More excitement this week

Dad and Michaela went for a walk to the Ayre of Ireland last weekend. Now that Michaela can walk, she is obsessed! She hardly ever wants to hold your hand when out because she's a big, walking girl now.
Michaela's second cousins are home at the moment, so she's been having fun playing with them. Here she is at the play park with Ella and Hope. (In fact, you can see their mum, Michele walking in the background)
Dad took Michaela up north to see his grandparents on Monday. Yet again, she found great joy in getting into the cat's bed.
And Wednesday was the Cunningsburgh Show. We went last year, but Michaela was so young and it was a miserable day, we didn't really have any fun. But this year was great! The highlights of the Show for Michaela were sitting on the tractor.........
...... and playing on the bouncy castle. The little girl in the white jacket is Michaela's third cousin Maya. Mom wasn't sure Michaela would ever come off the bouncy castle, but she did eventually!
Next year, we're hoping Dad will take the day off work too, so he can see how much fun she had at the Show!

Visit to Trondra Farm

Bigton Toddlers had a visit to Trondra Farm on the 1st of August. Michaela loved going to the farm. Here she is on a pig! We were able to go in with the pigs and pet them, so she liked being that close to the animals.
After seeing the pigs, we saw the ponies. Then we got to feed the birds. Michaela was such a mess after this as Mom just let her do what she wanted, so she sat with the birds and dumped the feed on herself and the ground, and crawled around with them. She just loved it though!

We decided to give Michaela a jar of food one night and this is the result! Dad says we're not using jars again unless we have to as it's too messy.
Usually in the mornings, Dad and Michaela empty the dishwasher. She's so happy to be able to help Dad with the dishes!

We've got a climber!

Nicola got Michaela a corn popper for Christmas and it's only now that she's getting the benefits of the toy. She loves pushing it around and hearing the noise that it makes. Also, now that she's walking, we can put her in dresses.

On Friday, she discovered Mom's smucks. Michaela has an obsession with putting on shoes, either on herself, or on other people, it doesn't matter. So, she managed to get Mom's smucks on her feet and walk around in them! Thank goodness Mom doesn't have many pairs of high heels!
Last night, Mom found a pair of shoes Auntie Ivanna bought for Michaela ages ago, but were too big for her. Well, she is now fitting in size 4, so we tried them on today. Unfortunately, Michaela's feet are so wide, the velcro couldn't attach properly around her feet. But it's all okay as Michaela has discovered they make a great hand toy!
Today also is the first day Michaela got a ponytail in her hair. She wasn't very pleased with Mom trying to get it in, but didn't mind once it was done. Her hair isn't quite long enough for one ponytail, so it fell out easily later on, but it's not far off! See how old she looks.
This afternoon, Michaela went wandering from the sitting room, but we thought she was in the hallway playing. After a few minutes, we heard her screaming, but that's not unusual as she's just recently discovered how much noise she can make screaming for fun! So, Mom eventually went to investigate and instead found Michaela on the dining table!!!!! A few days ago, she discovered she could climb onto the dining chairs, so today she went one step further! Can you believe it?

We had just started shutting the kitchen door so she couldn't go in without supervision, but apparently Mom and Dad forgot today - eeek! The one good thing is that she was screaming so someone would help her down - she seems to have the sense to know she can't get down herself. But how much longer will that last?

Just some cute photos

Friday was a gorgeous day in the southend, so once Dad got home from work, we all went out to the garden to play. Michaela learned to kick a ball on Friday, so we thought we'd take it outside for some fun too.
Here's Dad trying to take a picture of Michaela walking.
Uncle Lionel came along with Luca, so Michaela had great fun playing with the doggie!

And Saturday was another gorgeous day. Mom went to Yell for the rowing regatta, so Dad took Michaela to the beach. She loves the sand! But she wasn't sure about the water. She went straight for it, but when she discovered it was cold, she backed away. This then became a game - to walk near the water, but pull away when too close!

Unst holiday continued

The saga continues.....

On Saturday, Michaela had a bath at Auntie Julie's and Mom just thought she looked so grown up in this photo.
Usually we don't have any pictures of her sleeping at night because once she's in bed, we don't really go to her in the night, unless something is wrong. But since we were all sleeping in the same room, Mom couldn't resist taking a picture of her sleeping.
Here's Andrew Magnie (one of Michaela's new favourite people) and Michaela. Michaela was drawn to Andrew Magnie, but apparently all children are. We think they'll make fantastic grandparents and we hope our stay with them hasn't put them off.
On the way back from Unst, we had two additional passengers - big cousins Megan and Eve! Megan and Eve watched Shrek 2 on the DVD most of the way down. Michaela was very quiet on the way down, but liked having them in the back seat with her. She played with Megan's hair for a while (see pic) and got to play with Eve's toy dog too.
Now for the big news I keep forgetting to blog about. Michaela is walking! She's even decided that she doesn't want to hold anyone's hand because she's a big girl who can do it herself. Where did she get that personality trait from..........

Our mini holiday

Last weekend, we went on a family holiday to Unst to celebrate Auntie Julie's birthday. But before that, there was a lunch time that Michaela was so tired, she fell asleep while trying to eat a banana!

This is Michaela in her big car seat on our way up to Unst.

Because pretty much the whole Christie clan was up in Unst for Julie's birthday, we stayed with Andrew Magnie and Merle (Auntie Julie's in-laws). Michaela had a great time there. She discovered their washing machine (ours is in the utility room so she hardly ever gets to it) and was delighted with the buttons she could push and that she could put things in and shut the door.
This pic is just Mom trying to be a bit arty and learn about her camera, so experimenting with different colours, etc. Since it turned out so nice, Mom had to put it on the blog.
While at Auntie Julie's, Megan and Eve thought it would be fun to put socks on Michaela's hands. She like it for a bit, then got fed up. Can you see Auntie Julie's baby bump in the background?

Just a typical week

Not much has been going on this week to speak about. Not sure if I've said on the blog, but Michaela has taken to screaming when we get to the nursery. So she's gone from complete love of the place the first few times, to absolute hysteria. She is getting better though and her crying has been limited to about 5 minutes, but it does make it difficult to leave her in the morning. Unfortunately for her, Mom is too stubborn to give in and let Granny Up-by watch her, so she is still going to nursery on Tuesdays and will be for the foreseeable future. Mom and Dad think it's good for her to get used to being taken care of by other people and interact with other children, so she just has to deal with it! It's also a nice break for Granny Up-by, so she can have a life too!

Nicola came with an old toy that James used and Michaela just loves it. It's another walk behind, but this one is a bit sturdier, so we use it outside. Here's she is walking up the hill outside our house.
On Saturday, Daddy and Michaela went for a visit to Cunningsburgh, where Michaela just had to take Granny Pat out for a walk! Uncle Leonard was having a barbeque, so Michaela got to have her first taste of sausages and of mackerel - both of which she loved. Daddy's so pleased to have another fish eater in the house.
And Michaela's made a new friend - Charlotte is a neighbour and she comes to visit Michaela sometimes. Michaela loves playing with Charlotte and Charlotte is so patient and good to Michaela.
When Mom got home from work the other day, Daddy and Michaela were hiding behind the couch. They stayed very quiet and Mom couldn't find them until they peeped out from behind the couch. Mom ran to get the camera to capture the moment - how cute do they look!!!Tooth number four is really causing Michaela bother, but it is cutting through now.