I met Adriano 10 years ago today. Unfortunately for me he was out all day today (and tonight) with his Dad and has to work tomorrow, but he gave me some beautiful red tulips (10 of them) and a card that made my eyes well up with tears. We've had so many ups and downs and we are still ultimately loved up. Hooray :)

Today I went to the South Bank to meet my friend Emma (hello Emma!). We walked up and down a bit by the River Thames, and then went into the Royal Festival Hall for a drink and snack. G made friends with a little boy of 13 months by pointing at him and exclaiming. In fact she did that to several children on the journey home as well but they all looked quite offended. I think her urgent grunting noises mean something along the lines of 'Hey! Another small person a bit like me! Hello!' but who can tell.

I hate my hair again. I'm sick of straightening it but if I don't it looks like a mop. If I do I look like a librarian (which I used to be) or a teacher (which I am). What shall I do? Help. Hairdye may be involved.

Now G has stopped breastfeeding for good, I've finally bought her some bottle teats for older babies. (When she was having a bit of both b00b and formula I kept her on slow teats in case she went off breastfeeding due to the work involved.) She now drinks her entire 8oz in about 5 minutes flat. Trouble is, she now doesn't drop off to sleep during her final feed, and it takes her ages to get to sleep. This lately includes a mixture of cuddling, hand-holding, lying her back down after she's stood up in her cot, getting the hump and leaving the room every time she stands up all over again, and eventually her getting the hint and lying down and after some tossing and turning (and the odd shout of 'cat!' or 'hiya!') and finally.....sleep. Then lucky me I get to go downstairs and tidy all the toys and books away and put away the dirty washing and wash the dishes and clean the steriliser and wash the bottles and stuff for the next day and put the washing in the machine ready for the morning and WOW life is exciting! But the weird thing is, it is exciting. Not all the bits I just mentioned, obviously, but the bits in between like watching G stand alone for a few seconds. Or seeing her eat 2 fish fingers out of a bowl almost without dropping any. I look at her and I think: we used to be 2 people and now we are 3. It blows my mind. Sometimes I want her to stand still just for a minute and look into my eyes so she can see in them my love for her.

G is one year old in a few weeks and I am so chuffed with a present I have bought her. It's a personalised board book which features pictures of her and captions which I wrote. I chose photos which show her gradually growing up this year into the toddler she has become. I hope she enjoys it now and has it until she is an adult; I know it's the kind of thing I would have loved to look back on so I hope she does too.