For Grandad (1934-2006)


They tried and tried to save his life
But treatments finally failed him
Where is he now my lovely grandad,
Who leaves his cares behind him?

Is he jamming with Stan, tooting with Duke,
Or sharing his memories with Ella?
Is he having a tea with Sid Lawrence, for he
Was always a sociable fella?

Is he trimming the hedge and cutting the lawn
In a wonderful garden of Eden?
Is he weeding the borders and laying out seeds
For paradise birds to feed on?

Does he still read the paper from beginning to end,
And dispense good advice to family and friends?
Is he laughing with children and tickling their tummies
Or telling his jokes while playing gin rummy?

Does he know how we miss his loving embrace,
The twinkle in his eyes, the smile on his face?
Wherever he is, and I’m sure that he thrives,
We’ll continue to love him for the rest of our lives.

I'm having a nap right now but have told mummy what to write. Went to see my mate Yanik today, who has chicken pox. He has little red spots all over his body and keeps scratching them. Hope I don't get it. I've got too much to do to spend all my time scratching, like playing with my various trains and my tractor.

I can't say tractor but I can say "tractee", and everyone knows what I mean. If I want something to eat, I just say "more" and food is magically produced. This speaking lark can come in very handy. I have been eating a real lot since I got better again. Mummy thinks I have to catch up, as there were several days when I didn't eat, because I had gastro enteritis last week and was very sick. I weigh 14.5 kilos.

Daddy is away in Stans and I miss his tickles and his cuddles and being held upside down. Mummy swings me around til I get dizzy, and chases me around the kitchen, and pretends she can't see me when I hide behind the curtains. Then she gives me a big hug and squeezes my nose. She also tries to ride on my little car but she is much too big for it and I generally have to push her off. Adults should know their place.

Mummy is getting ready to go somewhere. She is packing a suitcase, which has a big picture of me inside it so she can give me a kiss every night while she is away. I try to take all the things out of her suitcase and put them away in drawers but she just gets them out and packs them again.

OK got to go now. See you next time!

Recently I met the love of my life. We were at the playpark in Avenches and there she was, a picture of loveliness in her little coat and pink hat, covering the blondest hair I have ever seen. She was about my age and her name was Julie, like my mum.

She started to follow me around and wanted to go on the same rides as me so we went on that rotating metal frame thing and neither of us fell off. Then, when we were more or less alone, I took her hand and smiled at her (she smiled back) and we walked together, hand in hand, to the see-saw, leaving the parents and her brother behind us. It was a magic moment.

Julie's mum is Russian and her dad's French - how sexy is that! But soon they had to leave and we kissed eachother goodbye. I have looked for her again at that playpark but she hasn't come back to see me. Mummy says she lives in Zurich. I wonder whether I will ever find anyone like her again.

Daddy is away in Stans working and me and mummy miss him very much. Mummy plays with me and tickles me a lot but dad is better at tickling and I miss being held upside down.

Katerina and her baby, Bianca, come to collect me every morning and take me to the neighbour's house, where Andrea looks after me. Katerina is very nice and kisses me a lot. Bianca is quite sweet but keeps pulling my wooden train tracks apart, so that I have to ask mummy to put them back together again, which is a pain. Sometimes I am a bit rough with Bianca - other times I stroke her and hold her hand. But she is only one year old and no replacement for little Julie, love of my life.

Yanik, the neighbour's little boy, is ok but he keeps asking for the same DVD over and over again. It's that one called Stuart Little (just 'Stuart' in the French version), about the little mouse that gets adopted by Gena Davis and Hugh Laurie. At my house we watch lots of different DVDs and children's TV. I like Pingu best.

I have added the following words to my vocabulary: 'book', 'more', 'gone away', 'what is it?', 'out' and 'hello'. Have already been able to say bye bye for the longest time, but hello is a bit more tricky. Mummy said 'bugger' the other day and I was able to copy this very accurately. Not sure what it means though. All I know if that you have to say the word forcefully.

Have also started brushing my own teeth, but not very thoroughly.

I can eat my own dinner if mummy gives me a spoon but, for some reason, a lot of it falls off the spoon onto the floor or onto my clothes. If my hands get dirty, I usually try to wipe them on mummy.

Games I play at home: Well, I like my train set very much. The track and the carriages are made of wood but the train can ride anywhere it wants - not just on the track. Am less interested in my cars than in the train, these days. I like my jet aeroplane, which flies very high.

I like to take my monkey and Pizza rabbit for rides on my little car that I sit on and push with my feet. I also share my bedtime milk with monkey. Luckily he doesn't drink much.

I have a favorite blanket that I carry around with me sometimes. I like to play tucking up in bed games in other people's beds before I am confined to my own cot.

My pyjamas are all too small and I made a hole in the foot last night because they were too tight. Mum should really think about getting me some new ones. I have been sleeping better recently although getting to sleep is problematic and I usually cry a bit so mummy comes back to play with me but this method isn't proving terribly effective.

OK I've got to go any play now. See you next time!

Yesterday was my uncle Steve's birthday. He is very tall and I am wondering if I will also get tall like him and be able to see over people's heads at concerts and football matches. Very useful. Now I am very small and have to be lifted up to see the fish in the pond at the Payerne play park. There are lots of them and sometimes they jump out of the water.

It is 2.35 and mummy has put me in bed for my afternoon nap, but I am not very tired so I have to shout and shake the bars of the cot, in the hope that she will get me out again so I can play with my cars.

Mummy went away for a long time and I am worried that, if I go to sleep, she might be gone again when I wake up. She spent all day on Tuesday and Wednesday with me and we played a lot and went to Bern for the afternoon, visiting friends, but on Thursday she dumped me at the child minders again and I tried to hold on to her so she wouldn't leave me there, but she did. I couldn't believe it.

I played with Yannick, who has great toys, but it wasn't as good as being at home with mummy and daddy. Daddy has also gone away somewhere and I miss his tickles and cuddles.

I can say some words in French - "ici" and "lapin".

In English I can say car, rabbit, there and oh no, which I say quite a lot. But, of course, I understand many more words - I just can't say them yet. When we look in my ABC book and mummy asks me to point at the tractor/cat/butterfly/sunglasses/socks/cow/slide/ball/dog - I can show her exactly where they all are. My favorite books are the ones aunty Sandra gave me, with the pop up animals that make noises. I tore the tongue off the cat and the trunk off the elephant, but mummy stuck them back on.

I am always smartly dressed as nanny and grandad give me lovely clothes from England, but I do fall over quite often so I get dirty quickly. We spend quite a lot of time in the laundry and hanging out the washing. Mummy doesn't know it but I have hidden a toilet roll in the washing machine.

When mummy came back from Ukraine, she brought me my first remote controlled car. At first I didn't understand the connection between the control unit and the car, but now it makes me laugh when I make it go backwards and forwards and side ways. It does seem to crash into the wall a lot. Must be a design fault.

She also bought me some wax crayons. I hid one and then drew on the cupboards with it when mummy wasn't looking. I thought it would be a nice surprise but she didn't like my drawing and scrubbed it out with the dish cloth.

OK. Think I will go to sleep now as the cot shaking didn't work and it is quite comfy here. Might snuggle up with my rabbit and give him a cuddle.

This journal has been rather neglected lately - oops. But the nights are drawing in now so all that is about to change.

August was an exciting month because we went on holiday in Crete. We stayed full board in a nice hotel in a very touristy place. I got to eat lots of lovely meals with fish and yummy meat. I threw myself into the swimming pool on a regular basis, and once into the jacuzzi. Dad thought it was such good fun that he jumped in with me with all his clothes on. But for some reason he didn't look that pleased after he'd done it.

Mum and dad tried to put me on various blow up plastic floaty things but I wasn't having any of it. I got very good at running away, especially on the beach, so that kept mum and dad on their toes and I got to meet some new people who were trying to sunbath. One lady from Prague was nice to me and let me tear up her magazines. There was a little boy from the Czech republic who played with me for three days in a row. We had lots of fights over toys but he kept coming back for more. He was three years old. I showed him who was the real boss. As you will see, if you look in latest pix, I had my "don't mess with me" bandana on. But admittedly the swimming trunks over the nappy did not look that cool.

The sea was lovely and warm, but I got a bit bored with making sandcastles. Can't see what all the fuss is about. Now if we had had a bulldozer to push the sand, or if we had built a motor racing track for Formula 1 cars, that would have been a different matter. Cars are my great passion at the moment. "Car" is the first word I say when I wake up in the mornings.

On this holiday I also managed to improve my climbing skills. I can now go down all slides, no matter how big and long they are. Everest watch out.

When we got back from our holiday, there was a nice lady called Ana staying with us. She's from Romania and she played with me a lot and took me on trains. She taught me to say "Choo Choo" when I see a train. This lady did cleaning and washing, and mummy and daddy had a nice rest. They were very sad when she left to stay with another family in Fornex.

Before she left, nanny and grandad came to stay and we had a lovely time together. We went to the zoo and on a boat ride with Uncle Eddie and Aunty Lori. We walked near the lake of Neuchatel and played a lot in the garden. As usual, nanny was very kind and patient and grandad was a good laugh, playing games with me. I hope they come back to see me again soon.

They liked it when they were drinking wine and I did cheers with them, using my milk bottle. I also showed them what a good kisser I am. It's all part of living in the Swiss-Romande - you have to adapt to the French ways. We are going to Paris in December and I'm sure I will fit in very well with all my kissing and "santes".