Today Lily went on her first playdate ever to her best friend's house - without her Mummy

Today I dropped Lily at her best friend's house for a play date - without me.

Asha is Lily's best friend. Asha is Balinese. She looks like an Indonesian princess; chocolate eyes, chocolate skin, chocolate hair and Lily and Asha just adore one another - they always have.

Asha's mum, Amy and I have always met up at the park or a play centre, but today the girls had a play at Asha's house. They are now talking sleep overs! We shall see in the future, it may be a different story when the sun goes down.

Being an only child (at this point) Lily loves the company of other children. The two girls have a really precious bond - having been drawn to each other very early on when they were both bubbies-in-cots at pre-school.

Funny how the parents of the friends that your children befriend, become your friends. Thank goodness Lily has exceptional taste in people. Perhaps she seeks out people with similar values to us/to me? I stepped into Amy's house today and it felt like I was walking into my own home:- colourful, mosaic pots everywhere, a strong sense of culture, love, family and nature infiltrating every room. Asha's family are beautiful people and we welcome them into our lives.

I feel a sense of relief and pride, that our girl has the intuition to find herself a wonderful, little person as her best friend. Let's see how the teenage years go - we probably won't even get to meet the parents then will we? Can one insist upon this? They are so protected when they are young. Lily can move in with my sister during this period and Trudy can monitor and interview her compardres!

[The photo above is of Lily before she left for Asha's house this morning. She woke early to draw copious amounts of pictures to take to her best buddy Asha].