Day 74 - Sophie at six months

It’s Sophie’s half-birthday today.  I can’t believe she is six months old already – time really has flown by!  Being six months old means that it is time to start weaning and so she had her first taste of solid food this afternoon – yummy parsnip purée.  She seemed to enjoy her first taste of food (although she did pull some funny faces whilst I was feeding her) and enjoyed putting her hands in the bowl and smearing it everywhere.  I’d forgotten just how messy this stage is but at least some of it got eaten and seemed to go down well.

Day 11 - Sophie's christening

 

Sophie was christened at our church today in her mummy’s christening gown and her daddy’s christening shawl (which his great-grandmother made).  It was such a special day and so lovely to celebrate with family and friends.  The service included two hymns that we had chosen – “Great is thy faithfulness” which is a particularly special hymn for us as a family and “O Lord My God (How Great Thou Art)” which I love because it is so full of praise for all the wonderful things that God does and we have so many things to thank Him for as a family.

Pod is here!

We are thrilled to announce that Pod has arrived! Baby Sophie Elizabeth was born in the pool at home this morning and weighs in at 8lb 10.5oz – a whole 3lb heavier than her big sister was at birth! Jessica has been absolutely fascinated with her little sister – she met her within a few minutes of Sophie’s arrival and kept saying ‘baby’ over and over again and wanting cuddles and kisses with her. We have had such a lovely first day with the new addition to our family – Sophie is absolutely gorgeous and we are so thrilled to finally meet her.

Thirteen on the thirteenth

It is thirteen years today since my hubby and I first got together. It was a Friday 13th just a few hours after I left the house declaring that I enjoyed being single and was going to stay single for a while. I’d never thought of Michael as anything but a good friend but something changed that night and within a few days I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. It’s not always been an easy road but we’ve travelled it together and hopefully we’ll continue to do so for many more years.

Charlie's naming day

Lovely day celebrating at our friends' baby Charlie's naming ceremony followed by afternoon tea which was very yummy and Jessica enjoyed getting to eat lots of cake for the third day in a row! The ceremony was lovely, particularly the speech written by Charlie's parents about how they feel so complete now he is here, what they wish for him, and their promises of love, respect and acceptance as parents. Admittedly my favourite moment of the ceremony though was Jessica saying 'mummy' for the first time - she has always said 'mum' or 'mum-mum' before so that was just magical!

Jessica's 2nd birthday party

We have had a lovely family birthday party for Jessica today at Grandma and Grandad’s house (they have a very big garden which has been fantastic for all the children to be able to run around in). We had a bouncy castle which the children absolutely loved and as usual I ended up doing enough food to feed the five thousand. Jessica enjoyed seeing the family and playing with her cousins and has had another lovely day. We still have lots more presents for her to open so her birthday celebrations will continue to last for a few more days!

Jessica's 2nd birthday

Jessica has had such a lovely second birthday – she enjoyed opening her presents and cards, playing with her new toys, seeing her birthday card being read out on CBeebies (although I think Mummy was more excited about that one!) and all the visitors who dropped by. We had a little tea party in the afternoon with one of her friends from the baby signing class who is a couple of months younger than Jessica which was great fun. Jessica loved her In The Night Garden birthday cake and was very quick to pull the figures off and start eating them!

4th wedding anniversary

Four years ago today my lovely hubby and I got married. Such a wonderful day full of so many happy memories. I still hold the record for latest bride amongst my friends (32 minutes late – fortunately there aren’t many weddings at our church so it didn’t cause too much trouble other than perhaps to Michael’s nerves!) The last four years have been amazing in so many ways and very hard at times but I do feel we are stronger for facing all that we have faced together and I hope we’ll have many more happy years of married life together.

Space birthdays

I discovered this site via a friend's blog and it appeals to the geeky side of my nature. I seem to have very recently celebrated a significant birthday on Mercury (140 – I think I look quite good for my age!) and have another milestone birthday coming up on Mars - my 18th - on 16th March. Which rather conveniently happens to fall on a Saturday. Would it really be very geeky of me to have an 18th Martian birthday party and invite my friends to come dressed up as aliens? I'm sure I could find an alien costume for Jessica...

Introducing baby Scarlett

I have a new great-niece – baby Scarlett was born earlier today and looks absolutely gorgeous from the photos that I have seen and very much like my nephew! Many congratulations to my nephew Craig and his girlfriend Charlie on the arrival of their little girl. Scarlett’s arrival brings the total of great-nieces and great-nephews to ten (four great-nieces and six great-nephews). I’m not quite sure yet when I will get to meet the latest arrival to the family but would like to wish Craig and Charlie all the best for the coming weeks as they get to grips with parenthood.

Michael's birthday

It was Michael’s birthday yesterday and we ended up going out for a Chinese meal with friends. Considering that we left it to the last minute to organise (which is fairly typical for us!), there was a reasonable size group of us which was great. It was a lovely evening and I also made Michael a very chocolately birthday cake. Unfortunately Michael had to go off to work afterwards to prepare for an event that he’s working on today so didn’t get to relax quite as much as he would have liked, but he enjoyed spending the evening with friends.

Thank you for the music(als)

Spent the afternoon at a surprise party for the director of the am-dram group I used to be involved with. After about fifty years of directing am-dram shows, she decided to step down after the most recent production of Kiss Me Kate and so today was a chance for lots of people who have been involved in various shows over the years to say thank you for all the hard work she has put in. It was good to see lots of the people that I have done shows with in the few years I was involved in the group.

2nd wedding anniversary

This time two years ago, Michael and I were celebrating at our wedding reception. Our wedding day was fabulous – I don’t think I stopped smiling from the moment I woke up that morning until my head finally hit the pillow that night. I feel very blessed to have had two years of married life with such a wonderful supportive and loving husband. The last two years have not been the easiest by any means, but I am so glad to have had Michael by my side during them, and I hope we will get to spend many more years together.

Birthday girls

My birthday has almost crept up on me this year without me noticing it – there has been so much else on my mind. I have received so many lovely ‘happy birthday’ messages via phone, email and online and once again I feel very blessed to know I have so many lovely friends out there. I had a lovely evening being back home with my family – I always try to make sure my twin sister and I can spend time together on our birthday – although unfortunately Michael was working on an event so couldn’t come down with me for the evening.

Another evening with friends

We seem to be doing quite a lot of socialising with friends and family at the moment which is great. Tonight we were out for a meal at the local all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet to celebrate a friend’s birthday. I love all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurants – unlimited amounts of crispy duck pancakes – yummy! Although these days, the amount of Chinese food I can eat has reduced somewhat so I can’t quite take as much advantage of it as I used to. But even if I had to ease off on the duck pancakes, it was still good to spend an evening with friends.

Kevin's 50th birthday party

Another beautiful day and another family gathering – this time we were heading off to spend the evening with my family and celebrate my big brother Kevin’s 50th birthday. Unfortunately one of my brothers was unable to make it to the party which was a shame because otherwise we would have managed to get all nine of us together (which doesn’t happen very often – the last time was my dad’s funeral so would have been nice to get together for a happier occasion) but I got to catch up with my other siblings and a few of my nephews and nieces.

Introducing baby Ryan

Another addition to the family made his arrival in the early hours of this morning – my great-nephew Ryan Peter, weighing in at 6lb 8oz – another baby boy for my lovely niece Maria and her husband Chris. He gets his middle name in memory of my dad who absolutely doted on Ryan’s big brother Steven and would have been so proud to have another great-grandson. Haven’t seen my new great-nephew yet, but have seen lots of photos and am looking forward to having cuddles with him soon! Many congratulations to proud parents Maria and Chris and big brothers Luke and Steven!

10 years of being together

It was nice to have a break from the decorating this evening and go out for a meal with my lovely hubby to celebrate having been together 10 years today. We met in 1998 at ballroom dancing and finally got together on Friday 13th October 2000 – it was definitely a lucky date for me! The past 10 years have definitely had their ups and downs, but the good times have definitely outweighed the bad and I feel so blessed to have someone so loving, caring and supportive by my side. He makes me smile and gives the best hugs ever!

Sleep and celebrations

It’s been a lovely evening celebrating our friends Bryan and Nicki’s engagement with a few drinks in central London. It was good to be able to catch up with some of our friends from the quiz team as well – Tuesday nights at the quiz have become an increasingly rare occurrence over recent months as everyone seems to have been very busy. Michael was working late but managed to get to the pub later in the evening where he fell asleep within minutes of sitting down on the sofa (not too surprising given he sat up all night last night working).

Engagements

Since getting married myself, I find that I have become much more excited and interested in other people’s wedding plans and it is always lovely to hear when friends announce that they are getting married. It’s been a weekend for celebrating engagements. One of my friends announced his engagement yesterday and last night we went to our friends Mark and Ria’s engagement party. It makes me remember just how excited and happy I was when Michael and I got engaged and it is such a joy to be able to share in the happiness of my friends getting engaged now.