Time to close this down?

There's nothing worse that a blog that's not regularly updated. Well, okay, so maybe there's a lot of things worse than that. But I find it very frustrating as a reader. And therefore I find myself very frustrated that I so rarely post anything here. Rachael hardly ever did in the first place, and Ainsworth - well, let's face it he always asked me to do it for him anyway. And keen though he is on the laptop he shows no signs of posting all by himself just yet.

I'm wondering whether it might be time to call it a day.

A few snippets of news.

Blog is much neglected, so here are a couple of "growing up" snippets:

• The cot is now in the loft. After a few changes of mind (Cot? Bed? Cot? Bed?) Ainsworth has settled in a bed and we've packed the cot away.
  
• Big. Boy. Pants. Yes, things have started. And not led by us at all. We'd picked up a few pairs of pants a while ago, and occasionally after tea and before bath Ainsworth would have "no nappy time" or "big boy pants time". Last week he asked for big boy pants at bed time, so he had a pair over his nappy. And then the next morning he didn't want to put a nappy on, so unexpectedly we were launched into the world of potty training. And you know what? He's doing an absolutely marvellous job. This is day five.

So there you have it. I do hope to reinstate the photos that were on here, but haven't decided the best way to go about it yet. Maybe one day...

Online privacy and photographs

If anyone looks here regularly, I thought I should let you know I've made a change to the privacy settings on our photos. All my online photos are on Flickr, and until now I've always had them openly available. Rachael's never been especially comfortable with that. So, after a couple of chats over the weekend, family photos (as opposed to all my random shots) are now marked on Flickr as viewable by "Friends and Family" only. So if you click on the link on the right, where it says "photos galore!", you'll still see plenty of photos but none of Ainsworth. They are still on Flickr, so if we actually know you and you'd like to be able to see them, you can either sign up for a flickr account, and I'll mark you as a friend, or ask me to email you a guest pass.

I'd recommend signing up for an account - Flickr is a great service - but if all you want to do is look, then a guest pass will do just fine.

I've just noticed that all the photos on this blog have disappeared as a result (they were all linked from Flickr to here). Not sure what I'm going to do about that yet.

Busy doing everything.

Hello everyone. Daddy told me that he and Mummy haven't put much on here for ages, and it made me remember that I haven't either. Sorry; I know you're all desperate to read about everything that goes on in my life but I've just been so so busy doing, well, everything to get on here as often as I should. I'll tell you more soon, but until then I'll just give you one word:

"Legoland."

How to behave in a coffee shop. A lesson.

How to behave in a coffee shop. A lesson.
Originally uploaded by Trevor Coultart

We are so very proud of him, you know.

Creative thinking.

Ainsworth did something last night that made me run to get the camera. He was playing with some Sticklebricks and suddenly turned to point at what he'd made:

And then he proudly told us what they were: "Laptops"

Amazing.

Little Drummer Boy. 22 months.

Ainsworth to the rescue!

So here's the story: Rachael was using the jet-wash while Ainsworth sat and played happily in the passenger seat.  (Can you guess what's coming yet?)

The car nicely washed, she went to open the door. Locked. Tried the other doors. Locked. Boot? Locked*. Her keys? In her handbag. In the car. A slight panic. Her mum was due to arrive on the train fairly soon; how would Rachael get to the station to pick her up? Oh, and Ainsworth was locked in the car. 

She ran over to the kiosk and explained. They recommended calling the police to break in, and one of them phoned while Rachael went back to the car to check on Ainsworth. Another member of staff accompanied her, and asked whether he was old enough to open the door from inside. Surely not, she thought. But worth a try. 

She smiled at him, and called through the window: "pull the handle for Mummy". He reached over and pulled on the big handle - the one you'd use to pull the door closed.  "Try the little shiny handle." And to her amazement and delight he reached round a bit further, pulled the handle, and the door swung open. 

He's not two until March.

* At first she assumed the car had locked itself (it does do all sorts of things automatically) but talking it through later it dawned on us that Ainsworth had probably pressed the central locking button whilst playing.