Tommy at 2, Martha at 4 and a bit

Daddy with Martha on the occasion of Tom's second birthday


Uncle Nev and Auntie Mand visiting just after Tom's birthday

We've got a lot of pictures for you all for this update, as well as the usual reporting. Tommy is really getting to be a big personality now, and personality goes a long way, as they say. He has very strong likes and dislikes and he is extremely keen on getting his way. He can make it very unpleasant for anyone who does not give him what he wants (as he would say, "too loud"), but he is also terribly charming. A very cheeky child in fact. Thomas says loads of words and a lot of phrases too; in the past month he's begun to construct some quite complex sentences, and he has a good sense of humour.


Many Johnstons gather in Berkeley


On the Beach at Pt. Reyes.


More Johnstons gather in Berkeley


On the Beach in Point Reyes


Martha with Grandma


Martha with her box and dolls

We are sincerely not aware of having encouraged this trend in Tom rather than Martha, but it does appear that our son is much more interested in diggers and other such macho machines than our daughter; on the other hand, fueled by his interest, it is she who now knows several different breeds of construction machines, notably the crane and the excavator, and points them out to him with sincere if vicarious enthusiasm.

The big events in T and M's life since the last post are: the ending of regular time at their family day care (which will continue half time throughout the summer, to be replaced with their enrollment at a preschool in late August); and the trip to the UK, where they have been kept busy keeping their Grandparents Martin busy.


Martha hanging out the dolls' washing


Tom in his sunsuit


Picnic near West Malling


Tom and Martha in their sunsuits in the garden at West Malling


Tim and Adrian in Kent


Helping Grandad wheel out the bin

Since complaints were registered following our last post, which was nominally about Martha, focussing too much on Tom, we will seek to redress the imbalance by boasting about her on his birthday update. To wit: on our visit to Adrian's friends in the Peak District, Martha ran a fell race--and got a medal, a chocolate one at that! T, meanwhile, had a nap.


Reading of the "Grandma's indulgence" - an "In the night garden" magazine


Swans at Manor Park


Martha at her swimming lesson in Berkeley

Both M and T are eager climbers and have spent a good deal of time going up and down the play structures of Kings Hill as well as exploring the river in Hathersage, where Martha hopped gamely from stone to stone and T yelled that he wanted to put his feet in the 'puddle' until he got a bit wet and changed his mind abruptly.

Also notable in T's development is that he really does seem to share his grandparents' and Uncle Tim's interest in birds, a trait which he displayed when he oohed with as much enthusiasm (or more) as the rest of us on viewing Tim's recent slideshow featuring gannets, sea eagles, puffins, etc. Tom recognizes several birds and can tell a crow from its caw (at least on Uncle Tim's iphone ap), and he was content sitting still for an unprecedented period whilst gazing on the swans and fuzzy grey cygnets at Manor Park nearby.


All the kids together, near Hathersage


Teatime at Auntie Pat's


Second Cousin Lewis pushing Tom and Martha


Tim reads

During our visit to Hopwood relatives in Colchester, Auntie Lynne declared that Tom was very like his dad at a similar age, but Auntie Pat and Nana Hopwood disagreed: "Adrian would never walk, only run--and he was never ever still!"