Salah concept

Izzy hasn't totally got the hang of the point of hide-and-seek yet.

Belated thanks for a present from Yiyi

Not staged at all, nooo.

All dressed up

And insisting on following me to work. Hate to disappoint her after she's gotten out the pasta necklace and handbag.

Recovering

After three days of vomit and dodgy poos Izzy is able to sit up and demand DVD time again. Annoyingly though she keeps insisting on sitting on my lap which makes doing anything hard. One more hour before Alex gets home for his shift and I get to go to work.

Look at me

Boo's peeps look at pictures of her and themselves at Aunty Sophie's after lunch in Notting Hill and dessert at Ottolenghi's.

Dr Izzy

It's quite sweet watching her role play now she knows how to do lots of things. I bought her this doctor kit after she asked for several readings of Dr Maisy. The other day when I picked her from nursery both she and Felix were feeding teddy bears on their laps. So sweet. Some kids take it one step further though. Blond cutie Euan says he is going to marry Isabel 'when she is older and we will get married in the same place daddy married mummy. And have the same desert.' I like man who knows what he wants.

Puff pastry cookies

The lazy mother's helper. Got the idea from a baking recipe book. No time to make cookie dough? Buy some nice stuff from the supermarket, let Izzy go wild with the cinammon and some brown sugar and ta-daa 30 mins later one happy child. Parents get to eat too.

Hide and seek

Izzy's favourite new game except she insists on telling everyone where to hide and after you've made a few wrong guesses out loud - she also corrects you - she'll happily inform you 'I'm here!'

Glorious Gloria

We have been pet-sitting a hamster while her owner was away on holiday and I will be quite sorry to give her back because Izzy obviously loves Gloria, though she is still a bit afraid that she will nibble on her toes. That is thanks to Alex telling her so. But I have not been against instilling some fear in her because otherwise I worry she will squish the poor thing one way or another.

The two days she woke wailing to find me missing and at work Alex managed to get her to stop by getting her to feed Gloria. Poor Gloria though I think suffers slightly from Izzy's boundless energy. She tends to thump into her bedroom - where Gloria is kept - yelling "Loooria! Looria! Wake up, Loooria!"