First picnic in the park of 2011

Grey heron in Regent's Park, originally uploaded by Racmol.

I picnicked in Regent's Park today with my friend Sineva - a fabulous warm day as you can see. Didn't take any form of jacket and wore sandals and 3/4 jeans. Spring has sprung! Of course, this doesn't mean that we won't get snow at Easter like in 2008, but it certainly felt hopeful today.

In other news, I have to have two separate job interviews for the two jobs I'm going for in the new structure at work. That's on top of the 3-hour assessment centre I went to earlier this month. The first of these interviews, helpfully titled L2006 in the meeting request so I had no idea which job it was for(!), is on 5 April. It's in external comms and one of the skills you need to demonstrate is blogging. So I just might be able to do that!

Bunk report - morning after the night before

Bunks , originally uploaded by Racmol.

Actually they were pretty good. Willy was so shattered after his day out in the park and not being able to have a nap due to his bed being in pieces that he rolled over and went straight to sleep. Fia took a little longer, but not too bad.

Willy started patting my face at 5.45am, but then he got in with us and went back to sleep for another hour or so before Fia arrived, so that wasn't too bad either.

It could be remarkably easy to get up to go running at 6am this year...

The man in the (super) moon

Super moon over Winchester Avenue, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Well, apparently tonight the moon is the closest it's been to earth in nearly two decades, so we went out the front door to have a look at it. I took this rather atmospheric shot - can you see the face immediately to the left of the moon?

In other news, at our house it's goodbye to the cot and the toddler bed and hello bunks. Jules has been a trooper throughout the whole transition - working from home to receive the delivery on Tuesday and then disassembling the cot and toddler bed and assembling the bunks today - on probably the sunniest, warmest Spring day we've had so far.

Fia and Willy's room looks much better with bunks - it's never going to be palatial but there's a good square of floor to play on now and because the bottom bunk has good clearance, we should be able to store all the train track and blocks etc down there and get them out of the living room. Plus they are just so excited about the bunks!

Fia and I took Willy to ballet this morning so Jules could have some time alone with his screwdrivers. He (Willy, not Jules) definitely has ballet envy. The teachers had covered the window in the door with paper, which he ripped off so he could watch the class, and then he said 'I wanna do ballet'. Which was pretty clear, I thought. Maybe next year, although he shows a lot more aptitude for anything involving a bat and a ball. His carer at nursery, Vanessa, was telling me just the other day that she gave him a recorder to play, and he blew through it for 2 seconds and then ran across the room to whack a ball with it!

After ballet we went to the park. Going to the park with Willy is a bit like walking an over-enthusiastic dog. 'That stick is too big!' you find yourself shouting as he drags half a tree across the grass. 'Yes, I can see you're wet - well, if you will roll in the grass...'

And finally, around 4pm, the bunks were erected without injury to either parent - although there were a few near misses. Damned tricky getting the top bunk onto the pegs in a confined space.

Oh, and in case I haven't already told everyone, I miraculously got a public place in the Royal Parks Half Marathon second chance ballot, so I will be busy doing that on 9 October. Jules is doing the Windsor on 25 September and it would be good if everyone could remind him to actually register and pay his race fee before it fills up. Lean Heath Christmas in south east Asia, anyone?

Fairytale happy family at the combined party

Fairytale happy family, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Mission accomplished

Pinata action shot, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Well, we survived birthday season, although some might argue only just!

It would have helped if the oven hadn't died on Friday. And if Jules hadn't had the flu this weekend. And if this morning's sun hadn't been replaced with pouring rain by 2pm.

Special thanks to:

Antonio and Angharad (downstairs neighbours) for the use of their oven to bake the dinosaur cake. They even left out nibbles and a glass of wine for me!

Auntie Chrissie for conceptual and design work on the castle cake.

Sainsbury's for the slabs of angel cake that got stuck together to make the princess castle.

Alison for icing and decorating the damn thing, at the venue, at the last minute.

Sarah for general cheerful kitchen help, laying out trays of food, pouring drinks, chopping vegetables and even finding time to joke about whether we wanted them as batons and julienned!

Jules for wrapping half the party favour books and standing in one spot holding the pinata for ages and ages, despite having the flu. Also general childminding and finding suitable outlets for Willy's urge to bash.

(A side point - say what you will about Party Pieces, the internet business owned by Kate Middleton's parents, but they do make a nigh-on indestructible pinata for £12, which provided a good half hour of entertainment. In the end I gather it was wrestled to the floor and disembowelled to release the chocolate coins.

Photos are all up on flickr. I would say I was very proud of the castle cake but in the end my involvement was minimal. I iced and decorated the turrets and Alison did everything else.

Thank God for good friends! On that note, I'll go to bed.

On the eve of my daughter's fourth birthday

Sofia's pre-birthday birthday cake, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Dear Sofia,

You are everything I ever wanted in a daughter and more besides. Your beauty and your imagination astound me every day and I feel very fortunate to have you in my life.

I also often feel at a loss as to how to deal with the latest performance over the unavailability of the pink baking skirt, and the refusal to wear anything else.

I have to say, I didn't expect quite such a PINK daughter. I remember shopping for baby clothes with your Auntie Sara. I chose a very cute stripey brown and orange velour suit with a giraffe on the front and Auntie Sara had her doubts as to whether that would really be suitable if you turned out to be a girl.

And then when you were a baby, I discovered Polarn o Pyret, and you spent your babyhood dressed in red and purple with denim dungarees.

Now you're turning four and everything must be pink. I am constructing a pink princess castle cake for the party and I have finally, after weeks of whining about cold legs on the way to nursery, persuaded you into some pink jeans. (They are size 5 slimfit and the legs are not too long - where did that come from?)

People often comment that you are a happy child and I have to agree - you generally have a very sunny outlook on life, which brightens my day every day.

On that topic, not every day has been bright over the last four years. I have suffered postnatal depression twice (once after each child, the second time much worse than the first) and relied heavily on support from family and friends. And even when I was almost completely silent, you still appreciated me jamming blocks together for you wordlessly and heavily editing your bedtime stories.

You won't eat scrambled eggs or baked beans, though, which may well be a consequence of all those days I couldn't summon the energy to cook anything or find the concentration to decide what we needed and shop for it.

You went through a worrying phase of sitting on or biting your little brother, but now you actively look after him and come to his aid if it looks like anyone is being mean to him at nursery.

Every night, Willy says 'I want Fia's bed' and gets in with you. There isn't really room for two toddlers in a toddler bed, so I have to transfer him into his own bed to howls of protest. It's nice that you have that bond, I think.

Tomorrow is your actual birthday, and we hope it is everything you're wishing for. We will take you to see your second actual castle (Windsor) and your Dad, by the sound of his recent phonecall on his way home from work, has over-ordered hugely on breakfast patisseries and other tasty morsels.

Happy birthday sweet pea. Have a lovely sleep.
Love, Mum.

PS The idea for this post comes from dooce.com, who blogged a letter to her daughter every month for the first few years of her life. And the picture opposite is the obligatory pre-birthday birthday cake at nursery this afternoon.

Hope springs eternal

Hope springs eternal, originally uploaded by Racmol.

I rather like the light in this photo, taken one sunny day last week. It looks like we're going to have a good showing of bulbs this year.

Jules is a bit gutted as he took Sofia out in the garden a while back and they each planted a tub of bulbs. He planted his carefully at the right depth and discarded any showing signs of mould.

Sofia went to town with her tub, stuffing in every bulb she could find randomly, including rotten ones, and scarcely covering them at all. A few weeks later, her tub is showing about 5 green shoots and there is zero growth in Jules's tub. Maybe when you're planting as late as the end of January, you should disregard the instructions and plant very shallowly.

Yesterday we went for our first explore of a London suburb we don't know. You'll be hearing a lot more on this subject as we try to find a house we like in an area we like, at a price we can afford.

My money is on Surrey, which looks (at least on the internet) lovely, but Jules fancies a move north, so we thought we'd take the train from Queen's Park to Watford Junction. Willy likes trains, so at least the day wouldn't be totally wasted, was our thinking.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with the train so we had to get out at Harrow and Wealdstone, and then service was suspended north of that point.

It started to rain. Jules's phone had no coverage and couldn't produce a map for us. We walked up the high street on the Wealdstone side of the station (chicken n chips, kebab shops, Iceland) and when we got to the top Jules said 'In a word, no'.

Next week we'll go by car. The problem with taking the train is that, for example, you know there's supposed to be a nice bit of Harrow but it's not so easy to find on foot. Also the troops get rebellious after a bit.

Next week we'll go south west. I like the look of Sutton, Cheam and Surbiton. I'm trying to prepare myself mentally for the fact that any house we find in Surbiton will not be like Tom and Barbara's from The Good LIfe - but even so, it still looks nice.

What happened to the idea of moving back to Wellington or Auckland? In a word, money. While it would be lovely to see more of our families, we're not sure how much more we would actually see them and we ARE sure that these are very expensive cities where we wouldn't have a lot of disposable income.

Still very keen to mind Sara and Luke's farm for them for a few months/a year if they want to go away again though :) New Zealand is beautiful if you take the property ownership side out of the equation.

Heath family recipe attempt no. 1 - Nanny's sponge

Well, it's Saturday and we found a very old can of pitted black cherries in the back of one of our kitchen cupboards, so it seemed like a good excuse to make a cake.

The Heath Dyers of Hawea Flat kindly made Jules a Heath family recipe book for his birthday so he thought he'd try his mum's sponge cake.

Actually, now that I think about it, I can't remember Jules ever making a cake before - at least not since the days of the coconut and chocolate microwave cake he used to make when we were going out. (Pause for nostalgic moment.)

I have to say, it was particularly de-lish. A little on the crunchy side texture-wise perhaps, probably because he rashly substituted Green & Black's hot chocolate granules for the custard powder. NB: They do NOT dissolve in the oven.

Here's a close up of the cake, filled with blackberry jam, whipped cream flavoured with chocolate milk and the aforementioned cherries.

Intrepid cyclist on the Central Otago Rail Trail

Intrepid cyclist, originally uploaded by Racmol.

I was a bit scared of the Central Otago Rail Trail, to be honest. I'm the sort of cyclist who has been known to fall off her bike on a completely flat stretch of road, or even getting out of the driveway at home.

My main worry was that I would brake the wrong way, skid and end up in a pile of gravel with scraped knees and elbows. But it was actually fine - a gentle gradient all the way, as you would expect given that it was once a train line.

Having said that, biking across the viaducts with the wind buffeting you was a bit freaky. And the pitch black inside the tunnels also. But having had a taste, I'm definitely keen to do the whole thing.

A selection of photos from our NZ holiday is now up on flickr. Just click on the lovely image of me in neon (above) to get through to all our photos.

Happy birthday Willy!

Triceratops on the move, originally uploaded by Racmol.

There wasn't much fanfare to Willy's 2nd birthday really, due to jetlag and general exhaustion (Sofia, Willy and I arrived back from New Zealand the day before).

We had presents in the late morning and funnily enough, the biggest hit was the two little dinosaurs Sofia bought him in the Otago Museum shop while we were in Dunedin. And I do mean that she bought them - I was busy preventing Willy from flinging a space hopper across the shop at the time, so I sent her up to the counter with the money and she came back with all the right change and the dinosaurs in a bag.

Willy calls his new friends 'Tops' and 'Saurus' - short for Triceratops and Stegosaurus.



About 6 o'clock I made a big chocolate traybake cake. Sofia and Willy hadn't woken up from their afternoon nap yet, and even after I'd cut up the cake into the shape of a T. Rex (roughly speaking) and iced it they couldn't be roused. I did stand over their beds and talk loudly about it, and lifted Willy's arm and let it flop back down again, tried a spot of tickling - but no luck.

So in the end we had the cake this morning. And very delish it was too, if I do say so myself.



I got about 6 hours sleep last night, which was more than Jules got as he was apparently up making pasta for the kids at 11.30pm and then again at 4am. And tonight they were both asleep between 6 and 7pm which is pretty close to normal, so we'll see how we go.

Trying out the new wheels

GO!, originally uploaded by Racmol.

A fabulous morning in Queen's Park today - positively tropical at 5 degrees - so Willy took his new scooter out for a spin. He was so excited to see the box - a big thank you to Nanny and Lolo. As you can see, he doesn't believe in using his foot to push off, but he has pretty good balance.

Lots of other things have happened since September and obviously I haven't blogged about any of them but you can catch up with the action on flickr in the meantime.

Windsor half marathon - post-race report

Ready steady go, originally uploaded by Racmol.

A summer of leaping out of bed at 6am to run culminated yesterday in the Windsor half marathon, run in the Windsor Great Park just down from Windsor Castle.

My running partner hurt her back and pulled out a few weeks ago, so it was just me and the Nike+ ipod, plus a support team of Jules, Willy, Fia and Ali (the injured one). The only sports injury was to Jules, who claims he got a chafed nipple from running alongside with the pushchair as I came down the Long Walk to the finish line! Didn't get a great deal of sympathy for that one...

All in all it was not too bad. Whoever described the course as gently undulating needs to be slapped about a bit, but otherwise no dramas or need for toilet stops (always a major worry - not so easy to duck behind a tree with 4000-odd people running past, although plenty of people did just that.

My chip time was 2hr22min53, which I was very pleased with, as usually on a training run 20km would take around 2 hr 30. Then I looked on the website and noticed that the person who finished immediately after me was a woman in the over-65 category!

As I came down the funnel after the finish line, there was a woman gushing to her husband 'I'm so sorry...how did you do?' And he mumbled something and said 'How about you?' And she said '2.20 - woohoo!" So she obviously left him for dead for being too slow.

Ali had brought champagne and a Victoria sponge for a picnic but as I finished it was starting to rain so we just went back to the car, and then spent an hour and a half trying to get out of the carpark, as everyone decided to leave at once.

You can see my official race photos here.

Outside the RAF Museum

Outside the RAF Museum, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Words from William

biscuit
cake
more cake
pancake
dodger (jammy)
apple
(ba)nana
raisin
stars (rice krispie)
ice cream
bread
toast
tato
chip
sauce
beans
juice
milk
water
bath
bubble
bottle
fork
dinosaur
tiger
elephant
rabbit
cat
dog
monkey
giraffe
fish
shark
yellow
red
shoe
my shoe
my turn
up and down
hop hop (little bunnies)
out you go (from Lydia Monks' "Aaagh! Spider!"
Ice Age
swing
slide
park
pushchair
scooter
bike
digger
bus
plane
helicopter
hot
poo
nose
eye
eyebrow
ear
chin
mouth
teeth
where's
after dinner (in relation to chocolate)
tea time
spider
bee
frog
flower
key
hello
bye bye
high five
shower
Fia
Alex
ball
mix
moo
baa
roar
rufF rufF
horse
rough game
ont (I want)
no
yeah

Face painting for beginners

Face painting for beginners, originally uploaded by Racmol.

So we bought a face painting kit at Sainsbury's on Saturday. Somehow I think it is too early to start hiring myself out for parties. In my defence, some of my subjects would not sit still.

We finally beat the snails!

Summer flowers, originally uploaded by Racmol.

This is our third attempt at sunflowers from seed - and the first generation to survive to adulthood.

The best of friends...

Willy and Jules at the Taberna del Temple, originally uploaded by Racmol.

What a heartwarming scene - father and son gazing fondly at each other as they dine out under a plum tree on a balmy summer's evening in Pollenca. And then, quite literally, it all turns to poo.

Two minutes later, when Jules had carted Willy and a complete change of clothes off to the (very small) toilet, all you could hear were bloodcurdling screams. (Mostly William.) The lady at the next table went to the toilet herself and came back shaking her head. 'Ooh, he's struggling in there,' she said cheerfully and picked up her wine glass again. I just smiled ruefully and set about decontaminating the highchair.

However, the holiday wasn't ENTIRELY miserable. We had a great day when we drove up into the mountains to Soller, a small town that was pretty much cut off from the south of Majorca until they put a tunnel in in 1997. It is surrounded by orange groves and quite pretty. From there you can (and we did) take an open-sided tram to Port de Soller, which was where the oranges left for France from and is now a seaside resort. We had a swim and an ice-cream and then caught the tram back again. Then on the way up over the mountain we stopped at some viewpoints for quite spectacular views down to the port.

The day we went to Port de Pollenca was also quite successful - after a morning swim, Fia and Willy both went to sleep in the pushchair while we were walking about looking for lunch so we had a nice quiet tapas or five while they slept.

Our two child-pleasing days were the waterpark (Aqualand) at Alcudia, and Marineland (dolphin show, seals, turtles, aquarium etc) at Palma. Expensive, but the kids loved them.

On our last night in Pollenca, we finally discovered how you eat out with small children in Spain. We tried to go to a fairly nice restaurant and ended up with William shaking and incandescent with rage so we had to leave without having dessert, which was a shame as the menu looked pretty good. So we wandered into the town square, thinking we could at least have an ice cream. And there we found all the residents of Pollenca relaxing with a bottle of wine at outdoor tables while their children ran and scooted around the pedestrianised square in the dark. So we did that, and all was well.

Family holiday in Mallorca receives mixed reviews (Part One)

Fia and Willy on the Formentor Peninsula, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Well, we all survived a week of family togetherness in the old town of Pollenca in the north of Mallorca, although some would argue only just!

We may as well just be honest about this up front - there were some bad moments. In retrospect, when you get stuck driving up the incredibly narrow Calle de Porquer and you realise it's a dead end, the best option is probably NOT to continue driving ACROSS the town's trademark cobbled Calvari steps into a driveway that turns out to be too small to turn around in without scraping the front of the car and destroying a tyre. Luckily a very helpful resident of Calle de Porquer (looking like he'd seen it all before) and his mechanic friend came to our aid and the ordeal was over in an hour or so.

As I was saying, hindsight is a wonderful thing. When I booked the house we were staying in, my main concern was to make sure the pool was well separated from the house, as Europeans don't believe in fencing swimming pools - and it was, being at the top of a section that cascaded steeply down the hill with the house at the bottom. Next time I will ask some more searching questions, such as:
Are there a million steep stone steps on the section with vertical drops off the side and no rails of any kind?
Do you have random glass vases full of dried flowers on the landing half way up your marble staircase? (And if so, WHY? What were you thinking?)

We didn't actually break the glass vase standing on the floor of the landing and nobody fell to their death off the side of the steps, but Jules broke the handle of the freezer door and Willy broke a blue glass bowl, the ceramic base of a bedside lamp and (although this might have been a coincidence) the volume control of the satelllite tv. This probably sounds like reckless vandalism, but actually the freezer door formed a vacuum seal of incredible strength, Willy grabbed the glass bowl off a high shelf while I was holding him and reaching for the remote control for the fan, and he broke the lamp while I was brushing my teeth in the next room. I was happy enough to see him leave the room as the last time he'd been in the bathroom with me he had turned the bidet jet on full and sent a flood of water out into the hallway and then slipped over in it and howled.

I slightly lost patience with the landlady when she came to sort out the satellite tv while we were out (after we'd reported our long list of breakages) and left a large fake Ming dynasty type vase on a low table in the living room, as if she was daring us to break that too!

That probably seems like rather a long moan, and I haven't even got to the liquid poo incidents (one in our bed and one in a restaurant).

And then there was Black Tuesday (or possibly Wednesday, I forget which). When I finally got to bed after the bloodcurdling screams had stopped (17 renditions of Puff the Magic Dragon later), Jules rolled over, yawned and said: 'They're horrible. I don't like them and they've ruined my life.'

Part Two will be the highlights (yes, there were some!), and of course the full details of the liquid poo, which I know you are all anxious to hear more about.

Northern Ireland in a day

Siblings at the Giant's causeway, originally uploaded by Racmol.

So, last Saturday we went to Northern Ireland for the day on a whim. Or not really a whim, exactly - I did look into apartments over Easter but everything was expensive and already booked and we couldn't face the idea of another night with four of us in a hotel room like the nightmare in Norfolk.

So we drove to the airport for an 8.50am flight to Belfast, picked up a car at the other end and hit the road.

Drove up the scenic coast road to the Giant's Causeway, played on the rocks, had a quick lunch and drove on to the Carrick-a-rede swing bridge. There is a little path along the white clifftops to get to the bridge, which joins two pieces of headland across a chasm. It's a lot like an NZ swing bridge now, but it used to be have a single rope to hang onto and fishermen used it to catch salmon. Just as we were coming back to the car it started to rain, so we timed the day perfectly.

When we got back to Belfast we had just enough time to stuff about a bit and almost miss our plane, (7.40pm) but not really enough to have anything to eat so we ended up running for the plane with some toasted sandwiches in a paper bag.

Fia and Willy slept all the way home in the car and we were all pretty shattered the next day but aside from that I would say it is just about doable as a day trip. Where next?

Happy birthday Willy

And here is Sofia singing 'Happy birthday' to William and helping him with blowing out his candle. The cake is a first attempt at a Thomas the tank engine - tasty but probably easier to buy one at Sainsbury's next time.



In other news, we went to Norfolk for the weekend but it was closed. Some places, like for example Gorleston-on-Sea, should just have posted a sign on the road into the town saying 'We are closed for winter. Try Norwich'. Still Sofia got to run along the beach in the mist so she was happy.

Movie time

Willy learnt to walk last month, and I finally got around to filming it the day before his birthday.

Bookshelf demolition

Bookshelf demolition, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Merry Christmas from all of us

Family portrait in the snow, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Here we all are, in the snow in our garden, this morning. Yes, we were meant to be in Bruges but never mind - hopefully we will get a full refund. What are the odds that the one time we get organised enough to actually book a trip the Eurostar breaks down! Still at least we weren't stuck in the tunnel for 5 hours like some unfortunate people.

In other news, we're about to become car owners. I went for a test drive this afternoon and paid the deposit, then go back tomorrow to pay the balance and take it home. It is a 2006 Mazda 3 in Phantom Blue - quite snazzy. Sofia can't quite believe it - keeps asking 'Can I go in it? In my car seat? In my blue car seat? Can William go in it? And me? In my blue car seat?'

Our poor little plague rat

Plague rat, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Well, it was inevitable really, wasn't it? Still at least we are now done with the pox and Willy is slowing regaining his former beauty, one healing scab at a time.

He was particularly troublesome at the height of the spots last week, waking in the night and howling then falling asleep spreadeagled in the middle of our bed wearing a very self-satisfied expression.

To celebrate our spot-free household we are off to the Christmas markets in Bruges on the train on Monday for two nights. Sofia has already said she doesn't want to go on a train, she wants to go on two planes to see her cousins. Which is a bit of bad luck, really.

30-day moustache

30-day moustache, originally uploaded by Racmol.

The mo is no more, but this is how it was on 30 November. A big thank you to everyone who donated to the cause.

Also on flickr is Willy displaying his lopsided smile and Sofia with the pox.

The Movember mo in progress

Jules with Movember mo, originally uploaded by Racmol.

As you can see, Jules's Movember mo is coming along nicely. Doesn't he look handsome - very Magnum PI, I think.

However he is very depressed as nobody apart from me has sponsored him yet. Come on people! Time to put your money where his mo is.

Also on flickr is a charming new photo of William.

Six months old

Six months old, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Willy turned six months this week so I made a cake (any excuse!). He didn't get to do more than smile at the cake but he did celebrate with some mashed banana. We think he is looking quite grown up already.

In other news, the triathlon training is going badly. I have had what I thought was a bad cold for over a week but this morning after swimming in my new wetsuit I sneezed about 30 times in a row so I think it may actually be allergies exacerbated by chlorine and not a cast iron excuse to do no exercise for a week. Still, five weeks to go tomorrow - maybe I will be able to drag myself around the course anyway.

Sofia has made friends with a Jack Russell puppy at the park - after a lot of prompting she eventually put out a hand and stroked him and then said in a very polite English accent: 'Shall we take him home?'

We have booked some flights to NZ and should arrive on 22 September after a couple of nights in Hong Kong. We leave again on 9 October. All very exciting!

Day trip to Brighton with Great Auntie Averil

Brighton merry-go-round, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We had a lovely day out today, taking the train to Brighton with Great Auntie Averil. Sofia had an ice cream, a sausage and two merry-go-round rides so she was happy. William had three bottles and a sleep so he was happy too. I bought lots of things so I was happy too.

Here's a picture of the great aunt in action.

My first jars of raspberry jam

Raspberry jam, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Clearly it is time I went back to work, before I start knitting my own socks. These jars of jam were made with 17 of our own raspberries and £4 worth of raspberries from the farmers' market. So I'm calling them homemade AND homegrown. Technically there may well be at least one homegrown raspberry per jar...

Garden update, triathlons and celebrity spotting in Queen's Park

I pulled up my first two potato plants today and I think it's fair to say it could be a lean Heath Christmas this year. The prize for the world's smallest potato goes to this guy, sitting next to a small Braeburn apple for scale purposes.


Also harvested five red onions (small) and a handful of very small raspberries. To think I saved some jars specially for making raspberry jam...Still the blackberries are rampant as usual so I guess we can make blackberry jam instead.

The pears, apples and tomatoes are all doing very well and our cucumber plant has five babies while the red pepper plant has four. The butternut squash plants (2)are growing well and today I put a pumpkin in the raised bed that I pulled the potatoes out of. Also to go in is a chilli pepper bush - I figure it's a good idea to grow things that are expensive to buy.


My friend Alison and I are planning to do the Tri for Life triathlon at Eton on 6 September. You swim 400m in a lake, bike 20km around the edge of it then run 5km. This morning we went swimming at the Parliament Hill lido which is 60m long and unheated - it was lovely on such a hot day. Now I just need to hire or buy a wetsuit for the lake swim and a triathlon suit for the rest of it. And of course get back on my bike, which I haven't done since I fell off when I was pregnant with William.

In other news, I met Cillian Murphy in the cafe in the park today. We were both going for the napkin dispenser to wipe our accompanying child's face clean of ice cream. I wanted to say I really liked Breakfast on Pluto or whatever that film is called, but I couldn't remember the title so I shut up. And last week Tamsin Greig from Green Wing held the gate to the playground open for us so that's two celebrities spotted in a fortnight.

Row row row your boat

Row row row your boat, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Here are our two playing nicely together - and you can see that William's enjoying the attention, for once...

Day trip to Lavenham

Poppies in Lavenham, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We had a beautiful fine bank holiday Sunday, so we rented a zipcar and drove up to Lavenham in Suffolk, an old medieval market town. Had a lovely pub lunch in a garden bar and then went to see Little Hall, a 14th century timber-framed house. I found these poppies in the garden there.

There are pictures of all the family in Lavenham on flickr - just click on the poppies to see the collection.

Our two in the baby gym

Sofia and William, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Running back to happiness

On the advice of my psychiatrist, I've decided stop whingeing and get back exercising, as the fastest route back to happiness. Two runs so far this week - just around the park a few times but you have to start somewhere.

Anyone who hasn't sponsored me yet for the Race for Life on 7 June can do so from right here below. Thanks to all the lovely people who've already done it!





Lolo arrived safely this afternoon, and we're all thrilled with the presents he brought with him.

Sofia's had a great day at Millie Barnes's birthday party - she was too full of sweets and cake to even look at a sausage at the bbq lunch. And she managed to score 3 presents at pass the parcel too!

Fortnum and Mason's morning tea

Fortnum and Mason's morning tea, originally uploaded by Racmol.

A bit of a week of contradictions, really. Fortnum and Mason's morning tea on Tuesday and then I joined Weight Watchers on Wednesday. Don't know what the WW leader would have had to say about our morning tea - I had a black forest cake and hot chocolate (with real chocolate) and Christine had two strudels and a toffeecino (mainly whipped cream). Still it was lots of fun.

Then we went to the V&A in the afternoon, only to discover that the dolls' houses Chrissie wanted to see are actually at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green now. Still we enjoyed the fashion and jewellery exhibits - some amazing stuff on display, including 200 and 300-year-old shoes for women with tiny feet. People were smaller in general then, I guess.

That evening we went to see Mamma Mia, also good fun. I really enjoyed just being out in town at night - a rarity with two small people in the house but something that definitely needs repeating - and SOON!

It's been lots of fun having Chrissie to stay. Unfortunately for her though, Sofia has taken to waking up at 5.30 now that it gets light so early, which isn't the best. She came to see us at 5.45 and we weren't that thrilled to see her either.

First bbq of the season

Family snapshot, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Lots more photos on flickr of all of us enjoying our first bbq of the year with the Barnes family.

Also, today marks the planting of the potato crop and some more salad leaves.

For the Nanny, there are also some pictures of Sofia and Millie playing with the kitchen - it was a great hit.

Springtime comes to NW6

IMG_2344, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Sofia, William and I had a picnic in the garden this afternoon (while the rugby was on tv). Must have been about 18 degrees or so - positively tropical after the recent rain.

The leek harvest has begun - with one small-to-medium-sized leek. Maybe a leek and potato soup in our future this week?

The spinach is up in the raised bed, as are the first salad leaves. Red onions are there but pretty titchy.

And the slugs have been given their first dose of Kronenbourg in the slug traps - we'll see whether they like that more or less than last year's Stella.

Mother and son

Mother and son, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Some new pictures of Willy on flickr from this week. It's been a rough fortnight but I think I'm on the mend now. And William seems to be learning how to sleep through the night at last - has managed it on two occasions but not two nights in a row.

Jules and I are still pretty tired and resorting to chocolate as a pick-me-up. Sometimes I think the handiness of our corner shop is a mixed blessing...

William at 7 weeks

William at 7 weeks, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Sofia turns 2 - twice!

Blowing out the candles, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Yesterday was phase 2 of the great 2nd birthday extravaganza - the party, as opposed to the actual birthday on Thursday. We took 8 toddlers, 3 babies and 15 parents to an hour of soft play at Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre and then on to the cafe for cake. Definitely a good decision, having it away from our house. When we saw the debris after the toddlers had eaten, we were very glad not to be doing the clearing up. And Sofia had a great time so it was all good.

Sofia's latest phrase is "Fia needs more presents", which is quite clever but completely untrue! We were chuffed when she opened the scooter we got her and said 'It's Fia's scooter. Is pretty cool.'

Jules and I are a bit shattered, one way and another...

Grandma with William and Sofia

Grandma with William and Sofia, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Big sister, little brother

Sofia's first snowman

Snowman, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Lots more snow photos on flickr.

Our garden after the snow

Our garden after the snow, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Up to a foot of snow last night in London. Nursery closed today and snowman assembly to commence shortly.

We are all thanking our lucky stars William didn't arrive today on his official due date. Finding a cab to get to the hospital could have been tricky!

Our water baby William comes home

William comes home from hospital, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We finally left the hospital on Saturday afternoon, after 48 hours of antibiotics (William) and lukewarm, uninspired hospital meals (me). Very glad to be home!

On Wednesday evening I had gone down to the labour ward to be hooked up to the monitor just to check that William was ok, as I hadn't felt any movements all day. I thought this would be a 10-minute visit, but in the end I had the monitor on for nearly two hours even though everything appeared to be normal, because noone was prepared to let me go home until the machine said 'Criteria met'.

Eventually one of the registrars came around and said maybe it would be a good idea to try and do a sweep before I went home. So one of the midwives did that and said I was 1-2cm dilated already so things would probably kick off in the next day or two.

Jules and I got home about 10pm, had a pizza and went to bed. By about 3am I was feeling a bit crampy but not really having regular contractions yet. At 6am I got up and had a shower, then rang the midwives' team mobile. The midwife who answered said to see how many contractions I had in the next half hour. So at 7am I rang back and reported 5 contractions in 30 minutes so she said to come in.

Got to the hospital in a minicab by 7.30am. Only 3 contractions on the way this time, so a lot better than the nightmare cab ride to the hospital when we had Sofia.

We got one of the rooms attached to the birthing pool, and the pool was already being filled for me, so that was great. Around 8am I was hooked up to the drip for my antibiotics for Group B Strep, which took about 20 minutes. By that time the pool had cooled down again, so there was quite a painful half hour of leaning on the bed with Jules massaging my lower back before I could get in. Also threw up a couple of times around this point - the hot cross bun and cup of tea at 7am seems to have been a mistake!

About that point the midwives swapped shifts and the new midwife did an exam and said I was about 5 or 6 cm dilated. Got into the pool about 9am, which was a relief for the first few minutes and then after that I was in so much pain that I really couldn't tell if the water was helping or not.

Jules and the midwife sat around the edge of the pool and made encouraging noises and the midwife said she would let me choose when to start pushing.

The next hour and a half is a bit of a blur - I threw up again and made quite a lot of noise. Then eventually I couldn't help pushing. I remember feeling a big bubble as the waters broke and then having to not push too hard so William's head would be born slowly.

Then I looked down and his head was out and you could see his dark hair floating in the water and a few minutes later (10.35am) he came out in a rush, looking tiny and kind of blue.

The midwife picked him up, unwrapped the cord from around his neck and gave him to me to hold while Jules cut the cord. He seemed absolutely tiny but started crying straight away.

Then the midwife helped me out of the pool and the placenta was delivered on the bed. My only thought was relief that it was all over at last.

After a bit William got cleaned up and weighed and had his Vitamin K shot. Jules and I got a cup of tea each and then we were moved upstairs to the postnatal ward because someone else wanted the room.

The paediatricians insisted that William be given a 48-hour course of antibiotics because he'd only got 2 hours coverage from my IV antibiotics during labour. I wasn't exactly thrilled to have to watch my new son have a canula put into the back of his hand on his first day out in the world but he was very brave and didn't cry, even though it took them two attempts to get it in.

Jules went home and came back with Sofia and Grandma about 5pm. We gave Sofia her present from William and she seemed excited to see him so it went quite well - no screams of outrage or running from the room.

Today we've basically had a quiet day at home. Jules and Sofia went to the farmers' market in the morning and Sofia and I took a very quick walk to the charity bin with my maternity jeans (yay! good riddance) in the afternoon.

Snow has been falling since about 5pm (stopped now) and there's a severe weather warning over Eastern England tonight and tomorrow - expecting up to 15cm of snow in some places. So it may well be a pretty quiet Monday too!

B2 Arrives

Hiya Jules here. 

Just to say William Robert Heath arrived at 10:35 am today weighing 3.095 kg. 

He was delivered in the birthing pool (I'm sure Rac will blog more on this).

Here's a piccy of him after he was tidied up. The bandage on the arm is to deliver antibiotics to him (More on that later as well).

Here's another when Sofia met him.

More pregnant than ever before!

More pregnant than ever before!, originally uploaded by Racmol.

At this point I have no vanity left, so I'm sharing my enormous belly with the world. I hate all my maternity jeans with a passion - they all creep down and get very frayed and muddy around the bottom in this weather. I tried a skirt the other day thinking that would be better but no, it crept down too, taking the tights with it and revealing a builder's crack!

Nearly sent all three pairs of maternity jeans to the charity clothes bin at the end of the street today but thought better of it. If B2 hangs on for another couple of weeks I will be heartily sick of my yoga pants too.

And then of course there is the possibility that some of this hugeness is chocolate-related and will not disappear instantly on B2's arrival. In which case my ordinary jeans will not fit. Sigh.

I'm going to have a bath now. Any tips on bringing on labour gratefully accepted.