Lights, Camera, Action Action Action!

Well, what a month it’s been! I’ve been going into work every so often to catch up with the latest goings on while I’m on maternity leave and, I swear, every time I pick up some nasty germs courtesy of that blooming air conditioning in an open plan office… this time, I ended up with the dreaded flu which I subsequently shared with hubby and Laila when I came home. We all therefore spent the entire December ill with the flu (hence the lack of blogging too)! I managed to submit my December QuinnyCasters assignment from my sick bed, albeit a little late, as I was determined to complete it – better late than never!

So here it is – Episode 3: a review of the buggy so far…

Falling ill last month was an apt end to 2010, as it was generally a tough year. Ironically, the pregnancy side of it was pretty easy; the hard part has been living through our ludicrously large scale house renovation. A friend of mine introduced me to Chinese astrology and it struck a chord, as so many of my apparent traits rang true with me. 2010 was the year of the Tiger – exciting yet turbulent… however, 2011 – the year of the Rabbit – is forecasted to be a particularly inspirational year for me, when my creative work will be highly regarded. Good news as it’s almost time for the interior design!

This year kicked off with a fantastic start – a photoshoot with Tesco for their magazine and website. A lovely journalist, Liz, interviewed me and two other models, Claire (founder of ‘Out of Love’) and Lisa (founder of ‘Snug Baby’), about how we run the finances in our respective households. We went to a beautiful £4m house in London for the shoot and filming and spent the day having hair, makeup, and wardrobe done, followed by recording, photographs and interviews. The experience was nothing short of a-maz-ing. I *loved* it.

Filming location in London

The only bit I didn’t love really surprised me as it was the part I was most looking forward to – being done up! I can only suspect that the makeup girl hadn’t worked with Indian colouring before as, by the time she finished with me, I looked like I was ready for bed! She straightened my already straight hair, then hairsprayed it until it looked flat and greasy, and somehow did my makeup to make me look like I had no eyelashes?! Why?! Even my nail varnish was removed and replaced with a nude colour... The stylist was the icing on the cake when he dressed me in something I’d see on a, let’s say, more “mature” lady. Whilst I appreciate it the brief was “Spring/Summer”, I would’ve thought they’d still want to match the wardrobe to the model and her personality… or not as the case may be!

I was in two minds about sharing my concerns as didn’t want to appear diva-esque, but I just didn’t feel remotely myself. Luckily, Tesco’s art director Iona was WONDERFUL. I told her how my “look” was so not me and she was more than happy for me to change whatever I wanted to. Being on location made my capacity to do this myself quite limited but we asked the makeup girl to put some curls in my hair to add my original volume back in. Put it this way, she spent about 10 minutes putting some waves in then bizarrely brushed them out again! I’m therefore expecting my hair to look like I was dragged through a hedge backwards. Wardrobe-wise, they had an alternative top for me to wear, which was a better colour, but would have made a great tent.

Beyonce Knowles knows how to do it!

Despite all of the above, the real nitty gritty of the day – recording the content, was SO MUCH FUN!!! Ian, the photographer, was a great guy, as was his crew. Jo, who looks after the online content was an absolute delight, and she gave us some great questions to spark the debate. We got some great feedback from Tesco too; we were apparently as good as actresses!  What a compliment! What did I learn from the experience? Come prepared with your own backup makeup and clothes, then the rest is easy!

Back home, Project Laila is coming along nicely! She’s developing in front of my very eyes and has just been moved up to intermediate level in her Water Babies classes half way through the term, so she’s definitely a true ‘water baby’! She can almost ‘talk’ now, sounding like she’s actually making read words and sentences (I still love it every time she says Mamma!). By far my favourite thing she does though is laughing. This girl spends most of her life smiling and laughing! It’s THE most satisfying and rewarding part of being a Mummy so far. I have to add that, when she climbed the whole flight of stairs at my Aunty’s last week, it was one of my proudest moments!

Eating out is also so much easier now that Laila's on solids. I've discovered that Wagamamas is a great place to eat with a bubba - Laila absolutely loved both the food AND the funky little seat they have hanging off the end of the table - so cute! Staff are always lovely and friendly and, most importantly, I can eat without balancing baby on knee - bonus! Who said having a baby was difficult! Famous last words...?

Miss Independent...

I haven’t blogged for a while and that’s testament to me getting more of my life back. Last weekend, I went to my good friend Ushi’s 30^th birthday bash in Reading, and rediscovered what it was like to have girlie fun with great friends and my sister. It was just like old times!

Mummy and Daddy have also rekindled our ‘couple time’ together! There’s definitely merit in date nights and, after testing the waters logistically, we’ve committed to having one a week and it feels great!

The first post-Laila date night was at a Greek restaurant called Entelia and it proved a fantastic choice – impeccable service, romantic atmosphere and… no Laila! Entelia say that “the sharing of food and conversation is a human ritual as old as time. Meze is the ultimate expression of this passion. In the old times in Greece, the offer of numerous small selected dishes was a sign of generous hospitality” - right up our street!

We had a meze feast of halloumi, tiger prawns in white wine, calamari, manitaria fournou, slow cooked pork in brandy, and oven baked red peppers stuffed with feta cheese: A-MA-ZING! Not only was it delicious, but it was so good to rediscover why we fell in love before our little Laila came along. It was also nice to put the cooking utensils away for the night and let someone else sweat it out in the kitchen!

Second time around we went to Bella Italia and tried taking Laila with us. Ok, many lessons were learnt this time! Next time she accompanies us, I’ll also take baby snacks so Laila doesn’t gaze longingly at our non-baby-friendly seasoned food, licking her lips, along with her Bumbo seat and tray to protect her from table germs (and protect the table from Laila!). Miss Independent wants to feed herself lately, especially while we’re eating, and will tirelessly reach for her spoon while she's being fed. She has her own baby spoon which naturally makes an awful mess when in her hands, but Boots do some great plastic bibs which mean I don’t have to wash her fancy ones after each and every use! Much to the entertainment of other diners, I think Laila’s auditioning for her own talk show these days, and she really believes she’s making perfect sense judging by the expression on her face. She’s starting to use consonants now too; the oohs and ahs are suddenly baba and meme. All I keep thinking is "say mamma first, say mamma first”!

Back at home, Laila’s more mobile than ever. Crawling on all fours and attempting to climb onto her legs to walk!

We’ve noticed she can now pass an object from one hand to the other, with a particular affinity to remote controls… It’s obvious that the concept of object permanence is also firmly engrained in her mind since she would once think her Tigger was gone forever when it dropped on the floor and out of her sight, but Laila’s no longer as easily duped. It seems to be great fun, however, to see how many times we can catapult toys over the bed and see how many times Mummy will pick them up and pass them back! Although this is because babies are fascinated by cause and effect, it feels like she’s just testing me! She has one particular toy which seems to indulge her newfound interest in science though – a push-button toy which spins a sphere to reveal different faces. That keeps her busy for at least, well, 120 seconds.

One thing which could keep her entertained for hours is water. After going for a splash in the local pool since Laila was 3 months old, we started swimming lessons with WaterBabies last week, to add more structure to her learning. Once I’d got over the shock of how much they cost (!), I couldn’t wait to get started. The classes are small and intimate, and I’ve met some lovely more like-minded mummies already, as opposed to some of the ones I met at antenatal classes!

In terms of entertaining ME and keeping the old creative juices flowing, I’ve spent the last month recording snippets of Laila in her Quinny Zapp Xtra for our second QuinnyCasters assignment. When I saw the brief, I was raring to go straight away – capturing your child having fun in their Zapp Xtra. Here’s Episode 2 of our QuinnyCasters journey and, when you get over the cringing, hopefully you’ll sense how much fun it was to film!

'Xtra' special celebrations come in threes...

Up until now, my birthdays have been all about me, myself and I. I'd never have imagined that sharing the focus of my big day with anyone else could make it even more special... until Laila arrived. I spent the weekend at my parents' place in Bath and all my family came over to celebrate my birthday (today), Laila's 6 month birthday (Sunday) and Dad's 60th (last month) - a triple celebration! Dad even cracked open the bottle of Johnnie Walker's finest 'blue label' whiskey we gave him for for his 60th; it must have been a special occasion since each shot of that stuff alone is worth about £20!



Laila was, of course, the centre of attention - and she loved it! She may look like Daddy, but we can certainly see Mummy traits emerging! I think we also discovered a performer in her; we were all sat in the lounge and I laid her down on the rug to show everyone her trademark caterpillar move as her current preferred mode of mobility is on her back. Whilst in the spotlight, Laila decided to roll over for extra brownie points instead, which was met with a rapturous round of applause from everyone - she took great delight in lapping up the praise and rewarded her audience with a ginormous smile that could light up a city!



Laila on the snooker table with her Johnnie Walker

Last week I also found out that I'd been selected out of 3,000 to be one of 25 Quinny Casters in the UK! This means that I'll be testing out new Quinny products before they're introduced to the market, and share my experiences with other mums and dads. You can see updates on what I'm up to all over the wonderful world of the inter-web:

* My QuinnyCaster profile page

* My twitter page

* My facebook profile
* The QuinnyCaster facebook group
* My YouTube videos (via QuinnyCaster)

The first product which Quinny will be introducing in this way is the Quinny Zapp Xtra (made MFM's hottest buggies of 2011 list!), which is especially perfect for Laila and I since our current pushchair is the Mamas & Papas sport 3-wheeler which has been amazing so far, except for the fact that I struggle with it when I'm on my own (it's like the Range Rover of pushchairs). The Zapp Xtra was designed after Quinny had feedback about the regular Quinny Zapp which didn't have a recline feature, the ability to be forward and rear facing, or suitable to use from birth. The Xtra has all 3... happy days!

As a loyal Mamas & Papas fan, I had recently ordered their Nuna buggy, as it's marketed as 'fits in the boot of a MINI', so I thought that had to be more lightweight when I'm popping out to the mall for a quick shop. However, when I found out I'd be getting the Quinny Zapp Xtra, the Nuna was sent right back girlfriend! It's ironic that the first pushchair I was planning to buy was the limited edition Quinny Buzz 3 in black, as it looked super stylish but it wasn't yet on sale in England and, as Laila arrived much earlier than her due date, her Daddy ended up rushing out to get an emergency pushchair the day before she was born! Our Quinny Zapp Xtra was due last week so, after waiting (im)patiently all week, it finally arrived TODAY - on my birthday!

Open me! Open me!

Thus far, it has remained in the box, as I'll be putting some time aside to complete my first assignment as a Quinny Caster: MISSION QUINNPOSSIBLE - documenting the unpacking of our Zapp Xtra. This is will be particularly interesting since it'll be the first buggy I've ever put together; yes, I am indeed a buggy unpacker virgin. I can't wait to get started but am refraining whilst my creative juices flow and come into fruition before I get stuck in (and until the rain stops as I don't want my beautiful, shiny new Quinny getting dirty quite yet!), so watch this space to see how many girls it takes to put a buggy together!

Oh, and one last thing... I couldn't finish my birthday blog without mentioning my sexy new GHDs from my baby sis - check them out!!!

My bed is calling me after an exciting few days - I'd better get some beauty sleep so I've got enough energy for the rest of my birthday week!