Babies - Hannah born end of Jan, Ben born start of April. Both cuties, of course. Hannah was emergency C-section as she was breach. Amy went into labour and refused to go to hospital to start with as she wanted to finish cleaning the bathroom! Steve eventually convinced her to go and they found out Hannah's heartbeat was a bit ropey and she was breach so they rushed Amy into theatre. All went well and Hannah is now 10/11 months old, crawling about and very cute! She looks very much like Steve. but with Amy's eyes. Amy has now gone back to work (which I don't agree with, seeing as she doesn't actually need to) and Hannah goes to nursery 3 days a week.

Ben is the smiliest baby in the world. You just have to look at him and he cracks a huge grin at you. He's a much, much better sleeper than Sam was at this age. Possibly because we've been stricter with it. He's now commando crawling around the place and getting into everything. It's that fun age where he doesn't understand the word "no" and just eats everything. Sam of course is very impressed when he discovers Ben munching on yet another one of his toys but he's been remarkably good with him. He went through a phase of calling himself "Baby Sam" at the beginning and sitting in Ben's bouncer, but now Ben's becoming more independent he's chilling out more. I think it helps that I have my hands free more more so I can give him more attention again. he also started playschool in September, which was a bit tough at first, but he settled in fairly quickly and seems to enjoy it. We've also started looking into schools for him as it's only 18 months till he starts! Scary stuff!

When all the horrible money stuff started at the beginning of the year we had a bit of a scare that we would have to sell up. Our mortgage went sky high and we just couldn't afford it. We had the estate agents round and were about to put it on the market when a neighbour asked us if we'd thought about taking in a lodger. I looked about on line and was really surprised at how much the going rate is for a room in a house these days, so after some deliberation we placed an ad for Sam's room (annoying as we'd just just decorated it and got him all settled in there with his toys etc!) We had a 45 year old bloke answer first, who seemed nice enough and named dropped a lot as he supplied organic meat to all the top London chefs. We nearly went for it but then got contacted by Coralie, who sounded much more like out cup of tea. She moved in a couple of days after I came out of hospital with Ben and settled in pretty quickly. She's fab with the boys and it's nice to have some adult conversation in the day when she's not working. Frankly I don't know what I'd do without her as she's more like a mother's help than a lodger! We've also had our 15 minutes of fame as there have been various news articles about the "new breed of landlady" in the news lately, because of the credit crunch, and so far I have been interviewed live on Radio 4 for Woman's Hour and a picture of all of us has appeared in the Sunday Telegraph! She came up with us to Andi's folks for Christmas too so she definitely part of the furniture now!

I've got back into body modification a bit again, after my 3 year hiatus for childbearing! I've messed around sticking things in and taking things out of my ears and finally settled on a stretched on either side with a single stud above that. Still debating whether to wear my tragus or not. I've had my nose repierced for the 6th (and hopefully final!) time. I'm now wearing two of my four tongue studs, and considering putting the other two back in with a labret post and flat disc to make it more comfortable and less conspicuous. I've replaced my navel bar (God knows how that isn't healed up after 3 years and two babies!) and have had three shiny new additions in the form of dermal anchors across my left wrist. I'd been looking into them on line and decided I wanted to get it done. On Nick's myspace it said that he did them so I went to see him but was disappointed to learn that he is no longer piercing, and Capileo has shut down completely. Apparently he went bankrupt and as such isn't allowed to train under his name any more. I did some research and looked on a few forums, and a name that came up a few times with good reviews was Tiff Badhairdo at Opus Magnum in Brighton. We made an appointment to go and see her on Saturday and I was really, really impressed with her professionalism. She talked us through the whole thing and all the aftercare etc, and made she we were happy with all the sterilisation etc before going ahead. They took much longer to do than I thought (about 45 mins for the three) but I'm really pleased with them, they look fab and weren't really very painful at all. Just a sting as much as any piercing and certainly very funky in my opinion. They're my first semi permanent mod, as although they can be removed, they pretty much have to be cut out so I'll really need to go to the studio if I want them gone. They've really opened up a whole world of possibilities and they've got me quite excited about other stuff I could have done. My tattoo thoughts have started to clear too, and I'm now more certain of what I'd like done. I've an image of a vine creeping up my side, from my hip to my lowest rib, with a few flowers coming off it... however I've also been looking into scarification (as Tiff does that too and the small amount of her stuff I've seen is amazing) and I'm quite liking the more subtle look of that at the moment too. In any case nothing can be done until I've lost some weight, so I have to attend to that small matter first anyway! I start Lighterlife again in January (no set date yet) and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm totally geared up for it and would love to have started back in October time, but as I was still breastfeeding the counsellor advised again it. I've been talking to Vicky Mayne, who's been very successful on it, and also Sarah Wells, who although put the weight back on, knows exactly where she went wrong (didn't go to the maintenance meeting after the weight loss) and I'm feeling quite confident about the whole thing.

And on that epic note I'm going to finish uploading photos (only about 500 to do as it hasn't been done for so long!) and make lovely cup of tea! Tomorrow begins the shopping, cooking and cleaning for the second Christmas for us this year, on Sunday when Mum and Malcolm come down with their present for the boys. They still have a load under the tree from friends to open and they've really been spolied this year. Frankly, I find it a little disgusting how much they get, especially Ben (who's far too young to care!), and as I've cleared two cardboard boxes of toys out to make way for new ones I'm tempted to find a really good charity or children's home that might like a donation of nearly new toys.

Anyway - tea and photos ahoy! Will try to update more regularly in the New Year!

This is the exact reason why I never managed to keep a diary... I always leave it too long and then wonder if it's worth it!  Thankfully it seems to be acceptable to leave extended periods between updates when you do this on line!

Sam's potty training has been abandoned for now.  He just wasn't getting any better at it.  When he did wee in the potty, it was because I'd put him on there at the right time, and although there were occasions when he did tell me "wee wee", it was just as often because he'd already done it on the carpet.  He also wasn't pooing, and was holding it in for days at a time, before getting really panicky when it eventually had to come out.  He was giving himself a sore stomach so we decided that it wasn't worth doing it yet if he wasn't ready, and put him back into nappies.  Even so, it took him another 2 weeks before he stopped getting hysterical about having a poo, and I'm glad we abandoned it when we did, in case we ended up giving him a permanent complex about it.  We'll try again in the summer, when things have settled down again after number two has arrived.

Since the last update, we have decided on a name for our new little bundle of joy.  He is to be a Benjamin.  Middle name yet to be decided but I quite like George - partly after both the grandfathers but also because it's an acceptable name these days as well.  He's very active at the moment, much more so than Sam, although he is lying in the same position with his head up in my ribs, which I'm sure will be just as much fun in the weeks to come as it was with Sam.  I'm starting to find it uncomfortable to sleep now, and am getting up at least once in the night as he seems to think it's fun to tap dance on my bladder!  I'm 29 weeks tomorrow and I'm pretty sure I've decided to go for a C section, if possible.  Having spoken to a very nice midwife last week, she read my notes and agreed I'd definitely gone through the mill with Sam.  Apparently they try to avoid doing episiotomies at all now as they are so barbaric, and to have one for a forceps birth means a big cut.  She said that she had one natural birth and one c-section with her children, and that I would definitely find a section way less painful than what I went through with Sam, although of course there's just as much chance that it would be straightforward birth this time round if I went down the natural route.  Frankly, if I'm going to be back on my feet by the next day (admittedly not doing cartwheels) I'd rather take the definite option of a section, than run the risk of a repeat performance of two years ago.

Amy seems to be doing well, she finishes work this week and then only has one more week before her due date.  She went to the midwife today and found the baby has an irregular heartbeat, so was sent to the hospital to be wired up for a few hours.  They weren't unduly concerned though, and the registrar said they'd just do a couple of extra checks when she's born but that's it.  Apparently it's quite common anyway.  I'll be interested to see if she goes overdue, and if so by how much, seeing as Mum was late with both of us and I was very late with Sam.

Had to take Enkil to the vet this morning as his scabs are getting worse and worse.  The one on his head is definitely better than when we first got him, but is still there and still bleeds regularly.  We also noticed the other day that he has two on his rear legs, on his hocks, one of which is bleeding (we keep finding blood on the floor) as well as a fair sized one on his front paw and the whole of the inside of one ear, which is raw and weeping.  The one on his ear is especially bad as when it dries out it curls his ear over, until it cracks open again.  The vet said that it's most likely an allergy to something (oesonophilic superficial dermatitis - oesonophilic means to do with white blood cells) but that it's going to be case of ruling things out.  She wants us to change his diet, and has ordered some food for us, which means all the cats will have to have it.  Also it only comes in dry form, which will impress all of them.  She gave him an antibiotics jab and some steroids to help with the sores he already has and also gave me some cream to put on, which has antibiotics and steroids in it too.  I've been trying to clean his ear up with salty water, which seems to have made it uncurl a little.  She also said it could be a flea allergy, so we need to be right up to date with flea treatments.  I got some drops and did all the cats this evening - glad I did as I actually saw a flea on Enkil earlier, so perhaps it's a reaction to their bites.  He's being surprisingly good about being manhandled, and lets me clean him up without struggling much, which is a relief.  Poor kitten.

We had a hilariously fun letter from Birmingham Midshires last weekend, telling us that as the mortgage had now come off its fixed rate, we are going to variable.  This means that our monthly payments go up by £400 a month - ha ha ha!!  I know they have every right to do it and that if we were sensible we'd have kept an eye on rates and been prepared for it, but I do love the way they just say "by the way, next month we want this much extra" without any suggestions of help or advice.  Anyway, we're now in the middle of negotiations with a new IFA, who although is VERY blunt and to the point, seems to know his stuff and is fairly certain he can not only get us a new deal but also incorporate a few of our bigger debts, so tidying our finances a bit.  It still means we'll need to find £300 extra a month but anything is better than nothing and it'll be nice not have any loans hanging over us.  Even if he can't negotiate to include our extra debts, he can definitely get us a better rate, so it was well worth talking to him.  We had 3 estate agents come round today to value the house, the first two put it at £310K, which is very nice to hear since we paid £250K for it two years ago.  The last one reckoned it was worth £350K, which is a load of shite.  He was clearly a muppet anyway, as he was slagging off next door (no2), saying that their place wasn't in as good condition as ours, when Andi and I have both been there numerous times and know that it is actually in fabulous condition, due to the extension and renovations they had done about 3 years ago!  Gotta love these people who tell you anything to make you us their company!  Anyway, details have been passed to financial bods and we've now got to wait and hope it all goes through ok, in the meantime finding the extra cash to cover the mortgage.  Infuriatingly, there seems to be nothing I can do to make any extra money at the moment.  No one will touch me at this stage of pregnancy, even if I did have the energy at the end of the day to go and do an evening job!

Mum and I have decided to go ahead with Wedding Babies, and the website is now up and running.  I've phones about 40 Hants hotels, and sent our flyers and business cards to them.  We are also booking in to do 3 wedding fairs, which I think will be far more productive.  The hotels may keep our details on file in case someone asks, but at the fairs we'll have access to the actual brides themselves.  We have one at Langrish House, one at Marwell and one at Lythe Hill (although that one is in April so Mum might have to do that one herself).  We also need to sort out insurance, which Mum is handling.  As I'm already Ofsted registered, that looks good on the papers, and I also need to sort out my first aid course, as I'm meant to do that within 6 months of starting childminding.

I took on a new little boy the other day, Joshua, who is 11 months old.  He seems very sweet, I think it'll take him a couple of times to settle in and he was a little grumbly on his first day today, understandably.  I may only have him till end of March as his Mum's contract for work runs out then, but she's hoping to find something else after that so we'll see.  It's good for Sam to have someone a bit nearer to his age as well, as he's not too keen on sharing at the moment.

I had another e mail from Debbie in Canada, saying hi and giving me the contact details of Marilyn Del Medico, my half aunt.  I passed the message on to Uncle Glen and he said he will write to her, as he's fairly sure she knows we exist.  She would have been 20 when George came over for a month to see Dad and Glen, and as he said, you'd wonder where your Dad had disappeared to for a month with all his clothes and stuff.  Will be interesting to see what sort of response he gets, if any.

That's it for now.  Will probably update in another month!

The Puffin
by florence jacques

There once was a puffin just the shape of a muffin,
And he lived on an island in the deep blue sea,
He ate little fishes, which were most delicious,
And he ate them for breakfast and he ate them for tea.

But this poor little puffin, he couldn't play nothin',
'Cause he didn't have no-one to play with at all.
So he sat on his island and he cried for a while, and
He felt very lonesome and he felt very small.

Then along came the fishes and they said, "If you wishes,
You can have us for playmates, instead of for tea."
Now they all play together in all kinds of weather,
And the puffin eats pancakes, like you and like me.