Not much to say, as I'm spending most of my time hanging around waiting for this baby to show up. And trying to avoid doing other stuff as much as possible, though of course my life always involves a large amount of ferrying children around from point A to point B, sometimes via points C, D & E. And not always just my own children (the advantage of that being that sometimes other people will ferry mine around). Sometimes we walk, of course, but the weather isn't that great this time of year, so a lot of it is in the car. People who joke that one of a mother's primary duties is being a chauffeur aren't really kidding.

Still here, nothing happening on the baby front, just in case you are wondering. :)

An uneventful week here, though I had bad news from my friend Kristen in the US, whose sister's husband died unexpectedly yesterday. She says "he had some kind of breathing difficulty and seizure and died, despite my sister doing CPR on him and the paramedics trying to revive him for a long time. We don't know what caused his death, but the coroner has ordered a full autopsy, so we should know in a few days. He did have a heart condition, but was on medication to control it." Even though I'd never met Jim, I of course knew Kristen's sister (I've known Kris since we were about 13, which is a long, long time ago. Some of you know precisely how long.) and so am pretty weirded out myself. And of course, Jessy (the sister) also has about a 6-month old baby, which really doesn't even bear thinking on. As a reminder of how unexpectedly things can happen in life, even when you are very young, I could have done without, frankly. But I'll be sending positive thoughts in their direction, and hope that Jessy finds the strength to cope with this in what's going to be a really hard time for her... Life. Sometimes it can really suck.

Not much to report here. Still hanging in there, still waiting for Mr Boy to make an appearance (not that he's overdue, or even due, yet, but you do begin to lose patience with it eventually). 9 Feb is the supposed date, so I guess we could have a running countdown, but if he's late, it would be much too depressing to dwell on just how late. When there's any news on that front, well, you'll be able to read about it here.

Both kids enjoying school, though Olivia is still really tired when she gets home, and therefore slightly emotional sometimes. Today was good, as Lana took Sarah & Thalia to trampoline, so Olivia could be at home with just me and we could do something quiet, like just watch a video and hang out. I think if she could do that every day, it would work well, but of course when Sarah is around, they want to play, and they wind each other up and get hyper. Predictable, but a little hard for her at the moment. Still, I think it will get better as she gets more used to nursery.

School started this week for Olivia, or, as she insists, "not school, nursery" - and she seems to be enjoying it so far. It does make her a little more tired & grumpy than before, but I think that will change as she gets used to it. It's the one disadvantage to afternoon nursery - that most kids have better energy levels in the morning, and if they do something which tires them out in the morning, they can nap in the afternoon, but most of them adjust pretty rapidly. And as she gets a little older, it won't be nearly such a problem.

One thing that she has in common with Sarah is that she doesn't seem to be able to remember what she actually did at nursery - must be an age thing, as Sarah is well over that now. But it used to be very frustrating when Sarah came out of school and you'd ask what she did, and she couldn't tell you anything. Some days, there are visual clues, of course, like the days they come home covered in paint, but (luckily) that doesn't always happen.

Today was Olivia's first day at her new ballet class - she enjoyed it fine, no problem with switching teachers or meeting new kids or anything like that. She's very different from Sarah in that respect. At 3, Sarah would have spent the entire half hour hiding behind a chair in the corner of the room. In fact, as Lana pointed out, she might still. At least for the first few minutes - she's a lot more tentative in new situations.

More snow yesterday - while the girls were walking to school, which they thought was great. It's still on the ground today, though we haven't had any new snowfall today. Most of the roads are fine, though our street isn't great - it's a cul de sac, so it doesn't get that much traffic, and it's very shaded, so the sun doesn't melt the snow as it might elsewhere. So, slightly slippy, but manageable. Lana and I have been walking the girls to and from school, as that's much easier in this kind of weather, but I do need to get out this evening to take Sarah to her swimming lesson, so I hope the ice won't be a problem. It's really nice for the kids to get a bit of snow, as it's not something we usually get in London at all. And it makes for a very pretty walk to & from school, with the fields all snow covered and so on.

Only a little over a month to go now until the scheduled appearance of Mr Boy. I wouldn't mind if he came a bit early, but frankly, I do hope he waits a week or two longer, so I can have a week or two of Olivia going to nursery in the afternoon - 2 and a half free hours every afternoon - what on earth will I do with myself? Well, I'm sure I can think of something!

Finally, back to school today. And what a surprise when we woke up to find the ground covered in snow! They did mention it might snow, but one never takes these things all that seriously in London. It's mostly gone by now, but the kids had a great time walking to school in it, and Olivia has insisted that we save her snowball in the freezer until Daddy gets home so that he can see it. I did try to explain that he would have seen the snow on his way to work, but it didn't quite get through.

Olivia had her first swimming lesson yesterday, and enjoyed that - she's totally fearless, as I expected, and she'll probably be swimming like a fish in no time. I have a feeling that she will actually learn to swim before Sarah, although Sarah insists that her class of swimmers will automatically be better than Olivia's because they are older (this despite the fact that both are classes for total beginners). Whatever. As long as they are both happy, and as long as they both learn how to swim, eventually.

Sarah's back to her trampoline class tonight, but because her friend Thalia decided she also wanted to do trampoline this term, Lana and I can alternate weeks in terms of taking them - it's Lana's turn this week, since it's Thalia's very first time. Gives me a free afternoon, which is nice. (Well, I've still got Olivia, of course, so not entirely free, but at least I haven't got to go spend an hour in the Malden Centre with her!) We're going to make some popcorn and sit down and watch a video together - just my speed for an afternoon activitiy...

Took down all the Christmas decorations today, and so far, doesn't look like we missed anything. Something will probably turn up next week; that's usually the way of it. The living room feels much bigger without the tree in there, though. I'm sure that feeling will only last for a few days, but it's nice while it lasts.

It's a shame that with the new year, we haven't had a change of weather - it's still raining here, which is a problem with the kids. I was hoping to be able to get out and go for a walk, at least, but no such luck. I guess all we can do is wait for school to start again - not until Tuesday next week, unfortunately, and Olivia won't start until the 13th. But at least the after school activities (swimming & trampoline for Sarah, swimming & ballet for Olivia, though neither of hers is technically after school) start next week as well, which will help give them something to do. And me a bit of peace and quiet.