Rachel, Owen and Kathryn

Pardon my post-natal brain, but it's only just occurred to me that I could post MOVING images of Katy here. This thought struck me only a month after it also occurred to me I could make little videos in the first place using my trusty phone. Sigh ... and I have to start work again in June, how ever will I persuade people I can still think straight? This mini-epic features Katy playing with what used to be a cat toy - formerly property of Tsi-Tsa - who doesn't seem to quite agree with this redistribution of wealth!

And be be be be! Kate has suddenly started to say repeated syllables, and seems exceptionally pleased about it. I think it's called 'reduplication', any language acquisition bods out there? She's trying more foods, like pasta, pears, avocado, and can feed herself bananas and rice cakes. We've held off the easily likeable apple juice in favour of water, which is going down well now (tho some does go down her bib admittedly). With all this noshing going on I've belatedly started brushing her t-t-two t-t-teeth.

Adults play 'peekaboo' with babies almost automatically, but it's a great joy when they learn to do it back to you! Kate's co-ordination is now such that she delights in lifting a muslin and dropping it suddenly, or hiding behind her bib when bored of eating (felafel is the latest discovery). Yesterday she did a big fart followed by a naughty giggle. She also takes obvious pride in her ability to STAND - for what seems an age - when holding on to something. According to one of my baby books (I've only got 2, honest) that comes under the category of what a baby her age 'may possibly be able to do'.

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.

Channel M (local tv channel for Manchester) came to film our Buggyfit class last week, and here's the result! It's in a series called "Style in the City", which shamelessly rips off the original Channel 4 series of a similar name ... Buggyfit on Style in the City You might spot a woman with a particularly stylish patch of white hair and striped blue jogging pants running like a gazelle across your screen. You'll need a recent version of Adobe Flash to play it. In order to avoid the tedious stuff about spotty dresses, skip forward to about the 6 minute mark (runs for about 4 mins in total).

Katy captures a capsicum in each tiny hand. Today's lunchtime smorgasbord also featured tomato (pulled a face), cucumber (likes), and the very popular toast. Not sure how much of it got eaten as the whole area ended up looking like a painting by Jackson Pollock, but the important thing is she's enjoying food.

It's Kathryn's half birthday! A good excuse for some more 'educational' toys, but who needs them when there's a tv remote control to get to grips with? She's a VERY happy chapess now her teeth are through, and I took the opportunity of Owen being away for 3 days in Athens with the CBSO to introduce a routine to re-teach her how to fall asleep by herself, and it worked fantastically well. She has slept 11 or 12 hours for the last 3 nights, and tonight she went to sleep without anything more than a few verses of Frere Jacques and a kiss. I only wish I could fall asleep so easily!