Raiders Of The Lost Car Park

Raiders Of The Lost Car Park is the latest book I have finished reading and is by Robert Rankin. It is a fun follow up to The Book Of Ultimate Truth.

It centres around two 18 year-olds who are trying to save the world from discovering that us humans are actually being manipulated by fairies, goblins and such like. It features such celebrities as Prince Charles, The Queen and Santa Claus. The tale is highly amusing and fast paced. As with most, if not all, Rankin's books it's set in the London Borough of Brentford.

Although I read The Book Of Ulitmate Truths while at Uni I found this booked still worked well after all these years as a stand alone. You do not need to have read The Book Of Ultimate Truth to enjoy Raiders.

This right up the street of anyone who loves Terry Pratchett or P G Wodehouse.

Christening Preparations

Well it is less than 3 weeks until our daughter is christened. My wife bought her a dress the other day and blagged a 33% discount on it. All because of a missing button and there is a mark on it which she claimed meant it would need dry cleaning first. The mark cannot be seen and the button is easily replaced. In these days of belt tightening I think it was a bargain.

My wife has informed that she has found herself a dress for the christening too and being the good little wife that she is, asked if she could buy it. As she asked so nicely, and because she very rarely treats herself, I said yes. I haven't seen it yet but I'm looking forward to it as I like to see her in a dress (or even a skirt).

All we need to do now is get the food in for the little party after the service.

Happy Father's Day

Well i've had a great day with my family today. My daughter (well my wife but you know what I mean) bought me some chocolates (very tasty) and a photo frame. The frame had photos of me and my daughter in it.

We also went swimming. My daughter loves the water although she was a bit nervous at first today. It might have been the temperature of the water, but she soon was laughing and enjoying ourselves. We have decided that we will do this every Sunday. Sunday's have now become our family day, where we do fun things together as a family.

I was impressed with where we went swimming (The Cascades in Tewkesbury) as it was very resonably priced, there were 3 different pools and it wasn't particularly busy. I don't know whether that was because of what today was, the time we went, the time of year (people on holiday) or whether it is normal. The more we go the more we are likely to find out.

I trust you've all had a good Father's day too.

Successful Party

Well our daughter is now a year old and we threw her a party on Saturday 7th June to celebrate. She was thoroughly spoilt and loved every minute of it. The weather was great and everyone had a good time.

She was bought lots of garden toys. She was given a swing, slide and a ball pit (that can also become a paddling pool and her ball pit is pink though). She loves that ball pit. We will be getting her a sandpit with the vouchers she received as well.

It is hard to believe that our daughter is 1. She is growing up so fast. She just wants walk everywhere now. She is talking more as well.

She is beautiful.

Happy Birthday....

Our beautiful daughter is 1 today. She really doesn't know what hit but her face lit up when she saw all the balloons in the living room this morning.

My wife and I have recently been talking about where the last year has gone as we have prepared for today and tomorrow (we have a party for her tomorrow where family and friends are all coming over). We cannot believe it was a year ago today that our beautiful daughter was born.

Our daughter has had a great day. We took her and our dog to the Forest of Dean as it was a nice day. Had it been raining we'd have gone swimming instead.

With all the excitement of today our daughter was even more tired than usual today and went to bed early (Yippee). We just have tomorrow to get through now. It should be fun, there'll be between 20 and 30 people here. Wish us luck.

The Best Newborn Toy Available

As all first time parents do we overspent on all sorts of things for baby, however one of the things we were glad we bought was an Activity Play Mat.

This was a soft, slightly cushioned mat with all sorts of things on. There were squeakers and a mirror under a palm tree leaf. There were dangly things hanging from the spongy poles that clipped to the sides of the mat in opposite corners so they actually crossed.

Our daughter loved it. It was amazing to see how she grew on that mat. At first she was a tiny bundle in the middle and not doing too much, but eventually she grew and was able to reach the dangly things.

She did her first roll onto her belly on that mat and she even started to practice crawling on there too.

That mat is now in the loft waiting to see if anymore babies come along to play. We would recommend one of these mats without hesitation.

Our Daughter Loves....

Our daughter loves the That's Not My... range of books by Usbourne. These books are great as they are interactive. Each page has a different surface or material for your children to feel and our daughter loves touching those spots.

Some of the surfaces are soft, some are scratchy, some are shiny and some are smooth. There are a number of different types of surface in the books and no book has all the different types in.

Another favourite book our daughter has is Five Noisy Ducks. This has a small round push button in the top corner which when pressed makes quacking sounds. She is not interested in the story too much, she just loves pushinng the button and hearing it quack.

Toddler Taming

We have been reading a fantastic book called Toddler Taming by Dr Christopher Green. It is a guide to the first four years of being a parent.

It details all the stages of development your child goes through and how to combat those nasties that we all dread.

It is all done in an entertaining and easy reading style.

It was recommended to us by a doctor who said, and I quote "if you only buy one book on parenting then by this one".

We couldn't agree more.

Bumbo

As babies get older and stronger they begin to do more (obviously) and they want to do it. When found that our daughter could sit up on her own without falling over we got her a Bumbo chair.

These chairs are made of soft moulded foam that support the child as they sit up. It is not designed for use for long periods in the beginning as your baby will soon get bored and want to move. However they are great to keep baby upright as they learn to keep their balance.

We used ours daily and every time she used it she would smile. She was able to sit up as it was boring lying on her back all day staring at the ceiling.

We also found the chair was actually good for her posture as her back was supported and kept straight rather than having a hunched look about her.

We don' think our daughter would have been able to sit up on her own as quickly as she did without it.

What Do Lions Do?

My daugther is a year old on Friday and I for one cannot believe where the time has gone. It seems like only yesterday when we brought her home and she was as long as my forearm, from the tips of my fingers to the crook of my elbow.

Well in this last year my daughter has moved house twice, been on holiday twice (both in the UK), learnt to walk and started talking. My word she has been busy.

The latest thing she has learnt is answering the question What do lions do? at which point she roars. This obviously amuses every adult around and as they think it's very funny.

Other things she does are give you 5 if you ask her to 'Slip you some skin', she can nod her head when she means to, she can clap her hands (this made my wife very happy when she did this - some old wives tale or something) and give kisses (these are strictly on limited supply).