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:

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

Now that Sophie can crawl she is everywhere and keeps pulling herself upright using everything from the TV unit to the fish tank for support. The problem is she can’t get down again and so gets stuck until I rescue her.

Our house rabbits had better watch out now as they are her prime target, their ears and tails are very grabable and a hand full of fur is a prize worth persevering for, but as yet they have managed to ‘out hop’ her before she grabs them. Sophie loves the rabbits and it’s now her job to feed them each evening and she seems to enjoy them sniffing round her when it’s teatime as they know she provided the grub.

The rabbits are litter trained and have a tray in the lounge, so we have to be extra careful now that she is on the move. She would be in the tray with them as quick as a flash and no doubt testing out the texture and taste of the funny looking currants they produce. I’m not neurotic about germs and think that a reasonable amount of germs are good, but even I draw the line at rabbit poo as finger food.

This Saturday I helped out at a National Childcare Trust (NCT) Nearly New Sale. I thought it would be a good way to meet some new people, with the added benefit of getting first choice on all the stuff (definitely worth it to avoid the rugby scrum for stuff once the doors opened). Everyone was really friendly and I enjoyed it even though it was a long day. The amount of stuff was unbelievable – you could hardly move without tripping over a baby bath or highchair. According to the NCT members there wasn’t as much stuff as usual, so goodness knows what it is usually like. People were queuing round the block an hour before the doors opened to make sure they were first in. It was funny watching the people literally running to try to get the things they wanted… a bit like the first day of the sales. There were some bargains to be had though and it’s definitely worth going if you are kitting yourself out for a new arrival.

Andy was left at home in charge of Sophie and when he picked me up he admitted he was exhausted and he didn’t know how I managed to look after Sophie and get anything else done (finally some credit for the multitasking I do everyday, it’s not easy to wash up, hoover and breastfeed all at the same time). At last he understands why I am so tired at the end of the day… it’s not all coffee mornings and baby groups, being a mum is hard work.