Christmas elf

I had to go to Inverness today for what turned out to be a rather pointless appointment with occupational health about being a breastfeeding peer supporter, so Ivy spent the day with Ayesha. She went to the free church toddlers in the morning, the nursery christmas party to see Lucy get a present from santa, up to play at Hannah's house and then round to see Lucy's Nana. A very busy day- by all accounts Ivy had a great time, apart from being chased by Hannah for affection. Ivy came back wearing borrowed clothes of red shorts, which with her green jumper made her look like a little christmas elf. Unfortunatly, her favourite reindeer hat had accidentally been left at Ayesha's. Ivy was clearly looking for it, every hat we put on her she took off and a said 'no (h)At!' 

After my appointment (all the way to Inverness for 3 questions that I could have been asked on the phone, mutter mutter...) I went to everything baby highland and got Ivy a new dress and some lovely cosy slippers that i'll put by till christmas. I also picked up a pair of dinosaur shoes that match ones Ivy's aunty Kirsty already got her- so the twins can match. Keeping my eyes open for items that match handme downs the twins will already have is great fun- far more fun that buying lots of matching outfits because at least everything they match it'll have a story.  I also found a charity shop rich in wooden toys and resisted buying them all so just brought Ivy home a puzzle, an abacus and a wooden microscope (the coolest). It turned out to be good that I showed restraint because when I popped into TK max on my way to the bus they had a really funky wooden dolls house for £20. It claimed to be reduced from £115, which I always take with a pinch of salt in TK Max. I wasn't sure about it, and in a normal shop i'd probably have gone away to think about it, but since you can never guarantee things will be there again in Tk max, I bought it and kept the receipt to decide at home if we would keep it. It was rather heavy to lug to the bus, but we've decided to keep it (it's unfurnished, but it came with the cool mobiles and light fixings that I think were funky enough to sell it to Euan)  and it has been put in the toy cupboard for next christmas. I'll make it some basic stuff over time- how hard can a dolls house sized ikea expedit be to make....