Picture Book

Here's a few photos from the archives.

First up we have Snow Angel Olivia. Some of you might be wondering why a small child is being allowed to lie in the snow without a hat or gloves on. We also wondered why this might be so we asked Olivia, who said, "Daddy, no! Go 'way. Don't like!' She then followed this outburst with grabbing her hat and throwing it on the ground, where it was swiftly joined by two gloves.

For her next trick, Olivia will concertina herself so small that she fits in her toybox...




Then we have that special moment in every girl's life, when she discovers that she can fit into other people's clothes too!And finally, one of Olivia and Grace together.

Please Send Polaroids

I know we're really piss poor at updating this thing now, but here's a few photos for you...

"I yaman anner-khist..."

This is 'Olivia Snot', the well-known member of the Sid Viscii, the1970s-style punks in the bath at Grandma and Grandpa's house where we're staying until we complete on our new house. Olivia leurves baths and swimming. The only problem is when she comes out; she wails and wails and wails. Little so-and-so.

Olivia with her Great Nana, my Nana. Without being too morbid about it, I wanted to make sure we got some really nice shots of Olivia with Nana, because she surely can't have much more in her. There's been several occasions over the past year when I was sure she was in her last weeks. Olivia is really sweet with Nana and I like the way this shot captured her not reacting to the camera but looking towards her Nana. Probably because she's planning to grab and pull some bit of poor Nana's face, but at this point in time, it looks sweet and innocent.

On the day after the above was taken, we went to a Christening service for Olivia's boyfriend, Gabriel, one of the other NCT babies. Here's Olivia (on the right) and her friend Immy. It's a rather bizarre experience to sit through a Christening, especially since the last time I went to one I was a lot more laissez faire about religion. I did find it quite odd listening to people saying things like, 'blah, drone, duty to bring this child up within the faith'.

Richard Dawkins (who is either Satan's emissary on Earth or er... a scientist, depending on which side of the fence you sit) is rather emphatic in saying that calling a child a 'Christian child' or 'a Muslim child' is a form of child abuse. He argues - correctly - that you wouldn't call the child of Keynesian economists 'a Keynesian child', or the child of Republican-voting parents 'a Republican child' because we know that a child does not have the ability to properly understand the concepts being ascribed to him or her yet, for some reason, a special dispensation is given for religion. I agree with all that, I just think that saying it's 'child abuse' to label a child as a 'Christian child' is over the top and I think it takes away from the severity of actual child abuse.

Immy's dad and I were talking in the reception afterwards and he asked whether we'd be getting Olivia Christened. I said that since I'm an atheist and K___'s an agnostic, we wouldn't. I added that we think it's our obligation to bring Olivia up to think critically about things and evaluate their worth for herself, and if she decides at some point in the future that she believes in a religion, that's fine (hopefully I was a bit less po-faced about it than that, but I probably wasn't). He surprised me a little by agreeing with me, because I know his wife used to be a churchgoer.

Hey ho! That was a rather longer digression into religion than I intended... Here's some less controversial pics to finish up:

Balls to you! This was taken at a place called Twin Lakes, near Melton Mowbray, home of the famous pork pies. It's a former farm and it's been converted to have lots of kid-friendly activities. Madam seems to be enjoying it anyway.

Colour co-ordination starts early, apparently. Check the Madonna-style gappy teeth. Hopefully this will close when the others kick in.

In other news, we've had an asking price offer on our flat yesterday and celebrated with chocolates and champagne last night. With a bit of luck that will all be completed by Christmas and we won't end up as a two mortgage family!

Life is most splendid.