Chickens in a box

A lovely day spent at Ascot yesterday enjoying champagne, lobster, fine wines and the occasional race as and when we could make it to the track. Came home slightly worse off than we left, but nothing too hideous thank heavens. The boys were both fine, James did his first full day at nursery without batting an eyelid and Sonya and Lucy survived bathtime and stayed on for Heroes and pasta! Alas poor Rabbit didn't make it home from nursery with William and this proved a total deal breaker for him. He absolutely refused to go to sleep until eventually was physically unable to remain conscious a second longer (at around 9ish). Unfortunately he then woke up at 2am utterly inconsolable. Nothing we tried worked, he didn't want Polar Bear, or Soft Rabbit, no subsitute would be accepted. He wouldn't come into bed with us. In the end we put him back in his own bed, sobbing his heart out and I got in with him and we both eventually went to sleep, Will until 7.30 and I got up at 5.45 as...

We take them for granted, but Will had never even seen one before so I decided it was time to initiate him into one of life's greatest treats. Watching his face was absolutely fascinating, he was intrigued and then couldn't quite understand all the sugar that had suddenly appeared all over his face. But the best bit of all was when William found the jam in the middle - his face lit up. Suffice to say the doughnut didn't last long after that, the whole thing disappeared in minutes. It's amazing watching him, everything is absolutely brand new, everything is an adventure. Roll on Brittany, he is SO excited. He has no idea what France or ferries are, but cannot wait to find out.

....but making the most of the sunshine now it's back. Today Will, James and I went for a walk down the canal at Kintbury, watching the boats and feeding the ducks. The boys were in heaven. We stopped off at the corner shop on the way home for icecreams which was the icing on the cake and James shared both Will and my Fruit Pastille lollies from his McLaren throne. Managed to get a little downtime at lunch, enough to read The News of the World cover to cover (I haven't read it since we cancelled our subscription about 4 months ago), have a snooze and get sunburn. Then headed off out for a happy afternoon spent with guinea pigs and Greens. Two very tired boys went to bed without a murmur, leaving me manically baking (something I'm still really into) and creating a child-friendly (in otherwords no salt, red wine, stock, sun-dried tomato paste, or anything scrummy) lasagne. Am currently sampling the fruits of my labours and watching yet more episodes of Lost. A perfect end to ...

Things have really been coming together recently, James is growing into a lovely little boy, William's settled and happy and we've got so many plans for pre-school, doing up the house etc. Eddie's sabbatical is going well and it's been lovely having him at home and I'm gradually getting a little freedom back with polo lessons which are just great fun. But it's never straightforward and now my first interview with work looms and we'll have to make new plans to accommodate that. I'm trying not to brood too much but it's difficult. In the meantime Eddie has gone home for a week to be with Julia who's recovering still but thankfully out of hospital now. It's important for him to be there, but at the same time knackering for me and I will miss him terribly tomorrow. It's our fifth wedding anniversary and the first we've spent apart.

James cracks sitting up - for a few minutes at least, before collapsing into a heap and wriggling off to a new destination. Funny how you tootle along for months and nothing really changes, and then suddenly children do something completely different which changes everything. William loves having a little brother who's up and about (if still stationary), within reason. Sharing is great as a concept, as long as he doesn't actually have to share....and he spent a good 15 minutes banished to the corner yesterday for tipping a mug of cold, paddling pool water on James' head. He eventually resorted to weeing on the patio in the hope it'd get a reaction, but Eddie and I were unwavering in our resolve. Poor William couldn't quite grasp the concept that if he apologised to James he could come and play (or maybe he did, but was too stubborn to swallow his pride). Eventually he managed to whisper 'sorry' and gave James a kiss. Thank heavens. This discipline mal...