Halloween...

Elizabeth and I carved our first ever pumpkin lantern on Friday, and very good it was too! We lit it yesterday as our gesture towards Halloween, and she seemed to really enjoy it... In fact, over the last few days Elizabeth and I have been enjoying doing things together - we've made a madeira cake, some flapjack, she's helped with the evening meal, and we've introduced 'the creature' at bathtime, who can be scary or friendly depending on how good Elizabeth's behaviour is. She still has her moments, but perhaps we are turning a corner. She's much more independent now - walking upstairs by herself, and fetching things on her own from her bedroom. She can pretty much go to the toilet by herself, and starts to wash and dress herself in the morning. She's long been able to put her own shoes on, and recently she's started feeding Edward his medicine and fetching his socks and clothes and so on. She says so many things, sometimes funny, sometimes amazing, sometimes you just can't imagine where she's got it from. There are so many things that I wouldn't know where to start trying to record it all!

Edward has got his sixth tooth, and seems to be settling down a bit after a horrendous week of (no) sleep last week. He took to staying awake for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night, and it was slowing killing us! He's feeding less and less now, less than five minutes at a time generally, and doesn't feed to sleep any more. He still doesn't like to be put down in his cot, but seems to be having a short(ish) morning nap, and then a longer sleep after lunch. He is eating more and more, and has eaten cod, beef, lamb, pork, chicken, eggs, pasta, cheese, yoghurt, lots of fruit and vegetables, oatcakes, bagels... loves his porridge and toast in the morning... has taken to drinking his water from his blue beaker...

We went to his friend William's christening last week and managed to feed Elizabeth from the buffet, and feed Edward pasta and cheese. It was exhausting as the hour went off, and we had been up since 5am, but another relative success. We've had some minor problems - leaking toilet, broken tumble dryer (i.e. the new one, still not fixed!!), end of my freebie phone contract... Husband is now ill and suspects it might be swine 'flu as one of his colleagues' wives had it, so time will tell, he was developing symptoms this afternoon so he might be a lot worse or a lot better tomorrow.

We've booked a party venue for Elizabeth's third birthday but still not sent out invitations - need to get on with that this week. I baked a loaf of bread today following Jamie Oliver's instructions, and it actually turned out ok! My back hurts. I'm knackered. I'm sure this post is all over the place as are my thoughts. The general outlook is sunny intervals though, rather than the persistent rain of recent weeks. Elizabeth is more of a pleasure to be with, Edward is marginally less sick, and easier to manage in his walker and high-chair. Onwards to Bonfire night and then our little girl's third birthday!!!