Didn't realise it could be this fab

Sunday 15th April

Sun's out, Jam-beans is being adorable and I'm still on a huge motherhood roll. So I'm basically going to gush for the whole of this post.

This weekend the weather turned seriously summery, so we've been shopping, gone to London Zoo, chilled at Kenwood House and enjoyed the bluebells at Ashridge. Now I understand why I work part-time - it's just been totally fab.

Brent Cross was heaving, as per usual (I still can't believe how many people don't work on a Thursday. Where do they all come from, and more importantly, where does all that shopping money come from?) Jazzie and I had our first, proper girlie lunch at the food temple that is Carluccios, only she did a poo halfway through and I had to risk leaving pram and shopping bags under the i'm-not-sure-how-watchful eye of the waiter to go change her. Still, everything was there when I got back and it earned him a decent tip. Jazzie's got shiny red teething cheeks at the moment, which, combined with her flirty-long lashes, meant we had a constant stream of mainly octagenarian admirers.

The zoo on Friday was even more heaving - predominantly with chavs, markedly different from the middle-class childfest it was last time we came. There was a huge queue - about an hours' wait we guessed, which thankfully we avoided by paying the daylight-robbery-tenner for the Zoo Car Park, and getting our entrance tickets there. All the animals were out and were being perky. Jasmine loves watching the animals move - she just zones in with her eyes and her face fills with concentration. The new Gorilla Kingdom is fantastic, but even better was the new rainforest enclosure, where we watched sloths and tamarins move about without the usual encumbrance of a glass barrier. Sadly no photos from the zoo to post - we tried our hand at wildlife cinematography instead and got loads of wobbly video clips.

Jam-beans has been amazing for the whole weekend. Soundtrack to her life at the moment is She Wants to Move cos she just can't sit still. She loves to do wobbly standing (as demonstrated in the photo here at Kew a couple of weeks ago) and has made tentative attempts to shift her weight from side to side and take a few steps. She's also mad keen to pull herself up by herself. She hasn't quite managed it yet, but I have lots of stretched tops and bras to show how hard she's been trying to grab hold and pull up.

She's still big on waving, which is adorable and heartwarming because it's such a brilliant way for her to interact with us.















She's also babbling loads at the moment. Syllable du jour is 'ba-ba-ba-ba' but she's also back on 'ma-ma-ma' and I am absolutely convinced (no evidence - just bloody-minded belief) that she knows it means me. She looked straight into my eyes earlier today, paused and then said really clearly 'ma-ma' - I nearly cried it felt so great.

Saturday and Sunday, today, have been for walking in the lovely sunshine. While Jazzie's trying to watch the whole world out there and take it all in, my eyes are just fixed on watching her grow. It's intense, and quite obsessive, but utterly fab and it just keeps getting better.