c.f. full term with Tamsin – not so much smaller, is it! (Is obviously not a mega-baby this time, is rather more to do with pies and the consumption thereof, and exercise, a dearth of.)

This picture is the reason I wanted to fix my blog. Though it has taken me so very long to do, and I have been hiating for so very long, that I don’t suppose anybody will see it who isn’t friend or family. Hey ho: I will pretend to myself and post it anyway by way of an announcement.

Maggie came home from school with this card that she had made for me, the day after we told her there was going to be another baby. If you can look carefully you can see, peeping out of my tummy (for that is me, the funky smily lady in the cool purple frock), and tiny, smiling, waving baby. Inside, the card reads “to my littl baibee I love you” and it is quite one of the sweetest things I have ever seen.

All the baby books say don’t worry what it sounds like, your baby will love to hear you sing. All they want is to hear your voice. I know toddlers are notoriously tricky, but does anybody else out there actually get a hand put over their mouth and told to STOP? Huh.

Just back in from painting a nice clear cross on the front door. C is in the states all week and he’s poorly too – all the bonus points he gets for combining illness with jetlag and having to work are removed by the lovely peaceful clean-cool-sheets-ness of a hotel. I have a stinking cold and feel very sorry for myself (I have run out of lemsips and am housebound, too); Maggie is not at all well. I picked her up from school yesterday all pale, hot and teary (am slightly miffed as she’d been up coughing a lot the previous nght so I had specifically gone in to say that I thought she was mostly ok but she might not be and if not, they should ring me as soon as and I’d go and get her). She took to her bed and slept from 6 last night – 10 this morning, just waking for extra doses of medicine and drinks of water and cries. She’s been up and down today but was back in bed again by 6 this evening and I honestly can’t see her going back to school tomorrow.

Which is a disaster, as tomorrow evening she has her last ever playdate with her bestfriendinthewholeworldever, who is leaving the country this weekend. We are braced for grief.

Tamsin is perky and bright (it was her turn last week, when she was sick all over me and the bed on two consecutive nights) which is not ideal as I cannot find the energy to do fun toddler stuff. Much cbeebies has been watched today, but I really will have to think of something for tomorrow (even if that involves wrapping her up and shutting her out in the frosty garden for half an hour).

We saw the Mighty Boosh at the weekend: was entertaining but not hilariously laugh-out-loud funny, which was a bit disappointing. Cameron and Maggie enjoyed the Mold panto far more.

Maggie is a very lovely big sister and came home from school yesterday with a card she had made for Tamsin. Unfortunately she also brought a Lurgy, so all birthday activities have been called off in favour of sitting for an hour in the doctor’s waiting room at lunchtime (then for half an hour in with the doctor – luckily we were the last appointment – as we discussed cider-making, pig-slaughtering, local vs organic, and the keeping of chickens. And allotments. And lurgies.) Still, Tamsin doesn’t seem to have minded. I suppose a day at home playing with one’s new toys and big sister is probably preferable, at two, to trawling round Liverpool in the rain: I am disappointed though. (And I had intended taking advantage of my mum and dad being here to hit Ikea tomorrow, which I won’t now be able to do.)

That’s my girl.

Poor me.

Cameron left for Japan* at 7 am on Saturday: I was left to shiver achily under a blanket on the sofa while the children trashed the house. (I am still full of cold and yet to find the energy to pick up all the bits from every single jigsaw we own and sort them into the appropriate boxes: it is a good job Cameron is still away as he doesn’t tolerate bits on the floor terribly well.)

Tamsin fell off a bridgey thing at Tumbletots on Monday and smacked her head on the floor. I am hoping that is her third thing and she will be ok now: she is such an urchin with hacked hair, pointy teeth and a bruise. She does have a whole lovely new winter wardrobe though, as I got a bit carried away at Mothercare.

On the very bright and exciting side: Maggie brought home her very first reading book last week and (mostly) read it to me! Am very proud.

*so I was already sulking.

Just back from the dentist: T fell flat on her face in the kitchen this morning and chipped her front two teeth. Poor wee mite. (Seems quite cheery now and is doing her very best with some bread even though they must hurt.) Dentist says they don’t have to be taken out (phew), chances are the second teeth underneath shouldn’t be damaged (phew) but they might go greyish or even black. And to give her calpol (ha ha ha perhaps she’d like to come and do it – it is easier to give pills to a cat).

We had planned to go to the village toddler group for the second time this morning, but are now going to have a nice quiet day at home instead. I went once when we moved here, with M, but she was too old really. Then we were Very Brave last week and tried it again (mother and toddler groups can be quite scary, if you are a wuss like me. I mean, they are not actually scary. But full of women who know each other and don’t know you.) It was fine! Better than that, it was nice. Only about 14 mums and babies, crumpets for the little ones to eat, and a nice old lady came at the end to play the piano for songs.

While I am here (I don’t seem to be, much, at the moment), let me recommend a lovely holiday cottage in the Peak District: Harthill Hall. There were 23 of us and we stayed in the Manor House (trampoline, games room with wii, hot tub) but there are smaller cottages for smaller groups. We bagsied the master bedroom with an enormous 4-poster and a claw-footed bath int he middle of the room; it had a small anteroom (cupboard) with a tiny bed in, just right for M who thought she was a princess in a castle. Most people walked but we just stayed put: the children bounced for almost the entire weekend and I read a book!

Well, that was a rotten day. People said M would be testing the boundaries when she started schhol and I thought I was prepared for it, if a little unclear what exactly they meant.

Today, she cut off Tamsin’s hair. Then started on her own.

I am so sad; I love little T in bunches and now it will be months before she can have them again. It looks absolutely dreadful (here).

Obviously we didn’t go to the zoo, as we had planned. Cameron has gone to Germany (he was going anyway, he hasn’t gone there in a huff or anything) and I’m just feeling really low tonight. With an enormous to-do list for the week looming over me. No chocolate in the house either.

Well, we’ve survived a week of fulltime school. Maggie has settled easily and well, if secretively. If she is to be believed she has been having some very peculiar school dinners (yet coming home with a daily sticker for eating it all, so I tend to think her accounts of just lettuce and tomato sauce, or just a biscuit, are slightly fictional) and she has grazes on knees and elbows. PE was fun and she is making friends. Even I was found standing in a chatting circle of mums at the school gate on Friday: I felt very included. In a nice way. She’s tired, with bedtime tears, but so far not as bad as I had expected. And so looks just gorgeous in her little uniform.

I was prepared to struggle with the early starts – but that has, so far, been easier than anticipated. Once I got my head round having to be out of bed by 7.30 (it is early for us) then we’ve just done it. I was unprepared for suddenly finding myself with a toddler to entertain:  I hadn’t appreciated just how much the girls play together and all of a sudden Tamsin wants me to play with her. She is delighted when Maggie gets home (she holds her arms up and says yay! when I say it is time to go and collect her). I have a few toddler activities lined up – mostly on a Wednesday which is just manic with swimming (T), rhythm time (T) and ballet (M) one after the other. We tried storytime at the library but I was a bit unimpressed (one story then they got out the instruments and bunged on a CD of children’s songs). I very much want to incorporate allotment visits into our week too: I just need to do it for a bit and it will (probably) fall into place.

We had a lovely anniversary night out in Liverpool: the streets were shut for la machine and we were half an hour early for the restaurant (actually half an hour late into town – we had intended having a drink first – because the roads were flooded) so we walked down and had a look at it, then had a gorgeous meal at Etsu. After a bit of to- and fro-ing they even made me an off-menu lemon sour (shochu, soda and freshly squeezed lemon). Most of the restaurant was occupied by the Japanese FA so it felt really nostalgic with Japanese banter going on behind us. Tamsin, little sod that she is, slept through the entire night 8-7 without a peep for her aunty Sara, then did the same for us on Saturday. (To put this into context: she has done this twice before in her entire little life, at 3 months old. So that’s, what, 19 months of broken sleep.) Back to normal since, with 2.30 the favoured time to summons me (yawn).