40+2...

Is 42. Which is, apparently, the meaning of life.

Which means I think the question to the answer of the meaning of like is "when is my darling wife going to have her baby?"

Today, surely...

Maybe not, though. Either way - all good.

Anyway on a lighter note, I've taken to reading "Paddington" aloud to baby each night. Trouble is that whenever I talk I wake baby up and it goes absolutely mental. So when it's born I don't think I'm going to be chief storyteller of an evening.

Ally had never read or been read Paddington stories before, and she loves them. So fortunately they get the tick of approval there too.

Hoping this is the last blog post pre=baby. Time will tell.

That's all for now,

With love, as always,

Luke xx

probably the lowest point

Just so everyone is fully aware that I am at my peak crazy period in this pregnancy, I thought I'd share the photo of me bouncing on a fitball at 11pm and playing Nirvana to the baby. This was done in the hopes that it would stimulate some kind of awareness in our stubborn child that the outside world is a party compared to my tummy. It was also under the advice of my sister-in-law, Sarah.

Turns out baby is not into rock music. It kicked me in the ribs and then promptly went to sleep.

Back to jogging up and down stairs...

family crest...

Hi all,

So a little bit of a story behind what is admittedly a rusty version of a yet-to-be-polished final copy...

Below is the closest thing I could visualise to being a family crest. Each element has it's own reason behind it which I will explain:

Colours 

Green - Ally's favourite.

Blue - My favourite.

Pictures

Hills - Resembling that most of each of our families come from some kind of countryside-like region.

Two sheafs - Representing the farming background on Ally's side and Sheffield [see etymology: Sheaf-field] on mine.

Open book - The fact that we're both educators.

Chevron - Symbolises strength in traditional heraldry [the black "v" for those who aren't sure].

Motto

"Patience, Resilience, Wisdom"

 - The three key attributes which I think Ally and I both have combined. Personally, I have about 97% of the patience, 2% of the resilience and 1% of the wisdom, but there we are then...

That's all for now,

With love, as always,

Luke xx

what's in my boot...

Hi all,

So I shan't continue my darling wife's ramblings about how long this child is taking, so I will go off on my usual left-field somewhat-humourous tangent...

For those of you who have followed other blogs before, particularly fashion ones, there was a post that was "in vogue" a short while ago called "what's in my bag".

Essentially [to the unlearned such as myself], it involved women from all over the world emptying the contents of their handbags, taking a photo of it, then listing the contents. Again, for reasons unbeknownst to me, women from all over the world then felt compelled to look at what was in everyone else's handbags as if there was going to be some ground-breaking, revolutionary, unheard of object/device/something or other.

Fortunately, this phenomenon passed. Women now generally keep the contents of their handbags in their handbags [and despite there being a mountainous amount of rubbish in there - the owners of these bags seem to be able to find things in half a second, but it takes non-owners 5 minutes minimum].

However, I'm going to attempt to re-start the craze with parents globally by photographing my car boot's contents due to baby/child necessities. Here goes:

Contents:
1. 2x fold-out seats [1 blue, 1 green]
2. 1x football [Adidas Champions League Finale]
3. 1x red blanket [for grown-ups]
4. 1x picnic blanket [green and beige tartan]
5. 1x "Mommy bag"
6. 1x "Daddy bag"
7. 1x camera tripod
8. 1x baby blanket [hand-crocheted]
9. 1x pram [Valco Snap 4]
10. 1x pram rain cover
11. 1x towbar [in case]
12. 1x pack of wiper blades

That's my story. Family Crest post later...

That's all for now,

With love, as always,

Luke xx

hurry up child!!

After opting to stay at work until I was almost 38 weeks pregnant (I actually begged them to let me stay for longer) I finally went on leave this week. Bonus: I got these lovely flowers from my parents for surviving. Downside: I'm bored. All the time.

It would be a really good idea for this baby to come. Soon! Because Mommy is going mental and cleaning and re-organising everything and has recently run out of stuff to do. She also looks like this (but the belly has significantly dropped since this photo):

As you can see the cot is set up. So is the carseat (below), the pram, the change table, the bath, the spare bed, the nightlight, the baby blankets, the clothes, the laundry, the rocking chair, the nappy bin, etc, etc. Everything is clean. Everything is even IRONED.

I'm clearly going mad because we have tried everything to convince baby that ANY TIME NOW is good. My original due date was tomorrow, so it feels like we've been waiting for the standard 40 weeks already.

We've even tried using Murphy's Law. On Friday my mother and I battled city traffic to go watch an incredibly long French film. Baby could've come then, but opted not to. Luke has never been busier, with after-school meetings and excursions to faraway places and generally being not home (i.e. at football). Nup. Still not bothered.

So let me just say this, pineapple, dates, bouncing on a fitball for hours, raspberry leaf tea, spicy food, long walks, Murphy's Law, hot showers, sneezing, nesting and ALL OF THE OTHER STUPID THINGS do not work.

If you have any other suggestions I will likely scoff at them and say 'I GIVE UP!!!' but will likely give them a go anyway, so feel free.

That being said, baby is really due in just over a week, so will update everyone soon if baby just turns out to be one of those kids who is merely punctual.

Ally xx

a little bit of a history lesson...

Dearest child-to-be,

Following is a little bit of a history lesson about your family. more specifically - where you come from and what you're carrying with you without even realising...

Mummy's Family:
Half of Mummy is Italian. Very Italian. This means that you will likely talk with your hands a lot and love eating pasta. Which is fine.

Torricella - where you're at home if your name is Antonio, Maria, Nicola or any common variation...

The other half of Mummy is Chilean. Sort of. In that if you go back another couple of generations it's actually American on one side [with a Germanic background] and American on the other [with a Celtic background]. This means that you will likely enjoy expressing your opinion and love taking over other countries. Which is fine.

"I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it..."

Daddy's Family:
Half of Daddy is English. The other half is English. This means that you will likely be rubbish at penalties and love cold weather. Which is fine.

it happens to the best of us...

Moving on...away from talking in the future third person...

Because our baby is the first of what will hopefully be plenty of Baskin-Shaws, I've been thinking about making a family crest. As such, I've been looking at surname etymology as well as topography and trying to create something that fits. Watch this space...

That's all for now,

With love, as always,

Luke xx