baby shower festivities

I'm not sure if everywhere overseas has a similar celebration for women during their first pregnancies, but I have only been to two of these baby showers in my life previous to my own and both have been in the last month. So essentially my whole family was going into this blind.

It turned out to be this really fun and relaxed day with a few games and several mountains of food (of course). And before I continue I should say that full credit for all of this goes to my sisters, my parents, my Nonna and my friend, Danielle, who united to make baby --shower history for the Baskin-Shaw family.

This day featured a wall of toys, a guess the gender hand-drawn and decorated poster, baby food tasting catastrophes, 15 different types of finger food and midnight nappy-changing advice/jokes/puns written on actual nappies.

The images don't show much, as we were having way too much fun to pause for photographs, however, it gives you a good overview of the effort everyone went to to celebrate little baby Shaw (for which Luke and I are eternally grateful).

it works

Had a baby cousin come down for the weekend so had the chance to test out both the cot and the pram. They work!

Proof:

(I would have included an image of the cot being successfully inhabited, however, to be quite honest, I was asleep every night before he was so didn't get a chance.)

I was awake for this cute bit though, where Luke spent a very long time coaxing the little boy back to sleep after he woke up with a nightmare at 3am.

Much love,
Ally xx

the baby corner

We have successfully set up the baby corner of the room. This now contains a cot [put together by Dad [Me!], Abuelito [Ally's dad] and Uncle Scott], a bookcase and rocking chair. I've been informed that my brackets are grammatically incorrect. This isn't going to turn into an argument about the fact that there needs to be some way to distinguish which of the two of us are posting. So I digress...

Next we are clearing some drawers to store all baby-related items because we have only just realised how much space it'll take up. Little person = little clothes. Apparently this doesn't mean little space. I am fast becoming educated in the ways of "good" and "bad" nappies, the term "expressing" being used in an entirely new context, and the ideal notion of staying up with my child throughout the World Cup next July.

Anyway, here are the photos as promised of the process. Didn't want to bore you with its entirety but it was simple to put together [with 4 of us!] and am looking forward to getting the change table set up later as well.

Also, because we had visitors down over the weekend, the stroller also got put together and used [along with the cot]. Ally will likely post about all of that later and include pictures too.

That's all for now.

With love, as always,

Luke xx

twentythree weeks

23 weeks into the pregnancy and the baby is kicking up a storm, to the point where people can now both feel and see it moving and Luke has decided that we are making a little football player.

Foods I currently hate are chocolate, garlic and icecream, but there are no weird cravings yet except for my constant need for fruit.

The cot set arrives tomorrow so by the weekend the baby section of our room will be set up and I'm certain Luke will be taking photos galore. In other news I managed to successfully hang an owl mobile all by myself using only thread and the sort of sheer brilliance that comes from not knowing how to use any tools.

Nonna is busy making baby blankets. The first is complete and though I've seen it almost every day during its production, it is technically a baby shower gift so a photo will come later. The other is being made as we speak, as Nonna and I have an understanding - I buy wool, she creates stuff.

Much love,

Ally xx

the point

Getting straight to it, the reason Luke and I are creating a blog is to help share photos and big events with our families and friends, most of whom cannot be around us all the time for continental reasons.

A secondary reason is that I am uncomfortable with the idea of posting more private photos on Facebook, particularly of the baby, because as teachers we are slightly more likely to have these personal things made public at school by bored students.

This way we can keep everyone updated and have a good little photo record for ourselves as well - since I love family photos and Luke loves taking them.

Much love xx