And she's off..

Freyja is walking. She started really making a go of it yesterday, at Caroline's baby shower (showing off, perhaps?) and today she has been walking all round Dulwich Village, Dulwich Park and, erm, B&Q.

Here she is in action:

Happy Feet!

Freyja has some new shoes!


I made like Poshmum and went to Biff in Dulwich Village. The lady who served me was ever so nice and very helpful, even when Freyja was howling in protest at getting her foot measured. I got some lovely Startrite shoes. When I got there, they didn't have many left in stock so there wasn't much choice and it turned out that they only had these pink and lilac ones in her size. In any case, these go soooo much better with her wardrobe (I know, I know, it doesn't actually matter...)


And so I no longer feel like a bad mother for having the only child still in pram shoes...

Birthing Party

I have been looking through old photos. It's not good. Terrifying to be honest. But then I came across the New Year 2005 photos, which make me howl with laughter every time I see them. It was 3 months before I got pregnant, and was my last 'big night out' before laying off the booze and attempting to get myself into some sort of fit and fertile state.

We went to Katie and Paul's house. I think I ended up walking home in the pouring rain at around 10am the next morning, shouting abuse at whoever I passed (although that may have been the year before...?) We all ended up with moustaches painted on, as often seems to happen on these kind of nights. Here we are, with the exception of Ben, who is taking the photo:


Caroline, in the front, is due to give birth to her first child at the end of May (which slightly alarms me, because it seems only moments since I found out she was pregnant). To prepare herself for the birth, she joined a class called 'Birthing from Within' - to give you an idea of what it involves, the last class is called 'Crying with Wolves' (or 'AroooOOOooo'). Hmmmm.

It's Caroline's baby shower on Saturday, which has been organised by my friends Antonia and Emma. I can only imagine what it will involve, but lets just say that we've all been given wolf names....

...get yours here.

(I read the Birthing From Within book when I went to see Caroline a few months ago and, dare I say it, I thought it was actually quite interesting. Though I'm not sure you really need help with learning how to howl/moan/bellow when you give birth. I didn't anyway.)

Hackney City Farm

Today, in our continued attempts to be good, stimulating parents for Freyja, we went to Hackney city farm. Sat in traffic near London Bridge, we wondered if we had made a grave error, but we got there in the end and it was certainly worth it.

The little farm is just great. Freyja seemed very unimpressed at first but we decided afterwards it was because she doesn't like chickens. Once she saw the sheep (big thumbs up), rabbits (fantastic) and the goose (her favourite - she even petted it, while I flapped about worrying it would peck her) she was full of excitement.


And just look at the size of this pig:


There is a lovely little cafe there called Frizzanti where we had coffee and cake, but the food looked good so I'd go for lunch next time.

Definitely worth a visit. It is free to get into though they do ask that you make a donation to help toward the cost of feeding the animals. And you can buy fresh hen and duck eggs too!

Finally, just to prove that she really can stand alone now, I have finally caught it on camera (we had more steps before bath time too. I had no idea how exciting it would be watching your child learn to walk.)

Venice

So we are back from Venice , city of lovers. I went with my husband, my daughter and my in-laws. Hee.

We had a great time. Adrian's parents are very well travelled and know how to make the most of your time while on a city break. I think we somehow covered every inch of Venice, while still managing to consume vast quantities of cafe latte and Prosecco. Lots of walking, including 2 more steps from Freyja (steady on, girl...) who also stayed up late every night to eat dinner with us.

While I'm not sure it is the best place to take a baby (there are lots of steps, for a start), there were a lot of parks to stop in to let Freyja get out of her buggy and have a play. The best one was a little playground set up in a square with lots of vegetable shaped toys - brilliant! Here is Freyja playing on a giant plastic aubergine:


And a pod of peas:We got back yesterday afternoon and then, to round off a lovely few days, Freyja, having taken a grand total of 8 steps in her life, suddenly treated Adrian and I to a good 10 minutes of standing and walking. She doesn't like to make things easy for herself. She insisted on getting into the standing position without using anything to help herself up (which she did by getting herself into a very good downward dog position, then straightening up), then stood there grinning away while she got her balance (about every 3rd or 4th try) before lurching around to face me and taking a few steps into my arms. We had to make her stop in the end - she was obviously getting tired but seeing how happy it was making her mum and dad she was determined to carry on, even when she could barely lift herself off the floor. Bless.

She hasn't yet tried it again.

Home alone

Freyja is at the child minders and I am at home, on my own. I've taken the day off because my parents came to visit and my mum and I went shopping for the day. They've gone now and I've decided not to pick Freyja up early but to spend some time at home by myself. It feels naughty and wonderful - I'm not quite sure what to do with my stolen few hours. So far, I've put on a wash, tidied the kitchen, chosen what Freyja should take to Venice (see how I live through my daughter these days? I'll probably take a T-shirt and pair of jeans while she will have 3 outfits for each day we are there). It would appear that I no longer really know what to do with stolen hours: they are not for housework, woman, get a hold of yourself!

It is also my anniversary today. I've been married for 3 years now. It's funny to think that this time 3 years ago I was getting merry on pink champagne and swanning around the place in a very tight dress, surrounded by all my family and friends. Weddings are a lot of fun, we need a few more.

Right, what to do with my free time? I think I'll go and eat the rest of my Easter egg, that's a good a place as any to start.

Double bouncing

Here is Freyja and her friend Ruby on the trampoline:


They are absolutely hilarious on it. Freyja has taken to 'bouncing' with her mouth wide open and Ruby can actually bounce properly and leaves the floor.

Something serious

My sister-in-law (my brother's wife, Harry & Max's mum) stayed over last night, which was lovely as we don't see each other that often. She is in England for yet another scan. My sister-in-law is 32 years old and 2 years ago, just after her 30th birthday, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She had probably had it for 2 - 3 years by that point and it was at late stage 3 by the time it was caught. Once you get to stage 4, it is terminal. It is unusual for someone so young to get that type of cancer, and awareness of it is not very widespread - it was something I had never even thought about until it crashed into our lives that awful weekend 2 years ago. I don't really want to go into the particular details of my sister-in-law's personal struggle but I'll say that she is doing incredibly well, though is by no means out of the woods just yet.

Unlike breast cancer, which is so well publicised that women are very aware of it, ovarian cancer is less well known. It is often called the silent killer because by the time you know you have it, it is often too late. However, it is now known that even in its early stages it does exhibit symptoms, and awareness of what they are could be the difference between catching it early enough to survive it and leaving it too late. Here's some info.

Pre-walker shoes

Rowan has made a fantastic suggestion. She has said that as Freyja is now starting to show an interest in walking and has taken a few steps (4, to be precise), that we could think about getting her some pre-walker shoes. Apparently Jacob had these and they really helped him with his walking. I want to get these ones from Startrite:

How wonderful! Someone has actually told me it would be a good idea to get Freyja some new shoes.

Hotel Chocolat...

...do great eggs. Check this out:


It's a chocolate egg filled with different kinds of fruity truffles. They always do great seasonal stuff, and the chocolate is delicious - Hotel Chocolat is worth a visit, if you like that kind of thing.

I'm trying not to polish it all off in one sitting...

Easter Break

We've just come back from a wonderful family Easter break in France. We met my parents, sister, brother, sister-in-law and 2 nephews there. I love family holidays, especially when I can hand Freyja over in the morning and go back to bed.

It got off to a fairly disastrous start when the suitcase, which had all of my stuff, Adrian's stuff and Freyja's stuff in (I know, I know - I should have taken 2 smaller suitcases and mixed all our stuff up), failed to arrive on the carousel. Cursing the ground staff at Gatwick airport, we reported it missing and over a hour later than we had expected, set off to Cahors. About half an hour into the journey we had a call from Toulouse airport to say that my bag had been found. In Toulouse. It had come out on the wrong carousel. So, cursing the ground staff at Toulouse airport, we turned around and headed back to get it. I went in to pick it up where it turned out that it was, of course, my fault all along. I had failed to take off an old label from Dubai to Heathrow and the baggage handlers hadn't known what to do with it. The fact that there was one battered old label saying LHR and one pristine new label clearly saying TLS, must have past them by. Although I have a feeling I was probably just being taught a lesson to make sure that I didn't forget to take old luggage labels off again. Anyway, Adrian drove from Toulouse to Cahors in record time and we made it there for (late) dinner.

The rest of the holiday was perfect. We played cricket outside in the sunshine, drank rose wine, ate duck, cheese and pate and in the evenings settled around a roaring fire and drank red wine.

Freyja was a little unsettled and didn't sleep all that well (no change there, then...) but it was to be expected in unfamiliar surroundings with 2 very excitable cousins around. And seeing her playing outside reassured me (if I needed it...) that we are doing the right thing moving to a house with a garden.


On Sunday we had an Easter egg hunt and Freyja ate more chocolate than she ever has before (and loved it). Turns out she loves duck and gherkins too. Interesting.

She was given a Lindt gold bunny which is still intact. It reminded me of one Easter when I was a little and my parents gave me an egg which was wrapped in green foil covered in flowers so it looked like a grassy hill, and inside were 2 little chocolate rabbits covered in foil to make them look like a husband and wife rabbit. I kept it for so long that I'm not sure now whether I actually ever got round to eating it. The Lindt rabbit won't survive that long though - I'm already eyeing it up.

In other exciting baby-news, she walked a few more steps unaided and she has a word! Definitely this time, no doubts - she says 'Ta', meaning 'thank you'. She says it when you give her something and also when she gives you something, but still, it is a real, proper (ish) word!

Anyway, I have just remembered that Adrian told me he has bought me an Easter egg and I haven't had it yet so I'm going to go and remind him.

Here is our new home...

...hopefully!

Yoga

Last night I went to my first yoga class in about 17 months. Actually, that's a bit of a lie - when Freyja was 6 weeks old I went to 3 mother/baby yoga classes but it consisted mostly of breastfeeding because she wouldn't settle, so I'm not really counting that. No, last night I did an hour of Ashtanga yoga and boy am I feeling it now.

I started doing yoga a few years ago, on and off. Then, when we got back from our year out in 2004, I joined this fantastic class which took place just round the corner from where I live, in the Ackroyd Centre. It was taught by an ex-ballet dancer and was no particular type of yoga, just a combination of stuff and was really good fun. We used to do things like handstands and try to get into all sorts of weird postures that I'm sure most teachers wouldn't let you try for years. I then joined a gym through my work, and started doing Ashtanga yoga twice a week over lunch time. I admit to finding the slower, breathing yoga a little boring at times, but I really got into the Ashtanga, even though it was an oh-so-serious class and I had to concentrate hard not to giggle when we all chanted. For the first time since starting yoga I found myself actually improving. I'll never be good at it, but things were starting to bend and stretch at last. Then I got pregnant. I stopped for the first 3 months, as is recommended, and by the time I was able to start again, the class at the Ackroyd had sadly finished. I went back to my Ashtanga classes and attended them twice a week until I was about 8 months pregnant. Ashtanga is not really a pregnancy yoga but as long as you have done it before and are careful it is okay to carry on throughout pregnancy. I did it on a very different level to before I got pregnant - I normally work up quite a sweat, but throughout my pregnancy I did it at a much gentler pace and the teacher adapted a few postures for me as I got bigger. At around 8 months pregnant I went to a class and spent most of it lying on the floor knackered - that was when I decided I'd done enough. Obviously my plan was to return to yoga postnatally to whip my body back into shape (ha ha) once I'd recovered from the birth...

...so here I am 17 months later, I've rejoined the gym and have finally done some exercise. I can barely move and rather than being full of vitality I feel like I'm coming down with flu and all I want to to do is going to bed. Maybe it's something to do with all my toxins coming out? Who knows. Anyway, it's pilates tomorrow lunchtime, if I can still move...