You've Got Mail

As well as supporting the same football team (although Anna still has to make her own mind up yet... although she will probably want to, if it means that she is copying her Daddy!), Anna also shares another obsession like her Daddy. Anna loves the computer!

Whenever I am upstairs (cleaning, changing Anna's nappy etc), I am listening to music on 'i tunes', which means having to go to the computer to turn it on. Anna then asks to be picked up (quickly progressing to shouting if I'm not quick enough!) and watches, mesmerised by the screen and dancing along to the music. She has also drawn the connection that if someone presses the keyboard, other things will start happening on the screen. Anna presses the keyboard at every available opportunity.

A few days ago, I had received a phone call for James while he was at work and thought I should let him know (a very uninteresting phone call so I won't bore you with the details). Seeing as though I was upstairs, I thought the quickest way would be to e-mail him. As usual, Anna soon lost interest in her toys and asked to be picked up, to watch me type the e-mail. This looked like fun so Anna then tried to type something.

Anna thought it was amazing that little black squiggles (letters to you and me) could appear on the screen when she pressed the keyboard so did it some more whilst giggling loudly! She even found out how to underline words without having to press an icon on top of the page! I had been trying to figure that out for months!

Just so James didn't think that I had gone mad, I wrote 'Dear Daddy' at the beginning of Anna's 'message' and 'Love Anna' at the end. I then pressed send. I didn't think anything more about it as I went to change Anna's nappy. However, half way through the delightful task, I heard a beep from the computer to say that an e-mail had come.

And so it went on...

Dear Daddy,

Vbjk cvnhbjihniju vbhnijuhnijuhniujnhijkhniujhniju
Cvbmnnnnnuf

Love Anna

Dear Anna

Jklgjsvklddmnfglwejv,poefi
Jdgdkl;rgjedropeo d

Love Daddy

Dear Daddy,

00200020 NHHGGGHGYHZHJYU JH NHBGG,HNKM
N.K,M, x xcccccccccccccc

Love Anna

Dear Anna

hlhcdgcugdlbh;jhv;dfj'
ggholhfqehrfdhiw

Love Daddy

I think Anna would have been happy to do it all day but, after a few minutes, Mummy started to worry that too much computer time would damage her eyes so became a spoil sport and dragged her away to make her play with her toys instead!

I don't have a clue what their e-mails say to each other but James assures me that both he and Anna know exactly what they were talking about!

Daddy's Number 1 Fan

It would be fair to say that I went a little overboard with Anna's gifts this Christmas. However, in my defence, lots of them were books or bath toys (of which she had hardly any before). In fact, the pile would have been smaller if it was just up to me but, whilst shopping for my present, James had felt the urge to buy Anna 2 extra gifts (and he calls me 'soft'). I was even more intrigued when he wouldn't tell me what they were.

So Christmas morning arrived and most of her gifts had been a big hit. She had learnt how to gallop on her zebra, dismount him by swinging her leg over the saddle and how to get back on him... all before 9am.

The time then came to open her last present - the second gift that James had got without me (the first had been the book that Anna had fallen in love with). After opening it, I must have looked like a goldfish as my mouth opened and closed for several moments without any words actually managing to escape. Our daughter had just been given a Manchester United Football Kit. This wasn't just any kit either, it came complete with shorts, shirt and even the socks! Just to help you put this into perspective... I am the girl who vowed NEVER to go out with a Manchester United supporter. Not only did I marry one but I now have a daughter who has her own football shirt! Apparently James had been worried that one of Anna's uncles was planning on buying her a football top. Unfortunately for James, Anna's Uncle Matthew supports Manchester City (as does ALL of the Gibson's apart from James!) and Anna's Uncle Steve supports Spurs. James felt as though he needed to get in quick before her support for a rival club began.

When I told Anna's grandad (my dad), he couldn't believe it either as he joked 'WHAT!!! I don't believe it. My granddaughter can't support Manchester United. Oh... the shame of it'. Unfortunately, I fear that it is too late. I will be trying my best to make her see sense but Anna is going to want the support the same team as her dearest Daddy, especially when he went out in the bitter cold to buy the kit for her (according to James it was bitter cold. It was probably mid-summer when he got it, having devised his devious plan months ago!).

As a one-off (seeing as though it was Christmas and all), I did allow Anna to wear it for all of 5 minutes in which time, James had taken several thousand photographs of her in it, as evidence that she is now a Manchester United fan!! I don't think that James and I would want to dress Anna in a football kit normally. It isn't the greatest fashion statement in the world (it doesn't even look good on adults!) and, as the photograph proves, it is hardly the most flattering of garments even on someone as gorgeous and beautiful as Anna!!! However, for James, knowing that Anna's very own Manchester United kit is hanging in her wardrobe is enough... for now!

I have included 2 photographs with this post. The top photograph is just to prove how gorgeous Anna normally looks.

Anyone Got a Spare Tardis?

Despite being back home for 3 days now, after visiting various family scattered around the country, the house is still looking like a building site as the dust and debris continues to gather and spread. The laundry basket is straining at the seams, the fridge is still full of biscuits, various other leftover food that my mum threw at me as we were leaving and lots of chocolate (despite my best attempts at beating the world record for most chocolate consumed by one person). Anna's toys are also still occupying every inch of floor space in our house! Instead of writing this, I really should be doing something about it all but... bugger it! I am going to sit down for half an hour while Anna has her nap (restoring her energy levels before another 5 hours of crawling at full speed around the house!)

Despite her mummy being very scrooge-like in the build-up to Christmas, Anna had a wonderful time. She was invited to 3 Christmas parties where she was lucky enough to see Father Christmas on all 3 occasions. The first time that she saw him, Anna was a little apprehensive of this big strange man dressed in red. By the time that she saw him at the third party, she was thinking 'Oh No, not him again. Why is he following me around everywhere that I go?' and continued to eat her rice cake without even bothering to give him a second glance. I knew that I had turned into Scrooge when we turned up at the first party in normal every day attire to see all of the other children dressed up as Christmas puddings, reindeer, Father Christmas or a fairy. The invitation definitely didn't say anything about Fancy dress (Ironically, this was the same group who didn't bother to dress in Pyjamas when it DID say to dress up on the invitation.). I thought I had better start making an effort for the next party so dressed Anna in her best party dress. Lo and behold, all of the children turned up in Jeans and a jumper. Aghhhh!

Anna spent Christmas day with Grandma Lynn, Grandad Flob, Uncle Henry, Uncle Matthew, Florence (Grandma Lynn's Mum) and... oh yes, her Mummy and Daddy. Uncle Henry very kindly gave her a wooden horse which was a treasured toy of his own when he was growing up and, thanks to Grandad and Grandma Lynn, Anna will continue to be the best-dressed baby in Chester, due to all of the wonderful clothes that she was given. Anna was most mesmerised by a book that her Uncle Matthew gave her and is now obsessed with stroking Miffy at every bedtime (books have been a clear winner this Christmas!)! She loved every second of the day, especially Grandma Lynn's Turkey with all of the trimmings. Thankfully, we could walk off some of it off on Boxing Day when we took a wonderful, if not blustery, stroll along Southport Pier while Anna lay regally in her carriage (pram) being pushed and waving at everyone who passed her (lots of very kind people waved back which Anna loved)! She must have thought she was the queen!

Then, as if that wasn't enough, Nanny Mary cooked another Christmas dinner for when we stayed in Hereford over New Year. Anna wasn't complaining in the slightest and amazed everyone with how much she managed to eat. She also wasn't complaining when a HUGE sack of presents was presented to her including a wooden trike with trailer (from Uncle Steve and Auntie Carolyne), art easel (from Uncle Phil), a toy vacuum cleaner and a talking and Dancing Iggle Piggle! The best moment though was when Nanny and Grandad showed Anna their Christmas tree. At first, she took no notice. 'Oh.... another green thing with things hanging off it' thought Anna. However, this tree was MUCH better than our tree. This was because Nanny had hid the cuddly toy characters from 'In the Night Garden' in the tree. Anna adored the moment when Nanny started magically pulling each one out from the middle of the tree and then couldn't stop giggling for the rest of the evening! Why didn't her own Christmas tree do that?

It was lovely to see so much of our families over the Christmas (the best part of the festive period is all getting together in one place at the same time, which is rare!) and, having spent Christmas with James' family and New Year with my side of the family, Anna was very very spoilt for a long time!

Yet again, we are completely overwhelmed with the generosity and kindness that everyone continually shows towards Anna. Thank you.

It has left us with one problem however. Due to Father Christmas forgetting to leave a conservatory on the back of our house, we are now tripping over toys in EVERY room. I put Anna down in her play area this morning while I made breakfast and, when it was time to retrieve her, I actually couldn't see her due to the amount of toys in there! Even Anna had got lost amongst it all and couldn't find an escape route to the gate! A book case has been ordered as her pile of books has now become taller than James but we have no idea where it is actually going to go and I continue to scratch me head and wonder where her toys will go.

A Tardis is the answer as it takes up minimum floor space but is plenty big enough to hold a vast array of toys. If anyone has got a spare Tardis hanging around, please let me know. If that fails... we will just have to resort to permanently standing up!

The photograph is Anna, Grandma Lynn and Florence playing with the present that her Uncle John and Charlotte kindly gave Anna for Christmas.

Finding the Christmas Spirit

Ever since I can remember, I have adored Christmas. Even when I stopped believing in Father Christmas (How silly was I? Of course, there is a Father Christmas!), I still loved Christmas and it helped being a teacher surrounded by very excited 5 year old children (who could confirm that Father Christmas DOES exist and it was only silly adults who were wrong!)

Then there was last year. What with the little matter of giving birth and Anna being only 5 weeks old (hence I was surrounded by baby sick, nappies and leaking boobs!), Christmas passed me by in a haze. I don't remember very much about it at all (although I'm sure it was lovely). For the majority of 2007, I was really excited about this year's festive period as I felt as though I had missed out in 2006.

Unfortunately I started to feel like Scrooge during the build-up to Christmas this year! That doesn't mean that Anna had any less presents from her parents. The huge pile under the tree would have confirmed that (and James shaking his head in disbelief as the pile grew daily!). It just didn't feel like Christmas to me! Instead of wishing complete strangers 'Merry Christmas' as I passed them in the street (like I normally do every year!), I began muttering 'Bah Humbug' under my breath!

I have 2 theories on why this happened. The first theory is that the commercial aspect of it all is just too much. When I start to see Christmas crackers on sale in September, I automatically shut off and refuse to think about Christmas until nearer the time. Unfortunately, by the time that December comes, I have tried so hard not thinking about it, that I am fed up of Christmas! The other reason is that Anna hasn't caught the magic yet (being only 13 months). I am so incredibly excited about telling Anna all about Father Christmas, leaving the carrots out for the reindeer and mince pies out for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve, sprinkling 'Reindeer feed' on the grass outside in the dark on Christmas eve night (I know somebody who sells bags of 'Reindeer feed' during Christmas) finding Father Christmas snow trodden footprints on the stairs on Christmas morning (hopefully!!!) and, most of all, the anticipation of seeing Anna's excited face. I had dreamt of doing all of that and more this Christmas but Anna didn't understand so it was all a little lost on her. I suppose I'm like that excited 5 year old child on Christmas eve who feels as though they will just burst if they have to wait another second for Christmas... I feel like that except I am bursting with excitement about Anna experiencing the magic of Christmas!

After trying many things to find the Christmas spirit, such as singing carols very loudly in Church, attending the nativity service at Church, wrapping presents for 7 hours (they were not even well-wrapped.... it just took ages to wrap all of Anna's!!!!!), crying through cheesy weepy films on Christmas eve and giving an impromptu solo performance to the shoppers in Chester (whilst singing along to the brass band as they played 'Joy to the World'), I did eventually find the Christmas spirit.

So where was it?

It was in one of the smallest gifts under the tree. It was a book that only cost a couple of pounds (that James had actually found so all the credit goes to him!) and, despite being surrounded by toys that cost much more than that book, Anna sat and laughed and giggled at it for a long time. It was completely wonderful and suddenly, it felt like Christmas!

I will write another post all about Anna's wonderful Christmas (including a gift from her Daddy which I am still in shock about!) some time later during the week.... when the house starts to look less like a building site, when James and I have stopped feeling sick from all of the chocolate and Christmas cake and I have found somewhere... anywhere (!!!)... to put Anna's 1 million new toys!

Hanging on the Telephone

Ever since I can remember, Anna has had a fascination with telephone's. She even has 3 telephones of her own - 1 land line phone and 2 mobiles (toy one's of course). I, rather naively, thought that having toy one's would stop her trying to use the real telephone. Ha Ha!

When the real telephone rings, she starts smiling and then continues to look at me fascinated as I talk to myself while holding this grey thing to my ear. She then crawls over and tries to grab the telephone off me, in an attempt to find out who I am talking to. Anna must think it is pure magic that she can hear the voice of a loved one but not actually see them. At one time, she would listen to James' voice and look round the room for him expectantly. She has now grasped the fact that he isn't actually here but, instead, looks at the telephone to try and figure out how Daddy can fit in the telephone! Due to her love of telephones, I often get James (or whoever else is calling) to talk to Anna and, having learnt to say 'Hi', she will talk back to them (albeit only one word!). I tell them to talk to Anna because Anna smiles whenever I put the phone to her ear and they talk to her. Of course, this is true but I am also smiling, knowing that James is going 'Hello Darling. Coochy Coochy Coo. Peepo. What are you doing'. in his high-pitched baby voice while all of his colleagues are probably looking at him with a bemused and amused look on their face.

It was last Saturday morning that I was on the phone to my Nan. It was after this call had ended that the first mistake was made. We have a phone that you can walk about with but, instead of putting the phone back on it's receiver, I threw it onto the sofa. I then walked out of the room, leaving James and Anna playing. Anna then decided to go for a little wander so stands up next to the sofa and picks up the phone. Mistake number 2 is that James doesn't realise that it the actual phone that Anna is playing with. Several minutes later, James realises that Anna has been quiet for much longer than normal, which obviously means that she is playing with something that she shouldn't so goes to investigate. Lo and behold, Anna still has the phone so James takes it off her and tries to distract her by getting over-enthusiastic about her toys. Anna takes one look at her mountain of toys and decides she would much rather play with the remote control.

A minute later, the phone rings. James picks it up and it's my nan, apologising for not getting to the phone quick enough when we called. For a nano-second, James was baffled, 'but we didn't call you'. Then the penny drops as we look over at our angelic daughter who is now tearing up the newspaper. 'Anna... Have you been making phone calls?' and, right on cue, she looks up and gives you that 'butter-wouldn't melt' smile of hers!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Since living together, James and I have always spent our birthday weekend (our birthday's are within 2 days of each other) buying our Christmas tree and decorating it. This year was no exception except, instead of going to a forest and buying a real Christmas tree, we have had to settle for a very expensive fake one. My aunt got a needle in her eye when she was young and spent most of the Christmas period going back and forth to hospital to make sure she didn't lose her sight. I had also read horror stories about choking on the needles. Anna insists on putting everything in her mouth and, being the inquisitive baby that she is, there was no way that she was going to stay away from a flashing, tall and very colourful tree (there are no themes on our Christmas tree). Well.... that was what we thought anyway!

Due to James having a huge reluctance to buying a fake tree, I had to prove to him that fake trees can actually look very realistic. Unfortunately, in order to prove my point, it cost rather a lot of money! James does have a point. Our house doesn't smell like Christmas (if you know what I mean) without a real tree, which is something that I really miss. However, as I pointed out to James, we could always go walking in Delamere forest each night to get that smell. He wasn't keen!

So, with our tree purchased, we headed home. Luckily, Anna was due her afternoon nap so we decided to put it up while she was asleep. What a wonderful surprise it would be when Anna come downstairs to find a beautiful tree, adorned with glistening, twinkling and sparkly decorations

After we had erected the tree and hung the many hundreds of decorations (not forgetting it's flashing lights that do a million and one things. James insisted on buying fancy lights as part of his gadget obsession. It was the only way that I could persuade him to have a tree at all!) even James admitted that it did look good. I am sure that we have the most funky tree in the whole of Chester. (We had a Christmas tree last year but Anna was only 4 weeks old so didn't really appreciate it. I can't blame her. Both James and I were so knackered that it looked as though the decorations had just been flung towards it... although it did smell nice!)

We then sat patiently waiting for Anna to wake up. We even contemplated waking her up early but came to our senses quite quickly as we didn't really want a grumpy Anna when showing her the amazing spectacle of our gorgeous tree.

Finally she woke up and we went to get her.

As we walked into the dining room (where the tree was placed), I was so excited, anticipating Anna's beaming smile as she set eyes on her very own Christmas tree...

Anna gave one look at the Christmas tree and headed in the opposite direction. Maybe she hadn't noticed it properly so I picked her up and carried her over to it. 'Look Anna, look at the beautiful fairy and the Gingerbread man and the disco ball (every tree has to have one!) and the snowman and Father Christmas and the bells and...'. Anna was not in the slightest bit interested! Then.... something caught her eye and the beaming smile emerged. Which one of the gorgeous decorations was it? What had Anna fallen in love with?

Anna has become very attached to... the scrappiest, oldest, most worn and tired looking piece of tinsel that you have ever seen! It was actually a piece of tinsel that was used in the nativity play that I did whilst teaching. I think someone in my class had worn it around their waist to hold their costume up! I wasn't even going to put it up but needed the box ,which it was placed in, for something else so I had casually dangled it over one of our picture frames. Now, whenever Anna enters the room, she starts smiling adoringly at this piece of tinsel and stroking it! She loves it!

As for the tree.... what tree???

Climb Every Mountain

Regular readers of this blog (if anyone is out there) may remember that Anna is afraid of the hoover. This should have provided me with a great excuse for not doing any hoovering but, with a 12 month old baby, that is impossible. If I didn't do any hoovering, we would be wading through toast crusts and vegetable sticks by now. However, we have had progress with her fear of the hoover. Instead of the crying and general hysterics when I use the hoover, Anna is now following me around clinging onto my leg and staring intently at it. My theory is that she is worried that I will end up in the same state as her toast. As far as Anna is concerned, that piece of toast that she threw on the floor this morning (she was probably saving it for her mid-morning snack), got sucked up by that machine, never to be seen again. Anna doesn't want her Mummy getting sucked up the same way, hence why she clings onto my leg to pull me back in case the hoover makes a grab for me!

So what has mountains got to do with the hoover?

Well... it was while I was hoovering this morning that Anna climbed her very own mountain. Until now, while I hoovered the hall, Anna has wrapped her arm around my leg and took it in turns to stare at the hoover and gaze longingly up the stairs. To Anna, the stairs have always been a mission too far. To get Anna's perspective, I once got down to her eye level and looked up. From Anna's viewpoint, the stairs did seem awfully big and the summit did seem a long way away.

This morning, Anna was on a mission. As soon as it was safe (the hoover had been switched off and Mummy had begun to wind his wire back in), Anna stood up and walked to the bottom step. At this point, I wasn't giving it too much thought as Anna had never attempted to climb it before so I thought that it would take several attempts to even get onto the bottom step, let alone all the way up. I was wrong!

Suddenly, without so much as a second thought, Anna had used her knees to get on to the first step, stood up and climbed onto the second step, stood up and climbed onto the third step and so on. As soon as Anna had reached the second step, I was right behind her with my arms outstretched, ready to stop her. She didn't need my security net though. Within 1 minute, she had zoomed up the stairs and was sat on the landing, looking triumphant and very proud of herself. If only she had a flag.

I suppose this means that we will be buying a second stair gate for the bottom of the stairs, to match the one at the top. Guess where we will be this weekend?