Two gorgeous girls!

Elsie and the lovely Sarah.

Ow ow ow ow. I have been off work the last couple of days with my dodgy bruised back. It was really annoying yesterday cause despite being off work I couldn't have Elsie at home with me cause I couldn't life her or anything. But der der der... Granny came to the rescue last night and so she is here looking after both of us today. It is great cause Elsie is definitely not 100% either, she has a rotten cold, so it will be good for her to stay at home and do lots of sleeping for a few days.

One last one of Elsie and her buddies. This is Maxon and Freya, with Sorcha and Elsie in the background.

A very flattering close up of Elsie, with Maxon and a bit of Freya's head in the background!

And Elsie and Maxon - here crawling so fast the whole picture is blurred!

This was the day loads of Elsie's buddies came round - here she is with Freya. And how dodgy does Rob look?!

This is Auntie Katie sprinkling something onto Elsie's head. And even I think Sally looks like me here!

This is Elsie with Auntie Katie and Auntie Sally on her first visit to a Carluccios (her second, coincidentally, was yesterday!) This was the day we went shopping for bridesmaids' dresses and spent longer in the restaurant than we did shopping! You can see where Elsie gets her love of food from!

I fell down the stairs this morning holding Elsie – it was first thing and we were all up at the crack of dawn as usual, I’d just finished doing her creams and getting her dressed and was carrying her downstairs so she could go off to nursery with her dad, and I slipped. I fell on my back so she was ok, but it was really scary and she started crying, then I started crying, and Rob came flying out of the bathroom to our aid. But I got up and everything seemed fine, and I cycled to work as normal, but over the course of the day it has become more and more painful and now it really hurts.

But anyway… we have had a very exciting weekend. We went to London so that I could work on Saturday at the children’s hospice there getting some photographs for our library. So it was the first time Elsie (or Rob) has seen a children’s hospice in the flesh. She loved all the toys and thought she was in heaven in the multi sensory room, it was great. But on arriving at our hotel at about half eight in the evening we were told they had overbooked and there was no room at the inn for us. So we were racing (well, crawling in traffic) across London at nine at night, way after Elsie’s bedtime. She was in very high spirits though, and seemed to cope pretty well with all the exertions. We then got caught in a rain and hail storm in Hyde Park on Sunday – with Rob and I desperately trying to keep Elsie dry under our one small umbrella as we both got completely drenched, what fun! But despite all the trials and tribulations it was actually really nice to get away with my family, and just get out of our routine and do some different things together.

I got some piccies back from Jessops today - here is Elsie having a very jolly time with her dad.

Having a lovely walk in the park with Granny!

Elsie has been in fine fettle the last couple of days (despite having another tooth come through today - she now has two at the top!) but I am feeling very tired and pretty rubbish this evening. Not sure why... But looking at these pictures of our adventures in the park is cheering me up a bit!

This is on the train to London the day we went shopping for bridesmaids' dresses for Auntie Katie's wedding.

Elsie playing at home - this is going back a few weeks still.

Another piccie of when Lorna came to stay.

Elsie has just gone down for her afternoon nap, so I shall take this opportunity to say hello. We have been having a nice day, practising walking behind her walker thing, crawling around a lot and playing on the telephone! She is generally very well, despite having woken several times in the night – I think she is teething again as there is one coming through at the top. It doesn’t seem to be bothering her too much though, touch wood!

She has developed a new dancing style recently, which is gorgeous – rather than her old style of bobbing up and down, she now moves from side to side very fast in more of a shimmying movement! It is very cool!

This is the last of the pictures taken on the balcony of our Sicilian apartment.

Tee hee! This was experimenting with amusing frames on my phone's camera!

I love this one - she is so beautiful!

Granny has just left after a lovely two day stay – Elsie has had yesterday and today off nursery to spend time with her, and I also had a day off work today so we all went shopping together which was great. Best of all though, Granny did Elsie’s morning feeds so I have had two really good nights’ sleep – hoorah!

Let’s continue with the piccies from before – these are some more from the session on the balcony of our apartment in Cefalu.

Then Elsie had her supper and went to bed. Phew! I hope this has given you a fascinating insight into the life of our lovely little lady. Good night x

Bath time - there's a touch of the 'must you keep pointing that thing at me?' in her expression here!

Elsie did some fantastic pan and wooden spoon drumming after tea.

So then we came home, Elsie had a sleep and my phone had a charge - and we could get going again for tea.

It was very vexing at this point, cause we then went to a soft play place to meet up with people from my ante natal class - so there was lots of excitement and fun to take pictures of - but my phone died because I'd been taking so many pictures and I used up all the battery! However, the lovely Betina just sent me this one - so here is Elsie in the ball pool, it was very funny to watch her sinking into the balls like quicksand, but she seemed very relaxed!

And went over to lovely Tim's house - Rob is a bit bored though here as you can see!

We then went for a trip out (in our beautiful new Skoda!)

And busted out some moves!

Then she had another play around the kitchen.

Then she went down for a nice morning nap, getting up just in time for a delicious lunch of green mush!

This is the way the ladies ride!

Having a nice play with daddy.

Then Elsie had a nice play in the kitchen while Rob and I ate our breakfast.

Then a drink from the cup of joy.

Brekkie of plums and grapes.

She likes to peruse the invitations to apply for credit cards as she is getting her bottom changed in the morning - here Mint are inviting Elsie to apply for £25,000 credit.

A Day in the Life of Elsie

Having discovered this fantastic new facility on my phone - I have decided to bring you an exciting look at a day in the life of Elsie Mary!

I am going to put the other piccies on hold, and show you what our little lady got up to to today. This was when I went to get her up this morning. Prior to this she had been doing some amazing singing in bed - combined with her brilliant drumming skills Rob said she could be the next Karen Carpenter, I was thinking Phil Collins!

We had something of a photo shoot on the balcony of our apartment in Cefalu - there are loads of lovely ones.

This does just show how very very lucky we are - this is Elsie having been dragged across Europe, with pretty bad diarrhoea, and in far too hot temperatures all the time. And look at her - my angel. (Maybe she was just delirious!)