I am now twice as old as I was at Christmas. I have done some fab things - I have bought some sunglasses, I am quite partial to bananas, I have a brilliant new high chair that Mummy used when she was a person of temporary limited stature like myself. (Granny and Granddad and Uncle Adam refurbished it with cool new fabric...)

And ... I have 2 teeth now!

Daddy and the rest of the men had a chess championship which Uncle Adam won in glorious fashion (mainly because I was telling him the blinding moves to make - but don't tell Daddy!)

We all went for a lovely country walk on boxing day which was jolly cold.

My friend Finlay came round to say happy Christmas - His Mum & Dad, Matthew and Jenny came to see us too which was lovely

.

and my Auntie and Uncle, Barbara and Richie and my Cousins, Madeline and Luke, coming to visit me:

Today I am nine weeks old, which in my honest opinion is a jolly fine age indeed. I have started to broaden my horizons a bit, I tell you what, the lights on the Christmas tree across the other side of the room are sooooo transfixing - does anyone else find that...?

Today is Great Uncle Martin's 60th Birthday

so we had a great bash round our house for him. there were ten of us for lunch although Max and I gave the beef a miss. So mummy and daddy cooked up a roast and Ralph and Brenda brought down a pavlova which was yummy - even vicariously... and everyone had a great time, happy birthday Uncle Martin!

Anyway, I've got to go, I'm starving, so this is me, Freddie, your errant miniature roving reporter, signing off, catch you very soon...

I am quite an authority on texas hold 'em poker, but seeing as I haven't quite mastered the whole chatting thing I couldn't help Daddy out at all.

They were all clearly amateurs which minimised losses which was a good thing in my opinion, and everyone seemed to enjoy the evening lots.

Ciao for now - I'm off to have a bath!

On the way over in the car I was a little perplexed as to exactly what I was letting myself in for at a karaoke party so I asked mummy and she explained that I would have to get up and sing a song with the words on the screen in front of me with just a backing track providing the musical accompaniment.

So I said I thought I wouldn't get on very well with karaoke since I'm not that good at reading yet, but she suggested that I could just wing it with the song radio ga-ga by Queen - well at least the chorus part anyway... and I could just hum along in the verses, and hope no-one notices, a brilliant plan.

So with trepidation I went in and everyone cooed over me which was great and clearly I was on to a winner because I seemed to already have a fan base there and I hadn't even picked up a microphone yet!

The evening went by swimmingly and I did some mingling which was nice but then I found out that they didn't have radio ga-ga as an option on the karaoke machine - boy was I cross, and since I didn't think the crowd would go for twinkle twinkle little star I decided to sit out the performance and instead watched on in a mixture of embarrassment and horror as daddy absolutely murdered 'Your Song' by Elton John. Very funny indeed.

So we all cruised back late after saying our goodbyes and we picked up a pizza on the way home which was nice (ish) - It felt so bohemian just partying and talking about deep metaphysical stuff and listening to high-end musical performances - we reminisced about how such classics were belted out as 'Delilah' and 'love me tender' which respectively sounded like tom jones and the king were actually in the room; although you have to remember that I was in my pram at the time and so the sound was a trifle muffled...

Grandma stayed for the week and gave me oodles of cuddles and she even babysat for me on Friday night with Aunty Caroline while mummy and daddy got out on their own for the first time. To be honest I was jolly glad to see them get out for a change, as they just keep fussing over me when they're in, and besides Grandma and Aunty Caroline are much more fun on a Friday night! - I got to stay up late for starters and they didn't get anywhere near drowning me in the bath unlike daddy's poor bath time efforts in the week!

Also I was in the bath having a bit of a splash when everyone seemed jolly impressed that I was doing it unaided and saying things like "ooh look how strong his neck is" but actually I was just trying not to drown!

So off granny went after a nice stay with me. She gave me a big kiss and granddad arrived to take her home on Saturday morning. It was really nice to see him!

Grandma came to stay for the week!

My strategy was to be really nice to her when she cuddled me, with lots of little coos and gurgles and smiles, and I saved all of my crying for night-time with mummy and daddy. It seemed to work wonders as Grandma didn't want to leave at the end of the week!

Grandma is soooo good at carrying me around the place, I like a little walk about, it's great, I can get a better view of all the fan mail I've received for a start and I'm also doing my bit in keeping grandma fit...

Auntie Boo Boos came to play with me on Saturday morning. We played on my mat, and I showed her how it all worked. I think she was impressed.

Sunday 5th November 2006

What a great day!

I was right to look forward to today - I had all the family come and give me loads of cuddles!

Everyone had champers apart from me, I was hitting the milk.

Uncle Ralphie took lots of great photos of us all, and I stayed awake all afternoon, doing my best poses for the camera.

When I discussed the catering arrangements with Daddy yesterday I said that I thought lamb shanks would go down well with everyone and he agreed. So Daddy ended up cooking the lunch and judging by the smoke billowing out of the kitchen it was clearly touch and go as to whether we would be ordering in a takeaway but luckily it turned out alright.

Uncle Adam gave me a teddy bear who rides a skateboard and wears jolly trendy sunglasses which I borrowed for a bit. How cool am I? My pet giraffe from granny websper completed my modern urban jungle look...

All in all a jolly good day.

It's Fireworks Weekend, and Uncle Ralphie came down and had supper with us after he had been to the fireworks display. Then Mummy and Daddy got ready for the big family gathering tomorrow, boy am I looking forward to all the cuddles I'm gonna get!

All in all It has been a very tiring day today. It all started when I was having a cheeky nap this morning when a couple of midwives dropped in for a visit. I swear I recognised one of them - I think she just wanted an excuse to see me again... she weighed me again and then told mummy that I was being discharged or something - I couldn't really hear what with the sling wrapped round my ears but it all sounded jolly positive.

This evening me and daddy went to the shops - a bit of a boys night out - we were chatting in the car debating whether to go trick-or-treating and what with my special little outfit I thought it was worth a try but daddy thought better of it - never mind, maybe next year...