Rachel, Owen and Kathryn

Or: meditations on the ending of maternity leave. For the past 9 months my life has been exclusively focused on looking after another person, albeit a very small one; next week I must return to being an individual for 8 hours a day, a professional woman with control of several 6-figure budgets, various projects to contribute to, and responsibility for supporting many hundreds of students. Switching off from work and onto motherhood was ridiculously easy, I loved looking after Katy from the first moment, it seemed utterly natural to devote myself to her and I didn’t miss work for a second. Whole seasons have now gone by and my role as mother has changed in many ways as Katy herself has changed and grown, from a helpless babe to a vigorously crawling little person, full of energy and enthusiasm and a cheeky sense of humour. Reinventing myself again, this time as that strange hybrid beast the ‘working mum’ will not be so easy. I have certainly changed too, but have I grown at all?

When the ice-creamly gorgeous sunshine turned with bank holiday inevitability to rain Katy discovered the delights of sharing an umbrella - which then had to stay up even when the rain had gone! Her happy chatter currently features the syllables meh-meh and ba-ba, refined to a voiceless pa-pa, or elaborated to a very assertive a-BA-va! She has now said her Ca 'word' on another 2 occasions when a feline has come into view but hasn't produced this sound in any other context, so I really think that a) it is a word, and b) the cats are more exciting than her parents. She seems to prefer playing with the cats' toys to those I carefully select from the ELC for her anyway. Actually, since she started crawling she's less interested in toys than in the fun to be had with gadgets, be they DVD players or rain protection devices.

It's not in any of the weaning books bv that didn't stop Katy trying some veggie samosa - and she didn't spit it out either! Maybe she's getting more adventurous now a 3rd tooth has come through, with another on the way. Gross motor skills (and musical appreciation?) are also developing: we happened upon a string quartet rehearsing for the Chorlton arts festival, and she was so keen to get close she climbed up a step to attack the cello!

Comments invited for a caption to the pic above. I'll be honest and admit there's no prize this time.

And what shall we look at next? Chester zoo yesterday was completely different to my childhood memories of such things, a real multisensory experience with noisy pink flamingo, smelly elephant dung, bats flying past our faces, and real cheeky monkeys. This looks set to be a regular destination, but it's back to the grindstone today, with Owen doing at least two jobs a week for the next few weeks, and the exciting round of playgroup - food fiasco - afternoon walk - chaotic nights for me. Those lions snoozing blissfully in the spring sunshine did make me a tad jealous!

We think Katy's the fairest, of course, but then we're slightly biased. (Sorry about the light pollution from the window.)

Katy has graduated to a proper startrek style chair and is expanding her culinary repertoire while avoiding dairy. She loves tofu! Sleep is again difficult as more gnashers are emerging - I'm feeling like a wrung out dishcloth again. The dreaded return to work is now looming, but a neighbour has just assured me it's much easier than looking after a baby. Meantime Owen is practising looking after her once a week, and I'm practising NOT doing that - a very strange feeling!