Incongruity

M hops round excitedly, wearing a very pink party dress (passed on from a friend who was a bridesmaid) and glitzy tiara and clip on earrings (thank you, Grandma), ready to go to a five-year-old's birthday party in a castle. (We'll leave aside the disastrous princess overtones for now, suffice it to say it won't be happening again for a while...)

"I really really like Jimi Hendrix", she says.

That's my girl.

It's been a Blue Peter kind of day...

what with the eggbox turtles (who are currently fast asleep on their couscous beach), and a pasta/cheerio necklace.

The vagaries of the toddler brain

A warning: if you take your two-year-old to see a fantastic art exhibition, do not expect them to wax lyrical over ghostly mirrors, echoing dungeons or balancing teacups. Instead, you'll discover that the major incident of the day, recounted ad nauseam, was that our friend ran out of snacks for his two kids.

Things to do on a sunny weekend

After a weekend away in North Yorkshire, I can thoroughly recommend the following for entertaining a 2-year-old:

• Helmsley Walled Garden (their new Secret Garden has a swing, there's lots of apples to look at and be prevented from eating, and best of all there's a fountain in the middle in the shape of a small boy cuddling a giant fish)
• The Moors National Park Centre, Danby (the huge playground has a slide with a house on top, there's a great bird hide in the middle of a woodland that you can scare all known birds away from and the teashop does really good fairy cakes)
• Hutton le Hole (the Ryedale Folk Museum has sheep! and pigs! and chickens! and the odd rabbit! and best of all the freezing cold village stream is very good for paddling and making parents get their feet wet)

And the ham sandwiches are pretty good, wherever you go...