Rachel, Owen and Kathryn

One of Santa's little helpers? The littlest Little is of course more interested in the shiny wrapping paper than the contents, but we have been greatly moved by the many gifts people have sent her - thank you all VERY much! Katy herself gave us a lovely present of 6 hours uninterrupted sleep last night. We've had smoked salmon, scrambled eggs + fizz for lunch, been for a stroll to visit a few local friends, and so far our first Christmas as a family has been festively fab - and I still have Owen's fantastic cooking (leg of little Shetland lamb, all the rest of which is in the freezer) to look forward to once she's gone down this evening. So nothing can possibly go wrong now, can it?!

At least I think that's the correct description of Katy's latest 'pff' sound, it's a long time since I studied phonetics. The babbling continues, although this morning it only started at a relatively civilised 5 am. As usual we took her to our Quaker meeting this morning, where she seemed quite keen to break the silence with vocal ministry - until I decided her contributions would be more welcome in the children's group.

Another consonant! Yesterday's sound of the day was b, b, b. Could she be asking for beer already? Definite rock chick in the making! And she's practising percussion instruments already.

My nursing chair is set up so I can sit somewhere warm and watch the seasons change day by day. I've seen all kinds of birds, even a woodpecker having a desultory peck at the telegraph pole, but today a very different creature was perched outside, loading the new roof tiles onto the pavement. None of the banging and hammering seems to put Kathryn off her food though.

That's the title of this fantastic and fantastical set of stickers which now adorn the nursery wall. The trees in Chorlton, meanwhile, are devoid of any such varied foliage and the winter wind is howling - what better time to cover the house in scaffolding and get a new roof put on it?! The sleep adjustment trial has been broadly successful and if I'm lucky I get 6 hours sleep in one go. Except not the other night: Katy decided to execute a Molly Bloom style stream of all the sounds in her phonetic vocabulary for several minutes. It's been possible to have a 'conversation' with her for some weeks now but this babbling is a new and important stage in language development. I just hope it doesn't continue to happen at 3:30 in the morning!

Since she was about 6 weeks old and got over the fear of nakedness Katy has really enjoyed her bath. At a recent family visit her cousins, delighted by their baby relative, were eager to turn bathtime into a team event!

Just for Lesley: recent photographic evidence that I am actually alive and well, despite hiding on the other side of the camera (phone) most of the time. Just to prove my vitality, I've started a buggyfit class. Some genius had the idea that if mums find it difficult to get away from their babies in order to exercise, then they should be able to bring the babies along! So along we trot to Chorlton Water Park, whatever the weather, and power-walk our baby-filled buggies around the place, stopping at various points to do squats, lunges, press-ups off fences, tricep dips off benches, etc. etc. It's enormous fun, although it really makes you realise the enormous physical toll looking after a young baby takes on your back, knees, neck, ooh, everything actually! The only drawback is finding enough energy to exercise in the first place.