Too much of a good thing!

Today marked a milestone in Lily's life...her first taste of chocolate. Last night, Mark and I had some of his Valentine's chocolate bar and rather stupidly forgot to put it away. Needless to say, Tom found it on the table this morning and helped himself. Having had his fill, he must have abandoned it on the floor. Guess who found it! We came into the room to find Lily literally coated in chocolate, with two little chocolatey hand prints on our cream carpet! She appeared to be having a fabulous time and broke her heart when Daddy took her chocolate away! She soon cheered up again, presumably at the horrified looks on our faces! No Cadbury's chocolate buttons for Lily's first taste of chocolate. Only the finest handmade Belgian dark chocolate for her. Typical girl!

Prior to her chocolate adventure she was looking rather pretty in the new cardigan made for her by her Great Auntie Mary. Sadly, I didn't get any pre-chocolate shots, but she does look lovely in it.

Let them eat cake

This morning the Podlings and I made some Dora cakes from a packet mix I had bought for Tom's birthday party and hadn't used (yes, that was four months ago!). It's the first time I had tried doing anything like this with Tom since Her Ladyship decided to drop her morning nap. We used to wait until she was asleep! The plan was to put Lily on her play mat with some toys while Tom and I got on with the business of baking, but Lily had other ideas. I decided to sit on the floor, so Tom could see what was going on. Tom put all the bun cases on the baking tray and helped to put the mix in the bowl. By this time, Lily was on her way over! By the time Tom was helping me to stir the mixture, Lily was checking out the bun cases. You might notice from the picture there are only eleven cakes instead of twelve. That's because Lily liberated one of the bun cases and I didn't notice until I found it on the floor after I put the others in the oven! Tom tipped the sugar stars into the cake mix, and then proceeded to pick them out again and eat them! Luckily I had forseen this situation and had saved some stars for him to eat. I spooned the mixture into the cases, and Lily came and helped. You might notice the bun in the bottom left corner of the picture is a funny shape! While the cakes were baking, we went and read their new story books ("The three little pigs" and "The magic porridge pot") and Tom had his morning juice and biscuit.

Tom helped me to make the icing, but I thought it best if ! decorated them or there wouldn't be anything left to decorate them with. Just to prove that Tom is capable of eating, here is a picture of him enjoying the fruits of his labours. That's actual food in his mouth!

Welcome

When I was born, a mere 29 years and 10 months ago, my dad is reported to have said, "She's as small as a pea in a pod". Since I wasn't named immediately, "Pea Pod" stuck as my nickname and over the years this was shortened to Pod. When we started our family, Mark thought up the name "Podlings" as a collective noun for our children and that, too, seems to have stuck. I thought this blog would be a chance for me to share my thoughts and the day to day happenings of our home (or German Heim) with family, friends, and anyone bored enough to read it. Thus Podheim, the home of Pod. I hope you enjoy your stay!