After my last (nasty, glad it's over, think I scraped a pass but won't find out til August) exam, I caught up with Amy and the Tindales who are at the tail end of various European adventures. We met in the British Musuem, Stu brought Sophs down after her nap and she entertained everyone - after racing up and down steps, squishing her face against various glass doors and windows, and generally being a bundle of giggly cuteness, she decided to lie on the floor of the Parthenon gallery where the Elgin marbles are and study the map of the museum, much to the delight of a tour group of Japanese visitors who cooed and photographed her in all her cuteness. Taryn is now off to the US, whilst Ian and Sue are heading back for Perth. It was really really lovely to amble around London and catch up with them all :).

One exam out the way, next and last exam for third year this Friday. I drove to the train station so I could cram on the train on the way into the exam, only to find that the station was closed and there were no south bound trains due to a person on the tracks. So, after manouvering out of my parking spot without reversing into the helicopter (air ambulance) parked/landed several bays down from me, I managed to hot foot it into London, calm myself down, and get to the exam on time. I can't say that I will miss taking exams when I finish this degree in May/June next year.

After exams I will just have my 4th year dissertation and hypnotherapy course work to focus on. So, not much then. I sometimes wonder how I manage to fit everything in!

You can get pretty close to the tigers at London Zoo, as long as you go on a cold, windy day, 2 hours from closing time! Our annual pass to the zoo is so fab and this was our 4th visit. It is wonderful being able to visit just a couple of animals each time, rather than feel you have to get your otherwise-very-expensive-admission money's worth from one visit. This visit was the lions and tigers, rainforest lookout (cool video here - click on the video if it doesn't automatically begin -capuchin and tamarind and some other monkeys, sloths, and a few bugs and a very large spider), gorillas, giraffes, zebras, and a few other animals along the way. Sophs was so cute running around the lookout making ooo-ooo-aaa-aaa monkey noises, unbelievably excited as only little children can be, leaving a wake of grins and smiles behind her...

It's been a long and tiring few weeks. Sophs is on hard core antibiotics and steroids for her undiagnosed-for-at-least-7-months sinus infection and is quite miserable, teary, and waking quite a lot sobbing in the night. Her recurrent ear infections were actually overflow from her incredibly gunk-filled and painful sinuses. How 5 different GPs missed this I don't know, don't get me started on it. We are on day 8 of antibiotics and the infection is still there, much less, but still there - the 5 day courses of antibiotics we were given for each ear infection would have done precisely sod all.

We had a spectacular several hour session in the early hours of Sunday morning, Sophs was in obvious pain and crying out 'no more no more' as she grabbed her ears. Was not easy for any of us and tears were shed all around. She currently can't equalize the pressure in her ears, so if fluid builds up she has extraordinary pain. We're hoping once the infection is gone, and the inflammation goes away, she will be able to equalize the pressure in her ears again. If she can't, it's going to be impossible to take her on a plane for 22 hours...

Crikey she's growing up fast. Sophs has very definite opinions on the clothes she wants to wear , and this outfit is styled by one Miss S Bell. I'm sure you'll be seeing hair lackys on arms next season on the catwalk, it's the next big thing.

I have exams at the end of May. No more procrastination, time to go study!

Tired at the end of a long day? I'm not tired! Make me jump like a frog!

We took Sophs to the zoo at the weekend and were regaled with roars when she saw the lions, ooo-ah-ah monkey noises, hssssssssing at the snakes, oinking at the pigs and opening and closing her mouth at the aquariums! We've bought a year's membership for unlimited entry as Sophs really loves looking at all the animals, and there is also a brand new fabulous kiddy section where Sophs splashed and crawled through tunnels to pop up in the middle of the meerket enclosure, and then onto the den where the aardvarks live. I foresee many happy hours spent there!

Am sitting here listening to my poorly girl yelling out 'Mummy, here?' and 'Mummy where are you' over the monitor? Trying to find the balance between meeting the emotional needs of your toddler without them thinking that whatever they ask for they will get immediately from their own personal Mummy and Daddy servants is a challenge at times. I'm sure I get it wrong on many occasions. But with bedtime back to being a bit (understatement) of a nightmare stretching out over more than an hour, with frequent night wakings, we are a little low on energy at the moment. It's not her fault, she has had yet another double whammy with painful infections in both ears, and now has a raging sore throat and is off food (still). She's going through a bit of an insecure patch and needs a lot of reassurance and cuddles at the moment, which we are more than happy to lavish on her during the day, at bedtime and when she wakes crying in pain at night, but trying to work out what is best for her crying tired little self when 'bedtime' goes on and on is a conundrum at times. Tonight we resisted her attempts to be picked up from the cot/leave the room/go into our bed/use the toilet and gently insisted she stay in her room in her cot. And to think we have to move her to a bed some time later this year. We'll probably spend two hours taking her back to bed every night!

Stu and I had a night out a few weekends ago and used our marvellous, wonderful, fabulous babysitter - Miss Danka from Sophia's nursery, in this photo. She is quite a find for us, we don't have to worry about putting Sophs to bed before we go out, and it's quite a relief to be heading out the front door as your toddler happily calls out 'Bye! See you soon!' before disappearing back into her room from where raucous giggling can soon be heard.