What a treat to eat my lunch just now while watching Andy Murray breeze through the 1st round of Wimbledon... although I hate to gloat, it does seem that I have the best of both worlds - Wimbledon on TV & SUNSHINE outside!!! There would be no need for that roof in California!!!

Apologies for the 2 week blog silence. May was a busy month. Ed has had short trips to Montreal, Boston & Redwood Shores for work, we've enjoyed the pleasure of a week with Mr Bruce aka 'The Colonel' (I hope you all enjoyed the Baywatch video - we're up to over 200 views on UTube - it's still not too late for us to become an Internet sensation - although my suspicion is that over 100 of those views has been Stevie... come on, be honest!).

I also had Caitlin (my good friend from the Bay area) down to stay while Ed was away last week - such fun to have some girly time together.

Caitlin took Daniel and I for our first 'Diddy Riece' ice cream-cookie-sandwich (http://www.diddyriese.com/home.php)! Oh my! Not a recommended part of a diabetic diet, but SO delicious!

AND we've squeezed in those trips to Kings Canyon and San Diego! Phew!

In amongst all the fun, my husband found the time to glance at his profile shape in the mirror. Rather than the chiseled specimen he thought he'd see reflected, instead he saw a 30 something man with a definite belly protrusion... and decided he needed to take control! For the first time in our married life, Ed is counting calories with discipline and I frequently wake up to find the bed vacated (pre-7am!) and Ed out on a early morning run! All very impressive.

Daniel is still not walking independently. He is taking his time, enjoying walking his little wagon up and down the apartment and I am enjoying the last few days/weeks before life gets truly exhausting! He has learnt how to open cupboards and delights in emptying the contents item-by-item, carefully inspecting and 'tasting' each object before discarding it on the floor around him. Sadly, he has not yet got the hang of putting things away! He has also learnt how to flush the loo and we now have the pleasure of hearing the loo flushing at frequent intervals throughout the day! Not very 'green', but highly entertaining! And he can now get up the climbing frame at our local park and go down the slide (with Mummy)! Such fun!

I skipped church yesterday and had some time with the Lord on my own in an empty, quiet, child-free apartment while the boys went to church! Bliss. I also had my first long soaky bath of 2011, painted my nails and shaved my legs (not for the first time in 2011!). I even put cucumber slices on my eyes! It was a much needed oasis of time... I love being a full-time Mum, but sometimes a little break is necessary! Throughout July Ed is taking Daniel for swimming lessons on a Saturday morning, so I am looking forward to a little bit of 'me' time each week while they're out!

I hear a little man stirring from his nap, so i'll have to sign off... if I get a moment, i'll try to add some photos later...

Hi there!

We have just had a lovely long weekend away together in San Diego! We swam in the sea (well, the boys did!), went to the San Diego zoo and the aquarium AND managed to squeeze in a shopping trip too! Phew!

Daniel was absolutely in his element with Daddy around full-time. His 2 favorite things at the moment are:

1) squeezing himself into/through the smallest spaces he can find

2) standing up or kneeling and pushing things around the house

He is babbling away all the time and gives the impression that he feels he is making perfect sense! This parenting thing just keeps on getting more and more fun!

Christmas has come early. Daniel has his two front teeth!!

Baywatch revisited

Over the past week we have been enjoying the company of Colonel Bruce on a visit over from HQ. The silliness factor has multiplied one hundred fold. As testament to this, please enjoy the attached hommage to the 90s TV show that was set right here on the coastline where we now live, and was part of our childhood! David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson: eat your hearts out!

Now let me update you on the rest of last week...

We got to see most of our precious friends from the Bay area, which was an absolute treat and made us realise, yet again, how good God has been to us in providing such a wonderful group of friends in such a relatively short time.

On Tuesday Daniel had his audiology check-up. The appointment was at 1pm - right in the middle of his daily nap time - so he was a tired little boy before we even started. From my speech therapy training, I know that getting a reliable hearing assessment on a young child is notoriously difficult, since it requires them to a) sit still, b) concentrate on faint, random noises & c) turn their head towards these faint, random noises (which, once you've turned towards a few and nothing much has happened, looses it's appeal)... I was therefore unsurprised to hear that the results indicate that although it is very likely that Daniel has perfect hearing, they were unable to absolutely cancel out the possibility of mild hearing loss in one ear... which, if that is the case (and I am almost certain it's not), they wouldn't do anything about anyway. We're going to check it again in a year.

On Tuesday afternoon I went on a lovely walk + pray with Julia, my treasured friend and role-model. As always, it was a soul-refreshing time... amongst other things, I shared about how I was realising just how deeply I value and rely on my external appearance for my security & confidence... we prayed... the Lord heard &, as only He could, He provided a way to start hacking away at that confidence straight away. Just as the Lord provided a worm for Jonah, the Lord provided a mosquito for me! A mosquito that bit me just above my right eye.

Unbeknown to me, among my other post-30yrs auto-immune conditions, I have now developed a fairly severe allergic reaction to mosquito bites! Oh my! By Wednesday morning, my forehead and eye were the size of a cricket ball - VERY attractive! (this photo was taken on Thursday morning - believe it or not, it had gone down quite a lot by then!)

After a quick trip to the ER for strong anti-histamines, we ploughed on to our accommodation in Kings Canyon.

There, despite the swollen eye, we spent 2 1/2 fantastic days, bathed in glorious sunshine, enjoying the spectacular beauty of this section of God's breathtaking creation... it was fabulous.

My wonderful husband then drove us home on Friday night and we have spent a lovely weekend at home as a family, resting and getting the house ready to welcome our good friend, the 'Colonel Brooooooooster', Mr big Stevie himself, who arrives from the UK tomorrow lunchtime!

Who you gonna call?!

Yesterday I saw perhaps the best thing I've seen since I've been in the United States.

Ghostbusters!!!

Praise the Lord! Oh my! The appointments for Daniel yesterday could not have been more positive!

First thing in the morning, he had his developmental review where a specialist developmental doctor tested him on all sorts of physical, cognitive and language tasks... she kept saying 'oh he is amazing!' (which of course, he is!). Yesterday he was 11 months and 5 days from his due date. He came out as being at a 12 month level for cognition and language and a solid 11 month level for physical development.

Initially I was a bit disappointed, thinking 'but he's 15 months old, shouldn't he be catching up?', but then the doctor explained that she is actually doing a PhD on this very issue. She said that the research that everyone uses to support the notion that premature babies 'catch up' within 2 years is based on data from babies born at 35 weeks - CLEARLY a 24 weeker has more ground to make up! She said that they are actually moving away from the expectation that these babies born really early will somehow speed through development at faster rate than a normal baby in order to 'catch up' with their birth date. Instead, she said that a more evidence based approach is to say that a baby has 'caught up' if they are in line with their DUE date age - judging by this standard, our son has completely 'caught up' and is, in fact excelling in most areas! Wahoo!

The doctor could not have been more positive. She had no real pointers for things we needed to be working on. She was absolutely thrilled with Daniel and in fact, she said that she couldn't remember meeting a more sociable, attentive and observant little boy - those skills are vital for learning and she said that you cant really 'teach' parents how to engender those skills in their children, but the fact that Daniel has them is wonderful and will hopefully mean he is able to concentrate and learn when he hits school! Yeah!

In the afternoon we had a respiratory appointment. The day just kept getting better! The doctor listened as I explained how Daniel had quickly fought off 2 chest infections recently. He asked about Daniel's energy levels and ability to be active (oh my! NO concerns there - in fact, do you know where his 'off' switch is?!)... he then listened to Daniel's lungs. At the end of the appointment he looked at me and said, "I know it's hard for you, because you have the memories of your little boy rigged up to all sorts of wires and tubes, but, as far as you can, I would encourage you to try and forget the start in life that your child had. In terms of his lungs, there is absolutely no sign that he has any degree of lung damage. There is no reason why his lungs should limit him in any way. If he wants to be a professional sportsman, he can. The fact he has fought off infection so quickly tells me that there is no underlying damage - most preemies take weeks to get back to full health after an infection has gone to their chest, but Daniel is fighting infection just like a normal baby"... STUNNED (and slightly emotional) SILENCE. Praise God!

I have just been SO thanking God and thinking about the story of Daniel in the Lion's den from the bible. Daniel is thrown into a pit of hungry lions but, come the morning, there is not a scratch on him because God has protected him. My little Daniel was thrown into his own Lion's den at 24 weeks... humanly speaking, he should have at least SOME 'scratches' - either mentally, physically or emotionally... but he has emerged completely unharmed.

Praise God! I mean, PRAISE GOD!!!