28 week scan

- Baby is now 28 weeks
- Still a girl
- Kidneys are borderline sizewise
- One more scan in 4-6 weeks time to re-check kidney size
- Currently breech presentation (watch this space)

Special Supper

Georgie turning three....

- Birthday Cake - Part II...this time with a Power Ranger on top

- Daddy at home to help celebrate

• - Big brother doing his best to share(!)
• - Parcels from our friends in the UK, loving the one that had a Thomas shirt wrapped up inside. It goes 'peep peep' like a train when you press it, and I am struggling to get it off him to wash!

- A rainbow peeking out from the clouds

1. 

My baby is nearly 3!

I can't believe that my baby boy is going to be three years old in about eight hours time! It seems like only yesterday that I was eight days over my due date and under threat of induction. He must have known that I wanted something to happen, because at 5am on the 12th I went into labour naturally, spent most of the day at home and ate a hearty lunch of sausage and mash with my in-laws, before realising at about 5pm that my contractions were every 5 minutes, lasting quite a long time and were pretty painful! Simon dashed to get me in the car and we drove the mile or so to the hospital in Essex. The photo is me on my actual due date - March 5th...It's become a tradition on Harry & George's birthdays to look at their newborn photos and the albums we have of them from then up to now. I love remembering the early days and was a voracious camera wielder trying to capture every change in the boys. I think they really enjoy seeing themselves too.On arrival at the hospital, the midwife examined me and said I was 6cm's dilated - it was just the best news I'd ever heard following Harry's labour which was induction, back-to-back, failure to dilate, etc etc. I asked for an epidural and this was administered quickly enough for Simon to pop out and grab me a cheese and pickle sandwich (I never forget to eat!), watch some Parkinson on TV and catch my breath for the third stage of labour. The midwives let the epidural wear off for the pushing stage, so I swore at them a bit for not telling me they'd do that, but I'm so glad they did because it was the most amazing feeling being able to deliver George all by myself.

He was delivered onto my tummy and I think I was in shock at having a new baby when Harry was just 15 months old himself and had only taken his first steps that week. Georgie was born at 12.04am weighing in at 9lbs 1oz, 53cm long and head circumference of 35.5cm. That was a 'small' baby in relation to Harry who was 9lbs 11.5oz!

Now here we are three years later living our adventure in San Francisco.

This morning, George began his celebrations with a Spiderman cake at our morning park day. Tomorrow he will be at pre-school and is taking a gift and cookies in to share with his classmates. We'll be having a birthday tea for him at home in early may when his Grandma Linda & Grandad Jim are visiting - so there is much excitement to come!

A nice cup of tea

At 4pm in my house (well, actually if I'm honest, it's probably whenever I can find an excuse to put the kettle on), everything does stop for tea....

The boys today decided that they would join me, so after much deliberation over which cup to choose, I made a brew and we sat down to drink it. The cups were all gifts from people back home, and I enjoyed telling the boys which one was from whom. It reminded me of the song.....

EVERYTHING STOPS FOR TEA

Featured in Buchanan's 1935 comedy film, "Come Out Of The Pantry"(Goodhart / Hoffman / Sigler) Jack Buchanan

-

Every nation in creation has its favourite drink

France is famous for its wine, it's beer in Germany

Turkey has its coffee and they serve it blacker than ink

Russians go for vodka and England loves its tea

-

Oh, the factories may be roaring

With a boom-a-lacka, zoom-a-lacka, wee

But there isn't any roar when the clock strikes four

Everything stops for tea

-

Oh, a lawyer in the courtroom

In the middle of an alimony plea

Has to stop and help 'em pour when the clock strikes four

Everything stops for tea

-

It's a very good English custom

Though the weather be cold or hot

When you need a little pick-up, you'll find a little tea cup

Will always hit the spot

-

You remember Cleopatra

Had a date to meet Mark Anthony at three

When he came an hour late she said "You'll have to wait"

For everything stops for tea

-

Oh, they may be playing football

And the crowd is yelling "Kill the referee!"

But no matter what the score, when the clock strikes four

Everything stops for tea

-

Oh, the golfer may be golfing

And is just about to make a hole-in-three

But it always gets them sore when the clock yells "four!"

Everything stops for tea

-

It's a very good English custom

And a stimulant for the brain

When you feel a little weary, a cup'll make you cheery

And it's cheaper than champagne

-

Now I know just why Franz Schubert

Didn't finish his unfinished symphony

He might have written more but the clock struck four

And everything stops for tea

First American Baby Shower

Maria had her baby shower a few days ago and I was very excited to be invited, because this would be my first proper American Baby Shower. This is Maria's 3rd baby - she has two sweet boys both 15 months apart like me, and she's now expecting a girl in early April. It's lovely to share my pregnancy with a new friend, and exciting that our situations are so similar.

When she was opening her gifts, any clothes were hung onto this clothes line and hung around the room - all the tiny pink garments looked way too small for anyone other than a doll to fit into....oh, how I've forgotten how dinky newborns are.

This last photo is of a melon that Maria's friend and co-hostess, Iliana turned into a crib. It looked amazing in the 'flesh'.

Maria and Sivan are together organising a baby shower for me on 27th April, which I am very excited about. My mum will also be in the country at the time, so I'm glad that she'll be able to share this time with me as she's missed so much of my pregnancy because we're living so far away from eachother.

Skydive

So here was me thinking Simon and George were catching a crafty 40 winks after Sunday lunch......nooooo, apparently now that Simon has taken up skydiving he needs to practice different positions so that his muscles gain 'memories'. This practice will help him to hold the mid-air positions when he jumps out of the plane as demonstrated here......George just decided to hop up onto his Daddy tandem-style! I am very proud of Simon for taking on a new hobby and he is really enjoying every aspect of it. He has already completed 2 out of the 7 stages. I persuaded him to buy a copy of the first jump that he did so that the boys could see what he'd been doing - it's now the most requested DVD in the house, and I imagine that I'll have at least 3 adrenaline junkies to worry about over the next 20 odd-years!

March Madness

We seem to have been really busy for the past couple of weeks, so I've tonnes of photos to upload, and of course tonight I am now having trouble getting them to load onto the site......hmmm
This is Harry last week arriving at Heather Farms Park for a playdate - accessorised to the hilt - scarf, pirate patch and (you can't see it) pencil behind his ear.....he's seen 'Handy Manny' on the TV and got the pencil idea from him!



The big 'A' is the latest project that I'm doing with the boys. They have begun to ask me about road signs, what they are telling us, which letters are in them, and they now shout 'STOP' every time they see a stop sign, so I decided we'd try and find the alphabet in every day life. Let's be honest here - they know that 'M' is for McDonald's and can spot a Coca Cola truck at 50 paces, even though they don't drink soda - oh yes they really are a marketers dream! So I found an 'A' in Staples, but haven't got much further yet....

On another note, my mum is amazing and every couple of weeks without fail, she manages to post a card, letter or magazine to the boys from England. They get so excited when we check the mail box and they always wonder if there is something for them. This week she sent them chocolate easter chicks - which amazingly managed to remain intact despite travelling across an ocean and over 5,500 miles. The trouble is, now they are expecting such an exciting treat each time they get a parcel - talk about Pavlov's Dog!
George has already received lots of birthday cards in the post, but we are saving them all for Thursday. He is convinced he's going to be 4, bless him. When I try and remind him that he's actually only going to be 3, he gets very cross with me!

My Baby Bump

These are just some of the amazing shots that Sivan took of me the other week. Since then, my bump has had a huge growth spurt and I am much bigger! She has a great talent at putting the subject at ease, and amazing composition ideas.
As this is my last pregnancy, I've been really enjoying everything that goes with it (when I'm not complaining about being tired, achey, my restless legs, etc etc!) I've been toying with the idea of henna-ing my bump when it's a bit bigger. There's a local shop that sells a maternity henna kit for bumps and it looks great. I love the idea of doing a belly cast, but just don't know what I'd do with it, but maybe some photos of a henna'ed bump might be quite cool....

Outnumbered...

We met our moms group at a new park today in Concord - it was lovely and sunny (am loving the fact that there are no puddles, no mud and no rain for the Harry & George to dig, splash, run, swim in at the moment!) and I've been promising the boys that we'll take our bubble set out with us, so we remembered to pack it in the car as we set off. As you can see from the photo, it was pretty popular with everyone......what I'm wondering is - where are all the other grown-ups?!!