We’ve had such a good day here. C woke up fiendishly early but Simon persuaded her to go back to bed & watch a video before he left for work - having the extra hour sleep makes me a much better person. We read in bed until about 10:30, more animal conservation stuff & we looked at turtle & panda links on the internet. After (a very late) breakfast C practiced her dance then decided that she wanted to do some maths (I was thinking just yesterday that she hadn’t done much for a while). We did some pages from the Usborne Adding Up sticker book, made a number bond chart & then did about half an hour of mental arithmetic & talked about times tables as a concept

We had toasted bagels for lunch & then made chocolate sauce to have with ice cream. C did a loads of stamping & drawing (Valentine’s day at Centre Parc) while I sorted out the cat (grrr) & a few loads of washing. I found some old Letts phonics & handwriting books and C spent a while doing those, then got the geomags & jigsaws out again while my mum popped in for a cup of tea.

C helped me cooked dinner (curry for us, fish & mashed potato for her) and more ice cream & chocolate sauce & is now bathed and in bed watching Shrek

Well following from a nice week we had a pretty cruddy one involving sick cats (vets bills ouch), C narrowly escaping death, me being really ill (well it was just a cold but I felt like shite & couldn’t get out of bed for 3 days), being stuck in the house and general money woes. We went out for lunch with my mum on Friday which was lovely but I was feeling pretty dire by the time we got back. C had ballet on Saturday and she & Simon spent the afternoon loading up the car with junk (including a sofa) to take to the dump, I mostly slept; we missed out on dinner with A&C . S was supposed to work on Sunday but I wasn’t feeling up to looking after C, I supervised some box moving & general tidying in the afternoon.

I started feeling a bit better on Monday - S was working an early shift so he got home in time to rush C over to an extra ballet lesson (which clashed with swimming which we missed (annoying because with all the bank holidays it is a really short term)). Yesterday we went to see Ice Age 2 which was IMO crap but C thought it was brilliant! We were the only people there which she was impressed by as well & consuming her body weight in salty popcorn made it the perfect day. She bought a very gorgeous fairy dress with her Easter money & floated home in it!

We’ve also read - Scooby Doo magazines (which I’ve finally got road to cancelling), Click which are perfect for C now & various books. We’ve done some cooking & talk a lot about conservation & what extinction means; she’s helped me lots with looking after Evie. I bought C a new note book & some pens & she’s been doing lots of writing & drawing in it. She’s done some phonics/spelling and I got out the Singapore maths again (the last Early Bird) which she hated I think she’d prefer the next level, but unfortunately they are packed. The geomags have been out pretty constantly as have the cuisenaire rods, she’s been watching Maid Marion which is hilarious

We’ve had a really nice week, I even tried to take some pictures but kept forgetting to clear the memory card . Round-ups are useless because I forget so much (I really must get back into the blogging habit) but we …

Had a picnic, Wednesday was a gorgeous day so we packed up a picnic, sunblock & park toys and headed off for the afternoon. C ran, scooted and played for hours & I got to read my book. Afterwards we headed of to Waitrose to get Ady & Simon a cake & so I could fulfil my craving for raspberries.

Went to the theatre, on Thursday A, Gwenny, C & I went to see Joseph. As anticipated Gwenny & C adored the show, it was fun but I could have done without the 75 five year olds sat behind us (eating bananas *yuck*).

Had a party with cake & wine, Nic & Ady came up on Thursday & Nic babysat the non-theatre going children. It was as always very pleasant - I believe the children played Slaves or some variant.

Socialised, on Friday we went to ERAPA as usual, I was exhausted & the heat didn’t help much. C ran around like a mad thing while I shouted at her to keep her hat on. Friday was also Girls’ Brigade, C apparently had a trip to the woods to pick flowers (and rocks ) and play hide a seek. She was exhausted when she got back.

Had a day in bed - well me anyway! Saturday was really busy for C & S, ballet, another trip to the theatre & shopping while I lay in bed with an awful headache. I felt a bit better in the evening & we went out to dinner (Pizza Express) to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

Nothing much happened on Sunday - ballet related trauma at some point I think.

Yesterday C & I went into town to get Simon a birthday present & pick up a prescription, we had lunch there then rushed back for swimming. C has moved into a new class which I am much happier with. We rushed off to my parents’ afterwards for a birthday dinner.

Work stuff - lots of reading (Farmyard Tales, Dr Seuss, Usborne Beginners), bit of maths (Singapore - not a favourite I have to admit), CGP science & some handwriting & phonics.

We have a plasterer coming this evening for a quote - I’m starting to fantasise about unpacking my boxes! We need to get the house sorted before the … ahem … baby.

Due date came & went … not much to say. We all miss her. Loved her very much.

Feeling permanently shite, having zero enthusiasm and being in a foul mood isn’t helping the cause much. I had a bleeding (very small) episode on Sunday, I thought my heart was going to stop beating. Have had anti-d, baby is fine measuring ahead again, femurs are long (tall like Daddy?), they can’t see where the bleeding is coming from (probably cervical - don’t they always say that?) there hasn’t been anymore. Just served to remind us, if we had forgotten for a moment, to be more terrified than ever.

Isn’t it a crappy picture? Oh how I wish we could afford the FMC everytime. Simon came with me this time, it was lovely to see how much the baby has grown and how active it is. I’ve been feeling movement for a couple of weeks now but that and hearing the wonderful galloping heartbeat everyday (yup) just remind us how much we have to lose. I’m still pretty sick (nowhere near as bad as with C - that & the HR make me think boy, it has been worse since I’ve been off the steroids but at least I’m not so fucking hungry all the time) but my BP is behaving so far. Never happy am I? I hate pregnancy.

Oh and anomoly scan is booked for exactly 20 weeks (at the FMC of course) I want it done before we go camping because they are going to check the placental blood flow and my cervix … the date? 6-6-06 hmmmm.

We’ve been pretty busy though - the usual work bookey things (handwriting, phonics, spelling), C repeated the expert level on B&P maths (in one sitting, with no input from me including The Really Hard Super Game which I thought was pretty good going!), we’ve been doing lots of word puzzles (cross words, word searches etc) mainly from her Scooby Doo magazines & playing Hangman, reading about Jesus (Usborne New Testament for kids) and the usual activities.

So its okay, I should be more organised but it is just impossible atm.

I’ve moved her into another swimming group - one without a bunch of idiotic 6 year old boys & where the teacher uses her whistle & snarls at the kids if they mess around. Ballet was traumatic, C is in the small parents only show not the big one like last time - she’s okay about it, but I’m slightly annoyed with her teacher (the lessons cost a fortune - we’ve just paid for the new term and it was well over £100) she really wasn’t well prepared. I’ve spent some time going over it with her & she’s already a 100% more confident.

Oh well, I’m indulging in wine, chocolate & paracetamol tonight.