I can’t believe my little girl is one. It seems so grown up. Only 12 months ago she was a helpless little bundle, and now she can do loads of things like chasing the rabbits with her walker, feeding herself (sort of) and posting her shoes in to her nappy bin (her favourite pass time at the moment, goodness knows how many shoes we’ve accidentally thrown out with the nappies).

We had a party to celebrate (of course) and 15 mums and babies found themselves crammed in to our lounge. While the mums tucked in to cake and cava, the babies munched on all manner of biscuits and rice cakes. I think it was a success and after a drink or two no one seemed to mind the ‘cosy’ surroundings. It’s better to have too many friends than none at all and this just made me realise how many friends we have made through the various clubs we’ve joined. We’re so lucky that there are lots of things going on in the local area for mums and babies.

The birthday girl:

To save on childcare now that I am back at work Andy decided to take two weeks off work and spend some time looking after Sophie. At the end of the fortnight he was viewing going back to work as ‘a rest’ and admitted he had never felt so tired. I think he enjoyed it though, and my friends took him under their wings – he got invited to coffee mornings and two birthday parties. I was definitely jealous thinking about him enjoying himself with my friends whilst I was stuck in the office. After two weeks of him being househusband the house looked like a bomb had hit it, and we had very few clothes to wear as our entire wardrobe seemed to be sitting in the basket waiting to be ironed. When will men learn to multitask?!

Sophie is now at nursery four days a week and after enjoying it initially, the reality has hit her and she now cries as soon as we arrive at the door. It’s very difficult to walk away from her when she has tears streaming down her face and is holding her arms out to picked up and rescued. The staff assure me that she is playing and having fun with the others as soon as I leave, and let’s face it, she’s got to be having more fun than I do at work. The hours in the office feel very long until I rush out at the end of the day to pick her up. Then it seems like we have only been together for two minutes before it’s time to put her to bed. At the moment I very much envy some of my friends who have given up work permanently.

This weekend I helped out at a children’s festival run in Cardiff by a well know supermarket (www.cardiff-festival.com/tcf_e.htm). The festival was great with heaps of demonstrations and activities, and we saw lots of cool things from clowns to dancing sheep.

I was helping out in the ‘Sing and Sign’ tent, which is one of the classes Sophie and I went to before the summer (www.singandsign.com). We loved it – it’s a bit like sign language for the deaf, but with babies in mind, and it’s made much more fun by singing along with the signs. Sophie loved the music and playing the instruments, so much so that it was a job to prise the maracas and tambourine out of her hands at times. We made loads of great friends at the class and all the mums would saunter along to a local coffee shop afterwards for coffee and cake.

Sophie is already enthusiastically signing for ‘milk’ whenever she wants the white stuff and we are eagerly teaching her lots of new signs, including a sign for our house rabbits Dorothy and Todd. It’s exiting that she is able to communicate with us even though she can’t talk yet, although she often chats away to herself in her own Sophie language, maybe now we will understand some of what she is saying and get an insight in to that mischievous mind of hers.

Shake that maraca

After 5 years of hard slog I have finally graduated with an MBA. I felt very proud in my gown and mortarboard, especially as my parents, husband and Sophie were there to see me. Sophie seemed to enjoy the sense of occasion and was very well behaved during the ceremony, although rumour has it a bag of corn snacks did help to keep her quiet.

It was definitely hard work doing an MBA whilst working and being pregnant at the same time… but I survived. Sometimes it felt like I rarely saw Andy as I was permanently studying. The poor thing spent more time with his X box that he did with me (trying to amuse himself whilst I had my nose in a book). Needless to say I’m looking forward to having some spare time again. Is that possible with a 1 year old?!

Next stop PHD??????

Celebrating with Sophie and Dad