Tonya's Pregnancy Diary Page 8 (week 21)

Mum has been digging out some old photographs of the family which is great. There are some fabulous photographs of James and I when we were babies and small children. Some of our extended family feature too. There is a great photo of me at my 3rd or 4th birthday with my cousins Mary, Wendy and Tudor all around the table. Also lots of photographs with my Auntie Melody and Auntie Vicky when I was little and we went on various trips. My Mum comes from a big family and they are pretty close which is nice. Blood is blood at the end of the day. You can't choose them but they will always be family and that's important. I guess I am very lucky that I grew up in such a loving family and learnt how important family are. Lucky too that I have a really nice family. I liked this photo because you can see how long my hair was and how it curled into ringlets which it still does.

I woke up this morning after having a dream about my baby at school telling everyone he wanted to be an Astronaut when he grew up. Strongly suspect that's me not him but nevertheless started making me think all about the future and the responsibility ahead. I have an issue with over stereotyping with children and feel quite strongly that girls and boys not be overly Stereotyped. Girls should be encouraged to understand its ok for them to love cars, planes, trains, science etc. Boys encouraged to like cooking, dancing, music etc. I do think baby girls look cute in pink and baby boys in blue but there are so many other colours as they grow. I am avoiding clothes emblazoned with cars and trucks and going for animals, dinosaurs or shapes that are more neutral. I simply don't see why kids should grow up thinking that only girls can be ballet dancers and only boys go to space.

I personally would love to be an Astronaut and go to space and lets face it the last shuttle pilot was a woman. As for Ballet - male dancers are very fit and strong. Strange really how these things are all of a sudden becoming things that I think about. I guess you become aware that its your job to teach your child to see the world with no prejudice or judgment. Teach them to be ecological, caring, ambitious and more than anything confident and joyful, happy with life. Wow its quite a responsibility ! Maybe I am simply a science, sport, travelling geek but hey I want to give my baby all the opportunities that life can hold ! Nothing weird about that at all.

We took this photograph of the moon coming up while we were driving down the road to Mum & Dad's house. From there the moon looked orange and we all wondered why. I thought it was something to do with the angle of light reflection but decided to ask Jeeves.

Have you ever wondered why the moon is more orange or yellow in color when it first rises at night? This effect is caused by the atmosphere of the earth. The reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by the atmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight must pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead. By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, the blue, green, and purple pieces of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. That's why you only see yellow, orange, or red.

The moon can have an orange color at any time of the year. Sometimes the moon appears orange even when it's directly overhead. This occurs when there's a lot of dust, smoke, or pollution in the atmosphere. The size of those particles will determine the type of color you will see.

Feeling fab and have a healthy appetite. Experiencing a bit of backache this week ands Mum says my spine sometimes looks quite curved so I am carrying a small cushion with me to the office to help support my back. This week white blood cells are under production. Leukocytes (or white blood cells) form our body's defense systems. They help fight infections and diseases. Little one's skin has changed from translucent to become more opaque. Baby's tongue is fully formed . If we were able to peek we might catch him practicing giving us a raspberry! Wake and sleep periods become more consistent. Some research suggests that baby sets their internal clock to match the outside world's even before birth! Your eating and sleeping habits as well levels of light and noise serve as her signals. Cool huh !

Still taking time out to relax at Mum & Dad's house. Still working in the office answering the phones and doing odd jobs. Liz comes over most day's with baby Hope at about 3pm to 4pm so we kind of down tools then to coo at the baby. I still have these surreal moments when I can't believe that I have a baby growing inside me that will be sat here 6 months from now looking at the world around him a bit like baby Hope does. She is such a happy baby I really hope baby 'Genghis' follows suit. James & Liz are loving being parents and by all accounts enjoy the nursery songs, fairy tale stories and kids TV far more than Hope does right now ! Singing 'seven little ducks went swimming one day' together while Hope wasn't even in the room was a dead giveaway he he!