Shhhh... it's only half past seven, but Zee-Zee's already fallen asleep after announcing he was going to stay up until midnight to see in the new year. Mommy and Daddy might just change his soggy pull-up just before midnight and see if they can gently wake him up...

Happy 2018, everybody! Hope it's a good one! ^.^

Yay, it's that bit in between Christmas and the New Year, when (if you're me, anyway) you don't have to go to work and just get to relax at home for a week! Big squirrel hugs for everyone, and how are you? ^.^

Zee-Zee was sitting on his daddy's lap, listening to him read a story. A man in the story had magic powers, because he was the seventh son of a seventh son!

"Daddy!" Zee-Zee interrupted. "You gotta have more sons, so then I can be the seventh son of a seventh son and get magic!"

Zed chuckled and patted his head. "Sorry, big boy, it doesn't work like that. Even if I had more sons, you'd still be the first."

Zee-Zee tried to get his head around that idea, failed, and shook his head impatiently. "Nuh-uh! You just gotta do it right, so I get to be the magic one!"

"And I'm not a seventh son either," Zed objected. "I haven't got any brothers, just two sisters..."

He looked like he was going to start talking about his family tree for hours again, so Zee-Zee wiggled off his knee and down to the floor. "Get more brothers and sons and things," he instructed, "I'm gonna go make a wizard hat I can wear when I'm magic!"

And with that, Zee-Zee ran away to the dressing-up box to get ready for his career as a magic squirrel!

I'm going to Little Big Land in Birmingham again on November 11th, and I can't wait! It's absolutely my most favourite little-cub get-together place! So full of things to do and games to play, and not a teeny-tiny hint of grown-upness (except the wonderful grown-ups who take care of the little ones)! And I get to play with  donney, which is always the bestest fun ever! Anyone else going? Playdate!!! ^.^

It's my real-life birthday tomorrow! It just makes me think how quiet I've been on FA lately, so I think I'll make a new year resolution to draw more pictures and write more stories and distribute more fluffy squirrel hugs! Yaaaaaaay! *hugs all round*

I'm getting all excited in advance, cause it doesn't happen for another eight months, but Confuzzled is all about games next year, and the new website is really cool ^.^

Who's going to be there?

https://2018.confuzzled.org.uk/

"Oh no!" Zee-Zee squeaked, suddenly noticing that his pull-up felt thicker and heavier. He pulled out the waistband of his shorts and looked down to check the magic stars. "Mommy, I had an accident!"

"Oh dear," Zena smiled, ruffling his headfur. They'd just been scampering around the living room, tickling and giggling, so it was understandable that he hadn't noticed it was potty time. "We should have gone potty before playtime, shouldn't we? Never mind, let's get you changed!"

She carried the still-giggling little squirrel up the stairs to the bathroom and sat him on the changing table, then opened the cupboard door and paused in surprise. "Zee-Zee, do you know where the spare pull-ups went?"

"Ohhhh!" Zee-Zee gasped, remembering. "I wanted to teach my toys how to go potty, so I took them!"

Zena sighed. "Zee-Zee, pull-ups aren't toys. That's why they're in this high cupboard in the bathroom where you're not supposed to be big enough to reach. How did you get up here?"

"Climbed!" Zee-Zee smiled proudly. "On my potty step and Bartholomew!"

Zena, while mentally planning which things around the house now needed to be moved into the even higher, safely locked, cupboards where the really dangerous things were kept, lifted Zee-Zee back down to the bathroom floor and said "Well, run along to your bedroom and bring those pull-ups back, there's a good big squirrel!"

Zee-Zee nodded happily, but then remembered something else. "Oh... um, I kind of poured water into them all to show the toys what happens when they get wet..." He gasped as he suddenly realised something else. "But Mommy, now what am I gonna wear?"

Happy Father's Day to all those wonderful fathers out there, taking care of the little ones!

Zed's here with a hug for every little cub! And a diaper check and change if you need one! Come along, don't be shy! ^.^

Hi hi, everybody! It's sunny, when it's not raining, and that must mean it's summer! Time to wake up and come and play! I haven't posted enough things here on FA for aaaaaaaaages! Say hello! Ask a squirrel something! Hug! I might even draw a lot of doodles of people this weekend... ^.^

Yay, Confuzzled was awesome! Yesterday we had crayon-doodling fun in the morning, a brilliant escape room in the afternoon (Team Squig solved the mystery!) and a completely wonderful Pawpets show in the evening! Overstimulated squirrel alert! *runs around with hugs*

Wheeeeeeeeeee! I've just got back home from the most amazing day at LBL! Wheeeeee! *bounces around in a won't-get-to-sleep-tonight buzzing kind of way* I went with the lovely  donney, who's just the bestest fun ever, and we spent the whole day playing with toys and dressing up and dancing and drawing and playing games and listening to stories and everything!

 felix_lionheart was a Trusted Big, one of the super awesome amazing people who run things and give the little ones things to do and play with, and we spent a lot of time playing with  chesterbun and  alfierubuncle too and everybody there was just the bestest! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! ^.^

Ten years ago today, Zee-Zee said hi to the world for the first time! Wheeeeeeeeeee! It's been a fun ten years! So everyone gets a special birthday hug from a big squirrel! *runs around hugging*

Ten years and still not quite completely totally potty-trained... well, these things take time, you know. ^.^

I got £10 from the cash machine today and it gave me two £5 notes with sequential serial numbers, which made me think "Awww, poor little fivers, they've never been apart since they came off the printing press! I can't separate them now!" So I made sure to spend them both together, on a haircut at a barber who charges £10 for everything, so they'll stay together. ^.^

I've just heard that  genecatlow has died. He was practically the first furry artist I ever discovered - certainly the first one that made me think "wow, this stuff is really awesome!"

He always came across as such an all-round wonderful guy, I'm so sorry to hear he's gone...

Heehee, I'm going to Paris at the weekend! I'm gonna be a French squirrel! I see London, I see France, I see Zee-Zee's big-boy pants! ^.^

Seeing as it's Valentine's Day and I love all of you.... do you wanna ask me anything? ^.^

Hey, look, I'm nearly at 40000 pageviews! I should probably doodle something for anyone who catches it! ^.^

I'm going to Confuzzled in May! Who else is going? ^.^

The internet says it's Squirrel Appreciation Day AND National Hugging Day today! That can only mean one thing - everyone gets a big hug from a big squirrel, and I appreciate you all lots and lots! ^.^

"Wheeeeeeeeeeee!" Zee-Zee squealed as his daddy threw him up high in the air! "Again! Again!"

"Sorry, big boy," Zed grinned, putting him down on the grass. "You're getting too heavy, I need a rest! The way you're growing, soon you'll be too big for me to throw you around!"

"Nuh-uh!" Zee-Zee said, shaking his head. "You gotta keep growing too! Eat more food and do exercises and stuffs!"

"Good plan!" Zed laughed. "I'll start by lifting the biggest grown-up squirrel I know right up above my head!" And he picked Zee-Zee up again and ran in circles around the garden until he really was worn out. They both sat down, giggling, and Zed gasped "New plan - you grow up big and strong and then you can carry me!"

There's a big tree near where I live, with a hole in the trunk, and I found out yesterday that at least three squirrels live there! I was cycling past when I saw one jumping from another tree with a pine cone in its mouth and scampering along the branches to the hole, and I stopped to watch it. But the brakes on my bike squeaked, and they obviously didn't like that, because another squirrel came out of the hole to see what was happening, and a third one ran up the tree making threatening noises, came to the edge of a branch and glared at me until I went away.

So I came back later and left them some nuts. I hope they're all snuggled up warmly today, it's really cold and frosty outside! ^.^

Wowee, it's Christmas already! Where does the time go? We'll all be grown up before we know it! ^.^

And yay, the Advent Calendar's all done! I really worried I might not be able to keep up with it this year, I've been so busy with grown-up things, but it only takes ten minutes each day and it turned out there was plenty of time! The only difficult part every year is choosing who to put in it - this time I went with a rule of nobody who's appeared in the last two years (making one exception, since I had such an awesome time meeting Donney this year and he put me in his calendar and everything!), and nobody who's been in more than twice, and it was still quite difficult to narrow it down to 23 cubs! I'm lucky to know so many wonderful people!

I counted them up, and I've drawn 136 people in ten advent calendars since I started doing it! (Unless I forgot to combine some characters who belong to the same person behind the screen...) That's a huuuuuuuge number! Who ever woulda thought there are so many friendly fluffy people out there?

Next year it's the tenth anniversary, so I'm gonna have to do something extra extra extra special! Here's a big big happy merry Christmas from a big big squirrel, to each and every one of you! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! *lots and lots of hyperactive hugs*

Woohoo, I'm all done with work until January 3rd! Eleven whole days of absolutely no grown-up stuffs needing to be done! Wheeeeeeeeee! *giggle*

"Look, look, I found out how it works!" squeaked Zee-Zee, waving the magic colour paint mat that had fascinated all the cubs at the daycare that morning - you just paint on it with water, and different colours appear by magic! "Look, see, there's colour stuff underneath it, and the water just makes the top bit go see-through!" Zee-Zee concluded triumphantly.

The other cubs looked at the mangled paint mat (Zee-Zee had had to rip it apart quite a bit to discover exactly how the whole thing worked) and didn't seem entirely impressed. "I liked it more when it was magic..." someone said.

December's here! And I'm nearly at the end of a nightmareishly busy week at work, then I've got to go to London at the weekend, but I'm still gonna manage to post an advent calendar picture every day, I promise! It's a tradition!

And you super extra have to go and check out  donney and  koopateen007, who are doing daily Christmas specials too! Anyone else? Yay for all the cuteness! ^.^