The good, the bad and the lovely

Oh dear, this will never do.  I am seriously lagging behind with this blogging business. I am very aware that no one really reads it anyway, but in spite of that i am keen to try keep it up to date, otherwise what's the point?! So i'll try harder, i promise.

So what have we been doing these past ten days?...I'll try to sum up in pictures if i can:

(indoor picnics)

(family afternoon out at softplay)

 (birthday parties!)

(visiting friends)

(discovering the wonder of balloons!)

(walks to the park)

(back carries)

(playing in Uncle Kieran's giant inflatable racing car...N.B. Uncle Kieran is 9 years old!)

(Sleeping upside down)

I think that just about covers it.  Although there has been plenty going on that we haven't captured on camera, like for instance, Rudy's 3rd lot of immunsations, not really a kodak moment. And my ear infection and sinusitis don't really translate well into photograph form, nor does Toby's ear infection or the fact we're now both scoffing amoxicillin like it's going out of date :( Chris has an exam and essay at the end of the month and the essay topic is suicide.

There are also stressful things going on both in mine and Chris's family's at the minute, however as new as i may be to this whole 'blogging' business, i do know that it isn't really correct etiquette in life to talk about other people's problems on a web page viewable by anyone with an internet connection so i'm not going to go into all.  That doesn't mean we're not affected by it though, or that we don't care. It's just really tough when there's lots going on and you're so far away geographically that your usefulness is extremely limited.

In a funny (funny=odd, not funny=amusing) turn of events however my sister has managed to partially solve that problem by fetching her crises to Manchester! She is currently 25 weeks and 3 days pregnant and has been leaking amniotic fluid and contracting since Monday.  Initially she was in a bed on delivery suite at Calderdale Hospital, but they didn't have any neonatal cots should my niece have suddenly decided to make an appearance, and on Wednesday night everything picked up pace a bit so they panicked (rightly so!) and shipped her to the nearest available hospital with spaces for both her and baby...which turned out to be all the way over here in Manchester, and, not only that, but at the hospital where i work (when i'm not busy having babies of my own that is ;) ) And that's where she is right now, occasionally freaking everyone out by having a random sky-high blood pressure reading but otherwise fairly settled, and we're all hoping it will stay that way!

Everyone knows that a little bit of knowledge can be a terrible thing and in this case it's definitely been true, my mind has been conjuring up every scenario it can think of and my own blood pressure has probably been creeping up with each passing day but so far Freyja (that will be my little niece's name when she does arrive!) seems to be staying put, so fingers crossed that's her plan for a little longer.

I did have some lovely news this evening though, after a bleh day of food shopping and visiting my sister (but being told my children weren't allowed on to delivery suite) and getting stuck in traffic with a screaming baby, it really cheered me up no end.  I'm not sure if i'm allowed to share it with everyone yet though so i'm afraid i'll have to be a big tease and say watch this space ;)