Lost in space

It would seem from the date that more than a year has been lost. It could have gone the way of the green spotty beaker, the yacht piece from the jigsaw and one tea-spoon from Well Known Toy Shop's fabulous tea set, and been sucked into the warp in the space-time continuum located between the stairs and the fireplace. However, it would be more precise to say that it got lost in my being pregnant again and here I stand, singing Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes (Knees and Toes), banging a tambourine on my bottom and typing one-handed, whilst 22 month old Isla eats a toy croissant and sticks Fimble stickers to and in her ears, and 5 month old Hester Grace eats Isla's toothbrush. This is the only toy she will happily engage with at the moment because it is rough and rubbery and probably slightly dangerously too long for a baby to be sticking in its mouth, but delicious to chew on, which she does like a rabid dog. We live much of our lives like the opening sequences of a first aid video.

I had just emerged from the fug of a particularly virulent vomiting and diarrheoa bug last Christmas to discover I was suspiciously still sans painters and decorators, and having laughingly performed a pregnancy test, discovered I was in fact, not quite so hilariously, pregnant. Quite how that happened we don't know. I blame Julian but he holds me squarely responsible. My mother maintains ones body goes into baby overdrive after the first birth so she blames hormones, which I think the most sensible answer. The fact that she was also struck down with a lingering case of pregnancy a mere 5 months after the birth of My Brother/Baby #1 would suggest she is either a) right or b) being self-justificatory, if such a word exists. Still, I'm going with her theory, because otherwise it is, I must confess, a case of having thrown caution to the winds and having the winds fart it back in your face again.

Still, little Hester Grace is a treasure, if somewhat full of cough and cold, and her sister is very pleased with the addition to the family, give or take the odd grape-in-Hetty's-mouth incident. And after a pretty intensively gruelling first 5 months we are now at, I would say, a sort of equilibrium, all of us. Happy with our musical instruments and our toy foods.

****, *********, ***** and toes.