Meeting cousin Lucas

Not you, you'd met him before. But this was your baby sister's first encounter!

Cousin Lucas

You met newborn cousin Lucas yesterday!

You seemed to understand that your Mummy and Daddy are also Minnie's Mummy and Daddy, but that Auntie Erika and Uncle Dan are Lucas's Mummy and Daddy.

We also taught you that Minnie is your sister and Lucas is your cousin, but you can't get your head around the fact that you are Minnie's sister and Lucas's cousin!

Meeting Minnie

Yesterday you met your new baby sister. She was born a bit early, on Valentine's Day.

You were so excited about going to meet her. When you finally got to see her you were very quiet for a while - pensive - as if thinking, "This is not exactly what I expected." It's not exactly what we expected either...

We showed you that Mummy's tummy was smaller now, and explained that the baby had been born, and this was the baby. After a few moments, your face lit up.

"Baby Minnie! Baby Minnie!" you said, pointing and laughing. You wanted to touch her. We asked you, "Where are baby Minnie's knees?" and you showed us. "Where are baby Minnie's toes?"

The doctor was very impressed that a not-even-two-year-old could identify so many body parts, so we showed her one of your party tricks. We asked, "Where's Minnie's philtrum?" and, of course, you knew. The doctor laughed and said you would be a doctor too one day.

We explained that baby Minnie - Minerva Caroline Mimi - was very sick, and that she was asleep, and that we hoped she would get better soon and wake up so you could play with her. You were keen to start playing with her right away!

And then you started to get interested in the big fancy machine that adjusts her medication dosages... so that was the end of that visit.

For the rest of the day, you wanted to go back and see baby Minnie. Each time you went in, you understood that you had to be quiet because the baby was sleeping.

I hope there will be a day soon when the two of you can play together.

Meeting Baby Theo

Our friends Greg and Kate had their baby this week, a little earlier than expected. You were excited to see him!

It won't be long before you meet your new little sister too...

Pen-Wen

Your mummy's getting more and more pregnant; the baby is due soon!

Meanwhile, you're as cute as ever. Your mum gets very amused when you say "yay-us" like a ranchgirl from the American Deep South.

The other day I put you down a dozen metres from our house and asked you, "Where's our house?" You cupped your hands to your mouth and called, "House where are you?"

Last weekend we stayed at a lovely house in Cromer. We played in the snow and made a Penny-sized snowman. Maybe next week I'll post up some pictures. Meanwhile, I'll let uncle Andrew summarise the trip:

And THANK YOU for a really great weekend away... Thanks a million to everyone for their roasting, pancake making, brownie baking, fry-up-ing, board-gaming, North Sea swimming, tabooing, pigskin throwing, pigskin watching, pub going, recovering of Reading Festival surveys (circa 2003), Burning Man planning, More magazine problem page answering, dancing, table footballing, pooling, 3D car racing, 3D penguin watching, CD (and hammer) sharing, quizzing, hot tubbing, conversing, and generally for great company over the last three days.

Thanksgiving 2012

This weekend we had our annual Thanksgiving celebration at your Yaya's house in Woodingdean.

You enjoyed putting the coloured fish into the puzzle. First, you matched all the colours correctly. Then you did it again with complementary colours. Then you tried to eat the pieces.

Uncle Dan and Auntie Erika were there. You had a great time playing with them.

But nothing beats snuggling up with Mummy.

Your second cousins Sadie and Ruby came. Here's a picture of you playing a magnet game called Polarity with them.

Erika and Emma's baby bumps are getting bigger. When I explained to you that your Daddy's tummy had no baby in it, you were devastated.

And it seems you weren't too happy with being put behind bars...

It was a wonderful weekend full of food and love and games...

...Until we were all exhausted.

Marcus Folkard

We went to visit Marcus Folkard, the new baby son of one of my oldest and best friends James and his wonderful wife Clare.

He was three weeks old when we saw him. It really hit home to your mummy what a challenge it will be to have a brand new baby whilst also looking after you - she was a little freaked out.

Hee hee hee...

You have no idea what's about to hit you...

You're not going to be an only child for much longer...

What's more, you've a cousin on the way. Mini Keat is due 12 days later on 11 March!