I'm so excited for Christmas this year. I face a dilema with the tree though, Edie will pull it over in five seconds flat if she gets the chance and the presents underneath wouldn't stay wrapped for long. I can't not have a tree. I was thinking of getting a small one and putting it on the side board but I won't be able to put many lights on it and that's my favourite part, there's nothing better than being cozed up in the living room with the lights of and loads of Christmas tree lights shining.

Dining al Fresco -or- Eatin' Yer Tea Outside

We've been having some wonderful weather here in the Middle Lands. The girls love the garden and I'm so grateful for it after too many years in flats it's so good to have a private bit of outdoor space, the hedges are wild and high and the fences are 7 footers so it really does feel quite secluded.
I love watching Lily and Edie play on the trampoline, it's totally fenced in so it's like a giant playpen so I zip 'em in there and get on with important stuff like shaking blossom down from the tree, picking the paint off the shed door and sorting the pegs on the washing line into matching colours.

We haven't got an outdoor table yet, we only have 4 plastic garden chairs because we stole them from Toms' mum, but Edie has her high chair and Lily is happy to eat off of her lap so eating outdors is the new big excitement. It has the added bonus of all the food that gets dropped/thrown on the floor doesn't matter and there's no mess to clean up. In fact, I don't even need to sweep the patio because next doors cat, the big fluffy beast Felix, comes and noms up the dropped bits of pasta and kiwi slices.


Lily came home from golf in her PE kit, which looks like a Victorian bathing suit to me. She loves her pasta & pizza, must be her Italian quarter




Messy girl!


Keek likes to sit near us, always. He's hoping for dropped bits of meat but as they're vegetarians he's shit out of luck! He should learn to be less fussy, like Felix.

Edie is now one. Lily's first year didn't go anywhere near as fast as this, maybe it's just what happens with subsequent children.

Edie now has a whopping six teeth, two at the bottom and four at the top. She still doesn't have much hair but what is coming through seems to be blonde. Tom and I are decidedly dark but one of us must have a bit of Viking, must be Tom. She started walking properly, not just the odd step here and there, just after her birthday and now she loves to move in her new light-up £obscene-amount Clarks trainers. Her feet are huge, 4G which is the average shoe size of most three-year-olds.

Lily is still being The Best Big Sister Ever. I love to watch them playing and interacting, their favourite place to be is the bath closely followed by the garden. Lily's patience amazes me and she genuinely adores Edie, never jealous and always caring. I think the 5 year age gap is a lot to do with it, she's had all her baby-ing and is happy to be the more mature one!

Growing and growing

Edie is nine months now, she's been out of my belly longer than she was in it. She's developing her own little personality and it's wonderful. She's cheeky and smiley and brave, totally fearless. She's started to say words which are, of course as these things always go, 'Dada' and 'Papa'. She also sleeps in her cot next to our bed from 7.30pm on her own, quite happily, and wakes up at 11.30 on the dot to come in bed with us for a little feed then she's out, star-shaped and snoring between us. Lily usually creeps in in the wee small hours too, add Kiki the cat and it's real sleep-fest we've go going on and although I curse it and it's wonky slats often I'm so glad we have The Biggest Bed Ever.

Milestones..

At six months Edie might not have any hair or teeth but the clever little bean just pulled herself up into a standing position. Using the towel on my head that she was facinated with. So proud *tear*

6 Months!

So it seems I can't update every day, once a week or even once a month.. doesn't mean I've given up though!

Since I discovered that I could exclusively breastfeed Edie after a reduction I've been a little reluctant to start her on any other foods. I started Lily on solids at around 3.5 months under misguided advice from health visitors and family and although she never had any digestion problems - she had, and still has, a cast iron stomach - looking back now that was far too early. The WHO recommends starting solids at 6 months and I decided that since Edie has been lunging at any food she sees (including cat and guinea pig food) I would see if she was ready. I have been doing a mix of baby led weaning and home made purees. She loves to moosh on a face sized rice cake and whole broccoli florets but there's nothing as cute as a baby covered in mushed up baby food:

That's a lovely concoction of broccoli, cauliflower and baby stock water all whizzed up in my useless Anthony Worrall Thompson blender which I've hated since the day my parents presented it to me in it's box plastered with the mini chef's smug little face. It's broken now which may or may not have been caused by the verbal and physical abuse inflicted upon it.

The Kids

We took a trip to the 1970's

16+3 Weeks

16 + 2 Weeks