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 .

Our little boy is growing up so fast. It feels like only yesterday he was a tiny bundle of blankets, and now he's off to school! It was his first day at pre-school today (he'll be going for one morning a week) and as you can see he was raring to go. He's been desperate to go for months now and was so proud to receive his book bag last week. I only hope that they are ready for our little clown!

Mary was telling Ollie a story about Spiderman in a 'sticky situation' this evening, when she asked him, "What should Spiderman do?" "Cry!" he said. "Superheroes don't cry!" she responded.. ""Pray then.". ""To who?". ""Me!".

...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...

Ollie can be a cheeky little monkey. However he's not too sophisticated about it yet: Naughty Boy Ollie: Kiss. Cuddle. Now go 'way! Mummy: Why do you want me to go away? Ollie: Me naughty / Wee over there / Drink (bath) water! Greedy Boy Ollie was too busy playing to sit at the table and eat his ice cream, so he got down and Mary finished it off. He returned ten minutes later asking for his ice cream. Mummy: It's gone darling, I ate it. Ollie: (Holds out his bowl to mummy) Spit it out! Clever Boy Leo had made a den with Nana Joan, but wanted to be the sole occupier. He announced, "No one is allowed in here. Only me!" Ollie responded, "I'm me!" and promptly barged in. Here are a few pics of our funny little thing in action...

Ollie seemed to take an unusual degree of satisfaction from battering my poor cuddly gorilla, "Harriette," with his sword this afternoon... Yet despite this streak of gratuitous violence, our little boy has a gentler side too...

After spending the afternoon in the woods it was time to have dinner. Ollie, deciding he would rather stay outside and play, scampered off to hide. The poor little thing hid behind a clematis leaf! This master of camouflage thought he was so funny he couldn't help but give himself away with his giggling

So that's where they go!

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 Ollie's birthday a few weeks ago , together with Leo and Ros. So, for his actual birthday, we thought we'd celebrate with a day trip to London. We started by visiting my office, where the boys worked their charms on various colleagues and were well paid with chocolate, sweets and toys! We then headed off to the main attraction, Dinosaurs Unleashed , an amazing interactive exhibition. Leo was really excited about the whole thing, until we entered the building and he came face to face with a life-sized, roaring, T-Rex. He turned tail and ran! Fortunately, after some cajoling and some (very nice) hugs, he managed to overcome his fear and spent the next few hours becoming a palaeontologist: digging for fossils, piecing the bones together, classifying dinosaurs and learning all about them. He even appeared in a video with one! Meanwhile Ollie slept peacefully in his pushchair, blissfully unaware that he was sleeping under the most vicious carnivore ever to walk...

Ollie has seemed on the verge of walking for the last two months now. Admittedly, we haven't really encouraged him as he's already getting himself into enough trouble on all fours (he's a fearless climber). However it seems the lazy little boy has been having us on as he seems to prefer being cuddled and carried around. He was caught on CCTV standing unaided at his party a fortnight ago and today he took his first two steps (public) towards Grampa Clive. As soon as he realised his mistake he flopped to the floor, but not before he'd been seen. He grinned sheepishly at all the applause and cheering and then asked to be carried!

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!

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!!!

Ollie was getting a bit too big for his Moses basket, so seven months after we'd ordered it, we finally assembled his cot. Leo was brilliant at helping put it together and I was quite surprised at how tight he managed to get the screws. Given his previous DIY experience , I guess I should have expected it. Both boys were very excited by the new cot - let's just hope Ollie manages to fall asleep in it.

As a chunky little lad, Ollie is clearly thriving on breast milk. Nevertheless, he is very interested in food and always trying to grab our dinners. Whilst at a barbecue with the Bounds family this weekend, we thought he could try a little bit of Eleanor's grub. The greedy monkey ate the lot!

Ollie has recently become very communicative. Unfortunately he talks in " Shyriiwook ", the native language of Wookiees from Star Wars. Here's a translation...

Our little Ollie has really started to grow up recently. Having seemingly doubled in size over the last few weeks, he has now started teething, moved to his own room and now rolled over for the first time. Here you see him looking particularly pleased with himself after being showered with praise by his adoring family.

The process of mummification is a very exact ritual, perfected over centuries and designed to ease the passing of the baby into the Dream World. Whilst in ancient Egypt, the process always began half an urn before sunset (they used water clocks in those days), higher up in the northern hemisphere, where the time of sunset varies considerably during the year, it is necessary to maintain the same time to preserve the baby's internal body clock. Scientists have empirically found 7:14pm to be ideal. It starts with a thorough washing of the baby in warm water (approximately 40°C) scented with a blend of natural oils, including lavender to assist with sleep (Johnson's Bedtime Bath is a suitable alternative). The subject is then clothed in garments of cotton and wrapped tightly in an outer layer to simulate the close environment of the womb. The baby is placed carefully in a wicker basket and surrounded by sacred charms and toys to give good luck to the baby's "Ka...

Our cheerful chappie has certainly got a dazzling smile - even without any pearly whites.