We start this phase in mid-October during 2016. Young cheeky chappy Gregory is developing both his drawing skills as well as his looking innocently towards the camera skills.
He likes to use my laptop for some typing, usually entering some gibberish before immediately deleting it again. As he got better at identifying the letters some months later, he would request that we spell out a word so he could type it in. The first word or phrase that he would choose was often "kitchen roll", which he did randomly once and then later as basically a running joke since it tended to make us laugh each time (for a while anyway). Most times that Gregory uses the laptop, I have to point out that it is not touch screen. Kids of today, eh.
Despite it (still) being mid-October, there is a reasonable harvest of cherry tomatoes that Gregory is only to happy to help collect.
Later that day (from which these first few photos all are), we went to the park. On leaving, Gregory lodged a formal protest to express his reluctance, culminating in a crouch-by-the-bushes position worthy of a photo.
The next day, we all headed to the cinema for the Sunday morning film, Finding Dory. It was enjoyable enough although not quite the match of Finding Nemo (to which it is the sequel, some 13 years later).
I said that his drawing was improving. This was his first proper attempt at doing a person. OK, it looks a bit more like a robot, but for a two-year-old, the eyes, mouth, face, beard and legs are impressive.
At the twins' 7th birthday, Gregory appears to be acting as the patient to Suze's doctor. "It's entirely medicinal [hic]."
The rest of the family (i.e. excluding me) headed up to Haddington for Jessica's 1st birthday and partook, seemingly, in a scaring session.
Back at home on, er, Bonfire Day, Gregory and I deal with the complete onslaught of leaves that typifies this time of year. It's relentless, but also helpful to have a little helper.
In the evening, which we like to call Bonfire Night, Gregory and Ellie seemed to be getting stoned on sweets and/or chocolates. Wonder what was in them.
Other uses of a pushchair, number 271: a hiding place from the TV.
This is one of the disobediently-haired Gregory's favourite jigsaws, combining the alphabet and animals, although he often gets bored before the end. Here, though, you can see that we have already completed a number of jigsaws, like some kind of machine.
Gregory redefines casual. No doubt he was just "allaxin'", as he says.
Whilst Lynne and Daisy were in Manchester for the Christmas markets, Gregory and I went to the Wyevale garden centre near Marple (aka the garden-centre-at-Marple, as Daisy used to call it). It was late November and so unsurprisingly there were gazoodles of pine trees available. We later went on the Santa's grotto train. (There are lots more pictures in the Christmas section which admittedly may not ever be done, but who knows, eh.)
As we move into early December, Gregory remains keen to come into the garden with me and we seem to be slowly getting on top of the leaves (now that, you know, they've stopped falling off the trees).
Ever since Elmo got involved in time travel (I think - or it might have been Gregory discovering the back-up version), they have existed in complete harmony, to which this photo attests.
One more Christmassy shot, as we see Gregory singing in his playgroup (or playschool?) nativity play. Note that the extent of his dressing up is wearing a Christmas jumper. There was absolutely no chance of him getting dressed up in a costume, as the others did.
That weekend, we headed over to the Heaton Moor Tennis Club for Anna Newton's 2nd birthday (she is the daughter of one of my work colleagues) for some soft play action. Here, Gregory and Anna are riding some, er, green sheep.
There is literally no limit to the amount of fun that a two-year-old can have with a ball pool and some of these tunnel things.
During the next week, we catch sight of a little more of the Christmas theme via the addition of a Santa hat as Gregory shows off his dribbling skills at Footytotz.
Simple but effective nomenclature as we fill in the key facts for Gregory starting at St Paul's Pre-school. It's a nice place but unfortunately located in Heaton Moor, in the opposite direction to Broadstone Hall Primary School, which Daisy attends. This does lead to some logistical challenges when both start at 9am, although inevitably Daisy gets "delivered" first.
Now we really delve into the psyche of young Gregory as we're asking to provide information on his favourite things and those that concern him. Much of this, almost a year later, remains true.
This is from a trip to Wilmslow garden centre with Jo, once of the NCT mums. Here, Gregory and Finlay sort of pose for the camera. Not pictured: Daisy and Eva. (Just realised that they have successive initials: D, E, F and G. It doesn't quite work sequentially as, whilst Daisy was born a day before Eva, Finlay is a little younger than Gregory. I still like it, though.)
We jump to the end of the year now, after all the Christmas present shenanigans, and Gregory is playing with one of his, the make-a-picture, make-it-light-up and wipe-it-clean board. (I don't think that this is it's official name - was perhaps a working title, though.)
On New Year's Day, with us all perhaps feeling a little worse for wear, we decided to get some fresh air at the nearby Woodbank Park. Gregory, however, having actually been on his scooter at his grandparents on Christmas Day, now decided it wasn't for him and, despite having his helmet on, felt compelled only to walk with it (and eventually, inevitably, get sufficiently bored such that I would have to carry it).
So immersed in his car playing is Gregory that he totally forgets that it is completely inappropriate to lie in a doorway. It is a hazard and an accident waiting to happen. But, y'know, he's enjoying himself so I'll leave him for now.
It's early January and the sparse vegetable patch is in need of turning over ahead of the warmer temptations of spring. Gregory is only too keen to help out, rarely refusing a trip outside.
Don't try this at home, kids.
It's a random Saturday in January and we appear to have made a trip to Bella Italia, perhaps just to raise our spirits in the bleak winter months. We have a well-honed strategy now for meals out. Gregory has his cars to play with and Daisy, usually, some of her little characters. It keeps them going for the period between getting bored with the colouring stuff the restaurant often, kindly, supplies and the food coming. We probably had an offer on the food via Tesco clubcard vouchers.
On the Sunday, we went to Sophia's birthday party at Run Of The Mill. Only Daisy was technically invited, but as is our typical strategy, I pay for Gregory to get in at the same time. In fact, after the initial play session, Gregory was invited through to the birthday meal anyway, as you can see.
There ain't no cooler rockstar in town....
...but after the sight of that moptop it was definitely time for a haircut, which I duly too him for. He seems fairly content now, which will be a combination of relief that the agony of having his hair chopped is over and happiness of having received a Kinder egg as a reward. His fringe looks a bit haphazard in this shot but, given his squirming and crying, it is not an easy task. It probably looked better once we got inside anyway.
At the end of January, we take a trip to Charles and Sally's in Chorlton (Charles is a colleague and bike holiday buddy of mine). Whilst Daisy and Ollie collude in the games den, Gregory and Lucy give us a brief moment of respite from the chaos they can cause.
The next day, and with some residual Christmas present joker cards yet to be played, we head on over to the Trafford Centre (ugh) to literally Build-A-Bear. Gregory puts on some strange confused face as Daisy is quizzed on something or other. Nana Sue, Lynne and Aunty Katie look on.
Gregory, with his trimmed but slightly haphazard hairstyle, spends some quality time with Aunty Katie. On the shop floor.
Just a shot of him looking angelic and mischievous in the morning sunlight of early February. His hair looks a little better here. It just needed to bed in, or something.
It certainly makes him look older with his shorter cut and, as if to demonstrate how grown up he is, he tucks into an apple from the fruit bowl without it being cut up into bite-sized pieces or anything.
Later that day, as Daisy is with Lynne and the twins at an afternoon tea, I take Gregory to Ava's birthday party at a nearby scout hut. It has been completely taken over, quite impressively, by a soft play extravaganza (which is rapidly cleared away later as they all eat their party meals). Whilst I make do with looking bored and checking sports scores (I don't really know anyone), Gregory is in his element, which is all that matters ultimately.
After some of the stuff is cleared away, they still run riot - or should that be hop riot - on some inflatable, er, cows. Or maybe horses. Doesn't really matter.
With all the obstacles at the side of the room, we are free to engage in some of the classic young child activities, such as getting a big black piece of cloth, putting things on it and jigging it up and down, probably with some loud-ish music playing.
We later have the obligatory party food before Ava - who is 4! - gets her birthday cake delivered by her mother, Clare.
On the same day, as the sun starts to give up, Gregory blows some massive bubbles (well in comparison to his size, anyway) in our back garden. Everything looks so neat but so bleak in winter, doesn't it?
The birthday parties are coming thick and fast, this time with Lucas' 3rd birthday party. We're back to Run Of The Mill, which is starting to earn its name. That's not to say it doesn't work well as a birthday party venue; it's just getting a bit familiar. Anyway, a well-trimmed Gregory doesn't even seem to be looking at the ginormous cake that has been brought out. It's certainly catching Daisy's eye, though.
"Move over Postman Pat, your days are numbered. There is a new postman in town, so take your special delivery service elsewhere. Actually, though, for the time being, can you drive? I haven't got my licence. I'll just operate these buttons. Ta." I imagine that's how the conversation went. This is also at Run Of The Mill, by the way.
Gregory obviously liked to think he was helping by "propelling" Daisy along the pavement, seemingly not confident in her pedal power. I sensed an accident waiting to happen but I think it was avoided in this instance.
This is the look of the future. 3D glasses with little stickers at the corner. You know you want to try it. Right now. So I'll let you go and get some, and then you can come back and read this afterwards.
Wait, what's this? Gregory is finally embracing the scooter, more or less (OK, slightly less) two months after Christmas, which was when he got it. The photo on the left suggests that there was some pace involved, which I doubt, but at least he is trying it. He seems a bit more static in the second photo. Neither of the children have been that keen on using vehicles, really, but they will get into it over time.
An exciting half-term trip to see the Hungry Caterpillar at the Lowry (actually I recognise this venue from where Lynne and I saw Alex Horne & The Horne Section in September of that year). They are certainly looking excited. And perhaps a little scary too.
A trip to the park on the Sunday of what must have been a fairly miserable weekend of weather if Gregory is wearing his wellies. There appears to be some sort of disagreement on the roundabout, or maybe quiet contemplation.
This is the kind of gnarled-up traffic jam that I would be keen to avoid but Gregory is only too happy to create. Following extensive discussions with the local council, we have tried to improve the traffic flow by moving a number of his vehicles to the new-ish storage unit in his bedroom, but the problem is hard to completely eradicate. Maybe some people just need to get out of their cars, y'know.
It's early March and we're having some celebrations for Daisy's 6th birthday, at which Gregory was eating dessert / smearing chocolate over all over his face* (*delete as applicable).
At Daisy's birthday party at Zoom, Gregory sits patiently on the bench with Matthew during a game of musical statues (or some similar game).
Occasionally, Gregory sits still and indulges in a catalogue-style pose, interrupting some jigsaw action.
It's the middle of March and there are hints of both spring and expectation in the air. Gregory and I start the process of germination by planting some seeds. Gregory was very keen to help out, though, and could regularly be heard asking me if he could plant some seeds. We were limited only by seed/soil vessels. In these photos, Gregory is planting some peas. Unfortunately, I didn't have much success with peas this year, but I did get some other things growing eventually.
After the gardening, Gregory felt like going for a drive, although it perhaps seems more like he is engaging in some parking practice.
I think that this was an otherwise uneventful walk to the local Asda superstore on a slightly rainy Saturday. The appearance of a fire engine had Gregory mildly excited. We had bought some chocolate (to make chocolate lollies with Aunty Katie the next day) and Gregory was keen on both carrying it home and posing with it in front of the fire engine when I asked to take a picture. He also got a wave off the driver, which probably made Gregory's day.
This is Russ The Bear. Gregory has brought it (him) home from playschool, the next in the series of... Inanimate Objects Your Child Must Look After For A Week. See also: Golden Bear and the Olivia doll from Rainbows.
Aunty Katie was round to join in with the Chocolate Lolly Maker fun (I think it was her present for Daisy). Gregory is keen to join in, obviously.
Here are the finished products. Not bad for beginners.
A little later, they are tucking into some sort of dessert (seemingly not the lollies), adding their own sprinkles, etc. Aunty Katie still seems to be here, but most intrusive of all, Russ is looking over Gregory while he eats. Bit rude.
Just look at this cheeky charmer, etc.
It's late March and the sun is out, so it's time to enjoy the back garden, complete with cool shades. It's sufficiently warm for Daisy to abandon sleeves, although Gregory retains his in full. They are, basically, thick as thieves, aren't they.
Well, we have had the rock star look on these pages, but this has got it completely nailed as Gregory tries out my (almost permanently borrowed) drum kit. He seems to be doing some sort of snare combination.
Well, whilst the sun is shining, we may as well have our lunch out here. Seems like a fairly standard sandwich, olives, "crispies" (in this case, onion rings) combination, with some bonus sweetcorn (not for me, but each to their own).
This is in the small lounge, where we find Gregory "alaxin'", his word for relaxing. Whilst watching TV, obviously.
Now the gardening is really kicking into action, as we plough trenches to plant the potato sets. As with the seeds, Gregory is then full of talk of doing the same thing each time, alas unaware that we don't have the capacity to deal with his demands.
On a trip to Nana Sue's in late March, Gregory shows off his memory skills by recounting most of the book Oi Frog to Aunty Katie.
On the same day, the Mr Whippy van shows an uncanny degree of awareness by parking up *right outside* Nana Sue's garden. I decided that they'd been good enough to deserve ice lollies.
That prompted some ice lolly slurping fun at the dining room table.
Gregory received this trophy as a reward for completing his Footytotz Achievement Booklet.
And we finish on another award: a certificate penned by Daisy to congratulate Gregory for his potty efforts. He made reasonably good progress and, in the end, moved from potty to toilet in pretty quick time, although it was far from all plain sailing.
Unfortunately for Gregory, he caught chicken pox (off Daisy, who had had it the week or so before) about a week before his birthday, thus making a bit of a mess of some of his early birthday celebrations. But he got through it and made it to his 3rd birthday.
Or you can go back to the Secret Portal.