Congratulations

Sorry it's later than promised, but the next recipient of "Where Women Create" is Amy! Amy, please send me your address and I'll get it on it's way to you as soon as possible.

Sorry I don't have a good story of how the name was chosen, no clever hamsters or cute little children ;o), the names were put in a bowl, held above Claire's head and she had to put her hand in and pick one out. Worked just as well :o)

I do have some more photos to post and hope to get them up later today.

xx

37 weeks

Being Monday (yesterday) it had to mean it was time for the weekly pregnancy photo update ;o)

 Claire is now 37 weeks pregnant and her due date is only 20 days from today. Claire has such a compact "little" bump but it is certainly solid and getting heavy and a bit uncomfortable now.

 On Sunday night she was very restless, popping up to unstack and restack the dishwasher while we were watching X Factor, and just didn't seem to be settling properly. I wondered if it was a sign that something was about to happen but she's still here ;o).  Yesterday was a hormonal day emotionally and in the afternoon Claire took herself off to bed for a nap while Emily and I went to Alyssa's little birthday tea. She felt much better when she woke up so obviously needed the rest.

And because Craig was laughing at Claire having to go outside in the cold for me to take photos, I  made him come out and have his photo taken with her :o)   He'll learn ;o)

xx
PS> Don't forget, there's still time to leave a comment on this post if you'd like your name to go in the draw for the Book Pass. I'll be drawing a name on Thursday and hope to post the lucky recipient's name on Thursday afternoon/evening.

Alyssa's first steps

Video courtesy of Emily =)

Look who turned 1!!

Alyssa turned ONE today!!

I can't believe how quickly this last year has gone, it doesn't seem that long ago that we were driving down to the hospital to meet the latest addition to the family. And now, it won't be long before we're going to the hospital again but this time we'll go going to meet our grandchild :)  So excited!! Back to Alyssa's big day though!

 She was interested in her presents and even tried to help open them (with a little bit of help from Mummy)

 (And a bit more help from big brother, Tyler!)

 For a while she took herself off for some time out, to survey the scene and take in how many people were there.

 Great Grandma's present was a hit as she's starting to enjoy putting shapes into holes.

 Her little friend, Peter, was on hand to help with the birthday celebrations.

 And she was more than happy to go to Daddy when he got home.

Though Mummy is always a favourite :)

What made the day even more special is that she started to walk. Theresa said she had taken a couple of steps on her own before but wouldn't just go. Today she started walking between her Daddy and me and then a bit later between her Mummy and me. Now that she's started I'm sure it won't be long before she's walking all over the place! 

Emily (who also started walking on her 1st birthday) managed to capture some of her first steps on her little video camera. Once she's edited it I'll put it up on the blog because it's too cute!!

xx