Wombs & Women: Marking 45 Years of Freedom

The women haters are out in force today. Out on the streets, holding crappy little placards, and campaigning for women to lose control of their own bodies. For today, the anti-women movement is out to show their disgust that women have had control over their wombs for 45 years.

Things I Wish I'd Known

Life changes drastically when you have your first baby. In those first few weeks there’s not really much time or energy for thought processes so all the changes are made quickly and accepted. I was thinking today about how much life has changed since Ebony arrived, and all the things I do and see differently now. 

Make The Pain Stop Mummy

Words I would normally use to describe Ebony include smiley, happy, content, easy going and an absolute joy to be around.

Words I would use to describe Ebony with gum pain include the devil, screechy, pouty, angry, hateful and “I don’t know who she belongs to, I’ve never seen her before, Officer.”

Things I Do Not Know

I’m sat downstairs, it’s cold. I’m tired, but Ebony is asleep next to me and I don’t want to move her in case I wake her. She will do that pouty face that I love, but that quickly turns into redness and tears.

How To Be a Woman

I’ve just finished reading Caitlin Moran’s How To Be a Woman. If you haven’t read it, please do. It is one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time.

N.B. I should explain that the only other books I’ve read in the past year have been pregnancy books, and finding out you are potentially going to poo in front of a room of strangers is not that funny. Oh, and also I read To Kill a Mockingbird, which is also definitely not a comedy.

Time Flies

Ebony is three months old today. Three months.

Remember when three months seemed like forever? Three months could crawl by at a painfully slow pace. Like in Year 8, when I was waiting for the summer holidays to begin, it seemed like they would never come. Dull lesson after dull lesson stretched out like an eternity as I awaited my freedom. Or in Year 10, when me and my first boyfriend celebrated our ‘three month anniversary’, it felt like such an achievement, to be in such a long term relationship. The three month summer at university felt too long, especially the one I spent working at Gala Bingo. What a horrible place, and what horrible customers. Day after day of serving cheap pints to impoverished alcoholics, what a summer. I couldn’t wait for those three months to end so I could get back to student life. 

Sleep, or lack thereof

I am tired today, so tired in fact that it is 5pm and I have only just got downstairs. In fairness, I have been awake for a while, it’s just that I have spent the time wisely. Under a duvet, cuddling Ebony. Now I am bathed, dressed (in pyjamas admittedly) and have just finished breakfast. Laurie is sat next to me, also in pyjamas. Yes, we are one of those families where the Dad wears pyjamas, I’m sorry, but it’s the lesser of two evils (the other evil is not nudity as the foul-minded amongst you will have assumed, it is his night gown. There I’ve said it, my husband owns - no not owns, loves - a night gown. Like Wee Willy Winky). Clear that thought from your mind because it’s not relevant to this post. We’re all sat here in pyjamas at 5:30pm and this has been planned for days, because we’re all exhausted.

Why I won’t take my daughter to the zoo

Zoo Awareness Weekend starts on Friday, so I thought I’d write a post about why I won’t take Ebony to the zoo. I’m sure this might seem rather extremist to some of you but please, hear me out.

As my good friend Jo will tell you, trying to find nursery items that promote a respectful attitude towards animals is near impossible. All of the animal themed designs feature captive animals. It’s all farms, circuses and zoos. Circuses I find particularly odd because most parents nowadays wouldn’t even consider taking their child to see wild animals perform demeaning tricks, so why would they still choose to adorn the nursery with images of tigers on podiums and elephants in cages?

20 Reasons Why I Hate David Cameron

So, I was checking my blog analytics the other day and I discovered that five people (ok, that’s not loads, but still) have found my blog by searching for “reasons to hate David Cameron”. Obviously I felt very proud, because I do have quite a dislike for the man. And I am honoured to be high enough on the Google list that people actually click on my blog. But also, I felt sad that these people had been led to my blog only to discover one measly post on the subject. So I thought I should probably write another, after all, there are so many reasons.