Bits and pieces...

I've been really unwell with a cold-flu-whatever and keep forgetting to come in here and jot down the latest... This is just a collection of information I want to record, there is no real theme to this post.

Peggy is - I dread to use the word "advanced" - but she really does seem ahead of the game... She's certainly developing physically much more quickly than Otis did. She rolled front to back at 9 weeks, and then back to front right on 4 months. At 4 1/2 months she is SITTING unaided for short bursts of time. She appears to be a very, very determined little person. She'll fight and fight until whatever sparkly, bright, exciting item she has spied is finally in her grasp.

65cm long at 4 1/2 months, 6.8kg. A bizarre head of hair that only a mother could love - brown and wavy on the tips, short and white underneath, not much on the sides of her head (unfortunately giving away the fact that I sleep her on her side in a very non-compliant fashion). Eyes that looks brown indoors and blue in the sunshine. LONG eyelashes. Elegant fingers, odd toes that have the teeniest little toenails.

She is feeding 4 hourly now, around the clock. Last night she only had a few sucks at her second night feed, so I am thinking I may start trying to discourage that one... I'll let her go until 6 months, and then perhaps put a stop to the second night feed altogether.

Having only two sleeps most days now, each of between 40 mins and 2 1/2hours in length.

Eating up a storm... Loves pumpkin, avocado and banana, not so fussed on stewed fruits of Farex though (who can blame her re the latter).

Nicknames: Peggle/Piggle (Phil), Girly, Girly-Whirl, Whirly, Pegarina, Peggabush, Peggabushy, Bushel (Me, Oti... He copies whatever nickname I happen to use).

OK... My Oat-Boy.

He's 14.2kg at 26 months. 91cm or so (hard to get an accurate measurement). Obsessed with tools. Likes to be called Bob (as in builder). A nightmare to get to sleep in the evenings, but once down isn't heard from until morning. Very affectionate, particularly to Peggy... In fact, he appears to have transferred his obsession with me... He's Peggy's number one fan.

Loves to play imaginary games. All sorts of inanimate objects become people in his mind. Blocks, leaves, stones, shampoo bottles. He adores playing with Duplo, his sand and water play table, his tool kit. Loves to draw and use play dough. Loves cooking with Mum. Loves TV!! Play School is still number one. Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, Peter Rabbit and Finding Nemo are his preferred DVDs. Enjoys singing, especially The Motorbike Song. Loves diggers and motorbikes. Loves riding his trike. Loves his Ernest and Celestine books. Has just started enjoying borrowing books from the library.

Speaking in full sentences now... Although sometimes not easy to interpret if the dreaded dummy is in his mouth. "I love you Mum" is the single most wonderful thing I have ever had the pleasure to hear. It keeps my spirits lifted for days at a time.

Back at work and missing my cartoon-eyed FOUR month old...

Yes, I am back at work. It's not all bad. I actually enjoy getting ready for work and looking like an adult rather than a teen mum (which is apparently what I look like, even though I am 30. People always look at me as if I am inappropriately young to be a mother. Annoying now, but nice when I am 90, I guess).

We have to be so organised! I spend most of the night before preparing. Packing Oti's Occy's bag (lunch, spare clothes, dummies, the dreaded disposables, sheets for his sleep on the big boy bed, water, outfit for the day) Peggy's kit (dummies, bibs, multiple jumpsuits, socks and something warm to appease Mum's need to dress her in many layers, bottle, frozen breastmilk) and laying out my own clothes, plus preparing my own lunch and packing my cooler bag with breastmilk bags and the blessed pump)... I have 30 minutes in the morning to ready myself for the day, all the while praying that Peggy stays asleep until we are ready to leave.

Once on the train, I quickly apply my make-up and then READ. WITHOUT. INTERRUPTION!!!

Highlight of my day.

I then pump as soon as I get into work. Our lovely receptionist Caroline made me a spiffy sign to put on the meeting room door to keep all the men out! A colleague suggested it read "Milking in Progress", but we decided to be slightly more abstract.

I pump at 8, 12 and 4. I can take my laptop in with me and work during the process.

Home at 5, home to the little girl I miss more than I expected I would! Phil and I are just so obsessed with her eyes, they are so dark and deep and almost cartoonish in shape. I really love them and go all gooey inside when they are fixed on me.

Otis continues to LOVE her:

"Peggy. Coot."

"Peggy. Boo-a-ful."

"Peggy. Love her."