We'll start Gregory's fourteenth quarter, in mid-July, with some football action. It's a two-v-one, my children lining up with Daisy as the goalkeeper and Gregory as the playmaker, but they operate a very fluid formation as you might imagine. I try to get them to make space and pass to each other, which they do try to do, but it's the execution. We'll get there.
Here is Gregory, with two others, rocking out at Diddy Dance.
It's not clear whether this is part of the dance or simply an opportunity for the class host to scare the living daylights out of three poor children.
A Saturday afternoon trip to the local park for some monkey bar swinging, which Gregory is just starting to get the hang of.
This is Gregory's playschool's summer concert, held in their last week before the summer holidays. Gregory is wearing a blue T-shirt and can be seen just above the right hand side of the burgundy pram.
Meanwhile, in Diddy Dance, they are now, er, chasing bubbles. The fun never stops at Diddy Dance! It's a lot easier if you have a bubble-making machine, though.
Gregory is increasingly enjoying Lego and likes to follow a little book of instructions to put it together, usually only needing a little bit of help. I think I did this helicopter with Gregory, although this might not have been the only time of course (since he often likes to take it apart not long after building it).
He's three years old and going to have to look after himself soon enough, so it's about time we taught him self-defence. Here: punching.
And here: kicking, although it feels like he's trying not to do too much damage. A sort of gentle toe poke.
A holiday to Scarborough later and we find ourselves in mid-August. The little ones do like to play with the more basic blocks and are very proud of their constructions.
Later in August, Lynne took Daisy and Gregory up to Haddington, evidently for some pinkly-lit disco action with their cousins.
Daisy stayed behind at her grandparents' house, which left Gregory free to enjoy the trampoline alone, although no doubt he missed her really.
Later that day, we headed over to Waterdale Close to see Nana Sue and Aunty Katie, pictured here playing a hoop game with Gregory.
With Daisy away, Gregory made do with watching Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom somewhat askance and playing with his socks.
We're still in the bank holiday weekend and still sans Daisy, so we have time to set up some crazy car carnage. This is a very efficient traffic jam.
While Lynne went to somewhere halfway-ish between here and Haddington to collect Daisy, I took Gregory to the park for some obstacle course action. And probably ages on the swing.
Someone was happy to see someone else. They had been apart for over four days, easily the longest time in Gregory's lifetime. Let them never be apart for so long again (until they start bickering again, that is).
Right Daisy, if you just pose for your first day at school... wait a minute... Gregory, you cheeky monkey!
Thank you, you've been wonderful. While I am still trying to take photos of Daisy's first day in Year Two, Gregory summons his best posing.
Ah this one is a bit better, although who knows what he is trying to say or sing.
A little later in early September, we headed over to somewhere near Hull for Mark and Helen's wedding. That gave everyone the chance to dress up. Once the three of us were ready, leaving Lynne to take her sweet time without disruption, we headed into the landing area and, with the sun shining in, I took the chance to take a picture of the two of them. Probably the most shocking was the willingness of Gregory to wear not only a shirt but also a tie. The mind boggles.
At the church, while we waited for Helen to turn up in the pouring rain, Daisy stole Lynne's phone and Gregory stole the limelight.
Early in the morning the next day and Gregory appears to be storing coins in his toes. I don't know how that works when you want to walk to the shops to buy something.
Around the end of September, we headed to the Manchester Road Park Fun Day, which was to celebrate the refurbishment of our local park. They really laid it on considering there aren't normally that many people at the park. But many people came.
Gregory, on egg watch in the first photo, joins in with the cooking with Lynne and Daisy. They appear to be making some sort of batter, maybe for pancakes, I don't know (unfortunately, I don't have any photographs of the finished product).
After lunch, which may have featured a batter-related foodstuff, Gregory and get busy cleaning the car. He is a (very young) man of action.
And then, still on the same day, Gregory is finishing the afternoon having a workout on the Wii Fit.
BUT! We have not finished. With Lynne going out for a meal with Jessica, I decided to get them mass producing our tea. They start with a piece of chicken breast, roll it in the flour, dip it in the egg and finally coat it in breadcrumbs, before placing it on the baking tray. Gregory got a bit bothered by his fingers being covered in floury eggy bread bits, but otherwise the production of breaded chicken went fairly smoothly. They also coated the potato wedges in herby oil ready for roasting.
Here is the food ready for cooking...
...and here is the finished product. Not a bad effort. However, Gregory is very fussy about which kind of potato that he eats. He's happy eating chips, mini hash browns and potato waffles, but will not touch roast potatoes, homemade chips or potato wedges, never mind mashed potato, even though they are the same thing.
On the next day, the first of October, and Gregory is outside, helping me clear up the leaves (those darned leaves!).
For tea, with Lynne out for tea again, we get creative once more, making pizza (OK, we bought the bases, but I made the tomato sauce and, er, chopped/grated the toppings).
Gregory had recently started swimming lessons (which were fun lessons which involved Lynne getting in with them - I went on one occasion). After a while, he achieved Swim Tots Level 2. I don't know what the minimum requirements were.
Sometimes, just sometimes, he is happy to sit and pose nicely for a photo (although his latest trick is to think you are taking a video and thus start saying things and moving around, which is not helpful when taking a photo). This was one of those times.
With Lynne out in the evening (what is going on at the moment?), I try to cheer up the children (well, Daisy) by letting them jazz up a chocolate mousse with sprinkles. Sometimes, the answer to melancholy is just more sugar.
The next day, Nana Sue and Aunty Katie come round. I capture this shot, which shows Gregory busying himself with cars and Katie idling on her phone. Welcome to parenthood!
At first, I was puzzled as to why we were having McDonalds for tea on a Sunday night, but then I realised that, with Lynne having been to a school reunion the night before (and stayed over in Hale), she was no doubt a bit hungover and thus craving some fast food. I evidently decided to join in this time (normally I resist).
We finish this instalment with Gregory dressed and hair slicked first thing in the morning, chuffed to be eating Cocoa Pops. I can only assume that he jumped in the shower with Lynne when he got up. Perhaps there had been some sort of accident.
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