Play date!

Darling Baby Kay, today we had another busy day in store. As well as Jo Jingles this morning we had an afternoon playdate over in Loughall with R&E - R goes back to work tomorrow now that her maternity leave is up, and it was the last chance of catching up for a while.

After Jo Jingles we came home for lunch, and I had hoped you would doze in the car on the way over to R's - but you stayed wide awake, singing away to yourself until we pulled into their driveway, at which point you promptly went to sleep!

What to do?? Well, usually you REFUSE to sleep anywhere other than your own cot - you won't even cuddle up in bed beside me (and believe me I have tried to convince you it would be a lovely way to spend a few hours!) But you were so tired that you did sleep when we tucked you into E's cot - for the entire playdate! E played away quite happily and didn't seem to miss the fact that her date had arrived but hadn't shown up! And it gave R and I a great chance to catch up with only 1 little girl twisting around the floor!

It was very sweet when I went to get you to bring you home - you have started to take your tights off when you are wearing a dress - why?? Because you have suddenly realised that you can I think! When I put you down for nap you wriggle and wrestle them off quite merrily and then go to sleep with them in one hand and Moo in the other. The problem with this afternoon was that I didn't take your little slippers off when I put you down to sleep, so there you were, fast asleep with Moo and your tights firmly round your ankles where you couldn't get them off any further! I wish I'd had my camera, but when you are old enough to read this for yourself my darling I am very sure you'll be glad I didn't! Sweet dreams little love x

Busy busy busy!

Darling Baby Kay, it has been a busy few days here for us while we have been unplugged!

Saturday saw Daddy and I off to the Culloden to stay for the night, and dinner in Aldens in town. Daddy had booked it some time ago to celebrate our wedding anniversary (which was mid-week when he was away in Spain) and Nanny and Granda had come down to baby-sit for you. I was a bit nervous about us both being away from you overnight, but you had great fun. When we got back on Sunday you were busy reading with Nanny and hardly gave us a second look! I am not even sure you realised we were gone!

Dinner on Saturday was lovely, and we even resisted the temptation to talk about you all the time we were away! It was strange, especially going to bed without stealing my last kiss of the day like I usually do when you are fast asleep, but I have to confess that the lie in on Sunday morning, and leisurely breakfast at the hotel before heading up the road was a rare and very pleasant treat!

On Sunday Daddy took you to B&Q when we got home from our overnight stay. As usual the highlight of any trip out now is the obligatory trolley ride - you get very peeved when you are strapped into your pram if you can see trolleys about! While you were out I finally finished off the last of your birthday 'thank-you' cards, so that I can start the week without too many things carried forward from last week's 'to-do' list!

All in all it was lovely to be away, and Nanny and Granda had so much fun they have said they will happily volunteer to do it again for us. We might just take them up on that!!

Unplugged!

See you on Monday!

Post from the Prairie!!

Darling Baby Kay - tonight we have a very big thank you to send across the Atlantic to 2 very, very special people. Lovely Lisa and Prairiegirl have sent you the most wonderful box for your birthday, full of lovely things!

We had to go and pick the parcel up from the post office this afternoon, as we were out this morning when the postie tried to deliver it. As with all post to the house, you had to have a good inspection of it before anyone was allowed near it to start opening it. When it's being opened you do this strange arm flapping - up and down like you are trying to lift off. I think it's excitement, but it could also be your way of telling me to stop taking photos and hurry up and open the parcel!!

Inside was a gorgeous birthday card with Winnie the Pooh on the front. It has twinkle and glitter on it too, and you have had great fun scrunching your nails on the twinkle to hear the noise. When I was bathing you tonight you still had little bits of twinkle in your hair! It seems so strange to think that only a few days ago Prairegirl was writing your card and now it has made it's way halfway round the world!

And also the most beautiful top - your first Disney shirt!!! All the way from their holiday in Florida. Unfortunately I couldn't get you to hold the top up, or even let me set it on your knee - because once you saw that there was a big Disney label on it, you were just past yourself with excitement and kept grabbing the label and waving it about triumphantly, or trying to put it in your mouth!

There was a brilliant book on signing for babies - with colourful pictures and flash cards, so that when Prairegirl comes to visit us you and she will be able to chat away! You really loved the flashcards, and the book was a fantastic diversion while I was making your dinner and you were waiting in your high chair!!

Your favourite sign is teddy bear - I am having to learn them fast, because you keep pointing to the pictures in the book and then looking at me, as much as to say 'What's that one then!'

And there was also a more grown-up book on signing, for when you are a little bigger. This didn't stop you insisting on being allowed to look at it for yourself now - and make sure that I wasn't going to sneak it away for myself!

And there was even something in there for Mummy. You know when you have met someone who is very special, with a kind and thoughtful heart, when they send you a gift you never realised you needed (indeed never knew existed) because they DID know that you needed it, having remembered something you said a long time ago. Lisa, you are a complete sweetheart.

Lisa even snuck some great magazines into the box that you can't get here in Northern Ireland - so I will be enjoying a flick through those this evening in bed while Daddy is away.

What a wonderful parcel - and thank you again so very much to the very special people who sent it to us - your kindness is so much appreciated, and will not be forgotten.

Multi-tasking.....

Dearest Baby Kay - tonight Daddy is in Barcelona and it is just us girls. You have gone down tonight in top form after a lovely bath and a busy day visiting Grandma. She is always so pleased to see you, and is very excited about baby-sitting this coming Saturday night.

When we got home and I was sorting out the washing you were tearing about the kitchen in your walker with your sippy cup. I am trying to move you away from your baby-bottles for milk so that we can eventually drop them altogether, but at the minute since you are still doing a lot of spilling and dribbling we are sticking to practising with water! I have warned you about drinking and driving, but to no avail - you just pull up, throw your head back and glug your water! It is very funny to watch and you get all excitable when it comes out too fast and splashes up your nose! At times like these I am glad for tiled floors and a quick mop!!

Goodnight my darling, sweet dreams of Daddy to you until he gets home x

One year, and one day!

My darling Baby Kay, today we are almost back to normal service! We had great fun at our Jo Jingles morning. You do a lot of bopping along to the music, and recognise many of the regular tunes. We only have a few weeks of term left, but we are already registered for next term. Taking you along to Jo Jingles was one of the best things we ever decided to do, you have so much fun with the other babies, and love the music and songs.

You spent most of your day at home playing with your new birthday presents. Yesterday I packed away a few of the things you got at Christmas into a box in your nursery, so that in a few weeks time I can swap them over again and you can have 'new' toys you forgot you had. We decided to do this because you seemed so overwhelmed by how many things you had to play with here in the sitting room. You just kept pointing at things in slight bewilderment, and when they were fetched for you (as you are still resolutely determined not to shuffle or crawl towards them yourself!) you just looked at them, and then pointed to something else. I think that if we have fewer things for you to play with at a time you will get more chance to play with them and enjoy them - at least that's what we hope!! You don't seem to mind though - in fact I am not sure you have even noticed they have gone!

Happy birthday to me!!

Darling Baby Kay, this time last year, 19.54pm - you were 5 hours old. We were in the hospital in Craigavon, and you had met your Grandads and Grandma, your Uncle J and Aunt D - and your shell-shocked and euphoric Mummy and Daddy had finally held their baby girl in their arms after more than 42 weeks of pregnancy, and more years than I would like to think of hoping and praying for you to come along.

And you did. And this year - this last 12 months - have been the most amazing, tiring, incredible, exhilarating, terrifying, exhausting, humbling of my life. I have never known such tiredness and fear - how was I ever going to look after this tiny little person who needed me for everything. But I have also never known such overwhelming love and happiness.

Today, my darling daughter, we we took you to the beach in Newcastle where Daddy and I walked when we had only just starting dating. It was freezing - the kind of day that they say would 'skin you alive' here in Northern Ireland. But the sun shone brightly as we walked along the shore and we talked about everything we have been through together. You just watched the world go by from your little viewpoint in the pram, and I am sure that you had no idea just how much we love you, and how much we both feel that our lives are so blessed for having you with us. There is not a day goes by when I am not reminded of how lucky I am to have you - or the joy you have brought us both, even today when the wind took our breaths away and made your little red nose run!

Happy 1st birthday, darling Amelie. May you know yourself the love you have brought, and the changes you have blessed us with. This last year has been an incredible one for you, and for us - and may this amazing journey continue to be blessed with love, happiness and joy - for the 3 of us, and for those who know us and care for us.

And may you not catch cold because of irresponsible, but romantic parents who took you to the beach on a freezing March day!

Party Girl!

Darling Baby Kay, the house has been full of visitors for the last 3 days - all here to see you and share your 1st birthday party! Your birthday is actually the 23rd - tomorrow - but it made more sense because of the people who were flying in to see you to have the party on the weekend - and what a wonderful day you had!

Auntie F and Uncle B came over, Uncle J & Auntie D, Granny, both Grandad's, S & P, J and R from next door - the house was full of people who were all here to celebrate your special landmark. You were bemused by all the fuss and the houseful of faces - it is usually just the 2 or 3 of us, but not this weekend!

You had gorgeous balloons, which you thought were great fun, and are still enjoying head-bopping with Daddy. We kept them well out of the reach of tiny fingers who might burst them and get a fright! We are going to share them with the girls next door now, but we are keeping the lovely Tinkerbell one for you for your baby box.

You had so many gorgeous presents and kind wishes - from all over the world too thanks to your blog - and are still getting used to all the new things in the sitting room. You love your xylophone and are very excited about how easy it is to make so much noise! People have been immensely generous with their presents, their cards and their kind and loving wishes for you.

Your caterpillar pillar from R, C and baby M.

Your bead board from Granny and Grandad McC.

The Gruffalo book set.

You looked gorgeous in your tutu - which you tolerated for much longer than I expected - you kept scrunching the fabric between your fingers and trying to get little bits up to your mouth when you thought no-one was looking!

Eventually though we ditched the skirt and you wriggled around the rest of the time in your tights instead! I think you were much happier that way. You were so patient with all the hugging and kissing, and being passed around for photographs, which is something you are not used to, but you coped so well with it all. We were so proud of you, and by the end of the day although your were tired, you were still singing and very happy to sit on knees and read books with your guests.

You even had some of your birthday cake (no smashing in sight Lisa!!) which Mummy didn't make, but maybe next year!!

And Daddy and I are really lucky, because Daddy has taken tomorrow off work so we can take you out for your real birthday - just the 3 of us. We are going to have your photo taken properly, to mark the occasion, at a photographers in town - and then if the weather is good we will take you for your first trip to the seaside! It will be cold for sure, but it's never too early for a girl to catch her first sight of the shore!!

Love to you always my darling - with my heartfelt prayer that you are always blessed as much as you have blessed our lives in the short time we have had you to share x

Something beginning with F....

This evenings post is a lazy steal - sorry Baby Kay! I am pooped this evening and when I spotted this on lovely Heidi's blog I thought I'd have a go here!

1. What is your name: Fiona

2. A 4 letter word: Fish

3. A boys name: Fintan

4. A girls name: Faith

5. An occupation: Florist

6 . A color: Fawn

7. Something you wear: Flip-flops

8. A beverage: Frothy decaff coffee :)

9. A food: Fudge

10. Something found in the bathroom: Floss

11. A place: Fermanagh

12. A reason for being late: Forgot to set the alarm!

13. Something you shout: Follow that car.....

And just for the benefit of Lisa - who thinks that I have a hotline into baby clothes - Baby Kay today is modelling yesterday's outfit again - which she miraculously kept 'food-free'. But you are right - if I had the money to use it as an excuse to avoid the laundry I'd be right there! Having said that, you'd be amazed at how little ironing you can get away with if you fold things straight off the line or out of the dryer!!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

To the dear people who read Baby Kay's blog, and leave such wonderful, thoughtful comments - a very Happy St Patrick's Day to you all.

May God give you:-

For every storm, a rainbow

For every tear, a smile,

For every care, a promise,

And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer.

Things are seldom what they seem....

It may look like I'm brushing my teeth with the wrong end of my toothbrush, and driving around the dining table with an empty bottle in my hand, but you have actually just caught me on a musical interlude..... I am really practising my drumming in case anyone buys me a drum kit for my birthday.....

There is a rumour circulating that my cousin S might be buying me a xylophone, so I am getting in all the practice I can in the meantime.

For the record for any other babies who are reading, if you don't actually have any drums to bang just try the radiators, the TV screen, any empty household appliance boxes - they work just as well, but you might have to move quickly if your Mummy catches you. She's apt to move you along quick-smart especially if the radiators are on!!

Anyhow, if you are completely stuck then you can just sing!!

Calm before the storm!

Darling Baby Kay, this week is going to be a very busy one. I am sitting here on Sunday evening, looking at the planner for the week ahead, and my diary, and the list of things that I still need to do for your birthday tea next Saturday, and the things I still need to make, and buy - and I feel like I should go and make a cup of tea instead!

Fortunately this week Daddy is home all week, and we have Tuesday off for St Patrick's Day, so I have lots of help (and someone to keep those cups of tea coming thick and fast!)

Today we went to Rushmere together while Daddy went to church - our kettle blew a fuse last night and to try to manage without one would be very tricky! I managed to boil water on the hob this morning for your bottle and a cup of tea - but a replacement kettle needed to be bought! Perhaps I need to review the number of times it is used each day to try to get more than 12 months out of this one!

We also got a loaf tin for me to make the sticky lemon cake I wanted to have a crack at before the weekend. Your birthday cake is ordered, but I want to have some other things for people to have in case Victoria Sponge is not their thing! Everyone should have something sweet and sticky with a cuppa!!

I can't help it..... I'm teething....

And so the teeth continue to grow!

Darling Baby Kay we had a lovely morning over at Oxford Island with L & Baby I, but while she is tortured with an unexplained outbreak of hives, you are just trying to lay your hands on anything you can chew. Everything is soggy at the minute - your skittles, your Moo, my watch, the end of your bib, the TV remote, the facecloth in the bath, the zips on your jackets, the coasters - nothing is safe from getting a good chew or hum!

Now when someone calls on Daddy's mobile you can't hear them talking because you have sucked and chewed the end of it and somehow frizzled the workings!

I handed you a mini-gingerbread man this afternoon while you were tootling about in your walker and where you used to hold his head and suck his little legs and arms til they were all gundgy and mushy, today you just grabbed him in the middle and bit his head clean off in one go. While I had a deep breath moment wondering whether I should whip you out of the walker and turn you upside down to get it, you just shuffled his head around in your mouth, chomping away and dribbling all down your chin.

Bless you though precious darling, because you are not being the slightest bit grumpy about it. In fact, if I pick you up and have my sleeves rolled up, or have my arms bare, you are quite happy to lean over and give me a little lick for good measure. I love you to the moon and back my darling x

I got mail!!!

Look at this Mummy, mail for me!!! All the way from America!!

While you recover from the horror of the postage cost Mummy, I will have a go at getting into it myself......

A BUBBLE MACHINE!! AND BUBBLES!!! AND EXTRA BUBBLES!!! HOW DID LINDSEY KNOW THAT IS MY FAVOURITE THING EVER EVER EVER!!!!
And what gorgeous clothes!! Lindsey has such AMAZING taste in lovely things!! How lucky am I! Yes, Mummy, I promise I will be more tidy when I have my own wardrobe, but right now I want to play with them all on the settee...

What do you think Mummy?? Does this one go with my jumper??

I don't care if we are indoors Mummy, I am keeping this one on!

What do you mean I'm driving too fast?? Better get used to it Bunny - we do things at top speed in our walker!!

To dearest Jaime, and darling Lindsey - a thousand thank you's from Northern Ireland - you have made one little girl and her Mummy very happy today. Your kindness and generosity will never be forgotten!

My new doll!

Darling Baby Kay - here is a little picture I took of you squeezing your new best friend! Her name is Lois - after the little girl of the friend who bought her for you. She told me as she gave it to me this weekend, beautifully gift-wrapped in Christmas paper, that she hadn't had a chance to drop it down before now, and that she had resisted the urge to re-wrap it in birthday paper and give it as an early birthday one instead!! Regardless of the paper - you love her! She is wearing gorgeous satin clothes that all close with Velcro - your favourite fastener! And you have great fun when we shake her lovely, long hair on your head and onto your face! At the minute she is almost as big as you are, so it will be interesting to see what you pair look like in future photographs as you grow and she watches!!

All my love, precious darling x

Busy, busy, busy!!

Dearest darling - it seems like our feet haven't touched the ground over the last 2 days.

We spent most of yesterday trying to organise ourselves for your upcoming birthday - I have been trying to source your present - you are getting a little wooden trolley/truck full of wooden blocks for stacking and playing with, but 'Shhhhh.. It's a secret!' And then we went and booked for us to take you along on the day itself to have a proper portrait photograph taken of you. There is a lovely place in town which does modern, funky ones that are bright and vibrant, and I think will capture your personality better than the more traditional sort.

Today, before Jo Jingles we went and ordered your birthday cake, and I bought all the tulle and ribbon to make your tutu!! I have spent this evening working on it, and Daddy even modelled it for me so that I could make sure all the little layers are evenly spread around, but again, 'Shhhh... That's a secret Daddy would like us to keep!!' I am going to let you play with it a little over the next few days so that you aren't completely freaked out by it on the afternoon of your birthday tea - you sometimes react rather unexpectedly to 'surprises' we spring on you, so it's better you get accustomed to it in your own time!

You finally have all 4 top front teeth at one stage or another - all there, and all clearly visible. You have been chewing on absolutely everything you can lay your hands on lately - from the strap of your car-seat to my watch strap. Despite the new teeth this has not abated, you are just moving things round to the side of your mouth to hum and haw at them - so I am wondering if this is where the next teeth appear. You are even (finally!) using the cooler teething ring I bought for you when you were 4 months old and cut your first 2 teeth. You have never used it - and when I used to try to put it in your mouth for you to give you the general idea of what to do with it you just used to hold it in there, looking at me, and eventually let it drop out! I am glad it proved useful in the end, albeit another 8 months down the line!

Sweet dreams, and love always my darling x

Would I??

Darling Baby Kay - we have had a lovely, quiet weekend together, but poor Daddy ended up looking after for the both of us. I headed up to Belfast to meet J&K for lunch on Saturday, so that I could see K before baby #3 makes an appearance. We were having a yummy lunch in the Bay Tree when suddenly I realised I was getting a migraine - yuk! I was able to get myself home fine thanks to my tablets, but was fit for pretty much nothing but lying up on the settee when I arrived. Daddy had to feed you, bath you, look after you and sort dinner. And to top it all off you did something you have never ever done before, and were sick after you had you bedtime bottle. We had to strip you down again, clean you up, get Daddy cleaned up and clean up your nursery rug the best we could til this morning.

Thankfully everyone is great - no problems at all today, but I am sure Daddy could do with a rest!

This afternoon your cousin J called round to see you - she is 18, and one of many older cousins you have courtesy of Daddy being the baby of his family with much older brothers. She hasn't seen you since before Christmas and can't believe how much you have grown, or how much like Daddy you look! She thought you were great whizzing around in your walker too.

You scoot up to the curtains, or the cupboard doors, or the drawers, or the radiator, and then, because you already know I am going to say 'Ah, no - that's not for babies' you look back over your shoulder at me to see me say it, before you blythely go right on ahead and do whatever it was you planned. You have the cheekiest grin when you are doing it - as if you are saying ' Go on Mum, try me!!' We have actually had to bull-dog clip the blinds together and hang them over the back of a chair when you are in your wheels as you have managed to break most of the clips off the bottom in the short time you have been mobile. Everyone has told me that this in nothing compared to what is coming when you are off and running on 2 feet!

This week we are into full birthday planning mode - so we are going to be busy girl!! Sleep well princess, you'll need all your energy!

Ready for the weekend!

Today has been a great day - even the weather was bright and sunny, which you can never take for granted in Northern Ireland. The joke is that the weather is bad 9 months of the year and for the other 3 months it just rains! That didn't stop us heading out today to the post office together and to get some goodies in for J and the girls popping in for afternoon coffee. I have unfortunately discovered a new brand of biscuits (cookies to my American friends!) called Banana Snickerdoodles. I so wish I had never seen them or heard of them - they are too delicious for words. Suffice to say that J agreed and there is one lonely biscuit left in the packet this evening. But not for much longer. The kettle is boiling!

Darling Baby Kay, tonight all I want to say to you is that I hope through your life you are blessed with the kind of friends that I have had, and continue to meet as I get older. I have a friend who I have known since I was 10 years old who I still see every few weeks, and others who I have only just started getting to know. And it is these new friendships that are making my life feel so very blessed recently, for a number of reasons. Some of these people show remarkable kindness and generosity of spirit - ('Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise'.) Others are completely unique, honest, interested, supportive and funny in the face of everyday life. Others offer a safe place to land - a very safe place. I hope my darling that you grow up to be friends with R&N next door, and baby I, with S&E and the others who you come to grow up with. And above all I hope that they bless your life as much as you are blessing ours.

Looking forward so much to a '3-of-us' weekend, my little sweetheart!

Handbags....

I'm sure this is where Mummy keeps her phone and money..... Now if I can only find the sweeties!!!

5 things.....

Darling Baby Kay - this evening I am going to just pop down on your blog another 5 things for you to read when you are older. The list this evening is the new little things that you are doing.

1. You hold each one of your little animal skittles up to me in turn when you are unpacking them from the bag, so that I can make their noises for you. Sometimes when they are all scattered around the floor about you, you will suddenly spot one again and hold it up in the air and look at me - as if to say 'What does this one do, Mummy?' You think my 'hee-haw' for your little blue donkey is the funniest thing!
2. When you are reading your Peter Rabbit shapes book you trace the outline of the shapes on the page with your finger like I used to do when I was showing you the picture and saying the word. If I try to do the shape for you now you push my hand away!
3. For some reason you have taken a new shine to my glasses! You used to try to make a grab for them when you were very little, but you stopped when you were about 6 months. Suddenly, recently, you seem to have noticed them again. You lull me into a false sense of security by pretending you are doing something else and then when I get close you strike! They are covered with tiny fingerprints at the end of the day.
4. When you are having your bath at night you now splash like crazy!! You have always been quite active and wriggly in the bath, but recently you have started throwing your little plastic ducks around and holding them up to whoever is bathing you so they can drop them into the bath and splash you. You are still bright as a button and laughing at 6.30 in the evening when you have been up like a June bee since 7.00am!
5. When you are getting your nappy changed if I say to you 'Two feet please' you stop whatever you are doing and lift your two feet up to me so I can kiss the bottom of them for you! You think that is very funny, and it is proving very handy when you are distracted by something and not very keen on being bothered to have to be changed!

Every day is another little something new, my darling. It is wonderful to be a part of your days with you.

Who says junk mail is no fun?

Who says that junk mail is no fun? Here I am proving that junk mail is one of the greatest things ever invented - it is practically my favourite thing at the moment!!

Turning it into a great game requires a little bit of forward planning by Mummy. First she needs to wait until I have torn up all the pages of the magazines, leaflets, flyers, and other general toot that comes through the door (being careful to remove all cellophane covers which fascinate me and which I am determined to get my hands on..... Mummy is having to be VERY vigilant on this one!) We have even had a promotional DVD for a holiday firm that Mummy and Daddy are now never going to find out all about!!

Then she waits til I am sleeping, or playing with proper toys that people have bought for me, and she spends a few minutes folding the paper up into little parcels, and triangles, and oblongs; tucking and creasing the paper over and over into little shapes. She pops them all into a little cardboard box we have, and then it's my turn!!

I get the box and take all the paper out, one at a time - unfolding the pages, looking at the pictures, kissing the babies in them, eating the corners when Mummy isn't looking, putting some of it down the back of the sofa, but mainly scattering it all over the place. Putting it back into the box is just as much fun for now!!

I wonder will it be so much fun putting things back when I'm a big girl and Mummy wants me to tidy up my toys??

Me and my Girl

Darling Baby Kay - it has been a very busy and manic weekend here at home, but lovely at the same time. We have had CC over staying from England, and spent the last couple of days entertaining - although she really is the most wonderful easy company, and is so happy to muck in, eat what we eat, go where we go, and just relax together and catch up. By rights we should be tired this evening, and though I will be glad to get to bed tonight I am feeling upbeat and happy having had such a great time with her. The last time she saw you was at your Baptism last June, when you were 12 weeks old, and she couldn't believe how you had changed.

We went over to the Outlet on Saturday so CC could look at the shops, and we all had lunch over there too. It was your first real lunch out where I didn't bring a little home-made meal, and took the chance that we would be able to order something off the menu that would suit you too. We ended up with a side order of mashed potato - which we added some of Daddy's fish and mushy peas to - and you had a wonderful time. You sat very happily in the restaurant for the whole 75 minutes we were there - which after a morning trailing round the shops in your pram was no mean feat for one so small. You are such a joy to take out with us; you are so happy to go anywhere, sit and look around and wave at people and you rarely make a scene or get cross. I even managed to get you some 'big girl' spoons now that you are taking an active interest in inspecting what you are being fed, and are determined to grab the spoon!

And today I am posting a photograph that CC took today of the 2 of us before she left. Lovely Jaime mentioned in one of her comments that she was waiting on a picture of Mummy and me - and it made me realise that in all the pictures I have posted on here I have not posted a single one of the 2 of us together - usually because it is me behind the camera and when anyone offers to take one of us my hair is doing the wild-thing or I look like I have had even less sleep than usual! Ignoring the circles under the eyes, I think this is a good one of the 2 of us - and you look just as beautiful as ever my darling little lady. Sweet dreams my angel x x