« November 2006 | Main | January 2007 »
Daddy/Daughter Day V
Posted by Webby at December 29, 2006 10:53 PM | Comments (0)Of course, Evelyn and I have enjoyed more than FIVE Daddy/Daughter Days now, but today seemed especially worth writing about as Evelyn has been such a beautiful little doll all day.
After Jilly went to work this morning, Evelyn and I read some books and played with her Christmas Playdough until it was time to go to Smashin' Pumpkins. I've only taken Evelyn to Smashin' Pumpkins once before as all the big children terrify me but, as Evelyn seemed to be looking forward to going so much, I agreed [rather reluctantly] to take her.
We had a lovely morning, with me spending most of my time watching Evie in the play gym, or bouncing around the bouncy castle [er...where she disappeared to when I ultimately told Evelyn it was time to go home].
When we got home, it was time for Evie to have her afternoon nap, she absolutely refused to go to bed before we had painted her piddy [a ceramic piggy bank that she had been given for Christmas, which was left unpainted].
I am supremely proud of myself that I simply left Evelyn to apply the paint to the piddy herself, and didn't [as I was originally inclined] take the brush from her and 'help' her to paint lovely flowers or her favourite CBBeebies characters all over it.
I'll post a few pictures of Evie’s piddy masterpiece ASAP...er...just a soon as I've added details about the rest of Christmas...D'Oh!
Christmas 2006
Posted by Webby at December 25, 2006 02:39 PM | Comments (0)Saturday 23rd December
The entire Annis/Fisher/Moon clan visited Gingatopia today in a pre-Christmas frenzy, munching their way through a Kerry Katona sized Iceland style spread prepared by Jilly. And in the true spirit of Christmas they left massive bulging sacks full of Christmas goodies...Huzzah!Tarrots, Tabbage and Tauliflower!
Posted by Webby at December 21, 2006 10:03 PM | Comments (1)Jilly tells me that Kieran was capable of this sort of thing as a two-year-old [yeah! right! course he was!] but Evelyn gave us another example of her incredible memory and all round...well...genius, tonight.
During [yet another] screening of Wererabbit this evening, Evelyn joined Wallace [with almost perfect synchronicity] in his lines, "Veg Baaaad! Say no to Tarrots [Carrots], Tabbage [Cabbage] and Tauliflowers [Cauliflowers]". Jilly and I stared at each other in disbelief...er...and then Jilly announced that Kieran was equally brilliant as the toddler.
My @rse, he was!
I couldn't write material like this...
Posted by Webby at December 20, 2006 09:15 PM | Comments (0)Typically I've had no time to update these Gingatopian chronicles over the last few weeks so I thought it was about time I recorded the details of one or two of the conversations that Evelyn has had with people over the course of these last few weeks.
My Cousin Elly
On Tuesday, last week, Jilly took Evelyn to her new play joop [playgroup] for the afternoon, where she left her for a couple of hours. Evelyn always looks forward to her visit to the playjoop; so much so that Jilly has begun threaten Evelyn with not going if she begins to misbehave.
Anyway, when Jilly collected Evelyn at three o'clock, Helen - one of the playjoop staff - began telling Jilly about Evelyn's afternoon, and what she had been talking about. Apparently, Evelyn told Helen that Eloise was coming to stay with us on Friday [the 15th].
"Who is Eloise?", asked Helen, "Is she your friend, or a cousin?"
"She's my cousin", replied Evelyn.
"How old is she?"
"She's nearly sixty", Evelyn said.
"Does she have all her own teeth?", asked Helen.
"Yes", Evelyn said, proudly pointing at her beautiful cheesy grin, "She has, just like mine!"
"You said 'Two' Daddy"
And, as Evelyn and I were left to fend for ourselves on Monday night when Jilly went out for dinner with Suzanne, I decided that – at 19:20 – Evelyn and I had time to enjoy two Wallace and Gromit short stories on ‘deevee’ [DVD…er…obviously (?)] {where we would normally only ever watch one}. Evelyn decided, though, that two of the short stories weren’t enough, and that she wanted to watch [some of] ‘Wererabbit’. As the only responsible adult in the house had abandoned us, and I’m an absolute pushover, I told Evelyn that we could watch ‘Wererabbit’ until her bedtime [at eight o’clock], which she seemed content with!
Ten minutes into the film [so it’s 19:30, or so, by now!], Evelyn started protesting that she didn’t like ‘Wererabbit’ [that it was, “stinty (stinky) and pooey and smells of wee and biscuits”), and that she wanted to watch Wallace and Gromit ‘deevee’ instead. More than a little exasperated, a told Evelyn that we only had time could watch one of the short stories, as it was nearly her bedtime.
Evelyn turned her head away from me and, looking at me out of the corner of her eye, [the way she does when she knows she’s going to be tumbled for trying it on!] she said, “No, Daddy, you said ‘two’”, holding up her liddle finger as if to punctuate her point.
Bloody Toilet
So, after two(!) Wallace and Gromit ‘deevees’, I put Evelyn to bed. We went through the ritual of reading two stories [followed by ‘just one more’], and listen to some animal rhymes before I tucked Evelyn into bed.
“Mumble, mumble, mumble…toilet”, Evelyn whispered.
“What was that?” I asked Evelyn accusatively.
“Mumble, mumble, mumble…toilet”, she whispered, again.
“Evelyn, what did you say?”
“I need the toilet”, Evelyn whispered, again, with the broadest of smiles on her deliciously angelic face.
“Oh, the bloody toilet!”, I exclaimed, forgetting myself.
“Yes”, said Evelyn, “I need the bloody toilet!”
Face of an angel, alright…
Bloody Lights
So, when Jilly got home from her dinner date, I recounted the evening’s events…er…and much laughter ensued.
Of course, the story telling didn’t stop there. Jilly told me that, when she’d brought Evelyn back from the nursery that afternoon, they had had lunch, and then Jilly put Evelyn down for ‘a bit of a nap’ on the living room couch.
After a while, and more than a little wriggling about, Evelyn demanded,
“Turn those bloody lights off, I’m trying to sleep”.
In absolute disbelief, Jilly asked Evelyn to repeat what she had just said.
“Turn those bloody lights off, I’m trying to sleep”.
Jilly asked Evelyn which lights she was talking about.
“Those bloody lights”, Evelyn exclaimed, pointing at the Christmas tree.
“Bah! Humbug!” indeed!
"By George, I think she's got it!" Part Deux
Posted by Webby at December 10, 2006 09:34 PM | Comments (0)It's a peculiar subject on which to write on a blog, I know, but Evelyn's 'potty training' is coming along in leaps and bounds. So, tonight saw the fourth time, in my presence, that Evelyn asked to get out of the bath to go to the toilet.
Fantastic...even Jilly doesn't do that!
Tadaah! Happy Birthday Bernard!
Posted by Webby at December 2, 2006 09:25 PM | Comments (0)The population of Gingatopia had occasion to celebrate Poppie's 60th birthday [which is actually tomorrow!] by surprising Bernard with an organised trip on the Settle-Carlisle Railway.
For weeks, Jilly has been organising this special surprise for Ben's birthday. After buying the necessary train tickets and booking hotel rooms, Jilly organised for the entire Webster/Moon/Fisher clan to board the same train that Ben and Jean boarded in Leeds. Fortunately, there was only more minor, potential, slip up...er...but - to save any embarrassment - I'll let Jean explain the details of that, if anyone's interested.
We all met Ben and Jean on the train at Settle and went for lunch in a restaurant [organised by Katie] in Appleby [there were, inevitably, works being completed between Appleby and Carlisle, so the service had been replaced with a coach...D'Oh!].
After lunch, we had time to check out a few of the local shops before walking Ben and Jean to the second part of Ben's birthday surprise, a hotel where Jilly had booked them in for the night.
