the knowles household are fighting off colds and we are putting our 'snot sucker' to good use. neve does not enjoy this nearly as much as we do and now runs a mile at the slightest mention of it. he is however old enough to bargain with.

this week we have been exploring the limits of bargaining with chocolate. this is not something we found in any of the parenting bibles but there is a book to be written about the simplicity of life with a bag of cadbury's buttons. 'finish your carrots', 'put the trains away', 'bring me the tv remote', 'come out of the bath'... all very straightforward really and he is even happy to be pinned down for a spot of nostril mining.

lily finds all of this extremely amusing and is working on some big gummy chuckles. her own sessions with the snot sucker are punctuated with finger sucking and some beautiful cooing to the hourly renditions of 'twinkle twinkle' and 'happy birthday.' we know how to have fun!

neve and lily have been visited by a wide range of santas. mummy and daddy santas produced a 50p plastic car and some bubbles - enough fun to fill a day but there was so much more to come.

we celebrated christmas eve mit unseren freunden anne, urs, tita und bruno - feasting on sparkling lights and goulash. in tayport the christmas festivities come with carot soup and potato croquettes. rather incredibly, urs delivered on both!

santas steel arrived with a load of gifts and delicacies that stretched their luggage allowance; making us the only family in dhaka who could boast a marks and spencer perfectly matured beef suet christmas pudding and brandy sauce.

christmas lunch involve a mass gathering of steels and steeles with smoked turkey all the way from the midwest. neve turned up in a suit, sarah and catherine competed in a trifle-off and we exchanged games from both sides of the atlantic after lunch (the white elephant gift, colonies and mafia).

marking a knowles family tradition, we saved most presents until the late late afternoon: socks, pants and chocolates for daddies, shoes, trousers and wrinkle-reverse face cream for mummies, cuddly rabbits for lily and an aquadoodle, a gruffalo, extra brio track and new trains, a digger, a dump truck, a kazoo (special thanks for the kazoo), wooden chopping vegetables, a swimming vest and trunks, crayons, books, slippers and peppa pig dvds - not to mention the giant cement mixer (ah-mo-mo) for neve. oh to be two!

i have made a short flight south to spend 24 hours in the holiday capital of bangladesh. named after a captain in the british east india company, cox's bazar is home to 78miles of uninterrupted sandy beach - the longest in the world. 

this seaside resort is as tatty as its uk counterparts and a promenade of cheap hotels relies on a three-month season. the beach is clean and brightly clad with the branding of mobile phone operators. a makeshift market sells a wide variety of shells and corals - chandeliers for £3 and necklaces for 10p.

the national tourism board has posters which read, 'visit bangladesh before the tourists come.' if you also make the journey expect a spectacular sunset and a small army of cameras capturing you while you enjoy it. 

lily has reached two months and it is amazing to watch her development each day. she is smiling and chuckling, lifting her head and having a good look at the world around her.

it is sad to be packing away the 000-sized clothing and to be graduating her from the sink to the bath but the jungle gym is open for business and the tayport grandparents are on their way.