Early Posts

What! 05 June 2007
Oops. Billy is a great mimic and will repeat what we have said in context on many occasions, including things we would not want him to repeat in public. He is also picking up our mannerism such as saying "what?" whenever he is asked something. It's like having a mini teenager running around.

Stepping Out 28 May 2007
Ella has finally taken her first unaided steps. Just a couple of quick steps from the sofa to me sat on the floor. She is still nervous and doesn't seem to enjoy trying to walk. I think she just needs to forget what she is doing and she will soon get there.

Dancing Queen 20 May 2007
Ella loves to dance. She does a kind of side stepping dance, but on the spot. Hard to explain really! She will dance when music comes on the TV or radio, or if we sing, she'll even have a jiggle if we shout "dance Ella dance". She loves to perform :-)

I don't know Billy - Please don't ask me any more questions!!! 03 April 2007
Grrrrr Billy's non-stop chat is really quite irritating at times. Mainly because he asks for the name of absolutely everything. When he gets an answer from you it is never good enough, so he will ask again and again, until you asks him to stop! He has also developed an interest in knowing the time, day and month. Although is unable to really undestand the answers we give him. He has learned to count and is also developing an interest in letters and reading.

Ella Progress 03 April 2007
Ella has really changed since the last update. She is very quick at crawling, even up the stairs. She has also mastered the art of reversing downstairs. The first time she did this without any prompting from me, she sat at the bottom of the stairs and clapped her hands laughing. Pleased with her own success. She often stands holding on to furniture with one hand but has yet to take that first unaided step. She also enjoys bouncing on Billy's trampoline and will bounce on her legs to any music. Her waving is quite funny, she turns her wrist like in a royal gesture. Recent discoveries in the last couple of weeks include pretending to talk on anything that resembles a phone and scribbling with Billy's magnetic drawing pad.

Davies latest 03 April 2007
There have been no diary updates recently because my evening's over the past couple of months have been spent either decorating or looking for houses. Yup, we are on the move again, this time we are heading to Hexham. No set date yet but we have found a split level house (or 'lean to' as Pete calls it) that has plenty of space plus the garden we have been wanting for ages.

Baby Walker Tastic 27 January 2007
Ella has taken to pushing the baby walker around the house. She does it really well, it hasn't run away with her once yet.

Ella's first Christmas 25 December 2006
Ella loved Christmas day. She was into everything, even Billy's dressing up clothes.

She is on the up 18 November 2006
Ella has started pulling up onto the furniture. She can't be left for two minutes because she will pull up and after a moment of joy she starts to scream to be helped down. She is still very wobbly but seems to want to practice all the time.

Tooth Two 14 November 2006
Ella sprouted her second bottom tooth today.

Standing up is great 14 November 2006
Ella pulls herslef to standing on Billy's toybox. She is still very wobbly and not very strong on her legs, but her desire to stand up is pushing her on.

First Tooth for Ella 12 November 2006
Ella sprouted her first tooth today. bottom front left.

I am a Robot 10 Novermber 2006
Billy has started to play around with silly voices. He will put on a high pitched voice and pretend his socks are after his feet. (Oh no sock monster is coming). His latest though is (I am a robot) in a very cute baby robot voice.

Now that's what I call proper... 4 November 2006
Crawling that is...Ella started crawling at about 6 months and 1 week.

Stop it Dadddy/Mummy/Ella 20 October 2006
Billy seems to spends most of his time telling everyone around him to 'stop it!'. He hates it if Pete sings or jokes around with him. He has even started to add 'it's not funny' to his demands.

Baby Rice is Oh So Nice 16 September 2006
OK so we started weaning Ella early. At 20 weeks she started to wake every couple of hours in the night for a feed and it was wearing me out. A little bit of baby rice has done the trick, she will now sleep for a more bearable 3-4 hours between feeds.

Peeeeteeeee! 14 September 2006
Billy has 'discovered' his dad's name and takes great pleasure in yelling at from the bottom of the stairs when his dad is in the attic working.

Ella gets physical 20 August 2006
Ella has started to take a much greater interest in the world around her, she is forever swiping at anything put in front of her, rattles, remote controls, mum's toast etc... She fumbles with things in her hands and reminds me sometimes of a little kitten playing with a ball of wool. She is grasping at her feet and loves to chew her fists. I think she may be starting to get some teething pain. She can also roll from her back onto her stomach. Her tummy time is pretty funny with her raising her bottom up high as she can and holding her arms straight to momentarily lift her body of the ground before flumping back into a starfish.

No Not 20 August 2006
Billy is very talkative these days, sometimes a little too talkative. His repetition can be very tiring! He can say the same word for an entire car journey without seeming to get bored. However, things are moving on and his language is becoming more complex. He quite often practices making sentences these days and will often say yes at the end, as if to confirm to himself that he was correct. We still have times when he can't make himself understood, but we just have to apologise for not understanding and move on to the next subject. "No Not" is his favourite phrase :-)

His tantrums have become quite ferocious, a couple this week ended with him trembling with anger and unable to control himself at all. These are quite scary but we found that backing off and leaving him to cool down without any contact for a few moments followed by cuddles and a bit of reassurance usually works for him.

A proper little madam 20 August 2006
Well Ella seems to have settled into more normal spells of crying instead of the awful marathons of her early weeks. Looking back she probably had colic. Her personality has started to shine through and it looks like she is going to be a demanding little miss. She uses a variety of sounds to vocalise her feelings and has very distinctive "grumble at life", "I'm telling you off" and "look at me" noises. The look at me noise is a series of screams, similar to the outbursts that Billy makes now when he gets excited, so we think she may be copying that one. She is generally quite happy smiles and laughs a lot and doesn't seem to gat panicky or scared as she once did. So all in all things are settling down quite nicely.

Teething all over again 15 August 2006
Not Ella... Billy.

Billy has started to cut his final back four molars. He had started going though a bitey phase again and we couldn't understand why until we had a bit of a poke around in his mouth. We brought out the teething toys again and he is much happier now that he has something he is allowed to chew.

Billy's Fears 17 July 2006
Billy has developed a great imagination over the last few months. However, his fear of things has increased. He finds bees and flies scary but his number one fear is anything non-human that has or looks like it might have a face. For example our front door letterbox looks like a mouth. Sofas look like they have a mouth (thanks to a TV advert with an animated sofa). As much as we tell him that these faces are not real and cannot hurt him, he still backs away and says "scared". He has added to this by now commenting on anything that "talks".

Happy Girl 17 July 2006
OK so Ella still gets wound up and cries hard sometimes but in general her long crying spells have gradually decreased. It has been hard work over the last couple of months but she finally seems to be relaxing and getting happier as the days go on. She hasn't enjoyed the hot weather though she has definately been crankier in this heatwave.

Uh Oh 14 May 2006
OK, Billy was a very quiet baby. Lovely and placid. Could take him anywhere anytime anyhow. But not Ella. She has turned out to be a very different baby. She has loooonnnggg crying spells, morning and night. We are trying everything we can to calm her down but nothing seems to work for long.

Hop a long 25 April 2006
Only one problem...I discovered the day after the birth that my right hip had been damaged during labour and I couldn't walk. I ended up on crutches for the next five weeks.

Billy and Ella meet April 2006
When Pete brought Billy up to the hospital to meet Ella for the first time I could hear Billy shouting "baby" excitedly as they came on to the ward. He carried on exclaiming "mummy" and "baby" when he finally got to see us. It was a relief to see how happy he was. This did wear off and he became a bit insecure and attention seeking over the next few days.

Ella Rose arrives April 2006
At 11.05pm after a long labour Ella Rose finally arrives.

It's been a while... 04 April 2006
Well we haven't updated William's diary for many months. So here is a compressed note on what he has been up to. He is running around very energetically at the moment and chattering away at every opportunity. His speech is coming along nicely, although he still prefers to communicate in single words rather than in phrases. "Bye Bye see you soon" is about as complete a sentence as we can get out of him! He is learning his colours and likes to count, although every counting session ends in the magical number nine. He has developed his skills in throwing tantrums to a professional level. He likes nothing more than throwing himself on the floor in Homebase kicking and screaming until I have turned bright red with embarrassment :-). He still manages to be loveable with it though, so we are just doing our best to deal with his moods. He has grown up quite a lot in the last year. The dummy was ditched with relatively little fuss at 20 months, and he has moved into a junior bed to allow the cot to be freed up for the imminent arrival of his new baby brother/sister (due in two weeks). I'll let you know how the new baby hits him in due course!

Running 31 July 2005
Billy is now very adept at walking, stopping and starting, squatting to pick objects up and changing direction. He is attempting to run, but is not very good at it. He puts both hands in the air and tries to stretch up while leaning forwards. He must think that this is going to help somehow.

do do do do 29 July 2005
Billy is trying to converse. He can say 'Do' for his dummy, but that's about all for now.

New Shoes 16 July 2005
Billy gets fitted for his first pair of proper walking shoes. A pair of white trainers with snazzy lights that flash when he walks.

One small step... 03 May 2005
In just one week Billy will hit his first birthday, and today he decided he was big and clever enough to start walking. He finally let go of the sofa and took four pretty steady steps to me. His dad missed the event, (too busy messing with his new mobile phone), but I turned him round and back he went to dada. We're soooo proud!

Happy Clappy 19 April 2005
Hands are amazing! Billy has developed his clapping skills. He is highly amused by the fact that he can now make a very quiet smacking sound with his hands.

Milk please 15 April 2005
Billy has started using signing gestures. His first sign was bird and he now signs milk.

Say Bye Bye 8 April 2005
After months of encouragement William has finally learned to wave hello and goodye.

Beep Beep 20 March 2005
William has started practising for his driving test early. Take a look.

Letting Go 19 March 2005
Today William stood for a fraction of a second without holding on to anything. It happened when he was concentrating on passing a toy from one hand to the other.

Stick that 14 March 2005
We now have a rude boy, who loves sticking his tongue out at every opportunity.

Milky Milky 01 March 2005
I think the baby signing may be starting to pay off. William does recognise the signs for eat, drink and milk. I signed milk at him today and he started crawling and crying towards the kitchen, he did indeed want his milk.

Mama 20 Jan 2005
Billy has started to say mama and dada. He says both frequently and indiscriminately.

Steady On 17 Jan 2005
William is still practising his cruising skills. His balance has improved so much that he can now bend down to pick something up off the floor without falling over.

Moo Cow 11 Jan 2005
We have started Baby Signing classes. The aim is to get Billy to sign what he wants to me while he still can't speak. However, we do seem to spend a lot of our time signing Cow and Duck. Not sure when these may come in useful!

Dancing Queen 15 Jan 2005
Billy loves music and has now started to bob up and down whilst clinging on to furniture, anything will get him going even a dodgy chorus of 'Old McDonald' from mum and dad.

Time to leave mum 12 Jan 2005
William attends nursery. We decided it was time Billy got to play with some other babies on his own. He crawled off into the pile of toys and has never looked back.

Christmas Day 25 Dec 2004
Ho Ho Ho, Billy enjoyed playing with his wrapping paper on Christmas day.

Now that's more like it 13 Dec 2004
In a strange twist of development, cruising confidently around the furniture has led to William being able to crawl properly, on hands and knees instead of his creative caterpillar move.

Cruising... 1 Dec 2004
William is now confidently side-stepping along the furniture, and does on occasion let go and take a wobbly step into the void of open space before falling over.

Up and at 'em 17 Nov 2004
He has now mastered pullling up in just about every bit of furniture in the house, including the odd wobbly chair. He has also mastered the stairs!

And the activity continues... 5 Nov 2004
William now seems intent on climbing up onto anything he can grab hold of. He is not strong enough to make a good job of it yet. But once again I don't think it will be long before he's climbing up the stairs!

Sitting up! 25 Oct 2004
William can now sit pretty reliably after several weeks of practising.

There he goes... 21 Oct 2004
William finally made a break from the living room. He has since accessed most of the rooms on the ground floor.

On the move 09 Oct 2004
Will is now mobile. He does a very fast caterpillar impression. He has attacked the TV/Video cabinet, bin, fireplace and several magazines in his explorations of the living room. He hasn't yet discovered he can leave the living room and venture out into the hallway, but it won't be long...

Teeth! Oct 2004
One day before William's five month birthday he decides to sprout his first tooth. Bottom front left and right have now cut and they are very sharp!

Ye Gods look at those spots! 28 Sep 2004
A trip to the doctors' confirms the worst. William has chickenpox.

Congratulations to Jeff and Rachael 24 Sep 2004
Will's first wedding invitation. We thought a scratch on his cheek followed by a balloon in the face had been the reason for him being grizzly all night. It was only when we got home that we discovered that he had been poorly.

Food Glorious Food 27 Sep 2004
We finally succumb and give Billy his first taste of Baby Rice. I think he would have eaten his spoon and his bowl given the chance. Take a look...

Holiday! Celebrate! 13-18 Sep 2004
Our first family holiday to Centre Parcs in Cumbria. Lots of forest walks kept Billy entertained for the five days. However, our trips to the swimming pool did not go down too well. I think the water was a wee bit cold for our sensitive skinned boy :-).

FEET! 30 Aug 2004
Billy has found his feet. He enjoys nothing more than wriggling on his back grabbing onto both of his feet.

Outing 29 Aug 2004
The Davies Family gets up early and decide to take a trip to Tynemouth

More immunisations 02 Sept 2004
Billy's third set of immunisations. These should be his last set of injections for a while. Hopefully he won't be too poorly with them this time. Billy is getting He is very interested in everything to do with food at the moment. He made a swipe at my breakfast bowl this morning. We may have to think about giving him some solids soonish.

Giggler 01 Aug 2004
Billy has started to laugh. Sometimes without provocation

Billy's first social event July 2004
Hayley, Pete's old schoolmate emigrated to Australia. Before going she threw a party for her friends and family. Billy handled the event well but he was not totally impressed by the DJ.

Poop 13 May 2004
Billy makes an early deposit in Pete's hand. Mmmmmm black and sticky.

Welcome to the Diary 3:00pm May 2004
William Thomas Davies makes his entrance to the world. We thought we would set up a diary to keep track of his progress.