This month I will mostly be...

Taking things out that were in, and putting things in that were out, I will stack, post and organise as many of my toys as I can as quickly as I can, or as slowly as I want (if Mummy's in a hurry) - this is Molly's new mantra.

How cool is that!? It feels like she's moved onto a whole new level of play. Thanks so much to dear Cathie and Mum for the great toys that she's just grown into. She just loves her peg board, stacking rings and musical house - although of course the house drives me insane, it's not just the noise (really!), but she has only just learned to open the door herself so after 6 or 7 opens and empties in a row... sometimes the house just disappears, how peculiar!!! I've tried to tell her it's OK to post them in with the door open, but no Mummy it's not OK!! Wonder where she gets that door problem from?

Cooking is her most recent passion - as you can see from the pic (and yes I know she looks a tad cross with me, but I'm going to say this is her concentrating face!), she loves to bash her pots and pans in the kitchen, and after watching me whisk some eggs for lunch she had to have that as her best bashing tool.

She's so funny to watch now, toddling about with a really determined look on her face, organising everything. She even does it in the bath, lining up all her ducks and toys along the edge of the bath, very cute.

She's also started to 'help' me with the laundry, taking things off the airer (we haven't mastered putting them on yet) and emptying the laundry basket for me - such a good girl, so what if I don't necessarily want to do laundry 4 times a day eh?

I even persuaded her to put all her toys away in the toybox the other day... unfortunately it seems that was a one off and ever since she's completely gone off that idea... bugger!

Porpoises in Purau

Molly and I went for a walk on Purau beach yesterday, well, I walked and Molly rode along in the back pack (such a great addition to our baby paraphenalia!). We were making the most of some gorgeous winter sunshine, cold but just lovely. I must admit after getting her hoisted up on my back and walking for five minutes I couldn't feel the cold at all. Talk about a workout, 30 minutes with a 12kg pack is better then an hour at the gym!

We were having fun shouting at a flock of Canada Geese that swooped in as we arrived (OK, I'll admit it was Molly that started it but there was no one else there so I joined in too!), and then I spotted what I thought was a couple of seals out in the bay, I didn't have my glasses on so I wasn't sure. We carried on walking and the 'seals' came a little closer and turned out to be a couple Hectors Dolphins (I think). How cool is that! Well Molly seemed wholly unimpressed - and was actually more interested in pulling the clip out of my hair (the only downside to the back pack is that she has full access to my hair and I have very little control over her hands!!) but I was very chuffed to see them. They played around for five minutes or so and then dissappeared.

And yes I know Hectors are not officially porpoises, but they look ever so similar and it made for a better title.

Crying, walking, sleeping (sometimes), talking...

Who would ever have thought I'd be quoting that useless t@#* Cliff Richard, but hey, what do you know we do in fact have a living doll in our home!

She's really walking now, and she seems to have gained come control over her speed and can now keep up a steady rhythm, as apposed to 1...2...3...456789CRASH. Much better. Although of course now the cat's days are surely numbered, poor Phoebe. It wouldn't be quite so bad if Molly didn't announce her intentions by running at the cat screaming like her hair is on fire, just for fun! Then again it might be worse for both of them if she didn't give her at least some warning... who knows! Bloody funny to watch though!

She's sleeping much, much better now too - finally - she seems to be in the correct time zone again and is back on track to sleeping through the night again. Plus her appetite is well and truly back, such a bonus, we're trying to start weaning her off the boob, which would be nigh on impossible if she wasn't eating three meals a day. The only problem with this is that she point blank refuses formula, and I would like to get her drinking at least one bottle of this a day just to be sure she's getting all the vitamins and what not that she needs - even on her fussy days... any ideas anyone?

As for the talking, well she's always been a proper little chatterbox, and has been babbling for ever and a day. But now real words are beginning to come (I think, or alternatively I could just be doing that, 'oh she means ...' thing that we mum's are prone to do?!). Now in the mornings if I'm not quick enough when she wakes she shouts Muuuuummmmmy! The first time she did this I was just over the moon, now I wish she'd decided Daaaaadddy was the best way to go, oh well.

And the crying, well, that's taken as read right?

Family Fun!

So, a quick run down of the fun and games we got up to whilst in England these last three weeks, or at least the highlights.

The weather was so good that really every day was great. Allowing us to sit outside and enjoy the sun, go for walks (with or without my Mum's mental dog - who for the whole visit could not be persuaded to stop licking Molly's face. She coped fine, and after just one day she would see him coming towards her and put her hands over her face and giggle, cute as!), enjoy lots of barbecues and generally bum around in the sun... lovely!

A really fun day was with all the family again, my side and hubby's, including all of Molly's cousins and great grandparents. We went to Avon Valley Country Park, it's a huge rural park just outside of Bristol with a big adventure play centre, go-karting and petting zoo, so as you can imagine the girls were in their element (see cheesy family pic - it was all a bit much for Moomy, as you can see she's passed out in her stroller!).

Another sunny day was spent at Bath Park, a really cool playground in the centre of beautiful historic Bath (do I sound a tour guide?!). Molly enjoyed the swings, sliders and roundabout - especially because Daddy was making an idiot of himself for her - and also devoured an 99 ice cream, making one hell of a mess! Of course she couldn't rival the mess that Mummy made of herself, managing to sit squarely on top of a huge pile of duck s*#@, wearing cream pants, with no change of clothes or way of concealing what looked like a serious 'toilet malfunction' shall we say! Oh how we laughed, well, how everyone else laughed at my expense!!!

We went to Bristol Zoo as well. It's been a good few years since we went to the zoo (too many to even think about really... we're so old!), and it was soooo much better then I remember it, they've done lots of work to all the enclosures and the animals seem happy and lively - which makes a change eh?! And best of all Molly really enjoyed it, she's so interested in everything around her now, it's just lovely to watch her little face as she takes it all in.

We had a couple of really nice walks at Westonbirt Arboretum and Chew Valley Lake, and I'll be honest, I'd forgotten how beautiful our part of the UK is. This is before we'd ventured even further south to my family in Dorset, another stunning part of the country, coastal and very rural.

Speaking of which, we had a lovely afternoon in a country pub in Symondsbury, Dorset, with almost the entire extended family (on my Mum's side) turning up to meet Molly and enjoy the sun and cider. I was so pleased that they all made it, and it was so nice to get everyone together for something other then a funeral or some other church occassion. We met lots of new members of the family too, my cousins son - whom I've seen pictures of, but never met, he's such a sweetie - and new partners, and wives even, of my aunts and uncles.

I could post a million pictures of our outings and daytrips, but you know what it's like looking at other peoples holiday snaps, boring as hell right? we love them but I won't inflict them on you poor unsuspecting readers.

Crikey an awful lot changes in three years! Who knows what will be new by the time we next visit...

Molly & Maisie's first birthday party

We had the most perfect day at Hunstrete House Hotel to celebrate our beautiful girls first birthdays.

Molly's cousin, Maisie, was born just a couple of weeks before her, (I think our due dates were actually the same to start with, freaky or what?!). So what better way to commemorate their first birthday then getting all the family together at the same hotel where hubby and I were married 5 years ago.

Eating too much, drinking champagne, lounging and swimming in the sun. Needless to say a good time was had by all. Again, the weather was superb (our wedding day was a dream - rain until an hour before and then an hour after it was all over it poured again!), who would believe this was England in June - I even got a tan! The company was lovely. The food, especially the cake - thanks Mum - was wonderful and I really can't thank everyone enough for such a perfect day.