We join The Boy's 22nd month in the snow, in mid-January. Here he is in his matching coat, pyjamas and welly boots combo enjoying himself in the flakes. We'd had a smattering on a weekend morning and so we headed out before 9am, knowing that it may well all be gone by later that day.
Gregory watches on as Daisy makes a small snowman. One day, lad, one day.
Later that day, we popped down to Run Of The Mill, our local soft play area. Gregory soon found the vehicle section.
I think this is more Gregory's desire to empty shelves rather than his bookworm tendencies, although he is increasingly interested in books.
The next weekend and we are back to Run Of The Mill for Evan's birthday party (and in fact Daisy had a further birthday party here the next day; Gregory and I declined to attend due to soft play exhaustion). Gregory seemed pretty cheery in being submerged in a ball pool.
He's in here somewhere... I think I can see a beady eye...
The next day, we headed over to Glossop, for Lucas Giles' 1st birthday party. The children were reticent at the start but, as a bit more room became available in the kids' room. A musical robot provided the entertainment and the jived away.
Another weekend, another kids' birthday party. This time, it was young Ava's party at Busy Kids Café, where Gregory busied himself with the train set again, naturally.
As we have established, he does like to go for a walk, whatever the weather. I can only imagine that he was desperate to be outside at some point. Anyway, winter coat and wellies in combination kept the water out as we strolled around Heaton Chapel.
We're in mid-February now - in fact, Gregory is 22 months old today - but he looks a bit peaky and downright perturbed, red-cheeked and clinging on to his triumvirate of bedtime (and all other needy times) accompaniment, Elmo ("elma"), Monkey ("ooh ooh") and Cookie Monster (as yet no noise).
At the weekend, I popped over to Waterdale with the little ones (in the semi-regular "let's give Lynne a break" day). I had forgotten the highchair, which gave Gregory the chance to behave like a big boy at the table. It mostly worked, although it did mean he could escape rather too easily. Daisy's pose isn't quite what I hoped for...
Gregory demonstrates how not to sit in a chair.
Now that Gregory is becoming every more proficient at electronic device usage (he still prods at my laptop screen expecting it to be touch screen, bless him), there is often a struggle over Daisy's Hudl 2. It looks like Gregory has won this one (or perhaps he just got up earlier) and he is busying colour filling a picture.
Later that day and I'm yet again taking the floppy-haired boy for a walk around the estate. He's got such innocence in his eyes.
He has recently demonstrated a penchant for trying on other people's shoes. Here, he wanders around in Lynne's booys.
As we approach the end of February, his hair is getting out of control...
...as you can see even more obviously here. He seems to be spying out of the window as surreptitiously as he can manage.
It's early March and, whilst I am at work, Lynne has decided to let Gregory loose with paints (albeit in the kitchen, on the highchair, wearing Daisy's protective overall - a fetching pink).
Just hanging out on the first step with a bevvy...
Avis and Graham had popped down for Daisy's birthday weekend, leading to some quality granddad-and-grandson time. Gregory is busy showing some of his best colouring in red, at which Graham is unable to look.
But never mind that, it's ruddy freezing outside. It's time to wrap up completely and utterly (in blue).
And lo and behold, it was snowing outside. It had been a decent amount of snowfall, especially for early March, and Gregory seemed to enjoy trudging around in the snow. His footsteps make him look like he has been walking backwards. This is a school day, so I am at work and Daisy is at school, so only Lynne and Gregory are around to enjoy it. I wish I could say that we'd put down our pens and spreadsheets and gone into the streets of Manchester and thrown snowballs at each other, but we hadn't. Mostly because it tends to turn to sludge quite quickly in central Manchester under the constant trample of the workers and shoppers and tourists.
Now with his gloves on, he is enjoying making handprints on the side of the trampoline.
On the day before Daisy's birthday, we headed for our favourite local soft play centre (Run Of The Mill) for Grace's, one of Daisy's friends, birthday. Neither of my children could actually be bothered looking at me, though. Actually, Gregory wasn't technically invited to this party - we just went along some independent soft play action - but eventually we got invited into the actual party area itself. As you can see, there was an inevitable Frozen theme to the party.
That evening, we went to Frankie & Benny's with Avis & Graham to celebrate Daisy's forthcoming birthday. Gregory wholeheartedly tucked in to a large ice-cream.
On Daisy's birthday (and the triple mother's day - see Daisy's birthday page for more details of that), Gregory is dressed up and enjoying creating a base made out of cushions. Takes me back.
Either Matt is horrified by Gregory's Peppa Pig distraction or he is trying to hypnotise him or...
...he's lifting him up into the sky!
This is clearly the Allen playground as Gregory springs off Katie's lap.
And into the air! Or he is levitating. One or the other.
Well now, if this isn't cowboy Gregory watching his favourite show "goch" (aka Peppa Pig). That's a mighty fine outfit you got there, young Gregory. He clearly felt that hat-and-no-pants was the combination to go for.
Still with no trousers and having ditched the pink cowboy hat, Gregory is now sporting a lovely rainbow-coloured bracelet. It's good that he experiments. I think he's wearing his pyjama top still, so he hasn't really got going.
Later that day (on the weekend after Daisy's birthday), it's time to get out onto the vegetable patch for some much needed digging work. Gregory, in his wellies, is only too happy to lend a not considerable hand.
After a while, the digging becomes too hard work so it's time to start running around the tree. That's what it's there for, after all. That and the green gauges that we never eat.
Gregory has football class every week, although for the time being he is more keen on picking it up and running with it; however, I have been slowly getting him to kick it and here he is doing just that.
And after all that action (trying on various items of clothing and jewellery, digging up the soil and playing football), Gregory still had the inclination and energy, and indeed desire, to go for a walk around the block. It looks here like he is boogieing along, but in reality I just caught him slightly off balance. Still, let's pretend he is dancing. With his tongue stuck out in concentration.
We had a warm spell in March and so it was time to take to the garden, with Crazy Daisy and Cool Hand Greg.
With it being nice outside, there was no reason not to have lunch in the fresh air. This is a fairly typical spread. Sandwiches for Gregory (accompanied by sweetcorn and, unusually, a cocktail sausage) and cheese with crackers (accompanied by cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks and, er, some cocktail sausages).
Later that day, I took Gregory to the park. This illustrates his current level of fearless. He was very happy to be pushed back this far and complained if you stopped pushing him for any period of time.
A typical school/work morning as I get ready to cycle in and Gregory cleans his teeth (actually at this age he basically just chewed the brush - a couple of months later, though, and he did actually develop a good front teeth brushing action [/tooth update]). It's only in this photo that I notice that our hair colour is very similar.
Back into the garden in mid-to-late March and the first bit of proper gardening action, as the children help me put the hanging baskets together. Mind you, they got bored after one and went off playing so I was left to do the other three.
As you can see, while they were doing their planting I was also hard at work in a not-at-all-staged effort photo. The vegetable patch looks very bare in this shot. It will soon be overtaken with weeds...
The Boy perfects his football trapping technique. (Or it may just have been an accident.)
Brother and sister showing their love for each other...
...and basically just having a laugh together.
Later that weekend, Vicky and Paul came round and Paul engaged in some Velcro ball game antics with Gregory. It was lovely and sunny as you can see.
After all that ball-playing activity outside, it's sometimes good to just chill indoors and glam up.
The prospect of a limited amount of good weather during the Easter weekend saw us head to the Chestnut Centre near Chapel-en-le-Frith on the Good Friday. I may do a separate instalment of this, but this is just an indication of how much Gregory was like a dog. There are a number of areas in which this is demonstrably true, but not more so than when he is straining at the leash, determined to go the way he wants. Many a time on this visit I steadied myself for a photograph, only to get yanked from my standing position by an eager young Gregory desperate to explore or simply experience things on his own terms.
Mind you, it's pretty easy to keep him still if you really want to. One such solution is ice-cream. I think he spent ages on this, determined to scrape out every last molecule. His spoon skills are above average for age, based on my expert scientific assessment.
An Easter Saturday trip to Waterdale saw Gregory looking longingly out of the window...
...but eventually realise that all the fun was to be had indoors.
Aunty Katie had bought them both design your own Easter egg, so that is what they did on Easter Sunday. Gregory's effort was rather freeform. And after a point he just cut out the middle man and popped the toppings directly into his mouth. Anything for a bit of refined sugar.
So this is a jigsaw that I have done a lot. A 90-odd piece fairytale jigsaw that Daisy got (I think from Nicky and Calum) is something that Gregory absolutely never tires of asking me to do. At first, he was content to watch me complete it, but increasingly he insists on putting in each piece himself, although I have to locate the position for him (he is, a month or two later, beginning to learn where to put some of them without any assistance - but it's not an easy puzzle for a two-year old). I can do it in my sleep and there's nothing more satisfying than, when I have completed it (or Gregory has with my assistance), seeing him tear it all up straight away. Here, though, he at least gives me the benefit of clapping the finish of it. (And sometimes it does get left for minutes, hours, or even days.)
It's the end of March and it was at this time that he had a strange habit for getting into Daisy's cuddly toy, er, bag. Anything to delay bedtime.
On April Fools' Day, I got home to realise that there was no-one in. A quick shower (after cycling) and an exchange of texts later, and I heading down the road to the Hind's Head to meet up with the family and some of the other school parents and children. Gregory was clearly too warm in there, hence being down to a vest, whilst I was both hungry and thirsty, although my crisps were swiftly commandeered by The Boy (the same would not happen with the lager).
Gregory did actually do a lot of this figure of eight himself - I just sorted out the bridge bit and finessed the finish so that it came round to meet. He was pretty happy getting caught up in the middle of this.
Gregory had a phase, which I'm not sure he is totally out of a month or two later although it has receded somewhat, of completely emptying out containers of toys, as is the case here. He looks up at me as if to say "What? I'm playing with them all."
And we finish with evidence of the little blondie's boyish charms and messy eating habits.
And for our next instalment, click here, or head back to the Secret Portal.