I’ve come to a bit of a decision, with these update posts; I think that when New Baby arrives I’m going to amalgamate all of the updates into one so that the monthly post covers my own post-partum recovery, the new baby’s development and also a little bulletin on what Angelica has been up to. Otherwise I’m going to be spending more time typing up my life than actually living it! I’ll think of a new jazzy name for this update, but I expect there will be one more Baby and Body before I give birth, so there’s no rush.

Let’s concentrate on Baby 1, who is now a toddler, and toddling around so well that I actually can’t believe there was a time when she couldn’t walk! She’s very fast on her feet – still falls on her bottom quite a bit, if she attempts tricky little sequences, but at times it’s an effort to catch her she runs away so quickly! I feel as though she’s made a huge leap recently, in terms of development – there I was stressing about walking, and talking, and her being able to use a spoon properly and so on, and all of a sudden she can do everything and chatter away in her little language that only she understands, and she can use a fork to eat her pasta and pick up peas on her spoon.

And her understanding is great – I give her increasingly difficult instructions (basically she’s become my science experiment, ha!) to see just how much she can take in at once, and she constantly surprises me with how much she knows and absorbs. “Go and get all of the eggs for Mummy and put them back in the box in the kitchen” is met with nods and near-perfect execution, “go and choose a jumper to wear” or “let’s go and run a bath and find your pyjamas” are completely understood. Blatantly I’m practising all of this in preparation for “go to the kitchen, take a glass from the bottom cupboard and a bottle of red wine from the rack and pour Mummy a glass of wine and bring it to the bathroom along with some stuffed olives and/or a Mini Magnum.” “Please.”

(I realise I’m gushing like one of those annoying people who think their kids are amazing, but I am properly amazed by every little development at the moment!)

We are finally off the Ella’s Kitchen pouches, too, though I do take one of the chunky versions with us if we’re going to be out and about, along with an apple and a yoghurt and so on. They are so convenient and I quite like the pasta bake one in the plastic tray that you stick in the microwave! Rather tasty if I do say so myself. But mealtimes now are much easier, with Angelica picking up her food (she loves quiche, ham, cheddar cheese, cucumber, bagels with cream cheese, peas, pasta with garlic and tomato sauce, yoghurts, blueberries and raspberries and big chunks of apple) or using her fork and spoon – the days of having to shovel things down are far behind us, thank goodness. It did get to the point where mealtimes were making me really miserable because the whole thing was such an effort and I felt as though I was always struggling against her. But it’s all OK – it was just a matter of putting things in front of her and leaving her to it.

Phew.

I tell you what I do find quite funny: after loving books completely at about a year old, Angelica seems to have absolutely no patience for them at the moment. She doesn’t even want to sit on my lap and be read to – she lasts for around five seconds before throwing down the book and jumping off. Maybe it’s her new-found running legs! I’m not going to force it – I’m sure she’ll have a rekindled interest when she sees the little “lift the flap” books I’ve bought her for Christmas. (Where’s Spot, something about a postman who’s a bear and another one I can’t remember…)

What else? I’m guessing I don’t need to do a body update if you’ve been reading the Pregnancy Diaries; basically I’m huge, I can’t bend down to pick things off the floor and if I do too much I get pains in my groin. Just about sums things up. Oh, and I need a wee every twenty minutes. I must remember to do another diary entry this week, though not too much has changed since the last one. Just growth. All good – as with the last pregnancy, I can’t really complain. I have the odd ache and pain, but, bloody hell, that’s just all part of it isn’t it? I still think that the whole process is just spectacular – considering how massive a baby is, to be carried around inside, the discomfort is minimal. The gum around my part-emerged wisdom tooth gives me more trouble than the baby does!