It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The snow has come. Kit's been out having fun with her sledge.

Eugene came to stay for a couple of days. He has got fatter, but it was like he had never been away. We miss Eugene.

We made a start on Christmas crafts. Kit got her cards done and mummy started on some presents for her - dolly clothes and some knitted things.

Kitty and daddy came to the Christmas lantern parade that mummy organised at work. Kitty made a pretty orange and pink papier mâché lantern. She gave Santa her Christmas letter too.

We discovered that buttons are a great addition to playdoh play.

Chickenpox

Adult chicken pox is BAD. The worst. More than a week off work and I'm covered in spots - face, head, body, mouth, even the bottom of my feet. The Doctor says I'm likely to get scars too as my skin is 'not as young as it should be' to deal with Chickenpox. I thought about posting a picture, but really it's just too horrible so here is a nice one of Kitty instead.

October & November catch up

I have been neglecting this blog a bit, mainly due to the fact that we Skype a lot now. However, I still really like having this record of our family life to look back on, so here is a quick catch up from October and November.

October was party month. First Halloween, then Kits best friend Riley had a birthday, a charity Pirate Day for Barnardo's at Nursery and of course my birthday too.

Fancy dress was required for a Halloween Party

and this year Kit wanted to be a witch like all of her friends. In two evenings I managed to rustle up a pretty cool witches dress and cape. I didn't want it to be too Disneyfied like the ones you can buy in the supermarket, so I based it loosely on Sunny's costume in Lemony Snicket, with little short puffed sleeves, organza arms, long shaped skirt filled with a netted underskirt to make it look like she was gliding. I kept to black with just a touch of purple, some beading detail and a sprinkle of sparkly spiders on the bodice and hem. A little witches hat and some purple & black stripey tights set it off a treat. Unfortunately she wouldn't stand still, so I didn't get a decent picture.

Riley (Kits best friend) turned 3 in November and invited us to her party at a local 'family pub'. They had a fantastic play area and with a little help from her friend Johnathan, brave Kitty climbed straight to the top - about 18ft high!

For Barnardo's Charity Big Toddle, Kitty h

ad to dress as a pirate for Nursery. I didn't have much notice to this, so just made a little waistcoat and she just wore her jeans and a stripey top. With the addition of a spotty bandanna I think it did the trick. Kit raised £15 in sponsorship.

November was my Birthday too. Thirty-eight sounds scary. Mum and Dad came for a visit and we had a lovely tea party, with lots of jelly, cake and candles. I received lots of really

nice presents (thanks everyone!) including a fab new fox lampshade from Kitty and Peahead that I had been drooling over in a shop in Hebden. Lush Designs, same as my pig cushion a few years ago.

Unfortunately, November also brought Chickenpox. I had a couple of days off too look after kit while she was spotty, but it didn't seem to bother her too much and we had a fun few days at home. Little did I know that 10 days later I would break out in spots half way through a meeting with the tourist board. And adult Chickenpox is certainly not as much fun!

Domesticity

Kitty has always liked helping me around the house, but her domesticity is getting out of control! Today she had dinner on the stove, a cake in the oven and while she was waiting had decided to iron her dolly clothes. In true domestic goddess style, she was also sporting a pretty pink apron and her best pearls.

I think playing in muddy puddles redresses the balance.

I finally finished Kitty's odd-ball cardigan that I started in the summer. The colour mix is a little 'different' but it looks quite cute on and will be a useful addition to her wardrobe. To follow the theme of using up odd bits of wool I had leftover, I added a few odd buttons from my stash.

Scrumping

A problem with my car resulted in an unexpected but very welcome extra day off work/nursery. Time for scrumping some apples. Collecting some for us and as many as we could fit in the bucket of Kits trike for the goats.

A nice long walk, eating plenty of Blackberries along the way.

Saying hello to the fancy chickens that live down the lane. They moved in several months ago, but apparently have yet to lay a single egg.

Petting Steven and giving him one or two of our apples.

The usual chores, but much more fun when there is time to spend messing around.

Kitty is currently obsessed with things that 'look like' other things. My favourite observations so far include spotting a cloud that looked like Spike (our white cat), a bin lorry's wing mirrors that look like ears and noticing that the honey on her porridge makes the same pattern as the giraffe fur pattern on her slippers. She is a clever little bean.

It's over

We spent the last days of our holidays playing on the canal........

............and eating cheese pie and vegetables at the Craven Heifer in Kelbrook.

Kitty has been a star for two whole weeks.

But now it is over. Back to the rat race.

Moose slippers

A great little parcel arrived in the post from cousin Olive. Recently back from a trip to Canada, Olive sent Kitty these fab Canadian hand knit slippers and a lovely letter telling us all about her exciting holiday. Thank you!

Mommy and baby moose taken by Uncle Steven Pih.

Egg n chips

We took our bikes to Blackpool to try out the wonderful stretch of beachfront that has been remodelled as part of a massive regeneration programme. The cycling was great, but the weather was not so good. It started out ok, but by the time we had cycled from South Beach and out towards the dunes at Lytham St Annes Kit was getting a bit cold and it started to rain. The cycle back was pretty wet and windy, but egg and chips in a greasy spoon cheered everyone up.

Kitty and mummy looking for shells in the cold.

Just as we were getting ready to call it a day, the sun came out and Kitty got to spend 10 minutes playing in the tide. She loved it and got wet through.

It was still sunny when we got home, so we spent the rest of the day planting up winter pansies and painting alfresco. I turned my back for a minute and Kit decided to paint her face. She has since had a shower and despite lots of scrubbing, her nose is still tinged green.

Summer staycation

Since holidays away are always difficult (asking someone to feed the goats for a week or two is not quite as easy as asking a neighbour to keep an eye on a cat!) and money is tight, we decided to take two weeks off work/nursery and just stay at home. We have been very busy and so far thoroughly enjoying ourselves. The weather has been an odd mix of torrential rain and hot hot sun, but this had made for some great rainbows.

We have visited the Simpson's and fed Grandads enormous fish.

We have been tending to Kitty's miniature sunflowers in the hope that some extra care may make them suddenly grown another 10 foot in order to beat cousin Olive in the sunflower growing contest.

Kitty stayed overnight at Grandma and Grandad Pih's house for the first time. Grandad Pih lit a Chinese paper lantern to mark the occasion.

It was the first night mummy and Kitty had ever been apart. Kitty wasn't worried at all and had a great time, but mummy felt a bit strange.

We tried to make the most of a night off and went to the cinema to see Inception (OK, but don't blink or you'll get lost, plus Leonardo is terrible as per usual). We even went to a pub in Burnley after (also pretty terrible). There is not much to do around here so we have not been missing much over the last two years.

There have been lots of walks and Rosie has been showing Kitty all the best spots for Blackberry picking.

Many, many trips to the park.

Kitty's first babycino.

Lots of crafting.

Kitty got a production line going for birthday present thank you cards.

Mummy made Kitty a new cardigan from bits of wool left over from other projects. It just needs the ends darning in and some buttons, but we are in no rush to finish it as Kitty says she hates it.

Our cheeky chocolate face is two

I can hardly believe that Kitty is already two. It only seems like a blink away from when she arrived, though it is increasingly difficult to remember life without her. We are quite an odd pair myself and Peahead, and we did worry that a third person would find it hard to fit in but she has proven to be most definitely one of us and fits in perfectly. Despite being 50% me and 50% Peahead in every way, she is the happiest little thing and great fun to be around. She has an incredible sense of humour, some great conversation and is so bright that she amazes us each and every day. The most impressive thing she started to do just this week is use the words 'me' and 'mine'. In the space of a few days she went from describing things as 'Kitty's' to 'mine' and saying 'me' in response to questions like 'who spilt the juice?' rather than saying 'Kitty'. This seems like a massive developmental step and one that she has fully grasped practically overnight. Incredible.

Kitty had a lovely birthday party at Grandma Pih's house. Everyone came and there were lots of bubbles.

And lots and lots of presents.

We have been trying out our new bikes. So far, just close to home along the Leeds - Liverpool canal between Foulridge and Thornton-in-Craven on the national cycleway route 68. If we get good at this we could actually cycle all the way to Derby along this route! Perhaps a few nights in the tent along the way.

Kitty seems to like it a lot, especially when we stop for ice-cream or a park or when we spot animals. We have already seen lots of cows, sheep and horses, a few pigs and chickens, some rabbits, fish, ducks, swans and what looked like a heron (?).

I'm quite taken with all the canal boats. That looks like lots of fun.

Space cadets

This weekend we were back in Derbyshire as it was mama Simpson's birthday (65!). We also had an invite to attend a party for Cassian's 2nd birthday. Holly made Cas this cool rocket cake. We had chocolate pancakes, played pass the parcel and a pretty good time was had by all.

At mama's house we checked on the tadpoles, which have now grown legs and look more like frogs. Some have even lost their tales.

The first thing Kitty always wants to do at mama and grandads house (even before getting dressed!) is to feed the fish.

For Kit's birthday (which I can't believe is only a couple of weeks away now), we decided to buy some bikes so we could enjoy some fun days out together. We found a great bike seat a few weeks ago at Gisburn car boot and daddy managed to find a nice bike for himself on Gumtree. We were planning to start looking for a cheap one for me too, but mama and grandad Simpson revealed that one had been sitting in their shed for about 10 years. Before they had it, it belonged to Auntie Bessy, so some proper recycling going on here. Perfect! - it has a cute basket on and everything. I was a bit wobbly at first, but it soon came back. All we need now is a bike rack for the car and we'll be off. I want to try the Morecombe circular, but I think we'll probably just start with a few trips down the local canal towpath to see how it goes.

Kitty found some chickens in the bushes when we visited the garden centre.

A kiss for grandad Pih last weekend.

Look what daddy gets up to when unsupervised. Is this even legal?