We had quite an exciting weekend because Faryal, Falk and baby Merle came to visit us on Saturday. We met them at the play park in Avenches and cycled home together. Merle is really little and very sweet with a lovely smile. I tried to brush her hair but she didn't have much and found the spikey brush a bit painful. She ran away, forcing me to run after her in order to continue vital grooming activities. She is 15 months old and I am 18 months old.

I managed to force feed her a lot of water from my special sports bottle. She obviously did not have as much experience as me of drinking from such a bottle and found it a unique experience.

Trouble brewed when she was offered my toys. I wasn't too sure about her riding my little cars - I had to show her how much faster I am on them and how good I am at overcoming hurdles and doing emergency stops. It's important to put other babies in their place when one is master of the house. I was happy to share the slide, but we did have a fight over the swing in the back garden and tears were shed.

On Sunday morning I was in manic mode and had to keep throwing myself on the floor and protesting if things didn't quite go my way. Merle seemed pretty impressed but did not adopt the same tactics, surprisingly enough.

We had a nice breakfast and set off on our bikes for Murten, but poor Merle's mum, Faryal, had an accident and fell off. She hurt her chin and we had to take her to the hospital, where they stitched her up. Meanwhile, I ran up the stairs from ER to the first floor and had a great time catching the lift back down again.

I haven't been sleeping very well this week. On Monday night I woke up once an hour and got lost of cuddles. But on Tuesday night mummy and daddy decided not to give me cuddles in the night any more so I just cried until I fell asleep again. That was pretty tough. It's not that easy being a baby.

I can now say "cup" but when I say "hot" it sounds like "dob". Similarly "rabbit" sounds like "dobbit".

I enjoy hiding from mummy and daddy, then jumping out and saying "boo". They pretend to be surprised. I like to wrap myself up in the curtains and hide. Mummy and daddy say "where's George", and then I unwrap myself again and step forward to a round of enthusiastic applause. This can go on for some time.

Well I am now officially 18 months old! Soon I will be able to reach the pedals on my trike! Dad's been working from home the last couple of weeks which is great 'cos I get double cuddles from both mum and dad every day.

I have been helping dad remove weeds from the garden. He pulls out particular types and I pull out everything else that is growing nearby. He shakes his head and laughs so I know I am doing well. Mummy and I play this game where she watches a favorite programme on TV and I turn it off. She says 'No George' and turns it back on again, and then I turn it off immediately and so on - this can lasts for hours and is great fun.

It's been raining quite a bit here in Dompierre which has meant our trips to the beach and swimming pool have stopped for a while. We watched our neighbour Gaby play the guitar and sing last week at a local event in the next village, he is very good and I danced and ran around wildly, shrieking very loudly.

Auntie Lori rang us from Swaziland to make sure that we hadn't been in London and involved in the terrible bombings that happened there last week. She is very thoughtful. I hope that all these bad things around the world stop soon. I must go as I have many things to play with before bedtime...bye for now.

Today is the longest day of the year and it is very hot. Mummy says it is 32 degrees but I'm not sure exactly how hot that is. All I know is that it is hard to get to sleep, even though I have a fan in my room. Sometimes I have to rip out the entire contents of my cot and throw them on the floor before I can get to sleep. This activity is strangely satisfying.

We had a great weekend last weekend. On Friday we went to the sandy beach at Port Alban, next to the lake of Neuchatel, and built sandcastles. Daddy dipped my feet in the water. It was pretty darned cold, I can tell you.

On Saturday and Sunday we went to the piscine at Payerne. There were two little pools with fountains and dragons and things in them. I had lots of fun when dad whirled me around in the water. It was hot and sunny and my skin went a bit pink. I still got to have a warm bath afterwards even though I had had lots of cold baths in the afternoon.

Well, I had a great weekend! Mum and dad took me on a bike ride along country roads to Avenches, which is about 5km away. We played on the swings and slide and a thing that goes round and round and is made of rope (I was a bit dizzy after). I was investigating all sorts of interesting pieces of woodbark and stones that were laying on the ground and showing them to mum and dad -they kept saying 'clever boy' I guess that they haven't seen anything like these things before! It was warm and sunny and I fell asleep on the way home on mummy's bicyle.

Later on I played in the paddling pool in out garden . I made EVERYTHING very wet by splashing around and pushing down the sides of the pool - daddy kept telling me to stop, but he was laughing a lot and so I knew he didn't mean it. In the evening we went to our neighbours: Yannick, Charlotte, Zoe, Jaqueline and Cello for a barbeque. I played a lot with lots of different people. Daddy played football with Gaby, Zoe, Charlotte and Maxim (Yannick's cousin) and mummy played with some little boats with me and talked French a lot ( I understood a bit, but not all)

On Sunday we drove to a playpark in the forest and I played for ages and got very tired, so I sat down and mummy had to carry me. Later, before my bath, I bumped my head against a radiator and I cried, but mummy and daddy seemed more upset than me - so I cheered up and so did they although they kept suddenly hugging and kissing me during the evening - it was like having a second bath!

Almost every morning just after I wake up I play hide and seek with 'Monkey' - he is one of my favourite cuddly toys. Mummy or daddy go and hide him and I have to find him, I like this game a lot.

Wow is it that time already. I am almost one year and five months old and I'm a pretty chunky chap. Boy am I ever handsome, although some have said (namely Aunty Lori) that my legs are rather chubby. I still have gorgeous curls and dark blonde hair, unlike my mum and dad.

It was a pretty hectic day yesterday. Mum drove me to the lakeside town of Neuchatel, where we picked up daddy. Boy were we ever pleased to see him. He tickled me a lot and I went in a mini helicopter and drove a mini truck. Dad was tired as he had just got back from Nepal, which is a long long way away. He gave me a nice teeshirt from Kathmandu.

In the afternoon I went in the paddling pool, and then went for a bike ride with mummy while dad had a kip. I nodded off on the bike after tickling mum's back. It was all very soothing with the cool breeze and long stretches of fields with crops growing.

On Saturday we went to visit Aunty Lori and Uncle Ed and Alexander. We were supposed to go for a picnic but first Aunty Lori had to find the car keys, which Alexander had buried in the garden.

Then when we arrived at the picnic place, a lovely spot near the river, Alexander disappeared and was found by two men who walked with him until they found his family. He gets up to all sorts of terrific things, but his mum and dad never seem very happy about it. I wonder why?

Aunty Lori and Uncle Eddy are very kind to me and always give me cuddles and talk to me a lot. I tell them lots but they don't seem to understand what I'm going on about.

Daddy has gone to Stans and won't be back until Friday night. Me and mummy miss him a lot.