My gosh it has been a long time little blog friend. Let me update. My laptop got damaged - badly damaged and I have been sans communication for the past two and half months. It has finally been repaired and they did a mighty good job, albeit by replacing the hardrive. I know that this would happen, especially since I have been meaning to backup my photos and research since the last time my computer crashed - that time I managed to get some dodgy bloke on a market stall to recover my photos, so at least little V's birth pics and stuff are safe. But I must have doubled my photo files since then, and the second half has been lost. Well, maybe not lost, the Tech Guys did return my damaged hardrive. So now I just need to find a dodgy bloke on a market stall (of which I am sure there are plenty in South London) and see if they can salvage anything - dear lord I hope so.
In the time we have been absent so much has happened. Little V is crawling now, and his mafia name would be Vinny Two-Teeth. He has also managed to navigate the step up (and sometimes down) into the kitchen which means there is no area of my home that is sacred. Oh and he has learnt to pull himself to standing, bypassing the pull to sitting stage and giving my a heart attack the morning I watched him pull himself up in his previously un-lowered cot - cue mama sitting on the floor, cot upturned, using a skateboard tool (damn Ikea allen keys - we have about twenty but not a single one fitted!) to adjust the cot base.
D is on stage nearly every night, this week he is playing the prosecutor, so a slightly bigger part than he was doing. I haven't been able to see the show yet, as we have noone we trust enough to watch V, plus I am trying to introduce a bottle/ cup of formula so he is not reliant on me and my boobs being ever-present, but as yet, he is resisting valiantly. D had a tooth pulled this week, so I have been playing nursemaid to two sore-teeth boys.
We have made plenty of friends in our area, V has many girlfriends, most of whom are younger than him, and it is amazing to think that they will all be in the same class at school, yet so different developmentally. It is V's birthday in 13 weeks and 6 days, so I am planning his party already. We are having a picnic in the park, with a sort of carnival/circus motif (I am not going all out with a theme, though I have seen some amazing ones online) cue plenty of bunting, balloons and alfresco food. Hopefully this September will be as warm as it was last year, if it rains we will be de-camping to our tiny flat, which backs onto the park, and will be overrun with babies and family. I want to invite the world to celebrate the most special day, and I will be going all-out party planner mode.
While we have been away my writing has suffered and no progress has been made on my book. It is ironic that blogs are such a procrastination and a distraction from writing, yet they provide such fuel and inspiration. I have however, been reading a lot. I have exhausted the cookery section of my local library, and have read all of Nigella's books. I am currently reading Delia's 'How to Cook' which is so interesting. I'm sure most people would skip the chapters on how to boil an egg but actually there are a lot of good tips (like how to test the freshness of an egg by submerging it in a glass of cold water). I'm sure the basis of good cooking lies in the simple advice, the kind that a mother or grandmother would have traditionally passed on.
I have also had a re-think about this little space here. I am going to re-do the layout and have a whole makeover. Plus I am going to streamline the posting, I have trouble defining what this space here is 'about' and that is probably because it is a mishmash of ramblings, inspiration, recipes and photos of Vinny. Keep watching and I will love you always.
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