Our house

Yesterday Hayley and I assembled this rather splendid little playhouse bought from friends at a very reasonable price. The kids immediately took to it. Oliver has already started referring to it as "our house" meaning it belongs to him and Lucy.

Hayley commented last night that if the weather holds up this week they'll be able to play out there long enough to allow her to stand in the kitchen watching them while she tries to reduce the height of the mountain of ironing that seems to have built up recently.

APB

There are lots of things that go missing in our house. Sleep is one of them and time comes a close second. But I don't expect anyone to return those to me. No.

However, there is a slim chance that someone out there in the world might just be able to appease one or more members of my family by telling me where I can recover any of the following missing items.

Spiderman's hat. Last seen on Oliver's head.
Mr Potato Head's eyes. What use are his glasses with no eyes!
Lazytown radio. The headphones are just no fun without it.
Oliver's Manchester United hat. It matches Daddy's, which is also unaccounted for.
Oliver's swimming goggles. Not only for wearing in the pool apparently. No wonder we've lost them.

The trouble is that Oliver almost always likes to take a small assortment of toys with him when he travels, just a handful you understand. But these handfuls don't always return from the car or even the end destination. So if you do come across a piece of Mr Potato Head while you are out and about in the world, have a heart.

All the best toys...

All the best toys are not toys at all! Our living room has a large box which is literally overflowing with toys. So what does Oliver play with? The pots and pans in the cupboard of course. And the door to the cupboard itself which he swings open and shut repeatedly.

Other great "toys" include:

the TV which is great for turning on and off when Daddy is trying to watch something trivial like, say, live coverage of Man Utd vs Liverpool

the telephone which has an interesting backlit hands-free button (resulting in several inadvertent phone calls)

the Sky remote control which has a worrying tendency to select obscure pay-per-view channels when in Oliver's hands. (That's my excuse when the bill comes in and I'm sticking with it.)

the Dust-buster vaccuum cleaner which he helpfully uses with varying degrees of effectiveness

Mummy's expensive scented candles in heavy glass holders which have to be removed from the table at every oportunity.

the controls on the oil heater in the conservatory resulting in tropical temperatures and the imminent purchase of a fireguard

Still, he has to explore to learn. At least to date he hasn't repeated my early experiment with un-cooked eggs by dropping them on the kitchen floor to smash.