end of summer update

Hey everyone,
here I am. Very quick update for all:
I have 4 teeth now, two on the top and two on the bottom. Very good for biting.
I had an amazing first summer: saw an amazing gigantic bath twice. They call it the sea. I think it's because you can't see the other side of the tub..
Latest news is I've started to go to a playgroup with the girl with the ponytail, who I now call Ma-ma. Ah, I call big-guy Pa-pa. He seems to like it a lot. I started calling him that on his birthday, and he seemed to think that was very exciting.
Sitting up is history now. I can pull myself up. And, I can crawl really fast, and I can walk when holding on to my trolley-walker. It's amazing. Walking, I mean. Really much more confortable and sensible than crawling, though that is great fun too. I can't make up my mind which I like best. However, I do think I'll choose walking when we're out and about. Especially since Ma-ma has bought me those blue sandals.
Ok, time to go now...
Will update again soon.. PROMISE!!

sitting up 3 and breaking news

Nearly a month has gone by since my last post and some of you have started to ask what ever happened on the gigantic woosh and why I did not procede with the story. Rest assured, I will continue the narration (!), though in a more succinct fashion than the way I started it. 'Rather long winded post, that one was!' I hear some of you say. But first let me tell you what has prevented me from writing. I have learn to sit up! 'Not that again' I hear you whisper to each other. Of course I know I already wrote about managing to stay in a sitting position, but now I have actually learnt to get myself into it! After many attemps at a pilates stile sit up, and after much abs flexing, which resulted in nothing, I finally developed a more, lets say, yoga style technique. Rather simple really. I just roll onto my side and walk my hands along pushing my upper body until I am sitting up. Now I practice it a lot, especially when the-girl-with-the-pony-tail si trying to get me to have my naps.
Oh and another piece of news, is that my first tooth has broken through. Elia told me that is the name of this very sharp very tiny hard thing in my mouth. SInce it has popped through I'm not as keen on cheewing my hands as I used to be. Now I prefer to chew my toys, or someone else's hands, or nose.

big adventure and gigantic woosh?

Hi guys, at last I have found a little time to update you on my latest adventure. The greatest adventure yet since being upside down and travelling through the tunnel and out into this world. It all began with the usual morning routine, then bg and gwtpt started preparing very big bags by the door. I was popped into my car seat and off we went, on an outing, or so I thought. We travelled in the woosh, but it was a much longer journey than usual. I managed to stay awake and keep an eye on where we were heading, but I didn't recognise the places that wizzed past us. Eventually we arrived at a place where we parked the woosh and we all got out. A big person came towards us and made us get into a very big vroom-like thing and off we went again. The big bags came with us. Then the guy dropped us off at a place that was something I had never seen before. It was a bit like one of those shops or caffès that the girl with the pony tail goes to sometimes with blonde lady, but much much much bigger. There were big people everywhere. They were all walking in different directions, and most of them had big bags like ours, on what I think was a push chair for bags. Then big-guy got a push chair for our bags too and we walked to a place where lots of people were standing in line in front of a table where a lady dressed very smartly and who smiled a lot sat. Meanwhile, I had beed taken out of my car seat and was in the sling with big-guy carrying me. As we waited in line I started to feel rather sleepy and all the bustle started to make me nervous, so bi guy covered me with a white balnket and I managed to have a nap. It's a wonderful place to have a nap by the way. Anyway, when I woke up were were in a different very big room where everyone looked like they were waiting for something. They sat on blue chairs all in a row and read books, chatted or just looked bored. Big guy and gwtpt sat on two blue chairs and took my jars out of my green bag. Oh, good. I was just feeling hungry after that nice nap! They gave me my lunch and then we were off again. We waited in line again and walked along a corridor. At the end was a door with two eleganlty dressed people, a man and a woman. They smiled at us and big guy showed them a piece of paper he had been holding in his hands since we were in the waiting room. There were more smiles and we entered something which looked a bit like the bus we use to go to blonde lady's house, but bigger. There were lots of seats, alla facing in the same direction and one narrow corridor in the middle. We walked down in and big guy and gwtpt sat on two of the seats. I sat on gwtpt's lap.

very big bath

Hi guys, here I am at last after a very busy weekend. It was really really busy for a little lad like me, but I think it was busy for big-guy and girl-with-the-pony-tail too since last night they looked rather exhausted!
Anyway, saturday I went to visit blond-lady. I know you're all really interested in finding out more about blond-lady, but it will just have to wait, because first I'll tell you about Sunday! Ha!
Sunday was a long day. The girl-with-the-pony-tail woke me up as usual for my breakfast, then she changed my clothes. I thought we'd play on the big bed as we usually do, but instead her and big-guy started rushing around the house preaparing bags by the door. In a flash we were out there, me in my seat for the vroom. 'We're going out in the vroom!' I thought eagerly. But as we walked along the road I couldn't sea the vroom. Instead big-guy opened the door of a thing that was bigger than the vroom and not black, but white.
'Where has vroom gone?' I wondered as they put my seat inside this white thing. Then big-guy and the girl-with-the-pony-tail got in too. 'Woosh'. 'Woosh'. I heard. What was that sound. The white thing started moving and I realised it was that which was making the noise. Where is vroom? I kept asking myself. How can we get anywhere with a vehicle that goes whoosh?! But somehow we did. We glided along with this very silent Woosh. The girl-with-the-pony-tail played some games with me and then I fell asleep.
So that's the story about the Woosh. But what I really wanted you to know is the story about where we went in the Woosh.
I woke up next to the girl and she was looking out of the window and waving at someone. I recognised the face straight away. It was the girl of one of the little people I go to the park with, Francesco. He must be here too, I thought. We got out of the Woosh and went into a place full of big people and little people. Big-guy and girls and little people. The big people kept talking and laughing and they all had bags. Then they took each one of us little people to a little bed where they changed our nappied. Big-guy put me into a new type of nappy which he just pulled up from my legs instead of wrapping it around my bottom. Strange.
Anyway, what happened next amazed me and yet made me feel very much at home. The-girl-with-the-pony-tail picked me up and carried me near something which reminded me of the tub I have my bath in, before I go to bed. It was much much much bigger though. So big, I tell you, that all the big-people AND  the little people could fit into it. Yes, you heard that right. We all went into the big bath tub. It was wonderful. The-girl-with-the-pony-tail carried me down some steps and into the water. It was a warm feeling, like being cuddled all over, like being back in the place where I sat up side down for all those months. I flapped my arms up and down, as I always do when I am excited, and the water splashed around me. My big people kept smiling at me and looked really pleased by my reaction, so I splashed about some more.
We spent quite a while in the big bath tub. At one point a man held me in the middle of a circle made by all the people and swirled me around in the water. I smiled at all the big-girls very proudly!

big people little people medium people

Yesterday the-girl-with-the-pony-tail took me out for one of our afternoon walks and I saw something new. We were sitting at a cafè in the main square. The-girl-with-the-pony-tail likes cafés a lot. She had a drink and I had some water from my bottle. While we sat there two people caught my eye. The reason they attracted my attention was that they were a lot smaller than the-girl-with-the-pony-tail and big-guy and the two ladies that come to look after me, blond-lady and brown-lady (I'll tell you about them later on), and generally smaller than all the big-people I have seen. This is what Elijah and I call the people that walk on their feet and that pick us up and carry us around. Big-people. We call ourselves little-people, by comparison. We are the ones that have trouble sitting up. I have met a few little-people recently. I'll tell you more in detail about that too. But I had never seen two people like the ones at the café. They were sitting up on their own, drinking from a glass, but they were not very big. They were medium. I smiled at them a lot (they were girls by the way) and they smiled back at me. So I smiled some more. We had a good time smiling at each other. Anyway, that's something new to tell Elijah when I see him next. I'm sure he'll be able to tell me more about it.

sitting up 2

Sudden progress in the sitting up department. I am still not able to get into this position from lying down, but when the-girl-with-the-pony-tail places me sitting up on my playmat I manage to stay upright for a few minutes. She says I'm like a bowling pin, whatever that is. She sometimes helps me when I tilt to the side and then I can stay upright for another few minutes. It's quite thrilling, but I'm still not completely satisfied, as you can immagine. I want to be able to get into that position on my own.

home 2

I should probably get back to the story now. Sorry guys, but I just got sidetracked telling you my latest news.
Anyway, I was saying how we travelled in a black box, in the vroom. Again, I fell asleep. I must tell you I used to do that often when they put me in the vroom and especially when it started rumbling. I just couldn't help myself. Now that they sit me in my seat though, I've started appreciating the view and managing to stay awake more. I still doze off from time to time, but if I concentrate on the things moving outside the vroom, or if the girl-with-the-pony-tail rattles something at me, I manage to stay awake and enjoy the ride. Anyway, then I was still in my falling asleep a lot faze, so I did. Next thing I knew, I was being transported in my little box by big-guy. We entered a place which was very warm and smelt nice. I was sure it wasn't the place with the unfashionable girls in green thanks to the smell. As I told you I could only see in black and white and very blurry too, so what helped me figure out I had never been in this particular place before was indeed the smell. A sweet familiar smell, like a mixture between the smell of big-guy and that of the girl-with-the-pony-tail. I later found out this was a place called home and it is where i spend most of my time. Big-guy and girl-with-the-pony-tail spend most of their time here too. Big-guy goes out of the door after they have that thing called 'coffee' after we all wake up and spend time on the big bed. But he always comes back.

roll over, roll over

Hi everyone. There has been a sudden improvement in the physical skill department (no sitting up yet I'm afraid). It happened while I was lying on my tummy, working on my experiments with the flying butterfly, the colourful bird, and the rattly ball. A few days ago I managed to lift my arms in the air and swing them at the butterfly and the colourful bird. The bird makes a lovely rattly sound which I like to hear over and over again. Next to the bird there is a rolling ball which also rattles. I have learnt to make it spin really fast. The more it spins, the more it rattles. It's wonderful. I have really been working on these discoveries and am enjoying the results thoroughly. However today something happened which put everything in a very different perspective. As I was lying there, lifting one arm and then the other as high as I could, and then bashing the bird, the butterfly and the ball, I suddenly felt myself falling and my whole body flopped over. All of a sudden, there I was lying on my back looking up. The girl-with-the-pony-tail looked amazed and then started clapping her hands and singing a song. 'Roll over, roll over' it went. Well she was very happy, but I was a bit annoyed, because I couldn't get back into the tummy position and get on with my research. After singing this sogn she seemed to understand what I was thinking and flopped me back over. I think I'll try it again tomorrow.

a very frustrating thing

As I promised in my last post, I am going to tell you about 'sitting up'. Currently I am struggling to get to grips with this position. It's a very tricky business. Usually the girl-with-the-pony-tail lies me flat on my back and lets me play with my flying toys. She also puts me in this position when she has to change my nappy. Sometimes she grabs hold of my hands and pulls me up into what is called a 'sitting position'. It's really cool when this happens wecause I can see the world from a totally different angle. In fact everything changes while I shift from lying down to sitting. Sometimes I am actually put directly into this position, but I have things around me then, or big-guy holding me up.
At the moment I am trying to figure out how I can get into the sitting up position without them helping me. I have tried but without success. I push my head up, tense my neck, contract my stomach muscles, but nothing happens. I just lie there with my head slightly lifted and a strained expression on my face. Big-guy and  girl-with-the-pony-tail think this is very clever and praise me for it. But it's not enough for me. I just want to sit up! I'll let you guys know if and when I succeed...

feet

Once again I have to interrupt the story from the beginning to tell you about a discovery I have made over the past week or so. About a month ago I discovered two amazing things I have at the top of my body. The girl-with-the-pony-tail calls them 'hands'. Fascinating, they are. With lots of 'fingers' on each one. I have studied them in detail. I can move them up and down and round and round. I can open and close the 'fingers' and I can use these 'hands' to hold things and grab things. Things like the girl-with-the-pony-tail's hair, the big-guy's very big 'fingers', the various colourful things that they shake in front of my face.
I was practicing grabbing stuff when the girl-with-the-pony-tail put me in a sitting up position (I'll tell you all about that too..), when I saw two things at the end of my body. I felt an urge to move about, and I saw the two things moving about too. Suddlenly I just had to lunge at them and grab them. Then I pushed myself back to see if they were able to escape, but no, they were still there. So again I lunged at them and grabbed them even harder. Suddenly I felt a tingle and realised that it was me that was making them move. It was a fun day when this happened, and I still like to practice grabbing these things, which by the way are called 'feet'. My good friend Elijah says they will be extremely useful to us one day, and that they will enable us to do something called 'walking ' and something else called 'running'. For the time being though I am enjoying the novelty of just knowing I have them and trying to grab hold of them when I'm in the right position to get hold of them.

father's day

Today I will take a break from telling you the story from the beginning and tell you about today.
Today the girl-with-the-pony-tail was very excited about something. She woke me up and took me straight to the place where her and big-guy sleep. Big-guy was still very sleepy, but when he saw me he smiled and took me into his arms (I really love it when that happens!). He sat me on his knees and started telling me stuff. I'm just learning to pick up on what he says. It was something about going out for coffee. They go on about this thing 'coffee'  a lot in the morning. It must be a bit like my milk (that's what they call the warm liquid I have a few times a day, the one I was telling you about the other day). I know about 'going out' too because the girl-with-the-pony-tail and I do that once a day. And I travel inside a seat which the girl pushes. I travel backwards and see the world outside our home.. Anyway, we were on the bed (that's what their cot is called) and big-guy was telling me stuff. Eventually we went out and they had their 'coffee'. I didn't fall asleep at all because I had slept at home, so I was able to enjoy the ride in my moving box. When we got home big guy gave me lots of cuddles and made me laugh a lot. He's really funny. I find myself giggling away at everything he does. Especially when he blows rasberries on my tummy or holds me up in the air. I must say, it was a great day!

home

One day the girl-with-the-pony-tail didn't stay on her box and kept moving around the room. She did lots of things but I stopped watching her and fell asleep. Then the big-guy arrived and he hugged the girl. I liked that a lot. She gave me some of the warm liquid and the big-guy prepared a different box for me. Then he put me in it very carefully. I got very excited because this was something completely new. He wheeled me out of the room, past the place with the unfashionable ladies in green and into a very small room. The girl-with-the-pony-tail followed us. We stayed still for a while then we went out of the small room and off we went again, somewhere bigger than I'd ever been before with lots of faces moving around. Then just as I was thinking this must be the biggest place ever, we went past two sliding transparent doors and we went out into the open. That's when I saw the sky for the first time. It was pale blue and everywhere. I loved looking at it and forgot to notice where we were going. We eventually stopped moving and the big-guy put my small box, with me in it, into a black thing (now I call it the vroom, because it makes that sort of sound when it moves. I used to lie in it, inside my box, but now I sit in it, and big-guy and girl-with-the-pony-tail sit in it too).

faces

I spent quite a while in the transparent open top box, sleeping a lot, occasionally calling out to see what everyone's reaction would be. The girl-with-the-pony-tail stayed on her box a lot, and looked at me nearly all the time, except when she was sleeping. But she didn't do that as much as me, I think. I sometimes was wheeled away to go to a place full of open top transparent boxes with guys like me in them. The unfashionable ladies would prod us a little and occasionally give us a thing with a sticking out bit, similar to the one the girl-with-the-pony tail had, but not as soft. Warm liquid came out of that too, though and it was soothing, especially when I felt like crying out, and often it helped me sleep when I felt a bit nervous. The faces came and went. But I especially remember the big-guy coming back twice. The girl-with-the-pony tail was keeping an eye on me in my box, when he arrived and looked at me with his big eyes. He didn't cry though, unlike the first time. Instead the girl-with-the-pony-tail showed him how to hold me. She picked me up and put me in his arms. I felt safe there. Then I was wheeled away and the faces appeared again.

On with the story

As I told you yesterday my adventures began that day I was sitting upside down and was squeezed out of the small dark space. A few months have gone by since then so I will have to fill you in with the many events that happened, so that I can start updating you day-by-day. 
After I fell asleep in the transparent box I was moved to a very comfortable other transparent box, with no top on it. It wasn't as warm as the other one, but it was still a nice place to sleep in. I was very tired and only felt like sleeping really, so it was a good place to be.
Suddenly I woke up in the open top box lying next to the girl-with-the-pony-tail. She was lying in a much bigger open top box. I had actually been wondering where she'd gone, and for some reason, I couldn't get her smell out of my head or my nose in fact. I could only just make out the girl becaeuse in those days I could only see in black-and-white and quite blurred too. But I knew it was her because of that familiar smell.

by the way

Today I spoke to my good friend Elijah, the one who I told you is writing another blog like this one. He told me I should explain why I am writing this blog at all. Apparently most of the people who read blogs have gone through similar experiences as we are going through now, so he said. Which made me worry that this blog would be boring for you all, since you've been there before. But then he added that most of you have also forgotten about it, and that you are astonished when you see people like me doing stuff that you used to do. It's all still quite unclear, but the conclusion I have come to is that I have to write this blog for two reasons. The first is that if you readers have forgotten about living the experiences I am living today, you should really be reminded of them, since they are quite spectacular and you might enjoy the feeling of knowing you were once like me. The second is that I am afraid I will be like you some day, and that I too will forget these fantastic days I am living. So I need to keep a record of everyhing that is happening, so that some day, if I do forget, I will have something to help me remember.

how it all began

Dear everyone,
today I start a diary to record all the amazing and surprizing things that keep happening in my life.
I have been advised by a good friend of mine, Elijah, to keep a note of all the changes that I am experiencing. He is doing the same, on another blog. But I won't tell you which because I want you to read this one.
It all began one day when I was sitting upside down in a very tight dark space. I had spent 9 months of my life there, all of it in fact, and I thought it was getting too tight to bear, when suddenly I was pushed out, or should I say squeezed out. I ended up in a very big white room. With two ladies dressed in very unfashionable white and green clothes, staring at me, prodding me and talking loudly. Then I was wrapped up in a white cloth and given to a big guy who sat on a chair gazing into my eyes, his ones full of tears. Then I was placed on this person's stomach and encouraged to put my mouth round this sticking out soft thing. I later discovered I was to do that very often, several times a day. A warm liquid came out when I started to suck (I'm not sure why I started to suck, I just did). After that I stayed with this person for about an hour. I now call her the girl-with-the-pony-tail, so I'll call her that and you'll know who I mean. I lay next to her and kept sucking, I'm still not sure why, and fell asleep. Then I was taken away, by the unfashionable ladies, and the big guy, who I now call the big-guy, followed us. He stayed next to me while the ladies did various things to me, put pointy things in me that stung, covered me with water, and eventually put something warm on me. The big-guy kept looking at me with a few tears in his eyes. Somehow it was nice to know he was looking at me. After that he left. I was put in a transparent box, in a very warm box. And that's when the faces began to appear. Lots of them all staring at me. Some looked familiar, similar to the big-guy and to the girl-with-the-pony-tail. And then I fell asleep again....