Hey, Merry Christmas everyone, well, merry Christmas for a couple of days ago - after all the build up, the day just goes so quickly.

Sasha - I'm afraid this post is all for you, you've given me lots to talk about. so here goes: I hear you on the sleeping. We spend Christmas & Boxing day at my grandmother's farm, the drive to get there takes about an hour & 1/2, which was great cos Liam slept the whole way, but once we got there, he just kept going & going, then had a rotten sleep on Christmas night. We stayed in a motel, so he was 3 feet away, so boxing day saw me walking the streets at 6.30am, cos someone wasn't going back to sleep, and his father was getting really cranky with him. We do big family stuff on Boxing day as well, which is great, but not with a 17mo, cos again, just kept going & going. Then, cos he's mental, even though he was totally exhausted, he didn't sleep in the way back in the car, so we were naughty parents, we decided that as he was still awake, we'd take him to see Christmas lights. Which he just loved. Spent the whole time going "gook, gook" (his word for look) & pointing at everything, so kind of fun.

Liam sounds like he was the same as Autie - presents, schmesents. Not particularly interested, except in the very cute, but girly doll pusher that my M&D gave to him, which he just loves, hasn't stopped pushing it for 3 days. And he was given a box set of miniature Night Garden books, which he likes to read. I think that we'll be doing the trampoline thing for his birthday, he loves the one at his cousins, I don't think I know any kids who don't enjoy them, for several years, which is a much better life than most Fisher Price stuff.

We've had an explosion of words here, which is so entertaining. Mostly "B" words, which I think is common, so we have ball, bird, bus, bubble, bye bye, but also hat, car, teddy & shoes. THere are others, I just can't rememberthem. It's so cute watching them work things out.

Snacks - I rely a lot on dates, & watermelon, which Liam loves, could eat either of these all day. And cheese slices, the Bega super slices are very popular. I'm not so good at snacks, rather unimaginative.

Well, I'm trying to get my pigsty of a house cleaned up, but struggling with motivation atm. I have been putting some of the old uninteresting toys into a box to pack away, but as soon as they go into the box someone decides that they are interesting....so I have toys from one end of the house to the other. My not too strenuous goal is to have it done by NYE, I like the symbolism of starting the year with a clean house.

Enough of my rambling, someone's waking up from his sleep, so I'd better go & do some motherly things I guess.