Update for the week

It's been a fairly busy week with Emily being on half term, Claire on maternity leave, Jon's birthday, some ebay selling and an exciting purchase for me ;)

 Let's start at the beginning though. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was Alyssa's 1st birthday on Monday and then it was Jon's ?? birthday on Tuesday. Claire and I went to the South African shop in Redhill and got Jon some Castle beers, biltong, peri peri spice and a couple of other bits as part of his present. (As usual when we go to the South African shop, we also bought some curry powder, chocolate, crisps, etc., etc. ;o)  It's fatal!!  )  Jon had arranged to work from home that day, so didn't have his usual commute to work, which made it a more relaxing day for him. In the evening Jon, Emily and I went to our favourite Indian restaurant for dinner but by the time we got home we were all so full, Jon decided against doing his birthday cake. We made up for it on Wednesday though and he blew out his candles when he got home from work.

 Wednesday was also the day we had to wait in for the delivery of the pram, car seat and cot mattress. It was due anytime between 8am and 6pm but fortunately got to us just after lunch.  Claire unpacked everything and set up the pram - she says she needs the practice so she knows what she's doing once Alice is here ;o)

 We did wonder if the neighbours curtains were twitching when we went out to try fitting the car seat in my car - again to make sure we know what we're doing for bringing Alice home from the hospital. Luckily it's fairly straight forward so I don't think we'll have any trouble.  I can't believe it's only 16 days till due date - eek!! ;o)

 As I mentioned at the top of the post, Emily has been on half term this week. We've enjoyed not having to get up at 6am (or earlier in her case) and having a chance to relax a bit. She was finishing off some homework this afternoon but I think she's about done now.

 She's also been playing her guitar a bit and on Tuesday went to a band practice with some of her friends. By the sounds of it they didn't do a lot of practicing that day but they had a great time hanging out together.

 This is my exciting purchase :o)  :o)      I put my 400D and 40D on ebay as well as one of my zoom lenses, in the hope that I would raise enough money to be able to go and buy this one. I got nearly enough to cover it and Jon said to go ahead. Why did I need this camera when the others were doing a good job?? This one has video as well as a better spec for photos. I'm thinking that the video is going to come in very handy once Alice is here and I'll be able to post little bits here on the blog too :o)  I'm still working my way around the camera but, so far, it seems pretty straight forward. I'm waiting for a better spec SDHC card to arrive so I can shoot the video and after that I'll have to get Emily to come and give me some lessons in video editing and posting. So glad she knows what to do :o)

And this little man is just the cuddliest, most affectionate cat! He comes and curls up next to me on the sofa in the evenings and is happiest being stroked and cuddled (but don't pick him up!). He was curled up right against me in this photo but when I called his name he looked up and I got this shot. Sweet boy!

I'm now off to watch X Factor. Hopefully I'll get to post more regularly but we've got a lot of little bits to do before baby arrives so please bear with me.

Have a wonderful weekend.
xx

Loving this song at the moment.

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.