Life with Ember (NOT IN USE)

Political advice

2011-11-24T22:01:00.001+13:00

Birthday Photos

2010-08-15T21:19:00.005+12:00

These are in slightly random order, but you get the idea!

Birthday

2010-08-15T21:09:00.002+12:00

Well, our little baby is two... She managed to have a bit of a birthday week in the end too! We had a party for her at home last weekend (Saturday 7th) with a mixture of Teenies (daycare) and Mainly Music friends, and family/almost-family in attendance. I put 'no presents required' on the invitation, but everyone brought presents anyway and Ember did have a lovely time opening them. She was a bit shy at first, but once I put the food out she was much better and all the kids seemed to have a good time. I'd planned to do some songs and stories with them all, but they were happy playing with various toys, eating etc so I didn't bother! The two hours went really fast in the end.

Monday was her Mainly Music birthday - they sang to her and she got a branded cup. Then Tuesday was her actual birthday, so although we kept it low key, she and I made a 5 minute chocolate mug cake and we put the candle back in it and sang to her again. Then Thursday was her first day back at Teenies since her birthday, so I made cupcakes for her to take in and they sang Happy Birthday again! Unfortunately she grabbed the candle wick just after blowing it out, and got a small burn. When I came to pick her up, she told me "Hot happy birthday!".

So all in all she did pretty well out of turning two. I'm not sure how much she understood about what was going on, but she certainly liked the presents and lollies. I had grand plans to make an Iggle Piggle cake (if you don't know, google it!) but in the end I stole Iggle and Upsy Daisy plastic bath toys from Pen (Isla really I suppose) and plonked them on top of the cake instead. I think it was just as effective, and far less stressful.

I'll post some photos in the next post...

Breakthroughs and Mega-dribble

2010-07-28T16:44:00.002+12:00

I had a bit of a breakthrough the other night. Ember is hitting the 'twos' at the moment and tends to get frustrated very quickly which results in mini squealy strops. This can be anything from not being able to get her toy duck into a jar to Mummy not being able to guess first time what shape her toast should be! Anyway the strops are *very* annoying. So, the night of the duck incident, I put on my best teacher/Super nanny voice (firm but kind) and said something along the lines of:
"Now listen. You do not need to make silly noises and get cross. Just slow down, think about what you are doing and if you can't do it, say 'Please help Mummy' and I will."

Anyway, the strop immediately stopped, she said 'OK Mama' and then tried the duck again, saying 'Slowly' to herself, and managed successfully. A few minutes later she said "Please help Mama" when she couldn't do something else.

A couple of nights later we had a similar incident when I asked her if she wanted her toast in triangles and she threw herself on the floor and cried (oh the melodrama of being almost 2!!). I repeated the firm voice with similar phrasing and she stopped and said "Squares" quite calmly! I shall keep on with this method! Also gave her lots of praise for being good and clever :)

I think she's getting another tooth at the moment as last night she was dribbling so much that her bed was soaked. I had to sneak in and tuck a towel under her head once she was fully asleep! I was expecting a wakeful night, but she slept through thank goodness. Poor thing, those molars are nasty.

I've become fully immersed with the Raglan Community Theatre which is fun, but I'll write more about that another time as otherwise I'll miss my carpool!!

General catch up

2010-07-24T13:44:00.002+12:00

It's been a funny week - I came down with a cold on Tuesdayand had a bright red nose and sniffles for my Very Important Meeting on Wednesday. I stayed home on Thursday (missing the team lunch I had organised, at a very nice Indian place near the Uni) and because Si was going into Hamilton anyway, he took Ember into Teenies. So I had a whole day by myself for the first time in a very long time. 2 years probably! Although I did enjoy it, and needed it for recuperation purposes, I did feel very strange by the afternoon, and was missing my wee one terribly by mid-afternoon. Luckily they got home earlyish so I still got my Ember-fix of hugs etc.

We have a very loving, friendly little girl, she loves to give hugs and kisses, and say hello to random people on the street (she nearly always gets a smile and a hello back). Her talking is coming on in leaps and bounds, and as well as her colours she now knows the basic shapes and can count to 10 (apart from 1 and 7!!). She still really loves music and dancing, I'm going to have to try to find a dance class for her somewhere. In the meantime Simon does a very good job - apparently 4pm until I get home is dance time on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And yes, he dances too. I don't currenlty have any video footage, but I'm working on it!!

Em's 2nd birthday is coming up soon and we are planning a little party for her on the weekend before. I'm inviting three of her friends from creche, Si is inviting a couple from Mainly Music, and then there are the almost-family guests - Angela and Amelie, Amber and co - and the actual-family - Dragten/Wilkinsons, the Harts and of course Nana Yellow Car. I'm not sure if Poppa John will join us, as a house full of toddlers is probably not his idea of a good time, but we'll see!

I've started a new paper this semester and it's looking like quite a lot of work, especially for a 200 level paper! It's a Management Communication paper, 'Business Communication' and the assessment includes a big, group research project which we've just been assigned groups for. It should be interesting, but a fairly big time committment. I think I'll be spending a few lunchtimes at the library!

It's a beautiful sunny Saturday today, not like winter at all, and I'd love to go for a walk on the beach, but Ember currently refuses to walk on sand at all. I don't know if it's the feel of it under her feet or the waves coming in, but she just will not! She either climbs up me like a little spider monkey or throws herself down and refuses to move unless carried. Great when we live in a seaside town!! Oh well, we'll keep working on it.

Anyway, I'd better go and do some study while blossom is asleep.

xx

Random sleep thoughts and holiday catch up

2010-07-13T21:49:00.002+12:00

I sit in Em's room with her until she falls asleep most nights (not by choice, she comes out of her room otherwise) and many times, just before she drops off, she'll say a random word. She started this a couple of weeks ago with a plaintive 'Bubble'. Then a few nights ago it was 'Monkey'. Last night was 'Nummy Socolate' and tonight she leaned over, patted me, said 'Hello' then went to sleep. Very cute and quite strange :)

We had a lovely holiday 'Up Norf' last week. Ember and I drove up on the Friday night, straight after work. On Saturday we went and visited Angela, Adam and Amelia (the A Team), picked up a clock radio I'd bought off Trade Me for $1, then ended up at Sylvia Park and bought Ember a new winter coat and some socks. Any shopping mall is like a giant playground for Em - little shopping can be achieved, but it wears her out running up and down and in and out. Eventually she got horrendously grumpy and went to sleep in the car on the way home.

On Sunday we got up earlyish and headed up to Kerikeri, stopping off for a play and food at the Wellsford rest stop which has a great little indoor playground. The weather was terrible unfortunately and remained so throughout our entire visit north. We stayed with Gran and Poppa in Kerikeri on Sunday night, and it was lovely to catch up with them. Ember was pretty well behaved for a house-bound nearly-2, and had a great time terrorising Mitzi (the dog, who Em called 'Mikes') and playing with a pair of brass swans dubbed Isla and Alice.

On Monday we had planned to stay in Warkworth and go to Goat Island but given the inclemency of the weather we rethunk the idea and headed back to Auck instead. We went back slowlyish and Em aided us by falling asleep from Kerikeri to Wellsford, having a big play, then watching a DVD on the propped-up laptop for the rest of the trip home.

Can't remember what we did on Tuesday... mum? I cut Ember's fringe in the bath... Was that the day we went to Albany mega mall? Yeah, think so. This went well for a while but Em lost the plot around lunchtime and required car sleep again! Little shopping achieved, but a new place for Ember to charge up and down.

Wednesday I got my haircut, very nice, love the head massage, then we went toNewmarket to Wise Cicada, an organic/vege/vegan cafe and food and book shop. The cafe bit operates on a gift economy, so you pay what you feel like paying and eat as much as you like, and combinations of whatever you like. Cool concept, great food and lovely people - I highly recommend it. We also discovered that Ember can go right round Madill's Farm on her yellow motortrike thing. It's almost a kilometre (we think) so a pretty good distance for a little one. (This may have been Tuesday).

On Thursday we went to the zoo with Angela and Amelie which was lots of fun for us and the girls. They are now both obsessed with talking about each other apparently. They both got to feed the giraffe, and also shared food amongst themselves quite nicely. Ember wanted to hug all the animals, including the tiger, but we persuaded her that this wasn't possible. Helen and Marika came over on Thursday afternoon, and Ember was sure Rika was actually Amelie (they have similar hair!) but they had a great play together too. It was nice to catch up with Helen as well.

Friday was an experiment - we took Ember to the theatre to see 'Greedy Cat' at the Pumphouse. Raewyn was house-sitting for Tina and Wayne, and had Zoe Rose with her (Zoe is now 9), staying close to the Pumphouse so they came too. Ember watched the whole show (just over an hour) and was obviously interested and involved in the action. Hooray! So I'm going to take her to see The Gruffalo in September (in Hamilton). Friday afternoon Mum and I tried shopping again, and tears were shed (by me) after trying on multiple pairs of horrendous jeans, but nothing was purchased. In the end Mum sent me off to Sylvia Park by myself in the afternoon while Em was asleep and I had a successful couple of hours shopping with no small, quick distraction to worry about.

Saturday was gorgeous so we went for a walk along the waterfront to Mission Bay, although Ember insisted on riding her motortrike in the cycle half of the footpath and we got scolded by some 'real' cyclists!

That's a brief rundown... I'll post some photos soon too.

A couple of videos...

2010-06-27T20:49:00.002+12:00

Photos

2010-06-27T20:46:00.000+12:00

Just an update (and then some videos)

2010-06-27T20:38:00.000+12:00

The sleeping has improved again, we're putting the bad night down to the molars. Thank goodness it's improved, I couldn't have faced another night like that in close succession! Actually tonight was amazing, I put her to bed at 8, read her a couple of stories and she was asleep by 8.15. That's unheard of at the moment, it usually takes at least an hour. She did walk a really long way today and yesterday so maybe that tired her out.

Sarah Robson (who I work with) came out this weekend to escape the hustle and bustle of Hamilton. We had a lovely weekend - we were celebrating her new job so bubbles were consumed, and we just chilled out and did some of the Raglan things you have to do like drive out to Whale Bay etc. The weather wasn't brilliant but the rain held off when we needed it to. Sarah's niece (she lives with her sister, brother-in-law and two-year-old niece, Elyse) has been denying her cuddles recently so Ember made up for it with a few hugs :)

Em is learning so many things so fast. She surprised me this morning when she pointed at something on screen and said 'circle' - the first time I've heard her say it. Like a typical girl, her first shapes were star and heart!!

I took some videos and uploaded some new photos to Facebook today, but for the benefit of those who don't use it, I'll try to do the same with some here.

Burning the midnight oil

2010-06-23T15:48:00.001+12:00

Anyone want a toddler? She'd be excellent at working the night shift...

Yes, we had a very bad night last night. Miss Em was awake from midnight until about 5.30am. She's getting her 2nd set of molars and the general consensus around work is that is a likely cause. I hope the stupid teeth come through fast, as I can't cope with too many nights like that.

She started crying at midnight-ish and when I went in she had her eyes closed but was thrashing around in the bed, and crying like she was really upset. I tried to settle her in the bed, but to no avail, and finally I tried bringing her into our bed which usually works now. Unfortunately it didn't and she kept on crying and refusing to even lie down. Finally I took her out into the lounge and did the last last last resort - opened up the sofa bed and put on a DVD. She kept trying to lie down but couldn't seem to get comfortable and cried whenever I tried to cover her with the duvet (even though it was really cold). Finally, in desperation, I took her for a drive at 2.30, which is usually a sure-fire insomnia cure for Ember. No such luck. I drove around for 25 minutes, occasionally looking back over my shoulder to see two wide eyes staring back at me. On the final lap of the block, just as I was about to give in, she did drift off, but as soon as I undid her seat belt her eyes popped open, and she cried 'Yay, home!', wide awake again.

I was just about beside myself by this point and tried to take her into our room again. Si took over and took her back out to the lounge. He couldn't get the DVD player working so he put the DVD on the laptop, but when the battery ran out after about an hour she went back to crying. So at 4.45 I got up with her again so Si could try and get a bit more sleep, and put another DVD on, and this time we both drifted off at about 5.30. Woke up at 8.30, got ourselves together (sort of) and came into Hamilton, me to work and Simon to Rob and Pens where he was using the shed and Pen was going to look after Ember.

Unfortunately because we were late, Pen had already taken Isla to swimming so Si didn't get started until about lunchtime. I spoke to Pen not long ago and apparently Em was being absolutely fine for her - typical! Pen said she would only let Em have a short sleep, so hopefully she'll crash tonight. Might have to do the double-dose up on pamol and ibuprofen...

So I'm shattered and grumpy, Simon's shattered and grumpy, and Ember is remarkably chipper. How does that work?!

New Design

2010-06-16T16:00:00.001+12:00

Do you like the new Blog design? :)

Here are a few photos from the last few months... more to come

Okay, okay, okay

2010-06-16T13:59:00.000+12:00

So it's been... a little while since I posted. Ok, about 6 months. Oops! No excuse really, it just go to the point where I'd left it so long that too much had happened and it was difficult to catch up and the more I waited the worse it got...

But I'm back! I'll make sure I blog at least once a week I promise (don't hold me to that though).

So, a summary of the last six months. Hmmmm.

Ember has moved up from Nursery to Teenies and has settled in well. A few tears when I left for the first few weeks, but now not so often. Teenies is a lovely environment and Em really enjoys playing with dolls, on the bikes roaring around outside, drawing (she has her own allocated notebook and pen as she prefers it to crayons and paper!), water play etc. They have two particular 'things' that they do - heuristic play, which is close examination of everyday objects, and Forest Walks which is adapted from a European model where the children spend extended time exploring the natural environment.

Her vocab has skyrocketed - I was keeping a list of the words she knows, but when I got over 100 I stopped. She's also putting small sentences together, like "Daddy happy" "It's a cat" "Night-night dog" "No, Mummy" etc. She absolutely loves animals and is learning to treat them kindly (i.e. not so much fur-pulling etc) so we think we will get a kitten (or two) shortly. She knows all her colours (red, yellow, blue, green, orange, white, black, pink, purple and brown ("bear"!!)) and is starting to get the concept of numbers although currently counting consists of 2, 3, 8, 9. She also absolutely loves music and dancing (if you look on YouTube and search for "Em dancing to Fireflies" you can see her in action).

We've converted Em's bed into a toddler bed which seemed a good idea at the time, but we are currently struggling a bit with getting her to sleep. It takes an hour every night and she will not (no matter what SuperNanny may say!) stay in bed unless someone is in the room with her. She does mostly sleep right through now, although for the last four nights a small someone has appeared in our room somewhere between 1 and 3 am and snuggled in for the rest of the night. But it is cold at the moment so that might be why, and as long as she sleeps I don't mind!

Going back a bit, Xmas and New Year were lovely and I'll post photos soon. That warm weather is something of a distant memory now though!

Amber has had the twins - Samara and Milena - they were born *very* quickly and only 12 minutes apart in late March (I totally should know the date but I can't currently remember!!). Now 3 months old they are starting to be responsive and interested which is a lovely stage. Amber and Nick look fairly exhausted a lot of the time, but are coping remarkably well.

Laura, one of my best friends from high school, has also moved to Raglan with her fiance, Ted, so we are gathering a few more good friends in the area. She is currenlty in Canada with Ted, who is a helicopter pilot over there for 6 months or so most years, and will be back at the end of August. And she's pregnant! She's due in December, so we'll have another little one for cuddles :)

Back to Ember, she is at a very cute age at the moment and not too terribly two. She is starting to have definite opinions and minor strops when hers don't coincide with ours, but unless she's overtired they don't last long. One of the best things about her (IMHO) is that she can laugh at herself and you can usually distract her from a strop by making her laugh.

She's still very tall and her hair is finally starting to lose its mullet shape!

I'll post some photos and some more about what Simon and I have been up to soon (promise!)

Nearly Christmas!

2009-12-19T08:14:00.000+13:00

I've finished work for the year now, and don't have to go back until the 5th Jan, so Ember, Si and I get a good stretch of time together - yay! We are in Raglan for Xmas and everyone is coming to us, so hopefully we have nice weather and can spend lots of time on the beach and at the playground.

Ember is getting ready to transition from Nursery to Teenies at daycare which is great as she's ready for it, but a bit sad to leave the staff she knows so well. Some of her friends have gone up already so at least she'll know quite a few of the children.

Em is going really well with feeding herself now - it's messy, but that's half the fun! She can also climb onto pretty much everything, and currently thinks she's very clever when she walks backwards! She's obsessed with a football which stays outside, and is getting quite good at kicking it too. She is learning new words all the time too (the latest is 'milk') and copying lots of things we say as well as chatting away in her own langugage constantly!

We are going to Auckland tomorrow as some friends from the UK are coming over (Jacqui from Mountview, her brother lives in NZ) so we are going to catch up with them for lunch, and my cousin Sam is coming back from Aussie for Xmas so we'll see him and have a family BBQ on Monday. Should be fun - hope the traffic isn't too bad though.

Ember's other favourite game at the moment is putting her Iggle Piggle and other teddies (she can say 'teddy' too) in various cupboards around the house, meaning we are quite often searching for them at bed time :) She also likes to cover them up with bits of material (like tea towels or teeshirts) - we haven't quite figured out what that game is yet.

She's currently pulling all the decorations off the Xmas tree, so better go!

Nga mihi mo te Kirimiti!

Last weekend & this week

2009-12-04T13:12:00.004+13:00

Last Saturday there was a market on outside the Community House in Raglan so we wandered along to that. I bought Ember a couple of 'My Little Ponies' from a girl selling her old toys to buy a scooter, and a couple of second hand books. I bumped into Amber (not literally, although she has a fairly sizeable bump now!) who was having some 'me' time without the boys. It was Shea's birthday on the 2nd December and they had a party for him last Sunday (he's 6). Amber's mum and dad (Lorraine and Stewart) came down too, and I've known them for as long as I can remember so it was lovely to catch up with them.

We invited Amber, Nick, the boys and Lorraine and Stewart over on Saturday afternoon, and Si and Nick had a bit of a chess tournament. Si's a bit out of practice but looking forward to having a more regular opponent I think! Lorraine and Stew turned up a bit later, and we had a really nice wee gathering. They all headed off about 7, so that the smallest ones could have dinner and bed before they got too horrendous.

Ember and I went to Shea's party at Nick's mum's house on Sunday lunchtime. Si was busy doing some more work on his doorway - we've knocked out a section of the wall between the lounge and the kitchen so Si could put up this doorway he's had for ages. It's very impressive, I'll post photos soon (I know I keep saying that, but our camera still isn't working!). I hadn't been to a 'little boy' party before and although there weren't many of them, they were certainly noisy! Nick's older boys were there too (they are in their teens), and they added to it as well. Em handled it all in her normal laid-back fashion and was having a fab time until she managed to slip and bang her chin on the table, biting her tongue in the process. It must have given her a headache or something as she was grumpy and clingy for the rest of the afternoon once we got home.

I managed to walk everywhere over the weekend which was nice, and I'm glad I did as the weather has been so horrendous for the last week that I've hardly been outside. I feel sorry for daycare in this weather!

We've had a pretty normal week, Em was with Pen and co on Tuesday as Si had a meeting, and she had a great time as usual. This weekend I'm doing a workshop with Rena Owen which is very exciting, and I've taken Monday and Tuesday off to spend with Ember so I don't miss out. Then it's not long until we finish for Xmas - I finish on the 18th and come back on the 5th January, so a good stretch of Ember time will be had!

Update

2009-11-29T21:07:00.003+13:00

We've been in Raglan a month now and have finally managed to spend another whole weekend here :) Ember seems to really like it, she's settled down well and is sleeping better (most of the time). It's lovely to have Amber up the road with her 2 boys (Shea, 6 and Seb, 18 months) and she's just found out that surprise baby number three is actually twin girls! So I'll be trying to help her out as much as possible once the girls arrive.

Ember has suddenly leaped forward with her talking and tries to copy a lot of things we say. She has a few definite words now, if you know what you are listening for. She definitely knows dog (aka 'dogga'), ball, bubble, daddy, mummy, banana, uh oh, what's that.. oh and of course 'no' which is her favourite word at the moment! She can also make a lion, monkey, chicken and sheep noise on cue, can point to her nose (or sometimes up it) when asked, and if you say 'choice' she does a thumbs up! Poppa John will be so proud. Her comprehension is actually good all round - if you ask her something she will usually respond appropriately - eg if you ask where teddy is, she'll look for it, if you ask her if she'd like a story she gets a book etc.

Creche continues to be a good place to be and she is now starting to look after the little babies which is sweet. She loves playing with the older kids too, but she does still have an unfortunate hair-pulling habit. She had time out twice on Saturday for pulling Seb's hair, but he got his own back later by thwacking her over the head with her shape sorter when she was lying down!

Si is continuing to get a steady amount of work rolling in, and has created a pretty impressive pirate ship at the Magical Garden (where we used to live). He's got three shows lined up next year with Hamilton Operatic, one confirmed in Auckland and about 3 fairly definites, as well as more work at the Magical Garden, so it's all going well.

I'm enjoying my job, even re-entry (long story!), and looking forward to starting my Masters shortly. We had a bit of a drama with our car (another long story) the upshot being that we now have a newer, better car (on finance, but never mind) which copes with the drive in and out a lot better too. It's a Nissan Cube, an either love-it-or-hate-it car, which we love and have named Pablo.

Have had a good weekend, but am not going to post about it now as I'm going to bed! Will try to be more diligent about updating the blog... :)

A few more photos...

2009-11-29T21:03:00.001+13:00

Photos

2009-11-11T13:18:00.003+13:00

I remembered I had a couple of photos from a few weeks ago that I hadn't posted - Simon took Em to an agricultural day they were having at Frankton School, which Pen, Alice, Isla et al were also going to. Alice entered her goat kid in a competition and won a ribbon or two but I don't know any more details than that. Ember had a great time anyway!

And this is a photo of me (left) and Ember at a similar age, which I did as a comparison - I can definitely see a lot of me in her now, but I think she's a good combination of Simon and me. And she has really big eyes - lots of people comment on that!

Raglan Woohoo!

2009-11-08T18:24:00.002+13:00

We have now been in our Raglan house for one week and are enjoying ourselves immensely. The commute is a bit of a drag but it's not bad considering and the location/lifestyle makes it all worth it. I've found a car pool buddy 3 days a week which is working out well, but we will still need to think about getting another car before too long.

My best friend from childhood, Amber, lives just up the road (crazy how life works out) and has 2 boys - Shea, 5 and Seb, 17 months (i.e. 2 months older than Ember). Amber also has another one due in March, on Si's birthday! It's been great being able to pop in and see them, and Amber and Nick (her partner) came over to visit with Seb today. He and Ember get on really well, or at least as well as any toddlers could, and it's lovely for her to have a friend so close. I think Shea will get on well with Alice too, so we'll have to organise a get-together at some stage.

Our camera has packed a sad and therefore I can't post any photos at present, but I might go and do a walkaround with the laptop as movie cam in a minute and will post resulting footage. Em is settling in well and is now pretty much used to her new room and new town, although we are still working on getting sleep patterns back to normal.

Work is also going well and I've been accepted to start my MA next year (2 years part-time) which I'm looking forward to.

Em needs her mummy, so better go!

Things Ember has been doing...

2009-10-18T08:41:00.002+13:00

I've been told off by my mother's sister (I'm not allowed to call her aunty!) for not updating my blog recently so here I am. (don't worry Rochelle, I do know you were joking :))

Em's been great apart from a new premolar very SLOWLY coming through which has messed up her sleeping and we've had a few nights of 'mummy! it's 3am! time to play!' which we hope won't last too much longer!

This is a fascinating age as she is learning so much so fast, and her comprehension is definitely a lot better than we think sometimes. New things she can do include:
"Ember, what does a lion say?" - "rrrraaaaaarrrrr"
"Ember, what does a monkey say?" - ""
She also throws her ball over her head then holds her arms out as if to say 'where's it gone?'.
Recently she's started walking backwards, but unfortunately she doesn't look behind her so this has caused a few tears!
If you ask her where something is (i.e. ball, dolly, story, daddy) she will either point, get it or do the 'I don't know' arms. She will also go and choose a story from her box if you tell her to.
Climbing is a big thing at the moment and she likes to climb up onto chairs, the sofa, park benches, coffee tables - anything she thinks she might be able to get onto. Sometimes a bit of assistance in the form of a bum push is required. :)

Unfortunately, she appears to be easing herself into the 'terrible twos' and is starting to get stroppy about things she wants or wants to do. Things that make her cry now include:
Reaching the end of a story book.
Not being able to get onto or reach something she wants.
Mummy or daddy taking something off her, or shutting a door so she can't get somewhere, or making her go inside for a nappy change.
Nikki the large but gentle lab who lives next door refusing to drop the ball so Ember can throw it (method, pick the ball up, run as fast as she can, and then drop it).

Speaking of the Em, she is stirring (sleep in after a bad night) so I'll go say good morning!

Beautiful photo...

2009-10-04T20:17:00.001+13:00

The mud puddle mishap, and Ember loves dolly

2009-09-29T21:30:00.004+13:00

Daylight Saving

2009-09-29T21:19:00.002+13:00

Well, whoever invented this didn't ever have to put a small child to bed. Ember is certainly not impressed by going to bed in daylight and what seems to her to be an hour early. It's taken 30 minutes to an hour to get her down the last couple of nights. On the plus side, she doesn't wake up until 7am, although that does make for a bit of a rush in the mornings. Her whole routine is out of whack, including day time sleep, which then makes lunch later etc, etc. Today was better than yesterday though, so hopefully after a week or so we'll be back to normal!

Work is going well - don't know if I said already, but I have now got a permanent job at the University as the Academic Developments Administrator. I'm doing some of the same things as before, as well as a bunch of new stuff that I'm gradually getting to grips with. I have also applied to start my Masters part-time and spoke to a really interesting lecturer from the School of Education about supervising my research. She has very similar interests to me and came to drama education through theatre studies. I'm hoping to research devised theatre in the context of children playing, and she's already given me lots of ideas, and some reading to do!

Ember has now learned to clap, to climb up on the couch and to give really nice cuddles. One of her favourite toys is her dolly (I'll put the pics in a separate post), actually one of my old dolls, Clara, and she carts Clara around, cuddles her, stands on her, etc...

Yesterday was really funny - Simon and Ember went off to feed the chickens, but we've been having a lot of rain recently and Ember did a cartoon-still fall backwards into a mud puddle! I got a couple of pics before I put her in the bath!

Em and I had a good weekend together while Simon was doing the pack-in for Beauty and the Beast (the drama club show that my niece, Alice, is also in). Also caught up with Laura who was down to see her cousin in 'The Sound of Music'. I hadn't seen Laura's cousins since they were kids, so it was bizarre to see them all grown up! Jess is pregnant and about to get married, but I remember her being about 10! They were all impressed by how social Ember is - she was happy to be carried by all of them (except when she wanted to walk by herself), and was generally a lot more confident that other babies the same age seem to be. I think that's a good thing..!

Right, I will post some phots for you now.

P.S.

2009-09-19T10:36:00.001+12:00

Ember now has 9 teeth, including one premolar and the other premolar looking like making an appearance soon!

She also has a few recognisable words including 'cow', 'cat', 'Kanji' and 'Alice' :)

Raglan Photos

2009-09-19T10:23:00.003+12:00

As you probably know by now, Simon and I have bought a house in Raglan. We finally reached settlement (long story), have given the tenants notice and will be moving in at the end of October. It will be a bit of a long commute for me, but I think the benefits of the lifestyle outweigh the downside of commuting - it's less than an hour each way and there are a few people at the Uni who live in Raglan so I'm hoping to be able to car pool.
The photos below show you some of our soon-to-be local beaches! Ember has discovered a taste for sand...

Sleep stuff

2009-09-18T12:49:00.004+12:00

So, I was going to talk about sleeping...

Since we moved into the 'fairy cottage' and instigated a better sleep routine, Ember had been going down quite well, falling asleep on her own, in her own bed. It took a couple more weeks of intermittent middle-of-the-night wakings to convince her that night feeds and getting up to play (i.e. so we didn't wake anyone else with her crying) were off the cards. But we had managed (with a couple of hiccups due to teething and illness) to get her to sleep from 7.30pm through the night. However, early mornings were still something of a problem.

The main thing was, it was hard to define 'how early is too early'. It might be 6 one morning, then the next morning it's 5.30, then the next it's 5... and I was having sleep-deprived debates in my head - 'is this too early?' 'what about this?' Ember was definitely of the opinion she wanted to get up when she woke up and expressed this loudly, and it was easy to get into the mindset of - if I get her up, and give her her morning feed in bed, I can doze for another half hour or so...

In hindsight it's easy to see where you are going wrong, but not so easy at the time! So anyway, after struggling through with some great, and some not-so-great nights, we talked to the Plunket nurse at Em's 12 month appointment and she confirmed two things - 1. Decide what is a reasonable time for Ember to get up and 2. Don't let her leave her bed (apart from cuddles if needed!) until that time, to the minute. So that's what we've been doing - we decided 6am was reasonable.

We've had a few mornings of crying from 4am till 6am (one of us goes in to try and settle her back to sleep, it usually works better if it's Si as he doesn't have milk-makers!), but in general, particularly over the last few nights, it's been 5.30am onwards. It's quite amazing to occasionally wake up before Ember as well!

She does spend time awake in the middle of the night I think - I've been in to check a couple of times in the wee small hours and found her rolling around her cot and diving on to the duvet! - but seems to be able to get herself back to sleep most times, and is happy to play on her own for a bit which is great!

I'm not assuming it will be roses from here on in, but am hopeful for a majority of sleepful nights at least!

I have some photos to post, but they are on the home computer and I'm currently at work, so will post them over the weekend. Yay for Friday!

Oops!

2009-09-05T13:46:00.002+12:00

I hadn't realised quite how long it had been since I blogged!

Work is going well, and I'm doing all sorts of bits and pieces at the moment as I'm helping out the Postgrad Office with their forthcoming Postgraduate Research month (October) as they recently lost a staff member to another department, and haven't replaced her yet. I've applied for a couple of permanent positions which closed on Friday, so should hear next week, and am currently helping to write the script for the staff review. All fun and games!

Si is busy at the moment too. He's finishing the concept for the 'Starmakers' children's drama group show (which Alice is in), going to the first production meeting tomorrow for a Harlequinns show, and speaking to someone from St Peter's school on Monday about doing a couple of designs for them.

Also, very exciting, we are now officially property owners. After a few hiccups (the vendors owed more to the bank than what the house went for) and a delayed settlement date, it's finally all gone through. Huzzah! As there are sitting tenants, we aren't planning to move in until November so we've got a bit of time to sort ourselves out.

Ember is going from strength to strength with her walking. She tries to run at the moment, but can't quite do that yet. She moves very fast though! Stairs are no problem and she goes up and down quite happily. We have to watch her though, as she still eats stones. I'm not sure why, they don't taste very nice! Em went to Plunket last week and is still on the 97th Centile for her height. She is now 78cms tall and 10.1kgs. The Plunket nurse was really happy with her progress and what we are doing, so that's all good. Poor baby had to have vaccinations a couple of weeks ago - they brought the first MMR forward as there is a bit of a measles epidemic in NZ at the moment, plus she needed a couple more to bring her into line with the NZ schedule which is a bit different to the UK one. So she ended up having one in each leg and one in the arm. She was very good really, but you feel so mean! I think I'll have to take her to the doctor for a treat of some sort so she doesn't start to associate it with pain and suffering...

Was going to talk about the sleep training progress, but she's just woken up, so next time!

I'm still coughing...

2009-08-16T20:12:00.002+12:00

...but feeling a lot better than this time last week, that's for sure! I ended up having the whole week off so am back tomorrow for the first time. I'm looking forward to it as am a bit sick of my own company, although I enjoyed spending some bonus time with Ember once I could actually move.

Mum came down yesterday and we popped over to Rob and Pen's. They have recently acquired chickens (6 I think) and they are very cool. They have a movable hutch for night time, but roam the yard during the day, and their current favourite place is the bivouac Alice built under one of the eucalyptus trees. They haven't started laying yet as they are still a bit young, but pretty soon we'll be begging eggs off the Dragten-Wilkilsons!

I'm still quite tired as we are (again) getting Ember back into a sleeping routine after breaking a bit during her (and our) illness. Also, I keep myself awake coughing for an hour or two each night - it's getting better with time, but pretty gradually. If I didn't have to wake up at all it would be fine, but as soon as I have to get up for Em, or to go to the loo etc I spend the next hour or so coughing. Very annoying.

Ember had a good day at daycare on Friday - she sleeps really well there, why can't she do that for us?! I went over to Chartwell shopping centre on Saturday afternoon as it was wet and Ember wanted a bit of a toddle around, and we saw one of her 'friends' from daycare. She had a great time wandering up and down the mall, into and out of shops and generally getting in the way, and the only tussle we had was when she decided she wanted to get on the escalator by herself and mean mummy wouldn't let her!

That's a bit of a muddly post, but I'm still a bit muddly in the head. More coherent posts in future I promise!

Ember's actual birthday

2009-08-13T03:44:00.002+12:00

Well, Em's actual 1st birthday was a bit of a non-event due to the whole family having the lurgy, so thank goodness we had the party the previous weekend!

On Friday we picked Ember up from creche, got home, walked in the door and she promptly threw up all down herself and me - nice. She didn't seem particularly perturbed but continued to throw up for the rest of the evening. Luckily by the time she went to bed it had calmed down and she didn't throw up in her bed which we were dreading. She was a bit clingy and tired on Saturday, but otherwise fine apart from a bit of a snotty nose, and I did a fairy party in the afternoon.

That night, I got hit with the vomiting bug (and, how shall we say, the other end as well) and had a horrendous day on Sunday - I could hardly move out of bed apart from the odd dash to the bathroom, and had an intermittent fever. I felt mildly better on Monday although still pretty rotten, luckily I could get out of bed though as Simon couldn't!

Si and Ember's dose of what we think is a virus seemed to be quite mild, but I'm still off work and am currently up at 4am typing this as I'm coughing too much to sleep. I went to the doctor on Wednesday - a very nice (and quite dishy!) doctor with the unfortunate moniker of Willy Moss - and he gave me antibiotics. He said this is a virus doing the rounds of the area, and usually he wouldn't bother with antibiotics but because of my history, the fact that I'm somewhat immuno-compromised because of the steroids and the fact that my throat is really inflamed, he thought he would err on the side of caution.

So Monday, which was Em's birthday, Si was in bed all day and I was feeling pretty queasy and shaky. Em was still not quite herself either, clingy and grizzly, but I don't know if that was because she was feeling rotten herself or confused by the odd behaviour of her parents.

Earlier last week we had another interesting night - our first a&e dash. Woke up at midnight on Wednesday to hear a strange barking cough from Ember's room and when I went in her breathing was really noisy too. She didn't seem distressed, but we certainly were! I rang Healthline and they said to take her to the clinic, so we raced over to Anglesea Clinic where we then waited over 2 hours to see a doctor - fun. Thank goodness it wasn't a weekend. The doctor diagnosed croup (I can hear all you parents saying 'yes, I knew it'!) and gave her a dose of prednisone as a preventative, and suggested the usual steamy bathroom remedy if it continued. We finally got to bed about 4am, and I managed to get into work the next day only an hour late.

Ah the joys of parenting. Hopefully this means we have had our share of ills for a while (touch wood) as I am thoroughly sick of being sick!

Ember's First Birthday Party

2009-08-04T20:33:00.004+12:00

Ember had a lovely first birthday on Sunday and despite terrible weather on Saturday, Sunday was lovely. It poured again at about 7pm, but it didn't matter by then!

We started the day early (Em's usual wake up time of 5am) and Em was thrilled that Si and I had filled the room with balloons the night before. She watched Hi5, had honey toast for breakfast and played with the balloons quite happily. I managed to get her back down for a sleep just before 9, and as she slept for the next 2 1/4 hours, managed to get everything else done that I needed to in plenty of time!

Angela and Amelie were the first to arrive followed soon after by mum, John and Kanji. We moved over to the party room where Ember and Amelie had a great time exploring and playing with toys and balloons.

There was a good mix of family and friends, and one of my workmates came with her nephew, a gorgeous little boy called Aston (not sure of spelling) who was completely unfazed at being the only boy. My party food (pikelets, fairy bread, cheese and fruit hedgehogs, popcorn, biscuits and crisps) seemed to go down well - Amelie and Ember seemed to particularly like pikelets! It was great that the weather was good as the kids could play outside on the playground and in the sandpit, and generally run around rather than being confined inside. I didn't really do any party games but had colouring books and most of Ember's toys inside in case of inclement weather!

It was lovely to see everyone and all seemed to have a good time. Ember didn't cry when we sang Happy Birthday which was unexpected - she cries when it's sung to anyone else! I made a chocolate banana cake with chocolate icing and decorated with pebbles - Em hadn't really had cake before, but she definitely liked it and tried to eat the plate when she was done :)

Anyway, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Hi5, honey toast and balloons - what more could a birthday girl want?

Birthday cake made by me and very nice if I do say so myself!

The headband is the only part of the Xmas outfit that still fits.

Check out my boots (they match Nana Jay's)

Just one of the girls...

Alice and Zoe Rose

Can I cut the cake mum?

More please!!

OK Nana, you can have a hug I guess...

Cool, tupperware! Just what I wanted!

You might have to help me blow the candle out mum...

Mum and me

Cake Is Good. Mmmmmm, cake.

New tooth

2009-07-27T19:33:00.002+12:00

Em's top right tooth has now come through, making 7 in total, and if this follows the pattern of all the others, the top left won't be far behind.

Had a job interview today for a permanent job at Waikato Uni, but I don't think it went very well. Will have to wait and see I guess! They need someone pretty quickly, so at least I won't have to wait weeks to hear one way or another. I do wish a permanent job would come up in SASD (my current department) as I really like the people I work with there.

Si took Ember to the doctor today as she is still sniffly and coughing. He said she was fine, no temperature and slightly swollen glands but nothing to worry about. There's apparently a strain of whooping cough going around the region so if the cough gets worse we have to take her back, but for now, no antibiotics needed which is great.

Nearly Em's birthday! I can't believe she's nearly one!

Some old Pics

2009-07-25T09:38:00.003+12:00

The Walking Girl

2009-07-25T09:24:00.002+12:00

Ember learned to walk the day she turned 11 months. She took her first little wobbly step that evening and got more confident each day! Now she is toddling around like an expert, with the occasional plop onto the bottom but mostly pretty well balanced!

Work is going well for me, and I'm enjoying the time I get to spend with Em just as much. I do her dinner, bath and bed each night, we have at least an hour each morning with breakfast and getting dressed and a bit of a play, and then of course all weekend. I don't feel like I'm missing out as much as I thought I would. Si is enjoying being full-time daddy, and they come to Uni each lunchtime as well. Em was doing one day a week at a home-based childcare with a lovely lady called Trudy, but last week she started at the Uni creche, having navigated the waiting list a lot faster than anticipated! It's a shame as it's not as nice an environment as Trudy's, but it's just over the road from where I work, and I think it will be good for her to spend time in a less one-on-one environment - it will help her to develop more independence. She's pretty good to be fair, but does get very clingy when tired.

I've applied for a couple of permanent jobs at the Uni, and have an interview on Monday. I was planning originally to just do this contract and then do my teacher training, but I'm actually really enjoying the academic admin thing. I get to do a lot of writing which I really enjoy and is one of my key strengths - proposals, reports, minutes that sort of thing. Uni staff also get fees concessions for study, and 2 paid hours per week in which to study, so it's a great place to be. It's a really family friendly environment too, and they are really flexible about childcare arrangements etc. I've decided to try to get a permanent job, keep studying and working my way up the hierarchy. 20 year plan - Vice Chancellor!!

We are settled in our fairy cottage for now, and may have some news on the Raglan house front shortly, but nothing is confirmed yet so I don't want to jinx it. We both are making some good contacts in the arts in Waikato too, so some interesting projects could be on the horizon.

Right, that's it for now. I'm going to post some very old photos which we never got around to uploading now!

New Job

2009-06-15T13:39:00.002+12:00

I've now returned to full-time work and Simon is full-time dad. We are both enjoying most bits of our new roles, although I found it hard to leave Ember. Si and Em come up at lunchtimes at the moment so I can see her, and breastfeed her so I don't have to express which is great. Ember has also started one day a week (Friday) of daycare - we chose to go with a home-based childcare service, and Trudy is lovely.

Basically, rather than a traditional daycare (which I found a bit clinical), carers choose to look after children in their (the carer's) own home. They are not allowed more than 4 children at a time, and only 2 under-twos, so it's more like a family environment. The overseeing organisation (ours is Waikato Family Homebased Childcare) also arranges activities like playgroups, music classes and gym which several carers take their kids to, so they get the social interaction as well. Ember goes to gym on Fridays, and she loved her first session. Trudy has themed her care around The Lion King (she's South African), and even has a collie dog called Pumba!

Work is going well, and getting more interesting each day. I'm taking over from Laura when she goes on parental leave and she has 2 more weeks of work to go so it's a good handover period. She's having a baby girl, and is not telling about names, but she and I have lots to chat about apart from work which is great!

I still can't really post photos, but have some cute ones to upload once I can!

Brief catch up

2009-06-04T09:35:00.002+12:00

We have moved to The Tron! We became officially Hamiltonians on Sunday 31st May, and are in a temporary flat (Pen's friend Sharon's Mum's flat-under-the-house!!) until the end of June when we move into the Fairy Cottage (as we have dubbed it). We only have a dial-up connection at the moment, so I can't upload any photos at the moment. And it takes ages to do anything, so this is a quick post...

Renee - I got the job at Waikato Uni and start on Monday. I'm looking forward to it but sad about leaving Ember.

Simon - Turned down the film in the end as it was a big time commitment for no guaranteed return. He is however designing a show at the Pump house in Takapuna (The Emperor's New Clothes and The Ugly Duckling), and about to embark on full time dad-hood!

Ember - Is not sleeping well (still) but otherwise settling well into life in Hamilton. We are looking at getting her into some sort of daycare for at least one day a week so she gets used to it. I think she will enjoy it as she loves interacting with other kids.

Post again soon :)

Teeth!

2009-05-20T13:33:00.002+12:00

Ember's two top teeth have broken through! (She seems to be getting all her teeth in pairs!) They aren't visible enough to photograph yet, but I can feel them and they get a wee bit bigger each day. Em's been eating really well the last couple of days so I don't know if it's relief that the teeth are finally through, or a growth spurt (with her height already let's hope not...)

I have an interview on Friday and Simon is off down to Wanganui to talk to a director about being production designer on a low-budget (profit-share) film - so fingers crossed for both of us. I'm being a fairy again on Saturday too so I'll try to get photos this time!

Just a catch up

2009-05-17T21:48:00.002+12:00

Sleeping is getting worse so I'll type fast in case the little darling wakes up!

We have now found a perfect place to live just outside Hamilton, but unfortunately we can't move in until the 23rd June which is a shame. It's used as a holiday let over summer but they like to have permanent tenants over winter. You can see some photos here: http://www.bluecastle.co.nz/accommodation-2023.htm but they don't do it full justice. There is an amazing natural bush gully on the property and Sharon, one of the owners, runs themed parties and is starting some other kids sessions in another port-a-cabin type thing also on the property. It's ideal as she wanted some more help with ideas for the parties, and an assistant, and is also thinking about running kids' drama classes, so guess who is able to do all of that... :o) I have already been a fairy once, and when we get down there permanently I'll be able to do more. I'm hoping to get something permanent part-time and then do parties and classes as a side line.

Ember is very mobile now and into everything. She still does her lopsided crawling but can go at great speed and absolutely everything goes into her mouth - bits of fluff, do biscuits, leaves, everything! - so we have to be super-vigilant. She is pulling herself up to standing with great ease now too, and is very noisy too! We are looking forward to getting into our own place so we can get into a better routine with her.

I'll post some more photos or maybe video in the next couple of days.

Actually Crawling!

2009-04-28T21:39:00.002+12:00

Em has finally figured it out, although she still crawls in a slightly Quasimodo style - one foot comes up instead of her knee, and the bottom still gets waved about quite a bit. But watch out Kanji, here she comes! Kanji is half enjoying the fact that there is someone new to throw his ball (in a manner of speaking) and half hating the fact that there is a small, mobile person who steals his place next to his mum and pulls his fur if it gets within reach!

We registered with Plunket today - Ember is now 75.5cms long which puts her over the 97 centile for her age. She's the length/height of a 15 month old! She weighs 9.6 kilos which is perfectly respectable and is in pretty good health all round. She has also started to say 'mamamamama' or 'dadadadadada' when she is with and/or wants one of us, and uses the right one at the right time. She is copying lots of things now (Poppa John is thrilled she is trying to do his thumbs-up 'Choice!' one) and pulling herself up on furniture, toys, parents, dogs, or whatever else seems to offer appropriate leverage.

We've delayed the sleep training till we have our own place of some sort, but I have a plan of action (Tania from Sleep Easy is great, if you are having any baby/child sleep problems let me know and I'll give you her details) ready to put into place once we do.

Apart from that, all is good, we are applying for lots of Waikato-based jobs and hopefully will find something soon!

Some catchup photos - various things!

2009-04-28T21:25:00.006+12:00

If you want explanations for any, just ask!

Not-quite-crawling

2009-04-19T19:50:00.002+12:00

Well, Ember is definitely mobile, but still not exactly crawling! She has been "oh-she's-so-close" for a couple of months now, but although she can get easily from sitting to hands-and-knees, she can't quite get the hang of forward motion! Instead her preferred method of moving is to go right up onto her hands and feet, bottom waving in the air, and then sit down in another direction, slightly further away from where she started. The downside of this method is that she often ends up going in the opposite direction from what she intends, which leads to extreme frustration.

She is also standing (aided) really well now, either holding onto us or furniture, although she can't quite pull herself to upright yet (won't be long). The sleeping is still not going all that well either but we have an appointment with a baby sleep specialist on Tuesday. Don't know if I said before, but controlled crying (the commonly touted technique) just doesn't seem to work for our Em, and is very hard on our hearts and ears!

Simon is off for a Waikato recce tomorrow - he's leaving early and is going to drive down to Raglan and around a few other small towns to scope out possibilities. We've been applying for jobs south of the Bombays too, so we'll see what happens.

I am suffering from tendonitis in both wrists now, most likely from the strain of hoicking a 10 + kilo baby around. Unfortunately I can't take anything but paracetamol - ibuprofen products are out due to the steroids, and everything else is out due to breastfeeding! I have tubi-grips on both wrists, thus looking like a complete dork, but needs must...

I caught up with Laura on Friday - we worked out it had been at least 10 years since we had seen each other, despite being very good friends at high school, but it didn't feel like that long once we got talking! It was lovely to see her, and we are thinking about organising a reunion for our extended year group from Selwyn - would be very interesting!

That's about it for now... photos to come :o)

Old Photos

2009-04-16T21:05:00.003+12:00

Two old, cute photos of Ember and Freya from Hannah's archives! I'm guessing Em is less than 1 month old...

My little Angel (fairy/mermaid)

2009-04-15T20:56:00.002+12:00

These gorgeous shots were taken at a little photographic studio in Fremantle in Perth while we were staying with Rochelle. My favourite is the Angel I think :o)

Quick catch up

2009-04-12T17:26:00.004+12:00

My friend Siobhan from Whitton sent me these photos of Ember and her son Rudy at Murray Park - so cute :o)

We've managed to buy a car (a Nissan Lucino - basically a Pulsar) and are looking at various employment options. We think we might possibly end up in the Waikato, just south of Auckland, which is where my brother lives, and it would be great for Em to be close to her two cousins. We had a cool night there last night, and I will post photos of that as soon as I dig out the camera!

I think I'm going to go back to Uni in January and do my teaching certificate (basically like a PGCE for the UK-ites) to teach Drama and English at secondary school level.

Em is still almost but not quite crawling and getting very frustrated. My friend Angela has a girl 7 weeks older than Em who can crawl like mad, so she steals toys off Ember and crawls away! Em pulls her hair in retaliation - typical girls :o)

We abandoned the sleep training as controlled crying was not working for Ember, it just made her hysterical and afraid of her bed. So we are back to the drawing board but have an appointment with a baby-sleep lady on the 21st April so that should be interesting. Em has a proper cot bed now, which used to be Isla's, so I will be interested to see if that makes a difference tonight, but am not holding my breath!

Here are Ember and Rudy...

In Auckland...

2009-04-02T21:07:00.002+13:00

Just a quick note to say we have arrived safely in New Zealand. We had a good day at the zoo yesterday with mum's school, although having had no sleep on the plane it was a long day! Thankfully, despite the change in times, Ember slept quite well last night, although not in her own bed very much.

We have started proper sleep training tonight, as with all the travelling, staying with other people etc she has gotten into the habit of only sleeping if fed or rocked, and not liking to sleep in her own bed, but to sleep on mummy or daddy. I got some advice from Plunket (NZ equiv of midwives/health visitors and we are doing a controlled crying approach. You follow a bed time routine (dinner, bath, pjs, book, feed) then put her to bed awake and leave the room. The first time she cries you go straight in and sooth her without picking her up, then leave quite quickly and wait 2 minutes before going back in. Each time you sooth her without picking her up, then increase the time before you re-enter - 2 minutes, then 4, then 6, 8 and 10, then if still crying you go in every 10 minutes. Ember went to sleep in the 8 minute interval tonight so fingers crossed. Apparently they get the idea within 2 or 3 nights. Usually you would do the same each time they wake at night, but I'm not going to tonight as John has an early morning. He is away for 3 nights over the weekend with the bowls club, so it will be a good opportunity to get her into the right routine.

Fingers crossed!

Perth Photos :o)

2009-03-31T14:43:00.006+13:00

We've had a lovely week in Perth and a couple of really hot days so we tried out the pool. Ember liked sitting on the side and splashing her arms and legs but wasn't too keen on total immersion initially! On the second day when the pool had heated up slightly she was a bit more adventurous, and she liked sitting on me while i floated on the beanbag thing.
Yes, it's cold!

Simon was going to get out after 1 quick length but I made him get back in for a photo!

A ship Stephen went sailing on. We went into Fremantle on Saturday morning to meet him.

The quokka, endemic to Rottnest Island, a short ferry ride from Fremantle.

The Dutch sailors thought these were large rats, hence the name Rottnest (Ratnest)

Simon posing near The Basin on Rotto.

Checking out the view.

How Ember spent most of her Rottnest trip!

Lizards sunbathing by the mini golf course where Stephen triumphed! :o)

Rochelle refusing to have a photo - operation Ember Shield!

Em enjoying the ferry ride home.

Ember and Stephen

Ember and Andrew

Kiwi girl in Oz!

We didn't manage all the things on our itinerary but we've had a very good week with lovely weather and some time to just chill and hang out with family. Baggage handler strikes at Perth airport notwithstanding, we should be in NZ 6am local time on Wednesday, just in time for a school trip to the zoo.

I have some extra-special photos to post, but I'm just waiting until some hard copies have been sent... ;o)

Photos - Devon and Randoms!

2009-03-29T20:48:00.002+13:00

This should be the last of the catch-up photos - the next lot will be of Perth :o)

Ember and Nan (Elise)

Ember and Pop (Bob)

Ember in Jail (aka Travel Cot!)

Em being her cute self!

Catch-up Photos - Paignton Zoo

2009-03-26T22:56:00.004+13:00

"Is this glass thick enough to save us from the lions..?"

"Lucky they're sleeping at the moment"

The funky bongo

"Which ones are lemurs and which is daddy?"

"Oh, there's daddy... hang on"
"How come I'm being held by this lemur? Save me Nan!"

"Show off"

"Don't drop me in there mum" "What do you mean you'd swap me for a miniature marmoset? Mum? Mum?!"

Quick one

2009-03-26T18:55:00.002+13:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that we are safely arrived in lovely sunny Perth and enjoying ourselves very much. The flight was relatively painless apart from some luggage traumas (don't ask) and Ember was remarked on by several people for her good behaviour. She is such a charmer!

Rochelle has decided that Ember is not going to NZ, she's staying in Perth, but I think my mother may have a thing or two to say about that!

Tomorrow night we are going out for dinner for Si's birthday, Saturday we are going into Freemantle (or 'Free-oh') to pick Stephen up after his sailing trip, then doing the markets, Sunday the boys are going to the footie (that's Aussie Rules not Soccer) so Rochelle and I might take Em to the zoo, and Monday we are doing Rottnest Island.

Right, going back to enjoy the sun! :o)

Just Stuff

2009-03-18T09:45:00.002+13:00

We had a lovely week in Devon, including a day at Paignton Zoo which I still need to post the photos for, but it was hard saying goodbye to everyone there, especially Simon's family of course. We came back to London on Thursday and had a social weekend - on Saturday we had lunch with the Neale clan at The Cricketers in Woking (one of the pubs owned by Clive and Lise) and as we hadn't seen them since Ember was about 3 weeks old, she had grown a fair bit! It was great to catch up with everyone, apart from Amy and Molly who were at Brownie camp, and we had a very nice lunch.

On Sunday we had lunch/drinks with some of the students from Simon's year at Mountview, some of whom hadn't actually met Ember before, and then stayed the night with Hilary, Beth and Titch as we were off to Norfolk the next day and there was no point retracing our steps around the North Circular more than required!

We are currently in Norfolk staying with Simon's god-parents, Shirley and Peter, and have had a very nice day at Oxburgh House, which was built in 1482 and has belonged to the same family ever since, although the National Trust own a large part of it now.

I've just realised that some people may not know the important news here - we are returning to NZ for good on the 1st April! I was keeping it a secret to tell mum on her birthday (21st March), but it got too difficult so I told her in advance, and hence can now announce it officially to all. We leave London on the 23rd March and are staying with mum's sister Rochelle (I'm not allowed to call her 'Aunty'!!) for a week on the way back. I am excited, but will be more so when we are at the airport as we have a lot to do between now and then!

I've decided my baby is a philistine as I have been testing her on baby jars thinking they might be easier to take on the plane. I wasn't sure if she would like them, but she seems to like them more than mummy's lovingly hand-prepared lunches and dinners!!!! Her appetite is getting bigger and better all the time and there doesn't seem to be much she doesn't like. I think having teeth helps as she is better able to chew and breakdown food.

Anyway, it's cold in the computer room so I'm stopping. I'll post photos soon!

Pennywell Farm

2009-03-11T05:32:00.005+13:00

Today Ember and I went to Pennywell Farm in Devon - a working farm which allows visitors to pet and pick up many of the animals, feed the lambs and kids etc. We had a great day and Ember was intrigued by all the animals - it's the first time she has seen most of them.

2009-03-05T11:01:00.002+13:00

Ember has had another couple of 'firsts' recently which I didn't mention - we went swimming for the first time a couple of weeks ago with my friend Siobhan and her son Rudy and both babies had a great time. Em looks gorgeous in her swimsuit so I'll have to try to get a photo (they don't encourage photos in swimming pools). The water was lovely and warm - we went to Isleworth Recreation Centre - and the babes loved splashing and kicking up and down the pool. We were the only ones there apart from one other woman and her 6 month old baby girl, Fenella, who was much smaller than Ember having been premature. Fenella's mum was a first-time, accidental mother, aged 47!

Ember went on the baby swings for the first time this week too, and I went back again today with Siobhan and Rudy. As you can see, she enjoyed this too!

A few more random photos

2009-03-02T23:41:00.002+13:00

Bodiam Castle

2009-03-02T23:20:00.004+13:00

Simon recently got a freelance job creating a permanent model box for the theatre at a boarding school called Lancing in Sussex. We all went (very impressive school and lovely theatre manager) and then went along for a quick visit to Bodiam Castle, near Battle and Hastings. Simon used to go there quite a lot as a child and has a photo of him with his fmaily there, so he wanted to get a shot of himself and Ember in front of the castle. It was a nice day and the castle is great - one of the more complete ruins in England (most English castles are small piles of stone and you have to really use your imagination!). Ember was more interested in the ducks than the castle, but we got some nice shots!

Some recent photos...

2009-03-02T23:05:00.002+13:00

Ember and Freya

The TV addicts!

I love my tyre series...!

Looking grown up in dungarees (or bib-and-brace as Si calls them!)

Long overdue catch up

2009-03-02T22:44:00.002+13:00

Oops, hadn't realised it had been so long since I posted. I'll do a brief run down of events to date, then post some photos in another post. Ember is currently asleep so I'm making the most of the time I have!

Solids are going well, we are on three meals a day now and the occasional snack, although she doesn't always eat very much. That's not a problem at this age though as she is still getting all her nutrients from breast milk, it's more a matter of getting her used to different flavours and textures. And she now has... TWO TEETH! The front bottom ones came through together so no wonder poor Em was a bit scratchy and fidgety for a while. They have come through enough for me to be able to feel them if she bites down when feeding - not fun. Also, we are having to discourage her habit of trying to suck on people's chins as with teeth involved it's no longer cute, just a bit painful!

Favourite foods are: strawberries, garlic bread, banana porridge, mashed banana, cheese and tomato pizza, Organix crunchy carrot snacks, yogurt and fromage frais, tinned spaghetti, and pretty much anything she can pick up and feed herself (her aim is gradually getting better)

Least favourite foods are: toasted hot cross bun, mashed potato with spinach and broccoli, omelet (because it makes her choke).

I'm trying to introduce her to a range of food and quite often she'll have what we had the night before, mashed up a bit. She's going to be veggie for now, until she wants to try meat and then she can.

Movement wise, she can roll back to front but not the other way as she prefers being on her front. She's starting to try to pull herself onto all fours, but is still stuck in seesaw mode - her bum goes right up and she face plants, or she goes right up on her hands and splays her back legs froggy-style! I think she needs to do pilates as she's having trouble supporting her tummy in the air - she needs to work her core muscles :o) We are practising and getting better every day.

Sleeping is not going so well - she is waking 3 or 4 times each night, and waking up permanently between 4 and 6am. I'm trying to do sleep training, but I think I'm going to have to get more dedicated to it, and try it completely by the book for a couple of weeks and see if it works. We are currently existing in a permanent state of semi-exhaustion so something needs to change. However mum said she and I were both terrible sleepers so maybe it's in the genes. Watch this space...

Right, I'll go and post some photos now.

Ember's first solids (24 weeks)

2009-01-27T06:41:00.002+13:00

Ember had her first solids yesterday (25th Jan), starting with a sweet potato, carrot, parsnip and potato mash with mummy-milk. She had Organix baby banana porrige for breakfast and some more mash for lunch today. We'll stick with 2 meals for the rest of the week, adding in some finger foods, then try 3 meals next week. She seems to be taking to it well (despite the facial expressions!!) and it's not _too_ messy!

Will write a proper catch up soon, just now I'm going to do some gymnastics with Freya :o)

Advancements

2009-01-12T22:07:00.001+13:00

I forgot to mention two things - Ember can now roll from back to front, very slowly and with some frustration when her arms get in the way, and she can sit for quite long periods on her own! Very clever girl :o) She even managed to roll over uphill by the beach in Takapuna today :o)

General catch up

2009-01-12T20:54:00.002+13:00

I realised that I've posted a lot of photos but not a lot of info - mostly because Em is usually sitting on my lap! However she has now crashed for the night, and I've finished my play draft and essay, so am taking the opportunity to write.

Mum gave us a bit of a fright on the last night in Turangi - she was in a lot of pain, so much so that she nearly called an ambulance - so we left pretty early and came back to Aucks, by which time she was feeling a little better and slept ok that night. She rang her GP surgery but her GP was away so she made an appointment for the following Tuesday when he was back. She didn't look herself all week and Monday night was another bad one, and Graham (the GP) agreed there was something amiss on the Tuesday. He sent her back to the hospital for tests and she went, reluctantly. They did a CT scan and found she had a lot of fluid around her pericardium so she had to be admitted and fitted with a drain. She ended up having 350ml of fluid drained, and looked a lot better after it was done. She was in for 4 nights in all and now looks like mum properly again!

In between times we went up to Kerikeri to visit Gran and Poppa, and it was lovely to see them. Hot though, and very muggy - a bit hard in the car for Em as we had mum's with no air con, so we made lots of stops for shade, drinks, and boob for Em. It was good to look around up there as well and there are lots of nice little towns on the way (we avoided State Highway 1 as much as possible). On the way back we went via Leigh and stopped in a B&B for the night. Actually, I should just call it a 'B' as we didn't get breakfast! It had amazing views but not very good sound proofing, particularly when the town's fire siren went off in the middle of the night - I thought it was an air raid or a tsunami warning!!!

Simon and I went to catch up with his friend Jeff one night which was nice, and Si caught up with some friends in Onehunga one afternoon as well. Tonight we all went for dinner at Ruan Thai in Mission Bay which was bloody gorgeous (in John's words) and Ember was very well behaved but has just come in being hugged by dad, so it might be time for bath and food!

Happy New Year!!

Ember's photo shoot with Daddy...

2009-01-08T08:58:00.002+13:00

Tahuna Torea + 2 randoms!

2009-01-05T17:19:00.003+13:00

Trip North

2009-01-04T15:58:00.004+13:00

2009-01-01T08:30:00.000+13:00

Happy New Year all! We are off up North for a couple of days, will post once back!

Christmas and so on...

2008-12-28T21:26:00.002+13:00

Ember did well out of her first Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed pulling wrapping paper off her presents. She got plenty of Kiwiana including a Buzzy Bee (Kiwi Kids will understand) and a Russian Stacking Doll made into NZ native birds. She also got a couple of books, a silver bracelet engraved with her name, clothes and a silver Bunnikins spoon.

We went down to Hamiltron quite early and got there around 11am. Alice had been throwing up for some of the night (the jury was out as to whether it was a 24 hour bug or Xmas excitement) so was a little subdued at first but she perked up pretty soon. Isla and Lucy (both almost 3) were also in fine form and it was lovely to have Xmas with little ones around. We had a good spread for lunch including fab desserts and Ember looked resplendent in her gold dress. She was very smiley and happy and had lots of cuddles with everyone, although Rob made her cry for some reason (I think it was the facial hair!!) She thought Pen's mum, Pam, was hilarious for some reason and sat on her lap laughing and and laughing for ages. We spent the night in a lovely dog-friendly motel and Em seemed very comfy in the provided cot.

On Boxing Day we headed down to Turangi where my Aunty Jill and Callum live. My cousin Nicole was also staying with her daughter Isabella (6 like Alice) and it was great to catch up with them all. We had 2 nights there with great weather, lots of walks and general merry-making!! Mum gave us a bit of a fright last night with bad chest pains, but she seems to be feeling better tonight. I'll drag her up to see the GP tomorrow (Graham was my GP since I was a baby so I'd like to take Ember to meet him too) but we think she may have just been overdoing things and needs to take it a bit easier for the next few days.

It's lovely to see everyone but also nice to be home, and I'll have to do quite a bit of work on my play in the next few days. Will of course post photos as and when I have them.

Turangi

2008-12-28T14:01:00.001+13:00

Christmas Morning

2008-12-25T08:53:00.002+13:00

Ember meets Santa!

2008-12-23T08:48:00.003+13:00

We went to the new(ish) Sylvia Park shopping centre yesterday and since Santa was there we thought it would be a good opportunity for Ember to make a first impression! Apologies for the quality - mum doesn't have a scanner so I've taken a photo of the photo!!

Catch up post

2008-12-22T08:12:00.002+13:00

Hi all,

Well, we've made it safely to New Zealand and Ember was remarkably well behaved on the flight. We had a bassinet seat for her (it clips into the wall in front of the seats) and she slept almost the whole way. The flight attendants all thought she was gorgeous and there was lots of cooing. We had an uneventful stopover in Seoul and Si managed to get a couple of hours sleep on the benches at our gate, but apart from that neither of us slept much. I feel surprisingly fine though; I guess it's being used to missed and erratic sleep now!

We arrived in New Zealand at 10.25am on Saturday morning and there was much excitement at the arrivals gate. We just kind of pottered around on Saturday and went for a walk down to the waterfront but have realised we need to up the sun protection facilities on the buggy as the sun is much more fierce here and under 6 months babies are not allowed to use sunscreen, and should stay out of the sun completely. We are trying to rig something up with Velcro and a muslin as the buggy brolly we have is next to useless, as well as doing a Mary Poppins as soon as we got down by the beach where the wind was strong!

Yesterday we had an 'at home' afternoon for people to drop in, and quite a few people did. As well as all the 'olds', Ember also met Amelie again - she is nearly 6 months now, and starting to get very mobile. She can already roll over both ways and looks very close to crawling. We also met Marika, who is nearly 8 months - her mum Helen and I went to secondary school together - and Marika is gorgeous, very sociable and smiley.

We are heading to Hamilton on Christmas morning, and then going down to Turangi on Boxing Day, so Ember can meet all the rellies. Will post more soon, and photos as they come (expect lots!!)

In New Zealand!

2008-12-22T02:08:00.003+13:00

Proper catchup post soon!

Our Itinerary!

2008-12-11T04:40:00.003+13:00

Only 8 sleeps until we leave!!! Slightly scary thinking of facing a 24 hours + flight with small baby, but it's probably the easiest time to do it really :o) We are travelling light - Si is planning to take 1 pair of shorts, 1 pair of trousers, 2 tee-shirts, and his passport! Em and I may have a little more than that...

Here's our itinerary for anyone who needs it. (all times are local)

OUTWARD
Depart London 18/12/08 at 8.05pm (flight KE0908)
Arrive Seoul 19/12/08 at 4.00pm

Depart Seoul 19/12/08 at 8.05pm (flight KE0129)
Arrive Auckland 20/12/08 at 10.25am

RETURN
Depart Auckland 14/01/08 at 12.15pm (flight KE0130)
Arrive Seoul 14/01/08 at 8.10pm

STAY OVERNIGHT IN SEOUL

Depart Seoul 15/01/08 at 1.10pm (flight KE0907)
Arrive London 15/01/08 at 4.20pm

Yay!

Catch up Post

2008-11-28T08:14:00.003+13:00

So, mum was supposed to be coming over in September but was ill, and then for Xmas, but her operation was delayed and since they had to cut through her sternum, we didn't think it would be a great idea for her to travel so soon after. So, Simon, Ember and I are flying back to NZ for a month over Xmas and New Year! Mum can't drive for 6 weeks after the op (which was last night and seems to have gone well) so we'll be able to drive her around once we're there too. It will be so great for her to finally meet Ember, and we can introduce Em to the rest of my family as well. I have to say I'm quite looking forward to a summer Xmas too...

I've recently started a little social group in Whitton and there are three of us who meet regularly on a Thursday - Siobhan has baby Rudy, 18 weeks and Radhika has baby Leia (pronounced Lia, not like the Princess of the same name!), 11 weeks. It's great getting to know other mums in the area and talking baby talk, comparing notes etc. There are another couple of mums who might also be interested too.

Ember is doing well and can now hold herself up on her elbows happily and for a good length of time. She is getting very talkative and tries very hard to make herself understood! She's sleeping quite well and will usually go from about 10.30pm until 4.30am so I often get a 6 hour stretch of sleep (although sometimes I still can't sleep and have to check she's ok!!).

She just woke up and I've forgotten what else I was going to say, so I'll sign off (baby brain, it's a problem!!)

More Photos

2008-11-27T06:23:00.002+13:00

Mummy, you've made my thighs look huge in this photo!

Ember in her 'Bumbo'

Mmmmmmm, cow...

My lap has room for two!

Ember's audition for 'The Godfather - Part VI'

New Photos (13 weeks)

2008-11-11T22:25:00.003+13:00

Will comment shortly, but am holding Em at the mo and it's hard to type one-handed!

Ember's first job

2008-11-05T21:27:00.006+13:00

Before that though, here's one more photo of Ember in Norfolk which Shirley took - oh so cute!
And a random one of me and Em to show her super-girly outfit (don't look to closely at me though!!)

Ember and I are being product testers for Pregnancy and Birth magazine at the moment (the one i was in when pregnant), trying out different makes of baby gym. We get 8 altogether and I get to keep them all!!! I have to try one per day (to be clear, Ember actually does the playing, I just assist and observe!) then fill in a questionnaire and give each a score out of 5. So far we have tried 3 which have been very good, very bad and middling, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next few are like (especially the most expensive one (£64.99!) which has the tongue-twisting moniker of 'Tiny Love Activitot Tropical Isle Playmat' :o)

Blossom Farm 3-in-1 (Early Learning Centre) - 3/5

Disney 100 Acre Wood Play Gym (Tomy) - 1/5

Garden Friends Play Gym (Babies R Us) - 4/5

This one is really cool and I'm going to keep it!

Photos from Devon and Norfolk

2008-11-02T10:47:00.002+13:00

We had a bit of a travelling week last week as I had a Bath weekend, Simon had a job interview in Norfolk, and it was Bobs' birthday. We went down to Devon on the Sunday night after my course finished, back to London on Wednesday then up to Norfolk early on Thursday morning. It's a beautiful part of the country - quite 'new zealandy' in parts, and amazingly we were able to stay with Shirley and Peter, Simon's godparents who he hasn't seen in 30 years or so! They were lovely, very welcoming and easy to get on with, and on the Friday they took us for a bit of a troll around the local area. The Earl of Leicester has a lot of land up there and we drove through part of his estate, as well as visiting Holkham (pictured below) which is an amazing beach, and where 'Kingdom' (TV series with Stephen Fry) was partly filmed. I certainly wouldn't mind moving up here if the job comes off!
Simon with Shirley and Peter

In the theatre cafe on Cromer Pier, Norfolk

Ember and Pop having birthday cuddles

Ember and Nan

And again!

2008-10-23T23:52:00.003+13:00

Reb, who was in Si's year at Mountview, came to visit yesterday which was lovely. Em is getting a bit more social now, and doesn't sleep through _all_ her visitors, although still a fair proportion!

It's great that Ember is interacting with toys more, and really starting to try to pull herself forward on her tummy, but it also means she gets frustrated when she can't do something, and then cries! She really loves books though and it's really nice reading her stories and seeing her reaction to the pictures and the tone of my voice.

We are having a travelling week next week - Bath for the weekend, and Si and Em are coming this time as we are going to go straight down to Devon from there for Sunday and Monday night (maybe Tuesday, we haven't decided yet), then up to Norfolk on Thursday as Si has an interview at a public school called Gresham's who are looking for a Theatre Technical Manager. It turns out his godparents, who he hasn't seen for about 30 years, live about an hour's drive from the school, so it looks like we can stay with them which is fantastic.

Ember is also nearly too big for her moses basket, so Marion and Si have fished Freya's old cot out of the loft which I imagine Em will be moving into soon. Looks like we'll need to buy a travel cot soon too.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of Ember at 10 weeks old...

Ember and Reb having cuddles...

Concentrating on her arch...

In the carseat - she is rapidly getting to the third level of straps!

Heading for the popup farm

Pushups, Rocky style!

More cuddles with Reb

Crashed out on Daddy's shoulder

Simon took this one, don't blame me!

Daddy's Little Girl

2008-10-21T06:47:00.003+13:00

Elise (Si's mum) sent us a photo of Simon at about 2 months - the resemblance of daughter to dad is quite amazing!

All is going well - Em has a few fractious days, but then don't we all! She is starting to really interact now, when you read her a story she listens and looks at the pictures. She particularly likes The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child - must be the rhythm of the speech I think. She is now able to hold onto my fingers and sit up - I'll try to get a photo - but then spends the whole time trying to suck my hand! She'a also awake for much longer periods, even in the pushchair sometimes despite its apparent soporific effect.

She is now awake and feeding so I'm typing with one hand which is tricky! I'll therefore sign off and write more later. :o)

Vaccinations and too much expressing!

2008-10-12T21:51:00.002+13:00

Ember and I had our 8 week postnatal health checks on Wednesday and were both pronounced fit and healthy. Poor Em had to have her first lot of vaccinations - one in each leg - as well. She was very good and didn't cry for long. I think I cried more than she did! The nurse said she hates doing baby injections as she feels really mean, and I have to say I sympathise - I don't think I could do it.

This weekend is the first on-campus weekend for my Masters at Bath Spa. I drove down Saturday morning (the workshops start at 12 on Saturdays and 11 on Sundays) and made good time until I hit Bath, which you have to go through to get to the campus. The traffic is terrible and you are practically going through the town centre which is ridiculous as it's a fairly main route to other places. A couple of people on my course also come from out of Bath (including Patrick who lives in Kingston, only a couple of miles from where we live!) and have suggested a couple of alternate routes to try. Patrick and I may also car share sometimes if it works out.

I stayed in the YMCA last night which was basic but ok, and very reasonably priced considering you also get free continental breakfast (and can have a full english for £2.10 if you fancy it!). The hardest thing apart from just being away from Ember is all the expressing I have to do, and even then I still feel quite full and uncomfortable a lot of the time. I meant to bring some milk storage bags with me, but I forgot so I've had to pour all the milk away which is quite heart-breaking as well!

Si is in charge of Em over the weekend - I spent the week before expressing as much as possible so he can bottle feed her breast milk, but we got some formula as back up just in case, as when you are breast feeding there is no way of telling how much the baby is having at each feed. She's a bit of a snacker too, but hopefully they have worked out a system between them. I will be interested to hear how it all went when I get home tonight.

The MA is great - I am doing two modules this semester, and this weekend is part of the dramatic structure module. It's fantastic to have discussions with a group of like-minded people about plays, playwrights and play writing, and I really enjoyed yesterday. I came up to campus early today so I could use the library, but it wasn't open - d'oh! So I am in the Postgraduate Lounge instead.

Right, time to go express before class! :(

Photos from Bournemouth (7 weeks old)

2008-10-05T21:07:00.003+13:00

8 Weeks (and Mummy turns 29!)

2008-10-05T06:19:00.003+13:00

It's been a lovely week but tinged with disappointment as mum wasn't able to come. She was sent to hospital as they weren't sure what was wrong with her and were worried it may have been blood clots. It turned out to be pneumonia which is being treated with antibiotics (she had the muscle achy symptoms, but not the cough, sniffles, sore throat etc). However, during the diagnosis period they found an unrelated mass on a lymph node in her chest, which they think is a benign tumour, but will still need to be removed as it will continue to grow and would eventually start putting pressure on her heart and lungs. Mum is having a biopsy on Wednesday to determine exactly what it is, and then an action plan will be formed from there. Touch wood, it looks like she should be ok to come over at Xmas.

Aside from that, Simon, Ember and I went to stay at a little flat in Bournemouth, which belongs to Penny and Kev, friends of Andy and Marion. It was lovely, and although quite chilly we had sunshine, so went for lots of walks on the beach and by the sea. We stayed from Tuesday until Friday, which was my birthday, so we came back to London and had a really nice meal out at Cafe Venice in Whitton (wood fired pizza type place).

Last Monday I also had my registration for my MA at Bath Spa, and although the registration day was a bit of a waste of time, I am enjoying starting out with my first two modules. One is a theory-based session called 'Dramatic Structure' and the other is 'Theatre and Radio' in which we produce a script (for either theatre or radio funnily enough). Si and I have decided it's easiest if just I go to Bath for the weekend - it will mean driving down on Saturday morning, staying Saturday night and driving back on Sunday evening. It's going to be hard to leave Ember over night, but I know she is in good hands, and it just makes the most sense logistically. Otherwise we would have the expense of us both staying there, plus would have to try to work out Si being able to store and heat bottles for her. And it would be a bit of a wasted weekend for him, having to hang around Bath.

Ember seems to be getting longer and longer and I'm not sure how much longer she will fit in her moses basket! She is very smiley and starting to really react to stimulus, faces, toys etc. It's hard to believe she is 8 weeks today!

I'll post some photos of Bournemouth etc in a new post...

Weekend and Weighty Issues

2008-09-23T02:21:00.002+12:00

This weekend we had fab weather for once, so we went to Richmond Park on Saturday (Si, Em and me), and Bushy Park on Sunday (with Andy, Marion and Freya) for a picnic. I didn't take the camera to Richmond, but did remember it for Bushy, and took a few pics.

In other news, we went to the Baby Clinic today for her weight and height check. She is now 4.95kg (that's 10.14 pounds for those of the old school) which is in the 75th centile for her age. However, her length is 59cm which is in the 91st centile! I knew she was long, so it's nice to be proved right.

Only 4 sleeps until 'Nanna Jay' arrives - well we hope so, she hasn't been very well, so we have to hope she'll be ok to travel - there's nothing worse than a long haul flight when you're feeling rough.

Here are the Bushy pics (the last two are not of Ember by the way!!)

Photos of some cute expressions!!

2008-09-19T02:22:00.002+12:00

She's in the washing basket because she pooed on her bouncy chair and I had to wash it - how anti social!

Breastfeeding...

2008-09-17T01:01:00.002+12:00

It never ends!! I went to the 'breastfeeding cafe' in Richmond yesterday (not actually a cafe, but a room in part of the hospital where you can get support with breastfeeding problems, have a cuppa and meet other mums with similar age babies) as I still have one cracked nipple and pain when my milk lets down. Turns out we have thrush - Ember in her mouth and me in my nipple. Apparently it's a common side effect of antibiotics.
So basically the equation goes like this...
inexperienced mum = incorrect initial latch = blocked milk ducts & cracked nipples = mastitis = antibiotics = thrush!
Ah the joys of motherhood! Anyway, she said my latch technique is now perfect, so once I get the thrush cleared up Bob should be my uncle (instead of my father-in-law as currently). Unfortunately they can't prescribe the fix, so I'll have to go to the GP with my information sheet, and get them to prescribe it.

Anyway, here are some new photos of Ember with Ellie, and with (Crazy) Uncle Neil who popped in unexpectedly last night when the company car broke down during a London pick-up!

Musings on motherhood and random photos!

2008-09-15T03:26:00.002+12:00

It's amazing that Ember has now been in our lives 5 weeks, yet on the other hand it feels strange to think of a time without her. She's such a lovely baby, and every week - well every day really - she does new and amazing things. Her sense of play is really starting to develop now and you can see purpose when she manages to hit her wobbly robin toy, or reaches for my top while feeding. She also played 'dance' with Andy the other night - he was doing big arm movements in front of her, bopping along to Radio 2, and she started moving her arms as well.

It's a crazy thing being a parent - this tiny being appears in your life and suddenly there is one thing always in your mind. If they are sleeping you are listening for noises they make, wondering if they are ok, and if they aren't making noise you wonder if they are ok too! There's always a slight niggle in the back of my brain now - is she sleeping enough/too much, is she feeding enough/too much, should I change her when she's wet or wait until she poos (as usually when I change a wet nappy, she immediately poos in it!), is she warm enough, is she too warm - it's endless. Last night for example, she slept from 10pm till 3am, a long stretch for her at the moment, but I still woke up at 2.30am and wondered whether I should wake her for a feed (I resisted!!). I love it, but it is all consuming, and comes so all-at-once.

I have been pleasantly surprised by how quickly and easily I have adapted to less sleep. Small babies have to wake to feed every 3-4 hours as their tummies are little and can't hold very much so they get hungry again quickly. Most nights I'll feed Ember at midnight, and she'll wake again at 3am and 6am, but some nights she is hungrier and wakes every 2 hours or so, and sometimes she will sleep for 4 hour stretches. Mostly I don't feel very sleep deprived, and don't really nap during the day, and I feel quite good. It's better when she sleeps in her moses basket, and she is getting happier to do that thank goodness. Although I'm happy for her to co-sleep sometimes, it does mean I don't ever drop into a really deep sleep as I'm conscious she is there.

Breastfeeding is a funny thing. I always thought I'd find it easy, probably because mum did, but I've definitely had a few hiccups. At least I have plenty of milk, although that can be quite funny as if I haven't fed her for a while I get really full, and when she does feed, if she doesn't latch on properly straight way, milk starts leaking all over the place, and actually shoots out with some force sometimes too - I got her in the eye one night! i seem to be fine on the left side, but my right boob is still causing a few problems - I still have a cracked nipple on that side, and the milk ducts get quite hard and lumpy when she hasn't fed for a while too. I have quite small flat nipples (sorry if this is way too much information!!!) which a midwife said could be making it harder for her to latch as well. Still, we are both improving with practise, and she's getting bigger and putting on the required amount of weight so we can't be doing too badly!

We went into Mountview last Wednesday and true to form Ember slept through most of the visit. I didn't get any photos as I forgot to take the camera, but she had lots of cuddles with people even if she was asleep! Gemma came to visit on Friday as she is down in London for some training and we had a lovely catchup, and Ember even deigned to wake up for most of the visit :o)

Fab news - mum is coming over in two weeks, as well as at Xmas. I really wanted to see her, and for her to have cuddles with Em, so I offered to buy her a ticket to come over for her next holidays at the end of September. I managed to convince her to come, and despite having to send her via LA against her will I think we are both very excited. It will be great for Ember to meet her Nana Jay, and for she and I to have a proper 'mums' catch up.

Anyway, enough of the waffle, here are some random pics from the last week or so...

I was going to post...

2008-09-10T02:36:00.001+12:00

But Ember just woke up so I'm going to cuddle her instead! She was weighed at the baby clinic yesterday and is now 4.37 kg so growing well. We are off to Mountview tomorrow so I imagine she'll get lots of cuddles. I'll take photos and post them tomorrow afternoon. Right, cuddle time!

Photos from the weekend

2008-09-05T21:19:00.005+12:00

Sleeping in the big bed in the Dolphin Inn in Kingston - it was a chilly room so she slept in with us

OK, not actually sleeping...
Simon couldn't resist taking this at breakfast at the Dolphin
The beach near Kingston (Wonswood or something. The Erme Estuary)
With mummy on the beach
Cuddles with Nan

On the beach at Bigbury - the buggy is great on the sand
Trying not to get blown away at bigbury
Playing with her new toy (it has a mirror which fascinates her)

On dad's knee in Elise and Bob's house, South Brent

This is a very 'Simon' expression!
Ahh, one to save for her 21st!
I'm glad she didn't raise her finger here :o)

Little sleepy head - her favourite position for resting

Weekend in Devon

2008-09-05T21:18:00.000+12:00

We went down to Devon for a few days recently so Ember could meet Simon's parents (who have decided they will be 'Nan' and 'Pop') and the rest of the village. We went down by train which was interesting - I have now breastfed on the District line, and South West train service! She was very good though, she slept for a lot of the journey and fed for the rest, and really couldn't be accused of annoying or disturbing anyone. We managed not to take too much paraphernalia which I was pleased about, hopefully we'll continue the trend.

We had a lovely few days, and everyone in the village thought Ember was beautiful (naturally!). Elise and Bob had lots of baby time which was great, and various other people had cuddles too. We went on a couple of outings to Newton Abbott (much chavier than I remembered!), big Tesco and Endsleigh garden centre, and took Elise with us to Dartington where we tested out the buggy's all-terrain capabilities with a walk through the gardens.

For our last day/night, Simon and I went to Bigbury - a lovely beach not far from Kingsbridge, then found a really cute pub/hotel in a village nearby called Kingston and stayed there for the night. It was great to have some family time, and some time by the beach - we had a bit of sun, although it was also windy and bloody cold to be honest! Got some cute photos, although Ember slept through the whole thing.

I've definitely got the hang of breastfeeding now, and can do it any time, anywhere needed. Places I have fed so far include - the playground at Bushy Park, on the District line, in the garden at the local pub, in the car park in Kingsbridge, in a farm cottage driveway by the side of a dual carriageway... I did have to go to the GP as I have a couple of lumps which could turn into full blown mastitis, and have antibiotics which should hopefully clear that up. I think it's left over from when she first started feeding and I was too scared to take her off once latched on, even if it was uncomfortable. I'm pretty sure I have my technique down now, so once I get rid of the lumps, we should be fine. The initial let down still hurts a bit but other than that we are pretty good.

I'll post some photos separately, and I'm sure I've forgotten half what I was going to say, so will post again soon.

Catch up post (photos later)

2008-09-01T04:55:00.002+12:00

I realised I hadn't posted for a while, so thought I'd better do a catch up since it's Ember's 3 week birthday today! I have some photos to post, but we are currently in South Brent so it will have to wait till I get home.

We've had a few visitors now, and Ember tends to sleep through their visits, but it's been lovely to see some people. Simon's cousin Lise, aunt Liz, and Lise's three children Amy (8), Molly (6) and Sophie (3) were the first and the girls had a good play with Freya on the climbing frame as well as a cuddle with Ember. I don't think she opened her eyes once on that visit! Simon's other cousin Ben, his wife Vera, and their children Zoe (7) and Rosie (4) were next, on the Bank Holiday Monday, and Ember did them the courtesy of waking up right at the end of the visit.

Angela came to visit on Thursday with her baby Amelie who is 9 weeks old, and it was amazing to see the difference a few weeks makes. Amelie is much more awake and looking around loads, and a couple of kgs heavier which I definitely noticed when I had a cuddle!! I've got some lovely photos of them so I'll post them soon.

We came down to South Brent by train on Friday which was a learning curve, but went very well. I had to feed Em on the District line! I think I will soon be very blase about getting my boobs out in public - besides, I've noticed that people tend to be more embarrassed than I am anyway, and will look away so it's not too bad. Ember spent the first half of the actual train journey to Devon sleeping, and the other half feeding, and was pretty easy going about the whole thing, although I noticed she was a bit more unsettled than usual for the next day or so.

We have been officially discharged by the community midwife team and the Health Visitor has taken over now. She came to visit on Tuesday last week and Ember is now just over 4 kg (although she may have put on more since then with all the feeding she has been doing). I've got my red health book now (like Plunket books in NZ), and can take Em to the baby clinics at the GP surgery up the road which happen twice a week. They are a drop in service where you can have your baby weighed, ask any questions which come up and generally get advice, meet other mums etc. They also have post-natal classes which I think I will sign up for, to meet other mums in the area as much as anything else.

Elise and Bob have been delighted to meet Em and we have introduced her to a few people in the village. She's still being very easy going, although doesn't really like sleeping in her moses basket at night. We'll work on that over the next few weeks, although I think it's partly being in a new place and travelling etc. Bob is giving us his car, a VW Polo, as he doesn't drive any more, so we will drive that back up to London. We are thinking about trying to spend a night in Bigbury (beach-side hamlet in Devon) before we go back up, and heading back to London mid-week.

Anyway, I think that's about it for now, I'll post photos soon as I have some cute ones!

Projectile poo and other delights

2008-08-23T07:00:00.002+12:00

I had an exciting incident a couple of days ago (my definition of exciting has been revised slightly now that my days revolve around a rather demanding small person's feeding schedule!) involving projectile poo - Ember's not mine I hasten to assure you. I knew that babies often 'go' as soon as you take their nappy off, but hadn't yet experienced it for myself. Anyway, I knew she had 'been' (she's not subtle about it, it's very loud!) so I started to change her. I'd just taken off the offending nappy when Miss Charming let rip with a little fart and I thought 'oh oh'... Luckily I managed to move to one side in time as she followed through with a very impressive poo which got to a fairly impressive distance. It's also lucky that the floor is wooden veneer and not carpet! I couldn't stop laughing despite it also being pretty revolting - luckily breast-fed baby poo doesn't smell bad. So that's a lesson for the future... (I hope Simon gets the next such one!)

I went to the breast feeding clinic at West Mid today as it's still a bit painful when she latches on, but the midwife said my technique is fine. I've got to watch one side as it's a bit engorged and I could end up with mastitis if not careful, so she suggested feeding Ember in different positions to make sure all the milk ducts are drained. I can swap between the usual belly-to-belly position, the 'rugby ball' (under arm position) and the sitting-up-in-the-lap position. I've had a temperature for a couple of days (not consecutive) and the right side had a couple of lumps and was a bit red on one side which are all also signs of mastitis, so if it doesn't improve I'll need to see the GP as I may need antibiotics. I think it feels a bit better already though, after trying the different positions, so I'll see how I go over the weekend. The midwife also gave me a couple of samples of a different cream for cracked nipples (called 'Lansinol') which is supposed to be especially good, but also quite expensive, but if it works, it's worth it!

Ember and I are getting into a bit of a routine, and she has had a shower with me twice now which she seems to prefer to the bath. I'll try giving her a bath again next week once she's used to the feeling of the water and she may like it better. In the meantime, the shower is a good alternative.

In other news, a short (10 minute) play that I wrote is being put on as part of a season of 6 short plays by a company called 'Disclosure Theatre' (www.disclosuretheatre.co.uk). It's happening next week at the Tabard Theatre in Turnham Green. I'm going along to rehearsals on Tuesday afternoon, although I probably won't make it to the evening performances. If anyone would like more details, let me know :o)

Simon is still working at Mountview, doing bits and pieces in Construction which is great. I think he's looking forward to the bank holiday weekend though!

A few more photos (Ember's one week birthday!)

2008-08-19T06:40:00.002+12:00

Ready for her first outing with daddy - to the pub :o)

With surrogate big sister Freya (6), Andy and Marion's youngest daughter

Having a nap with daddy

The squishy hobgoblin face

Bonding time with Daddy

Cracked nipples (warning, explicit boob content!)

2008-08-19T06:30:00.003+12:00

Ahh the joys of motherhood! Now that Ember is feeding well and often, I'm suffering from cracked and bleeding nipples! I got some cream from Boots today which seems to be helping and I'll check my latching technique with the midwife tomorrow as that's usually the cause. But it's worth it to know she is feeding anyway.

Mum requested more details about the 'fold and shove' technique. Basically it involves grabbing your boob with the thumb on the top and the rest of your hand underneath and squeezing your boob so it's almost flat and your thumb is making the nipple point slightly upward. The you wait until baby opens her mouth wide, and bring her very quickly forward and shove her onto your boob as far as possible!

I've mastered the art of 'sleep-feeding' now as well, which is lucky as madam seems to like to feed on and off for most of the night. I'm also getting better at napping during the day, and not waking up at every squeak Ember makes.

I've been walking up to the high street or somewhere similar each day, and my stitches are starting to feel better so that's a relief. I usually manage to snatch a minute or two to tidy up a wee bit, but not often - I've been told that with a new baby you're allowed to let the cleaning slide anyway! However washing is definitely on the increase...

Breakthrough!

2008-08-17T03:07:00.002+12:00

Well, after a very trying few days, my little one has mastered the art of breastfeeding, which is a huge relief. We ended up taking her into West Middlesex hospital on Thursday as she just wouldn't latch on, and wasn't even taking the expressed milk very well, either through a syringe or a bottle. I was trying to avoid using a bottle at all as it can make it harder for them to breastfeed if they get used to it, but trying to syringe 30mls of expressed milk 8 - 10 times a day, plus finding time to express it, was logistically impossible and I had no time to do anything else, let alone sleep.

Anyway, we took her in and met a very nice midwife who showed me the 'fold and shove' method of getting her latched on, which worked! Ember fed for about 15 minutes while we were in there, but I was still concerned about being able to get her latched on when she was very sleepy which was most of the time. We took her up to see the pediatrician who checked her over and said there wasn't anything wrong that he could see, but that if her weight didn't pick up in the next 4 - 5 days we would need to bring her back in.

That night I woke up at 1.30am to try and feed her, and miracle of miracles she not only woke up and latched on, but she fed for over an hour! Since then there has been no looking back and I haven't needed to express any milk since, which gives me back a good few hours each day. I am also much more relaxed myself, and Ember is much more alert - must be the joy of having a nice full tummy. The midwife came today and she has put on almost 200grams in the last 2 days and is almost back up to her birth weight which is fantastic. Ember and mummy and daddy are now enjoying getting to know each other without the stress.

Uncle Neil is up this weekend with strict instructions to get lots of photos, so I'll post some more over the next couple of days. Currently madam is protesting that she is still in her pushchair, so I will sign off and let her out!

Just a couple of pics I forgot to put on with the birth post

2008-08-14T00:51:00.002+12:00

The first few days...

2008-08-14T00:44:00.002+12:00

I'm not sure I've ever been so tired in my life, but it's an amazing experience getting to know a new baby. I still can't really believe she's ours. Ember is a very quiet, sleepy baby, maybe due to her somewhat traumatic delivery, but unfortunately this means we're having a few problems feeding at the moment. She will latch on to the breast (sometimes - we have to work pretty hard to wake her up sometimes too!) but then goes into a trance and doesn't suck. Consequently I am now having to express milk for her, and then feed it to her via a syringe. I'm caught in a bit of a cycle of express, wake baby up, try to get her to latch, feed her expressed milk, put her to bed, sterilise equipment, then repeat cycle every three hours. At least my milk has come in properly now - there was a while when I was having to hand express into the syringe, and I was really worried she wasn't getting enough to eat and drink.

The community midwives have been great, although I have had some conflicting advice, and I'm going to a breast feeding workshop on Friday which will hopefully help. Once she starts feeding on her own, and hopefully crying to let me know she's hungry, it will be much easier. She's getting more alert and wakeful each day so I hope it won't be long.

I still can't sit too long due to stitches in a rather uncomfortable place, so will sign off. Next update soonish... :o)

The Epic Arrival

2008-08-11T20:05:00.002+12:00

So Ember is with us, but not without a fight! This is one little girl who didn't want to come into he world easily. Here's a bit of a chronology (not for he squeamish!)

We went into the hospital on Friday 08.08.08 at 8.30am for an induction but after waiting a couple of hours were told there were no beds, so we might have to come back in the evening. I was put on a monitor so they could check the baby's heart rate and contractions, and while I was on a bed came free - yay. We settled in as much as possible, but due to other people needing to be seen, and lack of staffing, I wasn't seen properly till 3.30 that afternoon. I was having some contractions, but not very strong or regular, and I was only 2cms dilated so they decided to administer the hormone gel which is supposed to bring the contractions on stronger. Six hours later they checked my progress, and I was only 2.5 cms! I was having regular, strong (but not all that painful) contractions so they didn't want to give me any more gel, but they decided to break my waters. That intensified the contractions but several hours later (by this stage it was Saturday I think, it all blurred into one a bit) I was... 2.5 cms!

They decided eventually that they would have to take me down to the labour ward and put me on the hormone drip (oxytocin?) and I was advised to have an epidural at this stage as the contractions were likely to get very intense very quickly. I asked lots of questions and eventually decided that it was probably the most sensible idea, despite having wanted to avoid it, so they put in the epidural and started the drip. Unfortunately, due to the metal work in my back they had to put it in a bit lower than normal, and I ended up with one patch on my back not covered by the anaesthetic, and hence had a lot of concentrated pain there with every contraction. I tried gas and air, but it just made me spacey, so I just had to breath through each one.

Baby was being calm in the womb too and her heart rate stayed nice and steady until the new shift midwife did something stupid with the hormone drip and suddenly I was in a lot of pain and baby was distressed, and I had the emergency team rush in, but they got it all under control quickly. To cut a long story short, when I was eventually allowed to push just after 11pm on Saturday night, I was pretty numb in the legs but managed to try all fours, which was my preferred labour position.

Nothing much happened though and after an hour they got the doctor in and I was put into stirrups (very dignified position - not!) Eventually they tried ventouse (a suction cup which they attach to the baby's head to try and help pull them out), but she still wouldn't come so ended up using forceps (with a nurse on the phone to the emergency caesarean doctor, thank goodness he wasn't needed) and she was finally born at 1.16am on Sunday. I was given an episiotomy just before they tried the ventouse, and consequently am sitting a little delicately now!

Ember Ruby Te Aroha is 8 pounds, 7 ounces and healthy despite a couple of wee scratches on her head from the forceps. Mum, Dad and baby are enjoying getting to know each other better, and despite a distinct lack of sleep we're all enjoying it so far!

Last baby-less post...

2008-08-08T06:14:00.002+12:00

Those of you who know Simon will know that he's not one to sit on his laurels (what are laurels anyway?) so luckily he's had a project to keep him busy between finishing his design for The Killing Game and the arrival of a new person in our lives. He's been building a climbing frame for Freya (the youngest (6 year old) daughter of Andy and Marion, with whom we are staying). He has mostly finished it now, bar sanding and painting, and it can also have other bits added on to it as Freya gets more confident with it.

Here's me at almost 42 weeks pregnant with the climbing frame. I didn't bother trying to climb it!

This was one of my projects, especially during the very hot period last week when I just couldn't do anything very active. It's kind of at a funny angle, but it's a mask I made which turned out like a bit of a tree spirit or something, so I hung it in a tree :o)
This is not a project, it's a rabbit (no, really?!!) - this is Mo, who is a hardcore bunny and chases the cats around the garden. I did clean out his hutch as one of my projects as well. He has a hutch to sleep in at night, but during the day he is free to roam around as he likes. He has been very interested in Simon's project, although not so keen on the sound of the electric drill.
So, it's our last baby-less night (unless the induction takes a really long time to kick in, please no) and we have to be at the hospital at 8.30 tomorrow morning to begin the induction process. The next time we are home, it will be as a family - very exciting! I hope that baby likes the world once she deigns to make an appearance in it, she's stayed safe and cosy inside for a very long time now. I can't wait to meet her properly and start getting to know this new little person that Simon and I have made.

Next post - baby photos!

Still pregnant!

2008-08-07T09:46:00.002+12:00

Yep, it's 11pm Wednesday night and I'm still pregnant. That means she has exactly 33 hours to come out on her own before she gets a prod of the medical kind! I really wish she would, it would be so nice to be in the birthing centre, use the pool for pain relief, and not have to be in the labour ward being monitored. Ah well, what will be will be (hey, that should be a song!). I keep thinking things are starting but they aren't so far.

Oh well, in 48 hours time I should have a baby - scary!

Still pregnant...

2008-08-06T04:21:00.002+12:00

I had a show this afternoon (no, nothing to do with theatre, and if you don't know what I'm talking about you probably don't want to!) which could mean things are moving along... Getting stronger braxton hicks contractions, but nothing yet that I could definitely say is a proper contraction.

I've done plenty of exercise in the last couple of days too, so hopefully that will move things along. At least I know that I'll definitely have a baby by Friday if not before - it's nice to have a deadline!

2cms...

2008-08-04T23:38:00.002+12:00

I had an appointment at the hospital this morning and saw one of the doctors there. We have booked in an induction for Friday if madam hasn't made an appearance yet. I had to go upstairs for a scan as the doctor wasn't sure if the baby was breech as apparently her head and bottom feel quite similar - that's a worry!! Anyway, all was fine and she was the right way up (i.e. upside down) so no worries about cesareans or anything. She does, however, look to be around 9 lbs (that's 4.1 kg for those who work in metric) which is rather large. Hmmm...

The doctor did an internal examination and a membrane sweep, which has to be one of the least comfortable things I've experienced, and apparently I'm already 2cms dilated, so hopefully she will come on her own in the next day or two. If I'm induced I can't go into the birthing centre, so I hope she does come under her own steam. Either way, at least I know I'll have a baby by Friday at the latest!

Tiredness

2008-08-03T22:12:00.001+12:00

Still pregnant, still waiting, still feel like every twinge will turn into a contraction, but they don't. If Miss Boyer-Willisson has not made an appearance by tomorrow morning, I have an appointment at the hospital to discuss options. I didn't think I wanted to be induced, but I have to say it's looking more and more appealing at the moment!

Pickles the Cat

2008-08-01T20:40:00.003+12:00

One of the three cats we are currently living with, Pickles, has become my best friend of late, and follows me around the house. He also seems to be willing to play the role of baby if mine doesn't hurry up and make an entrance...

This is the pushchair, set up as a travel system with car seat attached. I'm not sure if you can see, but under the car seat I think you can just make out a pair of white paws - that's Pickles in his new favourite sleeping place!

Here's a close up - doesn't he look cosy?!! Although it's very cute, I think I'll have to get some citronella oil or something as I don't want to encourage the cats to sleep in places where baby will be, for obvious reasons. Plus, being summer, although they've been frontlined, they are a bit flea-y and I'd like to keep baby's areas flea-free if possible (there's a tongue twister).
Now hurry up baby, before you lose all your possessions to the cats!

Come on Baby!

2008-07-31T22:32:00.003+12:00

Simon and I went out for dinner last night - just up to Whitton high street, but to a lovely little restaurant called 'Thai Tiara', for what was likely our last dinner out as a couple rather than a trio :o) There was a family there with a girl about 7 and a wee boy about 2 who was very cute, and we had a bit of a chat to them about babies, and finding family-friendly restaurants (which this most definitely was). I had a fairly spicy red curry in the hopes that the 'curry' legend might be true (apparently it has no basis in fact though) which was also delicious!

Nothing much else to report - Si's play is teching/dress rehearsing now so his involvement is almost complete, and I'm hoping to go and see the dress tonight or tomorrow. Apparently there is now a sweep stake about when baby will be born, and Si has his money on Friday! We shall see. Anyway, if she wants to be a July baby, today is her last chance.