May 2007 - Early May

Still waiting for the little one to show up (due at end of May), but still keeping busy

	I made a card for Ailsa's birthday that will hopefully be shown on the CBeebies channel. I had to get it submitted several weeks in advance, so was a bit rushed when I did it. The foxes are from a cartoon she likes called "Pablo the little Red Fox" and the background (the Tombliboo house) is from In the Night Garden (from the makers of Teletubbies.
	Sure it was bigger than I planned on, but a bit of re-enforcement with some cardboard on the back should help to keep it in good shape. Hope they show it on the 27th.
	Look what I found
	Ailsa in the lookout in the Climbers and Creepers play area of Kew Gardens
	Morris Dancing at a special Woodland Weekend at Kew Gardens. There was also a Birds of Prey area and Ailsa got to pet an Owl.
	Fabiola getting in a bit more Ailsa time before heading back to the states.
	Ailsa and Aynaka at Kew Gardens. Some older school children thought they were twins. When they were younger they were about the same size, but now Aynika is wearing clothes for 4 year olds, while Ailsa is just barely into clothes for 2 year olds.
	Ailsa with the 11 piece dinosaur jigsaw puzzle that she loves. I didn't even realize that she was wearing dinosaur pyjamas when I took this photo.
	A kiss goodbye after playing with Alex.
	Enjoying our back garden (as well as the new sand / water table from the look of her clothes)
Playing with Aynika while Dawn and I have a cup of coffee

May 20th, 2007

Hi Everyone,

Still no baby yet. We've been using these last few weekends to get a bit more organized. Doing things like ordering a new dining room table (as the one we have now is splitting at the base), and getting lots of activities in the garden for Ailsa so I don't have to always take her to the playground to have a good run around. We've put in a slide as well as a sand / water table. She'll also be getting a mini-trampoline for her birthday. She has tons of energy! I have her on the waiting list for the gymnastics place just up the road from us. Sure she's young for it, but the mum of 2 year old twins that I spoke to said that her kids love it - especially running across the 'bouncy floor'.

Paul's parents are up this weekend - his dad is going to a big rugby game at Twickenham later today (just down the road from us). So I'm enjoying having the odd nap and taking it easy. I managed to twist my back / hip on the tube a few weeks ago, so will try to do as little walking as possible for a few days (as well as icing it down). By the time I asked someone to move over a seat so that I could park Ailsa and sit next to her quite a bit of time had passed. I was just about to sit down when the train moved and I went backwards into a pole (at least I didn't land on Ailsa or the floor). The next day I thought I had just slept funny, but a day later I figured out what must have happened. Not ideal, but better than other things that could 'go wrong' at this stage. They'll be down again next weekend for Ailsa's birthday - possibly sooner if something 'happens'.

I haven't really talked to Ailsa too much about the baby. I know she likes babies and I've said 'we should get a baby for that' when she sees tiny clothes that she can't fit into (she tried to put some baby booties on a few weeks ago). I've also asked her several times if we should get a baby and she usually says 'yes'. We do think that she's going to be a bossy big sister. She already bosses us around - points to mummy...points to floor next to her and might say "Mummy..here" (very subtle, indeed).

Paul was on the Today program (BBC Radio 4) the other day (Friday May 18th about 6:15). Shortly after he got to work he started receiving e-mails from friends and colleagues saying things like "I wasn't expecting to wake up to you this morning!". Paul quite enjoyed the experience and got to have coffee with John Humphrys in the green room just before the program. Humphrys was in the news regarding his interview the day before with John Bolton.