I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

The Christmas holidays began cold, snowy, icy and extremely icy for us stuck on top of the north facing side of South Hill. Whilst the rest of Godalming went about its business once the ice had thawed out in the sun, we remained in the shadow of the hill unable to drive anywhere. The one occasion that we did try to venture out, we managed to get 50m down the hill before abandoning the car after seeing others sliding back down the hill drifting left and right when trying to ascend. When Daddy thought it was safe to bring the car back again, he got stuck on an icy slope 25m from the front door, wheels spinning, clutch burning, engine screaming but car going nowhere.

As a result of the ice we could not get the car to Waitrose to do all our Christmas dinner shopping. As a last resort, on Christmas Eve daddy took the massive backpack that mummy went trekking around Peru with down to the supermarket, filled it up with food (which unfortunately included lots of potatoes) and walked back home up South Hill. Just as well that he had a bit of practice at lugging heavy loads up that hill by carrying the Christmas tree the other week!

Thankfully by Christmas Eve afternoon, it was safe for Pops, Grandma and Uncle Ads to set out from the West Country and head east to join us for baked potatoes and cooked ham. Then on Boxing Day we were joined by Uncle John, Aunty Lea and cousin Zaak to take the numbers in our household to 9.

Noah and Zaak very much enjoyed meeting each other for the first time and when Noah went for his naps Zaak would ask 'where's baby Noah?'. We think that the pair of them will be very good friends.

Christmas Dinner

Daddy was in charge for Christmas dinner this year. On the menu: roast turkey, nut roast, roast potatoes, sausage meat, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puddings, peas and sweetcorn, carrots, red cabbage, brussel sprouts, parsnips, sage and onion stuffing, lemon and parsley stuffing and gravy. Needless to say a huge responsibility...perhaps taken on naively. Grandma had undertaken some great prep work by making two types of stuffing, red cabbage and lots of other food. Daddy was aslo ably assisted on the day by Uncle Ads. Pops assisted with the parsnips. Mummy made biscuit name places.



A resounding success!

After dinner, presents were opened. Noah had a particularly successful Christmas and now has a fine new wardrobe and some fantastic toys to play with.

Noah has very much enjoyed the festivities. He has loved having the Christmas tree up and being rocked and sung to in front of it. His favourite way to be carried at the moment is to sit looking forward and upright. He also likes to fall asleep in this position! He has loved having cooing conversations and smiling at everyone. In particular he finds his daddy very funny!

All snuggled up!

Noah, now 9 weeks old, weighs 13lb 7oz and is around the 91st centile.



Noah is now much more snuggy and comfy in his cot now that he has a little baby pillow (a special one recommended by the osteopath).

He also has a new blanket which was kindly knitted for him as a gift from one of mummy's clients from work. The lady knitted it during the breaks that she had when she was at her 5 day employment tribunal hearing! It is a very skillfully knitted blue blanket with a little padded kitten design and trimmed in white.

Oh Christmas tree oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches...

...although still a bit lacking in decoration, particularly the absence of a star/angel at the top.

Mummy made lots of Christmas bicuits this week to add to the tree decorations. One problem is the edible nature of these and they have now been polished off...primarily by daddy...although mummy's friends, Sara and Helena also helped. Mummy may have had one or two herself...just the broken ones of course which weren't good enough to go on the tree;)

This weekend Noah has been smiling lots, has been working on his giggles and is still loving his evening bathtime when he practises both!

This weekend has been full of smiles and another little laugh from Noah for mummy (as a result of the 'fun in the mirror' game again). Daddy get smiles and has been trying very hard to get a laugh but his jokes need work...yawn!
It is the first weekend in December and therefore the count down to Christmas. Noah, daddy and mummy went for a walk into Godalming to see the Christmas lights.

On Saturday daddy did The Grim Challenge which is an 8 mile run/trudge/wade through mud and water on an army vehicle testing track near Aldershot. Daddy completed that challenge in 1 hour 9 minutes and coming 257 out of 2710, although daddy keeps pointing out ' Technically I really came 254 though because I had the same time as three other people' and 'I would have gone quicker had I not started 8 minutes after the start of the race'. To see daddy knee deep in water follow this link: http://www.prosportphotos.com/cgi-bin/show-image-page.cgi?image=MK3_6631.jpg&image_dir=..%2Frunning%2F2009%2Fgrim-sat%2Fpond%2Fimages&show_arrows=0&event_dir=..%2Frunning%2F2009%2Fgrim-sat%2Fpond&template=..%2Fauto-html%2Fcgi-template.htm&order_buttons=..%2Fauto-html%2Fgrim-image-bundle-magazine-09.htm&magazine_event_name=grim-09&event_title=Grim+Challenge+-+Saturday+5th+December+2009&page_title=ProSportPhotos+-+Grim+Challenge+-+Saturday+5th+December+2009&first_image=1&last_image=1000&chapter_title=Grim+Challenge+-+Saturday+5th+December+2009&x=74&y=131

Having completed The Grim, on Sunday daddy set himself another challenge. Carrying our 6ft Christmas tree back home and up South Hill from town. Daddy is keen to point out 'it was 6 1/2 foot' and 'it was bigger than me [him]'. Mummy and Noah were very impressed.

We have now introduced a regular evening bath time for Noah which he simply loves. We turn the bathroom into a relaxing sanctuary for Noah. With the lights dimmed and the big bath filled up nice and deep, Noah loves to wallow and float with daddy in the bath and holding him. Afterwards Noah retreats to the bedroom in a nice fluffy towel where he then has some nice warm milk and his bed time leg massage which sends him off to sleep.

Today mummy held Noah and rocked back and forth towards the fully length mirror whilst singing 'weeeeee'. Noah found this very amusing and as well as smiling gave mummy a little laugh (or at least his best efforts towards one at the moment).

Noah also had a bit of 'tummy time' on his Monkey Island mat in the morning and also the afternoon. This morning he did a good display of a bit of crawling action on his tummy. However this afternoon he could not really be bothered and preferred to suck his hand instead.

7 weeks!

Despite having to get the train all the way from Bishop's Stortford and back, Auntie Lara and Grandy came to visit on Monday. Noah had lots of smiles for Grandy.

Auntie Lara learnt the skill of 'putting the baby in his moses basket without waking him'. Mummy intends to draw on Auntie Lara's newly learned skill in the future.

We had a lovely afternoon with a bit of 'tummy time' and the loveliest surprise of all was when Grandad turned up unexpectedly for cuddles as he had business in the nearby area.

Noah has also started appreciating the Arts, as he admires the painting that daddy bought in Cornwall when daddy was a teenager.

Yesterday was a little chilly so to keep warm Noah wore a little hoodie which daddy bought 'the Baby' before he was born. Right now Noah is having a little nap...after resisting many attempts by mummy to put him in his cot, he eventually drifted to sleep while mummy gave him a leg massage...zzzzzzzzzzzzz.