It's the wellies that make the outfit work.

Sophie is taking a few unaided steps now although her hip's still very stiff. She went to see the surgeon on Tuesday and he's pleased with progress. Apparently it's much better for the hip to be stiff than too loose! Here's an outfit she put together this morning. If you look closely you might spot fat lip No/2 and the Beast.

Wellies

Just over two weeks since coming out of the cast Sophie is making steady progress. It feels slow sometimes but if you think what she's been through it's pretty impressive. She can now walk when supported and climb up the stairs. She's sporting a thick lip at the moment because she fell off her chair yesterday. Check out her new wellies (courtesy of money from Grandma and Grandpa Lyons), which she really loves and wears them with her pyjamas as soon as she gets up.

Fish and gorillas

Last weekend Dan came to NL with his Mum and Dad. We celebrated Sophie's birthday with a trip to Rotterdam Zoo. It's famous for a bit of recent primate tomfoolery. There's nothing like the potential of escaped wildlife to add a certain frisson to a birthday outing.

Two

A cake from Trudi (with some finishing touches from Sophie), a pile of presents and cards, garlic bread and fish fingers for tea and an extra story at bedtime. Someone's had a birthday.

Getting there

Today Sophie stood up and, with a little support, took a few faltering steps. At this rate she'll be back to normal very soon.

What was all the fuss about?

The evil cast now sits in a bin in the hospital. The whole thing went quite quickly. We'd prepared Sophie by telling her a big Noo-Noo was going to suck the cast off. The two nurses wielding an electric saw did their best to make it seem like this but Sophie was having none of it. The X-ray showed everything in its correct place and within 1.5 hours we were back home. It'll take a few days for the muscle to strengthen again and for Sophie to get back on her feet. She spent the afternoon rolling around, flexing her legs and giggling at her liberated lower torso. She sat up straight for dinner and, best of all, had a nice bath before bedtime. A good day.

Goodbye Cast!

In an hour we are off to the hospital to get Sophie's cast removed. When we explained what was going to happen to her she started to say "Goodbye Cast" and has been practising cutting it off with her doll's house vacuum cleaner.

We'll keep you posted on how it goes very soon.