What a year

Well Christmas was lovely. We spent Christmas and Boxing Day with my family, before going up north to spend a few days with Bretts folks. It is nice that we have managed to spend time with everyone this year. Emma got lots of lovely presents too. :-)

I can't believe it is the end of the year already. This has seemed like such a quick one. I am a bit lost for words about 2007. I don't want to go into detail summing it up - it has been both the happiest and saddest year all at the same time. But I am looking forward to 2008. I have loads of goals, hopes and resolutions but I will save those for tomorrow's post in order to start the year on a positive vibe.

Here is my favourite photo from 2007. (Brett has just told me to write that it is "our" favourite photo... but I had to remind him that it is my blog... haha!) It is a bit blury - Brett was holding the camera above us. But I love it all the same.

Happy New Year. xxx

Happy Christmas!

Oh ok then - a couple of pics

OK - I couldn't resist. I took these during the last few days. Emma is really into spaghetti hoops at the moment. She sticks them on the end of her fingers and eats them off. :-) And apricot yogurt has become a hit too. Shame that I can't stand the smell of it!

I can't believe it is Christmas Eve already!

We have been madly busy getting ready for Christmas. We didn't actually buy anything really big for Emma this year - but seem to have got her loads of little bits and pieces. Needless to say it has taken ages to wrap them all up! I have also been busy making presents (will divulge fully after Christmas because I don't want to give away a surprise).

We are off to my Mum's for Christmas dinner this year. Thing is, Christmas dinner is my absolute favourite meal to cook. So, to compensate, I have been making some bits to take some of the pressure off Mum tomorrow. I have made cranberry sauce, Yorkshire puddings, a cheesecake, stuffing, and some really gorgeous cranberry jam tarts. I am ready for a rest tonight!

I am looking forward to Emma's reaction tomorrow. She knows something is going on, and is obsessed with the Christmas tree! I hope she lets us have a little sleep in though - she has been up very early the last few mornings. She seems to be developing so much at the moment which probably accounts for it. She clapped for the first time today, she is chattering more and more, and yesterday she instigated a game of peekaboo with me by holding up the towel herself in front of her face and peeking out at me. It was priceless!

No photos today I'm afraid, but I am sure there will be lots from tomorrow!

Sewing show off

I was posting some pictures of the cool reversible mei tai carrier I made recently on another forum, and realised I had never really shown it off here. So, here it is. The first thing I ever made with a sewing machine!

I love it - because I made it myself, everything is just how I like it - the body is just the right height, the straps are exactly the width I like and really long... Emma seems to like it too. :-)

I have the sewing bug now, and plan to make another one after Christmas!

Forgive the overexposure in the photos - it is really sunny today!

Christmas warmup

We went to my mum's place for lunch today. My sister Anna and her husband were there too. They decorated the Christmas tree, and it really felt like a Christmas dinner practise run! Emma was good as gold, and really enjoyed herself.

I heard on the news that there is a lack of holly with berries this year. Well, I live in an old cemetary (yes really!!) and our garden is fully of berrified holly. So I chopped a load down to decorate the lounge this afternoon. We have bought a little Christmas tree too - I wanted a huge one, but I guess it is not the most practical idea. I can just picture Emma trying to climb up it... I am rubbish at decorating trees. All the lights have ended up at the bottom, and it looks like it might topple over. I will have a better go at it tomorrow and post some festive pictures.


I spoke to my gorgeous friend Cath today for the first time in ages. She was pregnant at the same time as me. Telling each other about our respective pregnancies was one of those phone calls I will never forget. ("What you're pregnant.... weeheee... congratulations... um...not wanting to steal your thunder, but so am I!!!") Since then, we have been totally rubbish and only seen each other once when we went to the peak district for a sensible (!) late pregnancy holiday. Her little one is almost a year old, and I still haven't met her. So, we have decided that when we drive up to see Brett's parents after Christmas, we will stop off half way and meet them for lunch. I can't wait - it will be lovely to get together after such a long time.


Enough rambling for one weekend. This has been quite a bitty post! Here is a rather random picture of Emma for today. This was taken while we were visiting my dad in the Netherlands last week. It is in Vroom & Dressman (a department store) in Den Haag. This chair just looked perfect for her.

Crawling.... well nearly

Emma is nearly crawling, thanks to all the practise she got on my Dad's huge wooden floors! She finally realised that it was more efficient to try to go forwards instead of just rolling everywhere and banging her head all the time. She does go up on all fours and rock about quite a lot now, but she hasn't worked out that she has to move both her hands and legs together. Anyway, I thought it was high time for a video!

This season, I will mostly be wearing party dresses

OK... I know it is a bit early, but I couldn't resist a little sneaky peak of Emma's Christmas party dress. I just wanted to try it on her to make sure it was the right size (because she is at a bit of an in between stage right now) and it looked so lovely on her. It is a bit of a blurry photo, but gorgeous all the same. :-)

Be warned - I will probably be inundating you with cute Emma/Christmas pictures over the coming weeks!

Sinterklaus has visited

Laura came to visit last week, and it was great to see her. We even managed a quick trip to my local pub (Brett kindly babysat). I haven't done that for a v-e-r-y long time!!

I was really touched that Laura remembered to help me celebrate Sinterklaus with Emma. Sinterklaus is like the Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus, but his story is rather different to the one we know. St. Nicholas is a tall man, dressed in a red bishop's outfit with a golden crook. He travels with his companion Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). They travel together on a ship from Spain, and arrive in the Netherlands on 5th December. He leaves treats for the children if they are good (chocolate letters, marzipan shapes etc). If they are naughty, Zwarte Piet leaves a piece of coal.

When I got up in the morning, Laura had put a chocolate letter for Emma in one of her shoes. It was so sweet! I was even more touched when I found she had done the same for me and Brett! :-) Emma spent ages rolling around on the floor with her chocolate letter (still in its box!)

It may be a Dutch tradition, but I really want to carry on celebrating Sinterklaus with Emma in future years, as a reminder of where she was born. It is a good excuse to travel back to the Netherlands each year to pick up some chocolate letters!

Its been too long

I just realised how long it is since I updated the blog. So much for me trying to do it more often! :-S

Things have been pretty busy around here over the last few weeks... So this is a kind of bitty post, just to update about what has been going on. The usual pictorial service will be resumed this afternoon. (Because I have some photos that I really want to share!)

I had the first sling meet at my place a couple of weeks ago. It was really nice, but my place is just too small for all those kids! So, with the help of a friend, I found a local hall for the next one. It is booked, and now I need to get on and do some flyers for it.

In the same week as the sling meet, I went to my first English La Leche League meeting. Emma decided to sleep in my arms for most of it, so I didn't get to talk to many people, but it was nice to meet other mothers from around the area.

I had this crazy idea about making Christmas presents this year. We have a lot less money than last year, and to be honest it seems a bit inappropriate for a variety of reasons to go mad with presents. But time is ticking on and I have only managed to do one so far. I won't say what it is though - I don't want to give it away for the intended recipient. Hopefully I will get time to make one or two more.

Last week, Emma got really sick. Brett and I both had colds recently, and Emma got it too. But then last week she started wheezing and was having difficulty breathing. It was really scary, so I took her to the doctors and was told she had bronchiolitus. She made a super fast recovery thank goodness, and seems right as rain now.

And the final busy thing was that we popped back over to the Netherlands for a little visit. I didn't really see many people, because the weather was horrible and we were staying in Den Haag with my Dad rather than Amsterdam where all our friends are. I ended up only spending a couple of hours in Amsterdam! I did get to visit my gorgeous cat Tegan though. Her pet passport is in progress, but for the time being she needs to stay put in the Netherlands. We hope to have her back soon. Emma was so lovely when she saw Tegan, and started chattering to her straight away! :-) We stayed at my Dad's place, and it has a lot of open floor space which Emma really loved. She looks like she is going to crawl properly any day soon!

(Laura (Amsterdam Laura that is) - I haven't mentioned your visit in this post, because I am saving that and all the lovely photos we took for this afternoon - I can only write so much in one go!)