The Warrens

Warren family afternoon with a sprinkling of Gibbs.

Boxing Day BBQ

Daisy has a barbecue at Anna and Marco's and meets her new best friend Isabella.

Uncle Xmas

Daisy with Uncle Sam, Blake and Oli.

Fairies under the tree

Daisy and her cousin Zoe under the tree on Xmas morning.

New Zealand

Phew!

After a manic few weeks and a 35 hour journey, we are finally in New Zealand and over the jet lag. We have left our jobs in London, sold our car, sold our house. It feels a bit weird to be homeless and jobless with an unknown future, but it is great to have a bit of a holiday.

Below are some posts from the last few weeks in London that have suddenly appeared, since we upgraded blogger, as they would not load before.

I have also managed to get blogger working from my phone, so expect some blogs on the go! Although it is quite expensive using my UK pay as you go mobile, so don't expect too many.

It is nowXmas eve, and it feels very strange to be in shorts and sunglasses. Blake has just arrived, so above is a photo of Daisy with her most recently introduced Uncle.

Got to go, more posts to follow soon.....

Andy

Strada

Last NCT

Daisy and I have just gotten home from our last Tuesday NCT catch up. Luckily Daisy is asleep because I'm feeling particulary sorry for myself and have been weeping miserably since I left. The NCT girls have been a brilliant support network and I can't imagine how I would have gotten through the past year without them. Above are some photos from today at the Box Bar.

Bx

M day tomorrow

The movers arrive tomorrow so we are busy busy busy! Daisy is too small for all work and no play however so we went to the Sing and Sign Christmas party yesterday. Loads of babies and lots of fun. Andy had the day off work so we met him afterwards for lunch in Willie Gun, a local pub.

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2 weeks and counting.....

....until we leave. So much to do. Argh! One good thing about leaving is we will be escaping the nasty winter bugs. Being Daisy's first winter properly out and about she's having all the associated woes. She's been sad and had a temperature all day after an awful night last night. Not much sleep was had by anyone, even Andy and it's gotta a bad if he is awake! There wasn't really any crying going on but Daisy was making very sad whimpering sounds all night. She was also desperate to be cuddled constantly so was in our bed until 12.30am then again at 7am. The one good thing is that she has been really tired today so has slept for three hours letting me get lots of packing done. We also went shopping and out for coffee for a change of scene.

Above is not feeling very well Daisy amongst the boxes with her Sing and Sign certificate. We had our last class on Monday so she is now a graduate! It's been a great thing to do and there was high excitement last week when she made her first sign. It was for milk, no surprise there. It's fab cos she is now able to ask for her bottle if she wants it. Much easier than trying to work out why she is grumpy.

Bx

Carnivore

Daisy is making up for enforced veganism as a fetus by being a vociferous meat eater. Her current favourite food is anything that once had a pulse. I'm quite enjoying cooking all the new flavours for her however I draw the line at kidneys and I have to admit I find it kinda gross when she has flesh breath. Eww.

We had a good day in town today. We did a bit of shopping then Daisy hung out with Daddy for an hour then we did a bit more shopping (I see a theme here...) then we met Andy again and Daisy had her first dinner out in central London. She was very well behaved and didn't even mind having her bedtime bottle in her pjs the middle of a busy restaurant.

From the top is lunchtime venison and mushroom pie (I must read her Bambi), out for dinner fun (that's Andy on the left in case of confusion) , 20 minutes later conked out and last but not least, Daisy's first black cab ride! Rain on the buggy, bald cabby, how London can we get?

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Zzzzzz

I'm wondering if Daisy snuck downstairs last night, read my last blog and got worried we were going to sell her on ebay or send her to baby borstal as she slept until 8.45am this morning. EIGHT FORTY FIVE! With no coughing or other night rowdiness. It gave Andy and I a much appreciated chance to catch up on sleep. Bliss.

We had our last yoga session today which was very sad. It's 3 weeks today until we leave so I suppose there are going to be more and more 'lasts'. I'm trying not to think about it all.

Above is Daisy 'world champion sleeper' with her pal Geoffrey 'all round top giraffe' this morning in her cot. Check out that bed hair.

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10 months today!

Daisy is 10 months old today and celebrated with an outstandingly snotty nose and by spending nearly all day shouting to mummy about the indignity of having it wiped. She's not been having a very good time. We had to resort to the antibiotics on Saturday after two nights of round the clock screaming (Daisy, not me). All in all, Daisy is sad, I'm knackered and Andy is stressed. Argh!

We managed to fit a nice afternoon in on Sunday though. We went out for a late lunch to The Brasserie on Wandsworth Common with Flob, Jules, Chris, Annette and Thomas. Pics above.

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Aquarium

We had a great day at the London Aquarium yesterday. The photos don't show much at all but it was very good. Daisy loved it and chatted excitedly whilst pointing at all the fish. She had her bottle by the shark tank and got her fingers wet in the sting ray patting pool but didn't manage to reach a ray. After the Aquarium we went out for dinner then Andy took Daisy home and I headed off to a bar for a girls night. We had a very good night and Daisy even played the game by sleeping until 8am this morning which negated the effects of my late night. Hurrah!

Today hasn't been so good unfortunately. Daisy has had a cold for a week or so and has developed a horrible hacking cough and is really congested. We were at Cafe Nero after lunch when she started crying awfully and was in such a state that we headed straight for the doctor. She has a virus (like every other baby at the moment it seems) but on top of that has an ear infection. She was coping with the virus so well but the ear infection has just made it all a bit much and she is a very sad little girl. She got antibiotics prescribed but I'm loathe to give them to her so we are seeing how she is in the morning before starting her on the course. She's being very brave about it all, what a little trouper.

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Cotswolds

We had a very nice weekend in the Cotswolds with Andy's parents and brother. We stayed at Lower Mill Estate which is a fabulous newly bulit village designed around water ways and all done in an eco type way. The house we stayed in was amazing, you get so used to old houses here that it's a great change to stay in a modern architecturally designed house. If anyone is planning a weekend away in the Cotswolds, it's a top place to stay: http://www.falcon-house.com/

Daisy really enjoyed having the undivided attention of two grandparents and an uncle for the weekend and I enjoyed the chance to go running, swimming, have spa treatments and get in plenty of reading and sleeping. Andy enjoyed going to the pub lots. We took Daisy swimming both mornings which she loved. She was a little unsure at first but was laughing and swishing about very quickly.

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Quick post

We're just back from a weekend away but first are some photos from last Thursday. We had a visit from Jeff in the morning then in the afternoon met Jodi and Cate and Kingston for the turning on of the Christmas Lights. Cate slept like an angel throughout but Daisy had eyes like saucers at all the goings on.

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Ciao ciao, adeiu, haere ra and goodbye

To London that is. Yep, after eight years for Andy, seven for me and not quite one for Daisy, we've decided the time is right for pastures anew. It's been a huge decision for us and a difficult one to make as we are still really happy in London but the time just seemed right. We sold the house last week and have both resigned from our jobs so it's a done deal.

I found resigning really hard and have been feeling quite down about it. I was looking forwards to returning and taking on new challenges so making the mental leap to becoming 'just' a stay at home mum has been difficult for me. I'm sure I'll get used to it but I'm going to miss work and everyone there hugely. *Sniffle*

So.......where are we off to? We want to try out a different culture for a while and looked at a number of areas including Singapore and Hong Kong but in the end settled on.......Dubai! Neither of us have been there before but it seems to be an exciting, vibrant, fast growing city offering many opportunities and a great lifestyle. We hope so anyway, if it sucks we can always leave. Andy is currently job hunting so fingers crossed.

We are still spending Christmas in New Zealand and fly out 19 December until the end of January. We aren't looking forwards to the next few weeks as we have SO much to do. The movers are coming in on December 13 and 14 and the house sale completes on the 15th. Eeek! The logistics of it all are hard enough to think about, I don't even want to start thinking about how hard it is going to be saying goodbye to all our friends. Woe.

Above is Daisy checking out where her new home will be. We've been preparing her for life on the road by singing 'The Littlest Hobo' theme tune to her. Maybe tomorrow we're gonna settle down, until tomorrow, we'll just keep moving on.

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Look mum, no hands!

I had a good night out with work last night. Followed by a not so good head this morning. We had lunch at The Banana Tree on Northcote Road earlier today. We've just been at Cafe Nero where I took the above photos of Daisy hanging out on the couch. Andy is out with the Guernsey boys tonight whilst I shall be lounging on the couch eating popcorn and watching a movie. Ahhh.

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London after dark

We had a good day out in London yesterday. We had lunch in Soho then Grandma Julia and Daisy went to The National Gallery. Evidently Daisy's favourite picture was Picasso's Little Girl. I wouldn't know as I was busy shopping. Hurrah!

After a busy afternoon we dropped Daisy off to her daddy at his office then headed back in to Soho for dinner at Mildred's. We finished the day off with going to see Billy Elliot at The Victoria Palace Theatre which was very good.

From the top is Daisy trying to apply lip gloss at Starbucks, the Regent Street Christmas lights and Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the background.

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Rapunzel

She's not quite rapunzel yet but there is a very similar photo to this one posted 3 months ago and look how much Daisy's hair has grown. She loves having it brushed. She loves having her teeth brushed too and has recently started doing them herself although she needs a bit of help to get them all done.

We are off to yoga in a minute. I hope it's an easy class, my legs have only just recovered from dancing until the small hours on Saturday night. How old and sad am I? Bring on the zimmerframe...

Bx

The Brasserie - Wandsworth Common

The NCT group met up yesterday at The Brasserie on Wandsworth Common, and all the babies soon took over the place sprawling all over the floor. Reasonable food but better wine. All the little ones are so different, it is amazing to watch them develop in parallel.

The girls then went drinking and dancing in the evening. Babel in Northcote Road followed by Wessex House.

Andy

England 20 All Blacks 41

Guess who dressed Daisy this morning? Much to Bec's disgust, Daisy and Andy are wearing matching England tops ready for the big game, although Bec is insisting that Daisy wears her All Blacks hat at every opportunity. It is another beautifully clear and sunny day in London.

The All Blacks dominated the game as expected, although there were a few good points from the England game. Well done the AB's!

Andy

Tick tock one o'clock

We've been having fun at the one o'clock club. First Daisy went for a drive then played with the bubble tubes and fibre optics in the sensory room. We finished up with some glitter, paint and glue messy fun. Sticky baby!

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Trick or treat!

Daisy loves dressing up (or maybe mummy loves dressing her up) and Halloween is as good an excuse as any. Grandma Julia whipped her up an outfit then it was time to trick or treat. Woooooo! The bottom two pictures are Daisy checking out her new look in her mirror. She was pretty pleased with it.

Bx