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Thea has had a lovely second birthday. Thank you for all her wonderful gifts and cards.

This is the first time that Thea really understood that it was her birthday, but nevertheless, Nathaniel was the most excited of the two of them, and we suspect that he had been awake with anticipation from 5am!

But he was very good at finding an appropriate level of help to provide in unwrapping presents.

Thea had fun playing with her toys.

I've always thought that these little trampolines were a bit of a waste of space, but then I have never met someone who enjoys bouncing as much as Thea! It will give the bed and the floor a bit of a rest!

Thea is pleased to discover the pockets in her new dress, but finds that they are less hazardous when she isn't jumping!

Later, some friends came to play and we had "Happy Birthday cake".

Surprisingly, Thea got all shy once the candles were lit, and Finn had to blow them out for her. But when we relit them later with just the four of us, she was very happy for us to sing and her to extinguish.

Now all we have to do is persuade her to let us put the trampoline in the garden!

NB I have no idea why Thea refused to wear tights all day. She sported a variety of trousers with her new dress including tracksuit bottoms and pajamas!

Writing

Today Thea and I went into school to attend the "Writer of the Month" Assembly. It was such fun. One writer from each of the six classes got up and read their writing, or an exerpt from their writing, to the school. And there was good natured heckling from the teaching, and pupils put up their hands to offer ironic comments at the expense of the teachers. Wonderful - exactly what we were hoping the school would provide!

We discovered that Nathaniel had been awarded this accolade for his piece on Divali. He had coloured in a picture of Rama and written next to it, completely legibly, "It is a god.". The notable element of this was that they haven't yet discussed sentences structure yet, and Nathaniel had started his with a capital letter entirely independently which impressed his teacher. Not bad.

As well as being applauded by the school, Nathaniel was awarded with a certificate and a book token, and his picture and a copy of his work is being displayed in the hall all month. How exciting!

Achievements

STOP PRESS**** Nathaniel has just been named as Writer of the Month for his class. Not bad for a little boy who was really struggling to write the whole of his name whithout getting bored and wandering off at the beginning of September.

Half term

We were very ready for half term, and I think that were at least 4 days when Nathaniel didn't even get dressed! Of course, thanks to the dragon suit, that didn't prevent us from leaving the house. We had friends to play, and lots of cake and lots of fun.

For some reason, the favourite toy was the travel cot, and both children spent many hours pretending to be children. Fortunately, they are both now tall enough to get in and out of the cot without help so they attended to themselves for some time.

We did autumn crafts, starting from an interest in cobwebs. We made cobwebs out of wool;

and then with oil pastels on dark paper. Then we made firework pictures.

There was lots of baking. The chocolate crispies didn't last very long.

But there was some gingerbread left for Ian.

We had a trip to get Thea's feet measured which included exciting coffee and cake out,

and playing in horrid shopping centre plastic.

The sandpit got lots of use and we made lots and lots of japanese rock gardens with rakes and pebbles and shells.

On Halloween, we went to the butcher and Sean presented both children with chocolates which prompted this dance,

which was rewarded with a round of applause from inside the butchers!

At the end of the week we had an exciting trip out to a restaurant,

followed by visiting the A4 exhibition at the NRM, lit up as part of Iluminating York festival.

Autumn

Since the manic business of September, we have managed to calm down a bit and had a more relaxing October. This is what we have been up to:

Enjoying the autumnal weather.

Thea and I have been particularly confused by the lack of Nathaniel during the day. But it has meant that we've been able to do some good wandering without the need to be constantly going somewhere!

Nathaniel and I have managed a couple of "walks" on our own as well. (Nathaniel still doesn't really consent to walk anywhere!) Well, if you don't count Ernest, our newest dragon.

Playing outside in the sun.

Appreciating our favourite vegetables.

The glee that occured when the sweetcorn was spotted in the veg box was indescribable! And when I called to say that it was time to prepare them, I have never seen two children appear so quickly!

Painting.

You can take the boy out of Steiner, but you can't take Steiner out of the boy!

Making the most of all weathers on the moor.

Sunday

Not a bad day, today! We started with coffee and cookies with friends while we watched other friends (the crazy ones), run the York marathon.

Then straight on to the sailing club for Vision day. We all worked out how to rig them and sail them and then sailed them around.

Except for me and Ian. We persuaded an innocent bystander to mind our children and took the RS200 for a spin. Very nice indeed. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that we could still actually sail with each other and was much easier than sailing with other people!

The kids got stuck into important things immediately. Cooking;

and disappearing!

Then we scampered home to find Uncle James, some stuff from IKEA, and innovative drawing techniques.....

New toys

In honour of the warmth and sun (the last this year?), we cycled down to the sailing club today.

New toys awaited us when we arrived:

The marvellous committee had successfully persuaded Sport England to give us some serious money and bought two RS Visions with it. (Yes, I know you would have bought something more interesting, Father, but they will be useful for the training course)

Everyone got involved in the game of rigging them, apart from Nathaniel who prefers things that are a bit more old school.

And then they were out on the water.

They're actually not that bad! Handle like slugs, but the spinnaker's fun, and we get to play with a gnav (look it up!).

Nathaniel carefully and successfully helmed the safety round a course and avoided other boats, buoys, ducks etc, and then derigged M's oppy for her.

Thea wasn't impressed with any boats and asked, tearfully, to be taken "back the jetty, please" when we took her for a spin in the safety boat. She found better things to do....