Down on the farm

Had a nice weekend, visited Bockett's Farm on Sunday. Lots of lovely lambs, calves, piglets and babies of all varieties! Joe was big enough for the animal handling session and extreme levels of hysteria were reached when the rabbit and guinea pig were brought out. I thought we'd never make it home! The tractor wheels were still a source of great fascination but at least he noticed the animals this time! It was the first time I'd been there not pregnant so I was finally able to feed and stroke the animals. I'm now trying to persuade Simon to let us have a pet guinea pig. Met Andy and Aine in Kew Gardens afterwards for a stroll before the rain. Sounds like they had a lovely honeymoon.
Joe enjoyed seeing his old nursery pals at the drama session last Friday. They had lots of fun singing, dancing and making lots of noise on the recorders - they must have heard the noise in Twickenham. We're going to go every Friday and his pals Ryan and Reggie are too, so they can continue to play together.

She's a Deva lady...

Simon and I had a fabulous meal at Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road on the 7th. We went for the tasting menu, highlights for me were the foie gras, mushroom butter and the pineapple cocktail that had space dust in the bottom! Housewives favourite Jamie Theakston was there with his wife. Many thanks to Mum, Phyllis and Gordon who babysat for us that evening. As if that wasn't enough glamour for us we went to see Claire and Keith's house, belongs in a magazine if it's not already in one, we were green with envy on the way home!
Joe is going to go back to Singing Hands this week for their drop in class. He's taken up dancing in a big way this week so it should go well. Deva (fabulous name) the drama lady from Holly House is holding a free session for Holly House children on Friday so no doubt he'll come home dancing again! Sylvie is now seeming to focus on her black and white flash cards and appears to follow them so fingers crossed the opthalmologist can give us some good news soon. We've been invited to the Born Too Soon Graduates party at the start of next month. All the babies that have been at the unit since it started are invited. The Hodsons are going to go too so should be a nice afternoon. Vic gave me a bin liner full of gorgeous clothes that Evie's grown out of so I won't have to buy anything for a while. Sylvie will be very well dressed!
Astro is back at the vet for her X-ray. They're monitoring her tonight and then if the break is completely healed she'll get her freedom pass! Her favourite place to sleep the last couple of days is Joe's wigwam! He doesn't mind sharing with her though!

Gonna get myself connected

My new laptop has finally arrived so can hopefully post more often when Sylvie is asleep. All go as usual here! Mum has been here for a while helping out while Simon is in Geneva, need two pairs of hands in the mornings and evenings. Joe has settled back in to his new nursery and is making friends. Sylvie is sleeping really well at night now, her vision seems to be improving. We're still waiting for her opthalmologist appointment to have this checked. Our garden is probably going to be done in February so should be finished in time for Joe to start rampaging around. Astro is still in her cage recovering from the broken leg, she's perked up a lot this last week - by that I mean getting much louder! Madam is waking up so have to go....

More photos

The only known picture of the four of us!

The reality of building work

Andy& Aine come to visit (post wedding!)

The reality of work ing from home

Chloe, Sophie & Joe

The boy Mackie teaches Joe 'bag-wrestling'

On New Year's Eve we went to bed early. It was great!

I've also added some more photos on earlier posts below.....

News news news

A busy few days.

Friday 28th Sam & Paul & Siun arrived. Put Siun to be and we all sat up chatting til about midnight before the girls went to bed. Paul and I stayed up and polished off an entire litre of Lamb's Rum (thanks Conor) til about 3, then were both up about 3 hours later giving bottles to Sylvie & Siun. We sat on the sofa watching Iggle Piggle and Macka Packa (if you've done it you know, if you haven't you don't care...). It was Niamh's birthday so we opened champagne for breakfast (there was also some porridge) and started to feel 'good' again. (Ha!).

Off to the London Eye. Had some sort of champagne/vip/fast-track ticketey things so were all very pleased to skip the 3 hour queues and to top up the blood-alcohol levels. Beautiful sunshine, great views, and Joe loved 17 minutes of the 20 minute 'flight' then spent 3 minutes having a random tantrum banging against the doors (clearly marked 'Do NOT lean against the doors') while Niamh tried not to look terrified.

Happy New Year!

I realised that this blog is not only a way of keeping you lovely people up to date but will stand as a little record of this time, that perhaps we and the kids will look back on one day. So I'm going to try to do a few more posts, and try to cover the things the kids might be interested in in years to come....

Right now I need to say that life at home with Niamh and Joe and Sylvie is wonderful. I'm off work for a couple of weeks over Christmas, so I get to spend all my time with my three favourite people. Sylvie is a little smiler, she just grins all the time. She really makes me laugh. She has started to babble a little bit, tries to sit up all the time, and loves being nude, just like her brother. And Joe is a little nutter: he makes up words that we can't understand and says them over and over again, in a really insistent way, as if we should understand. (His current favourite is 'doctor' which he says with great confidence as he points to planes, trees, shopping trolleys, you name it). He runs around yelling and shouting and giggling and banging things. This morning he rolled around on the floor of his bedroom with me and Niamh and Sylvie, giggling and loving it. We do spend a fair bit of time 'attending to' Sylvie and Joe during the night and of course all day, but despite the lack of sleep it is all worth it.

I don't know if I've mentioned it but Joe gets in the shower with me (and/or Niamh) in the mornings. He loves his showers and baths. When we were staying at Breda's over Christmas, Joe stayed in the shower with me, then Niamh then Breda, pretty much all morning. While he's there he arranges things, like shampoos etc. It's hilarious.


Being a parent is great. Absolutely the best thing I've ever done.