Another London Mummy

It's a pink bump!

noreply@blogger.com (Another London Mummy) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:47:00 +0000

Whoa!

I am now 22 weeks pregnant and on Friday we found out that Mr T is going to get a sister in August! We both had a hunch this time that we might be having a girl but when the sonographer told us we felt a little shell-shocked, but pleased! I think we are both so used to having a boy that a girl seems a little alien to us? Anyone else felt the same?

So we will restrict the 'pink' and things will be fine, eh? First time around we hadn't managed to find a girl's name we were 100% on so we have a challenge ahead! I have the book out all the time and dip in when I can! Shortlist consists of about 20 at the moment! So we have some work to do there! When I am a little clearer, I will share some ideas!

On another note, does anyone know of some good outdoor activities or playgroups in the Earlsfield / Tooting / Wandsworth area? I thought I might try out the Tooting Locality Early Years Team Activities in the Park - Tuesdays 10-12 Smallwood School...did anyone go last week? Will let you know how Mr T and I get on!

xx

Last person in world to get iphone

noreply@blogger.com (Another London Mummy) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:22:00 +0000

Spent all day playing with new phone! Anyone recommend good apps? Was so busy eve
n didn't notice Mr T had taken nappy off and was watching tv half naked!! Have a great Easter'

Oh my..back to blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Another London Mummy) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0000

So, here I am, Another London Mummy is sort of back!

Where have I been, what have I done and why haven't I been sharing it? Well, I haven't been anywhere really except still in London give or take a few days away so no excuse there. I have been busy though I guess...last November we started a loft conversion on our home, then I found out I was expecting number two (yay!) and really I just didn't have the time or the energy to blog.

Now Mr C is back at work after a lovely 7 month's break with us and finally I have some quiet lunch time space to do 'me time' things!!

I am now 20+1 and looking forward to my next scan next week where we will find out what we are having! I didn't with Mr T but think this time it will be easier for all.

So, short and sweet today - I look forward to catching up on everyone's blogs and hope you are all keeping well?

xx

Back from the North

noreply@blogger.com (Another London Mummy) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:28:00 +0000

I am back - we went on a family roadtrip of the North! Now as you can probably work out from my blog title, I am well and truly only really used to the South! In fact I have such poor knowledge of the North, I spent the whole driving time reading the road atlas despite using sat-nav to get about! I got so excited realising where all these places are thatI had heard of and I had never been to! We started off actually gong via the Midlands to see cousins and tested out Heston Blumenthal's 2nd Little Chef in Kettering for breakfast! Very good fodder and set us up well for the car journey to York!

We stayed in a lovely pub with rooms called The Blackwell Ox Inn http://www.blackwelloxinn.co.uk/ at Sutton on the Forest which was really nice! Our room was modern with a good bathroom and Molton Brown and the inn did great food with lovely hospitality. Highly recommended and a pleasant surprise to find a gem! The bathroom was a great size so when we retired to our room to chill and watch TV we were able to hoick the travel cot into the bathroom so as not to disturb Mr T! Poor boy spends most nights in hotels in the bathroom sleeping - cruel parents!

The next day we visited Castle Howard where there is a great adventure playground and grounds to walk around and then into York for a spot of shopping and more importantly cream tea at Betty's! Mr T had a fantastic kids meal with yorkshire sausages!

After 2 nights it was off to Leeds, anther new city to me! We had a fab mid-week deal in the Malmaison which included 3 course dinner so a nice treat! I found Leeds a bit edgy which surprised me as I am used to London but maybe it was after having been in the country for 2 days! Then off to more cousins in Stockport and Mr T got to play with little Tilly his err..2nd cousin ?!?..no idea where it goes with cousins kids etc!

Finally up to Lytham St Anne's to stay with an old friend of mine and her 3 kids. It's always a funny thing coming from London to somewhere further north. My friend has just moved in to her new home - the home for life she says. And it was gorgeous, 5 bed, 3 floors, spacious, airy, complete refurb from roof down - a labour of love. The hardest thing for me is that it is sooo affordable but just in the wrong neck of the world for us. I would love a family home like that and was secretly green with envy but just couldn't live where she lives. So it is all relative and I have to remember the reasons why I am another London Mummy and not elsewhere. Returning home was nice, and exciting.

The scaffolding was up! The loft conversion has begun! It did mean that I had the trauma of noticing that the poles were also in our neighbours property, the boards are obscuring other people's windows and we have a water mark on the ceiling above my bed already but none the less, exciting! Roll on, 8 weeks of grief! Maybe I should have started a building blog and not a mummy blog!

And finally, apologies for not getting back to you if you left comments - I took the lappie but couldn't get online, couldn't even get mobile signal in most places! So all in all, from a technology perspective too, it is nice to be home!

Teething, TV and technology

noreply@blogger.com (Another London Mummy) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:32:00 +0000

To quote Wikipedia:
A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

So not much of a blog really as I have been rubbish at the 'regular entries' part! I logged on often but seemed to have nothing to say. But enough is enough, here is my current 'nothing to say' as otherwise I will get writer's block and give up!

It's my 2nd wedding anniversary today and I am off to see Michael McIntyre which I am very excited about! Mr C remembered to buy me a card so all is hunky dory!

Mr T on the other hand has a little temperature and is under the weather and being a poorly little mite. We think he is teething with his molars but I can't seem to get a look in his mouth without him blocking it. As we are off out I am keeping him amused with some rare treat TV. Normally he is allowed a little bit after tea but today it is doing a good job of distracting him from his jaw so all are happy.

TV for kiddies? I have a friend who is so anti TV for her two kids that she doesn't even have one in the house! It does mean she also almost lives on another planet as she has no idea what is going on in the world but she believes her kids are more creative for not having TV. Maybe she is right..?

However she is also going to send her kids to a school where they don't use the internet until they are 15 and use no technology in teachings - is this realistic and a benefit to children? I worked in an internet company for 10 years and find her whole ideology hard to stomach. Surely there are limits to exposure but I am a firm believer that banning things creates want. It's very difficult when you disagree with a good friend on how to raise children. Mine is under 2 so to be honest what do I know? But I do have opinions and am often opinionated so have to walk away from many awkward discussions!!

Note to self: blog more!

Whoohoo - Mr T starts walking and a trip back to the 80's

noreply@blogger.com (Another London Mummy) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:05:00 +0000

What a day yesterday was!

I was having a lovely play-date with a friend and her son of equal age to Mr T and we were basically almost ignoring the kids and chatting and suddenly Mr T strode off, three steps, stopped, looked about and continued! We squealed with surprise and he looked very pleased with himself! He tried it a few more times that afternoon and had a cheeky grin from ear to ear. Since then he has been growing in confidence and trying it over and over again. I am so pleased for him - it is so cute to watch those first steps!!

I pegged it home after the playdate - late for his bedtime and literally straight into jammies, milk and bed - luckily after the afternoon's excitement, he was out like a light.

And I was out to the O2 once the lovely lady from Sitters had arrived! For Spandau Ballet!! Oh dear! I was about 12 when they were originally in the charts but happy to belt out some of the old classics at the top of my voice. They didn't disappoint - the classics were great, the new stuff inoffensive. It was funny seeing an Eastender's cast member on the stage but he was LOVING it! The footage from the 80's was hilarious and took me back to bad hair and bad fashion!

I feel inclined to discuss Question Time but am still so offended by that imbecile, I can't be bothered to waste typing on him. However...Masterchef final...how exciting was that? We Sky+-ed it and I spent the whole morning avoiding breakfast TV, Radio 1, Facebook and anything else that might leak the winner before we had a chance to watch it. The best man won in my eyes, his food was exciting and original!

Am so looking forward to spending the weekend scooping my son up after his stumbles! Have a good one!

A Day of two Halves

noreply@blogger.com (Another London Mummy) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:50:00 +0000

Wow another lie-in! As Mr C is currently at home and not working and I am not working still, we don't set an alarm, relying solely on our Gina Fordesque-trained son who generally rises at 7:05am...but not today, or yesterday..!

8.35am! Must be the darker mornings.

Quick....jump out of bed, milk in beaker, kettle on, cereal in bowl, nappy change, hand wash, tea, are the builders coming today, what are we doing, how long til I need to leave, do I need to wash my hair, what clothes are clean...who am I?? Oh the confusion!

Now the 'who am I?' is relevant to my day. So I filled my morning with Monkey Music (good God - but Mr T loves it), playtime, cooking lunch, cooking Mr C wild mushroom soup, followed by an afternoon with a trip to the swings, to the library (which was shut) and usual chores.

Sudden appearance of booked babysitter, hairbrushing, makeup applying, quick internal head debate whether I could cope with heeled boots for my trip to the West End or flatties and I was slowly becoming the other me. Now for the record, the other me doesn't work and hasn't worked since June 2008. I sort of want to do some work but then don't.

Well, this evening's excursion to the West End was to meet some like-minded friends in our industry (Mr C and I in same industry) for a chat over wine about potential benefits of working together in some way. For me it was strangely alien ( I first typed that as strangley - that works too;)) but also exciting to talk shop again. I felt liberated and proud knowing I had an expertise in demand in my marketplace again - in contrast, do I have expertise as a mother, or am I just mediocre? Who knows? Which role do I do more comfortably? Who am I?

I also endured an interrogation on the train about what I have been doing on the PC for so long in the evenings..I admitted to setting up a Mummy blog after being questioned whether I was having an affair.. This admission was met with faint mockery but I think Mr C is just curious as to what I am saying about him - whose other half knows and reads your Mummy blogs or are they completely anonymous?

On the final note that I just saw Robbie on TV say he loved Gary, I will go to bed - what is the world coming to?

Fitness Assessment fear!

noreply@blogger.com (Another London Mummy) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:48:00 +0000

It's the start of a new week and also the last day of my batch of personal training sessions. I figured I hadn't lost any weight or inches and was not looking forward to all to turning up at my session. Obviously I didn't snack all morning, went to the loo 8 times and tried everything to make half a pound difference. But as expected - no change. Heart-rate was better, fit tests were better but no pooping change in what all of us view as the most important part! I have been struggling to lose any baby weight since Mr T was born and thought 'enough was enough' and decided it was time to throw money at the problem!

After disappointment on the scales I threw myself into the workout and nearly fell over with head-rush on many occasions - oops. But I did it and I feel motivated to make more effort with food and portion sizes.

I tore about and showered and hoiked the buggy over to a friend's house for tea and play. It was half of the NCT girls that I met when Mr T was born - half went back to work and the other half of us are stay at home mums. I have always found the group useful when sharing experiences but sometimes it can be a little competitive. Who has what toys, what Ofsted grading your nursery has, where your boys jeans are from - I try and pooh-pooh it all but sometimes feel I come out thinking 'oh crap, I had better do this/order that/teach Mr T that' Today was one of those days...as I walked home I panicked about private schools and when he was going to learn to walk.

Mr C was just overheard telling Mr T that he should be saying real words by now - he just gabbles away to us with no real words but I am not concerned as he understands loads. The only word he actually says is 'there' and wiggles his finger! Demanding little sod! (Just like his Mummy)

Curry and cake

noreply@blogger.com (Another London Mummy) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:03:00 +0000

Tired, tired, tired today! Dragged myself out of bed at 7.45 and drove to the shops for some milk - 5 oC - brrr...autumn is really here.

A lovely sunny day though later and we strolled to my brother's house for his wife's birthday. Champagne, wine and curry followed by cake - not the healthiest options I am sure. Mr T spent the afternoon trying to trash their living room - the joy of being in someone's house with a toddler. I noticed the ceramic bowl that is normally in the fireplace has been moved in advance of our arrival this time!

Returned home to give Mr T his tea and his first bath in the big, new bathtub. I filled it with all of his bath toys - surprised there was room for him really, and watched his excited face as he was plopped in. There was much splashing and standing up which later prompted another excuse for me to browse the baby websites for anti-slip bathmats and bath toy containers.

Oh, the shopping...I didn't order anything - what's the point with an imminent postal strike. Maybe it will help curb my unhealthy obsession with shopping for my son?