Christmas 2010

Here are a selection of photos from our Christmas day. It was a lovely day, blue skies, crisp snow and very cold. Alice had been a good girl and Father Christmas left her some presents in her stocking. She really got into present unwrapping this year! We all went for a christmas morning walk around the field and enjoyed a big roast dinner at lunch. Lots of playing with new toys and Toby and I played Mousetrap (less than a £1 from the charity shop)!

Opening presents from Father Christmas



Snow snow snow




Toy duck for Otto ("I think it's dead now!")
Too much brownie mix?! or 12 weeks?(belly button already sticking out, oh joy!)

(For Matt!) Christmas lunch with all the trimmings Homemade brownies with homemade chocolate sauce.

First glimpse of snow...

Hand me downs- extreme!

We've all heard of sibling hand me downs...
Well Uncle Matt, you may recognise the all in one sleepsuit Alice is wearing...that's right it was yours when you were Alice's age (nearly 21 years ago)!She looks so adorable in it.

Another clip of her walking

After a request from nanny for more filming of Alice walking, here she is again!

Making the most of a dry day in November

Alice and I had no grand plans for the day so decided to make the most of the brightish weather to explore out and about. Alice was very excited to walk out the front for the first time and around the house. Trouble is everytime I tried to film her she would stop and stare at all the dfferent things to explore- grass, pavement...road. Trying to keep her on the path was not an easy task!

This was followed by going round the block on her trike. We decided to make it a proper outing and took photos of the things we saw along the way (inspired by Laura's post last March). Some of the photos are of Alice's favourite things and some are of mine, which of course she loves too! It's always an exciting walk and ride, we saw 3 dogs to say hello too and knocked on Jenny's door to show her and Lily our leaves. And of course there were lots of birds to look at too.
The Park across the road Alice and an autumn leaf Near the teletubbies mound Looking out across the fields Mummy's favourite tree at the cut through

first steps

Just before tea on Friday Alice took 1 step. Sunday evening she did this!

first steps, first up chairs and first tempers!

It's been a couple of days of highs and lows. Alice took her first step yesterday and today she has taken 12 steps (in 3 blocks, with a slight rebalancing) How exciting, there's no going back now and my guess that she would be walking by christmas was way out! So I'm going to say first steps at 13 months. Also she came into school with me and found that reception size chairs are perfect for climbing and standing on. Not very helpful when I'm trying to sort a messy classroom!
And the low...Alice has started her terrible 2's a year early! She got very cross yesterday if I stopped her doing anything she wanted to and would make a loud noise and clench her fists. She also bit me twice- lovely child!

the christening

It was a while ago now but Alice was christened on 11th July at the local church in Moreton. The service was followed by afternoon tea in our garden (at last a chance to hang my bunting!).

Grandparents
Godparents

The family dress. Made for nana collis's christening. Worn by mum, me and Alice (4 generations)

Happy Birthday Alice

Alice turned 1 on Tuesday 21st but we decided to celebrate on thursday. This was because Toby and I were working and Alice spent the day at the childminders. So apart from a few "Happy birthday to you" songs we kept presents and cake for 2 days time. On thursday we began birthday traditions in earnest...opening presents, which took along time as Alice could only manage 2 before the wrapping paper became far more exciting. In fact I'm sure she thought this was the real present! Alice then had her first birthday party with some of her friends over to play. They all had a great time causing havoc in the lounge and kitchen. Alice was a happy and exhausted girl at the end of it all.

Birthday girl just woken up!

Almost a year gone by

I can hardly believe that it was almost a year ago that I first posted on this blog with news of a little arrival...well she's not quite so little now!
Alice will be turning 1 in a couple of days time so I felt it was time to give a complete update on our darling little girl.
So what follows is photos, achievements, likes and dislikes, 'day in the life of' for Alice Dipple, aged nearly 1!

There's no denying that the first 4-5 months of Alice were tough for me. We had real problems with feeding (little monkey and her biting that she's still not grown out of), teething and just adjusting to no longer working and being in control of my life. It didn't come naturally like I thought it would. But slowly we got there and now she makes my day, every day. I love her happy greeting first thing in the morning right through to giggles in her cot before bed. She is fab!

She is still crawling but with super speed that I don't see her walking for some time. Saying that she loves to walk along pushing things and is now standing for about 10 seconds with a very pleased expression on her face.


She likes to clap every small achievement with a 'yey' noise. She is a very independent girl who is very happy to play on her own. She also has a super imagination and is very creative with her play. We have devoted the upstairs into an Alice play area and she will spend ages looking at books, pushing daddy's fisherprice car along, throwing toys out of things.. and sometimes putting them back. She gets very excited if she hears the bath run and enjoys dropping her toys in and watching them swosh around in the water (I think bathtimes are an all time favourite). Today she stood at the bathtub and selected the toys she wanted to play with. "erm, duck (in the bath)...turtle...erm another duck (2mins later)... another duck"

Another favourite passtime is helping me reorganise her clothes drawers!
She now has sleeps in the day!!Most mornings anytime between 10-12.30. I have to unplug the phones as they wake her up and there's nothing more frustrating than a sales call and a grumpy tired child!
Come rain or shine, Alice loves her daily walks in the field with Otto. She likes to point out things to me like the crows in the ploughed field, and I always know when other dogs are around because I hear "dog, woof woof". Sometimes I hear horses hoofs trotting...but no horses around! Alice joins in with songs- either actions or sound effects and I'm embarrassed to say that her favourite is the theme tune from Gilmore girls (Watched far too much by me when pregnant)- as soon as I start up "loving you the way I do.." her face beams and she dances to the music.





Foods she loves:Everything but especially cheese on toast, marmite on toast, fish, spag bol, beef casserole, strawberries, cherries, kiwi, banana. Alice likes a hands on approach to mealtimes, quite literally, and is begining to feed herself with a spoon.
Things she can say:daddy, mama, dog, woof woof
Things she understands and chooses to ignore: no, don't touch that, come here
Favourite places: Park, library, field



What does Alice have to look forward to in the coming months,apart from a bit more hair...Well I'm hoping to take her swimming for the first time and buy a helmet so we can go on bike rides before winter sets in.
We love our little girl so much,
I don't know, time for another one?!?

A new look!

It's been a long while since I last posted. I think I've finally sorted privacy rights out (don't just want anyone reading this!) and given it a new look. Felt it was appropriate to display Alice's favourite toys in the background.

Otto comes 6th!

At the end of June we decided to all head to the local doggy fun day at Moreton. Having eyed up the competition we decided to enter Otto in to an event...the waggiest tail competition! With number attached, Toby and Otto entered the ring and otto performed his best wagging for the judges. He came 6th- super effort Otto. (I think otto was more impressed with the tennis ball he found and the sheep poo that was scattered in the field!!)

a bundle of mischief!

When going through the photos I spotted lots of 'bits and pieces' photos of Alice that are not of any special event but just Alice being Alice. So here they are, random dates but with one thing in common- they show what a bundle of mischief our little girl is (and that's why we love her!) "What do you mean mummy? This isn't how I play on my mat?"

The Dipples on holiday!

We decided to have a really cheap holiday this summer...a week in a holiday let in Dorset (our house!!!) Luckily for us we live in a county that people choose to spend their holiday so there is loads to do. Toby and I sat up one evening and planned all the day trips we wanted to do (mostly free) and I prepared our holiday let with clean sheets and towels! Here's a colletion of photos from our hols. How lucky were we with the weather- blue skies and between 21 and 28 degrees c all week! The day after our holiday the temperature plummeted to 17 degrees and it rained all day.

We took the backpack and dog and hiked on Portland. Here we are enjoying the views across Weymouth and the Jurrasic coastline (apart from Alice!)
An exhausted dog crashes out on the lounge floor.
We headed to Bridport and the nearby seaside places of West bay and Burton Bradstock. It was great visiting old haunts, full of lovely memories. Toby proposed to me under the cliffs in this photo.

Hollie and Jay joined us for a lovely day at Upton country park. It was hot hot hot so after looking at the flowers we headed to some shade for a tasty picnic. Alice went off exploring! and thought the many ducklings on the pond were fab.

Do I have food round my mouth?

Happy Birthday mummy...As a special treat for my birthday and, because we love it there, we headed for the pretty seaside town of Swanage. Another picnic and paddle in the sea. Afterwards we headed to chococo, a delightful shop and cafe selling handmade chocolates and serving the best deserts around. Highly recommended!!

Are you smiling Alice?

All too much for little one

On our final day we headed to Cerne Abbas and the famous 'Giant' on the hill. With Alice in the backpack we decided to climb the very steep hill to the top of the giant. It was worth it, the views of the Dorset downs were amazing .

Lovely tea and cake in the tearoom gardens- Otto enjoyed his stick!