Party time

Kitty got her first invite to attend a birthday party for one of her little friends from nursery - Eddie.

It was at a Wacky Warehouse. She didn't like the pizza and french fries on offer (I don't blame her - it was pretty horrible!) but the pink milk ice-cream lolly was a hit.

They all sang Happy Birthday to Eddie and then enjoyed a good hour and a half going mad in the soft play area.

Riley, one of Kitty's best friends was also at the party. The pair were inseparable. Despite being eight months younger than Riley, Kitty is most definitely the leader!

At nursery today, Kitty decorated a hard boiled egg with glitter.

Crafty weekend

Kitty loves the Ikea Mala easel that auntie Alison got her for Christmas. Today, she did some painting and gluing.

The finished piece. Surprisingly little paint ended up anywhere else but on the page!

Kitty keeps losing her gloves, so I made her some from wool scraps that has a string to go through her coat. They were really quick to make, so if they work I might make some more with prettier wool.

I finally finished Kitty's new purple cardigan that I started way back in March. It is a little big yet, but I can't believe how much bigger it is than the green one I made in the same design when she was born. I guess it's definitely time to stop trying to squeeze her in it!

Let it snow!

After my first day back at work yesterday, it was wonderful to wake up early this morning to see the amount of snow that had fallen over night! To be fair, we did get ready, dig the car out and attempt to drive to the end of the lane with all good intentions before deciding it just wasn't going to happen and going back inside. I called the one guy that had actually made it to work and then we set about having a fun day.

By 11am, daddy had been sent home from work too so we ventured out into the snow. This time I remembered great mama Kitty's technique of putting a plastic bag between two layers of socks to keep little hands warm and dry. It worked a treat!

Bert loves the snow too!

Daddy decided to take Kitty sledging.........without a sledge! Looks a little like baby abuse, but honestly, she loved it.

Kitty's new fair isle beret knitted at the weekend from Jaeger Handknits JB29.

Forecast is for more snow until the weekend. Lets hope so!

October - Kitty the bat

In October, Kitty won best Halloween costume in her class. Mummy worked hard into the night for four nights to make it. For just a couple of pounds you can buy any number of ready made witch, pumpkin, batman or skeleton costumes but for me that's not what a competition is about - who can buy the best. It's a creative effort, and anyway Kitty REALLY wanted to be a bat and Sainsbury's don't do bat. She makes such a cute bat don't you think?

We all went to Alison, O'Neil and the kid's Halloween party. Here, the competition for best costume was much stronger!

Coco the baby bear from nursery came to stay with us for the weekend. I think we showed her a good time. Kitty and I had to write a diary about what we all got up to.

September

At the beginning of September, Grandma Pih took us all on a trip to the Zoo. It was freezing but we had a nice time. Kitty liked seeing the animals and spending time with grandma, but I must admit I find zoo's pretty depressing places. However much money they spend on the animal enclosures, the animals just look so out of place and miserable. The elephants and big cats looked particularly sad.

Kitty doing an impression of a miserable lizard.

Kitty and daddy playing in a viewing tunnel.

A bit of culture, as Kitty experienced the Tate Liverpool for the first time.

Mummy and Kitty look confused - is it art, or is it sticky tape on the floor???

Naughty Kitty trying to pull the installation off the wall.

August - a first birthday party

In August, Kitty was 1. We had a little party for her in the back garden with friends, family and lost of animals. Luckily the weather stayed nice and we had a lovely day. We had lots of nice veggie food and our friend Fran took charge of a BBQ for the meat eaters. Daddy made his speciality mini pink meringues (which are actually a Valentine Warner speciality) and great cousin Claire made Kitty one of her brilliant cakes. It was great to see lots of kids running around the place, playing together and enjoying being outside. Most of them went home good and dirty, a few scraped knees and plenty of nettle stings. Just as it should be!

Beautiful Kitty, captured in black and white by Uncle Darren's amazing Lumix LX3.

Lucky Kitty had a second party at nursery the following Monday. She took in homemade goodie

bags for her friends, a pass the parcel and the head from her birthday cake. Kitty especially enjoyed wearing the 'birthday girl' hat and dancing.

Later in the month we headed to Nottingham for little Cassian's naming ceremony. We took Cas a plant - Pennisetum Cassian's Choice (fountain grass).

It was a lovely day and Kitty enjoyed bossing Cas around! We stayed over with mama and grandad Simpson. By this time Kitty was well on her feet and enjoyed running around in great mama Kitty's massive garden.

Picking apples with grandad.

July - working mummy

The 'work life balance' seems not to exist in our world. With work hours peaking in July and weekends necessary, Mummy has to start taking Kitty to work with her on Saturdays for exhibitions. This is not ideal, but better than extra day-care surely? She seemed to enjoy it and so did the customers. Not sure about my boss though!

How lucky are those Mummies who get to forget about work for a couple of years while they take care of their little ones. I see them strolling past my office window everyday. Generally they look quite bored with it all. I feel like shouting out of the window and reminding them how lucky they are and to bloody well cheer up and enjoy the luxury of time they have to kill with their babes.

Kitty developed a new passion for chalk in July.

First real steps. First little shoes. Startrites bought with some money from great Mama Kitty. Thank you!

We found a piece of ginger that looks like Iggle

piggle.

Looking cute eating a peach.