Damn. Just hit some key, no idea what, and everything I'd typed just vanished. I thought it was just the caps lock (to turn it off after accidentally turning it on) but apparently not.

Anyway, just complaining about being tired out from Sarah's party, so no great loss... Actually, it went well. No one got hurt or threw up (at least not while they were still in my house). Nothing was broken, and no one (except Olivia who was a bit tired & grumpy to start with) ended up in tears, so that's all right. A lot of the mums here don't serve the cake at the party itself - for one thing, less mess. I did that this year, and it worked well - brought it out last thing before the parents were due to collect the kids, they sang, then we cut it up, wrapped it in napkins & added it to the party bags. And if you are serving lunch anyway, they don't really need to eat it there. We got lucky this year with the weather. It wasn't as good as today, which was one of those beautiful Indian summer days, but it was fairly sunny, quite warm, and no rain. So they could eat outside as well as play a bit and get rid of some of that energy.

We've also stopped opening presents actually at the party, which I think is a good idea. Let's face it, most kids, especially the boys, just don't have the patience to sit around and watch someone else open gifts. They're bad enough playing pass the parcel, where they know they are all going to get a chance to unwrap a layer! The treasure hunt was a big success, though, and despite hoards of kids running up and down my steps & in and out of rooms, nothing was damaged and everyone got a chance to find a clue. You never saw such an excited bunch of kids, except maybe Christmas. :) But that's good. Better than my friend Teresa who had a party last year which was the same day as another party (after it, not at conflicting times) and the first party was a disco so half the kids kept telling Teresa how much better the other party was. Of course, those were 6 year old boys, and we know what kind of mouths they have on them!

Sarah's got two birthday parties next weekend, one a girl from her old school, one a boy from her new school. Luckily, they aren't on the same day, which should be better for tempers and tiredness. Friends of mine with school aged kids have said that it's a never ending stream of birthday parties, and I'm beginning to think they are right. But that's ok - it's important for Sarah to make friends and have fun, so I don't mind (too much) being a chauffeur. Or however you spell that.

Spent most of the day today doing preparation stuff for Sarah's birthday party next Saturday. We made bookmarks for the party favour bags, assembled the bags, made a treasure box for the treasure hunt & possibly some other stuff I've forgotten by this point in the evening. Fun, but tiring. My task for the coming week is to create the clues for the treasure hunt. Luckily, these kids are only 3-6, so we don't have to be too clever. A good thing,as I think being clever is way beyond my powers this week. I guess I can be thankful that I don't waddle yet, which would be worse, but I keep forgetting how much being pregnant affects your ability to remember stuff - which is probably ironic or something, if only I could remember :)

Looking forward to yoga tomorrow - the first class was good, actually. Not only was it quite relaxing & destressing, but I was by no means the most unfit person in the class - more supple than several of the other women, which I didn't expect. I'm probably the person there who is earliest along in pregnancy (about 20 weeks now) but even allowing for that. I don't mind not being at the top of these things, but sometimes it's a real relief just not to be at the bottom. Actually, Wednesday night I went to dinner with some of the other mums from Sarah's class (and the other Reception class) and we were talking about pregnancy (as happens when you have a room full of women with small children, especially when said women are drinking wine...). Several of them couldn't believe I was 20 weeks pregnant and kept asking where the bump was. Which was very flattering. I always wanted to be one of those women who had a distinct bump when pregnant, rather than looking like a fat whale, and perhaps this time I shall actually achieve that! Not that I'm starving myself, by any means, but I am trying not to pig out too much. And it does help, having lost 3 stone before getting pregnant...

So, today is Sarah's first day of full time school. Which means she's out of the house around 8.30 and I don't have to collect her until 3.20. I still have Olivia, of course, which is more than enough, but at least they won't be beating up on each other all day long. :) First day of my yoga classes today, as well, which should be fun. Olivia gets to spend the time in the creche while I'm in class, so she'll enjoy that - like another playgroup session, really. We've not got a lot planned for this week, but I'm sure that will change and we'll promptly get incredibly busy - it always seems to happen that way. But that's ok. Compared to work, it's still fun. Even when they are both home and beating up on each other all day long...

Watched that documentary about 9/11 made by 2 French brothers last night - very good & tasteful and of course achingly sad & poignant, too. Although we were actually on holiday in Washington DC on the day itself last year, I think I'm quite glad to be here this year, where things aren't quite so focused on the tragedy. And of course, we don't have to put up with Georgie quite so much as over there, though still way too much for my liking.

On a more prosaic note, one more day of collecting Sarah from school at noon, and then we get to go until 3.20, hurrah! It will be much easier to get stuff done if I don't have to worry about that. I still have to collect Olivia from playgroup at 12 on Tuesdays and Fridays, but somehow that's not quite the same. At least I will have a few days where I can do longer, uninterrupted errands, if necessary. As I figured beforehand, I'm a lot busier now than before, but at least it's more enjoyable, mostly. Granted, there's a lot of that whole taking the car in to be serviced kind of errand running, but there's also a lot of playing at the playground and short shopping trips and other enjoyable things.

Well, today is our last day of sleeping in without setting the alarm - Sarah starts "big school" tomorrow, though they will only being going for half a day for the first week. We had a visit from her teachers today, and she just hid behind me, of course. Olivia played with everyone and talked, but she's a brazen hussy, whereas Sarah is shy. I'm sure she'll get over it. It will be interesting to see how long she takes to make a few friends, though. In nursery it took several months before she really started playing with other kids rather than simply near them. But she's a lot less shy than she was then, so perhaps it won't take quite as long. We'll see.

Although it hasn't reached extremes yet, I am beginning to truly understand the elation felt by so many mums when the summer holidays roll to a close and school starts again. I can't begin to image what it would be like in the US, where they are out for even longer. At least it's only 6 weeks here. Which is plenty long enough for them to get bored. And boredom of course brings on whining, which is really tedious. Sarah starts on Tuesday, and though it's only half days for the first week, I'm sure it will still be a big improvement in her attitude, having something scheduled to do every day. Not to mention, my attitude. And Olivia begins playgroup Tuesday as well (Tuesday and Friday mornings). I shall have several hours to myself - I shan't know what to do!

Did something last night I haven't done for ages - slept for almost 12 hours. Amazing. I was up really early yesterday & couldn't get back to sleep, plus I spend a number of hours being dragged around a children's farm by the little one (Sarah was at a birthday party there) - most of Olivia's enjoyment seemed to come from frequent trips to the toilets - there were special small ones for little kids, and some of them had red seats. This made a big impression. But when they've only been using actual toilets for a month, you have to take them every time, because it really might be an emergency. And although there are toilets at several points on the farm, we of course had to use the small ones, which were right by the entrance... The other thing she loved was the hand washing facilities. That's one of her favourite activities anyway, and a place that exhorts you to wash your hands every time you touch some animals, well, probably that's Olivia heaven. But she enjoyed it, which is the important thing. Wore me out, though - I ended up going to bed at 8.30. Pregnancy doesn't help, of course, but I had hoped to be able to finish quilting a baby quilt I'm making which I need done for Friday. It's almost done, so I'm not too worried, but it would have been nice to have enough energy to finish it off, then sit & watch Notting Hill, which was on telly - the perfect mindless evening. However, I have taped Notting Hill so will have my mindless evening another time.

We've had guests for the weekend - Cathi & Dave from Ireland - and the girls spent most of their time making Cathi lie down on the sofa and show them her bump (she's pregnant - due in November) so they could watch and see if the baby moved. I'm hoping this means they'll be receptive to having a new baby themselves - not that they have much choice in the matter, but one can hope they'll be enthusiastic rather than merely tolerant. We'll see, I guess. I'm sure they'll get used to it in time. They both really enjoy other people's babies, although Sarah claims she doesn't want another sister (or a brother). I'm sure Olivia does want one - we were watching a friend's baby the other day (about 10 months old) and Olivia wouldn't leave her alone - kept bringing toys to play with and so on, until she had to be distracted with the paddling pool. (Always works - it's that water thing again.)