I've gotta get out of this place

I'd forgotten I meant to put this picture up months ago. What do you think of Naomi's new play pen? She wasn't overly pleased with it.

Brief update on things learnt in the land of Naomi in the last month:

* If you stick your figures inside a snail's shell they come out flourecent yellow/green.
* Snail is really difficult to wash off a toddler's hand.
* Not having the shoulders straps on in the pushchair may allow for being more nosey but also allows for the moving wheels to be investigated.
* It also makes it difficult to get off buses as a toddler leaning forward means you can't tip the pushchair back.
* You can never tire of trying to turn the carpet white with your milk cup contents (though it is easier now you don't have to squeeze it out of a bottle teat)
* Milk tastes better out of an egg cup.
* Egg cups really do look better with chips in them, no really they do.
* The bramble gin bottle fits perfectly in a toddlers hands.
* A four pack of baked beans can be carried but aren't pleasent when dropped on feet.
* Head, shoulders, knees and toes only warrents the toes action.
* Toddlers have the same ability to sense where the biscuits are as my dog Misty did.
* Adults are not allowed in the play house (and trust me, it's not comfy anyway).
* Blowing kisses gets big smiles from adults and a lot of praise so is well worth attempting.
* Thank you sounds better with a mouth full of biscuit.
* Why climb down stairs when you can be carried.
* Why climb up stairs when you can be carried.
* Playing with the high chair when it's folded up hurts.
* Cornflakes are the best breakfast ever, closely followed by muesli (that only loses out because it takes so long to chew) and mum's shreddies.
* Painting has to involve getting paint in your hair or it's not proper painting.

Best stop there as lunch is up, I'm sure I've missed some important milestones but these will have to do.

I Like To Move It, Move It

Baby mkII must be a boy, only a boy could be so annoying.

We went for a scan last thursday to have a look at it's heart and baby mkII was in the one position that the doctor didn't want as he really couldn't see anything. We had to be sent away for half an hour with strick instructions to drink caffeine, eat chocolate and take a brisk walk to try and get it to move. As you may know I don't do coffee, so a bottle of lucozade and 2 bars of chocolate later saw me skipping around the hospital with Russell adding the occasional sudden change of direction. Man did I feel sick. But I wasn't worried as I could feel the baby moving so I was sure it was working (and it's not often you get a doctor telling you to eat chocolate)

Hmmm, you can guess it didn't work, we did however get to see that the cheeky little thing was just enjoying itself doing a few press ups. Three times we got sent away, each followed by a slightly more vigorous walk (there's a nice hill at the back of the hospital, lovely view from the top). The winner in the end was running (and I use that word quite loosly) up and down a flight of stairs 3 times (3 or 4 floors worth) much to Russell's amusement. Thursday, however was a complete write off for me as felt sick, had a headache, was a tad hyper and craved caffeine for the rest of the day. Luckily yoga was cancelled as I probably would have exploded.

Anyhow, all is fine, the baby is well and I have finally got over my caffeine come down.

Mama, you got a daughter

How cool is this photo, I think it's the best I've taken yet. You may have guessed my opinion has nothing to do with photography ability (the blurry calculator should give that away). It has everything to do with the fact that Naomi is playing with a calculator and in the background you can see the shunned bike magazine. Woo hoo, she finally appears to have picked up something from me other than an amazing collection of grumpy/disbelieving looks and a cracking frown!

Anyone who's seen us in the last few weeks will have realised that she's been perfecting these grumpy looks and accompanying them with energy draining crying. If you haven't seen us in the last few weeks that's probably a blessing in disguise. As I think I mentioned before, there does appear to be another top tooth coming through but with the amount of grumpiness I'm rather hoping there are a few bottom ones on the move too. Again, I'm at work so don't have a picture of her toothy grin but I have this delightful meal time photo. Part of the grumpy baby syndrome has involved refusing to eat off a spoon. Finger eating and spaghetti bolognese don't quite go together.

Food, not so glorious food

No picture today as I'm at work and not at all organised. I just thought you might like to know that the sandwich of choice for this pregnancy appears to be a blt with mayonnaise (not home made mayonnaise of course, another of those stupid 'foods to avoid' things) on a white roll (it has salad in it, is that not healthy enough for you). The sandwich of choice for the last pregnancy was beef and salad cream (no salad) on a white roll.

So, I'm curious to know, does this mean that I'm going to have a boy or a girl, does it count as eating healthier, does it signify anything important at all or just mean that I'm craving salt again?

Other interesting fact is that I discovered on Tuesday that if I lie on my belly on a hard floor I can feel the baby move. I'm just trying to prepare it for later when there's no room to move in there!

And lastly I thought I should give you an update on Naomi's swimming lessons. She is absolutely loving swimming (and bathtime) at the moment which is fantastic to see. She kicks with excitement the whole time we're in the pool apart from when she's supposed to kick. This is resulting in me getting a bruised belly and again, her sibling being prepared for later life. The coolest 'trick' we've learnt recently (though she's not too sure of it yet) is for Naomi to go on my back and hold on to my neck whilst I swim across the pool! We took her to Leith Waterworld the other week with her cousins and she spent 1/2 hour entertaining the life guards with her jumping into the pool trick (more like toppling in after a lot of excited arm waving). She's also perfecting her royal wave much to people's amusement.

Hmmm, lunch time is over and still 1/4 of a blt left, since when did I eat so slow?

*Useful tip to the QM of first week at camp, always keep some of the leftover breakfast bacon in the fridge as you never know when you may find yourself faced with a very grumpy, heavily pregnant person demanding a blt NOW.

**You may wonder why I am going to be camping when 8 months pregnant, well unfortunately, a few years ago, someone camped right up until they went into labour so in my dad's eyes I have no excuse.