Baby massage

First baby massage class today. Will it be the slippery slope to a high maintenance daughter or will I suddenly have the zen baby that pervades my dreams? Answers on a postcard please.

Succumbed to kitsch

I can't put this one entirely on Kate, as the options were in fact run by me before the final decision was made.

But OMG.

This Baby Einstein is something else: a psychadelic mix of colours, illustration and photography.

It looks like someone has tried to build a padded art installation around a large plate of sick, after a night overindulging on Slush Puppies. And that that someone was seriously visually impaired.

What will become of our beautiful home, I asked a few months back. But I never expected it to be this bad.

The final line-up

We had the pleasure of welcoming 8 brand new babies into our home yesterday, as our NCT posse descended en masse.

A motley crew indeed. From left to right: Madeleine, Jack, Kitty, Evie, Aaron, Ava, Aoife and Ludovica (larger photo here)

Madeleine seemed more interested in ensuring she was in-shot than making new friends, upsetting both Jack and twin sister Kitty in the process:

And when Jack simply refused to play ball, she just took this running swipe at him:

That's my girl.

A big thank you to Martin (www.martinstewart.co.uk) for taking all these great pics.

No, we didn't get a photographer over for the day. Martin is Aoife's dad.

A new branch to the family tree

We're finally ready to send out thank you cards to all those peeps who've been kind enough to give Madeleine presents over the last 6 weeks.

We had this great idea that we should make our own cards, hence the 6 week production lead time:

As it turned out, Madeleine responded really well to direction in front of the camera. It was Kate who took 6 weeks to get a shot she was happy with.

(A big thank you to Tim and Andre at Albion for their Photoshopping skills).

The hairbrush

Kate bought a wonderfully soft hairbrush from the Body Shop last week.

Cut to a series of ridiculous hairstyles, carefully coiffed post bath-time.

Clearly still not used to there being 3 of us

We're in the process of booking a family holiday in October this year.

Over the weekend, I sent a list of ALL our names to a friend who's getting the flights held for us:

JULIAN ROSKILL

CATHERINE ROSKILL

MATTHEW ROSKILL

KATHRYN HARRIS

Spot the deliberate omission.

Always the optimist, I think it's far more important that Madeleine is overlooked at this stage of the holiday-planning process when things can still be remedied, than at a later date when there could be far more drastic consequences. Accidentally leaving her behind on the plane, for example.

(Oh, and bring on 2013: the year Kate will need to renew her passport with her MARRIED name. Mwoahahahahaaaa).

The grinner

I couldn't resist uploading this shot of Madeleine's very first smile that Kate sent me yesterday (or at least, the first one she managed to capture on camera).

There's a bit of a back-story to this, Madeleine not having 'pazt a moztion' (as a very sweet but very Teutonic GP we saw phrased it) for 9 whole days.

And given the proximity of her first smile to this long-overdue moztion eventually pazting, I'm sure this smile was more relief than anything else.

Cutting some serious shapes

Madeleine shows off some new moves she's picked up this week.

Tell us a story

Madeleine appears to favour the lure of Grandpa Roskill's camera flash to the dulcet tones of Mum and Dad reading Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack.

Flying the nest

Madeleine helps pack for our weekend down at Heatherfield - her first time away from home.

Okay, bored of this now

What a little angel

I don't have Photoshop on my computer, so you'll need to imagine Madeleine in her winged baby-grow without my hands there.

A worrying sign of things to come?

Madeleine coyly settles into the front seat of our friend Matt Ross's very smart BMW.

I'd laugh and coo if I wasn't so concerned about how easily impressed she is by dodgy old men (no offence, Matt) and their flash cars.

If you go down to the woods today

And so it begins...

Kate emailed me this photo of Madeleine yesterday with the subject "This is what babies are for."

Our daughter is doomed, I tell you. Doomed.