Chickens in a box

I am tired beyond all rational thought after getting to bed at 1.00 this morning and a 5.45 start. But the results have gone well and it's been fun galloping around interviewing the Great and the Good of Vodafone and the City for our fly-on-the-wall programme. Feel like curling up in a ball and sleeping, but there's still lots to do. The best I can hope for is an early finish and then I might be lucky enough to catch Will before bedtime. Baby Number 2 seems to be fine under the stress, although none too happy with my tights, which are squashing it a bit and it keeps giving me a boot to get me to do something about it. Alas with legs so pale they'd hold their own in Big Market on a Saturday night, it's just not an option.

Sitting in the Park Lane office on a freezing cold, rainy Bank Holiday getting everything ready to go out at some unGodly hour of tomorrow morning. Fortunately all has gone well so hopefully we'll be fine with everything prepared. Had a lovely weekend, went to Arezoo on Saturday and now feel like a new woman. Then over to see Terry, Andrew and the girls for tea and biccies which was so nice. I haven't really seen them at home since the girls were born so it was a treat to spend time catching up and saying hello to Octavia and Marina who are gorgeous. Then on Sunday we went to see Janie and Ian for lunch, another really relaxing time with friends. William was an angel, sleeping beautifully after his feast of fishfingers and chips while Janie, Ian, Eddie and I had an ambrosial lunch and a natter. Went home feeling thoroughly revitalised for having made the social effort. I only wish that they lived a bit nearer so we could do this kind of thing more often. Now I just have to sur...

Multi-tasking appears to work on a number of levels. Take stress for example, something Eddie and I are grappling with on a daily basis at the moment. Eddie is so stressed about work, he worries about it constantly. As for me - there's work, whether I've sterilized Will's bottle, have we got milk in the fridge, what's for supper, is the washing done, have we paid the cleaner/newspaper people/milkman, have I got time for fill in my IHT forms for probate, will the house sale go through, how can I stay awake for Desperate Housewives, have I set the video for Lost, what am I going to wear tomorrow, am I a good Mother, do I look fat, is Baby Number 2 OK, should I have bought those shoes in M&S at lunchtime, can we afford a Phil and Ted...the list is endless. And exhausting.

The frustrated howl of a mother who's missing her child taking his first steps :(

In Athens nibbling a desultory plate of pastries in my room and trying to get a handle on what's going on with the results. Eddie got off to the States on Sunday with no problems and is now struggling through his sessions and lying awake at night as per usual. I snuck out of the house yesterday morning at 8.30 so that Will wouldn't notice me leaving. I hated it, think I finally managed to stop the tears at Sharpthorne. The traffic was horrendous, M25 gridlocked so I got to LHR at 11.30, just in time to check in and spend a fortune in Shiseido trying to cheer myself up. Athens is great fun though and there's lots of Vodafone people out for the footie. Had the most amazing supper in a little taverna last night - bring on the vine leaves! Feeling tired (nothing new there) but OK this morning. Time to put on the new slap and get busy with it. Hopefully the next two days will go quickly and then I can go home to my family.

Let the great Houghton scattering commence. Molly was first, packed off to Heath End Cattery in high dudgeon. Next, Will and I begin the laborious journey down to Sussex, hopefully hot on Eddie's heels. Tomorrow we're off on our booze cruise to Calais, picking up all the drink for the party before Eddie hits the US on Sunday morning (with strict instructions to return with a Phil and Ted) and then I disappear off to Athens on Monday. It'll be the first time we've all been separated like this and I am absolutely dreading it. Think I'll sacrifice my glass of wine this weekend and save myself for a pre-Talkabout tipple instead.

What a palava. Went to see the consultant this morning to see about booking a cesarean, but it's apparantly not that easy.... The problem arises if we wanted to have a third baby, because having more than one cesarean puts you at risk if you want more children. As a result, they recommend you try for a natural birth the second time round if you can. So my options are: Nature takes its course and everything works as it should without intervention (well, apart from my epidural) Nature starts to take its course, but slowly, so we go for one attempt at induction to help things along (it's one strike and you're out second time round, thank heavens) Nothing happens, so we try induction, and if that doesn't work we go for a section At the end of the day I'll either manage to have the baby myself, or worst case have a section. Either way at least I'll have tried and that's the main thing. I don't know if we'll have a third - maybe if this one's a boy. Bu...

Look at Junior doing the backstroke! So exciting. But we managed to control ourselves and didn't ask whether it was a boy or a girl, waiting will be worth it. All is fine and the baby was wriggling around so much it was hard to measure it some of the time. Very different from Will who was asleep most of the time and I kept having to get off the bed and jump up and down to wake him up.

A wonderful day despite torrential rain. I was worried that Will would be wittering through the service, but there were so many other children jumping around that in the end it was quite relaxing to just sit back and enjoy the chaos! Honey sandwiches in our pew were a hit (until Eddie sat on them) and the two stars of the show looked beautiful in their christening gowns - a pair of angels. Will had a fantastic time tootling through the sea of ankles afterwards. He ended up being fascinated by one girl's fishnets, and then spent the next half hour feeling up everyone else's legs to see if they were similarly unusual. 'That's my boy', crowed his proud Father.....

I love this song. Listening to it on my iPod and thinking about my time travelling - when I jumped on a plane, 22 years old and not a care in the World. Now here I am, sitting in my office in Newbury, typing emails, watching the rain and counting the hours until I can run away and pick William up from nursery. Do you know it was such a long time ago that I went travelling that I don't even have any digital pictures - the cameras hadn't been invented:) How have 11 years gone by so fast? Blink and you'll miss me.

Am about to run screaming from the building, if it wasn't for the fact that I've been sitting down for so long I'm not sure my legs work anymore.

It's happened at last - Eddie and I have business trips at the same time, neither of which we can get out of (not through lack of trying on my part, but the fact that I'm going to be nearly 6 months pregnant is clearly not a cause for any concern...) So it's going to be a bit of a manic few weeks with us going off to France booze cruising on 19th May, then Eddie goes to San Fran on 20th, I go to Athens on 21st and we both come home on 23rd - Eddie detouring from LHR to East Sussex to scoop William up from Granny's. Then two days in the office and I'm into the dreaded Results and will probably spend most of my Bank Holiday either at work here, or in the City followed by a 05.30 start to get into the office to tie in with all the announcements. My God.

3 days off thank heavens and if not exactly relaxing, it's just such a relief to be at home with Will and Eddie. Will and I got hopelessly lost picking up the new climbing frame on Friday afternoon, I thought we'd be trapped in this new housing estate outside Andover forever. Fortunately we eventually made it home and the new contraption has been installed and is quite frankly the best 35 quid I've ever spent - Will loves it. On Friday the NCT girls came round for brunch and a play which was lovely. It's great fun all being pregnant at the same time, although I can't believe Debs only has a week of work left. Roll on August... In the afternoon the promised sunshine made an appearance just in time for us to head over to Elcot Park for a party with some of Eddie's cricketing friends. Great fun, especially for Will who had so many E numbers he didn't need a space hopper to help him bounce around. He is dribbling like a goon, growing 3 new molars which you can...

Oh. My. God. I think I'm getting an outie. My worst nightmare. Never had one with William, the trade off being that I got the dreaded brown line instead. Think that might have been preferable. Better get ready with the Sellotape.

Have just won a Little Tikes climbing frame for Will on Ebay and am only just coming down from my high. Even went to the extremes of marking the finish time on my Outlook Calendar so I could outbid everyone else 30 seconds before the close. Talk about a rush! Will is going to be thrilled. Better think about how the hell I'm going to get the thing home/pay for it....

Back at the coalface again after a lovely weekend up in Norfolk with Granny and Grandpa. The weather was fabulous and it was such a relief not to have to cook for a change. We took Will to the beach and after initial trepidation (as with most things), he decided sand and the sea was great fun. I can see him and Daddy spending many a happy hour beachcombing while I get to lie in the sun topping up my tan. Bring it on :) Will is still not walking, but working hard at it and currently getting around like a weird sort of crab with knees locked and bum in the air. He's also getting quite good at getting around on two legs holding onto your finger, and it's fascinating to see how he can pull you around in the direction he wants to go. Baby Mk II is growing apace and I'm sure I can feel little bubbles tickling away now and again. I'm 18 weeks now so it's about the right time for it to make its presence felt. In the meantime EVERYONE is pregnant! Bridget has just told ever...