Just back from Playgroup and also went to a local cafe with some of the mum's I'm closest too... then to a nearby park THEN bought DH a b'day pressie on the way home... both boys were very good all through thankfully. Received a sms message from IK saying that she's been in contact with Dee (Lockie's mum) and they are both at her mum';s place having a break which sounds good... she gets back tomorrow... and IK herself won't be on until later too.

Wow Rory! I agree; enjoy it while you can because that level of productivity domestic-duty-wise is hard to sustain as baby gets older and even more so when you have more than one. Also the repetitive nature of the role hasn't sunk in yet probably... after about 3 years of doing it fulltime for me the novelty has worn off a tad LOL But yes I still enjoy cooking most days and yes the Xmas cake recipe was from Delia's Christmas book... I'm also thinking of doing the Stollen as I have a lot of yeast that's about to expire. If you decide to do the cake recipe let me know because there are a few minor adjustments that I would recommend (like using 2/3 layers of silicon paper in the baking tin to protect the outside of the cake from over cooking). It takes 4 hours minimum in the oven so choose a cool day to do it (that's why I did it yesterday... plus I usually do it in the first week of November so that you avoid the rush closer to Christmas and the cake benefits from a few extra weeks of "feeding" with Brandy). I could go on forever about the subtleties of baking fruit cakes but i'll leave it at that LOL

Amanda... love the new ticker piccy of Cody... what a pinchable little butt he has there

back in a tic... gotta take Wade's good shoes off before he goes into the digging patch...