Monday I spent the day like a zombie. Honestly - Jody hardly slept at all so I put her in her playpen, put CBeebies on and snoozed for half an hour twice. The shame! I wouldn't have been much cop without this approach though so it was worth it for all concerned (and luckily Jody is a good self-entertainer). We spent the morning in the park though, to be fair, so at least Jody got a bit of fresh air and playtime. I revelled in the fact that we could spend the day together on a Monday ... or I certainly would have if I wasn't so busy being a zombie.

The builder - can you believe - who was supposed to show up on Monday afternoon to make a fourth attempt at sealing our shower cubicle, didn't show up, didn't ring and didn't answer his mobile phone. If this guy wasn't so nice, he'd be top of my hate-list by now. Finally rang him today and learnt that 'he hasn't forgotten me,' but 'can't come in til Friday.' This will make it 13 weeks since the 3-week job first began. Sigh.

Tuesday we went to our first storytime at Marylebone Library and were a little disappointed. Essentially it was just some stand-in librarian bloke trying to hide his utter embarassement at having to sing nursery rhymes in front of 30-or-so mums and toddlers. Followed by a quick rendition of a couple of stories and that was it. My time was mostly spent attempting to stop Jody from taking every book off their shelves. With limited success. Still ... as winter approaches it's nice to have something social to do indoors of a Tuesday morning.

Today was our third swimming session - more unperturbed underwater swimming (I use both the terms 'unperturbed', and 'swimming' loosely). More utter exhaustion from both parties (where has my energy gone?) but then only enough of a nap from Jody for me to eat my lunch in front of Neighbours. Bang goes my afternoon nap then! Later spent a lovely couple of hours having coffee with Kate and Ava (21.5 months) though - in their enviably spacious Wigmore Street flat. Talked lots of mum and relocation talk while keeping an eye out for Jody smearing chocolate over their furniture. Then the (almost) daily trip to Waitrose and the usual evening routine.

Very little planned for tomorrow so lots of catching up with things I was aiming to have finished weeks ago. Might even get round to setting up my wireless stuff if I'm truly dedicated (or not napping!).

Welcome back Dave and Octavia from what sounds like a variable honeymoon. Look forward to hearing just how variable it was (surely they can't beat cockroaches on the yacht?)

Well I finally managed to finish cleaning the bedroom - though not til Saturday morning. And I did take Jody swimming and she doesn't seem any the worse for it. She loved it again and this time fell asleep in the backpack on the way back (she's been objecting so strongly to the buggy recently, that I've been giving myself a tantrum break by lugging her around in the backpack). Unfortunately when she got back home she awoke when I was moving her into bed, and then refused to go to sleep until about 1:45, but at least she then slept til 4:20 and enabled me to make good headway on the bedroom.

Thursday we went up to Kenwood House to meet Kate and Jack (19 mths). We had a lovely walk down to the lake and fed the ducks (Jody was very good at throwing mouthfulls of bread over the fence, but also decided to eat every other one), and then back to the café for cake and coffee. It was raining when we got out, and Jack was asleep so we called it a day and decided to meet next time with Sophie and Florence (6 mths) too. Very enjoyable morning though, and Jody was exhausted enough again to sleep when we got home, even though she'd done quite a lot of sleeping in the car already.

Friday was our normal toddler group. Our friend Sonia had given birth to baby Olivia the previous Sunday so her husband Martin brought Caitlin (14 mths) to the group. Plenty of activities for Jody as usual (including running into another toddler and bumping heads), and the weekly caffienated coffee for me which makes me very jittery all afternoon. In fact I was feeling cold and ill once we got home so I retired to bed for an unsuccessful nap.

Saturday morning my mum turned up at about 11 for her 24-hour babysitting stint. We had to leave 45 minutes later for Norfolk so left comprehensive instructions and a very very sleepy baby. We spent an hour getting through London but then made it to our hotel early and resisted snoozing until we left for the 4 o'clock wedding. It was a chilly day but in every other way a fantastic event. Masses of guests - over 200 - and not that many that we knew, but a lovely dinner (cumberland sausages and mash), phenomenal speeches, and just a really enjoyable happy atmosphere. Fab. We got back to our hotel at around 12:30 and slept in a bed that was about a foot too short (with annoying foot board) and woke to a shower in which we couldn't even stand up (are Norfolkians short or something?), but we were comfortable enough and got back home after an easy drive at about 11am. In fact the whole 24 hours was very enjoyable and extremely painless considering it was the first time we've left Jody overnight. It helped that she was in her own home and that I trust my mum more than anyone to look after her, but even so I didn't worry about her once. It also made for a more enjoyable evening to be able to kick back without Jody, much as we love taking her with us. I think we shall be doing more of that in the future, grandparents allowing!

So now - as always after post-10pm evenings - I am truly knackered and not at all ready for the week ahead. This week will be momentous in that it's the first in 2 months that I will be with Jody on Monday and Tuesday. We're celebrating by going to storytime at the local library on Tuesday morning but have few plans as yet for tomorrow. In fact after a very busy summer - including 5 weddings - we have very little planned over the coming weeks at all. I'm sure we'll focus for a while on house renovations, and I'm sure other things will crop up, but in the meantime it's quite nice to think we might be able to relax a bit. Maybe!

A few little things done and dusted.

I've found a gym with a creche. In fact it's the Holmes Place up in Cricklewood which looks to be the best bet for creche and pool facilities. Of course it'll mean a 20 minute drive each way, but I'm only aiming to go a couple of times a week (I know, hardly worth it is it!) and they have free parking so it's not going to be too bad. Quite looking forward to joining gym culture again actually - it's been way too long.

One of our sofas is being picked up today thanks to organisation by my dad and contacts. The idea is that loose covers get made for both sofas in fabric we chose some time ago that will fit in better with our interiors than pink and cream stripes. Don't know how long we'll be with single sofa but can't complain as it gives Jody a nice new lot of space to play around in.

Finally cracking on with the bedroom too, which is rather overdue. It's a big job though and so far it's looking worse than when I started. Lets hope I manage to finish it today.

It's Jody's last day at nursery today. I wish I could see inside her mind to see whether she understands this, and what she feels about it. Not that it matters I suppose, because I still feel it's the right decision. I've grown quite fond of some of her carers though - particularly Liz - and will almost miss them myself from now on! I get to join in with her leaving party this afternoon though, so from 4pm I'll be eating cake and singing and dancing with 5 under-twos! Jealous aren't ya!

Yesterday I had a very enjoyable day with Camilla in Windsor. A few weeks ago I succumbed to the sales tactics of some fella in Marylebone High Street (very unknown for me). He was flogging promotional vouchers for a local hair salon and a couple of beauty clinics. You basically got £250 worth of treatment for £50 which I was very sceptical about until Kate (Ava's mum) walked past me and said "I bought one of those - they're fab!" So I signed myself and Camilla up. Anyway, yesterday was the first of our sessions and entailed strange massage-treatment thingy and a facial at Sharmi Joseph. I don't usually go in for that sort of thing (the haircut was the draw for me) and actually I found the facial very tedious. I was lying in quite a cold room though, and the therapist didn't tell me that it would be 15 minutes waiting for my face mask to dry. So I lay there with my belt digging into me thinking of all the productive things I could have been doing. And then I found that the facial just made me more spotty than in the first place. I have regained pimply teenage status. Great.

Still ... we had a lovely lunch at Carluccio's and then drowsily walked around shops buying nothing more than some new onesies for Jody. In fact I almost struggled to stay awake as the day wore on, partly due to the previous 2 sleepless nights (Jody coughing) ... I even had to have a nap when I got back home at 3:15 and could barely rouse myself to go and fetch Jody from nursery at 5:30. Maybe the glass of red wine at lunch was a bad idea after all!

Anyway the next set of pampering will occur at the end of October when we'll be doing haircuts in the morning and some general stuff in the afternoon along with - get this - a photo shoot! If it wasn't for the fact that there will be two of us, I would have gracefully ducked out of that last session, but as it is I think it'll just be a laugh. Can't say no to the complementary beverages anyway, can we!?

Sinclair and Folly's wedding this weekend, which'll be good. It'll actually be the first time I leave Jody overnight, but my mum will be the babysitter and Jody will be in her own bed so I'm totally comfortable with the idea. We should be back from Norfolk in the late morning on Sunday, so it's not going to be difficult for anyone concerned.

I'm wondering whether to take Jody swimming tomorrow. She's stopped her puking phase, but still has a bit of a chesty cough and runny nose. But on the other hand she loves swimming and the pool is very warm so I think I'm erring on the side of yes. We'll see how she is later.

So less of this procrastinating blogging ... back to bedroom cleanage. Bleurgh.

Bought Jody some wellies today. Very cute. Red with pink hearts all over them. Don't let me catch anyone calling her a boy in those! As soon as I got them out of the bag she started saying 'shoe'. She knows her stuff this one!

She's sick again though. Yesterday she wouldn't really go down for a nap and cried a lot. I was sitting her down for her afternoon milk and she just threw up all over the place. She'd hardly eaten anything but she certainly had an empty stomach after that. I rang Kate to postpone our coffee date and took Jody for some fresh air (and clothes shopping in Mothercare - very therapeutic!) and she seemed to liven up a bit, although rather unusually didn't really want to get up and run around.

She hasn't eaten much the last 24 hours though, and today she threw up again at breakfast and again mid-afternoon. She's just not keeping anything down at all which is a real shame. We think it all stems from another cold she's contracted which seems to come with rather a lot of phlegm. Hopefully the Tixylix will ease the symptoms in the next couple of days. It seems that she's been ill more than well this year. The alternative is that it's her measles jab kicking in (they said it might affect her 10 days later), but I don't feel the cough can be related so I'm sticking with the new bug theory. Either way she'll get over it soon enough I suppose.

Makes it a shame to take her out into the cold at Stoneleigh though, even to show off her new wellies. We'll just have to wrap her up in every jumper she owns to make sure she doesn't get worse. And feed her treats all day. I feel some rotten spoilage coming on.

I'm tired myself today. Been running twice the last couple of days and it's wiped me out. I'm supposed to be enthusiastically cleaning our bedroom but to be honest I can't face it. I've done the ensuite so Roj can set to with his paintbrush, but the bedroom will just have to wait until my motivation returns. Maybe tomorrow.

Neglected to mention a very large Happy 30th Birthday to Yi Shun last Wednesday too. I emailed her a silly poem and there's a few little things to be posted next week. Sounds like she had a fantastic time but I do wish I'd been there.

Also have bought a couple of domain names recently. I've finally decided on a name for a company if I were ever to create one (right now that idea is taking a holiday until I deem it appropriate to put Jody back into nursery). I confess that the name was actually suggested by my mum (my mum and dad have been amazingly prolific in their suggestions), and it's just one that's stuck with me (as well as one that's available, which is obviously a priority).

And the other is jodytaylor.com which couldn't go without getting snaffled up, even if it is likely to lie dormant for a while. Couldn't believe it was available in the first place really.

So with that bit of insignificant news I'll go pack for Stoneleigh. Wellies required all round, apparently.

I thought Jody had escaped, but when I picked her up on Tuesday, I was told there had been two 'incidents' that day, both involving another kid biting her. In fact she had toothmarks on her eyebrow and her arm to prove it. Luckily she managed to scratch the face of the offending child, so she got her own back!

Anyway ... the worst of it was that last night she bit my arm really hard - broke the skin even through my jumper and a t-shirt. It's obviously just something she's testing out but I was really hoping she'd forget about it. Now I just have to hope that it doesn't become a habit as it's a pretty unsociable (though common) one. Gah.

She's only got two days left at nursery now. Next Monday/Tuesday. I'm almost torn over taking her out - it's quite obvious that she enjoys it and that they spend a lot of time entertaining and teaching her (even though I have slight reservations because of how clingy she gets when I go and pick her up). I feel almost arrogant though, to think that she's better off with me 7 days a week (I must get pretty boring!). Still, financially it makes more sense to take her out and my initial reservations about over-discipline still stand. I think she'll be much better suited to nursery when she's about 2, and to that end I am researching a place much nearer home which will allow her in for just 3 mornings a week. Hopefully I can get her in there at around the beginning of April next year. We'll see, anyway.

Swimming yesterday was absolutely brilliant. This time I had the foresight to take enough sandwiches to keep her happy afterwards when I got changed, so there was no racing around the changing rooms after her. The lesson itself was a great improvement too - and it seems we have one-to-one tuition. There are supposed to be two concurrent classes, but she's the only one of her age-group so they merged them last week (hence the much older kids). But we still have our own instructor there, who takes us to one side for personal tuition when the big kids class gets too advanced. We went underwater three times in total (after a bit of splashing preparation) and Jody took it totally in her stride - not even inhaling any water. Next stop Olympics!!

I still haven't finished cleaning the flat. I stalled on our bedroom and ensuite and instead turned my hand to painting Jody's bedroom white. It looks rather stark now but a few bits of decor should sort that out. At least it matches the new curtains now. Don't want to paint the woodwork though until we're away for a few days so we can escape the fumes, so will be waiting on that one at least until the weekend. These things take so much time!

Toddler group again tomorrow, then coffee with mum Kate and 3-year-old Ava in the afternoon (including picking Kate's brains on aforementioned nursery). Household chores aplenty on Saturday then off to Stoneleigh in the evening to support Zoe's national dressage championship attempts.

Things are looking up. My (first) hard drive arrived this morning and so far it looks like the Windows XP install is going nicely. My second hard drive wasn't in stock so I'll have to reassess my options once I get online again. My firewall also arrived last week so hopefully I'll be able to have that up and running by this afternoon too.

Meanwhile I'm also painting Jody's room and varnishing the loo seats (what sort of company supplies unfinished loo seats?) and Roj is painting our bathrooms (not right now, of course, since he's at work). The flat is totally spotless bar our bedroom and ensuite which I'm embarking on tomorrow while Jody's in nursery. So all in all there's plenty to be positive about.

Besides which I had a fab weekend. Friday night Roj decided in his wisdom to finish the book he was reading so he was up til nearly 2am. Unfortunately his final avid page-turnings woke me up and as I couldn't go back to sleep I got up to varnish the aforementioned loo seats. Yes they need 3 coats - which is 6 sessions with 4 hours inbetween. So Saturday morning we were both quite tired, added to which Jody's waking time has recently moved from a convenient 7 to an inhuman 6. Still ... I spent much of the morning cleaning up and then went into town to find a slightly warmer top for the afternoon's wedding, since the weather turned suddenly autumnal.

Unfortunately I got into town at 11:30, an hour and a half later than planned, and my parents were due at 12:30. I thought this was fine, as I only intended a foray to House of Fraser (my new favourite clothes shopping venue, due to its limited size, reasonable selection and proximity to home). Unfortunately I had been there for 10 minutes and selected a couple of items to try before a rude voice announced itself over the tanoy: "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a security announcement. For your safety please leave the store by the nearest available exit. Do not use lifts or escalators." Dammit! I could do nothing but follow instructions along with the other billion people who were meandering around. I decided I'd pop into the shops that surrounded House of Fraser in the hope that I'd be close by when they re-opened, but half an hour later there was still no joy so I ventured to the Oxford Circus area. It was already 12:20 by the time I got back to House of Fraser and found it open, and 12:45 before I found myself at the till paying for my new top. So I was going to be half an hour late for my parents (luckily Roj and Jody had been charged with their entertainment) and had already wasted more than an hour. Not a good start.

Still, we had a nice (Pret a Manger) lunch back at the flat with my parents who were as usual delighted to be in the presence of their granddaughter. And then set about to get ready for the wedding.

As usual I'd abandoned my watch so was running at least 20 minutes late by the time we left, but a quick taxi ride down to Hyde Park Corner meant we still arrived with minutes to spare for an absolutely fab evening celebrating with Dave and Octavia plus a whole host of fab mostly ex-Bluewave people who I enjoyed catching up with enormously. The venue was gorgeous and the food was fab, Jon was a brilliant best-man and all in all, we had a really really good time which was doubly relaxing for the fact that Jody was happily sleeping at home. I was most impressed!

We left comparatively early and were asleep soon after midnight but Jody woke again at 6 and the next day I was completely wiped out. In fact 36 hours later I'm still wiped out. I feel like such an old granny! On Sunday though, my dad took me to a trade furniture warehouse to pick up a new coffee table and some other housey things. It took a little longer than anticipated and they didn't have the stuff I'd picked out from the catalogue, but the table we ended up with is pretty cool (and will be much better when our sofas are re-covered), and at about a quarter the retail price we aren't going to complain!

We headed off to Giraffe for lunch and my parents left for Shropshire in the mid-afternoon. Jody was asleep at the time, but I decided to wake her up by going for a nap myself, at which point she woke abruptly in a horrible mood and whinged for most of the rest of the afternoon! Typical! Once she was awake we finally managed to put her cot back together again - after 10 weeks literally gathering dust. She's so used to being in her travel cot that last night was actually quite disrupted, but hopefully she'll get back into the acres of space of her proper cot, and the new curtains (that I made back in July!) that actually make a reasonable attempt at cutting out light in the mornings. We are definitely hoping to coax her back into her 7am wake-up time.

Meanwhile she's saying 'daddy' all the time now. She doesn't discern between parents though, so uses daddy for either of us! One day she'll say 'mummy' ... I'm almost sure! She also points correctly at 'Jody's tummy', 'Jody's eyes', 'Jody's nose', 'Jody's mouth', as well as adding to her haphazard vocabulary. Not bad going for 15 months!

This week isn't going to be as busy as last I think. Cleaning and painting today and tomorrow, then swimming again on Wednesday. Walk in the park with friends Rachel and Amy on Thursday, then toddler group on Friday (which was absolutely fab last week). At the weekend we're off to Stoneleigh to watch Zoe in the national championships but otherwise it's just a quiet week ahead. Phew!

I actually had to reinstall Windows on my laptop again. It was running at snail's pace after infestation by several nasty viruses. I couldn't connect for more than a few minutes at a time so trying to install all the Windows and Anti-Virus updates just wasn't an option. I'm not going to connect now until after I've fitted the new firewall which should arrive tomorrow. Otherwise I'll be faced with the same issues.

The builders have gone in theory (last day Monday), but I turned the shower on yesterday and it's still flooding the bathroom so we need to get them back in to re-seal the thing. How they can be so incompetent when they're not being paid by the hour I don't know. Everything else seems to be in order though (barring some annoying shortcuts - but I really shouldn't be so pedantic), so I'm quite hopeful that this should be it. Then we just have to paint the rooms, find mirrors, install hooks and towel rails and clear up. Maybe finished by the end of the year then.

On the bright side my phone arrived today at last! It was a day late which meant I wasted much of yesterday (which I would have spent sanding, if I wasn't listening out for the doorbell), but I finished L-Shaped Room (so dated, but still brilliantly written) which is only the second book I've read in two years, and something I don't consider a waste.

Jody had her measles jab on Monday which went much as expected. I decided not to put her into nursery at all so we walked over to Holborn for 11:45 via a nearby playground (amazing place - triple the size of any I'm used to and equipped with all the gear) which Jody was very loathe to leave. The jab itself was quick and painless - or so Jody made it seem. I had to hang around for 15 minutes to make sure she didn't have an allergic reaction so we went to a coffee place next door but Jody just screamed non-stop at me (how dare I not offer her half of my almond croissant?) and made all heads turn (regardless of distractions) so I did the decent thing and got out. In fact she then screamed for the next hour walking back and only stopped when she fell asleep just before Wimpole Street. Quite tiring actually. Especially on the ears.

After a good sleep though, she woke in a much better mood and was demonstrably testing her vocabulary with newly learnt 'baby' (pointing at pic of baby on nappy packet) and 'poon' (spoon). Very cute.

Today we went for our first swimming lesson at the Queen Mother Sports Centre in Victoria. I got there way too early so went for a little meander before going in. Jody was very well behaved until we got poolside at which point all she wanted, understandably, was to get in the water. Unfortunately we had to wait for the previous class to finish, which is difficult to explain to a one-year-old. So I was faced with a screaming tot (so angry she hit her head on the floor) and had to go in the water at the far end of the pool to placate her. She generally enjoyed the lesson but had some effective I-hate-mummy screaming fits throughout. She was by far the youngest (of 4) though, so I hope everyone made exceptions. Very unusual for me to be in the pitied mum position, in charge of a tantrumming youngster. Jody is usually the proverbial angel in comparison to her peers. Ah well. Times change.

In fact her little temper has persuaded me not to risk her at Dave's wedding on Saturday so my parents will have to take charge early afternoon. I'm sure she'll behave beautifully for them, so no-one's really losing out.

So tomorrow my firewall arrives, hopefully enabling me to set up my laptop. Very much looking forward to get it all sorted out so I can stop all this whingeing!

Snowdon was fab. It wasn't nearly as hard as I expected - only taking 2 hours on the long touristy route, but it was hard enough to ensure a reasonable workout and a good appetite. The only problem was the hour it took to get down in the train, and the fact that Jody - who had by that point been cooped up for the last 4 hours - got very hyperactive. Luckily the other people in our partition were quite tolerant.

The rest of the week was a bit dull by comparison. Roj and I both went for runs around Abersoch but the weather gradually deteriorated and we got a bit bored of reading papers and doing nothing. Jody got better though, which was a very positive development.

We left for Shropshire after Saturday lunch and endured 2 hours of screaming Jody who refused to sleep in the carseat (it is a myth that babies like car travel). We then spent an enjoyable 24 hours at the mother-in-law's, watching Hidalgo (how cliché?), Bridget Jones' Diary and doing a bit more sitting around reading. Got back to London last night to find the bathrooms nearly complete - just one wall of grouting and the radiator to replace and that's it. Hoping that the boss man will come through for me and send them in today to finish, but at the very latest it should be tomorrow. We've all heard that before though haven't we?

Meanwhile I've ordered my integrated wireless router and firewall to ensure virus-free computer operation going forward. I'm also researching a replacement hard disk but don't even know where to start with that. Might end up bailing out and just buying a new PC. Which seems somewhat pointless.

I've kept Jody out of nursery today since she's got her jab at 11:45 and the logistics of juggling her between nursery/surgery/nursery weren't worthwhile. I'll take her to the park in a minute then on to the surgery from there.

We've got our first swimming lesson on Wednesday too, which is very exciting. It's down at Victoria so will involve an annoying tube trip either way, but it should be worth it. I just hope Jody enjoys it. Toddler group starts again (I think) on Friday too. Very exciting to think of going back there, particularly as Jody's time at nursery is drawing to a close and she needs the social interaction. Lots of mums to catch up with too.

And then Saturday is the long-awaited wedding of Dave and Octavia near Hyde Park. Since I found out Jody would be the only toddler there, my parents have kindly agreed to come to London for the weekend to babysit her for at least part of the event so that we can have some time to relax. Which is very kind of them especially considering the fact my mum will be doing exactly the same thing 2 weeks later!

So this week is already looking quite busy. I'm trying to meet up with old colleague and toddler mum Kate, but as Thursdays are currently my only free mornings it's proving quite hard to coordinate. Who ever thought that being a mum kept you so busy!