true love

We swore we'd try to avoid it happening, but despite our best efforts, Simon now has a favourite softy! The little prince (as featured in the title of this blog!) has become his bestest friend, and Mummy and Papa live in fear of him being lost, destroyed ... or dropped down the loo, as nearly happened two days ago! For the moment he lives at home - this is a new rule, put in place since he got dropped during a walk last week and then got filthy at church on Sunday. Simon does have other softies he still likes, and being less essential they can go off to be washed without needing to be dry by the evening.

Here are a couple of photos of Simon and the little prince:

(r-)evolution

In our Genesis class today we had “the” Evolution debate. I was slightly lacking in enthusiasm, having gone through my phase of interest in Creationism when I was seventeen, and having since settled into a comfortable position of “studied agnosticism” (according to our lecturer). However, since the arguments of the two sides were extremely well researched and presented, I got caught up in it, and I’m looking forward to the continuation on Thursday. I’ll let you know if either side convinces me … ;o)

second first steps

It’s all in the title! We’ve been quite sure for a while that Simon is capable of walking, but just doesn’t choose to. Earlier this evening, he was standing against a stool a couple of feet away from me and I said, “Come to Mummy, Simon!” He pushed off and took a few steps, finishing against my knees. My cries of congratulations were abruptly cut off by his teeth sinking into my knee – still a few things to learn about acceptable social interaction, then!

He is very happy to have his Thomas the Tank Engine Push-Along toy back. We didn’t have room in the car to bring it back from Bedford after Christmas, but thanks to Auntie Ali Thomas made it down on Saturday. We also had a fun afternoon with Auntie Ali, playing with Thomas in the college dining hall and looking at photos of Simon’s cousin Andrew (and his parents!).

back to the books

The non-functioning internet connection in our flat has kept me off-line a lot since getting back last weekend, but also the amount of work I already have! I thought it would be a good idea this term to do modules which mainly involved continuous assessment, so that I wouldn't have a lot of work at the end of term. Now I'm realising that what it actually means is that I'll have a lot of work right through the term :oP

Despite the workload, I'm excited about the modules I'm doing this term. They seem to be more brain-stretching than those I took last term and there'll be more actual looking at the biblical text - even in Hebrew classes, since we're going to be looking at the book of Jonah.

Simon is happy to be back at the nursery. We did take him out of nursery for coffee break on Tuesday, as our tutor group was celebrating the birthdays that had taken place during the holidays, including his! He had a wonderful cake made for him by Anna, and loved eating it and smearing it all over his face and jeans!

Happy New Year! (A little late it's true...)

And a big thanks to Marc's brother Sam for the champagne!!

finding his feet

On December 30th Simon took his first steps! He just walked a couple of steps from me to Marc, and I think it was an accident, as he hasn't done any more walking since. The important thing though, was that he didn't take his first steps at crèche. I had warned him that that would not be acceptable ;o)