The cutest little witches

Izzy's guardian angel Alessia had her over for tea and then another mum did some face painting before they hit the neighbourhood. We came back loaded with goodies. The four kids looked so cute. Three witches and one wizard.

Ah the ghosts of several Peanuts comic strips are exorcised

Ta daa all set for Halloween

Tonight's entertainment

I can't believe it but it's snowing outside. At least I won't have to worry about the pumpkin dehydrating or rotting before Friday.

Play dates are go!

Izzy has her best buddy Felix over and it's bliss! They've been happily playing with each other for the last two hours or so, without bugging me at all! We made some honey biscuits together for a bit and, since then, she has been, I'm afraid, instructing him in the niceities of the domestic arts.

'OK Felix, you be baby, and I'll be mommy.'

'Felix, squirt here, for the ironing! Squirt now, Felix!'

'No, Felix, I'm looking after baby!'

Fortunately Felix seems to be wisely ignoring her for the most part. And Izzy, when pushed, reluctantly does share her squirter, the monkey, and lets Felix come into the school; ie the dining table, under which they have popped two pillows to lie on, arranged their school bags and a handful of soft toys they are co-parenting.

I'm getting a bit worried by the number of times I keep hearing heads bop the bottom of the table but neither one has complained so far.

Izzy is now wailing that I keep waking her up with my typing and they are flying the nest, hurrah! 

'Shall we have a sleepover and a bedtime party?' asks Izzy. 'Mom, we're having a party! Then you (that would be her dad and me) have to go home, so we can be here.'This is only a continuation of a worrying trend that has seen Izzy take over our bed, and Alex and I regularly sleeping on mattresses in her room.

Baking diversion

I went slightly mad in Tesco the other day and wound up spending £84 in one session - I did buy a lot of staples that needed buying - but also spent a good chunk on baking accessories. But boy have they been useful. 

The two silicon baking mats (£5 each; bargain considering they were £10 and £12 in John Lewis and House of Fraser) came in really handy for the two monkeys this morning to roll out their dough on. And the palette knife REALLY helps when you need to lift soft cookie dough from one surface onto a baking tray. Who knew? Can't wait to try icing a cake with it as well now hahaha. 

I keep forgetting how used Izzy and her nursery friends are to what I consider exotic fun - ie baking biscuits - because they do so much of that sort of thing at nursery. I'd hardly plopped two lumps of dough in front of them before they were both reaching for the rolling pin and, without any instruction, cutting the shapes out with the cookie cutters. 

Similarly we bought Izzy her bike last week after meeting Alessia at the playground and a demonstration by Alessia of how she could now cycle without training wheels. Wail after wail we decided Izzy's legs were probably long enough now (we tried a few months ago, having had vague thoughts of getting her a bike for her third birthday and she couldn't reach the pedals when they were at the bottom) and took her to get a bike.

You can see in the picture below that though it was almost dark when Alex finished putting it together, she insisted on taking it out for a spin. I was napping so didn't see her. But when we went together to the playground yesterday I was really surprised by how adept she was on it. But then she has been riding the tricycles at nursery for ages. 

So anyway what with the baking and playground visits you can tell suburban domesticity has totally taken over. Given the lousy weather (it's raining again today although yesterday was alright) I've worked out the only refuge there is, is baking. 

Last week we tried to get up to London but exhaustion, some lousy bug going round at work, and Izzy acting up (to be fair after she'd been to view four houses with us all morning) combined to make me give up in a strop. Now I reckon we can try again another weekend but not until both Alex and I have recovered a little bit from the current spate of serious busy-ness at work.

Am looking forward to this Friday, which I've taken the day off, partly to use up a lot of leave before January, and partly because Izzy's birthday party has finally been organised and is on Saturday afternoon. 

I figure I can spend some of the day preparing food. And the rest of it doing me things like getting my hair cut and shopping for (sigh) maternity clothes. I'm really growing out of my jeans and things and I hid my last maternity jeans so well I can't now find them, which is a pain in the backside. Anyway I need a few more work-type trousers as I am definitely expanding faster (damn the loss of muscle tone) this time than last (sigh sigh).

Izzy preparing for Halloween

She painted a giraffe for me

Izzy sulking

After having the tv channels switched on her and being thwarted in a tantrum after she realised any more tears would mean the end ofthe butterfly painted on her face.

Izzy gets her bike

Insisted on going for a ride on her new bike even though the sun had gone down

At the playground again

Where she insisted we all had to sit within her house and I had to apologise for imaginarily hurting Daddy.

Izzy and a posy of blackberries

Last days of blackberrying

Izzy's wiles

They grow ever more cunning. In the mornings now I sometimes awake to her cooing and stroking my face going 'Mummy, I want a cuddle.' And when I roll over to give her a hug, she gives me a big kiss on the cheek and goes 'Mummy, I looove you!' Then, duty done, she briskly notes 'It's bright outside now. Can we go downstairs, Mummy?'

Doesn't help that our wills these last two weeks haven't been particularly strong. I'm being slowly worn down by a major project at work, which seems to mainly involve convincing managers to put their money where their mouths are and actually make decisions, instead of constantly putting off the decision-making moment with the almighty phrase 'Well it has to be configurable, doesn't it?' 

And Alex was on call last week - bad timing, so he left the house at 5.30 in the morning four days a week and came home only once before 10pm. It's hard to be firm when all you want to do is space out in front of the TV.

And sleeping at night is a little uncomfortable now. Can't sleep on my back and every time I turn to one side I have to position the bump on something otherwise the weight drags my back into all sorts of awkward positions. Am pretty sure this wasn't the case until the seventh month or so last time, darn it.

On the plus side all the old stretch marks are currently stretched out and hardly visible. Silver linings, eh? Hah!

Izzy and the TV

Sadly she is cementing their old relationship, pre-stolen TV. Am starting to think that being without a TV may not have been a bad thing. Well... except I remember having to read her Winnie the Witch five times one night. She's always been a bit wary of participating in the TV. When Dora says 'What was your favourite part?' she normally gives her a slightly incredulous look. Just now though I heard her shout 'Izzyyyyyyy' after the TV instructed 'Shout out your name if you're a friend of rabbit's!' But when I cheerily asked 'Are you rabbit's friend too, Izz?' I only got an embarrased silence. Good girl. At least I know she's kind of got one foot on the ground, haha.

Here's to play dates!

She spent most of Saturday morning at her best buddy Felix's house and was actually fine for me to leave her there. Bliss! Three hours in which we quickly shopped for a new laptop and then had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the high street. Unfortunately Felix's mom says he is likely to be less inclined to be left behind like she is but we will have to try. Having a Saturday morning to ourselves is definitely desirable!

Answers on a postcard please

I am dying for a holiday. Alex doesn't think he can stretch to a week, the spoilsport, but a long weekend away is definitely do-able. And I'm thinking I might as well start taking a few days off to myself to do things like cut my hair and shop for maternity winter wear. Any suggestions for a child-friendly destination, anyone? A bit of sunshine wouldn't go amiss either.

We've been baking again

Am quite soothed by baking with Izzy on weekends. Am quite impressed by these honey cookie recipes simple but definitely yummy.