This week, not only have I had the joy of my Mum being here, but my lovely friends - Clare "Wellie" Wells and Ann O'Flynn have come out to visit! :)

They flew in on Tuesday afternoon, picked up their hire car, booked in at their Motel and then arrived at ours at about 5pm - the first indication that they were here was hearing the low rumble of a powerful engine - I went to the window to look, and sure enough, the girls have hired THE most ridiculous, sporty 2-seater Cadillac - although at first I took the enormous grins on their faces to mean they were pleased to see me, I think they were actually slightly delirious about the enormous engine they had been given the keys to for the duration of their stay! I failed to take a photo of said vehicle, but fear not! Although the girls have now headed off for a road trip to LA, Vegas and Yosemite, they will be back next Weds and I will provide photographic evidence of their ridiculous American ride then!

Joking aside, it was an absolute joy to see them both. It made me realise how much I am missing my wonderful friends from back home - don't get me wrong, the Lord has blessed us with fantastic friends out here, but there is something special about friends you've known for years - it was just so easy to slot back in to chatting and laughing - SUCH fun!

On Wednesday the 5 of us (Me, Mum and Daniel - and Wellie and Ann) went down to Capitola (a pretty seaside town south on highway 1). We had lunch overlooking the ocean, then managed a nappy change on the beach (without getting covered in poo - reeeeesult!) before doing tag-team shopping (one of us would stay outside with the buggy while the others tried on shoes/dresses and then we'd tag in and out for the much-needed 2nd opinions!). The only purchase was made by Wellie - who needed some flip-flops... it wasn't until she was at the till that she realised just HOW cool the ones she had chosen are - get this: in the sole of these flip flops is hidden a BEER BOTTLE OPENER! Yes lads, you read that right! Wellie is now able to open beer bottles with her flip flops! Oh Yeah!

Before heading out to 'Town' (a local favorite restaurant), we had time to watch some rugby Ed had recorded - Daniel was happily kicking away on his play mat and is usually completely disinterested whenever the TV goes on - but not this time! Oh no! All kicking ceased, he became silently transfixed, his Mother's smiles were no longer captivating... he had found a new love... RUGBY! Ed was absolutely delighted to see that his son is a man of taste and is clearly showing interest in the game already! It was hilarious - he literally watched the match with us unblinkingly!

Dinner was a fun time, although I realise I need to work out how to 'do' eating out with diabetes... last night I took my insulin before joining in with the shared starters we'd ordered, but then the main meal took quite a while to come... and I felt my blood sugar plummeting... it was OK, but I was nervous enough to ask the waiter how long our meals would be. He obviously told his supervisor that we'd asked and the result? FREE PUDDINGS!!! Reeeeeeeeeeesult! Luckily my main dish had not had sufficient carbs for the insulin I'd taken, so I had about 60g worth of carbs still to eat - I very much enjoyed consuming my remaining carb limit! Yum! There are some plus sides to being diabetic after all! (oh, and while I'm on the subject of diabetes - my eyesight has completely returned to 20:20 normality, so thanks for all the prayers! The glasses have been consigned to the drawer and I am back to looking like a thicky! Oh well! I also seem to have stabilised my sugars and have not had any significant hypos or hypers since last Weds!)

The other main event of this week is that I have decided to get Daniel into a daytime routine... he seemed ready for a bit more structure and I was beginning to feel that just feeding him on demand was not really working... we started on Monday afternoon and I have to say that it is going really well! He is SUCH a good baby! And I am loving knowing when I'm going to feed next and feeling more in control of my day - definitely helps with planning my insulin/eating requirements to have a structured day too... Daniel continues to smile liberally and has started gurgling communicatively - to everyone's delight!

More good news: we had confirmation yesterday that Daniel does not need to be on oxygen at all any more, not even at night - so, at long last, we are enjoying the freedom of a tube-free baby! Wahooooooooooooooo!

Thank you for all the prayers that I know are going up for us as a family - we really are doing amazingly well! Praise God!