Almost a year old already

Natasha Morgan Evans

I was just looking back at photos of this time last year. It's amazing to think that Natasha turns 1 on 9th November. What a year!

It's funny how an event like having a premature (26 weeks gestation) baby can really help sort out your priorities in life. Seeing a baby grow from 890g to the almost 8kg that she is today is a strange kind of privilege. The wonder of creation is never more evident that when you actually get to see an eyelid unfuse, or cartilige form in an ear, or a baby start to be able to breath on her own. It really makes you value the small things in life that we tend to take for granted, like our health and that we really do have a marvellous creator God!

Less brain fog

Having changed the way I eat - no more sugar for me, low GI here I come (thanks Brenda) - and having the girls sleep through the night (mainly) has seen a marked change in the levels of brain fog I've been experiencing. Much like the Singapore haze of last week, the fog has finally lifted. I feel like I'm thinking joined-up thoughts again, and am even able to read books again. Long may it continue.

The baby brain really hit me hard. I'd become forgetful- people's names, lunch dates, playdates, my children's names etc and sometimes couldn't even string full sentences together. All that seems to be changing - what an answer to prayer!

Back to the blogging board

So, after a three and a half year absence from blogging in which time I've flirted with Facebook and found it to be a largely useless waster of time (apart from being a great place to upload photos) and had two children, I'm back blogging. I still love to write, even if I have less time than previously. We'll see how long I last. My aim is to stay away from FB and come here instead.

The haze
Singapore is covered in a blanket of stinking smoke - not good. It registered unhealthy levels on Thursday, and quite frankly I'm fed up with Indonesia starting the illegal fires which cause it - just stop the burning!

BBC World service
Since our kind friend Erle tuned our car radio to BBC WS I've been completely addicted. Finally I have a place to hear 'real' news. Now I hear that they are cutting its funding, very sad indeed. There's enough rubbish/ads/repeats on the radio and TV, BBC WS is such a refreshing place for something slightly original and often quirky. Please don't let it disappear.

The girls
Natasha (now almost 1 year old, should only be 9 months however) has started crawling and today started waving. Such a cute age and growing up so fast.
Pippa has found Jesus and asked Him to be her friend, albeit in the middle of a week where she's not exactly been on her best behaviour. Pips loves school and loves to dress up as a fairy/princess/ballerina - basically anything as long as it involves pink. She has a fashion style all of her own, generally involving two layers on the bottom half i.e. two skirts or a skirt and trousers. That said, everything she puts together seems to work and she's got great attention to detail - not bad for 3 and a bit!

Tea ponderings
Why is it when you offer to make someone tea, you almost always have to come back and ask them how they would like it? Wouldn't it make more sense for them to say, for example, "tea, white, one sugar" up front...I guess it's just a politeness thing, sounds a bit demanding to give a list of ones requirements all at once. Maybe I'll try it next time and see what reaction I get.


Shipment
After 5 years in Singapore, we finally shipped all of our stuff from the UK to here. It's lovely to be reunited with some long-lost treasures. However there was also some pretty odd stuff in there - anyone for a Marks and Spencer Christmas pudding from 2003....

Wow we're parents!

What a week! We now have a beautiful baby daughter, Philippa Jane Evans, who was born on 28th June 2007 at 10.48pm weighing 3.52kg (7lb 12oz). She is feeding and sleeping like a dream and currently seems to be a very relaxed baby. We love to just sit and look at the funny facial expressions that she pulls, and we are loving learning to be parents.

We have received some lovely gifts and flowers, pictures of the flowers are below...I love being surrounded by fresh flowers!

I've recovered pretty well and was out and about yesterday shopping and meeting people for lunch. I went to high tea at the Shangri La hotel for a friend's leaving do. Philippa had her first public nappy change in the rather posh marble-clad bathroom at the shangri la and her first public breastfeed in the dining room (discreetly hidden in a sling, as they're not too keen on breastfeeding over here).

I've included my favourite photos from the first couple of days, obviously we've taken hundreds...but most of those will appear on our website http://www.paulandcaillie.com/ , so keep watching that space.

The final countdown - two and a half weeks to go

We picked up a new 'point and shoot' camera for me yesterday - the old one gave up the ghost. So here are the first shots from it.

Our Phil and Teds buggy...very cool.

The Moses basket complete with hand-sewn white liner. The cot doesn't come until the end of June so baby will be sleeping in this for a while to start with.
A beautiful hand quilted and appliqued playmat lovingly made by my stepmum (Thanks Jan, it's gorgeous!)
Red, black and white mobile (made by me) - apparently these are the colours and shapes that babies find easiest to focus on when they are newborn.
A small selection of the clothes that baby has already been given...many thanks to Mum, Mark and Nikki, Julia and Marianne for their kind gifts. Baby now has around 40 outfits...that's much more than I have!
Wow, I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted. Time is flying, I thought the last few weeks before baby came would drag...but it's certainly not.

I've been really living the 'lady of leisure' life while I still can. I've made friends with a lovely group of pregnant ladies who are all due within a week or two of me. We've been having lots of long relaxed lunches and it's been great to get to know them. Here's a shot of a few of the girls at Gemma's baby shower.

The nesting instinct definitely kicked in - I have hand sewn a moses basket lining (see photo) for the moses basket that a friend lent us. I've never sewn anything in my life. I also handmade the red, black and white mobile...not to mention cleaning out and reorganising every cupboard in the house!

Midsummer Nights dream

Feeling quite cultural today as we went to see an outdoor performance of Midsummer nights dream on Saturday night at Fort Canning park. It was fantastic, we took a picnic and set up our mats (and cushions) on the grass. The whole play was done on boardwalks in and around the audience and it was very 'Shakespeare' with it's bawdiness, lewdness and audience involvement. It was awesome sitting under the warm Singapore night watching the stars, moon and bats in the sky. The play incorporated lots of modern stuff; hairdrier, popcorn, a rendition of 'I will survive' and football shirts - but I think they did it pretty well. Only Bottom and Titania's rendition of 'I will survive' complete with flashing disco lights would have had Shakespeare turning in his grave, the rest was pretty fun.

The pregnancy is progressing well, only 5 weeks to go! We are all set and I'm just glad that we don't have to move house...

Where we currently live - Jervois Grove, Singapore

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Jervois Grove

House hunting

The property market has gone mad. In four days, I will have only seen four properties (compare that to 26 properties in 5 days a year ago!). Looks like we might have to stay put and pay the rent increase.

They have an odd agent system over here. Both the tenant and the landlord have an agent, these are often two different people, both of whom expect their cut of the fees. This means that when taking out a year's rental agreement (the standard is two years), the tenant must pay half a month's rent in fees, this is as well as the landlord paying at least that if not more to their tenant. Being a property agent in this country is lucrative, and it seems they don't have to be all that good, and they certainly don't have to speak clear English...

Facebook

I've recently discovered the Facebook phenomenon. It's kind of addictive and a great place to keep in contact with friends old and new. It's also an easy place to upload photos, so for those of you who are looking for somewhere to put photos this might be your answer. Only people who you decide are 'friends' can see your profile and communicate with you, so none of this dodgy web stuff. Here's the link www.facebook.com , I hope to see some of you on there soon. Look me up and send me a message. Below is my facebook piccie.

Names

Lots of people have been asking us about names for the baby, and we aren't telling anyone until baby arrives. To satisfy that name curiosity that we all have, Paul found this cool website showing the popularity of names since the 1880's, I think it's just for America, but it's pretty darned cool anyway. Just type your name in the top left above the pink and blue box and it gives you a graph showing the popularity of your name. http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html