Rachel, Owen and Kathryn

Day after boxing day 2014

... the ceaseless round of school terms and extra-curricular activities. Starting with music classes on Monday after school (Kodály and Dalcroze methods thank you very much, none of that dodgy Suzuki stuff) and ballet on Saturday morning. We are slightly late jumping on this merry-go-round as we got held up with stuff like Katy's 5th birthday party (at a traditional gym hall, very popular with children of various ages) and a visit from 10-year old Bavarian cousin Jack. Taking two kids to Legoland fairly shredded my nerves, but the uncle-nephew axis was very usefully strengthened over curry and Dr Who videos. Although they didn't obviously interact very much, it has clearly been very important to Katy to be able to show off her cousin at the school gates and she has been writing little notes about "I love my family" in her drawing activities. She has also switched on to Lego remarkably quickly, so presumably will have no trouble with the instructions for flatpack furni...

Family life has been strange, and strained, of late: a real mixture of death and new life. The year started with the sudden death of Uncle Philip Kirkwood, closely followed by admission to hospital of Doug Little. Owen's elderly allotment neighbour died - meaning Owen could take over the adjoining plot and fulfill all his grand planting plans. Meanwhile Pat Little's vascular dementia has been putting increased strain on her family around her. Doug's health deteriorated and he was put on the 'Liverpool care pathway for the dying patient'. Frantic drive to Leicester for Owen. We all found it hard, including Katy, who suddenly became very tearful when she realised she was unlikely to see her grandpa again - and she did a horrible black scribbled picture, quite unlike her usual art work. Doug didn't want Katy traumatised by seeing him, but a retired child psychologist friend helped us persuade him otherwise, and we all went to visit him the other week - now dischar...

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

Katy's birthday celebration was a distibuted affair, with visits to the grandparents on the weekends either side of a Thomas the Tank Engine cake at nursery mid-week. We were also able to piggy-back on the much grander party at Marple Garden Centre [picture with big 2] organised for Celeste (daughter of an Anglo-German couple we met at NCT antenatal classes). We had a miniature train all to ourselves for the whole afternoon.

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...

The Easter 'holidays' were great fun, but not very relaxing this year as we had 8 visitors in 9 days (and 3 of them stayed for 6 nights). Owen's brother Alan came over from Munich with his family, and this time Katy was of an age where she could really enjoy getting to know her uncle, aunt ("Mia" was the closest she got to "Maria") and especially cousin Jack. She loved having them all in the house, and was utterly captivated by her energetic blonde 6-year-old cousin bouncing around the place and talking a funny language. I took her to an Anglican church service on Easter Sunday, which proved to be a real multi-sensory experience: starting with the church in darkness we processed in, holding candles and chanting. Plenty of good music (and Peppa Pig books) during the service, and a slice of rich cake afterwards. Then I took her for a perambulatory sleeping opportunity down Hawthorn Lane and Chorlton Ees nature reserve, so I could enjoy some tentative Spr...

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 ...

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...

And so did Kathryn Sarah, when her aunt Sarah came to visit at Easter. Much fun was had at a picnic locally and good meals at home. Katy has now tried red lentils (loved them), salmon (ok), scrambled eggs (indifferent) and sugar snap peas (came apart in her hand so deemed pointless). She's taking much less breast milk, which I find surpisingly sad although I know it's the whole point of the exercise (sniff).

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!

In her first 18 days Katy managed to meet: both sets of grandparents, uncles, aunts + cousins on both sides (even those based in Bavaria), and even a great uncle + aunt on Owen's side. We were very touched by her UK-based cousins, aged 5 + 7, who made a card 'To baby Kathryn, welcome to the family'.