The kitchen has moved on v fast this week. We got a phone call from the builder early Monday morning (phone calls at breakfast time get the heart racing somewhat as to what bad might have happened to who, so we were relieved it was only him) and by Tuesday evening we had a big hole in the chimney breast (as planned). The plastering work on that is due to be finished on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the paper stripping crew (the other grandparents) became available to come today so after excellent efforts from them we now have dramatically reduced the amount of "wood chip" style paper. This is great timing as it now shows where the plastering has to tie into, and also Gran was able to help me get the kitchen back into some sort of shape.

And this has all been achieved while Ed has been off ill since Thursday. We're hoping he's better enough to manage his classes on Monday without having to run off to the loo. Philip is full of cold but not that unhappy with it but it very confused by this new "door" we have made in the kitchen. Hopefully all will be revealed to him soon.

After this enthusiastic outset we intend to take a bit of a breather with a half dismantled but functioning kitchen before the demolishing of the old and fitting of the new cabinets begins.

Hoorah for England winning at the rugby. It's added an extra feel good factor to the household.

The other highlight this weekend was an excellent start to our kitchen project contributed to by guest grandparents. OK we'd started some of the tidying last weekend and we've been mulling over options virtually since we moved into the house, but now not only do we have a builder booked for the heavy work, we also have the first of the cabinets off the wall (as a trial to see what's behind). We're not expecting this to be a quick project but we've hopes of all being back in order before any new baby puts on an appearance. Four months or so should do it.

Philip babbling continues to progress. I can't understand any more of what's being said but in the last few days he's begun warbling away to himself in sentences, nay paragraphs. It might be a bit scary when we can actually understand what he's on about. For now I'm quite blissfully ignorant imagining he may be making some sense.

A colleague was chucking a ball around whilst chatting in the office and dropped it so it rolled away. Instinctively I went and picked it up! This is what being a Mum does to you.

Got v stressed at work today and nearly came home but managed to recover myself. Hormones heh! My Chester kerb design seems to have been approved of by the council so soon my work (or the version of it that the contractor decides to install) might be on show for anyone visiting the ampitheatre. The satisfaction of creating things.

Last week my office decided to take part in one bin day - where for a day all rubbish goes into one central bin so you realise how much waste you produce. I didn't worry about this too much as I was out the office on the day proposed, so I was quite surprised to find it had turned into one bin week. And apparently it is still continuing - most of our bins have been kidnapped for over 10 days now with only a few returned so far.

One of the postings on our office forum suggests this is a big brother type experiment to see how we as a group deal with what was initially a minor inconvenience to illustrate an environmental point and has now turned into a battle of wills over a scarce resource (the bins). If you look at it that way, it's actually quite amusing. In line with my ethics I now need to redistibute the use of my bin (mine and that of someone near me have been returned for some reason) to those less well off, and campaign for more bins for all who want them! We'll see what next week brings :-) The difficulty is not being labelled as "stroppy pregnant person" but on the other hand it does give an excuse.

Philip meanwhile is ever so pleased with his vocabulary of perhaps 12 words and is using them at every opportunity, sometimes randomly. I think we had 100 repetitions of teddy this morning at about 6. And most people are called Daddy. Other hits are door, duck (which could equally be quack), Tigger and Pooh.

We're finally getting serious about plans to improve the kitchen having booked a builder to come and knock the chimney breast about a bit. We've started a bit of reorganisation in anticipation so Philip has come downstairs the last 2 mornings to find things moved around. A bit of an extreme way to hide the biscuits, but it's worked so far!