretty quickly.  So I got up to make my own fun, and actually, I didn’t have to go far.  I was climbing down to the floor and caught Mummy’s T-shirt.  I couldn’t help but look, fascinated by the giant, white marshmallow she was hiding.  I looked at her and giggled.  She pulled her top back down, but I hadn’t seen enough.  I ripped it back again, and just couldn’t resist – I had to touch it!

It was the funniest thing I think I have ever seen!  It looked like marshmallow, but it felt more like an almost-set blancmange. Or a big white jelly!  Ha ha!  I slapped it and it moved.  Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble.  Hilarious.  I dug my fingers in, like I was kneading dough.  I laughed and laughed.  It didn’t occur to me that Mummy’s feelings might be hurting.

She’s now on a September Detox of no sweets, biscuits or alcohol in a bid to lose a bit of weight.  I didn’t mean anything by it, it was just meant to be a bit of fun.  I hope I’m not on the diet too!

CB