A front tooth is through

Although Abby's teeth have been coming through for some time now, her top front two have been trying to push through her gums for a long time. All her teeth have taken longer than they should to appear because Abby is obviously not chewing and biting everything in sight like most babies and toddlers. Sadly, we're not expecting her teeth to be the most pristine set of gnashers in the world - a combination of the medication she's on and an incorrectly set palate means that she will develop discoloured and slightly crooked teeth. But her top front teeth will change her appearance somewhat so here's a close-up of the new tooth poking through. And just as Abigail has got a prominent new tooth, Rebekah (7) has just got her first wobbly one!

A short holiday at Demelza

Abigail has just got back from a lovely unexpected four day holiday at Demelza House Children's Hospice in Kent. As well as our usual allotted number of days she can stay for respite care, we are also on a 'last-minute' list of families that can fill vacant slots at Demelza should one become available at short notice. So we got a call from them on Tuesday asking if Abby would like to come and stay for the weekend, which she did. As we said to the lovely team down there when we dropped Abigail off, we don't look at her staying there as respite for us, as much as respite for her! She gets to be in a different and very stimulating environment where she can get up to all sorts of messy and tactile fun, whilst we are able to do something with Rebekah and Joshua for the weekend. We're still not sure if Abby watched the disappointment of the England/Portugal match, but we do know she had a wonderful time there!