De Silva Family Blog

One milestone I've been really looking forward to is teaching my boys to ride a bike and today we achieved it, much sooner than expected! We attended a session at Barleyfields Children's Centre in Woolmer Green aimed at helping parents teach their kids to ride.  Having just woken up in a strop Ollie stomped off to mope on the sidelines, but Leo was riding all by himself within 15 minutes!  Seeing this, Ollie decided to try and, sure enough, he was also riding around before too long! Well done boys, Mummy and I are so proud of you both!

Leo, Ollie and Tristram had their 'Superhero and Princesses' party today. Poor Tristram was feeling poorly, but he still managed to put on a good show as Ben 10. Mr Marvel, the magician was the best children's entertainer that I've come across and he held about 40 young kids enthralled for well over an hour! However, as far as Leo was concerned, the pinnacle of his act was when Leo got to beat him over the head with a fluffy wand! You've got to wonder what goes through that boy's head! To top it all off, Kelly made the most amazing three-tier superhero cake. Ollie was very excited by Iron Man bursting out of it, saying "I'm going to eat Iron Man's head. Is I'm a baddie?!!" Here are a few pics from the party .

For Leo's fifth birthday we went to the Natural History and Science museums. Seeing dinosaurs the boys' birthdays is becoming a bit of a tradition, having visited Dinosaurs Unleashed for the last two years. As you can see, Ollie dressed perfectly for the occasion, with his black tie and blue Batman cape/towel! Unfortunately, he didn't see much holding his binoculars backwards! When we left the Natural History Museum, the queue was about a mile long! We were a little worried about the queue at the Science Museum, but as it turned out, there was none. I wonder what that says about our next generation...

Leo has a morning routine at school, where he takes off his coat and shoes, puts his snack in a box and answers the 'question of the day'. Today, his question was, Which animal starts with the letter 'F'? a) Duck; or b) Fish. Leo answered the question quickly and then said "If 'Duck' started with an 'F', it would sound like F***!" He was a little bemused by the snorts of laughter from Kelly. Luckily even his teacher, Mrs Corcoran, found it funny.

As Leo grows so slowly, it's easy to think of him as my little baby. So I was rather sad to discover that his pre-school days are at an end! He had his graduation 'ceremony' today and judging by all the tears, many other parents feel the same way. Leo has thoroughly enjoyed his time at St Michael's pre-school . The staff have been wonderful and in particular Leo has formed a very strong bond with Mrs May, his key worker. He loves her so much so that he doesn't want to go to 'big' school because he'll miss her. Fortunately, Sycamore class is just next door!

Leo has been a very good boy of late, patiently earning stickers for good behaviour such as eating all his dinner, staying dry through the night, etc. He finally made 100 and got to choose his reward - a day out to Legoland! Wahey!!!

...blow out a candle? Our little boys have gone loopy over Spiderman. Leo got a costume for his birthday last month and poor Ollie has been desperate for one ever since. Fortunately he didn't have long to wait, as less than a month later, he had his very own Spiderman party. Check out the pics . I hope I get muscles like that for my birthday...

I was lucky enough to receive a new lens for my DSLR camera this Christmas - a fixed 50mm portrait lens. It seems to be making up for my lack of talent! See for yourself...

Dear Fans I've been bugging Daddy for nearly six months to update the blog and I've waited so long, that I've finally learned to type myself, so here goes. In the past six months, I have... ... had my first sports day ...made a fire with daddy, ate marshmellows and put it out with my water pistol. made chocolate cakes... had a party with my cousins and aunties ('cause some old people were 60 - here are some pics )... washed the car (I was really after Ollie!)... went to Tenerife (here's our holiday album )... was a wise man-pig in the pre-school nativity... and became best friends with my bro bro!

Too much Gummy Berry Juice!!!

Fed up with being told what to do whilst living in their house, Ollie and I have designed and built our own house where we will be in charge. It's a pretty cool two-up-two-down, with an extended hallway. Both living rooms have French doors, giving great views of the TV. My bedroom is South-facing, also with a clear view of the TV. The wonderful thing about it is that there is plenty of room for expansion as our needs grow. Even better is that we're safe from Mummy and Daddy as they are too big to fit in! Even with the current state of the housing market, we decided it was better to build rather than buy. We used recycled building materials and found some great cheap labour. Haven't got the plumbing in yet - anyone know a good plumber? The only drawback is the crime in this neighbourhood. Apparently the Big Bad Wolf lives around here and a cardboard house feels rather vulnerable. Fortunately we've got a decent security system. We'll arrange a house-w...

We celebrated Leo's third birthday today and it started with a present hunt around the house. With the help of his metal detector (his first present) he proceeded to uncover a whole shopful of toys - many of which were linked to some Welsh fire department. After dropping Ollie off at my parents we had lunch at Aroma, a chinese restaurant in Stevenage. Having learnt about China at pre-school last week, he was very excited, but not quite as much as he was about visiting the Netherlands' National Circus - where in contrast to us, he was rather fond of the clowns. Personally, I preferred the jugglers. We returned to my parents for dinner and a fire engine shaped birthday cake. Before blowing out the candles, we asked Leo to make a wish. He said, "I wish to be with my Daddy!" I turned to mush.

I had my first birthday party today and it was brilliant! I shared it with Leo and Roz, but luckily I had my own cake! Kelly made it especially for me but it was disguised as Thomas the Tank Engine. I figured it out though! In fact, everyone was disguised: Leo was a fireman and Roz was Peppa Pig, but there was also Spiderman, Snow White, SpongeBob SquarePants, faries, princesses, cowboys, etc. We had a nice entertainer who was a bit mad and liked jumping around to the music. I preferred jumping around on the bouncy castle, although I did enjoy the parachute. The ball pit was fun and the food delicious (Daddy didn't let me try the beer), but the best thing of all was having all my favourite people with me. If you'd like to see some pictures of my party, Daddy's put them here . So long, and thanks for all the prezzies. Love you all. Ollie xxx

Leo is becoming cheekier by the day. Here are some of his recent gems... As I'm carrying Leo upstairs to bed: Mary: "Ni! Can you just get me ..." Leo: "Ohh! She always wants stuff!" Mary's looking at bracelets in a shop: Leo: "Mummy. Do you really need another bracelet?" After school today: Mary: "Leo. Can you count from 1 to 20?" Leo: "1, 2, 20!"

Following her maternity leave, Mary returned to work this week. We'd been wondering what to do about childcare and whether we should put Ollie in a nursery when Kelly, our cleaner, mentioned that she'd trained as a nursery teacher! Dropping her apron and rubber gloves and we were suddenly looking at Super Nanny! Not only does she have two children of her own (including Abbie, who Leo's got a crush on), but she cooks, cleans and decorates the most fantastic cakes as you can see with this chocolate orange flavoured "Christmas Muffin" cake! Most importantly the kids adore her, much to Mary's chagrin as they promptly run/crawl to meet her the moment she comes in the door!

Nee naw! Nee naw! That's the soundtrack to our life. Leo is obsessed by emergencies - mostly by fire engines and ambulances, but also police cars and rescue helicoptors. Fireman Sam is his hero and we watch the cartoon series several times a day. He say's he's going to marry Firewoman Penny from the show and he spends all day making up emergencies and rescuing his toys (or parents). He has his own medical kit and is very good at bandaging up arms or legs. Every other saturday I take him to Dad's Club at the primary school in Watton-at-Stone. They have a toy library there which we used for the first time this week. Whilst searching through the items, we found this fireman's costume and our little hero couldn't believe his luck. He's been at it all day and is even talking about sleeping in costume just in case there's an emergency at night!

As Dado's getting old he needs the help of his grandchildren to blow out the candles on his cake! Apparently they think he needs help eating it too...

I took Leo Gruffalo hunting this evening. We got kitted out in our explorer's gear and headed out into the deep dark woods under the light of the full moon. It was all very exciting for our intrepid adventurer. We heard a fox (probably a cat) rustle in the undergrowth and an owl call overhead. Then all was quiet as we crept softly along. Suddenly the silence was broken with, "I need a wee wee Daddy!" As he relieved himself by the moonlight, Leo asked, "Will the Gruffalo eat me, while I'm doing a wee wee?" "Probably!" Funnily enough, he didn't feel like walking after that!

The Boys went trick or treating this evening. Unfortunately, Vampire Leo didn't manage to get enough sweeties for his liking and Little Devil Ollie started to look quite juicy!!!

Leo had his first day at (pre-) school today. Here he is outside the front gates with his snack and satchell. He was very excited about it, which is hardly surprising as his three hours are filled entirely with free play! There's paint, a water table, a sand table, a dirt patch, lots of cars and climbing frames, etc. What more could he wish for? The poor boy hasn't quite got the protocol yet: during the more formal periods, the children are expected to raise their hands before they speak. Leo cottoned on to this quite quickly, but unfortunately raises his hand whenever anyone speaks!