Spring is far-too-slowly-for-my-liking beginning to spring! Now if only we can have some sunshine, no mud, and temperatures hitting double figures...

My now recovered toddler doesn't quite go for the 'mummy is recovering from the flu' excuse to sloth about the house. So I caffeined up and we spent a great day out at Whipsnade zoo with Liz and Jones on Friday. Sophia's puddle magnet was set to maximum, and given it has been raining most of the week she had a marvellous time sploshing in the various puddles around the place. I love that Sophia cannot say hippopotamus, and comes out with either 'hippobottompusses' or 'hippomaspottums'. I usually avoid like the plague being the parent who uses their toddler as a performing monkey, but was guilty today of asking Sophia several times to tell various people what sort of animal Flora was (she was a pygmy hippo) just so I could grin inanely at the cuteness of her mispronunciation.

I am beginning to develop a lion obsession, given the number of photos I took of them. If I believed in star signs I'd say it's because I'm a Leo. But I don't. So I won't. Still, they are magnificent creatures, and I'm always glad to be the other side of the glass from them.

Mmmmmm, what's for dinner?

Just been doing yoga with my little wonder. Mercifully she was on day 6 of her flu and well enough to go to nursery. I took my first sick day since going self employed. I miss family even more acutely when I have
no one to help and I'm like this! Had some crazy dreams in my fevered state, and time to think a little (mostly about all the things I should be doing but wasn't) lots to think about as always. Life just flies by, days are weeks are months and I am determined to Live, carpe dieum, make the most of my time here and now. Will I ever stop wanting more??

It's a lovely age when Mummy knows everything, ok, most things, and Sophia aspires to walk in my shoes (quite literally, on occasion, with my boots going up to her behind), wear my glasses, brush my hair (whack my head with the brush whilst occasionally getting the bristles to make contact with my hair), be with and do whatever it is that I am doing, but very much with her own take on things 'NO Mummy, ME do it'. I know this age will end, but as with each preceding stage, I am confident that the next one will bring new wonders and joys with the new challenges, and that I will learn as much from my daughter as I teach her, probably even more.

We paint, we glitter, we glue, we cut, we paste, we sprinkle, we draw, and by the end there are little sparkly flowers and butterflies and glitter and pompoms and coloured matchsticks and cotton wool and shells and sand and stickers and paint and glue strewn from one end of the flat to the other, smeared on our faces, dripped on our clothes, stuck to our feet, splattered on the table, scattered on the floor, and we sit back, cuddle, and admire our handiwork and watch it dry with a feeling a satisfaction.

This sums up my mood.

Dancing with Daddy.

So weary. Handed my dissertation in yesterday. Now maybe my headache which has lasted 6 days can start to subside. Or maybe I'll need to get someone to undo the knots in my neck before that can happen. Going to have a much needed quiet week to recharge before picking up the next few essays that need to happen. I have lost sight of a few things the past little while. Need to try to find them again. Hopefully with rest, sleep, time to myself (hahahahahaaa what's that when you've got a 2 1/2 year old and no family nearby??) maybe I can find the space to take a deep breath and keep going, and to understand, and see the way forward.

In the meanwhile, Sophia and I will keep baking cupcakes and hope for the weather to start to warm up because I am so over wearing 6 layers and bulky coats every time we leave the house!