I'm dreaming of a pink Christmas

We just went to the local bike shop and bought Jambeans a gopping pink bicycle with a neon pink furry seat and pink tassles (cheap plastic) coming out of the handlebars. No amount of persuasion could convince her that red, silver or purple were preferable colours. Poor Felix - his face was so full of expectation and excitement. He's going to be gutted when he realises he's not getting one. It must suck being the younger child.

new buggy

forgot to add our new buggy arrived - a phil-&-teds-twin-front-n-back-3-wheeler-thingy. these things are so expensive, but i guess it all balances out after you use them every day for a couple of years. and the steering is fabulous - i can turn it on a sixpence. We put it together at the weekend and a very excited and enthusiastic Jambeans insisted on sitting in it, in the living room, for pretty much the whole morning, then had the cheek to FALL ASLEEP in it when we actually went out for a wee test drive, then threw fits when we got back and parked it in the hall.

silly girl.

Date for the c-section and more noo shoose

34 weeks and 4 days up the duff

Ooooh. Had an appointment with the consultant yesterday who said I wasn't going to encounter any problems of a similar nature to when Jambeans was born and that I didn't need to see her again. Then we booked in a date for the c-section - 18th February - which is when Felix will be sprung. How exciting.

Took Jambeans to Crouch End for more new shoes - her second pair in a week (well, the first pair was boots really) - which she absolutely loves. Just as well cos they cost a small fortune, but secretly I am proud my daughter is developing an unbridled passion for shoes.

All hail Goddess Nigella

Yesterday

Made Nigella's blueberry muffins yesterday. Yet another triumph from the domestic goddess.

The motivation to bake is because we're having a floral-themed party in a few weeks' time to celebrate Jasmine's due date birthday. A flimsy excuse for a bit of a do really.

I've been panicking for weeks. It was my idea to have the party - it's been ages since I've had one - but ever since the invites went out and just about everyone said yes (why weren't any of them busy that weekend?) I've been mired in party paranoia. Food, entertainment, space (lack, thereof), decoration, what will I wear, is the house safe enough for all the little bubs, do we have enough space? all that worry has flooded in. But the panic has given us enough motivation finally to stow outgrown baby paraphernalia in the loft and offload boxes to the second-hand shop, most of which we hadn't unpacked since we moved in. Just don't open any cupboards in our house without a hard hat, that's all.

Today

Gloriously sunny today. We were planning tozzzz go buy stair gateszzzzzz at Brent Crosszzzzzzzzzzz (admittedly at my insistence - now the bub is crawling I am terrified of going to the loo without fear of her base jumping down the stairs) but such a boring plan didn't fit with such a beautiful day, and when boyfried made his usual joke about going to the zoo we both thought, why not?

Animals were on good form. Took the camera so finally have some more photos to upload. Jambeans' been running a fever today. We think, because of the MMR, but also she's dribbling like mad at the mo so there must be a tooth on the way. She enjoyed the zoo though. Particularly the fish. Man she just loved those fish. Her whole face lit up. I'm sure she thought it was like watching a zillion, enormous tellies, really close up, with no one saying no.

crossing the threshold

jambeans crawled into the hall by herself today. she was looking for me - crawled quite confidently down the hall, but then got hesitant just before the dining room and stopped for a bit of a think.
ooh she's just adorable

she thought i wasn't looking, but i was peeking from the stairs. hee hee.

she's been on great from today, despite the cough and snot. we went to muzzie hill for brunch with caroline and ben and we both bought a hilarious book called "who's in the loo?" for our respective bubs. i also managed to pick up some i-saw-you-coming-bag-and-necklace-type-stuff that i don't really need, but i don't feel guilty at all. ha ha.

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.

What's in your toy box?

When we got to about 10 months, I think Jam-beans' toy box exploded it was so full of toys. Here's a photo of her with most of them stupidly taken on a patterned blankie so you can't actually make much if it out. (The PS2 at the top of the photo doesn't count of course. That's bf's favourite toy, and an object of much loathing and envy on behalf of the girlfried.)

I get oddly nostalgic about some of her toys, because they each mark a stage of learning and discovery for her. So the roll call goes something like this.



Clockwise from bottom:

• (shown in very top photo) Blue calculator. Oh Jasmine, how could I have lost your blue calculator? Never again will you turn it over and over in your hand and inspect both sides very carefully, before putting it in your mouth. Never again will you spend minutes punching the numbers. Sigh. You'll just have to learn to do mental arithmetic instead like the rest of us.
  
• Pedro the monkey, after our friend Pedro who bought it for Jasmine, and also because we decided it was a Capucin monkey and needed a South American name. At first Pedro and Jambeans were inseparable, but then she dumped him for another and he's been looking a bit miserable recently.
  
• Animal flash cards. Unplayed with as yet. Am sure they'll make for good chewing.
• To a great granddaughter Xmas card. Or any card. Card is one of J's fave playthings.
• Tiny Love 'my first book' - J's first real toy and an absolutely must-have as small babies don't really do much but look at black and white pictures in their cot. J really grew with this toy. Now she is older J is fascinated by the red felt ties, and likes to chew them.
• FisherPrice Jack-in-the-Box. A gift. Great toy, nicely put together, but J a bit neutral about this one.
  
• Home-made rainmaker, using kitchen roll tube, sellotape and rice. J loves the noise, and is particularly into chewing the ends. One day when I'm not looking I'm sure she'll make her way through to the rice inside.
• Cloth book

• Stacking cups. Simple. Brightly coloured. Great fun in the bath. J plays with hers every day and no sign of getting bored. A must-have. She also loves her matching plastic stacking rings (not in photo)
  
• Poulet the green rattle. A present from Tantie Seema and simply Jasmine's favourite toy in the whole wide world ever. She's had it from about 2 months old with no sign of tiring. I love it because it's light, unbreakable and fits in your handbag
• Sunshine faces. A lovely present. Simple, fun, also eminently handbaggable
  
• Crunchy cloth square rattley thing. A good buy from Mothercare
  
• Yellow car. J only just beginning to get this toy, and is learning to her great joy that when she pushes the car rolls along
• ELC wooden lift out puzzle. J likes to cheat by turning the whole thing upside down to get the pieces out
  
• (back left, just chopped out of pic) Green wooden drum, and Donut, the highchair Giraffe next to it
• Wooden spatula
• Home made shaker, made with pasta and screw-top plastic milk container
• (back right, partly chopped out of pic) ELC Activity Gym - much loved by J, what would we have done without it? She's grown out of the arch now, but the mat still gets much use.
  
• Variety of books. Since I think books are the acceptable face of spoiling J now has gazillions of them. The Alison Jay is my favourite, because the illustrations are so beautiful. Hungry Caterpillar is simply a classic, and Jam-beans fave is the Baby Touch one.
• Polo, the rattle with the hole. Well chewed. And it's machine washable. A hit with bub and mum.

• Froggy rattle - oddly enough being played with which is rare since I really don't like this toy and very rarely get it out.
• V-tech ball - a Nani purchase from the charity shop. Heavy. Noisy. Irritating American accents. J loves it, of course.
• Bear. Not suitable for under 3s. A gift. Say no more.
• More of My First Book, as described above.
• Baby Einstein Turtle, nicknamed Touchy. J really grew with this toy, so got lots of play out of it. At first it was the music, then the crinkles, then the teething rings, then everything.
• Wooden green drum from ELC. We showed this to her in the shop and she just reached out for it and started drumming there and then. Probably the first toy we have bought her that she has actually played with as it was intended. She loves drumming. She loves this drum. She also loves picking it up and hurling it all over the floor. And getting it to roll

• Donut the highchair giraffe again.
• Whoozit buggy toy. Lots of babies love Whoozit, but J never really took to this one with much gusto.
• Rings from ELC. Essential for clipping things to things, for loading up the activity gym with more toys than you can shake a stick at, for doing Magic Tricks for the bub (very bad ones) and for making impromptu rattles.
  

Just spent a whole load of dosh

We bought a new car. Well, second hand really, but it's only a year old and it's new to us, so that counts, and we're rather excited. I was nominated to negotiate with the dealer. Walked away with a price we're all happy with, but getting the deal seemed a bit too easy and I'm wondering today whether I could have shaved another couple of hundred quid off. Once a haggler...

We had a real moment from The Apprentice when our salesman tried to sell us some seat protection (£450 - what a rip off!). He put some water onto one side of a piece of card 'with protection', and lo and behold, it just sat on the surface. Then he put it on the other side of the card and watched smugly as the water soaked into the fibres. It was like the old adverts for sanitary towels, only in reverse. Ali was sniggering - I couldn't look at him for fear of cracking up. Then the sales dude looked at us and asked in all seriousness "now which would you say was better?" Oh that familiar stench of sales guff.

Jam-beans behaved herself impeccably and only moaned a little at being carted from car seat to pram to car seat ad infinitum for about 3 hours while we went for test drives and the like.

What an angel. Mucho baby-points for that.

Next day drove to my sis' house (here in the photo with the jazzie-bird) to meet up with her and my mum, who has been suffering serious Jasmine withdrawal symptoms. Had a wonderful morning, 3 generations of ladies just chilling in spring sunshine of the front room. It felt like a holiday.

Only downer was Arsenal losing the Carling Cup final to Chelsea (scum) and then having a bust up on the pitch. I'm ashamed to be a fan at times like that. And then boyfie thrashed me at triv again by 6 pies to my measly 2 - but I learned my lesson from last time and, unlike Arsenal, took defeat with good grace.

Thirsty baby

Friday Feb 23rd

Jasmine has started to lap water from the bathtub. It's kinda funny and icky in equal measure.

It reminds me of my favourite Gary Larson cartoon, where a dog presenter is standing in front of a dog audience in a Jerry Springer-type studio. On stage under dimmed lights are the silhouettes of 3 dogs sitting on stools with their heads hanging down. The dog presenter is holding a microphone and saying to the audience "And on tonight's show... dog's who drink from the toilet bowl." It doesn't quite work in narrative format, but trust me, it's brilliant.

Went to Seema's house this afternoon to meet up with her and Zayne (here in the photo on the right) and Caroline B and Rosie (in the photo further down). Had a very chilled time playing with the babies. Zayne is crawling all over the place and getting into all kinds of trouble. He's very cute to watch, but it's slightly alarming as we know we have all that hard work to come. I think our house is going to need some serious baby-proofing.

Ages ago when we were having a mutual moan about not getting out enough, I said to Seema that we should both go swimming together. She's held me to that so we have a provisional plan to go next Thursday evening. It's a good plan. All we have to do now is make sure we stick to it.

Jam-beans continues to be on good form. She's eating like a true trough monster, even veggies (so my gloom and doom prediction of a week ago turned out to be rubbish - she was just off her food at that time bc she was ill.)

We bought her the most hilarious book today about a sheep called Marvin who eats the whole world then vomits it back up again. And the Skwish from eBay finally arrived. So I've been spoiling her, again, which is pointless really because Jam-beans favourite playthings today were a spoon and a piece of cardboard.

Juggling

Jazzie loves to watch Daddy juggle - it sends her into fits of hysterics. Dp is really quite good at juggling so to save on bruised fruit we bought some proper juggling balls today and he has been performing for the bub, to her great joy and amusement.

Mummy happens to be excellent at juggling too, but I juggle nappies, and the baby, and veggie slush, and washing, and more nappies, and toys, and, from Monday, work and all the other stuff that life chucks at us. Just as difficult but far less entertaining.

Oooh we spoiled the bub today with more toys - cute little rattle, Hairy Maclary book. Think I have guilt in advance of going back to work and want to spoil the little baby splaby just a wee little bit.

The hidden cost of nursery

A good day today.

Jazzie slept through 11 and 1/2 hours without waking or crying. She's only done that a handful of times before, and it always feels good. My body clock woke me up at 3.30am. So i've got a bit of work to do on that front.

A breakthrough at nursery. Apparently Jazzie managed a smile, and drank more than 2 teaspoons of water from a spoon and fell asleep without being rocked. She still cries quite a lot but it seems to be getting better.

Quite frankly - she could scream all day as long as she looks happy and calm when I go to pick her up, then my conscience is eased.

Wandered over to the temple to retailing that is Brent Cross. Man it was packed - and it's only a Wednesday. (what we thought but aren't allowed to say - to all the people who nicked the car spaces and tables at Carluccios: Get A Job.)

A combination of missing Jazzie, guilt and worry induced us to splurge on baby gear - new jacket, new trousers, new top, new books, new toy.

lesson du jour : Guilt buying = hidden cost of Nursery