Some Of My Favorite Things

One of my new favorite things to do is to play with Goldfishes (But in the U.K. they are called Finz! Crazy eh?). I like to place a number of containers on the floor and then I move the fishes between each container. I always like to have at least a few fishes in each container. For some reason the number of fishes shrinks the more I play with them. Some fishes end up on the floor but most end up in my mouth. I like Goldfishes.

Another container game I like to play is 'Hide Daddy's Credit Cards'. The latest instalment of this game had me hide dad's credit card in mommy's boot. They could not find the credit card for three days! The funnier thing is that mommy wore the boot on Sunday and never noticed the card was in there!

Cardiff Castle II

I took Seth and Amy back to Cardiff Castle via the train from Swansea to Cardiff. It was pretty cool. Wales was playing Australia in the final game of the Tri-Nations rugby tournement so there was a lot of people in town. Lots of activity!



Here are some photographs of us in Cardiff at the Cardiff castle. We did a tour of the castle house that was excessively restored by the architecture Burgess for the Bute family (wealthiest family in the world at the turn of the 19th-20th century).



Above you can see me come down the stairs in my Baby Bjorn. I had to show Amy around the castle since I had been there once before. Amy is at the top of the stairs. She wasn't too crazy about the angle of the stairs. I don't know what was so hard about going down the stairs. I just sat in my Bjorn and floated down. Below is a picture of me describing the type of metal that this Welsh dragon is made of. Its metal.



See you later!

Visitors and Snow

This week we have visitors from America and we had snow for the first time (and possibly the last time) this winter!



Seth and Amy arrived from Minneapolis this Thursday, hence the light blogging, for the American Thanksgiving holiday. I took Seth and Amy to Mumbles on Friday where we ate at a cafe and Amy and my mom went shopping while Seth visited a place where I wasn't allowed in the door. I guess I was too young.

On Thursday night to Friday morning Scotland, Wales, and most of England got a number of inches of snow. For those of you who do not know, snow has always been relatively rare in Wales, especially as of late with the changing climate. England and Scotland do get more snow but the British infrastructure is not equipped to handle snow... any snow, especially in Wales where the less-than two inches of snow caused a complete meltdown. Schools were shutdown, people could not get to work, and the papers ran stories on the incompetent government management of the situation.

In the government's defense they are simply not equipped to handle snow. They have limited salt trucks, few ploughs, and people rarely need to drive in snowy conditions so when they do there tends to be a lot of accidents.

Holiday Season

I started looking for Christmas decorations this year. I don't remember what Christmas was like last year because I was zero years old. Now I am One!

I started thinking about what I want for Christmas. My favorite things right now are...

1) Books with animals in them (preferably horses, dogs, and cats).
2) I like big trucks and tractors and even buses.
3) Hockey sticks or other convertable whacking sticks.

I probably like other stuff too except I don't know that much stuff because I am only one year old.

Penquins

Isn't it a little hot for a penquin just to be walking around? I better look in mom's purse to see if there is anything to cool off... or I could just take my winter clothes off while I was indoor.

Where is your mother?!?

Mom leaves me and Dad alone for 1/2 an hour and this happens! We didn't mean to, we are just really good at making messes. When she came home from her run we were in a bit of trouble...ha.

Gloucester Cathedral

This weekend I took a trip to Gloucester, England. Like Bath, Gloucester was founded by the Romans around the time of Christ. It was controlled by Rome until it fell to Saxon raiders around 600 A.D.

The Gloucester Cathedral foundation was laid shortly after the Norman invasion 1089 A.D. The cathedral is very large and extremely beautiful. Even more fascinating was that the cathedral was used for numerous scenes in the first two Harry Potter movies!

Numerous knights, bishops, dukes (such as Robert Duke of Normandy), and even a king (Edward II) are buried at the cathedral. Plus, there are hundreds of people buried in the cloisters and crypt that are hundred and hundreds of years old. Gross!

We got home and watched Wales lose (its getting to be a habit) to South Africa in rugby. Then I helped mom cook supper as you can see in the picture.



PS - Dad helped me write some of the stuff about Gloucester's history but I think he got it from a book too!

Thursday Stroll

Here's me going for walk in the house. I like to walk around even though I fall on my butt a lot. I can even carry things when I walk, like books, and toys, although this does not improve my balance.

Bad Hair Day

Great governor! Do not stick your finger in a light socket!



Just kidding. Mom was playing around with my hair and it was after supper time so I had a lot of energy and I had worked up a sweat.



This is something else I like to do. Whenever someone is eating something I need to eat it too or at least find out what it is. Sometimes mom and dad take food from their plates and put the food in my dish but I still need to investigate what they are eating in case they forgot to give me something. Mom says Allie has taught me some bad habits. Dad always says, "This is worse than a dog", but I don't know what that means. It must be a compliment because I know dad loves me.

New Things I Do

Here are some of the new things that I do just to get you up to date.

1. I like to use a spoon when I eat (I still haven't quite figured out getting the food to my mouth much of the time).

2. I like to walk around more everyday.

3. Now I stack blocks instead of just knocking them down.

4. When I am having a bath I like to put the toys into my bucket.

5. I also dump water on my head while I am in the bathtub.

Flashback!

Remember when I was this little. I found these pictures on my mom's computer so I thought I would post them so they are available for everyone to see.



I can't believe my parents dressed me in those silly clothes! Muuuuum, these pictures are embarassing!

About The House

I love baths. I can hardly wait for the water to be warm before I am jumping in. Then I like to get on some comfy clothes and walk around the house. I used to not like walking even when I could but lately I have been really trying to walk everywhere. Right now it takes a little longer but I'll get faster.



Stretching America!

The Gower

This Sunday I took my parents out on the Gower Penninsula. The area we went too was surrounded by three cliffs. The weather has been unseasonably warm and for one of the few days in the last three weeks it didn't even rain.

Cows were used as lawn mowers. It was the first time I had seen a cow up close!

Pembroke Castle

This Saturday I visited Pembroke Castle on the far west coast of Wales. This castle was very big and is privately owned. I don't know if the ownership has anything to do with it but this castle gave us access to almost every area of the castle. Most state controlled castles (which most of them are) block off areas that they don't want you to go to.

Here's me and mom posing on a wall with the main gate of the castle in the background. I was eating some lunch at the cafe that was inside the castle.



Check out the steep stairs inside the castle towers. Luckily I stayed in my Baby Bjorn so dad could use both of his hands to scale the staircase!



After the castle we drove back to Swansea along the coast. The view of the ocean was amazing but mom told me I slept most of the way.

This Is The Way We Brush Our Tusks

This is my new favorite thing to do. After the bath I need to brush my teeth. If mom and dad forget I let them know! But I only have five teeth so it doesn't take me that long.

Sneak Peak

I love my mom. She is so cute. I was supposed to be looking at the camera but I snuck a peak at my mom.

Slow Day

Well it rained here for another day so I didn't get to rip around outside. My mom had to get really creative to entertain me so she pulled my shirt over my head so I looked like an Arab. Lucky I wasn't in France in this outfit or I may have been arrested.

Trip To Cardiff

Well the winner of the tourism sweepstakes was a trip to Cardiff. I wanted to be where the action was and with 80,000 fans descending on the Millenium Stadium for the Wales vs. New Zealand rugby match Cardiff was where the action was.

I got up early in the morning (6 AM) but mom and dad were still sleeping so I pretended I was going to snuggle with them in their bed but when they brought me to their bed I bounced all over the bed until they got up.

Then I went to the train station and got on a train. I got to ride for free but my mom and dad needed to pay. Because the game started in the early afternoon the train was full of rugby hooligans. Many of them could hardly stand (in fact one was passed out on two seats) and they were drinking something out of what looked like pop cans. Below is a picture of me staring at the rugby hooligans. I wanted to join them but dad made me stay in my seat. Party pooper.



After we arrived in Cardiff we walked to the city center where mom and dad went to a place called Starbucks. Then we went to Castle Caerdydd, which is a castle that is nearly 2000 years old that was even used by the Romans. Below is a picture of me describing how I would of laid siege to the fortress and keep.



After going the castle we went into Cardiff for lunch. Because of the weather Cardiff has built roofs over the alley ways. These alley ways have shops and restaurants built into the buildings and the cover allows a great outdoor/indoor shopping experience no matter what the weather is like. This came in handy because, like it has for the past week, it rained.



I think I'll take my family to Cardiff when they come visit me.

Euro Appliances

I love European appliances, they are at just the right level. I think I'll get a snack. Watch out for mom for me will you.

Weekend Planner

I'm about to get dressed, where am I going to go? It's just about the weekend and that means travel time! We've haven't decided what to do yet this weekend but we will probably go to Cardiff, to Bristol, or go out on the Gower and look at castles.



We don't want to go too far from Swansea this weekend because this weekend is Guy Fawkes bonfire weekend (to celebrate the day Mr. Fawkes tried to blow up the British parliament) which will include a lot of fire and fireworks. Plus, Wales is playing their arch nemesis, the New Zealand All-Blacks Saturday afternoon in Cardiff. I like rugby. It teaches me a lot of new moves in wrestling my dad.



Tune in later this weekend and I'll show you where I've been!

Car Day

Today was a light activity day. Mom and I fueled up the car and cleaned up the inside. She needed to use a vacuum. For some reason there were a lot of Cherios on the floor. I'm pretty sure they are not mine since I aim all Cherios for my mouth.



Mom was tired of driving so I took the wheel but she wouldn't give me the keys. Something about being underage?