Why do babies need pockets on their clothes?

And, perhaps more to the point, why do I feel the need to check them when doing the laundry? I mean, what on earth am I expecting to find that N has put in there? But I must admit, I have a bit of a gripe when it comes to children's clothes. F's wardrobe is awash with pink and I don't mind a bit of pink, but it is almost impossible sometimes to buy girl's clothes that aren't all cutesy and girly and it can get a bit tiring when everything is all frilly and pretty. I've taken to buying some of the more neutral boy's clothes for her (and that way they can also be used for N - woohoo, two birds and all that) to try and dilute the frills a bit.

Anyway, we recently had Mormor and Grandpa to visit for a week which was lovely. They were suitably impressed by N's BLW, although we all agreed that it is a bit of a naff name. So upon observing N demolish a potato wedge, Grandpa swiftly renamed it 'Full On Food' which seems much more fitting.

N has come on leaps and bounds on the food front. He's on a good 3 meals a day (as well as milk of course). We inadvertently introduced a bit of spoon food at the weekend though. Went to the 3rd birthday party of the son of some friends of ours. They served up a fab cottage pie for supper (I love cottage pie - firm favourite in this household). Put some on a plate for N and then wondered how to get it in him seeing as we're doing this big chunks, self-feeding thing. So I loaded a teaspoon and let him take it, while hovering my hand nearby in case of steadying (so spoon feeding but with N taking the lead). He wolfed it down - blimmin well went and ate the entire plateful. I'm telling you, that boy is a stomach on legs. He also managed the spoon pretty well considering. Of course there was a bit of mess, but not too much (and easily cleaned up).

The friends that we visited at the weekend are also a bi-lingual family (English, Danish). Was nice to hear some proper English English on a native, mother-tongue sort of level. I was very impressed by their 3 year old - he is coming out with full on sentences in both English and Danish. It's nice to see little success stories like this now and then because it gives you the confidence to keep at it with your own children (F is a little bit behind her friends at nursery linguistically speaking, although I am proud of her and think she is doing marvellously juggling with 3 languages).

And finally, I have decided to have a bash at learning Spanish. It is my ambition to learn both Spanish and Russian, and I have been working on the Russian alphabet and have picked up a fair amount of words from listening to S and F. However, in honour of our intended trip to visit Abuelo and Babushka in Mexico next year, I am very keen to have at least a smattering of Spanish. If only to be able to ask my Mexican family-in-law to pass the tortillas during dinner. Spanish lessons once a week also has the added bonus of giving S time alone with the children (father bonding, or rather 'see how hard it is, you better appreciate what I do every day') as well as giving me time away from the children. Much as I love them and being with them, it will be nice to use my brain for something other than singing 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' over and over again in different voices.