We love Thursdays!

We really do love Thursdays. Katya and Ollie are such good friends. I grabbed the pictures of the sitting together because they just naturally were sitting like that! I love it. Katya is very patient, especially since Oliver is starting to overpower her and knock her around a bit, just because he can. As I write he is pulling my hair as hard as he can and laughing because he knows I will say no and that is a seriously funny word to him at the moment. He says it to every question you ask him! He doesn't really say it, he yells it! But Thursday ans Fridays are fun days at the park and the Library and long walks and all good things!

Sunday Morning

It has been a dramatic few weeks in the Ward home. Katya had minor surgery on her thumb. I got to spend the day with her in a hospital bed and watch her go under general anesthetic. I don't recommend it to any parent. But she survived, her strange infection is gone and as she says, "I'm all better mommy!".

We then contracted a very strange and mysterious stomach virus that knocked us all out. The worst hit was Martin, who missed 4 days of work last week. I think, knock on all the wood around me, we are reasonably healthy now. We are just waiting to see if Ollie gets chicken pox which is going around the nursery he and Katya go to Monday to Wednesdays.

Oliver is struggling with walking. He is so wimpy. He is afraid of balancing. He cries if you try to make him let go of whatever he is holding on to, to force him to try to walk. So he spends much of his time feeling frustrated, especially if we are outside. I can't let him crawl around everything is still to damp and cold here, and he can't bear to be held. He gets really angry. I keep trying to tell him, because you know 14 month old children can understand so very well, that he just needs to buck up and learn to walk, but he doesn't listen. He spends most of his life with some kind of self inflicted injury such as a big bruise on his head or face, a black eye, or some kind of cut on his face. He is all boy! He pushes cars around and loves to bang on his drum. He is a bully to Katya and knocks her over and pulls her hair. Still I don't think I'd have him any other way than how he is! All this moaning aside he is really generally a happy guy. As you can see in these photos he had his first real hair cut this week. Wow he was not impressed. He WOULD NOT sit still. I applaud the hairdresser for not making an absolute mess of it. There a couple of shorter pieces, but on the whole she did a remarkable job. It makes him look even more boy than he already is!

Watching TV on a Thursday Nite!

Nothing like a little tellie on a Thurday night with Katya and Daddy!

SNOW!!!

Just call him bannana mouth. Snow isn't so fun to someone who can't walk yet, mostly just cold and wet. So Ollie has been a bit house bound, but he doesn't mind as long as he has food! He is looking so much less like a baby and more like a little boy. AHHHH!

I like this shot it shows you that it was a lot of snow for us. Everytime Katya goes out to play in it she comes in crying after about 10 minutes becuase she is so cold!

Thank heavens for wellies! (rain boots for you ignorant Americans)

I love all the white roofs!

We have never had this much snow in our garden! Probably 4 or 5 inches!

We have had a snow filled week!

Here's Katya, Esme, and Harriet building a snowman! Mostly it was the daddys!

Guinnea Pigs Ahoy!

We would like to introduce the two newest members of our family, Upsy Daisy and Iggle Piggle Ward-Giles. Ward-Giles because we are pet sharing with our good friends across the road so we have them one week on and one week off. We can watch over them during our holidays and when things are crowded at one house we can pass things over. We got them from Katya and Ollie's nursery and the kids LOVE them. Oliver wants to pull their hair out, poke their eyes in, and in general squeeze the air out of them. Katya is gentle and lovely with them. She and Harriet, the other little girl in the photos, are very sweet with them. We want the kids to have pets, but its hard when we go away for the entire summer, so this seems to be a good solution. I don't feel too bad leaving guinea pigs, where as it would be hard to leave a dog. So those of you who have seen our house know we have plenty of room for a 4 x 2 foot cage, hahaha! But small is small and they can be outside most of the time as long as it isn't too cold! Hope you enjoy the the scruffy little critters!

Oliver Cormac Ward 1 year on

We can't believe it, but Oliver is now officially 1! He had a fun family birthday on Sunday night. Nanny and Grandad, Uncle Matty, Trudy, Callum, and Teigan came to celebrate with us. We had presents galore and the favorite one by far was the bouncy trampoline with the handy handle for him to hold on to, he LOVES it, thanks Nanny and Grandad. He boings on it first thing and last thing of everyday and lots of times in between! He also enjoys making far too much noise with his drum, maraccas, jingle stick, and super loud clacker, thanks Grandma and Bampa!! Then we all enjoyed a big piece of carrot cake, and Oliver mostly smeared his all over everything and licked the frosting a bit. We were sad that all of Oliver's american family couldn't be here, but we are looking forward to our trip this summer and also looking forward to the cousin un-birthday party to celebrate all together the birthdays we miss being so far away from each other!

Katya the artist

We can't believe it! Katya has drawn this picture in 10 minutes, just before she is banished to bed. She sat by herself with her 'new pens' and created it.
The people in the picture are: large blue - daddy, smaller blue - mummy, brown - ollie, red - nanny and pink - Katya. The remaining characters are unknown - they may children we are yet to have! Who knows?

We hope you like it.

Ward family