Pink in the House of Trouser!

Well I have had a couple of days to get used to the news but I have to say that it is still blowing my head off - we are expecting a little girl!

I was so 100% sure it was a boy and Mr G was sure we were having a girl but I pooh-poohed his idea (I mean a mother knows her body doesn't she?).  I could not believe it when the sonographer said it was a girl!  I actually said I don't believe her!  We told the rest of the family who are all so pleased for us and surprised too as my 2 boys are the only grandchildren and nephews on both sides.  Mr G and I are in shock (me especially - "I was  ... Wrong?") and are finding it strange to use words like "daughter" and "she" and "her" as they have not really been in our daily vocabulary until now!

I am so thrilled.  I have always wanted three children and now, knowing that I am having a girl, I am reflecting on the other option of three boys.  I love having two boys now and I was looking forward to having three boys and just thought that that was the way it was going to be for me.  A girl has really made me think about how the dynamic in our house is going to change.  I love the idea of having another female in the house (even our cat is male) and I cannot wait to meet her!

I have to say, I am concerned with the amount of pink that everyone is telling me is going to hit my house.  I am not a pink girl and after scaring myself to nausea in the baby clothes aisle of my local supermarket.  Does it really have to explode all over the house when a girl arrives?  There has been a girl living in my house for as long as I can remember and there is no pink anywhere - not even in the wardrobe!  What will our new arrival bring with her?  Will the House of Trouser go pink?

Whatever she brings she will be loved for it by us all.

Time for Me

The hen weekend was a blast - just what the bride-to-bee wanted. There were 12 of us in 2 cottages by the beach in west Wales and we spent the entire weekend drinking wine, eating amazing food and celebrating being girly. It was a revelation for me as I can't remember the last time I was on my own for a whole day without having to be somewhere for someone. I could just be there for me which was so blissful! I had no mobile phone signal in the cottage, only when walking on the beach so I had plenty of time to just be by myself (and with the rest of the girls!) and be a girl myself - not a wife, not a Mummy, not a daughter, just me. I had forgotten what it was like to just be me and, well, what a nice girl I can be! It was good to go out and just take the things I needed and not have to cart around coats for the boys, wipes, nappies for Little Pickle, snacks for all and sundry and a pushchair! I had a wallet, cash and a phone and a jacket. All mine, just for me. It was very liberating and I spent the first few hours quite off balance and thinking that I had forgotten something or someone or that I should be thinking of someone else. It took me ages to realise that it was just me on my own. I liked it.

We spent Saturday doing outdoor activities like archery, clay pigeon shooting, pistols, baseball nets, crazy golf, scalextrix, go-carting and the competitive side of me came out. I thought I would be great at the baseball (decidedly average), good at scalextrix (crap), OK at archery (crap), good at crazy golf (good and terrible = average) OK at go-crarting (poor), good at pistols (average to poor) and OK at clay pigeon shooting (absolutely amazing!) I was disappointed with my overall performance (joint 7th) but chuffed to bits with my clay shooting! I was awesome and scored 56 points where the second placed person scored 26! Thank goodness for the performance which bucked up the rest of my scores! I will clutch on to that victory for a while and try to forget my crapness in the other things. I may become a markswoman. Shame I loathe and detest guns really! I was quite touched early on in the day when a bloke from another team who I know from about 20 years ago when I lived with my parents, came up to me and asked if the other girls knew about my "sporting prowess". I used to be good at sports in school but I had not seen Chris for years and years and was surprised he remembered me let alone that I was into my sports! That comment boosted my ego at the start of the day and made me all the more disappointed by the end!