Party in Oxford; very nice to see j4 and addedentry and their many lovely guests, some of whom I did manage to remember meeting before. We drove over in james_r's car, so he could go on to see a friend in Abingdon, and managed to fit fivemack in as well.

Less good was Charles's travelsickness, causing a lengthy roadside delay next to the house of a very rude person and a rather ... fragrant ... car for the rest of the day. I am now rapidly revising any journey plans which involve me driving alone long-distance with Charles, because it's clear that I couldn't safely do that kind of roadside cleanup alone.

We had originally planned to leave early and hit a housewarming in Cambridge, but in the end it was just too good to leave until rather later. After doing the driving back, I was so tired I went straight to bed.

Today has been fairly mellow: a couple of laundry loads drying in the sun, getting Tony to open his post before the letter rack exploded, a fair bit of Freecycle-related faff which included a nice walk with Charles, and I gather the boys were playing with water pistols in the garden.

Charles having got the hang of soft toys, I dug out several we were given when he was much younger and put away when he didn't appreciate them. He now seems charmed, and is being very cute with them, especially when encouraged to give them rides in his toy buggy.

I did both digging and ballet on BH Monday, which caused me to feel rather creaky as I changed after the class.

On Wednesday I did some necessary shopping in town, equipping Charles for hot weather. His feet have grown again: he's now a 6F in the right foot and a 5.5G in the left. I followed the nice assistant's advice and got his sandals in size 6G; they have velcro straps so are pretty adjustable too. Also did a swift trip round Boots and got 3 pairs of shorts and 4 tshirts. Now he is equipped.

Once home I cooked a vast pot of veggy pasta sauce, as I'd promised to make a family meal for one of the local NCT members who is undergoing chemotherapy. Thanks to Jonny this was merely a bit rushed rather than complete panic, as he took Charles off while I chopped and cooked. I always forget how long chopping takes. I decanted the family's portions into chinese containers and just dropped them off in time by bike. The idea was to have the rest of the sauce for our own dinner but I was too hot to eat hot food so had a cold snack instead.

On Thursday I joined Ben et al for a picnic on Parker's Piece. Charles ran around a great deal, and ate a fair amount of my pizza and generally had a whale of a time before we cycled home just before sunset. Then I took him and Jonny to Tesco because I'd failed to get Sandra's goodbye present on Wednesday. We were able to get other useful stuff to justify the journey, and Charles decided that he is now old enough for the trolleys with little cars on the front (he even did up the strap himself!) Unfortunately they don't let you take those out of the store because "people leave them all over the place and they damage cars" and Charles expressed his opinion of being transferred to a standard trolley at the top of his voice - at least we were leaving.

Yesterday was Charles's last day with Sandra. Thanks to those friends who gave me advice with the reference (I went with ending 1, the explicit explanation about the smell of smoke). I turned up with present, hand-made card with photo of Charles on it, and reference, but then got all emotional, and just handed over the bag with it all in and explained I'm not good at goodbyes. Sandra said she wasn't either and we retreated to laughing at the cat being silly. We sometimes run into her at the shops and stuff, so it's not goodbye forever.

Then swimming in Impington, for which I bussed there and walked back. My hair dried on the walk back, and I drank several pints of water on arrival home. Only two more lessons now before I go back to work full-time and can't take him any more, but it looks as though I may be able to get someone to take over my last 5 lessons. I must make an effort to get contact details for some of the other mums before I finish, I will miss chatting with them.

Work continues rather busy and I find myself looking forward to the extra 2.5 hours per day I'll have in June, while at the same time trying to make the most of my remaining afternoons with Charles. The lovely weather helps.

I'm as usual way behind on photos, but James has some lovely ones from our expedition to Wimpole Hall a few weeks ago.

Last week, Charles and I collected Loïs from kids club clad head-to-toe in waterproofs and somewhat shivery. Yesterday we were in shorts and tshirts and had a leisurely sunny walk round to the shops afterward. Summer is here all of a sudden.

Yesterday evening they chased each other around the garden, in comedy slapstick style, with giggles and gleeful grins, while Jonny and I sat in comfort on the sofas and watched them through the open patio door. Later we ate indulgent pancakes and watched recorded CBeebies, and Charles clambered over both me and L repeatedly.

Loïs asked, on listening to Charles's energetic babble, "Are you sure he doesn't just speak a different language and we don't understand it?"

It's a delight having her round to play - I enjoy her conversation, Charles adores her, she seems to love playing with him, and most of the time I get a bit of a break while they entertain each other.

Saturday:

Went for my eye test, including trying out the new Grand Arcade bike park. Very brightly lit and concretey. Eyes will pass class 2 medical; I took along a printout of the requirements and asked the optician nicely to check. In general they are fine. My right eye is still slightly shortsighted and astigmatic, but will pass the class 2 requirements on its own. My left eye is above averagely good. The very friendly and smartly-dressed optician said he thought I would be unlikely to need glasses at all for at least 10-15 years, when I might start needing them for close reading. I should go back in 2 years for a checkup just to be sure.

Also on Saturday did hours of plant removal, and finally reached the point where I could lay down permeable membrane and cover it with woodchip. And then both Tony and Jonny said "why didn't you dig the soil out a bit first, it looks a bit messy". And I managed not to kill them for not suggesting that before I did all the heavy moving of woodchips.

I will experiment with digging out the next bed for comparison, see which looks best.

Sunday was more leisurely; I didn't even exercise bar walking to and from the pub, but I did catch up a bit on paperwork and manage to do my task-of-the-day from my 43 folders. I also took an idea from Bridget and moved my various pre-booked train and event tickets from "special box which may contain tickets" to "relevant place in 43 folders". I did lots of Freecycle moderation and correctly diagnosed why someone couldn't send messages.

Today I picked up freecycled Dr Who audiobook cds and emptied the garden of our accumulated bags of garden waste - it took two trips to Milton tipHousehold Waste Recycling Centre, which were somewhat tedious. I at least spotted the person heaving pushchairs into the green waste skip before covering them with my piles of garden waste, and alerted one of the staff, who promptly got in and hauled them out. I was nice and didn't point out the actual culprit though as he was still throwing kiddy stuff in the (correct) skip next door, it might well have been obvious.

I am trying to work up enthusiasm for digging out some soil. Ballet later.

We think we have a First Word - used regularly and consistently over a period of time for the same context. And it is ... *drum roll*

Oh-dear.

Dropped spoon? Oh-dear.
Spilt drink? Oh-dear.
Pegs thrown all over the living room floor, making a mess? Oh-dear. (And then he helps tidy up and gives himself a clap.)

"Dah-dee" is still the universal word-for-everything, said with many intonations and inflections. He also sometimes says "oh-woww" or "oh-yay" when something good happens/he does something he thinks deserves praise, but that's not nearly as consistent or clear as "Oh-dear". He chatters a lot at us, with many and varied syllables, but we haven't figured out much else yet.

Yesterday he demonstrated taking his pyjama top off at will, and putting it back on slightly less competently. He's having a good go at figuring out how to take trousers off too. I am planning to move his clothes into his reach and mine out of it (huge mummy-knickers on the toddler's head is only funny so many times).

I lost my temper with him today over something completely trivial and shouted at him; he stared at me in shock, threw what he was holding on the ground and shouted right back. Then he burst into tears. I thought "what am I teaching him here?" Then I dropped down to his level, cuddled him and apologised for shouting. When he calmed down, I got him playing with his toys again.

He waves goodbye a lot. Sometimes he waves goodbye to tell you to go away, or that he is about to leave.

I have a medical booked on 21st May, to get my JAR class 2 certificate.

I have an eye test booked tomorrow, as I'm well overdue. I think it unlikely, but if I do need corrected vision to meet the visual requirements, I want to know in advance so I can turn up ready to pass.

I am doing much better at daily exercise in the last week. I am still too overweight to be happy with the idea of running but long walks, gentle gardening and ballet are all good.

This is the only serious opportunity in my life so far to apply to be an astronaut. I am intending to make a serious application, the best I can do in the time available. I'm not obviously disqualified by the currently-available information on requirements. I can think of several reasons that might disqualify me, but I'm going to let ESA decide that rather than not try at all. If I actually make it through first-stage screening I will consider it a major success.

Mum came a narrow second in Leeds.

Two former housemates stood as 'paper candidates' for the Green party in Cambridge. Cat got 187 votes in Arbury (pushing the "English Democrats" candidate into 4th place). In Romsey, Keith came 5th of 5 with 189 votes in the city seat; but in the County Council by-election for the same ward, came 4th with 287, beating the Left List candidate. However, the Green party finally got their first Cambridge city council seat, which is presumably cause for much celebration. Elsewhere in Cambridge, the LibDems lost a seat to a "Labour and Co-operative Party" candidate, and Labour lost a seat to the Conservatives.

In my own ward of Castle, the ex-LibDem Independent councillor retained his seat. Personally, I found each piece of his literature strengthening my resolve to go vote LibDem instead, but 850 of my neighbours disagreed. I do have to admire him for managing to get out I think 5 pieces of paper through our door - the local LibDems did not manage so much.and ought to have a bigger team of volunteers. Mind you, they didn't ask me (not that I could have done much really). I feel a bit politically disengaged at the moment, with more than enough to keep me busy.

I spotted the name of a colleague of mine in the results list and confirmed it was him by finding his photo on the local Labour website. It caused a bit of chat in the office, anyway.

In March I lost 0.3kg. In April I bobbed up and down a little but have ended the month exactly the same as I started. Currently 95.4kg. Sleep was a complete lost cause for most of March and April, and exercise only intermittent. Both are looking a bit more back on track now, in that I am actually getting >6 hours straight most nights and actually getting >1 hour's gentle exercise most days in the last week. I eat a more balanced diet when I'm not perpetually tired.

Maybe May will be better, if I can keep up the good sleep+exercise work. I currently weigh about 6.5kg (1 stone) more than when I got pregnant with Charles, and have done for months, and it's a bit tedious.

I have managed to get to ballet two weeks in a row now, after the Easter break and then missing two weeks due to migraine and losing my wallet. I am finding it very rewarding for the endorphins alone, but in addition the names of steps are starting to gain meaning in my head, and I am no longer completely lost in the dance bit at the end. My muscles ache worst on Wednesday, 36-48 hours after the class. It's very like climbing in terms of its physical effects on me and its requirement to use my brain.

On Sunday I broke a tooth. I have been procrastinating getting a checkup for something like 15 months but I was really honestly going to get to it this week. Well, now I had to. I had an emergency checkup on Monday, with a temporary filling applied until my actual registered dentist is available (Thursday morning). Dr Qureshi went private while I was pregnant, but I still remain in awe of his wisdom-tooth-removal skills and cannot face finding a new unknown dentist in order to stay NHS. So the credit card will be creaking this month: Thursday's appointment is merely a "full check up and treatment discussion" so I'm mentally budgetting for at least two more appointments after that.

Sleep is going better. I have managed to get 6 straight hours several days now, in return for accepting that they'll take place in Charles's bed rather than mine.

Some TMI:
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Yesterday was 5 years since Tony and I started going out. Older, fatter, happier and still smitten.