So now 2011 is behind us. It’s been an amazing year. Our little girl entered 2011 a baby and left it a little adult (she gave me my first telling off last night with full finger-wagging and finishing with ‘ok, promise?’ before stomping off). She’s been in hospital a few times, one biggie where she had to stay in and have tubes put in – watching that was painful.

On the plus side, we’ve managed to see a fair amount of places including Brugge, Antwerp, Florence & Tuscany and The Black Forest in Germany. Plus a work trip to Barcelona – the food was amazing.

I’ve also completed my first full year contracting, spending half the year at Sky and the other half working for Bodog in Oxford Circus – a brilliant location from a food, commuting and getting around town point-of-view. I’ve met lots of new people, seen a number of pieces of work go live, learnt a shed-load and am still loving what I do.

And to wrap up the year, my daughter does her first potty poos ever on New Years Eve. Only parents would understand the pride we felt stood there staring at this giant turd-in-a-pot …

Here’s to another great year. Wishing everyone a blessed, healthy and fun 2012!

This is a Google Chrome ad, which is getting panned from quite a few corners (especially on YouTube – where people who comment there always seem really, really angry).

I quite like it.

Probably because I’m a new dad, and realising how quickly your child turns from a new-born to a toddler to a little girl – in front of your own eyes – you begin to really treasure each passing week. And the idea of having a private mailbox (a SPAM-free mailbox at that!) dedicated to these memories just seems priceless. I regret not seeing something like this 2 years ago. I’m reticent to start one now as it’s missing the precious first two-years ……..

This morning is the first time my daughter would rather I stay at home than her have more toys. That was so cute, a little heart-breaking to leave her and go to work. She’s also poorly which doesn’t help. But as she was clinging on to me, she suddenly said ‘cake’. I said ‘daddy’s got to go to work to earn money to buy cake’. She promptly waved me off ………

I write this from the end of my two-year-old daughter’s mattress (on the floor), in the dark. She’s not been sleeping too well these last few nights – probably a mixture between a cough she’s got and renovations work happening during this week disrupting her usual routine.

The misses is working nights designing her graphics so I take the night shift – or as much as I can. When nights don’t go to plan I often end up spending a good few hours sleeping at the end of my little girl’s bed – or even the whole night! But secretly I love it. Everyday I get home from work she seems to have grown a bit more. I worry it’s going a bit too fast and a bit of me thinks that just sleeping at the end of her bed – those few hours a night – somehow makes up for all the hours I’m away during the week.

Can’t believe she’s already two. She’s got a bit of a diva about her but we think it’s because she’s mentally a bit bored. Well, she’s off to nursery soon for one day a week so hopefully that will help calm her down – or at least it’ll help her develop her interpersonal relationships a bit more. It’ll also give mum a well-deserved break … well, I say ‘break’ but she’ll still be working.

So how is the little girl doing? Well she’s super clever. She loves singing and dancing and amazingly can sing the entire song for quite a few nursery rhymes and tv tunes. She even hummed along to Eastenders the other day … not overly proud about that one. She’s got an amazing memory for words, and is picking up both English and Chinese well. She loves pretend making coffee, she positions all her toys in specific places and doesn’t like people moving them; she doesn’t like it when mum works on the computer and is constantly nicking her mouse or mouse-mat. And when mum goes to the kitchen, she jumps onto the desk-chair and starts banging the keyboard.

She still sleeps with the dummy and ‘daisy’. We really need to get her off the dummy soon. And we’ll resume potty training later. She loves telling us to clap our hands when she does (mostly after a song has ended) and she’s still chasing us around the house telling us to ‘come here’. Life’s hectic, but good.

Must remember to note her development down more before it’s all forgotten …

I do love Instagram. First and foremost, it’s a great little app. It’s simple, it works (the filters can turn any photo into something pretty amazing) and it’s become a community that’s full of some pretty amazing amateur photographers / photo editors. But the best thing about the app, and the bit I love the most, is that it’s a quick and easy way for me to get an ever-changing feed of street-level photos from cities around the world. When I’m sat on the train in dreary London, I can dive into my app and get scenes from Hong Kong, Tokyo and other exotic locations. It’s a bit like being there … a bit of escapism.