Rachel, Owen and Kathryn

Visit to Eureka, the national children's museum (30th May 2011) They have a modest sand-pit there:

Smithills Open Farm (near Bolton) one Saturday. She seems soo confident - and liked so much she had another go!

If you recognise the Joan Armatrading quote you must be at least as old as me. Or should that be I? Pronouns are another thing that cause difficulty in language acquisition. I was recently asked why children tend to refer to themselves in the third person. It might not be obvious unless you stop to think about it, but lots of different people can confusingly say "I", but only Katy can say "Katy" and mean herself; whereas lots of people say "you" to her and it always means Katy. Thus when I ask "Do you want to walk up the stairs or shall I carry you?" she will often reply "Carry you" - meaning "Carry me", of course. Comprehension is gradually dawning, however, as yesterday when I asked her who would do something she said "I do it", clearly meaning herself. We've just had a fairly adventurous weekend. Owen was up in the Lakes playing at the Ulverston Festival for 2 nights running, and staying with friends in Silver...

The recent bank holiday weekend provided the opportunity for lots of new experiences, visiting grandparents, meeting extended family, and more linguistic progress: Katy's first 4-word sentence. Katy was happily playing with her Grandma's wooden toys, sorting little rabbit shapes into a pot, when she said "Baby 'nother rabbit in". OK, so it's not the conventional word order, but that's the first time she's put two qualifiers in front of a noun. She's evidently enjoying the power of speech: you can say things and people then do them. Yesterday on the doorstep she told a friendly neighbour to "Go back in!" (there was a definite twinkle in her eye). This morning I was enjoying Rachmaninov's 2nd symphony on the car radio, until Katy said "No music!" But mummy likes this one . "Turn it off!" I turned it off. No point talking about democracy or proportional representation to this little dictator. Here we are messing about...

Stockley Farm did have a few animals, but the indoor play opportunities proved more attractive in the end.

On a tip from friends we visited Walton Hall Gardens (21st March), which offers a 'children's zoo' and a superior playground featuring a complicated tunnel installation which Katy explored very thoroughly, fighting off all the older children. The zoo was populated by some very dramatic peacocks, a motley collection of rabbits and guinea pigs, a couple of donkeys and ponies, invisible red squirrels, and a little herd of dwarf goats. Two of them wandered out of a barn and Katy announced "Two goats!". Impressive enough, thought I, but then another trotted out and she said "Three!" Blow me down, the child's not yet 20 months and she can count! Her parents were not as clever, however, as we managed to leave home without her coat. She had to wear my grey fleece with the sleeves rolled up, but it was so long on her she looked like a mini Gandalf wandering through the Shire.

Cotebrook Shirehorse Centre again. Here's a shire horse having a shower, and Katy displaying her mastery of balance on her rocking horse. The little piglets running loose around the fields caused her endless delight, and the soft toy pig we bought her has quickly become and essential sleeping companion.

If you've ever wondered, here's your answer. Taken at our return visit to the Shire Horse Centre, 13th March 2010.

One of the great advantages life in Manchester has over London is the speed at which you can reach the countryside. Having promised Katy a trip to see some pigs on Saturday, we discovered our local 'city farm' is closed for the foreseeable. Time for Plan B. In about 45 minutes drive (ideal nap time) we found ourselves in deepest Cheshire at the Cotebrook Shire Horse Centre , where they have not only shire horses (and foals), but pigs, rabbits (galore), otters, a barn owl, a buzzard and a fox - trying to sleep in his box despite gawping visitors who are invited to switch a light on to view the poor creature! There was also a flock of black sheep, which pleased Katy no end. I think most parents frequently ask their children "What noise does a cat/dog/duck-billed platypus make?" but Katy turned the tables on me yesterday. She was repeatedly making a sound I couldn't identify with any particular animal, and when I said "That's a funny noise, who makes that n...

I finished work much earlier than everyone else so that we could actually have a family holiday before Owen was plunged into the non-stop festive concert season that is Christmas and New Year. First stop on our tour was Andrew and Sarah in Cambridge, a high-tech home equipped with two felines - so plenty of entertainment for a curious toddler. I'm fairly confident the hard-drive crash they experienced just after we arrived had nothing to do with Katy. On to my maternal uncle and aunt in East Malling, Kent, with a wonderful conglomeration of cousins of various degrees and the first opportunity for Katy to meet Ava, born just 3 days before her to my cousin Sarah (who is one of the reasons for Katy's middle name). Moments of great delight when Katy sat on Ava's 'ride-on' toy, and rather than protesting, Ava immediately proceeded to push her all around the house on it. One day off and a chance to get my hair cut, then on the road again to Shropshire to see friends with ...

That's the motto of the Blue Planet Aquarium near Chester where we took Katy to see some of the 'ish' she knows from picture books. Overpriced entry, terrible tea, and awful tasting Kingcone icecreams that used to be so heavily advertised in cinemas when I was a kid. But Katy enjoyed close-up views of little leopard sharks and enormous manta rays in the underwater tunnel, made from 6cm acrylic which could take the weight of several elephants.

And she is a one, too ... she's just started saying "ta" if we give her something desirable (like a large blackberry) in a disarmingly charming way. To say I don't know where the year has gone would be a cliche, but I did find myself yesterday reliving some still very vivid memories of giving birth . The feeling of a small, warm, fuzzy haired thing being put on my tummy is one which will never fade. We both had to go to work on her actual birthday, but we had lots of fun the day before. Her cousins joined us for a family day out to what was billed as a 'teddy bears' picnic' organised by the East Lancashire Railway , which turned out to be a cross between a traditional village fete and Phoenix Nights . The promised steam train broke down, but at least we didn't get rained on. We visited the Leicester grandparents on Sunday and will see the Derby grandparents next Sunday. My first day in my new role went well, and I'm wondering if a pattern is emergi...

A beach babe! Beach being the operative word (rather than "seaside"), as reaching the sea at Southport entails a major hike. Paddling is postponed until we can visit somewhere like Formby, and maybe spot some red squirrels too. Closer to home, she's been enjoying our friends' back garden paddling pool with young chum Euan - in fact I don't think I've seen her so excited before!

At Nanny & Granddad's allotment the other weekend, and looking rather suspiciously at the (very well behaved) dog - or is it her father's smelly socks that are bothering her?

Katy at the zoo yesterday.

Comments invited for a caption to the pic above. I'll be honest and admit there's no prize this time.

And what shall we look at next? Chester zoo yesterday was completely different to my childhood memories of such things, a real multisensory experience with noisy pink flamingo, smelly elephant dung, bats flying past our faces, and real cheeky monkeys. This looks set to be a regular destination, but it's back to the grindstone today, with Owen doing at least two jobs a week for the next few weeks, and the exciting round of playgroup - food fiasco - afternoon walk - chaotic nights for me. Those lions snoozing blissfully in the spring sunshine did make me a tad jealous!

A baby's first word is a tremendous event, eagerly awaited by the parents: will she say 'dada' or 'mama'? Yesterday Katy and I were sitting on the sofa looking at my latest purchase from Amazon, with Katy doing her best to turn the packaging into pulp. Tigga jumped up to join us and miaowed assertively, to which Katy responded 'Ca! Ca!'. Mama and dada foiled by a feline! The day before we had a wonderful first picnic at Dunham Massey, where we did the deed and joined the National Trust. So we must be a proper family now.

So said George Bush, according to our local organic greengrocer's, where we buy the stuff - Katy loves it! We discovered that it wasn't the cleverest idea to give it to her sitting on a leather sofa in a Greenwich restaurant, however. She utterly loved seeing new places and people on our recent visit to friends in London, but found it all too exciting to be conducive to sleep. So we're all a bit exhausted and will need something like spinach to keep us going tomorrow.

This wintry weather has provided lots of opportunities for 'firsts'. On 2nd January the three of us went for our first family walk in the park, to Didsbury's Fletcher Moss Gardens, looking enchanted in the snow (pictured). Then my new friend new mum Sharon (another sarf Londoner astray in the north west) drove me & Katy to Dunham Massey, where she experienced the squawking of canada geese and mallard ducks, the squeaking of coots, and saw her first deer. (Well to be absolutely honest, I saw the deer on her behalf, as she was asleep by that stage). Then we broke out the sandwiches in the picnic area, picturesquely situated next to a frozen stream, and I tried my first breast-feeding al fresco - oh dear! Happily the breast feeding seems to be working well in general, however, as during the 4 weeks since we last had her weighed before Christmas Katy has made a tremendous growth spurt and rocketed from the 25th to the 50th centile on her growth chart (in case that should me...