How Time Flies

I can't believe Charlie is 8 weeks old already! And a hefty 8 week baby, too! He's now about 14 pounds....to put it in perspective, Kate was about 9 1/2 pounds at this point. They say boys are bigger than girls, but Charlie has gone from 25th percentile in weight to 50-75th percentile. And his chunky thighs look good enough to eat.

A couple of weeks ago we went and had some pictures taken. They came out so well I am struggling to restrain myself from buying them all. Because it's just too expensive! The site is here and the password is pike251106.

Kate is struggling to keep her good humour with respect to not being the centre of the world anymore. While she continues to be gentlest of gentle with Charlie, and in general an angel of a child, there are times when a little devil comes out and gets into everything. Usually when I'm feeding Charlie and can't run after her. She's too smart for her own good.

The Little Princess

Dressing Up: She has been in her Snow White outfit pretty much every day since Halloween. Before that was Cinderella.

Her new bed (from Argos - remember I told Laura Ashley what they could do with their bed) arrived on Monday and after a morning of swearing profusely, Daddy finally assembled it.

Siblings

I hope Kate and Charlie are close when they are older. I suppose most parents hope for that for their children. For now, though, they are as close as two peas in a pod. Even though Charlie's only 6 weeks old, he gives all his smiles to Kate. I might get one in a day, but every time he sees Kate he smiles. Kate, on her end, loves to kiss him and hold him and stroke him and feed him...initially, I was a bit concerned (think George from Of Mice and Men), but she has proven to be extremely gentle and caring when it comes to dealing with her baby brother.

Ham

Such a camera-hog she is....!

In the grandmothers' makeup cases:

After 'borrowing' Granny Jack's lipstick....(she put it on herself can you tell)

...and after Yai Sai helped her put on some of hers...

Face painting!

Learning to pole dance on holiday....

He's Here

Charles Alexander Pike
("Charlie") (or, "Chi-Chi", as Kate calls him!)
Born 11 October 2006, 1:40am


After arriving home.......(and Kate kindly lends him her 'Baba')


At one week.....

Results

Remember when James bought me this? Well here are the first pictures I took with it. I'm still trying to figure out how to take good pictures, so if anyone has any advice on how I could have improved these shots, just let me know.

First picture: Kate not sure she wants to be photographed....

....but then she warms to it.....

....and then numerous pics with her and Daddy begin...

Potty Mouth

Have I mentioned that Kate is potty-trained now? It took her a while to warm up to it, but once she did, as with everything else, she 'got it'. It then took me six months to feel confident enough to dispense with the nighttime nappies, even though they were dry for at least four of those months.

How did we do it? I credit it all to G/S/N, her patience....and....bribes. Cho-cho and stickits, to be exact. With a little under-the-table action, Kate managed to be nappy free during the day within three days.


Completely un-staged picture of Kate reading the sports pages of the paper while on the potty.

The Last Stages of Pregnancy

The joys of having a 2 1/2 year old while heavily pregnant are untold. While I was feeling a little self-conscious about my expanding girth, my lovely daughter would tell me things like, "Mummy, you have a big bum!" and "Mummy, you an elephant!"

And when I let her take control of the camera for the first time, this is what she focused on:

She did well, considering I spent most of the pregnancy hiding behind her in pictures:

Early on...

In August....

And finally the week before Charlie was born I realised what a great shelf my bump made....

I'm Baaaaaack!

Whew! What a couple of months!

First was the horrendous move - to date, the only thing smooth about the move was the purchase of our lovely new dining table. Everything else has been so horrendous it borders on the funny (but isn't). I've been telling G/S/N that I'm going to turn into one of those people that never leaves their house and cuts off all contact with the outside world. I'll grow my own vegetables in our tiny garden and order everything else in (at least the groceries are coming).

Where to even start? The issues with the house sale and purchase were not unexpected, so I won't even go into that; that's just a normal part of living in England. But after that. AFTER that. I start shaking just thinking about it all.

Top of the list has to be British Telecom. What an experience. First it took a week for them to come and do the cabling and jointing. But that wasn't so bad. It was the SEVEN WEEKS we had to then wait for them to come and do the ducting. What is that all about? My neighbours got to know me very well as the crazy pregnant lady, as my mobile doesn't work in the house and I had to conduct all of my (very expensive) phone calls on my front porch. No wonder no one introduced themselves to me when I was out there; all they ever saw me do was shout and cry.

G/S/N says that I shouldn't be surprised - I should expect this from any company that has a name beginning with 'British'. But the kicker was when I called the 'escalation' number given to me by Ofcom (the telcom regulator): they told me there was nothing they could do ("Sorry!") and that there was no one to escalate TO. But that they logged my complaint. I suppose the most diplomatic thing was not to declare,"So what is it you actually DO there? What use are you, exactly? If all you do is log complaints and don't actually DO anything about them?" That is what really astounds me - that there is a whole department being employed by BT that sits there all day, picking up the phone, and logging complaints into a black hole.

The next on the list was Laura Ashley. I ordered a (very expensive) bed for Kate - it was to be her new 'Princess Bed' that also doubled as guest sleeping (it had a trundle bed that could either be another twin bed or combine with the main bed to make a king-sized bed). It took 9 weeks to get here (a tad long, but I was forewarned). That's when the fun and games started. First they 'failed' the delivery because the driver had the wrong address and when he went to the (wrong) place there was no one home (I had called them twice to confirm directions and the address as this is a new development and I knew the post code was not necessarily on people's systems yet); then they said it would take a further three days to re-deliver (he was literally only ten minutes down the road at the point where I called them back) because the bed had to be 'reinspected' for damage after being on the lorry; when it finally arrived, there was a main part of the bed that was not welded on - obviously the inspection was thorough - and the bed had to be sent away (all this while Kate was downstairs dancing around, singing, "new bed, new bed!"). They finally called me back A WEEK LATER (after repeated chasers from me) to tell me it would be ANOTHER 8-10 WEEKS to get a replacement bed out to me! You can bet I told them where to stick the bed and all its broken parts. So visitors will have to make do with the floor. Sorry guys.

I'll just leave it at those two biggies and spare you the rest. It's enough to bring tears to my eyes again just thinking about it all.

Next post will be more entertaining. Promise. Really.

Promises Promises

I PROMISE I'll post again soon....still haven't downloaded a bunch of pictures off my camera, dating to April. I have loads of cute pictures to post.

Next week is my LAST WEEK before maternity leave, and assuming I make it through without killing myself, I'll be able to post (more) regularly.

On a side note, Kate has now stopped calling everyone 'Dahling'....and I really loved that. So sad. But she does tell me "Mummy, you boot'ful" all the time (and when I say, "Thank you sweetie, you're beautiful too!" she goes, "NO!! YOU boot'ful!"). Although last week I said, "Look at Mummy's tummy!", thinking she would say something about 'Baby Chahlie' (yes, it's a boy!)....and she just glanced up from what she was doing and said,"It's so big!" Daughters really know where to hit their mothers hardest, eh? Almost from Day 1.

And I forgot to mention the three-day potty training....how impressive is G/S/N? The week after Easter she started Kate on the potty for real (with pants instead of nappies, to encourage that sort of behaviour). It took a few stickers and a bit of chocolate, but after only three days there were no accidents. Of course, now Kate wakes up nightly to come up and have a little wee in our bathroom (even though she's got a nappy on, she's a 'big girl'!), which means no sleep for me. Tell me again why we all try to get them potty trained as soon as possible? I could have used a few more years....like until she is tall enough to use the toilet on her own...

We are still hoping to move house in the next few weeks. It keeps getting pushed back, and I am really getting antsy. Just a couple of weeks ago I was getting all sad about leaving our house, but now I'm like ALRIGHT ALREADY! Pack some bags!

Snippets

Snippet 1:
More information than you probably wanted, but yesterday Kate came upstairs when I was getting dressed for work. She was standing behind me, took one look at my knickers and said, "Mummy, bum, stuck!"

This morning she did the same thing, except she also started pulling at them and said, "Out! Out!"

Snippet 2:
She was farting on command the other day. About 10 times. What a great skill. We were in fits of laughter. I know I'm not supposed to be encouraging her, and I have no idea where she gets her toilet humour from....

Birthday Girl

Finally I am posting the pictures from Kate's second birthday! (February 27)

Please note the lengths mothers will go to in order to encourage their children to participate. While Kate looooooves getting her face painted, none of the other kids were interested. Lizzie and I got ours painted to show them how fun it would be, but none of them were convinced.

Fairy Princess
Face Painting

Dancing with Daddy

Mummy and Kate

Blowing out the candles with Daddy

Enjoying cake

Should It Stay Or Should It Go

Last night James came home with this for me.

I was pretty stunned, to say the least. The first thing I asked him was what had he done. And if he had cheated on me (to which he answered he didn't have time to, and I believe that to be true; plus he wouldn't have the energy).

I'm trying to decide whether or not to make him return it.

For Returning:

• I already have a nice digital camera (also Olympus, the myu450) - it's compact, fits in my handbag, takes nice pictures (3.4 megapixels)...although the shutter speed leaves a little to be desired.
• This new camera is a bit bulky (he actually bought the 'MEGA PACK' - which included an extra 40-150mm lens (a 17.5-45mm lens comes with the camera), 1GB memory card and a PHOTO PRINTER!) - it all fits into this really professional-looking camera bag; it's not really a 'holiday camera' - it would be a bit tough to schlep around while also schlepping around a toddler (and soon another baby), all the requisite baby accessories, my own holiday accessories...etc...
• I am bad enough about posting pictures I've taken on the current camera!
• I am not a professional photographer
• More accessories will eventually be needed (rechargeable battery, flash...)
• It was really expensive and we did want a holiday this summer

For Keeping:

• I loooove taking pictures and this would be the start of a more serious hobby
• James really wants me to keep it
• I love it

The dilemma.

A Spring In My Step

I think spring is here.

The days are longer (PLUS - the clocks changed last weekend). It's warmer this week than last week (anything to do with the time change? I don't know). I've stopped bundling up in my giant scarf that weighs about 10 lbs.

Last week I got to see 'Twitchy' waving at us on the ultrasound machine. It was quite exciting; my doctor and I waved back.

We keep pointing to my stomach and asking Kate, "What's in here?" and she answers, "Baaaaaby!" Just wait til she finally realises what that really means to her!

Now We're Really Being Had

Waaaay back in November 2004, G/S/N got into a little fender-bender with our car. Basically, she was crossing a roundabout and hit another car (of note is the fact that the other driver was speeding so while she did actually see the other car, it was so far away when she started to cross the roundabout that she judged it safe to cross). The damage: a scrape to the side of the other car and a dented bumper and loose license plate on ours. We ended up getting our car fixed privately and not filing a claim with insurance because the other driver never returned James’ phone call and we never heard from her again.

Until recently.

A couple of months ago (yes, in 2006!) we received a letter from our insurance company stating that a claim had been filed against us. WHAT?!? Apparently the other driver was claiming WHIPLASH over a year later! Now, a couple of months later, I could understand, but a year?!?! We, of course, expressed our surprise and indignation, and the insurance company sent an investigator round to get a statement. [I’m assuming that they are making sure this isn’t a fraudulent claim (which it so appears to me to be)] We arranged a time (yesterday evening), based on their statement that it should take about an hour with G/S/N and then a quick follow-up with James as the owner of record on the car.

The guy came over last night. While we were discussing his parking situation he let slip that it would take three hours (WHAT?!?). We couldn’t figure out what could possibly take three hours so took his comment with a grain of salt.

Unfortunately, he was right! He obviously knew himself well. It was the most excruciating three hours for G/S/N. I took care of Kate, gave her a bath, her milk, watched some TV with her and then put her to bed. When I went downstairs again, the guy was on something like page 8 of his HANDWRITTEN statement, and only getting to the point where G/S/N had called Emergency Services. Oh. My. God. I couldn't move or talk slower if I tried. I don’t know how G/S/N refrained from snatching the paper out of his hands and writing her statement herself. I kept looking at her and crossing my eyes, and it was all I could do to stop myself from dissolving into hysterical giggles.

Hopefully, though, the insurance company will expose that other driver as the fraudster she appears to be. I mean, really – her car was lightly scraped down the side, our car had a slightly damaged bumper and the license plate was hanging off, hardly the jarring front/back collision that I would associate with whiplash!

All Grown Up

Sniff.

Kate is no longer 'a baby' anymore (well, not even 'a toddler'). She's a LITTLE GIRL.

Looking back, I can see how it crept up on us. She's more into drawing, face-painting, dressing up, etc. She doesn't chew on things (except chocolate and cheese). She can be left to play alone for short periods of time (while keeping an ear out for the inevitable sneak to the larder for chocolate).

But the thing that really hit home for me was when I got home from work yesterday evening. She was upstairs taking a bath, heard me come in and started chirping, "MUMMY! MUMMY! MUMMY!"

To date, she has always called me "Mama" and James "Dada" - the cutest thing ever. So when I heard her say, "MUMMY!" I actually thought she was saying, "MONEY!" (which, though I haven't mentioned it here before, has become somewhat of a fixation for her. In fact, every time James comes home from work (or, rather, every time James has coins in his pocket - she has a sixth sense about this) she rushes to him, begging, "MONEY!" with a tiny little hand held out. I am of the belief she has about £100 stashed away in her mattress from these little 'donations')

But nooooo, when I went up to the bathroom to say hello, she continued with her, "MUMMY! MUMMY! MUMMY!" and I realised that my little baby is all grown up. This morning I told her that I actually preferred 'Mama' but she pursed her little lips and said, "Mummy" with a very firm voice, and I knew it was over.

James thought it was funny until she turned to him and said, "Daddy!"

I PROMISE I will post the pictures of her birthday before she has another one.

This Family Can't Keep Secrets

James is the worst secret-keeper in the world. When he knows something that you don't know, he HAS to tell you. You can totally read his face like an open book. It says, "I know something you don't! I know something you don't!" and then two seconds later you know what he knows. This hasn't been so useful for him when he's tried to surprise me in the past (like for anniversaries, etc). It's not so bad for me because I don't like surprises (well, I am such a bad liar I'm always worried that I'll be surprised with something I hate and it'll show all over my face!). Kate now seems to be following in his footsteps.

This morning James and Kate got to the kitchen before me, so they made Kate's breakfast together. Kate usually has toast, Special K, or Weetabix. But today, with Dada, she pointed to the Cheerios box (knowing full well that Cheerios are usually a snack, and that neither Mama nor G/S/N would give her Cheerios for breakfast (high sugar content and all that - hey, do as we say, not as we do!)). So Dada, being wound around his Daddy's Girl's pinky as he is, gave her the Cheerios. When G/S/N got there, she commented, "Oh, Cheerios for breakfast today!" (with a knowing look, I might add) Kate looks up at her and says, "Dada!" and resumes munching away. Busted!

Although I do have to say, when Kate wants to keep a secret she does try really hard. Especially when she is trying to convince Dada (of course) to give her chocolate. She drags him by the hand to the larder, opens the door, points to the chocolate then puts her finger over her lips and says, "Shhh!"

And, finally, I have a secret to tell! Number two is 9 weeks along!

I Think We're Being Had

Kate is learning her numbers and letters. Whenever I show her something to count (say, three coins, or four hairclips) she seems to be stuck on the one-two combination ("one, two, one!" or "one, two, one, two!"). But then I hear her chanting when she's wandered into another room....."one, two, three, po, pi, sic, sen, eight, nine, ten!"

The other day we were playing in the guest room and I tipped out all the letters from her letter puzzle (it's one of those wooden puzzles with pictures of things that start with the letters hidden underneath the letters). Last week she did really well, although she had a lot of help (i.e. me going, "look, it's 'C'! 'C' for CAT! and there's 'I'! 'I' for ICE!" and such). She was doing well the other day, too, but then lost interest after about 5 letters. I thought, oh well, we'll try again some other time. THEN, she wanted to play with her Fuzzy Felts, which are little felt bits that you put onto a mat to make funny faces. I told her that we had to clean up the letters before we tipped all the felt bits onto the floor because I didn't want a huge mess. She looked at me, sighed, and then within the space of two minutes put all of the letters back into their PROPER SLOTS! (while muttering to herself, "Monkey, Kite, Snake, Apple, Dog, Frog....")

One of these days I'll post the birthday pictures.

Hot and Cold

I know it's been a while since I posted, but what with our holiday and then Kate's birthday I have been a bit inundated.

We had a lovely trip to Bangkok the first two weeks of February. Kate got to meet all her relatives (and I mean ALL million of them!). She formed a particular attachment to my cousin with whom we stayed. I'd come down the stairs in the morning and find them squished together on the sofa watching Pooh. For a single man about town, he was remarkably smitten by this two year old!

She also made great friends with her second cousin.

The first week we were in Phuket, soaking up some rays. Kate got to swim every day, and once she overcame her fear of getting her feet dirty she enjoyed playing in the sand. What a hoo-ha before that though! She kept wailing, "Dirty! Dirty!" and then we had to wash her feet off in the ocean!
View from our spot on the beach.

Bangkok was sweltering to say the least. Air conditioning was our friend. But I much prefer sweltering to bloody cold, which is what it was like before we left Jolly Olde Englande and what we came back to!

At the Temple of the Emerald Buddha...

I have a bottomless pit for a daughter; well, in relation to anything sweet! Here we are giving her some chocolate ("Cho cho!" to Kate - always said with as cute a face as she can muster). Note the look of anticipation.

Notice Kate has her ice cream but is still trying to wheedle some of Daddy's frozen fruit thing.

Sleepless Nights

Kate had the mother of all flus a couple of weeks ago. This meant her waking every half hour every night, asking for juice or just whinging and moaning. James and I took it in turns, which meant we each woke up every half hour, but only had to get out of bed every hour. I'm convinced this led to my own mother of all flus last week. Wow, I've never felt so bad (well, not in the last 10 years or so, anyway). Now I understand what all Kate's whinging and moaning was all about; I wanted to whinge and moan every half hour myself!

BUT - it has not stopped now that she is better. Why? Because just after the New Year we converted her cotbed to a BIG GIRL'S BED.

Which means that she is free to come and go as she pleases now. However, since she was under the weather she didn't notice this, or probably didn't even care given how she was feeling.

But now she has figured out that she can get out of bed. She can get out of bed and open her door and walk out. And climb the stairs.

Cheeky monkey. She has started coming up to our room in the middle of the night. Last night I heard her door open and close, and then this tiny little grunting as she worked her way up the stairs....carrying her sippy cup and her bunny (well a well-prepared girl wouldn't go anywhere without her necessary accessories!)....she did this about 8 times....each time, one of us would swoop her up and put her back in bed. The final time I had had it....I put her back in bed and said, "Stay in bed! Mummy and Daddy are sleeping! Stay there!" And she did. Hopefully this newfound freedom in the middle of the night will lose its fascination for her. At least until she's sixteen.

Sunday morning she went in the other direction. We heard her open her door and the tiny little grunting....but then no Kate appeared at our door. James got up to go investigate. She had gone down to the kitchen and opened the larder door and was trying to rip open the bag of Chocolate Buttons.

Me Me Mine Mine

Back in December I posted about Kate being all 'me, me, mine, mine' when her little nephew was staying with us.

After watching Finding Nemo again (and we've now seen it 500 times in the last week - Kate asks for it by opening and closing her mouth, making fish sounds and saying, "Fish! Fish" as opposed to "Shark! Shark!" for Fish Tale, which we've seen only about 300 times) I have come to the conclusion that Kate was a seagull in a previous incarnation.

The Holidays Are Over....But the January Sales Are Here!

Well I took down the Christmas tree yesterday. I'm always sad to see it go. But I've left up some fairy lights in the dining room and up the bannister. I'll see how long it takes James to notice (he hates fairy lights). Or to read this post.

I went to the King's Road on Saturday for a little shoppin' R&R. It was FANTASTIC. I haven't been shopping since July so I didn't feel too bad about spending half a day shopping. And the bargains were INCREDIBLE. I ended up buying seven items in just one (posh) shop. But they were all 70% off (one jumper was £15!). In the end, I only got to visit 5 stores (only three of which I actually spent money in) since I was so consumed by the one (posh) shop. Today at work I told everyone all about the wonderful bargains I found and encouraged them to support the economy by going to find their own bargains on the King's Road.

Be Careful How You Ask For Things

Here's a funny little photo story!

G/S/N brought back a couple of velour pyjamas from France for Kate. One of them makes her look like a pretty satsuma with embroidery, and the other makes her look like Piglet.

I thought they were so cute I wanted a Piglet picture of her.

I took the first picture, but she kept coming towards me...

So I said, "Back up! Back up!" And she turned around and stood very still for me.

I asked her to turn around and say, "Cheese", which she obligingly did.

I thought it was so cute I wanted another one. When I was trying to take the second [nice] picture, she kept coming at me again. Again I said, "Back up! Back up!" Again she turned around and stood still. Again I said, "Turn back round!" And she looked at me like, "Mama, what the h*ll do you want me to do?!?!"

And a Lovely Time Was Had By All...

What a Christmas!

I took Kate to James' company's children's Christmas party...she had such a good time and then completely zonked out in the car on the way home. There was a Jungle Book panto...I was a bit worried that she would either be scared or lose interest in something longer than 3 minutes, but she really got into it. There was a little boy sitting next to us that was about a year or so older than Kate, who got so scared of Balloo that he had to be taken out; but Kate was so enamoured with Balloo that every time he went off the stage she'd look at me and go, "Bear? Bear?" She also got into the bear dance, waving her arms all around, and the snake dance, hissing with all the rest of the kids. Later at the face painting station, I asked her what she wanted on her face. As I was getting the little picture thing to help her choose, she turned to the lady and said, "Pretty! Pretty!" So the lady drew little pretty flowers all over her face. How pleased was she. Every time we went by a mirror she had to admire herself...."Ooooohhh!"

We all packed up and went down to Dorset to James' aunt's house on Christmas Eve. Uncle Robbie was enlisted to load his car with all the gifts, as we had five people plus luggage in our family-mobile. [An aside - who ever thought I'd end up with a station wagon? But I have, and we love it! It's like driving around with a sofa in the back seat]

Kate immediately made a bee-line for the biggest box under the Christmas tree....grabbed it and shouted, "MINE!" It's a good thing it was hers!

And it's amazing how they remember the important things....like ripping open gifts....and not others....like people! The last time Kate ripped any gifts open was last February for her first birthday, but she remembered it all! The look of intense concentration as she opened her gifts was priceless.

The adults also had a lovely time over Christmas. We ate, drank and were merry all weekend. The Christmas dinner was the best ever (and poor Uncle Bob missed out on his midnight crackling spree because we all (well, primarily ME, but everyone else helped a LOT) grazed on the crackling after dinner (yes, after we had completely stuffed ourselves, we ate some MORE) and there wasn't much left after that. But boy, was it good!

Uncle Ray

Since both of the children are such good sleepers (and because all the excitement pooped them out so early!) we put them to bed at 7pm each night and had a grand old time eating, drinking and playing games. This year, Cranium was the hit (once we figured out the rules and substituted a regular die (and made up the rules to go with it) for the errant coloured die). On Christmas Eve James' and my team (Team 1!) won, and on Christmas Day Team 2 won. The Christmas day game was a little more competitive than the Christmas Eve one, for two reasons - we had figured out the rules by then, and both teams had something to prove! I'm not bitter about losing the second game though (contrary to my competitive nature!)....this keeps us rarin' to go for the next time - the TIE BREAKER!!

Kate really dug her gifts. I really really really tried to keep from giving her stereotypically 'girlie' things in the beginning, but she is a real girlie-girl (see, the whole thing about doing the opposite of what your mother tells you? It starts before you even develop reasoning - so I can confidently say it's innate).....she has been using her little kitchenette set (the biggest box under the christmas tree) almost non-stop since we set it up in the kitchen. In fact, I can pretty much lead her to the kitchen, she will self-start with the kitchenette play, and I can retire to the living room for a couple of hours with a good book and a glass of wine.

After a few days' respite it was New Year's Eve! And what a great one it was this year, too. G/S/N was in town and offered to baby-sit Kate [a sleep-over no less! so we could have a lie-in on New Year's Day!]. So I grabbed the brass ring and ripped it right off the merry-go-round! We had cocktails at ours, then made our way (walking: I highly recommend it, especially when you know you are going to be stumbling home at all hours, with a tube strike going on and incredible premiums on mini-cabs!) to our local Good Restaurant. The restaurant was having one of those package New Year's Eve things, with the all-inclusive meal, live band and dancing til the wee hours. We had a table for eight (with seven of us there, as Uncle Ray stayed home with a bug....very disappointed, since this was the first New Year's Eve that he has spent here where the plans didn't include me cooking a wintry, comfort-food dinner and packing everyone off to bed by 11pm) so the conversation never waned. The food was great, the band was incredibly awesome and my friend Mike (who told me he never dances) danced. Since I am not used to staying up later than 11pm, the big dinner and volumes of wine made me so drowsy that at one point I was falling asleep. My friend Mike, who moved here with his wife about 6 months ago, was so not impressed (and I think he was a little bit self-conscious that he was boring me since I was having a conversation with him at the time). Cue the after-dinner coffee! I think there was speed in that coffee. Mike told me that he could see the transformation as it happened: after two sips of coffee I visibly perked up, and after one whole cup I was like, "Let me at that dance floor!"

While I was perking up, James had been dancing with my mother.

As it neared midnight, I was getting concerned that they hadn't returned and that I wouldn't get my New Year's Kiss (missed the last couple of years since we were already asleep when it turned midnight!). I sauntered over to the dance floor to search for them and was rewarded by the sight of my mom dancing crazily with some woman, and James was....dancing with her friend! Apparently they had done the 'Divide and Conquer' move with James and my mother! So sly.

As the announcer was counting down to midnight I was getting a little antsy that James was not coming off the dance floor to find me and give me my New Year's Kiss, so I wandered onto the dance floor to get him. As I tapped him on the shoulder, Dancing Queen kept swinging him round away from me. Not to be deterred, I kept tapping his shoulder. Once she realised I was James' wife, she let go of him like he was a hot potato (I can be intimidating when I want to be!) and slunk away, Kissless. As if SHE was going to get a New Year's Kiss from him! I don't think so, sister. I think James was secretly pleased at the little scuffle - even though he's an old married man, he's still got it!

All's well that end's well. We had a lovely time on New Year's Eve, with family and friends. And of course I woke up at 7am on New Year's Day. Kate has me trained well.

Here's looking forward to a wonderful 2006!