Mouse vs. Iguana

The Matthews family is reunited after the exhausting world tour. Yay for half empty planes coming back!

The little mouse has been pretty fabulous, considering she's jetlagged and all.

It's cold and dark, but Christmas is around the corner. It's the first one for Emily, and while she won't notice the difference, that's not the point! What is a cute baby for if not to spoil completely over this time of year.

Though it's all a bit unfair - the iguana was MY birthday present!

(Madre - you'll need a decent connection for this one)

Over

Thankfully the rugger is over. With that out of the way, less time can be spent in pubs, and the lycra can be packed away for another time.

I suspect I'm not allowed to go to a France/NZ world cup game again, as I am clearly a jinx

And at least I don't work for a French company this time. And I didn't have to live in England if they won.

As a side bonus, we managed to make it on TV - not that I can recall this happening. We're the group saying "four more years of choking" and doing line-outs in the street. In lycra. Video here.

Oh ok, and a couple of mouse photos if you insist.

Preparation

Not many more sleeps to go before we fly 24 hours with a 5 month old! Now that's somethig to look forward to.

Fortunately the fandamily appears to have most items in hand (carseat, cot and pram) Yay Matthews people!

And Madre: this is what I mean by a playgym. (sorry, big file).

What have they been feeding her?

The shifting of the mouse from moses basket to (as yet unpurchased) cot is getting closer, if for no other reason than she is not going to fit for much longer...

Behold the incredible growing baby! Hooray for boobies!

Any Plan Where You Lose Your Hat...

Have addicted Alix to Girl Genius. The convenient thing about coming across a webcomic after it's been running for a while is you get to devour years worth of comics in a few days. Which is pretty much what she's doing.

Me? I'm off to Edinburgh on Saturday! Yay! Beer and Rugby together again at last. Possibly with added lycra.


In other news, the little mouse continues her reign of cuteness.



Like father, like daughter apparently.

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Apparently blogger lets you upload video - however we haven't found the "not suck" option.




Hmph. appears in preview but not when published. Interesting, but mainly in an annoying way. The logical thing is clearly to sleep on it.

Edit - Yay!!!! thanks to Kate and my l337 tecxhy skillz, solution found - publish when in compose mode, not html.

Edit 2 - this video seems a little squiffy - if it stops at about 8 secs in, just click on the slider, and it'll play the rest.

Enjoy!

Fourth Trimester (aka Photo Extravaganza)

Recently a certain little mouse turned 3 months old, the point at which everyone says Things Should Have Gotten A Lot Better - which thankfully appears to be the case. Pretty much from about six weeks in, Emily has been sleeping more, been more active and responsive, and becoming a little person, increasingly fun to be with.

Certainly my working part-time over this time has made things a lot easier for all of us, and has been very nice to see Emily change - sometimes day to day... Looks like I've managed to organise some days working from home over the next few months as well, so I can keep up my mouse fix.

Highlights of the last few months:

Toadman (aka Adrian) got married - one advantage of having the grandparents around was that Alix and I were able to to attend his wedding and reception - probably a good call since I was his best man. He wasn't struck by lightning when he entered the church, which was a bit of a suprise, but thankfully the lack of any other surprises made for a very pleasant day out - and I (somehow) managed to come up with anecdotes that were suitable for a more, er, genteel audience.





The Happy Couple..










The English Summer - well, it was cancelled, but we managed to get out to a few BBQ's (including one mad jaunt when Emily was 2 weeks old), and hosted one ourselves which we got some kiwi couples from the local mums and babies group, resulting in a house full of babies!

Road trip - Went down to Truro (Cornwall) on business, and managed to fit some swanning around - including a visit to the Eden Project, which was very cool. I'm still curious about the quantity of drugs it must have taken to come up with the idea, frankly.




Madness. But glorious madness.










Wedding Anniversary - 4 glorious years!! Yay to Alix for agreeing to marry me!


Aaaand... a selction of recent photos of a certain mouse, starting with some roadtrip photos, of Emily in her stylish Gap gear, a gift from Gerhild and Eff...



















Little cute green dress..
















Passed out the prayer rug we got on our last China trip...
















And just some random cuteness

Smile

As promised, after about six weeks, the smiles have started to set in....

Home Alone

For 3 hours and 47 minutes I've had sole responsibility for the little mouse while Alix is out partying hard. And I haven't managed to misplace her yet. (Emily that is, not Alix).

And surprisingly enough she took the bottle happily and went off to sleep with minimum fuss! (although Key Lesson Learned - make sure ALL of the expressed milk is defrosted BEFORE the feed.)

Alix picked a good night as her first night out (except the weather - but Glastonbury was last weekend, and it's Wimbledon now, so quelle suprise really), as she is off to Zara's hen night! (Zarah being the fiancee of Toadboy).

I believe the plan is to kick off at the Absolut Ice Bar and then dinner, drinks, dancing, and I assume oiled-up strippers with unfeasibly-sized packages.

Of course since Alix has had about half-a-bottle of wine in total in the last 10 months, she should be roaring after one cocktail... As long as there are no incriminating photos of her tearing of strippers G-strings with her teeth, then everything should be fine.

In other news, Emily was 4 weeks old today - and getting cuter every day. Apparently all of Wellington sent us flowers too. Thanks All of Wellington! (I assume that was the Abel Smith rent-a-crowd).

That Was the Week That Was

Things I have learnt:

(1) Western medicine = the good. (See Alix's comment re: epidurals below)

(2) When they say 6-10 nappies a day, they mean it.

(3) Following on from the above, long-legged babysuits = the very good.

(4) If present at the birth, unless you've got a wooden stake and crucifix handy, avoid getting a good look at the placenta. People who take that thing home and eat it are freaky, freaky freaky.
(5) Also, pretend you never heard things like the doctor saying "bring me a bucket". Brrrr.

(6) Alix is the Most Fantastic Woman in the Entire Universe. Hmmm... actually I already knew that.

(7) Emily ("The Little Mouse") may not be a readhead, but she's still pretty fantastic too.

Photos - i've photochopped one of my favourites so you can actually see Emily.

Showing off some of the presents - note woolly hat, buzzy bee booties, and owl suit.

View from the trenches

Apparently "epidurals are great!" according to Alix. To be honest, if I was in her position (20-odd hours into a 40-hour labour), I'd say exactly the same thing. But with more profanity.

On the other hand, I wish I had a voice recorder so I could have on record some of the crazy stuff that came out of Alix's mouth while high as a kite on Entonox. Except she'd probably beat me to death with it.

Anyway - enough feeble humour - the main event:

Emily Josephine

Born June 1 3:48PM

3.4 kg

Timing

BT in their infinite wisdom, have finally given us back our broadband (after nearly a month).

Yay! Especially as we have to go to hospital NOW for Alix to be induced.

Wish us luck!

Patterns

So far for 2007:

Getting the last few holidays in - the trip to Amsterdam/Den Haag was suprisingly chilled and enjoyable - witness the Giant Pregnant Woman below...

Got in contact with previous flatmate Victoria Webster, who flatted with me before I left for the UK the first time. Apparently life's been a bit of a rollercoaster (has broken up with Mark the Prince of Insincerity), but she's back in the UK, so hopefully we can catch up.

The mighty Exiles ended up top on the table (somehow).

More rugby - the six nations have been sucking up a lot of my weekends - which will be changing soon!

Have managed to get my contract extended - but part time after the creature arrives for three months. Hopefully this will be a good thing.

Ante-natal class yesterday - surprisingly non-hippy, considering the NCT's reputations. Not necessarily anything we hadn't heard before, but a few tidbits - plus very useful to meet people in the same boat!

Amusing note - one couple were booked in for an induction today (cuting it very fine), and the guy popped out at lunch to get a Wii - because after all, he had a week off afterwards!

Lets just say I'm REALLY interested in whether he gets to use said Wii, or (more likely) ends up with it imbedded in his head.

This coming weekend, we have planned a luxurious journey to Paris on the Eurostar - and staying in the Hilton Arc de Triomphe... unfortunately life has a habit of getting in the way....

A good friend Alexis Dodin was killed by an avalanche while snowboarding in Colorado, with a funeral just outside Lille this coming friday. Since I have to catch a 6AM eurostar to get there, I think Alix will be travelling by herself on our swanky tickets to Paris, and I'll have to make my own way there afterwards...

Hiding

It's not co-operating, said the cheery lady with the gel and probing wand.

The Creature appears to be camera-shy at the moment, as it declined to show off its best side. It can, however deliver a good kick, as Alix's bladder can attest.

Photo! Photo!

While The Mother will have seen these (being there and all), some photos for you! Special Friend Price!




A view over the iced-over lake. Admittedly Alix thinks shes looks like a gnome.



Starbucks + Forbidden City + Cold = Niiiice.