Here comes the sun...

Great weather yesterday. We had our first day with the glass doors totally open onto the garden. It finally felt like all the hassle had been worth it. Joe could run around and we tried out our new deck chairs, it was a lovely day, really warm too. You feel so much better when the sun comes out. We went for Dim Sum in the afternoon to the local Chinese where Joe discovered a love of squid, won tun pastry and jasmine tea! No more rice cakes for that boy! Sylvie was paraded around the restaurant by every member of staff, I was half expecting the chef and dishwasher to come out at one point. She met every customer in the restaurant too, we'll be going back so I can eat more!

Baby love

Alex Goldring made an early appearance this week, at an impressive 9lb 5oz he can join Sylvie's 9 pounder club. Andy and Aine are expecting a little bundle of joy this year too. Congratulations everyone!

And I miss you..

So apart from being ill what have we been up to? Met Andy, Aine and James at Kew Gardens on Saturday. They had giant rabbits on display and Joe had a rampage around the interactive kids area with James. The low point was that we lost Joe Bear, that's right, his grubby bear that he takes with him everywhere, he's gone on holiday for good this time! We had to sit Joe down and explain that we had to say bye-bye bear, I think he understood that something important had happened and it involved his pal, either way we didn't have the hysterics at bed time that we've had before when we mislaid him so I think he understood. Monkey and rabbit have stepped up to the mark and he's stopped mentioning him. Except he's in literally every one of Alex's pictures, so we're debating whether to delaying putting them up on the wall for a while!
Booked our bivouac for Camp Bestival, really looking forward to it.

My camera never lies...

Here are some of the pictures that Alex took for us. There are so many good ones, I didn't know which to choose! Sorry about the formatting but not feeling very well at the mo so can't be bothered fiddling around with it. Will put some more on Flickr soon.

Jinglebaxi

Joe's word of the week is "Jinglebaxi".

We don't know what it means, but he says it in a sort of "Yeah I know, it's just SO jinglebaxi around here!" way.

Supergrass / The Green Green Grass of Home

We had our astroturf put down yesterday. As you can see from the photo, it looks exactly like real grass (at night). Fortunately it also looks great during the day. And I don't have to mow it.

Before / After

We're both quite relieved cos this represents the end of well over a year of planning / building / gardening that started out as 'shall we open up the downstairs and tidy up the garden'. We're pleased with the result but it was all a bit painful.

Men with(out) hats

Joe now insists on wearing a hat in the bath. The hat is a tractor. Or a horse or a barn. We have a bathtime farm set (thanks Sharon!). I also have to wear a hat. We have recently started to wear chest wigs. Well, stomach wigs actually. These are also farm-related. Joe will shout "Tractor - hat!" or "Piggy - Tummy!" and instructions must be followed.

Here are some photos from Centerparcs. Centerparcs rules.

It's the final countdown...

Photo session with Alex went very well on Sunday, we're looking forward to seeing the photos in a couple of weeks.
The last few details of downstairs have finally taken shape, Simon put up the new blinds at the weekend and took the curtains down. So we have a lot more light downstairs now. Our deckchairs have been unpacked and we enjoyed them (briefly) at the weekend. Astro is out of her cage so her six foot has been freed up and we feel like we have a lot more space.
Our lawn has been delayed as James had a falling out with the lawn company! Should be another couple of weeks but Joe has been enjoying the garden every day regardless (there's sand everywhere and a few flowers have had their lives cut short!).
Sylvie is slowly getting back into the groove of sleeping, fingers crossed and her eating is improving again.

It's going to be a fine night tonight

After keeping us all on our toes, Jane a friend from my old NCT group gave birth to another daughter yesterday, Olive Matilda. Congratulations!

Keep on running

We have signed up to the Sport Relief mile challenge. The Phil & Ted's should be well up to pounding the Embankment on 16th March. All we have to do now is persuade Joe to sit in the pushchair and not run it too!

Park life

Had a really great time at Center Parks this weekend. We had a lovely lodge in the middle of the forest, we saw baby deer, rabbits and ducks from our window every day. We're feeling fit now after cycling around on our bikes all weekend and doing lots of walking. I also managed to fit in an aerobics class so I felt very virtuous on my visits to the Spa. The children went to nursery for a few hours each day to give us a break and we had a babysitter two nights. Joe loved the nursery and came out each day with bundles of paintings that he'd done. I have to admit I wasn't expecting much but I had a really great time. They really do go out of their way to make it so easy for young families, everything you can possibly think of is there. We had such a good time that we've booked up again for next year!

On the garden front, Clive, the plant man, comes tomorrow to put some plants in the bed and the lawn goes down on Thursday. It's really looking good now and we're very pleased with it. Can't wait to get the deck chairs out there.