The third child

It's been too long since our last post. We are desperately trying to chronicle Josephine and Gabriel's lives but there simply isn't enough time to document all the weird and wonderful things that life with three small children involves. Here's some of what's been happening since we went camping...
Gabriel:
Was 3 months old on May 26th. He is talking through gurgles. He is super sweet and tracks very well whomever he is addressing. He smiles frequently at all of us, slightly less often at Josephine but then she is so frighteningly noisy. She causes Gabriel to startle quite a bit but he rarely cries because of it. His hair is still auburn. He's a fair size and rarely sleeps during the day at all. He's had a few spells of sleeping 7 hours straight at night but not usually on my nights to sleep with him. He's strong, holding his head well and trying to stand up on his legs. His baptism is coming up on Sat, July 23rd at 2 if any of you can make it.
Josephine:
19 months on 17th of May.We fear for Alf as Jose is becoming such a character. We've dubbed her 'The Force' at home because she is certainly something to be reckoned with. Josephine is home full-time and is really very little trouble when she is home with just her little brother. She is content to potter about the house. She plays with all of Alf's toys. She particularly loves his Playmobile police stuff but we've had to store that in Alf's room because she was getting so frustrated when she couldn't put on hats, place officers in cars or in police helicopters. She loves to dance and listen to music. She runs well for someone her age and has quite a few words. Today she started using apple but it wasn't exclusively for apples but covered lemons, grapes, any fruit she didn't know the name of. A shortlist of her other words includes: thank you, please, Josephine, Gabe, Dada, Mama, shoes, socks, bath, dance, drink, toast, snack, nana (banana), Grandma, excuse me, animal noises, yay!,teeth, car, nose, toes, feet, Jess, baba (dummy), more. She eats all day long and is quite temperamental. She has an incredible smile and is very loving towards us all. She is very observant, yesterday whilst watching part of So You Think You Can Dance with me, she pulled up her top and started copying the moves of the female dancers kitted out in shirts exposing their tummies. She also loves to sing the theme tune to Raa Raa the Noisy Lion on CBeebies.
Alfie
4 1/2 and so grown-up! He loves nursery but is definitely ready for big school. He got in to the school across the road, our first choice and a Catholic primary. He is still taking swimming lessons and is really improving with his new teacher, even willing to get into the big pool. Still not keen to put his head under but that'll come. He also has an amazing vocabulary and can relate all kinds of facts about various animals. His fave show at the moment is Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney. Alf questions absolutely everything at the minute and it is challenging but he's also pretty amazing as a helper to me and big brother to Josephine and Gabriel. He occassionally tells me he wants to be an American and asks what he should say to talk American. The other day he announced he was going to start saying soccer instead of football. I didn't want to tell him that that will probably get him beaten up at school in a few years time. He is very good at Spanish and looks forward to it each week. He has reached the silly stage and loves to talk goobledy gook and tell jokes which aren't in the least bit funny, especially when told 45 times in a row.
Bert is working hard but has also gone on a holiday with work to a villa in Portugal.
We had a fantastic time in North Wales over the half term. The weather was tolerable and we made it to Chester Zoo one day. Alf spent a lot of time asking Bert and I when we were going to live in a house with a big garden and a summer house. Neither of us really knew what to say to that one. Alf and Josephine both made it into the stream and Alf tried out the new rope swing Grandpa put up. We also had a very chilly BBQ for lunch on the last day. We have plans to camp with a few other families in a few weeks time.