A couple more Easter pics

Most of these pictures are thanks to Simon, who came along to Gilwern with us. How very pleased William is to be standing up in this first one. And what a smart outfit!

William meets The Marshes

William is keeping very busy doing loads of new things and meeting new people.

Linda, Barry and Rachel Marsh came visiting and William loved meeting his second cousin, aunt and uncle, or is it cousin, aunt and uncle once removed…? Anyway, there was much cuddling, laughing, standing, and general happiness of William’s part at the get together. Here are some pictures that Barry took. I am very pleased to have some more pictures of William and I, as usually, when I take them, they are of William and other people (except when I take ones with the corner of my head in the shot, of course).




Hmmmm, pity that I didn't take a few pictures myself so that we have some of William with Linda, Barry and Rachel. Next time!

First Easter

Could it be that I've finally managed to get videos uploaded from my camera, onto this website??? Here is William marching around Chepstow Castle yesterday (another one owned by the original WM). I'm still working on getting the shots the right way up....



William in the Oxford Botanic Gardens last week:


Jenny et al singing Miserere Mei by Allegri. This was a short, unrehearsed performance at home for Marjoie (after eating a load of food for Easter Sunday lunch, including much chocolate), so that she could get an idea of how it sounded at the Good Friday concert. It was really great then, I was super impressed. Obviously the sound quality on my Sony picture camera is not top notch, sorry about that:

The greatest knight that ever lived

William's hoodie makes him look a little bit like he is wearing 'woollen' chain mail, which is appropriate given that in the background of this picture is one of the castles belonging to the famous knight, William Marshall. It is Goodrich Castle. We hadn't realised when we named our little William that possibly the most famous knight in English history was also named William Marshall (born 1146). But we were alerted to the fact by Grahame, a history teacher at the same school where Andrew's dad works, and a month ago, we saw a whole program on telly devoted to (the famous) William Marshall! Cool, William will be able to do school projects on his namesake. Apparently, the famous William Marshall was called 'greedy guts' when he was little, due to his appetite.... hmmm, some coincidence there already. The famous WM rose from having no land or money, to become a great knight and politician (was Earl of Pembroke, Baron and Regent of England!) with masses of land, wealth and castles all over the country (as well as in Ireland)! He has a Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Marshal,_1st_Earl_of_Pembroke
We hope to visit more of WM's castles as William gets older.


This week we bought a bike seat and helmet for William. Although biased, we think he looks pretty cute in it. But that is a slightly pointless thing to say, as we think he looks cute most of the time. Here he is, on his new stead:

And if I didn't show you the next photo, you'd go to sleep happily tonight thinking that he loved his new helmet and bike seat. But it isn't always the case, as the following grumpy face shows!


William in national Welsh costume, for 1st March, St. David's Day. This picture may make an appearance at William's 21st, seeing as he is wearing the hat of the GIRL's Welsh costume! He he heeeee....


We watched some little lambs frolicking.

William, entertaining Angela and Marjorie by waving an empty food packet up and down.

And one more for good measure:


This weeks update: William is enjoying nursery very much which is great news. When I drop him off, he starts smiling and playing with the toys straight away, which makes it so much easier for me to leave him there and to concentrate while I am at work. The ladies who work there give me a little summary of his day when I collect him, something like:
On 4/3/08 William ate dinner well (sweet potato and carrot), he had 7 oz milk at 2.30pm, slept from 2.45-3.40pm and had a wet nappy changed at 3.45pm and a soiled one at 5pm.

I find this quite reassuring, as even though I'm not with him all day, I can monitor his health, well-being etc. May happiness at nursery continue! I shall put up some more of his art work soon. Today they showed me pictures of William "colouring in" (to be taken in the lightest way possible) an elephant and a giraffe, which we'll get to take home, along with said elephant and giraffe, next week. From the pictures they showed me it looked like he was mostly eating the paint.

Using time wisely

William is asleep so I have a spare second. I am meant to be using this opportunity to pack, ready to head across to Wales this evening, but I thought that instead I'd stick a few more pics of William up on his blog. Or, I should be eating breakfast, brushing my teeth and getting ready for the day..... oh well, I just like looking at pictures of William! These were all taken in the last week. :) Jo

I gave him a rusk to eat this week, and it required much concentration. I am pleased that he is able to make the connection between hand and mouth, and explore things with his mouth (and his nose, bby the looks of it) when he wants to.


There is a new G&D's icecream shop in Cowley Rd that William and I have started frequenting. It is a local Oxford business. Here he is sitting on the couch there....

....and then trying to eat the camera!

More map reading with dad

But which way shall we go???

Mothers' Day

I was sooooo very proud of William today, when the ladies at nursery gave me a gift that William made for me. I instantly forgave him for all the waking during the nights. How lovely, to receive my first Mother's Day card. He made it himself (well, the blue bit, anyway). What a sweet, darling little baby he is. Mwah! I would kiss him all over and hug him all day!

A new phase....

30 weeks old

William is very curious and loves picking things up to examine and explore them. He is also very good at passing things from one hand to the other and back again. His legs are very strong and he loves trying to stand up (which he can do) and then try letting go of whatever he is holding (which always results in a 'plop' onto the floor).

Standing with help

Today was his second afternoon at nursery, which he is enjoying. He happily plays, sleeps, drinks and eats there. He goes four afternoons a week, and I work three afternoons a week. I think that he particularly likes the new selection of toys and other kids to play with. Well, they don't so much play with each other as sit in a bit of a circle playing with the same toys. It was my first day back at work today and I loved it. There is nothing like 7 months off to kindle enthusiasm and focus the mind. I thawed some cells and started researching which grants I'm eligible to apply for.

William has started reading (well, interacting with books, he he he):


He is eating 3-4 meals/snacks a day.


This is him after his first taste of beetroot, which he enjoyed. In fact he has liked everything so far, and we've tried potato, broccoli, pumpkin, swede, turnip, leeks, spinach, parsnip, sweet potato, cauliflower, zucchini, capsicum, cabbage, apple, pear, banana, sweet corn plums, and even fish and chicken!


He is an adept map reader, as we found out in Cambridge on the weekend:



And he has taken up playing/eating the drums this week: