Is that a smile Alice? Is it? Is it? Part II

It's like winter outside today in London.  The sky is slate grey and the rain is bouncing off the pavement on Upland Road.  Puddles are forming in yesterday's puddles.  It's wellies weather.  It's DVD's you've seen before weather.  It's stay in your PJs weather.  Nevertheless I promised you a Summer Special in two parts, so here we are, back again, to see if Alice can brighten up a drizzly day.  Here's a photo of her hot off the presses this morning to bring a smile to your face:

Smiles on a rainy day

When we last spoke we had just finished celebrating Father's Day.  The following weekend was Charlotte's Hen-Do in Brighton; so Nanny, Gruncher and Harvey came up to London to give a hand in looking after Alice while mummy went off making cocktails.  Nanny came up with a bag full of pressies for Alice, including a Fisher Price Activity Centre which has doors to open, rattles to rattle and plays tunes when you press a bell-shaphed button.  Imagine our surprise when Nanny started playing with it "for the first time" with Alice, and knew all of the tunes it played off-by-heart!  Something tells me that Nanny might just have had a sneaky little practice at home!

Before Ceri set off for the Hen-Do, we all took spin around Dulwich Park.  It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon that gave Gruncher the chance to crack out his 70's Police Issue sunnies.  So, here's Alice, with her mum, Nanny and an extra from The Sweeney:

The Shep/Adams clan

Gruncher was not the only one looking cool that day.  I decided to put Alice in "The Bjorn" to let her see a bit of the park from outside of her pram; but hadn't figured out how to keep the sun from burning her.   As if you needed proof that all sense of style goes out the window when you become a parent, here I am making sure our little angel doesn't burn on one of the warmest days of the year:

When can we start using sun-tan lotion?

For the record, it was on the morning of this sunny Saturday that Alice "officially" smiled for the first time.  I'm trying to keep this blog in chronological order (so that I can embarass our little girl by sharing it with her for the first time on her sixteenth birthday), but I got sooooo excited about the smiles that I posted them last time around.  Ceri will probably whack me around the head with our wooden rolling pin for putting this picture up, but here is Alice on that morning in bed with Ceri and Nanny, learning how to grin for the very first time......

Sorry readers!  Ceri banned me from showing the planned picture due to lack of make-up!!!

The following Wednesday and Thursday, I was at a trade show for work in Olympia - the Insight Show.  It's the top Market Reseach show in the UK.  Very glamourous!  I'm so surprised I didn't see you all there!!!  Anyhoo, for me it was a good chance to catch up with clients and boast to them about our gorgeous little daughter (oh! and to do some serious business deals of course).  Ceri made sure that I was well and truly stocked-up with boasting photos on my phone by texting me with "Alice Updates" throughout the day.  Why am I telling you all this?  Well, I showed a picture to a colleague of mine from Greece, Stavrula, who made all of the appropriate noises and said what a beautiful little girl Alice was.  She stopped at one particular photo and said "Matt, you're wife is very beautiful as well."  The picture in question?  Alice being held by Nanny Lyn!  Good work Nanny! I hope Alice inherits the Adams/Jarvis wrinkle-free skin!

Next weekend, Ceri, Alice and I had a quiet one - saving our energy for the following weekend when we were planning to go to Winchester for a big family get-together with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Sal, and "the lads".  Saturday morning saw us down at The Gardens cafe opposite Peckham Rye - with Alice on top, photo-friendly form.

Alice and Daddy in The Gardens Cafe

Alice and Mummy waiting for their breakfast

After breakfast we stopped in at Just William's toy shop on Lordship Lane.  Impossible not to buy something.  I really liked a couple of sweatbands with bright, smiley rattley insects stitched to them that are supposed to teach babies to wave their hands - so I snuck them into the shopping bag.  Reading back that last sentence, I'd better make it clear that I did pay actually pay for the sweatbands before putting them in the bag - the pressures of fatherhood have not yet driven me to a life of crime.  After the toyshop, we wandered up to the Heber School fair to gauge it against Westbourne and others in the area. Whilst there, I fastened the sweatbands to Alice while Ceri was not looking.  Ceri's response:  "Matt, take those things off her hands - she looks like she has special needs!!!".  Hmmm....a big hit then!  Seems out little girl was just as impressed as her mum:

special needs?



After checking out another school fair (St Anthony's RC) where Ceri won a bottle of JD in the raffle (yay!! - this school gets my vote!!) we ended up in Dulwich Park.  Jealous of the hot-dogs we had been scoffing, Alice overdid things a bit eating her own tucker.  What a greedy-guts she can be sometimes!  Here are the results of her excessive snacking:

The results of "Binge-Drinking" on milk!  Alice later bought a kebab and fell asleep in a bush with her clothes on!

Poor Alice.  The next day we took her back to the scene of the crime to redeem herself, and she was much better behaved.  What a little cutey!.......

Sunday in the Park

During the week, Ceri met up with some of the NCT girls at a cafe called "All Fired Up" where you can paint cups, plates etc and have them fired (hence the name!) so that they look like Royal Doulton.  Well, that's the idea.  The plan was to get Alice's footprints done on a little plate as a souvenir of what a cute little lass she is.  Seems that the lady in the shop took one look at Alice's feet, one look at the "baby-foorprint" plates on offer, and said "Oh, dear! I'm not sure if her feet will fit on this plate - we normally only do footprints for newborns........." and went off to get a massive serving platter for Ceri to use instead.   Very tactful!  Ladies and gents, we have created a monster!  

In the same week, Ceri's friend Justine came over from France laden with French baby-clothes (Alice owns every outfit available for 0-3 month old girls in the UK) and spent the day with the Sheps, Kara and Evie in The Plough.   As you well know, no Growing Upland blog instalment is complete without Alice hanging out in The Plough - so here are the girls boozing in our local:

Hugs with Justine in The Plough

Ok, last time we spoke I promised you an update on Alice meeting her cousins and Aunt Sally.  So, without further ado, let's get the obvious joke out of the way (and by doing forfeit any forthcoming Christmas and birthday presents from my sis!!!):

Aunt Sally - boom, boom!!

Phew! I think we're all glad that's out of the way, never to be revisted. 

We travelled down to Winchester on Friday evening - having to stop off at the car park of the Cart and Horses pub up the road from my folks to try and stop Alice crying - well you have to make a good impression, don't you?? I had no idea what my little nephews, Ej and Roo, would make of Alice.  They are a lovely, lively pair of lads, but are interested (as young boys should be) in water fights, climbing lamp-posts and shooting aliens on the Nintendo DS, so Ceri and I were a bit concerned that they might find a newborn baby a tiny bit, well, how to put it....dull???  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Turns out that the lads loved Alice - and she loved them.  In fact, the boys seemed to be as good at looking after little Alice as I am- and spent most of the weekend cuddling her and reading to her!  What will they make of her when she is a six foot blonde?  to be continued.....

Sal, Grandma and Grandad were just as excited to see Alice.  Sal had brought some lovely presents including a cuddly giraffe, a fluffy blanket the size of a small country, and loads of gorgeous outfits - one of which I think will make its way on the Christmas Special blog (thanks the Cochranes!).

OK, ok I know you are all clamouring for some cute pics.  Beware.  The next selection of photos come with a government health warning for being so sweet that they could make your teeth fall out.  Dear readers, you have been warned.  Let's start with the gang in bed on Saturday morning:

Goooood morning!

Playtime at 7am!

Wakey Wakey Aunt Sal!!

The whole Shepherd family spent the morning playing with little Alice.  The lads had hundreds of books out to read to her that they had brought down from their extensive library in Haddington, and every toy that we could find was pressed into action.  Eliott and Ruaidhri were all over her until there was the slightest sign of a burp or a "pump" and would then run a mile, giggling and shouting "yuk!!!".  Here are a few of my favourite pics:

Proud Grandma with her Grandchildren

Three generations of Sheps!

Inquisitive Stares at Aunt Sal

Ceri and Alice meet Justin Bieber

After a morning of hugs, the lads decided to role out their candidate for the "Best Friends" competition.  Bring on the rocking horse that they had when they were younger.  Ej and Roo's furry candidate was rolled into the living room and Alice was encouraged to "saddle up".  What did she make of it?....well, you can see the results below:

Yeeee-haaaa! Alice rides the bucking bronco!

Looks like she was loving it right?  Wrong!  We had to dismount Alice from her trusty steed within a few seconds of this pic as she started to bawl her eyes out.  So not a contender right now, but one for the future I would reckon.  Watch this space......

Saturday afternoon brought a trip to the farm.  How exciting!  My little girl's first trip to the farm!!! The farm in question is Manor House Farm in Hampshire - a small, friendly place where the staff dress up as Victorians and show you how a farm would have operated a hundred years ago.  Kids are encouraged to feed the animals, milk the cows, collect eggs from the chickens.  You get the idea.  Normally Ej and Roo turn into would-be farmers when they get there - mucking in wherever they can.  Same again this time?  Nope.  When I told the lads that the cows were being milked and that they would then get the chance to feed the milk to the new-born calfs they shrugged their shoulders in complete disinterest and asked if they could take it in turns to push Alice around in her pram instead.  If I had told the boys a year before that they would choose pushing a pram around over feeding a cow they would have soaked me to within an inch of my life with their water guns!  Ceri said to dad that he could have saved himself £30 by dumping the boys in an empty field with Alice in a pushchair.  Here are the pics of our day at the farm:



Down on the Farm

Outside the Victorian Farmhouse

Ohh-Arrr!  Mum, Dad and Alice on the farm

Three generations of Shep Part II

And to prove we were on a farm - here is Alice reclaiming her Shepherd roots....

Folks, this post is turning into something of a marathon.  I can't believe I'm resorting to this, but we are going to have to make this into a three parter!!!  So, tune in next time and I will wrap up with the Aunt Sal and the lads and also, eventually, get to Alice meeting the great grandparents.  So much to pack in!

No five plus one this time, as I want to get this post up and out there, however if you will forgive me this misdemeanour, I might well treat you to a live video of Alice next time around.  You can't say fairer than that now, can you?

Love to all

Matt x

Is that a smile Alice? Is it? Is it? Is it?

Oh dear. 

I am so sorry that it has been so long since my last post.  Naughty, naughty, Matt.  I'd like to say that nothing has happened in Chez Shep since I palmed you off with my poem about sleeping, but I guess we both know that that is absolutely not true.  So here I am making amends with a bumper edition; a Summer Special, so to speak, to bring you up-to-date with everything that has been happening in the last three weeks (or so.....gimme a break if I stretch the timings....I'm a busy dad these days you know!!!).  So, strap yourself in for the long haul as we make our way through, among other things:  Ceri's 30th, Matt's First Father's Day, First Car Journey, First Smile, First Visit to the Farm, Meeting Aunt Sal and her Cousins Ej and Roo for the first time and Meeting her Great Grandparents!  Phew, if that isn't enough for you, then I wave the white flag in surrender, for I fear I can do no more.  Feel free to keep your receipt, but I reckon this is a satisfaction guaranteed instalment....and no phone hacking.  I promise.

You may have noticed that I slipped in to my "contents" sentence above the fact that Alice is smiling.  I brushed it off like a crumb on my laptop after eating lunch at my desk, didn't I?  How casual of me.  Well, I reckon that smiling is a biggie.  Kind of the baby equivalent of one of the "Big 5" when you go on safari.  So, I think we should start with her first smile - and then, most likely, bore you to within an inch of your life with subsequent smiles.  You have been warned, dear readers!  You have been warned!

It seems that first smiles are one of those events, rather like Ceri finding out that she was pregnant, that you know are supposed to be life-changing but, at the split second that it happens, you are not sure if you are truly at a life changing moment or not.  If only one could be certain at these key times in our existence that you are actually experiencing what you think you are experiencing.  An alarm should go off.  Or someone should blow a hooter and release some balloons and glitter.  Or, well, something.  Just something to help you know that you have it right and that BANG - your life has changed.

I remember the night we found out Ceri was pregnant.  She came into the kitchen waving goodbye to our estate agent with one hand and waving a pregnancy test in her other hand, saying; "what do you think this result means?".  We both THOUGHT it was positive, but until she had peed on another few sticks (seven), we couldn't quite be sure - how can you?  Well, it's the same with first smiles.  The tricky thing is that there are smiles; proper ones, those things people do when they are happy, and then there are the faces that a newborn makes when it is trying to burp, fart or take a dump.  And, by a cruel trick of nature, these faces are - THE SAME!  Great.  So, when you think you are seeing a smile, you might simply be seeing your beloved daughter squeezing a warm one out. 

Now, the jury is well and truly out on this one, but I think that the photo below, taken on the Saturday five weeks after she was born (Sat 25th June)  is Alice's first smile.  Comments box please for your verdicts dear readers:

First smile?

Ok ok, I can tell that you are not impressed.  Well, I'm putting it down as her first smile, because if it was, then it means that I saw her smile first!  C'mon!  1-0 to Daddy! I can tell that there is the doubting Thomas brigade out there, though, who are saying that what we are looking at above is no more than a burp sneaking it's way out - and that I'm pushing it a bit here.  Well, I'd be inclined to be with you on that, and wasn't too sure it was a smile myself, until we saw this the next day:

Alice Smiling??!!

Oh-ho, happy punters now I see - I told you it was worth coming back on the Blog!  She's so cute you could cover her in gravy, serve her with carrots and eat her for Sunday lunch!!! And here, ladies and gentlement of the jury, I present my final piece of evidence, again from the morning of Sunday 26th June, that our lovely little girl has cracked it and can smile.  (gosh, I am soooooo proud!!!):

More grins from our little girl!!

I am sure that there are going to be plenty of moments along the way with Alice that will make her Daddy go weak at the knees, but when she grins I melt like a soggy Cornetto left out to bake in the Sahara sun.  She is just adorable.  One, two, three......ahhhhhhhh!!!!

Ok, before we move on to the chronological bit of the blog, a couple of bits of houskeeping. 

Firstly, Ceri and I would like to say huge "thanks" to everyone for all of the gifts that Alice has received.  You have all been so generous and, as a result, she is surely the best dressed child in Dulwich.  Quite an achievement.  Since I started the "Best Mates" competition to find Alice's favourite toy, I have also noticed a trend amongst the more competitive among you offering gifts of cuddly toys on the proviso that I put them up against Sophie the Giraffe and the Singing Seahorse.  It's rather like a cuter, fluffier version of Robot Wars.  I promise that the heats are still very much underway and I will update you with fixtures and scores on a future blog.  I am not going to divulge any results at this stage, but have to say I am fairly confident in my Psychedelic Snail.  He's going to be a contender!

Secondly, I wanted to update you, as every good father should, on Alice's health and growth.  The great news is she is very healthy and is BCG'ed up (so, no whacking the BCG scab off her arm as was compulsory in school when I was a kid - more evidence of the nanny state!). 

"Height and weight!",  "height and weight!",  I hear you ask.  Ok, if I must....

Seems our little girl ain't so little.  At her six week weigh-in she came in weighing slightly less than Lennox Lewis at 12lbs 2ozs and 61cm - which makes her chubbier than 91 kids out of one hundred and taller than 99 kids out of one hundred.  Ceri's "Gold Top" milk really seems to be working - we have created a monster.   She is guaranteed a place in the back row of all school photos from now on.  Alice is now in clothes for kids aged 3-6 months - at 7 weeks of age.  I blame it on that Guinness in the pub in her first week.  Ceri and I are loving the folds of skin that are now appearing underneath the folds of skin that have already appeared on her arms.  We have to check under the folds of her double-chins to check that no milk has got stuck there causing cheese to grow.  Honestly, this can happen!!! I have started calling her Spud after the little green spook that haunts the hotel in Ghostbusters!

Spud Shepherd chilling out after "second breakfast"

And lastly, general development.  I am sure the whole family is biased here, but our little girl seems like a bright little button.  She is chatting away to us when you speak to her in spitty gurgles and reads the pages of a book with you when she has her bedtime story (ok, she looks at the pictures in the Hungry Caterpillar - some exaggeration is allowed, surely??).  Not only that but she has started trying to crawl.  Here she is with cousin Roo at my folks this weekend trying to make her way to a biscuit that she has sniffed out on the other side of the room....

Sniffer Dog Shepherd on the Hunt for Food

Ceri told me today that she is going to start her on her Jolly-Phonics sounds next week.  If this little girl is not an Olympic athlete and a Nobel Prize Winner I will be amazed!

Before we move on, just an observation on parenthood.  I said I'd make a note of these as they crop up, and this is a prime example.  I now find, when I am speaking to Alice, that my voice is an octave higher than it used to be.  It starts off low; "hello Alice", is mid-pitched by the second "heeeelllooo Alice" and is positively eunuch-like on the third "heeeeeelllllooooooo Alllicccceee".  I sound like Aled Jones in The Snowman!  Linked to this is the compulsion to repeat everything that I say to Alice at least three times.   "Daddy repeats things Alice, doesn't he...Daddy repeats things, doesn't he....yeeeees.....yes he does.....Daddy repeats things doesn't he".  I'm convinced this, combined with cumulative lack of sleep, can't be great for my sanity - but, hey, Alice seems to like it.  So on we go....

Phew.  Tell you what, why don't you go and make a cup of tea and come back in a minute once you have got your energy up.

Ready?  Good.  OK, onwards and upwards.  Here's what we have been up to:

A month ago at the time of writing was Ceri's 30th birthday.  Friends and family congregated at 1pm at The Plough on Lordship Lane for what was a very different 30th to the one that Ceri and I started planning 12 months ago.  Out with the band and late night DJ.  In with the child friendly location and limiting drinks to no more than 3 pints over 5 hours.  Good job Alice is worth it!  I know that this is a blog about the little 'un, but here's Ceri looking gorgeous cutting the cake on her 30th in a dress that really shouldn't fit someone who gave birth less than a month before:

The ever lovely Mrs S

Alice was also looking resplendent at the occasion; dressed in Linda Adams from her "Nanny by the Sea" range.  A cotton frock in blues and greens, evocative of the sea, is paired with a shabby-chic faux crochet off-white cardigan and knee length pixie socks to complete the nouveau Victoriana look so prevalent this season.  Despite all this, she still cries her eyes out when daddy picks her up!!

Designer frocks for our little Alice

Alice cries wearing Linda Adams

Maybe I broke my promise of having no more than 3 beers? Maybe you guys were deliberately avoiding blog pics? or we simply were having too much fun to take many photos at The Plough?  Either way I am a little short of photos to show you.  Here are a few to prove that we were there though.  Happy birthday Mrs S....here's to a year of love and laughs with our little girl....

The Westbourne Girls with their new star pupil

The Dulwich Dads show off their nippers

Going Home Time at Ceri's 30th (8pm!!!!)



It's around about this time that we realised just how difficult it is to get a newborn baby (and a nosey one at that) off to sleep.  It seems you need all sorts of tricks up your sleeve to get them to settle down, and the rules of the game are that what works one night is absolutely not allowed to work the next.  For a while we blowing the mercury out of the top of the Smug-O-Meter by getting Alice to go to sleep by taking her for a walk in the Baby Bjorn.  Here I am looking unbearable pleased with myself as our little angel falls asleep beside a renowned Barbara Hepworth Sculpture in Dulwich Park....

Pride comes before a fall Matt!!

Sadly, our Swedish-Secret-Sleep-Weapon was only destined to work for two nights on the bounce.  After that, Alice had wised up to it and was challenging us to find different ways to get her to crash out.  We are still using the ol' Bjorn on occasion (you can do the washing up wearing it by using Alice's feet as dishcloths dunked in the washing-up bowl), but it is fraught with danger.  Having a baby so close to your ears when she is screaming her lungs out for 30 mins coz she is hungry/sleepy/bored/hot/cold would surely wipe the smile off even the smuggest Swedish face.

The other thing we had heard that helps a baby to nod off is a car journey.  Given that Alice was growing out of outfits by the evening that she had been comfortably wearing in the morning, Ceri and I had to make an emergency dash to Mothercare the weekend after the 30th celebrations to get our little Bumper (thanks Garry!) some new babygrows.  So, a chance for Alice to have a nap, another chance for Matt to misread the instructions for baby equipment when fitting the car seat (it was fine when we left - I promise), and also a chance for some cracking pictures (babies, for some reason, always look cutest in car seats as my nephew EJ demonstrated when he was a bairn):

Yes! not long 'til I can buy the Volvo estate now!

cute in car seat part I

part II

Part III (not sure why the David Dickinson Bronze glow here)



The car seat worked like a dream, and wee Alice nodded off for most of the journey on the way to the Old Kent Road.  It was a different story when we got to Mothercare.  When we pulled up in the car park we saw a shopping trolley with a perfect little seat for Alice perched on the top.  An ideal opportunity for us to cruise around the store picking up a few bits and bobs while our lovely lass continued her doze.  HA!  yeah right!  The best laid plans and all that.....

Proud dad and happy daughter ready to go shopping

Alice hating her shopping trip (and ruining that guy's mobile phone call)

Daddy resorts to "The Bjorn" and the promise of a shiny new bike to calm Alice down

The day after the Mothercare trip was Father's Day.  My first Father's day.  How exciting.  I bought Ceri a Mother's Day card that Alice somehow managed to sign from the womb (don't ask how), but this was something else.  I woke up to cards and a pile of Alice relate gift memorabelia.  I am now the proud owner of a personalised Alice-themed Father's day card, an Alice photo-album, an Alice mouse mat and an Alice mug. The Alice matching tie, socks and boxer shorts kit must either be lost in the post or being saved for Christmas.  I have taken the mug and the mousemat to work....only to find that nothing is sacred and one of the chaps from the office was drinking from the Happy Father's Day Daddy Alice mug the very next day.  I can only assume his daughter looks very similiar and has the same name!  Anyhoo, here are the Father's day morning pics:

Revenge! Alice gets woken up by daddy on Father's Day!

5 pictures of Alice and 5 pictures of me!

The Limited Edition Alice Mouse Mat

On Father's day afternoon, my girls took me for lunch at...you guessed it, The Plough.  I think that Alice, at the time of writing, has now been in a pub for all bar one of the weekends of her life.  Alice very kindly treated me to a lovely Sunday roast, a couple of large glasses of Pinot Noir and an Eton Mess for pud.  What a girl!  I told you she was clever!  Here she is with her lovely mum in the Plough.  I promise that this is Alice in this picture and not a waxwork of our daughter.....

my gorgeous girls on Father's Day

Thanks Ceri and Alice for a lovely day.  One I will never, ever forget!!!

Do you know what, folks, it's coming up for 11pm now and I have been writing for a good couple of hours.  Ceri is sitting next to me "pumping" (not as exciting as it sounds), and I have a cup of Ovaltine going cold by the side of the sofa (every bit as exciting as it sounds).  The glamour of parenthood eh? So, here's the deal....I'm going to make this Summer Special into a two parter.  We've done Ceri's 30th, Father's Day, First Car Journey and First Smile, so let's leave the farm, my sister, "the lads" and the great grandparents until later in the week.  I promise to get this done by the weekend if you promise to check in.....deal?  Oh, you are good.

Seeing as I'm a man of my word, I promised to give you a five plus one every time we met.  Well, given that you've stuck with me for something of a marathon this time, I think you have well and truly earned it.  And the benefit of me updating the blog less often?  I have some truly cute pictures rather than scraping the barrel for somewhat cute ones taken five minutes before posting.

So, here we go with the five plus one and speak later in the week.

Matt xx

Splat! Looks like she just fell from the sky - but also our little girl is starting to look like a proper baby!

Dinner Time Again!

Concerned in her car seat

Thousand Yard Stare - step 1 of 320 to a good night's sleep

Keep those grins coming gorgeous!

Cool dude

Our little family this weekend

What do you mean that's more than five.  OK, maybe I got a little carried away.  I guess that means you don't want a plus one then?  Well, if you don't...look away now.....

Ooohh! My favourite Alice face.  She doesn't do this much anymore....they grow up so quickly!

And as a little sign-off note, I just want to say that this week in particular,  it feels that Ceri and I are really getting into the swing of being parents - and every day just gets better and better.  C said to me last night that it was hard to explain, but somehow you love Alice more and more every day.  I know exactly what she means.  I feel just the same way.  She really is the most lovely little thing I have ever set eyes on and I am so very, very proud that one day she will call me "daddy".  She is precious.  Love you Alice x

This post is dedicated to Liam and Sadia who have all of this to come.  Very soon. 

Hang in there guys...almost there!  See you on the other side - love the Sheps xx