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Dear Baby O,

As I sit here, I find it hard to believe that two years have passed since you were born. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I have never been more nervous, scared, anxious or excited in my entire life. September 26th 2006 changed my life forever. And as we quietly mark your birthday today, I want you to know that you have taught me so many things over the last two years, but I have also experienced a love I never knew was possible. Reading the letter I wrote to you when you were a month old brought back so many memories, so I thought your birthday was a good enough reason to write you another one.

Every morning, at around 6.20 am, I am woken up by my personal alarm clock. You come running into our room on your way to your bath, climb on our bed, crawl over to me, and give me a big hug, saying “Hi Daddy!”. And it melts my heart every single time. For the last few days, I’ve been ill with a flu bug, and I’ve been living for that very moment every morning. Then we all get ready, and your favourite TV show comes on around 6.30am, Teletubbies !! Quite why you like that show, I will have no idea. At 6.55am, the Tweenies come on and sing one song, by that time, I’m usually dressed, and your mum is downstairs having breakfast, so the two of us sing together, sometimes clapping, sometimes dancing. Then we all go off to work, and you to the nursery.

And you love music !! In the car, the only person you want to listen to is Carrie Underwood (I blame your mother for that!). “I want beautiful!” That’s what you say as soon as you realize we’re headed to the car. If I swap the CD for any other person, you realize immediately, and throw a little tantrum, “I WANT BEAUTIFUL!”. Beautiful, Wonderful, Perfect All American girl……..the lyrics of your favourite song in the whole world, Carrie Underwood’s “All American Girl”.

In fact, all your favourite TV shows are music related, Carrie and David’s Popshop, and Space Pirates (or as you call it “Captain DJ”). Thank goodness for BBC IPlayer, and Sky Plus, otherwise, no one else in this house would be able to watch any TV !!

You are also a very intelligent girl, and the last two weeks, you’ve been showing off that you now know all your colours and your shapes. You LOVE reading, you actually prefer books to toys, I really hope that it stays that way. And we are almost having real conversations now, I can’t believe how well developed your speech is. You are the youngest in your nursery class, but your speech is the most developed. Every Friday, your teachers tell me all the new things you have learnt, and I’m always beaming with pride.

Can I admit something to you? I think you’re smarter than me. I’m definately older and wiser, but you my little girl, are very, very smart. I’m not ashamed, not in the slightest. You have tried to outsmart me so many times, it’s scary. Every night, when I put you to bed, you try a new trick every single day, to try and stay awake just a little longer. You’re slowing learning how to manipulate me and your mum. Your tantrums over the last few weeks have been frequent and loud, it’s as if you know I can’t bear to see you cry.

For your birthday present, we’ve got you two of your favourite books from school, (The Very Funny Fish and Ten Dinosaurs) and a little tricycle. When we get home in the evening, we’re going to have a little cake (diary free as you are allergic to milk), and then you can ride your little trike for a bit. We’ll let you stay up for an extra hour or so.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Happy Birthday, my little princess.

With all my love,
Your dad

My little girl has become a chatterbox. Anything you say, she will repeat. For a while now, she has been saying the names of every single child in her class, including their surnames.

Some weeks ago, while looking in the mirror, she pointed to herself and called her name. Her full name. It was the first time that I heard her mention her surname. And she butchered it.

You see, she had learnt her name from her teachers in school. And they obviously couldn’t pronounce our surname properly. When I mentioned this to my wife, she did say that they asked her to teach them how to pronounce it just a few days before. She did her best, but left them still trying and not succeeding.

But what can we do? She spends over 9 hours a day at the nursery, so that is where she has learnt most of her speech, and we have tried to teach her the correct name, but she seems to prefer her pronounciation.

All of a sudden, I feel useless. I’ve seen African kids who can’t pronounce their own names, in fact, I know a few (I might be related to some). And I’ve seen a few who speak with Birtish accents, but when it comes to their own names, they get the pronounciation spot on. I was hoping our little girl would be in the seond category, but it’s looking very unlikely.

So, is it a bad thing? I don’t know. But I guess this is what happens when you decide to raise kids in a foreign country. And I’m sure this is the first of many similar situations I’ll have to face over the next few years.

Blanket from Mothercare – £15.00

Teddy Bear – £9.00

Watching your 21 month old baby tuck her teddy bear in, and put him to sleep: Absolutely priceless, and so freaking cute.

It’s so strange, I’ve not blogged in ages (that is beginning to sound like an echo, seems I’m always saying that now!). Funny thing is, I’ve had so much to say !! Mainly boring politics or techy stuff anyways, will try and type some stuff up and post over the week.

I’ve been trying to install Windows Live Writer on my work laptop, but it’s connecting to the blog for some reason. I’d prefer it if I had that, so I can compose my thoughts offline, and then publish later.

Anyway, talk to ya’ll later.

“Apple” – Any round fruit including apples, oranges, satsumas

“Nana” – Banana, was the first word she learnt to say, not mummy or daddy, nope, “nana” !!

“How are you?” and “Hello” – She says this all the time !!

“Bye Bye” – Can mean bye bye or “go away”, depending on who she wants to walk away, you or her

“Eat” – She’s hungry !

“Nice” – She says this if she’s enjoying her food

“Biit” – A combination of “biscuit” and “eat”. Used to be her favourite food, but that title now belongs to “Apple” see above

“More” – She wants more !! Usually with regards to food.

“Phone” – Your phone’s ringing, pick it up !!

“Again” – She wants you to sing a song again, or she’s saying it to the TV hoping to hear something again.

“Wash your hands” – She picked this up from day care, and now, she’s come up with a song for it !!

“Flower” – Flower, tree, or even drawings of flowers on the curtains

“Water” – Water, juice, anything in liquid form

“Sorry” – She says this to herself !! When she falls over or drops something usually.

“Shoe” – Any shoes beware. Baby O has been known to try on any shoes she finds, size is not a detterent !!

“Sleep” and “Tired” – She wants to go to bed !!

“Bath” – She can see you’re getting her ready for a bath. Prepare for the constant battle of trying to stop her drinking the bath water.

“Beebies” – CeeBeebies is her favourite TV station, and she says this when she wants you to turn on the TV.

She can also make animal noises !! If you say the name of any of the following animals :

Horse (Neigh)
Cow (Moooooooo)
Sheep (Baaaaaa)
Snake (SSSSSSSS)
Dog or Puppy (Woof Woof!)
Cat (Miaow)
Moneky (OOOhh AAAAAAhhh)
Bird (Tweet Tweet)
Duck or Geese (Quack Quack)

Her speech is coming along nicely, and anything you say, she will repeat, be warned !!

Gosh, I haven’t updated this page in AGES. I’ve been so busy with work and family, that I had to put blogging on the back burner. Anyway, here’s a quick update of what has been happening in my life for the last month and a half:

1. We’re HOMEOWNERS !! On the 30th of March, me and Mrs. Boso purchased a 3 bedroom house in a lovely rural setting. We’ll be moving in at the end of April, and I have to say, it’s exciting times !!

2. Baby O is growing up to be a very happy and more importantly HEALTHY baby. After an appointment with a dermatologist on Wednesday, the eczema that has made her life a living hell (and given up several sleepless nights) is FINALLY in remission. For the last six months, my poor daughter has suffered, but hopefully the worst is now behind us. Our GP told us for months that there was nothing a dermatologist would tell us that he wasn’t telling us already, and it was only after she went into anphylatic shock twice over the Christmas period that he referred us to see a specialist, and even then, we went with a private specialist and not on the NHS. Another story, which I hope to tell in greater detail over the coming days.

3. Baby O is becoming a right little chatterbox. Her vocabulary is growing, and over the coming days, I’ll try and post about that as well.

4. My landlord is a devious, scheming, lying, no-good crook. He is trying to hold on to our deposit without giving any concrete reasons. I am doing my best to resolve this amicably, however, if push to comes to shove, he is in breach of recent legislation requiring landlords to pay all deposits into a deposit protection scheme, and as far as I am aware, he has not done so. The penalty would be a fine, he would be required to pay us back 3 times the value of the deposit. If I cannot come to an agreement with him this week, I need to make an application in our local county court. I’m not sure how to do this, or if I need to engage the services of a lawyer, but hope to find out by the end of this week. If anyone reading this knows how I can go about this, please email me ASAP (There is a “Contact Me” link in the top left hand corner of the blog, under navigation). Thanks in advance.

Hope you are all doing well. I may not have been commenting on all your blogs, but believe me, I check them out almost daily.

Busy, busy, and more busy !!!

I’ve changed roles at work so I’m a lot busier now, but I have to say, a lot happier. For almost two years, I’ve been sitting down with little or no work to do, so to finally not have to keep myself busy is a massive bonus.

However, I’ve had to take a few days off, I was ill for a while, then Baby O has been ill a couple of times, she is currently suffering from a bout of tonsilitis.

And football? Well, Liverpool has lost 4th place, plus been in the news for the wrong reasons off the pitch. My one shining hope was that Nigeria would win the African Cup of Nations, but that looks next to impossible with this team of overpaid millionaires, I think living in England, they are now like the English National Team !!

Anyway, the one piece of good news was that I became a British Citizen on Wednesday. I had to attend a Citizenship ceremony, to swear allegiance to Queen Elizabeth, ‘her heirs and successors’, and promise to be a good boy. I have to say, I’m proud to be British, I was speaking to a recruitment agency on Thursday, and when as for my nationality, and I said British, it felt……..STRANGE !!! lol.

Anyway, believe it or not, January is all but gone. 2008 will go almost as fast as 2007. Yikes.

(I’ve had a few requests to shed more light on Baby O’s ‘condition’ will do so soon, just need to get my head around it!)