Last week I went for an appointment at the hospital and later in the week the midwife. Baby is head down and all the measurements, blood pressure, baby’s heartrate etc are normal. The hospital have asked me to come back at 8 days overdue and have said that I will be induced at 12 days overdue if nothing happens naturally.

By my calculations, that takes us to Saturday the 25th Feb, and I’m not sure if they would do inductions at the weekend – so am slightly scared they might make me wait until 14 days over… I will remind you at this point that Lilly was 11 days over (spontaneous labour, but delivered by emergency c-section) and Isla was 12 days over (induced at 11 days over). I kind of had 10 days in mind for this time, which is the 23rd.

On the one hand, being given 12 days before induction means I am more likely to go into labour on my own, which is what I ideally want to happen. But I also remember only too well the feeling of being so overdue and so fed up waiting for something to happen and I think i’ll go insane if left 14 days!! By the time I went in for induction with Isla I was so fed up and just delighted that the end was in sight. And, to be fair, my experience of induction wasn’t a particularly bad one. However, it would be nice if maybe I could experience labour without being hooked up to the evil syntocinon drip! (and I have stepped up the raspberry leaf tea to three cups a day in an effort to assist this!)

Because of my previous c-section this birth is still classified as a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarian), even though I have had a normal delivery since then. According to the hospital, the success rate in my circumstances is 90%. Last time I felt like I had to fight for the birth I wanted, and I was very much against the idea of continuous monitoring because I wanted to be active to maximise the chances of achieving a normal delivery. When it came to the crunch though, I was so knackered that I was happy to be hooked up to the monitor and sat down on the bed, I was way too tired to have been bouncing on any balls!

This time I will have continuous monitoring again. I am not going to worry about it. If I am in the mood to argue the case and I want to move around the room, I’ll just do it at the time. But I understand why they want to do the monitoring and I am ok with that.

I think I have a realistic approach to my third birth. I hope, and partly expect, that I will be able to have another normal delivery. But I also know that c-sections can be needed for a variety of reasons, and I won’t beat myself up worrying about it if the doctors tell me to have one. Now I just need to look up the coping mechanisms people suggested to me last time to help me through those contractions…

In terms of how I’m feeling, not too bad. The tiredness is definitely back, and getting a bit more every day, it seems. I do sleep ok, but because it is so difficult to get comfy with my huge belly, I tend to stay in one position all night. By the time I wake up I feel really stiff. On the bright side, the heartburn has eased off a bit – it has been a few days since I took Gaviscon! The baby’s movements are still very frequent and strong, sometimes it feels like she is trying to stretch my tummy to make more room for herself – this can feel like rather a sudden sharp pain which has me wincing. My pelvis feels really loose and delicate, I have to be really slow & steady with my movements now. I know this is all part of my body preparing itself for the big day, which I am glad for, but I can’t wait until things feel a bit more sturdy down there!

The pre-baby buying and sorting has commenced too. I did my GBS test, which came back yesterday (negative), I’ve bought some nappies, ordered bottles & a steriliser. Work are kindly getting me a Moses basket, we just need a stand, and I have to sort through all the blankets & first size clothes to make sure we have enough (although I couldn’t resist a small spending spree today on some super-cute new ones). I’ve also made a start on the hospital bag but need to finish this and still need to do an overnight one for the girls.

I am still working – I’ve never worked past 35 weeks before. Now I know why! I am feeling really tired and my heart isn’t really in it, to be honest. I finish next Wednesday and I’m counting the days.

And, to finish on a nice note – the baby book I ordered arrived today. It is part of the same series of books I got for both Lilly and Isla – they all have slightly different versions of the same book (My Baby Journal, if you’re interested). So I have just had a happy ten minutes filing all the scan photos into it and filling out the sections I can, like the due date, first kicks, first time hearing her heartbeat etc. It has also reminded me of the need to look over Lilly’s and Isla’s books to see if there are any sections I still need to fill in for them. Such a lovely job!

Because it looks like that is what we might be doing!

We have lived in our small two bedroom house for eight years now, and for a long time we have been very much outgrowing the space it has to offer.

The girls share a bedroom and there is just about room for a toddler bed, cot & 2 wardrobes in there. Our bedroom fits our double bed and a chest of drawers & will also be where baby will sleep once she arrives. But the time has come when we can put it off no longer: we need more space.

Over the last few weeks we have been weighing up our options – to sell the house or to rent it out. We have fluctuated between the two. Banks being what they are these days we aren’t too hopeful of being offered a bigger mortgage when I am on maternity leave and hubby isn’t working any longer. And we are lucky enough to be on a mortgage with a great rate, the like of which no bank is going to be giving out again in a hurry.

Today we had a local estate agent round to talk us through our options and it looks like we have decided: we are going to rent out our house and rent something bigger ourselves.

It is a scary prospect: neither of us really want to be ‘landlords’ and we have heard so many stories about tenants from hell who don’t pay the rent or cause damage or both.

But, this is a plan which allows us to move into a bigger house quickly, whilst still staying on the property ladder.

While we have been busy weighing up our options, we have been working our way through the to-do list of house jobs that we have been putting off, some of them for years! There has been painting and fixing and facia replacing and cleaning and de-cluttering and all kinds going on. Luckily, considering I am eight months pregnant, hubby is an excellent and very thorough cleaner!

The agent has advised us that our house is likely to let extremely quickly, being located in a “sought after” area. So her advice is to find something we like and then put ours on the market. Once that is done, the moving could be a matter of weeks.

Baby is due in 2 weeks, 3 days. Allowing for going overdue and getting to induction that is 4 weeks, one day. So, if we do manage to find somewhere in the next few weeks, we could be moving just around the time of the baby’s arrival.

Are we crazy?!?! Maybe. But we are also quite excited!

We are big Peppa fans in our house. The first episode I ever saw was when Lilly was a baby. It was the one where they go on a picnic & Daddy Pig is scared by a wasp. It made me laugh & reminded me of our family… Not only because Hubby does tend to overreact at insects, but also because Peppa’s family are a nice, normal bunch, doing nice, normal, family type things. There is humour in basic everyday situations without the use of magic or anything complicated or scary to young kids. And I think Peppa Pig is something that reflects normal families and that children identify with.

Apparently though, the programme is really much more sinister. Did you know that Peppa Pig was the first one to give toddlers the ideas to:

• Splash in muddy puddles, rather than walk carefully round them, being sure not to get their nice shoes dirty
• Learn to say (and use) the word “No”
• Sometimes be cheeky & perhaps even not do what their parents ask them to do straight away & without complaint

And, most shockingly:

• Prefer chocolate cake to lettuce & cucumber!!!

My two girls are big Peppa fans, so imagine my guilt as I now realise I have let this evil, one dimensional, pink MONSTER get into their very souls & corrupt them, right there in my living room!!!!

God knows what would happen if children grew up watching cartoons like Tom & Jerry. I can only imagine the number of parents whose offspring would immediately leap up from the sofa & start hitting each with saucepans or using sticks of dynamite to blow up their parents. It’d be chaos!!

And what about Norman from Fireman Sam? If that kid doesn’t have an ASBO by the time he’s 15 I’ll be GOBSMACKED.

I must admit, however, that in the past a couple of real life mums have said to me that they think Peppa Pig is “spoilt”. But I don’t agree. I think she’s just lucky enough to come from a stable, happy family, and she’s loved. And anyway, look at the evidence, all she wanted for Christmas was a yoyo! And for her birthday she got one poxy piece of clothing – for her teddy!

In my opinion, if you want spoilt pigs, look no further than the ghastly Olivia, who has to always be the best & get all the attention, and her mum & dad find her oh-so adorable for doing so. Or that incredibly irritating Angelina Ballerina. Both a big pair of brats, if you ask me.

There are many more things on the TV that I prefer my little ones not to watch. Scooby Doo, for example, which has given my 4-year-old way too many nightmares and consequently given us way too many broken nights (cheers a bunch for letting all the kids watch it, nursery).

So, lay off the Pig, you crazy, hysterical people!

Related articles

• Peppa Pig is ‘making children naughty’, parents fear (telegraph.co.uk)
• Is Peppa Pig making toddlers naughty? Parents despair as children copy cartoon by answering back (dailymail.co.uk)
• So Peppa’s been a naughty pig. Do you worry about children’s TV shows? | Open thread (guardian.co.uk)

But this time round, I still have another three weeks to go - 15 working days to be precise (not that I’m counting!)

I am feeling the usual aches and pains of late pregnancy. My hips and pelvis feel looser and generally less sturdy. If I get up too quickly or stretch too much I get a nasty pain in the side/bottom of my bump. The baby’s wiggles are very strong and she quite often feels as if she is stretching out as if trying to make more space for herself in there – that can feel a little uncomfortable! Also, I have heartburn/indigestion quite a bit and have re-discovered the Gaviscon dependency I had in my first pregnancy (although not in my second). Sometimes I wake up at night and have to get up to take a swig of the stuff… lovely!

In terms of tiredness and energy levels, I can’t complain too much. I have enjoyed a few weeks in which I seemed to get a surge of energy, and I’ve been feeling good. In the last few days however I’ve been feeling a little more tired again, and the 7pm naps on the sofa have returned. Sometimes when I’m walking the baby bump feels like a concrete block, which only gets harder and heavier if I try to walk any faster (so I don’t!).

I went out for coffee yesterday with a friend and her little girl, who is a few months younger than Isla. Her baby was born at 34+4, so I am now more pregnant than she was then. I had a little look at her facebook pics of when her baby was first born – even after three pregnancies it still amazes me that there really is a real life little person in there who, if born tomorrow, would (hopefully) be a perfectly healthy little baby. Of course, after two babies arriving more than a week after their due date I am not expecting that we will be meeting our third any time soon…

Lilly remains really excited about the baby. She knows “the baby is coming soon, isn’t she?” Isla has got a real fascination with my belly and likes patting it. I have started telling her: “there’s a baby in there, your little sister” but at 18 months old I know she can’t really be expected to understand. We have also had a few reads of There’s A House Inside My Mummy, but again, Isla is still too little to really understand. Maybe some of it might go in, you never know. I do feel guilty that I can’t prepare her properly, and I am anxious about how she’ll react. But I also think that because she is so little it probably won’t be long before she can’t remember a time without the baby being here, and hopefully that will mean she can take it in her stride. Fingers crossed.

In terms of preparation, we have started getting our acts together. Our Sola (pram) has been in for repairs as we have bought a car seat to fit onto it. Work have very kindly offered to buy me a moses basket as a leaving present. We still need to buy new bottles and a steriliser, and I need to start washing the baby clothes, blankets and bedding. Oh, and I remembered the other night that I will need a hospital bag – and the girls will need an overnight bag packed for when they go off to stay at Nanna and Grandad’s when I go into labour or get induced. And I have stepped up the raspberry leaf tea intake to two cups a day!

Because our family circumstances have changed – hubby is now a stay at home dad and I am the only wage earner – I will be having a shorter maternity leave with baby number three, returning to work after 18 weeks when the money runs out. That is why I have decided to work for a little longer at the end of this pregnancy to maximise those precious weeks once our third little angel arrives and to make sure I save up plenty of leave to enable me to work part time for the first few months back at work.

This pregnancy seems to have gone so fast and the due date has got closer and closer very quickly, especially with the distraction of Christmas and Lilly’s birthday. Before then I wasn’t counting down the weeks and days to maternity leave like I was the first or second time.

The first time I went on maternity leave, I was looking forward to a few weeks of rest and relaxation, daytime TV, lazy indulgent breakfasts and lie ins. And I was extremely impatient to meet my first baby.

The second time I was hoping for one week of partial rest and relaxation, while Lilly was still in nursery. Then the plan was loads of quality time with her doing baking and playing in the paddling pool before her little sister arrived. I never quite got the week of relaxation, as Lilly came down with chicken pox and couldn’t go to nursery, so we just ended up with one week more quality time. Which was lovely, and in hindsight I wouldn’t change it for the world.

This time, things are going to be different again. I will have hubby at home with me the whole time… yay! And we won’t be stressing out about ‘what if baby comes while he’s hundreds of miles away at work?’ But there definitely won’t be much rest and relaxation going on – not with the two little munchkins we already have! Although if I am very nice to hubby he may allow me the odd daytime nap if I’m feeling really shattered… did I mention how lovely he is?!?

Now, having just had two weeks off over Christmas, I am now really starting to look forward to my maternity leave. It is going to be a really wonderful opportunity for us to spend time together as a family – all five of us. Yes, there will be stressful moments as we adjust to life with a newborn, a one-year-old and a pre-schooler. But how great it will be for us all to be at home together for a little while. Hopefully both Tony and I will get to spend some lovely time with all our girls and be there to help each other out when we’ve had a bad night with the baby or when one or other of the girls is off colour.

I am worried about how I will cope if hubby does go and work while I’m off – we haven’t yet made any decisions about this. And of course I also worry about going back to work when the baby is only four and a half months old. And how hubby will cope once I do – looking after three pre-schoolers on his own will be tough.

But these are exciting times ahead. I can’t wait to meet our new darling girl and I can’t wait to have our family complete.

• Eat a plate of pate and indulge in a goats cheese topped pizza
• Sit with my hubby and toast our family with a large glass of gorgeous vino
• Get back on the WeightWatchers and try and get back in the zone before the summer
• Ditch the frumpy PJs and try something a bit more stylish of an evening
• Be in with a chance of getting comfortable on the sofa once again
• Go hours on end without needing a wee
• Spend the run up to all future Christmasses drinking copious amounts of Baileys and munching my way through a cheeseboard
• Be helped through the torment of Jools Holland on New Year’s Eve with several large glasses of white wine
• Forget how Gaviscon tastes
• Not allow my belly to be used as an object of amusement by Isla, who currently thinks it is hilarious to pat it
• Get into normal jeans asap – I look like Jim Royle in my baggy maternity ones – AND they keep falling down
• Buy a fitted coat – my maternity winter coat may be warm but it also makes me look like a small detached house on legs

But I know I’ll also:

• Miss those baby kicks and wiggles
• Feel sad at the thought that I’ll never give birth again
• Have no excuse to constantly munch on chocolates and treats
• Be forced to hold my stomach in, rather than proudly sticking it out

But I think after three pregnancies I can safely say: my work here is done

1. She decided that pink was now her favourite colour, not red

2. She developed an obsession with Hello Kitty

3. She made the dramatic announcement that: “I like Princesses now” when she saw a Disney book about Cinderella

Just to get this clear – this is a girl who has always actively disliked dolls and whose favourite ever toys have been Thomas the Tank Engine and Roary the Racing Car. She has never watched  Disney film – except some bits of Alice in Wonderland and Happy Feet – and she has never been into dressing up as a princess or generally interested in things just because they are pink.

But, on her 4th birthday, among her favourite presents were a box of My Little Ponies that I rather optimistically bought her, not knowing if she would like them but hoping she would one day, as they used to be my favourite thing when I was little. She loves them! And she has even seemed a little bit interested in brushing their hair and letting them admire themselves in the mirror!

All day on her birthday she insisted on being a princess, and wearing a tiara, even while bombing down the tunnel slide at the soft play.

And the Hello Kitty thing - I have no idea where this has come from! But it seems to be a total girlie fest and she likes dressing her Hello Kitty in different outfits from her extensive wardrobe.

So, has our little tomboy become a girlie girl? I suppose it is too early to say. Watch this space!

At 18 months old, Isla is now showing us a very mischievious and cheeky side to her personality.

As a baby, we always thought she was a very serious character, she wasn’t one of those children that grinned endlessly or giggled at the slightest thing. Her facial expression always seemed to say that she was thinking everything through before deciding how to react – and if you wanted a smile or a giggle, you had to work for it!

Now though she is a much more fun loving character who seems to revel in endlessly getting into mischief and whose face more often says: “Can you see what I’m doing?!?! I shouldn’t be doing this!!”

For example:

For months now she has loved playing a game of tipping out all her drink on the highchair when we’re not looking. Now she has expanded this to slyly tipping drink all over the floor - usually while keeping one eye on you to make sure she doesn’t miss your reaction when you notice it - this is hilarious to Isla!

She is a master minesweeper – If Lilly leaves her hot chocolate unattended for a second, Isla swipes it and runs off into a hidden corner to guzzle it before her big sister spots her and rushes to snatch it back

She loves leaving the room everyone else is in and closing the door, waiting for us to knock or call her before dramatically opening the door in fits of giggles

I was busy cooking dinner in the kitchen and Isla wanted my attention. So she pulled her T Shirt right over her head and tried sneaking up on me to make me jump!

This afternoon she disappeared into the kitchen for less than a minute – during which time I was busy writing thank you cards with Lilly. I was calling her to come back, but she didn’t, so I went to see what she was up to… there she was, chuffed with herself because she’d pinched a pencil and scribbled all over the cupboard door and drawer!

At bedtime tonight when she was supposed to be sitting, calming down and listening to her bedtime story, she suddenly got up and did a forward roll! And this was so hilarious that she wouldn’t stop doing them!

She is so funny now as her words and understanding of language develop. I genuinely think she understands almost all of what we say. She very often knows when to chip in with the answers… “Time for bed Isla” “NO!”; “Who wants some dinner?” “ME!”

Earlier, we were talking about Christmas Eve, when we hosted the first of three buffet type dinners ar our house over the festive period. Isla could not believe how brilliant these were – a whole load of food left out on the table for her to just toddle over and grab what she wanted. On Christmas Day she made everybody laugh by casually sauntering out of the kitchen with a chicken leg in her mouth! The next day when Tony went to put on his shoes he found another chicken leg hidden inside them!!

We were remembering this earlier and laughing. Lilly said: “Who put the chicken leg in daddy’s shoe?”, to which Isla raised both her arms above her head and shouted: “MMEEEEEEEEEE!!”

I blogged a few weeks ago about preparation for Lilly’s 4th birthday party, and the stresses of who to invite and how many.

The party was held at our favourite local soft play place on New Year’s Eve, and we ended up sending out 14 invitations to Lilly’s friends from nursery (whittled down from a list of about 20 names that they helped us come up with).

In the run up to the day we had only had 9 RSVPS, and still had 6 we hadn’t heard from. That despite the fact that I put reminders in all the Christmas cards, grrrrr. Luckily the place only charged us for the number of children who turned up on the day, not the number we expected. As it turned out, none of the non-repliers turned up, as I suspected they might have done, and all those who had confirmed arrived, except one little girl whose mum text to tell us she was ill. It meant a total of 10 children at the party, which was more than enough I think!

We arrived at the venue about half an hour before the party was due to begin – Lilly was on tenterhooks waiting at the door for the first of her friends to arrive! As soon as they started arriving we hardly saw her, she was off having loads of fun, still wearing the tiara she insisted on having on because she was being a birthday princess!

The children played in the soft play for a while before the bouncy assault course was blown up in the party room, and they were called through. Lilly had a couple of half hearted bounces on it before declaring it “too bouncy for me” and going off to do other things! With a bit of gentle persuasion (the bouncy castle was £25 extra!) and a leg up she eventually came round to the idea of the bouncy course and managed to get a good few goes on the slide in before it was deflated again.

All the excitement of the bouncing sent some of the boy guests a little bit hyper and they were off running around the soft play and weren’t interested in the prospect of returning to the party room for a quiet spot of Pass The Parcel. In contrast, the girls were only too ready to sit nicely in a circle cross legged and patiently waiting for the more rowdy boys to make an appearance!

After pass the parcel they played some parachute games, which some of the parents joined in for and which all the children seemed to enjoy. Then it was time for party food, after the blowing out of the candles on the Hello Kitty cake and everybody singing Happy Birthday.

Isla wasn’t in the best of moods, because she’d refused her morning nap. Luckily we had Nanna, Grandad, Aunty and Uncle and Grannie on hand to help out. She played in the soft play while most of the party games and bouncy castle were going on, and then joined in when the food was served. She couldn’t belive how brilliant it was getting a hotdog, slice of chocolate swiss roll, cheesey wotsits and a malted milk biscuit all on one plate! And then they brought her jelly too! She was in heaven!

After the party, family all came back to our house for a little while, Lilly opened all her presents (spoilt rotten, again!) and we had some cupcakes which I had baked and iced to spell out ‘Lilly 4′.

All in all I think she had a fabulous day and was chuffed to bits to be four, although she did ask: “Do I still go to nursery now?” because she knows that four year olds start school!

In all it cost us just over £100 which, considering we didn’t have to do anything except decide who to invite and then invite them, wasn’t too bad, I don’t think. But I guess this children’s party thing could get more expensive once we have three all wanting parties!

In some ways it is hard to believe she is four already and that next September she will be starting school, but in other ways she seems such a grown up little girl, who is so bright, and who makes friends so easily that we can’t wait for her to move on to this next exciting chapter in her life.

Lilly is such an entertaining and intelligent little person, who only has to be told something once and it is firmly stored away in her brain for later use. Lately the questions about “how?” and “why?” and “what does X word mean?” have been coming thick and fast. We haven’t really started proper ‘reading’ with her yet but she now recognises numbers 1-10 and most of the letters of the alphabet - and she can match up the upper and lower case versions of most of them (thanks to a couple of great iPhone apps!) and tell you what sound most of them make. She has also started basic writing – if you provide an outline of her name or a dot-to-dot version she can do very good tracing over it. But she has a very stubborn element to her personality – if she can’t do something at the first or second attempt she gets so frustrated and angry and doesn’t want to try again. She has been like this since she was born at every stage of development – crawling, walking, talking! So we are being careful not to push her too much with reading or writing in case she just rebels against it, we want her to think it is fun, not a chore.

Lilly is still not a fan of dollies or barbies, but she does love her cuddly toys more than anything. She is always asking me to tie ribbons around her cuddly dogs’ necks so she can take them for ‘walks’, and you’ll often stumble across a toy covered in a tea towel or tissue as a blanket and be told “Ssssshhh, she’s asleep!” Lately though she has started to play with her Peppa Pig house – a gift from way back – and for Christmas her Nanna and Grandad got her a wooden dolls house, which seems to have gone down fairly well so far. Lilly also loves her trinkets – she is forever putting collections of little toys into boxes, bags, old cereal packets, shoes… any kind of receptacle she can find. She leaves all these little collections all over the house – drives us mad!!

Like any three-year-old Lilly still has some trouble with the concept of sharing - but only really when it comes to sharing toys with Isla! We find ourselves telling her off numerous times every day for snatching things from Isla or getting in her way so Isla can’t get to toys she wants to play with – or more likely just doesn’t want Isla to get to. God help Isla if she happens to toddle in the direction of one of Lilly’s numerous collections… chances are, Isla doesn’t want it, but Lilly thinks she does and dives in front of her to prevent that happening!

However, when it comes to other children, Lilly is the model of politeness and has no problem sharing or waiting her turn. When we’re at the park or the soft play, she will ALWAYS wait her turn, making sure the child in front of her on the slide has reached the bottom before she’ll set off. Not all children are as patient, so quite often, while she is waiting, another child will push in front and throw themselves down the slide anyway… this doesn’t seem to bother Lilly, she’ll just wait her turn again – sometimes several children will have pushed in front of her! It always makes me feel so proud of her good behaviour, so relieved that she’s not one of those children who pushes or bites, but at the same time makes me feel sad for her that the others aren’t as good as she is until I’ll end up shouting: “Just go, Lilly, it’s YOUR turn!!”

Lilly is a really sociable little girl and loves playing with other children. Her best friend in the whole world is still Daniel from nursery. I genuinely feel quite sad at the thought that they will be going to different schools in September. Lilly isn’t shy, but she isn’t over confident either, at the playground or soft play she will always introduce herself to other children: “My name’s Lilly, I’m three! Do you want to be my friend?” and she’ll be happy to fall into whatever game they want to play. She doesn’t understand it when children are nasty – once at soft play a bratty older kid kept taunting her saying: “you’re a baby” and Lilly was laughing and saying to me “He’s calling me a baby, I’m not a baby am I?” She thought it was all a funny game… Which again makes the protective mummy in me want to pick her up and take her away, after giving the bratty kid a piece of my mind… which of course I don’t (normally!) I am happy to say that it has never been in Lilly’s nature to bite, kick or hit – even in retaliation when any of those things happen to her!

On the whole Lilly is a pretty good girl… although she has always been headstrong and independent. She is capable of meltdown proportion tantrums but can generally be reasoned with and bribery always goes a long way! We have started making reward charts for her so that she can earn a little toy after being consistently good over a certain number of days, and this has helped. We still use the ‘chocolate milk in the morning’ bribe to try and get her to sleep all night – it doesn’t always work as she still has a bad habit of getting out of bed and asking us to “tuck me up” when she kicks the covers off at night. She also occasionally has nightmares – recently they were about a Dragon – and we haven’t attempted to get her out of the nighttime nappies yet for fear that that will disturb her sleep even more. However, I don’t think it will be long as she is regularly dry at night now.

Lilly is a doting big sister and is unbelievably excited about the new baby coming in the New Year. Watching her and Isla playing and laughing together is such an amazing feeling for us as parents. Lilly takes great pride in being a big sister and showing Isla what to do, but she also LOVES copying what Isla does, whether it be funny faces or silly noises, or the way she is holding or playing with a toy. This usually results in both girls being in fits of giggles, which is so lovely. They are sharing a room together and they really love it. When they wake up in the morning, the girls will ‘chat’ to each other for a while before Lilly will come in to wake us up. Usually this will involve Isla babbling away and Lilly saying: “Yes. Yes. Yes Isla” as if she knows exactly what Isla is saying. The other morning Isla woke up and started saying “woah-woah” (She means Row-Row, as in Row Row Row Your Boat… she is obsessed with it at the moment) and Lilly starting singing the song for her while Isla was ‘rowing’ back and forth in her cot to the song!

Lilly has become an incredibly fussy eater in recent months. I’m guessing this is normal for a child of her age, although she was always such a good eater. Things on her banned list include jam, jelly, cheese, ham, sweets, apples, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber (any type of salad, basically), although she does love carrots and always asks for more. The only really healthy fruit she likes is bananas and some tangerines. The only sandwiches she will eat is soft cheese, which is rather limiting!

Lilly has a very vivid imagination and will make up lots of different games to play with her soft toys. She also loves doing creative games – one of her favourite Christmas presents recently was a jewellery box with stick on jewels that had to be arranged into certain patterns all over the box. She got hours of enjoyment out of this. Her other current obsession is Hello Kitty – I have absolutely no idea where this came from and why! Her bike and her scooter are still among her favourite toys.

Lilly still sucks her thumb when she’s tired and still soothes herself to sleep by stroking the soft bit of skin on her forearm against her face, something she has always done. She loves cooking, especially cakes. Her favourite days out are to the zoo, soft play or the park. She is incredibly patient in the supermarket and can actually be helpful. She is still terrified of hand dryers in public toilets, the wind blowing through her bedroom windows and the hoover (although she pretends not to be). She loves nursery and has so many friends.

All in all she remains a most wonderful little person to be around, somebody we love so very, very much and who amazes us and makes us proud every day. I can’t stop thinking about that moment in the hospital after she was born, when they gave her to me to hold while they wheeled me from the delivery suite and the realisation struck – “oh my God, I’m finally a mummy, this is MY little person to look after forever”… It was an amazing feeling. And that was a whole four years ago.

We love you Lillypops. We always will xxxxxxxx

As far as teaching Lilly to read is concerned – perhaps this was a bit of an ambitious one! I have come to realise that reading is something we can’t force on her or rush, at the risk of turning her off. She is a rather stubborn personality and doesn’t take kindly to not being able to do things! However,  she does know all the letters of the alphabet and what sounds they make and she has begun to write her name, if you give her dots to join or lines to follow. I think the plan now is just to take things at a pace she is comfortable with and I am sure that, once she starts school in September, things will come on naturally.

We were lucky to enjoy lots of lovely holidays in both France and Center Parcs. But we didn’t manage to book another foreign holiday. We thought about it (lots) but everytime we did the sums it was just too expensive. And our trip to Kenya for 2012 (sister in law’s wedding) was cancelled too once we discovered that we were being joined by another little bundle of fun! But because the time away we have had was so lovely I don’t think we have too many complaints. Oh, and as far as brushing up my French was concerned, I didn’t do as well as planned. And there was a very embarrassing moment when we went through the McDonalds Drive Thru and I had to ask for “deux happy meals”… I am still cringing! We were also lucky to go on plenty of nice family days out during the year, some of which I have blogged about. Hopefully this will continue next year as I am off on maternity leave for a large chunk of it, and now that hubby is at home I can use my leave (which is more generous than his was when he was working) to spend some quality time with them all.

I didn’t really get around to tidying up all my recipes and updating my recipe database, although I have continued to collect them. Lilly and I have done some cooking together, although I’d always like to do more, especially getting her involved in cooking savoury meals, not just cakes and biscuits. I have though, been really good at meal planning, and my biggest success in terms of goals for 2011 was losing weight. I started Weight Watchers at the end of January and lost almost three stone before discovering I was pregnant in June. Obviously the weight loss has had to take a back seat now (!) but once the baby is here I intend to regain my focus as it felt fabulous looking and feeling good in my clothes again. Hubby also took up the Weight Watchers life a month after me and has lost somewhere near four stone… so hopefully he will help me keep on the straight and narrow next year!

One of my immediate goals for 2011 was to be superorganised to help the transition back to work. We didn’t have much choice on this one, it HAD to happen! And it is funny how much our domestic arrangements have changed since January last year. Hubby is now a full time dad and I am a full time worker (or at least I will be until I go on maternity leave in four weeks!) The new arrangement is working well, we are happy, the kids are happy and we are managing with money. Hopefully we will make it through the five months of maternity leave without going bankrupt and carry on as we left off. It isn’t going to be easy but we have to find a way to make it work for our family.

I didn’t quite get round to the first aid refresher, so need to think about that for 2012. The kitchen table remains Clutter Central, to my shame. I did take up swimming again, and I did use my Wii Fit more, as part of my weight loss, but both have gone by the wayside now I’m pregnant. We didn’t take the girls swimming very much, and I’d still like to do this. However, we will soon have three so it will be even more logistical!

Moving house. We knew a year ago this was unlikely to happen anytime soon. We could not have dreamed we would be planning to welcome another member of the family into our already too-small two bedroom house! But we have done lots of the practical jobs that needed doing to get the house into a state of readiness for going onto the market at a time in the future when things are more favourable. However we have also come to realise that we should be very thankful for what we have in this current ecomonic climate – we have a roof over our head and a manageable mortgage. Tony isn’t working any longer and that is ok, because we no longer pay childcare and we can manage our finances. But we can’t yet stretch ourselves to a bigger mortgage or the cost of moving, so although we both dream about the day we can move somewhere bigger (a third bedroom! Downstairs toilet! Garage! Conservatory! Big garden! etc…) we are also realistic. But the house is looking pretty good now and we have finally decorated every room… the last being our bedroom, which looks fab now.

I also managed to keep my job – just as well really. And I must make sure I can do the same next year!

And oh! How I laughed to remember goal no.15 – spend more time with hubby (alone!) I think i said we would aim to have one night out at least every six weeks. Well, that hasn’t happened. We have had a couple of nights away in a hotel, including for our anniversary but we have not done this nearly as much as I’d like. I am so lucky to have a husband I adore and whenever we spend time together, just the two of us, it is so brilliant. We MUST find a way to do this more in 2012, especially because even though we will be parents of three very soon!

I had my new camera for Christmas last year and I vowed to learn something about photography – well, I have enjoyed playing with it but the photography book I got with it hasn’t had much of a look in yet. I did do plenty of shopping by App – Amazon remains my favourite and (expensively) Next.

Keeping family photo albums up to date – I am generally quite good with this but as I speak there is a bit of a backlog (to about July…) so that is a major job to get done in the New Year, maybe during those first few weeks of maternity leave while I inevitably wait for this baby to be horrendously overdue like her sisters! And in terms of being a better blogger, well… I don’t think I realised how much time going back to work would take up! So my posting has not been as frequent as when I was off on maternity leave. However, my main aim with this blog is to record our lives as a family and to document some of the events in our children’s lives that they won’t remember when they’re older. And I think, generally, I have done ok at this one. Without lots more time to play with my blog I don’t think I will ever be driving huge amounts of traffic, or appearing in any Tots 100 lists, but those things really aren’t the reason why I write this blog. So, I think I’m doing ok. I am also realistic enough to realise that, at some point in the future, real life friends and family will probably discover this blog somehow or other, and I have to keep that in mind when I am writing it!

Goal 21 was to help nurture a good relationship between my girls – Well, I don’t know how much credit we can take, although obviously we have done our best, but (touch wood) the girls seem to have a great relationship so far. Obviously they have their moments but Lilly is a doting big sister and Isla loves spending time with her. The dynamics will all be rearranged again when number three arrives, but so far it has been such a joy seeing our two girls laughing and playing together.

And in terms of goals for 2012 – well, having another baby and adjusting to life as a family of five is probably a big enough one to get on with! And of course, Lilly will be starting school. At some point we will probably think about re-introducing Isla to nursery, perhaps a couple of sessions a week. All quite big things. And we have to survive fincially while I am on maternity leave.

So, I think that, if the kitchen table remains cluttered, and the recipes remain un-filed, it won’t matter too much, will it?