groundhog day

I am really stumped about what to write this week, I could take the easy way out and post pictures of my child, but really you all know what Mackay looks like by now.

I could talk about how my diet is going (badly) and how I am frustrated with being just a little bit overweight so i can't fit any of my pre-pregnancy clothes, but I talk about my weight so much I even bore myself.

Everyone is healthy and happy, but the thing about my life is although i love being at home with Mackay it does kind of turn into groundhog day, each day is the same, each week is the same, we try to spice it up on the weekends with some type of family activity (last weekend a birthday party and the primrose hill markets) but really it's kind of monotonous. So nothing new to report in my life.

I did book our trip to Rome and Tuscany in September, which took ages because i had to book two plane trips out of different airports, a train ride, an apartment in Rome and a hire car. It took a lot of googling.

Also as I am sitting here I was thinking how a lot of my friends are having babies, which is awesome. But lots of babies and not many weddings actually. Which leaves me a bit pissed off and i have never been a bridesmaid (I was once for my dad and stepmother, but totally doesn't count) I sat next to a lady at a wedding reception who had been bridesmaid 6 times! it would have been 7 but she had to turn one down. Lucky sod. Two thoughts occurred to me 1) she must have a lot of friends and she must be really nice for everyone to want her as her bridesmaid. 2) I don't have nearly enough friends and must not be that nice.

In other less bitter news the chelsea flower show is on television at the moment which is no big deal I hear you say, WRONG! because the BBC have moved bargain hunt (me and mackay's second favourite television programme, the first being deal or no deal) earlier to 11:45 rather than 12:15 which means we miss the first 15 minutes as we are at the park at the time. Disaster! We can't wait for the flower show to be over and programming to return to normal. Just a little fact did you know that £2.4 billion pounds are spent on the gardening industry every year in the UK, more than the music industry. Which strikes me as odd as people don't have very big gardens in the UK, maybe they are buying expensive gnomes.

The English summer is doing it's typical 'get really sunny in April to get your hopes up that it will be a nice summer, then get slowly worse through May and so by the time June comes around the weather is terrible but you haven't noticed it's June then you do notice and then you get pissed off because really it's June the weather should be better by now.'

Is the weather better in New Zealand? Or have I remembered it being better? i haven't lived there for so long I forget.

I'll pop a photo of Mackay at the bottom of the post just to cheer everyone up because the weather in London is forecast to be shit over the long weekend. xxxx

ugh sensible footwear

I bought a pair of Birkenstocks last week. I am disgusted with myself. But i had to buy them because all my awesome pre-baby strappy summer footwear is not compatible with pushing a pram uphill or walking long distances with a pram or walking quickly with a pram so basically the pram has screwed up my whole style sensibility.

i know some people like Birkenstocks (eg my sister) and i agree they are comfortable and last a long time but man they are a ugly piece of footwear that does your leg no favours. The last time i had Birkenstocks i was 19 and it was the late nineties and I thought they made me look alternative and grungy, in reality they just make you look like a lesbian.

So i tried to make them sexier buy buying a patent black pair but really everyone knows they are Birkenstocks and no amount of glitz is going to take away from the fact that they are an ugly piece of footwear.

Anyway they arrived and they were the wrong size because in my Birkenstock free years they have totally changed the sizing structure and now make two widths regular and wide and can i just say that if your foot was too wide for a Birkenstock you must be a hobbit because Birkenstocks are really wide. That's part of what makes them so un-sexy you just can not be delicate in a Birkenstock you have to clump around like a troll and they make your calves look huge, i don't know how but they do.

And i have just remembered another drawback to Birkenstocks they have a weird odour, not an unpleasant one just a bit weird. A bit like hay.

xxxxx

My baby is now one!

I look really pissed off (i was not)

Store bought birthday cake, it was kind of dry but it looked good. Also I gave Mackay some, he wasn't into it.

Inflatable cow! If only they made adult sized ones.

I was going to up load way more pictures but it took me about 2 hours and 300 failed attempts to do these three! My patience can't take adding any more photos, I am too old to fight with technology.

A year ago today...

i was in labour, I think or i was being induced or eating dinner or something. I can't really remember to be honest but i was definitely less than 24 hours away from becoming a mummy. And tomorrow Mackay turns one and we are having some friends over for champagne and cake. To celebrate mackay's birthday and to celebrate Jamie and I surviving the first year of his life with most of our sanity.

so pictures coming tomorrow and the great thing about him being one is that he doesn't know it's his birthday so tomorrow he will just wake up, make a mess with lots of wrapping paper, play with some new stuff, have his first ever bit of cake and then fall asleep. The perfect day I reckon.

Spot the difference

One of these people is Mackay and one is jAmie? can you tell which as which? That's right you can't because the backs of their heads are completely identical. Eye colour, hair colour all those things you think you child will inherit, but head shape, it never crossed my mind.

April showers? not in london my friends.

Mackay happy in his pushchair because i gave him some food, otherwise he would have been kicking off, big time.

Mackay checking out the flowers, this picture makes my bum look bigger than it's actual size. well at least i hope it does.

What an awesome month April has been, two four day weekends one after the other in brilliant sunshine. i don't think this has ever happened in london ever, I'm pretty sure it's a sign the world will end. We have been doing family activity all over london (of course I mean all over north west london, as mackay gets antsy if he is in his pushchair for more than 10 minutes) we have been to the zoo, a farm and so many parks and playgrounds that we all have tan lines.

Mackay turns one next week and we are having a party! no kids, just adults as he doesn't have any friends his own age, he's mature like that. To avoid all the cooking dramas I am hiring caterers, (a cleaner, a nanny and now caterers, I live a very aspirational lifestyle) Well i say I am getting caterers but i haven't heard back from anyone because everyone is away on the long weekend breaks. So we will just be drinking booze at this point. I am making Mackay a cake from the Australian's woman's weekly cake book. Not sure which one yet, I suspect the one that is easiest to make and hardest to screw up.

We have made a rule that he is only getting three presents from us, a fire engine, a scooter beetle thing and an inflatable cow. Awesome! Although what he would really like is my laptop, a pair of scissors and his dad's blackberry, none of which he is getting.

Also on Tuesday Jamie has the day of work and we have the nanny for the afternoon and we have booked her to babysit that night as well. Jamie and I will be completely alone from 2-10:30 (with a breif time in the middle when we come home and put the baby to bed) We haven't spent that much time alone together in about a year! For all those people who don't have kids this is no big deal but for anyone that does have kids (and doesn't live within driving distance of a kindly relative who loves to babysit) you will know that a big deal this is. We are going shopping and then bowling, it's a date from 1956!

In other exciting news a lady rang today and I did a phone survey, and it took half an hour. Jamie thought i was a fool, little did he know that someone asking my opinion these days on something urelated to Mackay is quite a rarity so I was happy to chat away for 31 minutes to Sarah from skyTV.

Okay better go Aaron and Emily are coming over for a bbq and I haven't prepared anything, lucky they are good friends and are pretty tolerant, I also haven't shaved my legs and am wearing a skirt. I am embarrassed but at the same time don't have the energy to remedy the situation.

xxxx