Snippets

I have sent off for the necessary forms to change Lucy's name to be "Lucy Imelda Marcos Townley". She not only spends as much of the morning as possible putting on and taking off (and putting on and taking off and putting on and taking off) shoes, but also is building up a collection to rival that of the former first lady of the Philippines.

In the recent hot spell, Oliver developed a tendency to roll out of bed in the night. As his bedroom has a hard floor, I placed his old cot-bed mattress next to his bed. On more than one occasion after being woken by a soft thud, I returned him to his bed still asleep.

The average time a hair grip remains in Lucy's hair is 4 minutes 32.3 seconds. They are then expertly discarded, often never to be seen again. Buy shares in Boots. Consequently she can end up looking somewhat dishevelled. Not to be confused with an outright "bad hair day".

Oliver's love for music continues to grow. The other night as I got him ready for bed the unintelligible song he had been signing was suddenly revealed when he reached the chorus and he screeched "Walk this way! Talk this way." He has also developed a love of Abba thanks to me buying Hayley the DVD of "Mama Mia" and plays along with his uke.

Lucy currently loves birds, so we bought a bird-feeder which attaches to our sliding windows by the dining table. This allows Lucy to sit and watch them as she eats her meal, before shouting "birds" so loudly that they all fly off. Her favourite birds though are a pair of doves that are often seen sitting on neighbouring TV aerials. I suspect it's the same pair I feel like shooting when they wake me at 4 o'clock every monrning.

(Warning: nudity content.) In the current warm weather I have taken to sleeping "au naturel". Consequently, when I go with only one eye open to see why Oliver is shouting in the middle of the night (which is usually because his quilt won't behave exactly as he wishes), he ceases his shouting and asks me straightforwardly "Are you going for a shower Daddy?"