33 wks+

So the weather is just about improving...
And last week we managed to go down to the shared garden for about half an hour, which was all Alex could take as he was still suffering from a cold and overwork.

Also, the garden's little pockets were rather full of people as well and nice as it was to be in the sunshine and among greenery for a change, it wasn't quite as easy to relax with people resting round each corner. Especially since quite a few looked like they were napping and might not have been too pleased to be disturbed by baby's new ability to squawk like a starving pterodactyl.

You might think I'm exaggerating but people in this neighbourhood can sometimes be as snooty as you'd expect of a Kensington and Chelsea stereotype. Especially when it comes to the gardens. You should see the list of forbidden things on the signboard at the front: barbecues, ball games, pets etc. It's a garden for spoilt adults, really. You can't even keep things that aren't meant for the garden's upkeep in it: like my bicycle, which I once tried to do to prevent it from being stolen off the street.

Anyway Boo had a good time being shown all the pretty flowers and all and then being swung on daddy's lap and even having a bit of a go on the slide (with daddy holding onto her for dear life).













Afterwards we had a bit of a chase up the stairs - something she absolutely loves - before whiling the rest of the weekend away resting.

Go west, young woman
On Monday we got the keys to our new flat in Chiswick and went to take another look around. On second inspection the reception room seemed smaller than we remembered but everything else was pretty much the same. Over the week I went back once or twice to sort out some laundry and was pleasantly surprised to be greeted and welcomed to the neighbourhood by one of our neighbours - Andy. Yesterday, as we were moving more stuff in, another neighbour on the other side also said hello and welcomed us to the neighbourhood.

I was so surprised. It's London, but not as I know it. I mean I know everyone in our building now, but only because of the discussions we had over the damn moths in our building. And the only person I'd really consider a proper neighbour is this nice Indian lady who lives down the road and has two cats, and I don't even know her name.

We only started speaking because she informed me, very nicely, that I wouldn't be allowed to leave my bicycle in the garden. She said she didn't care but she knew other people would tell me off if they saw it. I'll be quite sorry to be saying goodbye to her because she is actually lovely and always comes over to say hello if she sees me out with Boo. We met her today and I didn't have the heart to tell her we will be moving away soon!

Anyway Alex has been extremely active this weekend and has moved the bulk of our stuff over - all our books. They are driving him nuts in the other place at the moment though because though the shelves can take all our books, they can only do so if the books are stacked face-up rather than on their sides.

So our living room looks rather like a second-hand bookstore but it was either that or pile the books two deep, which would mean not being able to see the ones in the back row. Now we're trying to sort out how to move the rest of our things over, over the next two weekends or so.

Boo-wise
She is developing a real mind of her own, which is extremely fun but also makes things more difficult of course. For example, if she is being pissed off about having her diaper changed she'll be letting out very loud squawks the whole time you're doing it, and trying to squirm off the mat, or turn over, or batting your hands away or pulling at the diaper once you've fastened it on, or just plain crying her eyes out. And no amount of trying to reason with her works, so in that instance it's easiest to just get it over and done with as quickly as possible.

She's also getting quite good at picking up things now. She keeps testing her pincer grip (still not opposing thumbs) and, while her little fingers look very delicate, I can tell you from rueful experience of not paying attention to her when breastfeeding, they grip like blinking pliers.

She can play with her pacifier alone for about 10 minutes at a go, sometimes, just passing it from one hand to the next, biting different parts of it, shaking it to make the handle rattle and pinching the teat (which is your clue as to what happens when I don't pay attention when breastfeeding).

And now when she shakes things furiously it's to hear the rattling sound they make rather than to let go. Though I don't know if she can let go on purpose yet. I haven't really noticed her doing this, it's more often she lets go of something to pick up something else that's caught her attention.













She's still enjoying herself at nursery too although this week she was a bit upset more than a few times when I left her in the morning and in the afternoons after feeding her. Breaks my heart but it's nice to know that she wants me too!

The other children in the nursery seem to like her too. They come over and point the baby out to me or smile or come and give her a cuddle. Especially the girls. The other day when I was in, Alessia came over, placed her hands on baby's cheeks and gave her a little smack on the lips.

Then, I rather stupidly told Parveen how she could make baby laugh by poking her gently in the stomach and saying 'Toot!' in a loud, high voice. Only, of course, instead of poking her stomach, Parveen poked baby's cheek rather hard, making poor baby rear back in surprise. I quickly modified what I said but also noticed the nursery workers nearby were listening intently to what I told Parveen and I think I'd better shut up in future about what I tell the children.

There have been times when poor Babe, in fact, is obviously sick of the other children coming up to her and trying to pat her cheeks or kiss her, because she starts fending their hands off with her own. And then I have to lift her out of their reach because I'm afraid that one day she's going to whack someone out of exasperation (which I'm not too fussed about) and then they'll whack her back (which I am).

The other day one of my colleagues, who has a son there, came over to tell me she saw baby in the swing in the playground laughing her head off. The times I've come into the nursery to pick her up, she's often looked quite happy either sitting on someone's lap or playing with some toy or other (they have a lot of good toys), so I'm reasonably reassured that she's having a good time there.

She's gonna crawl soon...
She's now rocking herself back and forth on her hands and knees quite a lot and she's worked out how to go forward by straightening her legs and propelling her entire body forward. This means she usually lands on her face and leaves her arms behind under her, but she's found it works to get her where she wants to go.

Say hello, Boo
It's getting a little embarrasing taking her out sometimes. She'll stare at the people next to our table really intently and, when they respond by smiling, on a good day, she'll bury her face in my shoulder before turning back and smiling. More often than not, though she'll keep staring intently at them, no expression change at all, while the person who's started smiling has to keep trying to find a reason to smile in the face of Boo's impassive stare. I don't mind this on her part at all - I don't expect her to be a smiling poodle - it's just difficult trying to think of something to say under the circumstances.

But generally she's pretty good when in restaurants and things and we usually manage to get maybe 15 minutes of quiet if we distract her with things she can eat, before she gets bored and upset and wants to be carried and entertained (which makes it hard to eat).

I took her with me last week to a farewell dinner for two of the girls who play football at work and at the end they were joking that, never mind carrying the baby, maybe they should just feed me. I agree. Probably the easiest solution!

Babble baby
She's all 'Mamamama' when she wants something and 'Mummum' even. Sometimes it even sounds like she knows what she's saying because if she's fretting and I'm guessing it's because she's hungry, I'll ask: 'Mumumm?' And she'll often respond 'Mummmumm' (which is Malaysian babyspeak for eating), not 'Ma ma', which she says quite frequently.

In the mornings though, if we haven't gotten up when she wants, she lets out those pterodactyl squawks I was talking about, in increasingly loud and long wails: 'AaAaaAaahh... WaaaAaaa!.... WAAAaaAaaAaaa!... WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!' And she does this while clawing at my face, which, I have to say, an incredibly efficient way of making me wake up. Sometimes when she's playing by herself and starts getting bored too it's 'Aiiyaiyayaaah.' Always makes us laugh to hear her.

Baby's food
Ooh the barley didn't turn out so good. It went all gluey when I blitzed it - should have realised it would from my own experience of having to drink slimy barley water when growing up. Fortunately I discovered that mixing it with some wet-ish vegetable puree - like carrot - produces quite an easily swallowed puree with real balast. So all is not lost.

Another successful food I've discovered and fed to baby is split lentils boiled in chicken stock. It's just like dhal, basically, but lentils are particularly good for her since they have a lot of protein and frankly baby doesn't eat so much protein so far - only chicken. The lentils are so yummy, actually, that, like her plain rice porridge made with chicken stock, I often have to stop myself sneaking a spoonful or two of it when feeding her.

She's also had avocado, which she seems to like, which is great because I reckon it can help make up the Omega oils that she's not getting because I can't give her fish at the moment. Plus how easy is it to prepare? Cut in half, scoop out. Ta daaa.

Boo's latest love affair, however, is with grapes. We had some particularly juicy and sweet seedless grapes the other day and I peeled a few and bit them into little pieces to give her. She was adamant she wanted to hold one, however, so I let her have one (watching her like a hawk all the time to make sure she didn't try to swallow it whole of course).

She bit into it and seemed to quite enjoying sucking on the pieces, and eventually wound up eating the whole grape that way, though at the end I had to pull out the skin that was left behind in her mouth of course. She couldn't quite chew through that with her gums.

The next night, I put her on the sofa with Alex and a bowl of grapes for us to eat and, before I could start peeling any for her, Boo went into action. At first we pulled the grapes out of her hands of course but then I saw that she was basically biting into them with her bottom two teeth and then mostly sucking on the juice that was spilling out. So we let her have a few more gos imitating Bacchus before I finally put a few peeled grapes into her hand instead.

32 wks

Guess who's had her first ice-cream?
It was chocolate of course. What flavour could better that as an introduction to this wonderful confection? We didn't plan to give her any but I suppose we should have known better than to try and eat some in front of her without her noticing. She immediately reached for my cone though, to be fair, I think she wanted to touch it more than eat it.

Once she had a taste she wanted quite a few more before getting bored and wanting to go home again. Part of me is feeling evil because I'm sure we're not supposed to be letting her eat stuff like this till she's older but, then again, what the hell, at least it was good, fresh ice-cream with no additives and E numbers and crap like that. Just good, old-fashioned milk, cream, sugar and Valhrona chocolate. Can't go too far wrong with that, can you?

If anyone's wondering, yes it was from our old favourite gelateria: Oddono's in Bute street (which has raised prices from £1.50/£2.50 for single/double scoop/s to £1.70/£2.70 - scandalous). It will be one more reason to be sad to move away from here.

Although we will be closer to Foubert's (another famous ice-cream place in Chiswick) once we move and I haven't tasted the ice-cream there, I'm not convinced it will be able to compare. We shall have to see.

Worse still, my current favourite number two brand - Waitrose's own ice-cream (roasted coffee, mmm) - will be a no go as well since I'll most likely only be able to buy it in Reading but there's no way it will survive the journey back to London.

Er anyway, I was talking about baby's eating habits.

The loquat-eater
We are continuing to introduce baby to as wide a range of foods as possible, in the hope of staving off any possibility of her becoming a fussy eater and curtailing our own greed later in life.

Courtesy of Uncle Nick's generosity, last weekend she got to try mango and loquat. Actually never mind expanding her boundaries, I'd never tasted loquat before either.

It's quite lovely: like a juicy persimmon with a more delicate fragrance and less fibrous flesh. The loquats were perfect for her actually: small enough for her to hold herself and nibble on and, when peeled and cut into slices, soft enough for her to mash with her gums but not so soft as to disintegrate in her hot little grasp. She certainly enjoyed the one I cut up for her. She not only picked the bowl clean, she tried to eat it:



























Besides loquats and mangoes...
Rice cakes are her new favourite snack food. I'm not completely sure why, since the only qualities that seem to redeem them are that they are incredibly light to carry around as snacks, can be broken into hand-hold size pieces for her easily, and disintegrate into mush easily in the mouth. Otherwise they rather look, smell and taste like styrofoam. At least the plain, no-salt ones do. The yeast spread ones just taste like marmite on toast without butter.

She's also tried avocado, and seems to like it, and is now eating chicken as her main source of protein. I haven't dared to experiment with fish again and am also now staying away from shellfish for our own meals, which has rather impacted my fast-easy-and-healthy-say-hallelujah-now dinner repertoire, drat it.

I think I may have overdone the protein a bit today in a bid to give her more freshly cooked food instead of the usual zapped frozen mush. So for lunch baby had some poached chicken meat in a bit of stock mixed with ripe avocado scooped fresh from a half (I had the other half with soya sauce, a favourite snack).

For tea, she had some papaya and two tablespoons of red lentils cooked in chicken stock, which was quite delicious, and for dinner she had another tablespoon of red lentils with three tablespoons of steamed egg. (Mix three eggs with 200 ml water; steam for 15 minutes: seven minutes with the lid on, eight minutes with the lid off.) She also had a taste of the tiniest leaves on the pak choy we had with our dinner but I think she couldn't quite chew them still so I might leave off letting her eat them again.

The lentils were quite yummy, I have to say, as the stock they were cooked in had been made with an entire chicken (also spring onions, ginger, shallots and carrots) because we overbought chicken on Friday night.

I didn't get Alex's message saying he was getting dinner, so shopped in Reading before getting stuck in an almighty jam on the way home because some asses on the M4 had caused such a bad accident they had to close the whole highway (it took three hours; baby howled for two; my nerves were absolutely frayed). Upshot was that the chicken had to be cooked by the time I got home because it was a warm day. So soup for all, which is not a bad thing anyway as Alex has caught our cold and he loves soup when he has a cold.

I might cook Boo some barley in it tomorrow as well and see if she likes that. I'm guessing she will since, as Liz in the nursery noted this week, she quite likes being able to chew her food. But there's not much you can give a baby to chew without worrying she'll choke besides bread. So maybe soft barley grains...

New shoes
I finally caved in and bought her a pair of soft, leather shoes. They are the cutest and I really hope we don't lose them. She loves kicking off anything on her feet. Every darn baby I've seen has similar shoes from the one or two companies I know that make them - Daisy Roots and Inch Blue - and I tried to resist at first (not just because they cost at least £16 a pair) but, after shopping round Mothercare, John Lewis and various independent baby shops and not finding much else, I gave up and gave in.

These were on offer anyway so at least they only cost £10 for the three months that she's going to be able to wear them and I love 'em because they match my favourite jumper for her!

32 wks - just

A quick blog...
I can't get much done now that work is almost in full swing and our free time is spent clearing out crap we don't want (well Alex clears while I entertain Boo).

Baby is much more aware of things nowadays, and she'll play by herself for all of 15 minutes if in a good mood, but she also knows how to ask directly to be carried - by putting her arms in the air and lunging in my direction, usually not caring if this means she flops flat on her face. How can you turn down an appeal like that?

The fact that she's in nursery four days a week now also means that I'm much more likely to give in to her. Carrying her for ages on end on the one weekday we now have together is nothing like the slight burden it was when I was doing it five days a week, so we indulge each other.

Whoa, Nelly!
She's enjoying nursery like mad I think. The day before yesterday, when I went to feed her at lunchtime, I met her coming out of the big children'splayroom, in the arms of Becky, one of the assistants. (I finally learned all the nursery workers' names when I found the picture chart of staff members; before I've had to guessed based on the lisped yells around the nursery.) Becky said she'd just had a jolly time being cuddled by all the big children, mostly the boys, who were also all apparently giving her kisses.

Hope this doesn't spoil her for the rest of life! There are some real cuties in that nursery; my favourites are a colleague's son, Sam, who has the cheekiest little smile and beautiful big eyes, and Euan, another big-eyed chubby-cheeked darling. They all come up to me when I'm carrying her and go "Baby! Baby Is'bel!" Alessia is still her bestest ever friend though and brings her rattles and other toys when she's not kissing her on the mouth or stroking her cheek.

Baby's development
What else... well she's gone from just turning herself over on her front to supporting herself quite steadily on her front now. She pushes up with her arms very well and has just learned to go from sitting down to getting onto her knees. She still can't quite move forward yet, but has arrested the whole moving backwards only problem. Now when she realises she's not getting closer to where she wants to go, she sometimes flops over on her back again and tries to reach for the object over her head.

I think we're not very far off from her crawling now so it's a good thing we're moving to a place we can child-proof from the word go.

She's quite adamant sometimes about going somewhere, which is making it a pain to change her nappy. You settle her down to change a poopy diaper and she immediately wants to turn to look at something on the side. So you figure, fine, let her do it after you wipe her butt and then, while she's on her front, she goes and pees all over herself. This happend four times in the last week so now I try to be quite firm about making her lie still on a diaper while I change her. Doesn't always work. But I supposethat's progress for you!

Re: the afore-mentioned greater awareness - it's definitely building slowly. Previously she'd just chuckle at the amusing picture of the pretty baby in the mirror. Now, when she looks, I'd almost swear she was making a connection between being able to see and feel me stroking her cheek and seeing the same action happen to the baby in the mirror. The realisation is not all quite there yet, but somethings ticking in that little brain.

Also, she's starting to scrutinise her toys with much greater interest. Yiyi's crunchy birds hold her interest for much longer now than the previous couple of minutes she used to spare them. She's also started to look around more: she looks out the car window; she reaches up to finger the silky material that is the sunshade on the carseat; she looks up for my missing hand after I reach back to caress the top of her head when she's crying in the carseat. It's quite lovely watching her.

And food-wise...
She's eating more and drinking less milk apparently. Liz at the nursery has been a bit worried this week because there have been two days when she says Boo has refused to take any milk. She's guzzled bananas for breakfast and almost finished her bowls of puree for lunch and tea, but doesn't seem to want milk.

Mind you she still has at least one feed in the morning generally, another at lunch, and at least two or three in the evening. So I don't think she's starving or anything. I sometimes worry she may not getting enough fluid but her lips are always plump anyway, with no or little sign of any lines on them, so I don't think that's much of a worry either.

Need to book her six to eight-month checkup; will see how she's doing then. I haven't weighed her or measured her height in ages now! Am really curious how she is doing because I think she is definitely growing like a beanstalk! But not getting fatter. So we will see.

PS Her new sleeping bag (snazzy red piping with a rocket!) and denim dungarees arrived from Jojomamanbebe yesterday ! So sweet! Too bad the darned washing machine has given up the ghost; will have to wait till the weekend laundrette run before I can put her in both.

PSPS Not impressed - dressed her in it in a fit of impatient enthusiasm this morning and one button on one of the shoulder straps came off! How shoddy!

31 wks

When Mama cannot resist overpriced baby accessories from Zara
(But you gotta admit the headband was worth every penny)

When you can not quite pick your face up off the floor

When Martha Stewart's got nothing on Mama
(ref to her food matching her upholstery)

When your parents are too cheap to buy you toys

When you pick up technology quick

One day when Alex called, I put the speaker on and put the phone next to her. When she heard Alex's voice she picked up the receiver and put it next to her ear as if she was talking to him. Of course not long enough for me to take a picture. So I had to make her pose with the phone.

31 wks

I know she didn't actually make the card...











But she splashed the paint about and that's good enough for us! Zoe, the nursery nurse, said baby seemed to really enjoy squishing the blob of paint at the end of the paintbrush a lot. And her favourite sleeping toy, soft bear from Uncle Simon, is now covered in pink and orange paint as well as fluorescent green streaks.Wait'll you see the little hand print flowers they've made with the children as well! It's currently hanging on the wall in the nursery but she'll get to take it home soon; I can't wait; it's so cute!

Boo's diary
And they've put Boo's picture on the outside of her little diary. That one on the back page is the current incarnation of her obstinate look. I think it's becoming obtuse rather than obstinate.

Hooray!

The estate agent called this morning and I offered to take the Beaumont Road flat at the asking price on his original gumtree ad (£265 pw), with the proviso that the owner puts in a dining table and a freezer. He came back saying the owner agreed to put in those things as long as we raised the price to £270pw. Which is fine with us. So hurrah, will be off to sign papers later today and we'll be able to move in by the end of the month! We are really quite excited about moving there. The pictures on the website don't really do the space justice and, finally, I'll be able to cook in baby's full view so hopefully there won't any longer be a problem with her wailing when I step out of the room. We'll probably just have to get a room divider or something to pen her in safely when I cook.

Excitement!

Today we saw not one, but two flats that we woud actually consider putting offers in for. And we both liked them. I hope it wasn't just the fact that the sun was blazing away that excited us.

The first was on Fairlawn Avenue, within spitting distance of Chiswick Park tube station. It's a first-floor flat with two bedrooms, one pretty big and the other, well, big enough to fit a double bed. The best thing about it though was the fact that the living room had a little room attached to it, that was the perfect size to be a study. Which means we could chuck all our books and papers in there and have a perfectly empty living room for baby to play around in. The bathroom and kitchen were also a decent size, clean and in good condition. There's a balcony outside the living room and stairs which lead down to a tiled garden big enough for a barbecue pit, a table and a shed. And it was going for £1,375 pcm though, being a lovely little family instead of sharers likely to throw wild parties, we're guessing we might be able to bargain it down to £1,250 pcm - at least that's what the agent told us. You can see some pictures here.

Then, quite elated by the fact we'd found something we both liked, within easy range of a tube station and the M4, with a big supermarket and several independent food shops nearby and within budget, we went on to see another flat I'd seen advertised on a website for antipodeans (www.gumtree.com) - this one a few minutes away from the first on Beaumont Road.

This was advertised as a 'modern and funky' 1-bed garden flat going for £265 and I thought it was worth just taking a look even though we weren't likely to have enough space in just a one-bed place. I found out at the last minute that the guy advertising it was actually from an estate agents too - Bellengers - when he called to confirm our meeting. It was the first time he mentioned he was from Bellengers. Very sneaky because there was only a phone number on the website and, when I emailed him about it, I received an email from a yahoo address.

Anyway, despite walking towards a very unprepossessing front door, the flat turned out to be beautiful. It's smaller than the other one but it has almost exactly what we want - wood floors downstairs in reception and open-plan kitchen, and carpets upstairs. The best thing was the kitchen range which was huge and modern (hurrah!) and had gas hobs!

Actually, no, the best thing is that the living room runs alongside the garden, which is big enough for Boo to run around in and has grass and a lovely tulip tree - actually a magnolia but I've been calling it a tulip tree - at the end. It has two french doors opening to the garden. See here for pictures.

Or maybe it's because it has tonnes of built-in shelving and cupboards which are lovely! At last! A flat whose owner understands the need to save space in these tiny London dwellings! You should see the shelving in the bedroom's built-in cupboard. And the bathroom is big. And everything looks new! And though it's a one-bed place, there's space enough outside the bedroom upstairs to be a study/second bedroom area. We're hoping to fit the computer table and a futon there.

And on gumtree it was being advertised for £265 pw. I think the guy tried to be sneaky because when I asked how much it was going for there he said £270. We later looked at the Bellengers website and the website of a rival estate agent that's also marketing the flat. Both have it going for £275. Which is excellent because we are actually willing to pay up to £285 for this anyway.

The only things we want are for a dining table and chairs to be added, another little freezer (it only has a half-size fridge), and for us to be able to screw in a child safety gate at the top of the stairs. The flat (house?) is full of windows - there are big french doors in the bedroom, opening out over the garden too - so it's very light, which is lovely.

I do worry we might be a bit short on space but I think things are laid out cleverly enough for us to be able to be very flexible with things. I just can't wait for summer though when we can have the doors and windows open most of the time. Now we are just on slight tenterhooks as to whether they'll accept our offer of £270 on Monday or whether we'll be beaten to it. I hope not.

We decided to discuss things over lunch before making an offer and, by the time we called, their office had closed for the day ('Always thinking with our stomachs,' as Nick said when we saw him later today.), so I left a message saying we wanted to put an offer in. Fingers crossed no one beats us to it.

Anyway I've decided that of the five flats we've seen and noted as possibilities - three we'd agree to offer on and two to KIV in case the ground-floor condition fails to produce any winners - the fact that four are in Chiswick is probably an indication of where we're likely to end up. I'm sorry poor Alex is going to have to spend another 20 minutes on the tube each morning but it does mean Boo will spend 10-15 minutes less in a car seat each day, which is good.

Good for food, Chiswick
Plus we have begun to discover a multitude of excellent child-friendly eateries in Chiswick. We returned to the Pacific Bar and Grill today at lunchtime (excellent food, strangely empty - why?), where Boo entertained her favourite waitress and vice versa. Turns out their pancakes with bacon and eggs are also excellent. Could have done without being drenched in maple syrup but they got the bacon edges beautifully crisp without the entire piece turning into a shard of wood and the pancake edges were crisp too, the centres fluffy. It can replace the Chelsea Bun almost any time. The only thing it's lacking is hash browns.

30 wks: See her teeth?

Boo backs off the changing mat...
... and finds herself inexplicably unable to move any further.

Boo feeds herself apple and blackberry yoghurt
or
Why babies should eat naked outdoors
(click on the pictures to appreciate the full extent of soiling)