Another update

Where does the time go??????? Hubby has been on holiday for the last two weeks so we have been spending time with Isabella and catching up with DIY! That's the trouble with a Victorian house there is always maintenance. Hubby has been painstakingly stripping back the windows to the wood, repairing them and repainting them all. We did them 4 yrs ago but they desperately needed doing again. Isabella has also been to see the Health Visitor and we have booked for her to have her first jab next Thursday. Once she has caught up with her immunisation I will start taking her to toddler play groups which I know she will love.

Over the weekend we went around for dinner with some old friends who lived in Oxford. Its the longest Isabella has been on a car journey. She cried when she got bored! But we also stopped off at my FIL as they are now back from China. Isabella loved playing with hubby's younger brothers. We also all went out for dinner on Tuesday as it was one of the boys birthdays. And we plan to spend all day Saturday with them as well.



The quilt I finished the day before our referral came back from the quilters. Like my 100 GW quilt, she has done a fantastic job with the long arm quilting. Thank you Mandy I am taking part in one more fabric swap ( butterfly's) and then I will plan out the heart single quilt and order the border fabric and backing. I hope to get it done during the cold dark evenings as winter is setting in!

This is the quilt pre long arm quilting


And after long arm quilting. There is a picture of a corner and quilt back to show the beautiful stitching.



Today we went to Ikea, we needed storage boxes and bits and pieces. Isabella loved this rocking reindeer in the shop, and Hubby bought one, and Ma Ma put it together when we got home. Whilst she played ages for it in the store, she sat on it for a few minutes and got off! Her bedroom is rapidly becoming a playroom! But now as her confidence is growing she is happy to spend short periods of time in her room alone playing happily! It wont be long before she wants to be alone! She is growing up so quickly. Can you tell that Ba Ba dressed her this morning!



Also thank you to Maresa Fitzhenry for the fairy tales goodies that arrived this week from the fairly tales swap. I have posted a picture in the yahoo swap link

We have also been increasing our running! Last week we did a 5 mile and 8 mile run and this week we have done a 3 miles run, and will do another 3 mile run tomorrow and a 10/11 mile run at the weekend. We are ( or I am, hubby is deferring)in training for the Great North run in October ( 1/2 marathon) and for the London Marathon in April ( I have confirmed place due to the number of times I have been rejected in the past!). Hence the relief that Isabella loves the jogger pram! It means that I can continue to train during the week taking her with me! But not sure how she will cope when its Winter and cold and wet!

Isabella is sleeping better and for the last 3 nights has pretty much slept through with not episodes of waking and screaming or having night mares. Once she has a couple of weeks of sleeping through the night, I will gradually start to move her back to her cot again so we can take control of the bed! Part of the reason was she was waking in the dark and couldn't see us so would start crying hysterically,, and was to scared to go back to sleep! Now we keep a low wattage light on so now she wakes up and clambers over to me for a cuddle and to snuggle up before dropping back to sleep!

We have also applied for Isabella's citizenship and had an appointment with our local citizenhsip checking service at our LA yesterday. The advantage is that they ensure the form is completed correctly and photocopy all the documents so that we don't have to send any originals off. Its currently taking 7 months! But we hope they clear their backlog and speed up! as we have booked a holiday ( flights!) in 6 months to Bangkok and Vietnam! But we can still travel with her China passport it would just be easier with a UK one.

Lastly congratulations to BB who is finally home with the girls. We have been thinking of you all:)

And lastly my thoughts are with our US friends today on the anniverary of 9/11 a day that changed the lives of everyone all over the world.