Here Come the Girls

Ooo, what's that at the bottom of the garden?

Last night hubby went to pick up three new additions to the family - Audrey, Gail, and Sarah-luv. We've had chickens before - Rita and Mavis were the first two, who were then joined by Deirdre and Blanche. Blanche, however, made a swift exit once we had learnt she thought she was a cockerel and liked to practice making as much noise as possible early in the morning. We then had to re-home the other three when we went travelling last January; we were rather sad to see them go and were determined to get some more upon our return. However, living in a rented house, we weren't too sure of the etiquette of chicken-keeping so we decided to wait until we moved into the new place. And so, after 16 months of chicken-less-ness, here we are with three lovely little ladies of approx seven-weeks old. Hopefully they'll be laying yummy eggs in the next eight to ten weeks - fabalicious!

DDIY

Hubby and I have reached a stage (and age) in our lives where we believe that it is better for DIY to become DDIY, ie Don't Do It Yourself. Yes, we have indeed reached an age where we believe it is better to 'get someone in'. I'm not claiming that we were ever expert DIY-ers, but we (mainly hubby) were happy to have a go at painting, floor-sanding (a very bad idea), putting up shelves, and a few other jobs. However, gone are the days when we could afford the time and the energy to do any of these and so, this week, we are 'getting the decorators in' (and that's not a euphemism for any lady business). The only trouble with this is that we are under pressure to choose the colours we want in the hallway/stairs/landing, in Arthur's bedroom, in our bedroom and in the bathroom. If we were doing the job ourselves, we could take as long as we liked choosing colours, but because Lewis the Painter and Decorator is coming on Wednesday, we need to decide asap. I think if we were doing the painting ourselves, we might actually go for the safe option of magnolia all over but because we are getting it done professionally, it feels like we should choose 'proper' colours and make the most of paying to have it done. Does that sound silly?!

We are also having some wallpaper put up on the chimney breast in ours and Arthur's rooms. This has added to the problem, as we have to find paint that 'goes' with the paper.

Anyway, we think we have made a decision after just over a week of pondering. Hallway/stairs/landing plus Arthur's room and the bathroom are going to be 'Coastal Glow' by Dulux (seen here in the hallway, bottom right. And, yes, we know it's just a fancy name for cream and we might as well have stuck with magnolia...),and our room is to be Light Verdigris by Fired Earth (fancy name for green; see here below the wallpaper.)The chimney breast in our room will be papered in Antique Rose by Cath Kidston and in Arthur's room it's Circus Elephants, also by Cath Kidston (aren't we posh?!)

And one last thing: has anyone lost a small, Mediterranean-type baby as we appear to have found one in our back garden...

Funny how the flash has made Arthur look like he was born and bred in the local kebab shop; if he hadn't looked so much like hubby when he was first born we might wonder where he'd come from... Here's a photo without the flash just to show he's actually not quite that olive-skinned in 'real' life. Apologies for the blurriness, but I wanted you all to see that cheeky little grin.

Taxi!

Dreaming about future trips to New York; Arthur is fully aware that it is always a good idea to get a cab when carrying lots of shopping.

Bag Lady

On Thursday I took Arthur out for a walk to the Library and Waitrose in his Silver Cross coachbuilt pram. This pram is huge and very 'old school' - it's the sort of pram you see in newsreels from the 1950s where mothers made daily visits to the butcher, the greengrocer, the fishmonger and were able to leave their pram parked outside without the fear that pram (& baby) would be whisked away to be sold by unscrupulous types on Ebay. Needless to say, my visit to the Library and Waitrose did not involve me leaving my precious bundle outside. These days wheelchair ramps and automatic doors are my best friend. Several people commented to me on how lovely it was to see someone using a "proper" pram, but best of all were the people who I saw having a look at the pram and then peering over the top to check there was actually a baby inside and that I wasn't one of those slightly deranged ladies who likes to push her worldy goods round with her wherever she goes...

You'd think the box of Persil in the shopping basket under the pram would have gone some way to proving that I'm not a bag lady.

Make Mine a Pint

Daddy showing Arthur how to drink beer and burp.

Cuterer and cuterer

Even if I do say so myself...

Arthur is now 7-and-a-half weeks old. Where has that time gone? He's already sleeping in his own room because he has got to be one of the noisiest sleepers ever - grunting, groaning, moaning - you name it, he does it in his sleep. When he was sharing our room in his little moses basket, hubby and I were leaping out of bed at almost every noise wondering what on earth could be the matter with this poor baby who was shouting out, only for us to find that his eyes were tight shut and he was sound asleep, unlike us. So last Monday we (well, hubby really as I didn't want to be parted from my little boy... what a sopster I have become) decided to pop him in his nursery and see what happened. Success - we sleep better and so does he. In fact, since then he has twice slept through from 10pm until 5am. Bliss!

So, what else do I have to tell you? Pretty much nothing that isn't baby-related I'm afraid. It's all about Arthur these days you know. Since I last blogged (ages ago, I know, but there just aren't enough hours in the day anymore) we've been to Bristol again and Wigan again to see the rellies; we've managed to unpack all of the 85 boxes we moved with, although the contents of said boxes aren't necessarily where we want them to be, in fact most of them are exaclty where we don't want them to be. Other than that, I just can't think of anything to write. I've totally lost my blogging inspiration at the moment, for which I apologise!

Humour Me

as I bore you with more photos of Arthur... I just can't help it, he looks so cute (but then I am very, very biased.)

It's Official

Arthur will have to put up with his name or else pay to have it changed by deed poll because today we finally got round to registering him. So, he is now official and can no longer hide from the state. On the plus side, it does mean we can finally apply for child benefit for me to spend on coffee, oops sorry, I mean on anything that Arthur needs/wants/desires, and also for the child tax thingummyjig.

So, I dressed Arthur in his smartest outfit, put on a new top myself and hubby changed out of his shorts and into some cords, to make the trip to the Register Office. Don't know what I expected - some sort of ceremony and a handshake from the mayor perhaps? But no, just a quick filling in of a form (admittedly the lady did use a fountain pen which gave it a little flourish), answer a few questions, and that was that. No ceremonial scroll, no press photographers, no handshakes. As you can see, Arthur wasn't very impressed at the lack of interest and attention he generated.

Humph. Still, at least we looked tidy.

Still Alive

Just a quickie to reassure you that the Family Wilkinson are all still alive and well and haven't drowned in a sea of dirty nappies.


Since my last posting we have managed to move house, spend the Easter weekend with Arthur's grandparents (Grandma and Grandad) and lots of other relatives in Wigan, have a day trip to Tetbury with Arthur's other grandparents (Granny: and Grampy):enjoy an afternoon out in Windsor and Eton (visiting daddy at work - although photo doesn't show any actual work being done, but you can see the Guildhall in the background where Prince Charles and Elton John got married [not to each other]and viewing Arthur's school... - that's Eton, by the way...)and spend many hours unpacking boxes. Yes indeed, we moved house with a three-week old baby. We no longer live in the depths of the countryside:instead we can be found in Reading (or 'The Bronx' as hubby likes to call it.) We still have a house in Henley, but that is rented out and we have moved to Reading (Caversham Borders in estate agent-speak) while we decide where we really want to live. We're going to be undertaking some research over the next 6-12 months in an attempt to find the perfect location. So far we have Chipping Norton and Tetbury:on the list, and if you can suggest any lovely little (market) towns in the south that you think we should visit, please leave a comment on here. It has to live up to the loveliness of Henley though, but without the price tag...

And for anyone interested, Arthur now weighs in at a substantial 9lb 11ozs - that's a whole 1lb heavier than when he was born. Oh, and he's four-weeks old - where did the time go?


I'll try and get back in to the swing of this blogging lark; it will be a little easier if BT ever get round to connecting the new house to broadband so that I'm not 'forced' to go to a coffee shop whenever I want to log on... It's a hard life.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

A very quick posting, between feeding, burping and nappy changing, to say a huge 'thank you' to everyone who has sent cards and gifts or left comments on the blog following the birth of Arthur. You are all very, very kind; I had no idea we even knew so many people!


And, just because I am the doting mother and want to bore you all senseless, here's another photo of Arthur, aged four days old enjoying his first trip out in Henley; he had a very middle-class outing - Caffe Nero followed by Waitrose... Here he is in the salami aisle.