Month: October 2006

Work looms, it’s dark in the mornings, the rain is hurling it down, my skin is turning pale blue and stodge is creeping isidiously into the diet….

Nothing for it but to focus on drinking as much coffee as possible and keeping busy. Today I finally managed to get to pilates and ended up so relaxed I almost fell asleep. More coffee was clearly needed, so Will and I headed to Borders to meet Sam, Jude, Helen and Charlie. A large latte later and the world seemed a brighter place.

God, I can’t wait for the Blog entry that says Will is crawling. Let’s hope he cracks it before November 13th.

Funny that nine months of pregnancy felt like a lifetime, whereas the following nine months has gone by in the blink of an eye. I must stop myself counting the days, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of saying to yourself, ‘this is the last week I’ll spend with Will before nursery’; ‘only 5 weeks until I go back to work’….etc.

Life is good and there is so much to look forward to; Sing and Sign, Waterbabies, friends, family and all sorts of adventures we haven’t even dreamed of yet. Next on the list – lunch with Clive and Jenny, our arteries are hardening at the very thought!

Has it really been nearly a year since I first left work? I can’t believe time can fly by so quickly and it’s time to think about rejoining (what’s left of) the team at Vodafone. It’s hard to put into words how I feel about going back, because it’s very much a double-edged sword. On the one hand I love my job and all my friends at work, but on the other I don’t want to leave Will….

In my heart of hearts I know, and I’ve always known, that I could never be a stay-at-home mum. If I didn’t have work to go back to, and was looking at spending the next few years going to coffee mornings/gymborees/waterbabies etc, I’d be seriously depressed!

This week we went back to Little Sods to sort out the days he’ll go in, and I came away feeling very positive again and sure that I’ve made the right choice for Will. He is going to have so much fun playing with other children. On a roll, I even went to look at Bright Sparks, a nursery down the road in Heath End which has been recommended. It’s for children from 2, but has a waiting list so I thought better to have a look and put his name down if we liked it, than risk missing out later. It was a great place and the children were all dancing, playing, singing, dressing up – Will’s eyes were out on stalks! I’ve put him down for a place and then we can make a decision nearer the time about whether he goes there a couple of mornings a week as well as Little Sods.

All in all I’m getting my act together and trying to prepare (as much as anyone can) for the day when I go back. The real test will come in a week’s time when Will starts to go to the nursery for a couple of hours each week, gradually building up to a full day the week before I start work. The main thing, is that Will is happy and settled at nursery well in advance. It’s me who’s going to have to jump in the deep end.

…and he can.

How to describe my son? I was watching him today with all the other babies and I’ve come to the conclusion that William isn’t ‘into everything’ like other children. He’s happier to sit back and watch rather than getting stuck in.

He is very like Eddie in temperament, in the sense that while everyone else is fighting to be the top dog, Will is the sort of boy who’ll bide his time and then capture everyone’s attention surreptitiously and totally.

Will has an incredibly stubborn streak, if he doesn’t want to do something then God help him he won’t. I was trying to feed him supper tonight – Fish Mornay (or fish with vegetables and cheese sauce to the uninitiated) – and he was having NONE of it. He screamed, cried, blew rasberries, gagged, retched and choked, rather than ingest his supper. Until, that is, I produced his fromage frais for pudding. At which point all rebellion ceased and peace was restored. God help us if we have a fussy eater on our hands, although to be fair to Will he didn’t sleep at lunchtime (too busy teddy-wrestling) so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and put today’s hystrionics down to over-tiredness…

To say Will is beginning to assert his personality on the family would be an understatement. He is very much his own man, and increasingly happy to show it.

Judge or Houghton? Time will tell…..

Oh the joy of children….no sooner had Will perked up on Sunday morning, bright as a button and raring to go, did it occur to us that we were next in line to catch his bug. Eddie collapsed at 10.30 and spent the rest of the day in bed with the occasional dash to the loo. I made it as far as the 6.30pm bottle before having to put Will down and run for it.

We were in bed by 8.00pm comparing temeratures, we’ve got one of those gadgets that you stick in your ear – addictive (Eddie won by 0.1 degrees at 38). Feeling weak as a kitten this morning while Will bobs around the sitting room, wittering and trying to crawl. Still.