I can’t believe I forgot to write about my first mothers day as a mother! Elsie remembered – what a little sweetie, and got me a very nice card. It’s amazing how much her writing is like her dad’s! She also planned to make me a chocolate cheesecake on mothers day itself, but didn’t read the recipe properly beforehand (very remiss of her) and it had to be left overnight to set, so we had it yesterday. But it was gorgeous and I am very impressed by her culinary skills!

She is so clever! She is in her chair at the moment reaching out and playing with the animals that hang from it with both her hands and her feet. She has now grasped the giraffe and is wrestling him into submission – go Elsie!

We just went for a walk around the cemetery again, it is a nice sunny day but very blustery and so she wore her hat that looks like a strawberry and looked so cute.

This is Elsie looking very gummy and gorgeous!

Hooray for Elsie! She slept for 13 hours last night, I knew she was a magic baby!! She went to bed at 9pm last night, and woke up at 10am this morning. I got up once just after Rob woke her up at 6am, but just stuck her dummy in her mouth and she went straight back to sleep. Brilliant!

It’s a good job too, I was shattered yesterday after our proper rock and roll weekend! Well, more funk and hip hop weekend. It was Katie’s birthday party, so Grandpa Caig came round to babysit and Rob and I went out until 4am! Rob was DJing for the first part of the night (Elsie and I had loads of fun helping him pick out his music – she particularly liked E-Man Par-tay by The Jimmy Castor bunch!!) So, we had a really good night, and Elsie got to spend some quality time with her grandpa!

She has learnt some new noises in the last couple of days, which are extremely cute. She now sounds a bit like R2-D2 – in a good way! She is making them now, looking out of the window at the grim and grey weather today as I write this. She really is such good company the majority of the time. I have heard motherhood, or at least these early days on maternity leave, described as brain draining time spent alone with nothing to think about – but I don’t feel like I spend my days alone at all. It definitely seems to me like Elsie and I have real interaction and communication, and that I spend all my time with an intelligent being. She seems to have a sense of humour and reactions to the world around her. I don’t know how much is actually there, and how much is me endowing her with qualities that I imagine she has. I suppose the point is that I really enjoy being with her – most of the time it is a real pleasure.

These are a couple of pictures of Elsie looking particularly animated a week or so ago.

We are having quite a relaxed week, not really getting up to much, except going for some nice walks now the weather is brighter.

These are a couple of pictures of when Auntie Katie came to stay.

Another fab picture taken by Auntie Zee! This was on Wednesday after Elsie and I had yomped around Bristol for about 100 miles to get to her house after misreading the A to Z - last time I let Elsie navigate!

Elsie now weighs 13bs and 10ozs, wowser! The nurses seem pleased that she is following the right growth line in her red book, so all is well there.

She hated her jabs again, and screamed so much, but calmed down quite quickly – I think I was more long term traumatised than her really. The nurse was very funny saying, ‘Come on, you’re a woman, and women can cope with anything – because we have to.’ I don’t know what’s been happening to her recently! I’m sure she is right and you do just cope with everything that parenthood throws at you, but it is so hard to see her in pain – I can understand why some parents want to wrap their children in cotton wool and hide them away from everything that could hurt them. I just hope I will be brave enough to let her go out and experience the world in all its glory, including all the scrapes and pain that will involve – and not totally freak out the first time she comes home with a grazed knee!

The nurse also said that she does have eczema, so we went to the pharmacy and got some aqueous cream for her elbows, and some oilatum for her bath after baby clinic yesterday. I hope it does the trick – at the very least putting oilatum in her bath has made her hair look very cool today in a kind of mohecan style!

We are going to spend this afternoon making a mini disk of Elsie’s favourite songs for adventurous Auntie Sally N over in NZ. There will be some KT of course, and Put your records on by Corinne Bailey Rae which is her new favourite song to dance (and sing!) to. She is also loving the Kanye West one which samples Move on up so I think there’ll have to be some Curtis on there too, oh what fun we shall have!

This is a picture of us at Caz’s birthday meal – I don’t know what is going on with Elsie’s Simon Cowell-esque trousers, but I think she carries off the look, not many could!

Here is an amusing picture of Elsie changing the TV channel- her dad was probably making her watch too much football!

Elsie is getting more interesting every day, she is really growing up fast. She has started to have very earnest conversations in the last few days, talking very seriously, not laughing and smiling, and obviously trying to communicate she feels quite intensely about. It is incredibly cute – sometimes I feel such waves of love for her I’m amazed they don’t knock her over!

She is also becoming much more purposeful with her movements, particularly with her hands, she seems to be able to reach out intentionally for things now which is also very exciting to see.

She still has very dry skin round her mouth, and I noticed yesterday dry skin on her elbows that looks quite eczema-like. We are going to baby clinic later to have her second set of immunisations so I’ll ask the nurse about it. Not looking forward to these jabs at all after she was so distressed after the last lot.

Picked up more photos yesterday – this is one of her in her pretty pink top with her dad. I think this was on our way out to Tasha and Nick’s wedding do, where she stole so many hearts!

Elsie is having a very shouty day today – there is obviously something she really wants to get off her chest! She’s not crying and doesn’t seem to be upset, but she is definitely getting quite lairy – I wonder what it is she’s trying to communicate.

She continues to be an extremely good humoured baby generally, greeting every morning with a big grin and excited wriggle dance – she reminds me of the ‘Morning’s here!’ singing man who lives opposite Joey in Friends! It seems that full tummy + clean bum = happiness for Elsie, if only we were all so unmaterialistic!

Here’s another picture of Elsie from a few weeks ago, with her hair looking particularly tufty and lovely!

We have had a very sociable day today, with Elsie seeing lots of her baby friends – not that she seems bothered about being friendly with any of them. First we went up to Susan’s house and saw her baby Sorcha (what an ace name - even though she’s never heard of the warrior woman in Willow) and then we went into town to meet the NCT ladies and their babies Thomas, Eadie and Angharad. Elsie was in a very good mood for most of the day, although she did protest when I put her into her sling at first – I think mostly because she can’t get her hand in her mouth when she’s in it.

I am still putting the E45 on her face, it is looking better but a bit dry now.

We are just about to treat Elsie to some more episodes of 24 – she seemed to quite enjoy it last night! Or maybe she just respects the fact that no-one should interrupt the best TV programme of all time!

I have been less mad with my photo taking recently, so we are having to go back to oldish ones.

This is one of Elsie in her magic chair at Aaron and Zelia’s a wee while ago.

Just the two of us again today! Last week I was in university for three days, so Rob took time off work to look after Elsie. She had formula for the first time (whilst I was getting paranoid about my enormous boobs leaking everywhere in front of lots of people not familiar with the joys of new motherhood!) It seemed to go pretty well – Rob and Elsie emerged unscathed from the experience, and now I know I can have that little bit more freedom from time to time.

She got a red rash around her mouth on Thursday night, which freaked us out a bit – but after advice from Sonja we put it down to all the excessive dribbling she has been doing recently. The pharmacist agreed yesterday, and recommended E45, which seems to be doing the trick.

As I write this Elsie is watching Project Catwalk! She is loving it, with lots of laughing and cooing going on – maybe fashion is her calling (as well, of course, as being the first girl to play for Liverpool!) She is after all, the best dressed baby in the world.

No new piccies yet, so this is one from a while ago of Elsie and her BOA buddies!