"Abby's Intense Workout!"

One of my goals for this year was to lose 2 stone- 1 and 1/2 to get back to pre-pregnancy weight, and another 1/2 stone to where I really want to be (and was in my glory days, haha)

Anyway, I lost the first 1/2 slowly but without really trying from the beginning of the year, but I'd then plateud (sp?) for a while... boo hoo. I have always disliked exercise, and I HATED PE, but I had much rather do it than feel deprived by eating less food, SO, bearing that in mind, my brother-in-law Tom, is now my personal trainer! He did a degree in physio something (!) and is really good at it!! (Anyone else who is interested should get in contact with him too, he's amazing).

Last week we stayed with them in Basingstoke, and I told them of my fat woes and my dream to be thin... ahh... And Tom drew me up my own "Abby's Intense Workout" plan! I have started running on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and doing set exercises at home on Tuesdays, Thursdays and I've added Saturdays. There have been a couple of food rules too, but I am already slowly rebelling... oh dear. I will have to improve.

Last week I lost 2 lbs, just following the plan!!!!!!!! Hurrah, it is good to see progress so I can keep motivated. Tom is keeping me on this one for six weeks, and then changing it so I don't get bored. He's also made me think of rewards (non-food related... boo hoo again!) for when I have lost 1/2 a stone, 1 stone and a stone and 1/2. I thought carefully and they are pretty amazing! Here they are...

1/2 stone: Day trip of my choice
1 stone: Hot dress (for my sister Sarah's wedding??!)
1 and 1/2 stone: I might be allowed to have another baby one day, haha :)

Part of my homework is to keep my journal and blog updated on my progress, which is a very good idea so I feel responsible- and embarrassed telling everyone that I've given up! I know it's early days so I'm not a hero yet, but I've got to start somewhere, and now Oliver is nearly 4 months old, it's about time!

Annoyed with Politics

This week I watched George Osbourne read the new budget. I really enjoyed it- brilliant changes and ideas, hard but necessary cuts and so on. What got me, though, was how everyone else in the House reacted. The jeering, personal attacks, and other rude behaviour was frankly disgusting, and was a complete contradiction to policies of big society, or the new hope that citizens will give more money to charity etc. I know that this has been going on for years, but good politics should surely involve some courtesy? I was under the impression that we elect for MPs people we trust and respect, and who we can look to as role models.

Where on earth can Britain expect to go if even their leaders constantly belittle and pull down each other?? I am Pro-Coalition, but much more strongly anti-rudeness!

I wrote to my local MP to complain!! :)

Cousin bonding time: Oliver and Sebastian!

We had a great time staying with Jaz and Tom at the weekend. Oliver and Sebby smiled and giggled at each other (Olly Woo's first ever laugh!!!) and had a wonderful time. Here is some photographic evidence...

 

Sunny Saturday!

Last Saturday we went to the London Temple and spent some time with our families. It was a really gorgeous sunny day (at last!) and the Temple and grounds were particularly beautiful.

Olly Woo and Nanny T.

And the ducks too! I love this photo.

With Twigger Grandparents!!

The five of us together.

Then we went back to my sister Jaz, Tom and Sebby's house, and had a great time!!! More pictures of the babies together to follow...

What a wonderful day! :)

Last week we finally went to Cambridge's Botanical Gardens. I've been wanting to go for aaaaaages! Look at how amazing Ben is with our little Squeaker. I love to see the two of them together, Ben is such a lovely Daddy.

Oliver and the kiwi

A couple of lunches ago, we gave Olly Woo a couple of licks of a kiwi. This is the first thing he's tasted other than "milky" and he rather enjoyed it!

Our house is a mess

Oliver is a hobby that is very time consuming!!!!! It is wonderful, but I am learning to relax on the keeping the house straight... I'm sure if that's a good thing or not...

I have been critisized by one of my avid readers (!) that I don't have enough pictures, so here are two pictures I took this weekend. I have to confess that they were the neatest things I could take pictures of and not feel too embarrassed by. The rest of it is lots worse :S

One pile of clean washing of about four loads of washing that takes up half the kitchen table (I seem to spend my entire life washing and drying clothes and nappies, so that's why I can't put them away...)

The flowers are pretty though :)

Nappies! I really need to get a bigger nappy bin.

But this is because we have been doing lovely things together!! Recently we saw Ben's family, and Ben directed Uncle Dan how to change his nappy:

I went to the Ash Wednesday service at King's College. I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven- the music was glorious.

Oliver dressed up as a Tigger for the last time (it was starting to get a bit tight!):

A Day out at Wimpole

Ben is off on Mondays and this week we made the most of the gorgeous 10 degree C weather by going to a nearby National Trust house and gardens- Wimpole Estate. It was beautiful!

I loved how there were sheep grazing all over the place and we could walk right up to them- we had to ditch the buggy and go for the sling in the end because of all the sheep grids.

(I love how you can see the suns rays in this picture. Beautiful)

The Estate is so posh it even comes complete with it's own Gothic ruins!

Another good thing that happened on Monday is that Ben took the car to the garage to get someone to look at the exhaust. It turns out there isn't a hole at all... the noise I can smell is some kind of liquid (oil?) from the engine dripping on to the exhaust and burning!! Not good I know, but still better than having to replace the entire exhaust.

Hooray that the sun is finally out!

3 month old Olly Woo!

A Trip to the Museums

Cambridge is full of museums and the last couple of weeks we have enjoyed taking advantage of them. I can highly recommend them for anyone living in or visiting Cambridge.


We went to...

- The Fitwilliam Museum. The building itself is outrageously amazing! It was a bit of a pain with a buggy, but full of amazingly ancient Egyptian artefacts and modern art and marble EVERYWHERE. The staff were also very helpful, and were "only to happy" to clean up the pools of sick Oliver dribbled over my shoulder as we went around the exhibitions.

- The Whipple Museum of Science. We saw this as part of Cambridge's 'Museums and Twilight' event- we got to visit some of the best Museums in semi-dark, lit only by torches!!! It would have been brilliant if we had small children (but bigger than Olly Woo!) but even without them it was still fun. The museum is full of old scientific objects- telescopes, calculators, mathematical models etc... (is Oliver yawning in that picture??!)

- The Scott Polar Research Museum. Very, very interesting- all about the lives of people who live and explore the poles. It also contains the famous last journal entries and letters from Captain Scott before they died while looking for the South Pole. I found it really moving.

- The Sedgwick Museum (of Earth Sciences) is almost definately the best museum in Cambridge. It is stuffed full with fossils, minerals, bits of Darwin's notebooks and findings, casts and bones of dinosaurs... I love it!! We were so desperate to get Oliver interested in rocks that he fell asleep!

We love living in Caaaambridge!

Today's Music Time

A picture speaks a thousand words!

Music and Babies

I am now becoming rather scheduled in my Mummy-ing. A couple of weeks ago I decided that I needed to make a list of things to try to do with Oliver every day- or regularly- to help him develop and so we can have fun together. I have a rather impressive looking table that I drew up on Excel and we are doing pretty well!

One of these things is Music Time.

The other week I went to a 'Music and Babies' talk and we did lots of activities that encourage babies to enjoy music, and make them more likely to be interested in learning an instrument in a few years. (Right up my street!) The lady that ran it had us walking around the circle to music, tapping them on the back as we went, in time with the music. We sang silly little rhymes while we stroked the babies, played with them, and helped them to kick toys with bells and shakers in them, and so on. The best bit was when the lady got her violin out and played and sung along to a made-up, two-note tune. The effect was AMAZING: all the babies- and there must have been 15 of them- were absolutely silent, transfixed on the sound. Even the couple of babies who had been screaming their heads off before. I was so impressed- it wasn't even an interesting tune!! Really, really amazing. I then nearly died because I realised that I'd never played the viola to Olly Woo!!! I can't believe I'd never done it!

So from then on, we've held 'Music Time'. Sometimes I play to him, Ben and I are always making songs for him, and every day I listen to a couple of pieces of classical music with him, and dance him around the room. So far he's listened to lots of viola and cello concertos, English choral music, a bit of Jazz and a bit of Tango...

It's fun and we love it!