I'm gonna crawl home from here

We've spent this afternoon spring cleaning. Not out of desire; out of necessity. You see, Naomi has finally learnt to crawl.

Anyone who's seen her over the last six weeks will know that she's been on the cusp of mobility for some time. She's been able to get herself onto her hands and knees. Once there however, she didn't really know what to do next. Gradually she learnt to lift her hands and reach further and further. She somehow managed to get the toys that we deliberately left just out of reach, without actually moving.

Gradually her powers of telekinesis improved, until eventually the toys really were too far away. Then she managed to start moving, slowly. Even sometimes all the way across the room.

Today has been a sudden change though; she's started crawling for the sake of crawling. Exploring, moving and following us around.

It's dead exciting. And strangely scary. As with everything Naomi related, it's also expensive. Do you know how many stair-gates you need in a house with three floors? Do you know how much breakable kit there is at knee level in a computer gamer's house? Do you know where I can buy a cheap cage?

Do you know what colour the carpet is in our living room? I do, now.

Oh yeah, photo.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Naomi's first Christmas. She loved the lights, the tree in the living room, the wrapping paper, and the (first taste of) chocolate. She is still loving all the toys she was given. Many thanks to everybody.

Unfortunately, we don't seem to have any really good, "Christmassy" photos of Naomi. We've got out of focus photos of her on a carousel and similar, but none that are actually worth sharing. However, this is a photo of her enjoying some of her Christmas presents. That's her ready for Keswick now.

Anyway, we hope you had a really good Christmas and that you are all enjoying the new year. Excitements for us in the coming year include (but are not limited to) Naomi's first birthday, our sixth wedding anniversary and Naomi learning to crawl (she's nearly there, but not quite yet).

Summer Cycle

Roll on Summer.

You've seen photos of a very similar thing before, but Henrietta (my Grandfather's wife) bought a bike baby seat for my dad. He's finally fitted it, and took Naomi for a brief spin a couple of nights ago.

Jennie's delighted because it means that between Dad and me, she'll never have to carry Naomi on the back of her bike now. Dad's delighted because, well, bikes and Naomi; two of his favourite things. I'm delighted because, well, bikes and Naomi; two of my favourite things. Naomi's delighted because she likes the wind in her face.

Riding a bike is fine in mid-winter because you generally work hard enough to keep yourself warm. It's not a great time to take a kid on the bike though, because they generally don't do any work, so they chill pretty quickly.

Roll on Summer.

Nightswimming

Well, night-riding actually. In fact, the lack thereof. I was supposed to be going for a night ride on New Year's Eve and seeing in the New Year somewhere in the hills above Newcastleton. I haven't done nearly as much riding as I would have liked recently, so I was pretty disappointed when Tim rang to say that he was too ill.

However, as the sun set on 2006, I was secretly pretty glad that he'd called the ride off. It was getting windier and wetter by the minute, and I really didn't fancy being out on a bike in that weather.

I rode the same route by myself the next day. I bumped into the forestry warden in the car park, and he asked me to take care because he expected some level of wind-fall on the route. I was pretty careful, and sure enough, I pretty quickly discovered some "windfall." This was not the only tree that had been blown over the trail, but it was easily the biggest. That's my bike in the bottom, right hand corner of the picture.

Happy New Year, by the way.