A Photo Bonanza

As the weather has turned nicer and nicer - about 10 degrees Celcius warmer than usual (no, why would we worry about climate change?) - the Amswych family has been going on more walks. This, and the rather strict diet for Pesach, does seem to be reducing Neil's tum a little, which is always a good thing. So this blog is mainly a collection of photos of our walks. Neil was actually present, just behind the camera, so imagine him looking svelt and continually snapping away.

We've returned to the River Stour for the last few weeks, catching some lovely snaps of Zafra in the process.

Zafra spies some food.

Armed with a spoon, Zafra's ready for whatever lunch we've brought.

Not content with Zafra being the only one being photographed, Parker poses for a snap.

As Jenny unpacks the food, Parker remains transfixed.

By the way, it is worth sharing a lovely thing since the last time we posted. Zafra has taken to sharing her food. She not only nibbles away but offers it to others as well. She knows Parker loves to take her food so instead of her just feeding him constantly we've had to have Parker sit at a small distance every time she eats. Earlier today, though, she offered a floret of broccoli to Neil and was only really happy when he pretended to nibble on it. We're hoping this means we have a very sweet, generous little girl.

Zafra spells out her name, just before solving Fermat's Last Theorem.

Now where shall I put the R?

Zafra solves the eternal question - is it better to spell with blocks or to bash them together?

Zafra and Mummy on their way home.

There now follows a brief intermission while Jenny takes some photos of Zafra at home...

Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him...

Little ball, I see into your soul. It is round.

Why is it that you keep rolling away from me?

This week we've been celebrating Pesach so it's all been very hectic here in our Rabbinic household. Just as a little bit of text before we go back on another walk, it's worth knowing that we bought a second-hand underwater camera so that we could take photos of Zafra as she goes underwater in her swimming class. Unfortunately, it didn't work - the underwater seal wasn't intact - so Neil's going to have to take that camera back. Anyway, back to the walks... In this walk, Zafra's strapped to Neil's chest as he takes the photos...

Moments after photographing this, two deer bounded behind us so quickly that Neil couldn't take a photo of them, so we shot them instead and mounted them on the dining room wall as trophies.

Wait! There's Neil! Zafra's chewing on the lens cap, by the way.

At the end of this walk, we stopped off in a lovely local cafe. We're hoping that all the photos of Zafra eating aren't going to give her some kind of complex in later life, but since most of her interaction is either with her mouth by chewing or with her fists by bashing, you'll understand why there are so many food snaps...

Zafra happy with a nice selection of fruit and veg.

We haven't watched much TV the last couple of weeks, although from the following snap we reckon that Zafra may have watched Austin Powers...

"....one MILLION dollars....!!!!"

Neil unexpectedly found himself with a morning off so we went for a walk near Hengistbury Head with some friends from the Attachment Parenting group and their kids...

Jenny, Lucy and Angie just before a troll came out of the woods and urged them to get off his land.

Now, Zafra is, of course, cute. But some of the next photos rank among the cutest photos ever taken in the history of the universe and you may have to prepare your eyes for the shock of something so cute... you have been warned...

Our cute little girl having lunch on Hengistbury Head.

Um yum yum.

A big smile for Mummy.

So, as we've said, there have been quite a few walks in the last couple of weeks and when some friends came to visit we urged them to avoid Bournemouth beach with its thousands of noisy and sweaty tourists and instead went for a walk back down to the River Stour to enjoy the sun in amongst the quiet beauty of nature. And so here are some more shots from probably Neil's favourite local photography location so far...

It may well be Parker's lead but why should that mean Zafra can't try to stuff it in her mouth?

"No," says Parker, "You moooooove."

Not only was lunch lovely, but the bowl's pretty tasty, too!

It's so CHEWY!!!!

It's solid, so I'll chew it, right?

Of course, being during Pesach, this picnic had to be slightly different to others...

Zafra goes for the Rakusens.

Matzah tastes like cardboard. Cardboard tastes like cardboard. So why not eat the cardboard matzah box?

Mummy, now I've got them out of the box, please can you open them?

A cow in the river keeping the milk cool.

An exhausted Parker.

So, no vids this time but an awful lot of photos. Copies can be obtained from www.neilneedssomecashsohe'sfloggingphotosattwentybuckseach.com

Our Family Grows By a Few Hundred

Well.... maybe.... You see, two years ago Neil put in a pond in the front garden as a way of attracting wildlife. For the first two Springs we did exactly what all the nature organisations ask you not to do which is to import frog spawn from another pond. They tell you that you should wait and that frogs will find your pond eventually. But Neil is impatient. Anyway, this year we had spawn laid in our pond and then just this week the spawn has turned into hundreds of wriggling tadpoles...

So this week we've been taking advantage of more nice weather by taking some nice walks in the local area....

Neil and Zafra in the Arboretum. This is where people consume trees.

If you haven't visited Bournemouth, this is what you're missing. This photo was slightly edited to remove the power station, the skyscraper and, of course, the 10-lane motorway.

Zafra has definitely decided on a style of crawling which we have come to realise is like a baby turtle on a beach. Watch in the video not only how she moves like a turtle but how she even leaves little marks on the carpet exactly as a turtle does on the sand...

Zafra has also got much more confident in sitting up. There have been two occasions where she thought it might be a good idea to propel herself backwards at great speed so that her head bangs on the floor but in general she has shied away from this peculiar behaviour.

This week was Mothers' Day in the UK. Zafra gave Mummy a book called "I Love My Mummy" which she herself had signed. Perhaps more strictly, Neil had signed using Zafra's hand while trying desparately to stop Zafra from sucking on the top of the pen. It's the same thing, really...

Jenny and Zafra on Mothers' Day

Because Neil has to work on Sundays it wasn't entirely possible to do the usual Mothers' Day thing. So we kept it the Jewish way - Erev Mothers' Day being Sunday evening, extending all the way to Monday evening. So Monday morning we went to Jenny's favourite local eatery, Boscanova, for a slap up meal...

Zafra prepares for a full English breakfast, baby style - a mushroom, some egg and, of course, a pint of warm beer.

Where's Zafra?.....

....Where's Zafra?....

... There's Zafra! Hooray!!!

Hooray for Mothers!

We trawled through the local charity shops before coming home, having lunch and then going out for a swim. Zafra does an underwater swimming class which is great although they're trying to encourage us to pay £90 ($180) for a photo of her swimming underwater. So we're probably going to buy an underwater camera and take loads of underwater photos ourselves, even if they won't be of the same quality. So after swimming Jenny and Zafra had a bath while Neil prepared the photos for this blog post, then we went out to dinner. But it was all a bit much for some of the family....

zzzzz

We thought we'd leave you with a short vid of a certain little girl being tickled!