De Silva Family Blog

We took Leo sledging yesterday afternoon - though the poor boy was a little bemused by it all. I had plenty of fun though whilst Leo loved watching the other children playing in the snow. Mary on the other hand was smitten and that evening, she rounded up the troops for a late night sledging excursion. Fuelled by a little too much wine she led us down some fun slopes, giggling all the way. In our sledging race, the "Creek Missile" proved to be no match for Mike as he shot past the finish line and continued going all the way to the bar! Considering that there is no steering on these sledges, we saw this as a sign and continued into the bar, where Patrick treated us to a shot of his favourite toffee vodka.

In desperate need for a winter break, we went skiing to La Tania with all of Leo's friends. Staying in a lovely Chalet with three nannies to look after the babies during the day and great food and free wine at night sounded like bliss. In fact it's best described as enjoyable chaos - trying to feed and put six babies to bed at the same time is no mean feat! Not to mention six early morning wake up calls. The babies have loved their time with the nannies, so we've managed to get plenty of skiing in despite most of us being struck down by that pesky Norovirus (I'm sure it's stalking me as I had it on my previous ski trip to Chatel). Skiing with the group has been fun, as we all try to keep up with (Luke) the "Creek Missile". This afternoon, we took Leo up the mountain on a Gondola for lunch. He loved flying above the trees so much, we had to go up and down twice! P.S. If you'd like to see some more pics, have a look at our holiday album .

Now I am a big boy and daddy lets me play with his computer, I thought I'd get a quick blog entry in while he wasn't looking! Yesterday was my first birthday and I was very excited. I knew there would be a party for me because I've been sneakily listening while mummy thinks I'm sleeping. Also I saw grandpa go red in the face after blowing up a gazillion balloons for me. All my friends and family came round to play and I loved being centre of attention (Daddy says I get that from Mummy)! We danced, played pass the parcel and had bubbles (my favourite)! Mummy gave a short speech during which she cried (and she's really old too - I thought only babies cry). Then they put a cake in front of me, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. I didn't want to bite it as Daddy spent all of Saturday decorating it with a picture of a Lion. Then, to my surprise, they cut it all up and let me bite it anyway - I'll never understand big people! I got lots and lots

Bath time is the best time of the day for Leo and myself. I look forward to it all day and upon leaving the office at 4:30pm rush home to get there just in time. At soon as he hears me open the front door, the little monkey works himself up into such a frenzy that his arms wave uncontrollably and a huge grin splits his face! Instead of a nice relaxing wind down before bed it is complete bedlam as we splash about, eat bubbles and squirt water at each other. We always end with the same story about the yawning hippo whose mouth got stuck before getting ready for bed and giving him his milk. A nice long cuddle before putting him down is the perfect end to whatever day I've had.

You may have noticed a dearth of blog entries during January. Well that's because Father Christmas was a little late getting round to me, but when he did he made up for it by delivering a whole sleigh load of electronics. I've spent most of my free time last month setting up my home network and home cinema system - including a whopping 50in plasma screen! It was capped off today with the installation of Sky HD. The picture and sound is simply amazing. It's taken 10 long years to convince Mary of the benefits of a home cinema (and the bribe of getting the garden done), but it was worth it in the end. Now all we need is a popcorn machine and a tall person to sit in front of me!

Today was a hard day - quarantined from my boy due to that pesky Norovirus. Though I sneakily caught a glimpse of him as he left this morning for his grandparents. Luckily the 48 hour quarantine ran out this evening so I had a day sitting in front of the TV with my new Playstation 3! This evening when I picked him up, I was a little nervous having been away for so long. Though when he saw me he was incredibly excited, then angry as he turned away and ignored me for all of ten seconds, then finally he gave me the biggest hug ever. It's the first time he's ever hugged me and it nearly brought a tear to my eye! It turned out that he started hugging whilst I was away. He's also started clapping, saying something resembling "cuddle" but stopped saying "dada". Let's hope he starts again soon.

I've just returned from a lads skiing trip to Chatel. Andy organised a trip to visit one of his mates, Jem, and Noel and I joined him. It was all our first trip away from our young babies, but rather than going mad on the apres ski, we were usually in bed by 10:30pm!!! Perhaps that's the consequence of becoming a new dad! In fact it was, as Andy had caught the Norovirus (vomiting and diarrhoea sickness) from his son Alex. I caught it off of him the following day and, whilst Noel escaped with just a runny tummy, his back ceased to function. All in all, there was considerable pressure on the toilet in our apartment, which quickly broke under the strain! Luckily we did manage to get some skiing in and were rewarded with some of the best powder we've ever had and miles of empty slopes. Jem (Andy's mate) guided our off piste attempts and thankfully there were no serious injuries. All in all a great warm up for our next trip later this month. The journey home was a