Joe's walking

Joe is well and truly on the move now. His walking has improved so much, he's well and truly independent now. I think the squid that he tried when we went for lunch with Sharon and Judith must have done the trick! If he stands still long enough for me to take a photo I'll post it on here.

Another bean on the way!

We have an announcement to make. We're expecting a new addition to the Haines family on 20th September. All was well at the first scan so fingers crossed and watch this space.

Welcome Lydia

John and Vicky's daughter Lydia Jane arrived on Saturday and all are doing well by the sounds of things. Congratulations all of you.

Joe's on the move

Back from Ardara to the sunshine again. Weather in Ardara was terrible, hail, snow and gales.
Joe took his first steps in Mum's house, about eight or nine and didn't fall over. So the fun will really start now! We saw Siun who is gorgeous of course, forgot the camera so I don't have any photos of her.

On Thursday night we won the quiz at Nancy's with Paul and Sam, won two bottles of wine and a tin of Roses which didn't last very long! Paul and Simon cooked us all a lovely breakfast on Mother's Day and took us out for dinner at Danny Minnie's that night too, we're worth it of course! Mum took us all out for lunch on Monday too so we're all a few stone heavier than when we arrived!

Congratulations!

Sarah gave birth to Rose Mathilda on Saturday, mother and baby both doing well. Congratulations all of you, we're building up a substantial Ardara baby posse! Congratulations too to Sam and Paul who've become Aunty and Uncle!

What have we been up to?

Joe and I had a lovely day at Kew Gardens on Friday. The weather held out for us and the crocus carpet had come into bloom that morning. Luckily Meg gave us one of her guest passes so we didn't have to pay over eleven pounds to get in (!) and Gill gave us a lift so we didn't have a marathon journey. The Mums are going out to Twickenham this Friday evening, leaving the Dads babysitting while we try out the new tapas restaurant. Teddington is buzzing with excitement now that Cafe Uno has been replaced with a very flash looking Chez Gerard, lovely except I'm not sure that they'll welcome being overun with Mums and buggies after the library sing song on Thursday mornings! Joe and I are going to have a look at another nursery as the Asquith nursery still doesn't have a place for him. Gill and Finn are coming with us so the two boys may end up at nursery together.

Sophie had her third birthday party on Saturday at Fantasy Land in Newbury, a huge soft play centre for children. The children had a great time but my ears are still ringing with the noise! Sophie looked to have amassed vast amounts of booty so I hope they're what she wanted.

Jane and Jamie look set to move in just around the corner. All being well Joe and Iris will be classmates as we're all within the catchment for St Mark & St Peter's round the corner. Hopefully Iris' grandad won't interfere in this!

Adventures of Joe

Joe had his ten month check up with the health visitor yesterday. His weight has stayed constant in the 75th percentile at 10.18 kilos and his height is also in the 75th percentile at 74.5cm. She agreed with me that he is probably going to bypass crawling, hard to disagree as he walked around her office and the waiting room holding on to the furniture! I must warn Mum to move everything away from his little grasping hands and two razor-sharp teeth or he'll wreck the place, he already shows a propensity for filing as he goes through the cabinet discarding pieces of paper everywhere! He also managed to call Conor on my mobile this week and was babbling happily into the phone when I found him. He also left a message on Mark Hodson's work phone last week!

Tomorrow, if the rain holds off, we're going to go to Kew Gardens with the NCT mums and babies, so pray for good weather.

Sophie is 3 tomorrow and we're going to go to her birthday party at Fantasy Land (!), apparently it's a soft play centre so no doubt Joe will have plenty of hair pulling opportunities.

Beate our cleaner is getting married on Easter Sunday in Poland and has also just found out that she's pregnant. She has her first scan next Monday and is worried that at 31 she's too old! Oh how I laughed.

Not long now till we go to Ardara. We're really looking forward to seeing Siun and Paul has organised a packed weekend agenda for us. Hopefully my passport will have arrived by then, bearing in mind I had to send a third set of photos.