Well, what a lovely weekend. Yesterday it was my 29th birthday – Elsie bought me lots of cheese which is wonderful – she knows me so well! She was so sweet all day, singing to me and generally being gorgeous. And we went to a covenant civil partnership ceremony in the evening which was brilliant, with fantastic music, and projected images and incense burning – Elsie loved it and was so good all the way through. They then had their party afterwards in a big school hall, and she got so excited crawling across the huge open spaces – it made me think we really should find somewhere she can do that more often.

I got quite emotional yesterday, I always find birthdays a time to reassess and look at my life. This was my first birthday with a baby, and I found it quite overwhelming really - when you're living life you're so caught up in getting everything done that you don't really stop and think about it all that much - but I did yeaterday and I thought about the fact that what I have wanted more than anything else in the world for as long as I can remember is to have a baby. And now I have one. And not just any baby, I have Elsie, who is the loveliest, coolest person I know. It is just amazing, ans I feel so very very lucky.

Today we are having a nice relaxed day – Auntie Sally R just came round and brought us a beautiful big carrot cake, but Elsie still can’t have any such delights, far too much sugar I’m afraid!

I missed out the pictures of Sicily, so here we go – this was Elsie’s second trip to Italy when we went over on our huge mission of a trip for Ruth and Bob’s wedding. This is Elsie and Rob in front of the duomo in Cefalu.