kiphakes.com

It's your kids, Marty, something has gotta be done about your kids!

2012-02-20T23:46:00.001Z

This post has been pinging around in my head for months now, it's been drafted out a million times over, I've been hesitant about writing it, because it will probably upset a lot of you. Just remember, before you get all judgemental on me, remember, I'm entitled to my opinion, you're entitled to yours, if you strongly disagree.. then comment!

If you think about Friends Reunited, MySpace, and eventually Facebook, there is something that hasn't really changed across the social networks, it's all about YOU.

Yes YOU.

You have your own profile, about yourself, you fill it with pictures of yourself and connect with friends old and new. Life was simple back then, now we've all grown up and it's changed into something different. I'm no longer friends with that chap I went to school with, or that friend of a friend that I've known for years.

I'm friends with your kids too..

Yes, Really I am... I have teenage friends, tweenage friends, children friends, toddler friends, newborn friends.. and even - yes - foetal friends! A quick scroll through my friends list would make me look like some child friend harvesting paedo, shit, how on earth did this happen?! Do I have a sleep disorder that makes me befriend child while I sleep, like a Facebook Child Catcher? Fuck, I better hand myself in.. Hang on.

*Clicks on Profile Picture of a Foetus*

No.. Wait, I'm not friends with a foetus - that's Paul I went to school with.

*Clicks on Profile Picture of a Toddler*

No.. This is Jane from my old job.

Ahhh, I see what's happened now.

No longer do your profiles document what you are up to, I just get to see your beaming child, over and over. You're telling me how much you 'love your little *sexcrement name here* so much', I know that *sexcrement* did a fart today, and it was charming. Thing is though. I don't fucking care.

No, actually - I do sorta care. Don't get me wrong, your kid sure is cute, and has a smile that could bring peace to the middle east, but I'm not into being friends with your toddler. I want to be friends with YOU. I'm not saying I've never posted a picture of my child, or mentioned her, I have, but it's everything in moderation. I will guarantee at least 50% of your friends don't care about your child, probably 50% of that lot HATE children and will never have any.

The 200 or so friends you've gained across the years are there for YOU - wonderful, special, unique, beautiful YOU. If they wanted to know all about your children, they'd be friends with them, or talk to you about them.

I've set up a 'Page' for our soon to be born son. Why? Well for those reasons above. It gives a place for us to share the details and news to those who WANT to know what's happening, if they've had enough, they can 'unlike' and go on their way. I'm sensitive to my friends, I know some are going through the pain of trying to conceive, or have suffered a loss, heck even those who hate children, I don't want to pollute their time-streams. I'm sure they don't 'hate' my new son, or dislike him, but they are friends with me, not him. I am a Daddy, yes, but I am still me, that sweary socially awkward man.

I want to know what YOU'VE been upto, how YOU are feeling, what crazy, funky, cool stuff has been rocking YOUR world. Get a baby sitter, go get shitfaced, take lots of crazy photos and post them on Facebook and tag them, go retro! :)

Just remember, I don't hate your beautiful little ones, I really don't, but I'm YOUR friend, not theirs!

Look a new toy! The Hague Mini Motion Cam

2012-02-20T13:47:00.001Z

This arrived today, a very early birthday present from Loz! I'll do a full review once it's set up and I've done some videos!

A year ago today..

2012-02-18T15:00:00.000Z

..at this exact time, Loz and I got married!

It's been a very busy year, with lots of changes, but we've got through it all and come out even stronger.

So, Happy Anniversary Mrs Hakes!

Blogs on the Train - Valentines Day

2012-02-14T10:20:00.001Z

So it's Valentines Day, the only day in the year we're able to celebrate the love between two people, well, aside from any anniversary you may have. The one day a year that men flock to supermarkets across the land and buy half dead roses, and cheap chocolates. Just what your other half always wanted..

Love isn't an annual or bi-annual event, it's an every day, every hour, every minute, every second event. Why leave it till February 14th for a 'PDA' on Facebook? It just seems daft to me. I don't buy Loz flowers or gifts enough, I just can't afford it, she knows I love her though. Love isn't about tat that will die, love is just love.

Right, onwards to London. Love to you all. Yes, even you.

Baroosh, Chelmsford - I love it.

2012-02-13T16:34:00.002Z

Baroosh in Chelmsford is awesome - there has been a branch in Chelmsford for nearly five years now and I've been a customer since it opened. I organised our school reunion there, and even started off my stag do there, it's one of Chelmsford's best night spots.

It's not like every other bar in Chelmsford because it has a strict 'Over 21's' policy, which keeps most of the teenagers at bay. Also whilst not being stupidly expensive the prices seem to be at a level to keep the 'Wetherspoons' crowd out, so by day it isn't filled with pissed up old men, and by night there is hardly a chav in sight. This creates a nice chilled atmosphere, even when it's packed to the rafters there is a warm feeling, rather than the feeling you'll be glassed if you make a wrong move.

It's also been maintained to a good standard, whilst there hasn't been any real refurbishment since it opened all the fabrics and finishes are holding up well, there aren't any rips or tears on the soft furnishings. Everything looks brilliant, the only glaring negative is the floor of the men's toilets, it needs some attention.

Baroosh Chelmsford - Image borrowed from their website ;)

Onto the focus of any such establishment, the food and drink. Well they have a massive range behind the bar, non alcoholics (and pregnant ladies) are well looked after with a range of alcohol-free drinks and cocktails. Their teas and coffees are excellent, I had a latte in there on Saturday, it was everything a latte should be. Gorgeous!

For anyone who likes a tipple they have a cracking selection of pretty much EVERYTHING, the cocktails they knock up are beautiful. The food, oh the food - it's fucking amazing - really really good, and the best thing, it's well priced - of course it's more expensive than the '2 meals for £6' you'll get a your local 'spoons, you get what you pay for. It's cooked fresh and lovingly served on a wide range of quirky platters, rather than thrown in a microwave and nuked to oblivion. There is something for everyone and I've never had a bad meal in there, it's always been superb.

Special mention has to go to the staff, they are wonderful. You always get a nice smile and 'hello' when you walk in, and they are always happy to help and have a little chat. They all seem very knowledgeable about the food and drink they offer, and nothing ever seems too much trouble. The manager George and the rest of the team are fantastic and are the 'cherry on the top' of an already top notch place.

I think my only negative about it (which applies to a lot of bars), is the toilet attendants you find on weekend nights. I really dislike being harassed when I'm going to the toilet, I am able to dry my own hands, I don't need a squirt of JPG, I don't want a lollipop - just let me get on with the job in hand and return to my table.

Regardless - if you want a good night out, or just a quick coffee during the day, you really can't beat Baroosh.

Check out their website!

A tale of two idiots..

2012-02-12T13:15:00.001Z

Hello.

Meet these two. They were on 'The Million Pound Drop' on Channel 4 last night.

For those not familiar with the game, you get a question, with a selection of answers. You start with a million pounds and you have to put your money on the answers. If you're 100% sure of the put it one of the answers, or if you're not sure you can split your money across different answers. The correct answer is revealed and whatever money is placed on the incorrect answer 'drops' and they lose it. The questions are usually fairly easy, and mostly common sense will see you good.

This couple had already lost a £375,000 on the first question, but what they did next, was amazing.

Here is question number 2.

It's OBVIOUSLY 'It's like a dream'. Here's how the hapless couple laid out their money.

So, let's be clear on what they've done here, they are certain, to the EXTENT of £300,000 that Margaret Thatcher may have opened with 'Girl Power' or 'Muahahahahhahaaa'. REALLY? REALLY?! How do these fucking idiots even get themselves dressed in the morning?

Needless to say, they didn't last very long in the game.

All aboard for the third trimester!

2012-02-10T09:00:00.000Z

So now we're at the 29 week point!

Everything is going really well. Today I took Loz for her Anti-D injection and a slightly late 28 week check. Loz did find the Anti-D a little more painful than the last one she had at the start of the year. I had to look away; I can't stand injections! The midwife did all the usual tests and little man was ticking all the right boxes: good strong heartbeat, size is spot on, not giving Mummy wonky blood pressure, so all is perfect.

Last week Loz had to go for a GTT (Glucose Tolerance Test) as there were some concerns she may be diabetic. For those of you who haven't had a GTT the general idea is you go to hospital (having fasted for 12 hours), have some bloods taken and then given a VERY sugary drink. You then have to sit in the hospital for 2 hours and then have more bloods taken, if there is a significant change in sugar level this means you have diabetes. Thankfully they are fairly quick at getting the results back to you, and a few days after we heard that Loz was indeed fine, which was a relief!

With little man getting bigger, it's starting to affect Loz more and more. She's doing lots of huffing and puffing when she gets up and she's struggling with her shoes and socks, and picking up stuff from the floor seems to be getting harder and harder. It's not very nice seeing someone you love struggling, I do try my best and help where I can - but it's only going to get worse!

It is lovely to feel him move more and more. The kicks and punches are so much stronger now and the other evening I was 'playing' with him, gently poking at the bump and then receiving a swift kick back. It's so very cute! The nasuea and tiredness from the first trimester seem to be coming back and she seems to get hit with random waves of both at various points. This coupled with the kicks and movements keeping her up at night is only making things worse. Again, I think this will probably only get worse, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

With the big 40 weeks heading fast we've decided to start thinking about the birth and birth plan. Loz is a very straight Northern girl; there isn't any messing or nonsense, she just gets on with the job in hand. The general gist of the birth plan is at the moment 'I'd like a water birth, and I'll do whatever the midwife asks me to as they know best'. I do tend to agree.

Beware the scary dolly.
Image Credit - British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC)

We've booked the Parentcraft Class at the Hospital. We had the choice of three evenings, or one Saturday, so we chose the Saturday option. I am looking forward to it as it will be nice to meet some other parents and also for me to have a little 'refresher'. I did Parentcraft classes nearly nine years ago. I can't really remember much aside from pelvic floor exercises, and the creepy dolly - the same as Dawn French has in Psychoville - being forced through a skeletal pelvis. Also with it being nine years ago I imagine some of the procedures have changed. Still, it'll be fun, and no doubt you'll hear all about it on here!

All in all, everything is going well! I know I shouldn't wish the time away, but I am looking forward to meeting my son at the end of April!

So, if you're in your third trimester? How are you finding it?

Follow me on Twitter @kiphakes and check out my blog at www.kiphakes.com

Tesco, Springfield Road, Chelmsford - What a shit hole.

2012-02-09T22:21:00.000Z

Ahhh Tesco, you've gotta love them, the giant chain set on world domination. We have six (soon to be seven) stores in Chelmsford, SEVEN!? That's just fucking ridiculous.. Still not the point of my post.

The store in Springfield Road is probably one of the oldest in town, it's been there for as long as I can remember. I have very vivid memories of being dragged round there as a child, I hated it.

Anyway.. I don't often go to this particular Tesco - when I do go in there though, it just kinda sets my teeth on edge, and I've only just figured it out.

It's a shit hole.

It really is, my problem with it is, it hasn't actually changed at all since I was a child, they've added some toilets (I'll get to those), and shifted a few bits, but it is essentially the same, same pissy orange floor tiles, same knackered looking fittings. It's horrid. The place was actually flooded sometime in the 80's, it was shut for a few weeks if memory serves, it re-opened, just the same.

The only big change has been the addition of customer toilets. Always handy to have those - well not really, not these ones at least. They are like something lifted out of 'Saw'. I'm sure the toilet hasn't seen bleach in its short life, the fixtures are hanging off the wall and look like they've been repaired by chimps. You go in there half expecting a chap shackled on the floor needing to saw off his leg, they really are vile. Tear the fucking things out and start again. They even get a mention on Foursquare about how gross they are!

The whole store needs a damn kick up the arse, it really is a disgrace. Considering how much money Tesco make you'd think they'd look after their stores instead of trying to keep them in some 80's time warp. In my lifetime Sainsburys have built a massive supermarket and overhauled it on several occasions, making it a really nice place to shop, it's fresh, bright and modern.That said, don't get me started on ASDA in Chelmer Village, It's a local shop for local people, there's nothing for you here...

Vistaprint.. Shady Bastards. - Updated

2012-02-08T15:27:00.001Z

It's nearly our first wedding anniversary, traditionally, this is a 'Paper' anniversary, so we decided to buy a wedding photo album as we didn't buy one at the time. I'd had a look around at a few places where we could buy a photobook, and Vistaprint looked pretty cheap.

So I went ahead and used their online tool to build one. It's taken me about three hours in total, possibly more to get it just right, and it looks great. I'd added a few more pages to the standard layout (as there were around 120 photos we wanted to put in). The site was reporting the book would be £23, bargain.

Then I came to check out.

£52 quid?

Where did that come from?

Right.. I see it now, they whack on £13.98 for the extra pages - they don't show you this until you check out, it only ever shows the price of £23! Obviously it's not earth shatteringly expensive, but I don't like the 'bait and switch' nature of it all.. If they'd shown the price ramping up so quickly I probably wouldn't have continued with the purchase, but seeing as I'd invested three hours of my time getting it right, it seemed daft to throw my toys out completely. Still, I won't be using them again.

Update.

Well fuck me.. In possibly one of the fastest turnarounds in the social media world @vistaprinthelp - their customer services team got in touch asking for my customer account number. About 30 mins after that I had an email saying I'd had a refund of £35.36 back, with an apology. So that's the whole book for £17.10, I'm literally gob smacked. I do appreciate the gesture, but I think JumblyMummy got it bang on when she said of Vistaprint -

'I'd say that their whole business strategy is around subterfuge and bombardment. there are as many hidden extras as a ryanair flight'

So very true! Anyway, I'm pleased they sorted it so quickly and am amazed they took that much off!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.. Our 'Snow Day'

2012-02-05T21:57:00.000Z

I fucking love snow.

No really. I do.

I spent most of last night with my face pressed against the glass watching it slowly build up.. it looked amazing. I must admit instead of being grumpy when G came in at 7am, I flew out of bed and we were out just after 8am playing in the snow. It was brilliant, and me being me.. I filmed all of it, so here is nearly 4 minutes of our 'Snow Day'.

I had to hurriedly edit it so G could see it before she goes back tomorrow, it's not as perfect as I like, but it'll do! :) Normal blogging service will be resumed tomorrow, it's been fairly mental over the weekend and I've just not had the time, I've got lots to tell you!

TTFN!

Me and the big mosster - yeah, that's a flat cap, I'm down with the trumpets.

Re-e-e-e-cycle (When the crowd say bo-selecta)

2012-02-02T12:11:00.000Z

I've recently really got into recycling.

Now I don't mean I'm some scabby field dwelling twat, hugging trees and smelling of soil. Recycling, well in Chelmsford at least is pretty easy. We've got a selection of boxes and bags to fill with recycling stuff, the council provide us with -

Brown Bin - Garden Waste, Grass, Small Branches etc.
Little Green Bin - Food Waste, literally any leftovers, scraps, out of date food etc.
Big Green Bin - Cans, and Glass
Plastic Sacks - Plastic
Paper Sack - Paper
Cardboard Sack - Cardboard
Black Bin - Anything that doesn't fit in the above.

Everything aside from the Black Bin and Little Green Bin collected each week and the rest are collected on a two week cycle.

I'm not entirely sure what made me change my ways, I used to just chuck EVERYTHING in the bin, not really thinking about it. But Essex County Council (or is it Chelmsford Borough Council), just make it so EASY to do. Once you get in the habit of sorting it all out it, it's like second nature. I suppose the only downside is where do you keep it all? All the bins live happily outside, but the sacks don't really, and in this weather would get blown away / reduced to a squishy smelly mess. Thankfully I've got a shed to store mine in, but I imagine it's tricky for those without something like that!

The food recycling only started in December - I was a bit concerned about having a small bin in the kitchen with rotting food waste in. This quickly went away when up until now there had been a big bin in the kitchen with rotting food waste (ie. the normal bin!). The food recycling seems to work well, although it's a shame that I think I'm the only person on our road who actually bothers with it. Everyone else seems well up for recycling their cardboard and plastics, but the food.. No. I'm sure if they offered some sort of slight council tax discount for households who did the 'Full Monty' of recycling then there would be more people doing it, but alas people are lazy. It is easier to sling stuff away than 'think' about doing it any differently.

So, do you recycle?

Memories are precious, treat them with respect.

2012-01-31T17:34:00.000Z

My Grandma is an amazing woman, she's very kind, and generous and is my last surviving Grandparent. I do love her dearly. Something that amazes me about her is her photo collection. She has THOUSANDS of photos, literally THOUSANDS, from when she was a child, right up until the present day. They stretch across volumes of photo albums, and are all sorted and organised, in order. If you recall a birthday, or an event from the family past, she's got a photo of it - incredible.

Me and my sister - off of the 80's

A few years ago I was mildly panicked that I didn't have any photos of me when I was little, or indeed much younger. My mum went through her collection and pulled out a few hundred spanning me as a baby, to me as a gangly teenager. I've slowly started scanning them all in so I have them digitally, and will add them to my Picasa album. It's so nice to have them though, looking back at where we used to live, where we went on holiday, all our old friends, relatives who have passed away.

These are all precious memories.

I take a lot of photos, some months I'll take several hundred, on average month it is between 50-100, Why? Well I love photos. I really do. I want to keep them all like my grandma has, perhaps, not in printed albums, but electronically, with several backups 'just in case'. Digital photography has improved so much in the last 5 years, storage is cheap, so there really isn't any reason not to build an archive of your life.

One of my favourite pics of G.
Taken on an N95!

Something that irks me somewhat are shit photos, I don't mean as in out of focus, or blurry. That happens to the best of us! I mean the sort of photos your low end Blackberry takes, or a shit Nokia. of course people take more photographs on their phones these days. Pretty much all phones have a camera - BUT - a lot of them are shit.

I've always tried to have phones with decent cameras, from my trusty Nokia N95, to my shiny Galaxy S2 they do have great cameras, and can take a decent high res photo, and for the cost of them I expect that.

The problem is, a lot of people either don't think, or don't care about their photos and just snap away with their shit phone camera. Important life changing events, lost forever in a noisy, grainy, shitty shots.
Stop - please - STOP!

These are photographs that you'll probably look back on when you're 80 and think 'fuck - I wish I used a better camera'.

A better camera isn't expensive, just before we went away on honeymoon I picked up a Canon IXOS 105 - it didn't cost all that much (circa £70) - it takes a cracking photo, and it should last me a few years. I can carry it out and about because it's TINY and the battery lasts for ages. Perfect.

My £70 IXOS 105 - It takes a good photo *shame about the idiot in the photo*

I've obviously nothing against shit phone cameras, they are great for catching a silly moment, or for a bit of fun, and sending the results off to Facebook, fine.

Using them solely for every single snap?

No, seriously, stop it please!

Just remember your children will see these photos one day, heck, even their children will see them, make a smallish investment and give them something decent to look at.

My naked photos or the quest for an eye catching title..

2012-01-31T10:27:00.000Z

Did the title of the post fool you?

Probably. You're all fucking perverts.

I do wonder what makes people click through to my blog posts. Yesterday was a MASSIVE day for my blog. I'm not entirely sure why, I got double the about of page views that I normally would, but it was still the same old stuff. So you tell me? What makes you click through to a blog? Is it the title? Is it just because I'm awesome? Or is it something else?

Result! 35% off our next stay at Alton Towers Hotel

2012-01-30T17:21:00.001Z

Cariba Creek Water Park

So I fired off a rather long e-mail last week with regards to the stupid, wallet raping system that Alton Towers have implemented at their Cariba Creek Water Park (blog post is here). Essentially they charge you £2 for a locker, and you get £1 refunded. So if you forget to put something in your locker, it costs you £3. This coupled with the fact a large number of lockers were broken and eating money made for nasty scenes.

I wasn't expecting much in response from them, perhaps an apology and free water park tickets next time, but they went just that little bit further. We've got 35% off our next stay and free water park tickets for the duration. Pretty sweet really. I've no doubt we'll go back there again after little man is born, and to get over a third off the price is fine by me! :)

As always - it pays to complain.

Friends Reunited

2012-01-29T23:59:00.001Z

Noooo.. Not the early naughties school reunion site that everyone left for MySpace and Facebook for, but reuniting with old friends.

Last night Loz and I went to see Paul and Carolyn, I'd already seen Paul just before Christmas - and we decided then we should get the 'Ladies' to meet up with us next time. We put yesterday in the diary just after Christmas, and I must admit I was very very excited about seeing them both. I hadn't seen Carolyn for nearly seven years, so it would be lovely to see her. She is actually very very similar to Loz with her straight, no nonsense approach to life and I had a feeling they'd probably get on.

There hadn't been a 'falling out' that stopped us from seeing each other, more a 'falling apart', so I didn't feel like they'd be any tension, things should hopefully just pick up where they left off.

I'm really pleased to say they did! We had a beautiful dinner, cooked by Lady C's fair hands and we spent till just past 1am catching up with one another. We obviously knew the basics from each others Facebook pages, but it was nice to have the gaps filled in and chat about parenting, pregnancy and the past. They were perfect hosts and the beer and wine flowed nicely!

They got out their wedding albums and it was weird to see me as I was then, I looked terrible, I really spoilt the photos with my then 16 stone frame. It was shocking. I'd also been able to find on one of my old DV tapes some footage of Paul on the morning of his wedding and also an hours worth of footage from the Stag Do, I burned them onto DVD as it's always nice to have video footage of such events!

It was amazing how quickly the time flew by and I was sad to go as there is still so much to catch up on, but thankfully now they've met Loz I'm hoping some point soon we can get all the kids together for a little play date. I'm also going to make a point of trying to meet Paul for a pint or a cup of tea more often, Paul refers to himself as 'Uncle Paul' and in some respects he is. He's got a wise head on those shoulders. I think Loz was shocked at how young Paul and Carolyn were, I'd told her that I called them 'Uncle Paul and Lady Carolyn' and she pictured a more 'middle aged' couple, rather than the young, friendly vibrant team they are.

Carolyn did make me smile by saying I was taller than she remembered.. being 5ft8 and a half I don't ever really get told I'm tall. So that was nice. As I suspected the ladies seemed to hit it off too! Yay!

I'm really pleased that we're back in touch now, you know a real friend when you can just pick up where you left off and it's fantastic that we can do that. Life's too short and you really do have to treasure those close to you.

Hooray! New people aren't scary! The Emma's Diary Bloggers Meet

2012-01-27T22:51:00.000Z

So today was the day i'd been dreading and looking forward to for a few weeks.. the first 'Emma's Diary Bloggers Meet', a chance for us Bloggers to meet and also for us to meet Emma's 'Partners' (not sexual ones - although that would have been fun!).

We left Chelmsford around 8.45, the drive was about an hour and a quarter according to Google Maps Navigation, and to be fair that was pretty spot on.. The start time was 11am, so we had plenty of time, we arrived just after 10 and as we were uber early we sat at and had a coffee at the Starbucks in the hotel. We went to find the conference room around 10.45 and found proceedings well under way. I was a little confused, I soon realised that I'd got in a mucking fuddle and it all started around 10am. Shit.

We had some hurried introductions to (i'll try and remember everyone..)

@Melaina25
@ellatamsen
@jumblyMummy
@AnotherGoldfish
@liveotherwise
@TheRareBitBlog

And the event was off, all the bloggers had to introduce themselves to the group and the 'Partners'. There were obviously a lot of nerves, as standing up infront of a room full of strangers is tough. I was pleased how my intro went, everyone laughed when I hoped they would. Thankfully my opening of -

"Hello, the last time I was in a Holiday Inn with a load of women it was a *very* different occasion.

I’m joking of course.

It was a Travel Lodge, I’m cheap."

was a good ice breaker, I'm a natural clown and like it when people laugh at my jokes. I did remove the line.

"The most difficult thing men have to endure is weeing with an erection"

As it possibly wasn't appropriate and mildly patronising to men, that's not the most difficult thing we have to endure, women are.. ;)

After a spot of lunch we had some 'one on one' time with the 'Partners', everyone was very nice and friendly, and I've got a few blogging ideas from our discussions. Some of the 'Partners' had to shoot off early so we didn't get a chance to speak to them all, which was a shame. Just trying to think who I met... (I'm buggered if I can remember all the names!)

Philips Advent - I've never spoken so much about breast pads! A trio of great ladies!
Avon - Lovely, lovely ladies, had a nice natter with them!
BambinoMio - Again, lovely ladies who MIGHT have changed my mind about reusable nappies - we've got some to try for little man.
Aldi - What top ladies they were! Good honest Northerners, we're going to give Aldi a try.
Tena - Obviously a hard sell to a young chap like me, but Loz had a good natter, and I *love* their new app. Will cover that soon no doubt! :)
Neurofen for Children / Bonjela / Karvol - Lovely lady, big fan of all three of those products already!

Palmers - We didn't get to speak to them - although they left an AWESOME goody bag :)
Sanatogen - Again, didn't speak to them - but we got some free samples :)

It was nice everyone seemed keen to work with the Emma's Diary Blogging Team, although I did wince when they referred to 'Mummy Bloggers' in their presentations - what about us Dads eh? I really think that us 'Daddy Bloggers' need more recognition, but on a positive note all the brand partners seemed keen to listen to my thoughts, so, baby-steps!

We left the meet around 16.15 and got stuck on the M25.. it took two and a half hours to get back (that'll be the road karma for giving us a good drive there this morning!) . Still judging by the tweets everyone had a cracking time and I'm looking forward to future meets! :)

Trains, Work, Blog then Bed.

2012-01-26T22:46:00.000Z

Today has been rather epic. I was up at 6am because I had a meeting in London at 8.30am. I try to give myself as much time as possible in the morning before a meeting as I will often sleep through my alarm, and / or be slow getting ready. Today was a bit different, I was up, showered, dressed and eating breakfast in 20 minutes. Sods law dictated that something would go wrong, it did, sorta, the meeting was pushed to 9am. I nibbled my bagel slooooooooooowly and downloaded some new choonage for my iPod.

Even so I was on a train for 7.40 and in London for 8.15 ish. Not bad at all, my client is only 5 mins away from Liverpool Street so I had a little time to kill, so I ventured to Starbucks at Liverpool Street for a 'fuck off sized' Latte and a look over Twitter. The coffee slipped down beautifully, I must admit I do like my coffee now, I hated it when I was younger, but ever since I stopped smoking, coffee and tea are my vice of choice, that and the heroin.. (not really!!)

My client was running late, so our meeting started around 9.30 in the end, thankfully meeting this client in particular is always a joy, we've worked together for a long long time we have a bit of banter, call each other cunts.. etc. The meeting ended and back home I went. It was very different travelling back near 11 o'clock - I had a whole carriage to myself.. (not like this morning!).

Blurry train based panorama..

This afternoon was mostly taken up with getting a haircut ready for the #EmmasDiary event (more on that later), giving IT support to my mother, who had managed to disable her WLAN (no idea how), and work. I'm actually fairly busy at the moment, self employment has its ups and downs and its dry spells, but thankfully since Christmas I've not had a dry spell at all. I've still got to do my bloody tax return too, although that shouldn't take me too long.

So yes, tomorrow I'm taking the day off and off for the little #EmmasDiary event. I'm feeling a little calmer about it all, I've been interacting with lots of them via Twitter and don't feel as if it's a room full of judgemental strangers now. Hooray! I've spent the last few hours working on my introduction to the group, I had envisaged a multimedia fuelled Powerpoint extravaganza, but something like that would probably make me look a cunt. So words will have to do. It's 800 words. I've no idea how long that'll take to read, I think it SHOULD be about 5 minutes (the allocated time), but I'll see how it flows tomorrow and edit it on the fly.

Right.. I'd better get some sleep, got to play road wars round the M25 tomorrow!

Choo Choo.

2012-01-26T08:03:00.001Z

Arrrgh.. This blog is currently being typed on a train somewhere between Chelmsford and London. I'm having to stand the whole way, and I have to pay £25 and another £5 for parking. I hate commuting. I can't believe I did this every single day, it's so depressing, not one single smile throughout the carriage. Even the smug bastards in first class look miserable.

Hang on.

There is a spare seat! Balls, it's nestled between two large blokes. Fuck it, I'd rather stand than be wedged in between those two trying not to nudge them.

*yawn*

Are we there yet?

Computers, Chuggers and Charity.

2012-01-25T00:04:00.000Z

*Note if you don't like geeky, stuff scroll down until you see 'here'*

Well today has been a rather weird one.. I was expecting a fairly slow day. Alas, that wasn't to be. I had a call from one of my clients who I do IT Support for, their systems are bulletproof and normally any issues can be fixed with a little 'LogMeIn'. I got a call saying that someone had clicked on a spam link, and somehow managed to install some nasty malware 'Malware Scanner'. I had a little look via LogMeIn. It was a mess, all the icons had been removed from the 'Start' Menu and Desktop, nothing would open. I googled the process name 'XapxUnRSMme.exe' (or similar) and it seemed to be a fairly new virus, all the results were in the last 24 hours. Arse.

After some messing I decided I needed to sit at the machine, in Safe Mode and try and fix it, so I had to rush into London and have a look. Thankfully in Safe Mode I could kill the processes from starting up, although one of them was actually labelled 'Microsoft Corporation' as the author! Even stopping the processes from starting t left me with no files on the Hard Drive, or icons anywhere else. Obviously there had to be files on the hard drive or nothing would actually work.. I clicked. The malware had hidden ALL the files. It had. Damn I'm smart! Un hiding them helped slightly, all the folders were there under 'All Programs' on the Start Menu, but none of the shortcuts, they'd all been wiped. Fuck.

I did a full virus scan and scan with Malwarebytes, both found some residual nasties which I removed. I decided to try a System Restore and 'wind back' to Friday. After 20 minutes or so the restore completed, and everything was back to normal. Yay! A final scan came back clean and the computer was behaving flawlessly. I must admit I did have visions of needing to flatten the machine, but thankfully it didn't come to that!

Whilst in London I thought I'd pop in to YoYo Tech on Windmill Street, I'd actually been looking at graphics cards on their website last night and was tempted, as I was fairly close I could save on postage! Hooray! It was a damned cool shop, loads and loads of tech, and staff that weren't at all pushy, nice.

here

I must admit when walking around London I was amazed at the volume of 'Chuggers' that were about. I FUCKING HATE CHUGGERS, I really really do. Normally I have my headphones on and they tend not to approach, but as I left in a hurry I forgot my headphones. This left me open for 'attack', I'm never rude, or aggressive towards them, there are enough rude and aggressive people to go round, I just want to be left alone to move from A to B in peace. The first one approached,

'Hi Sir, How are you today?' said the overly cheery chugger.
'Wet' I respond..
'Ooooooooooooh' she responds in a saucy way. I thunder on past.

The next (literally 25 metres from the first),

'Not very nice weather today is it sir?' said the very punchable looking chugger.
'No, hence the umbrella.' I respond.

He mumbled something in response.. I carried on.

There was ANOTHER one again about 25 metres ahead, thankfully they had got some fucking idiot snared with their cheery 'give us your bank account details' banter.

The scene was similar on Tottenham Court Road, a long line of them, trying to interrupt people. They really are cunts. If they REALLY cared about Amnesty International, Blind Children, Retarded Dogs, whatever, WHY are they getting PAID? Charity is about GIVING, not TAKING. They bleat on about how important their cause is, but why are they not volunteering? Why are they getting paid by the hour?! I want to give to charity, but I don't want it to come charging into my day with a winning smile and a clipboard, I'll sponsor a friend, or make a donation.

The chuggers are similar to those other cunts who try and get you to switch energy suppliers, or broadband service, while you're out shopping, or minding your own business on the High Street. I don't want to think about how much my gas is, or if my broadband provider is the best WHILE I'M BUYING FUCKING CAT LITTER. Just leave me be, and I'll sort my shit out when *I* want to, and not a moment before.

26 weeks and counting..

2012-01-24T17:00:00.000Z

Well it's official, we're 26 weeks in! Everything with regards to the pregnancy is running pretty smoothly. Loz needs a GTT (Glucose Tolerance Test) to check for Gestational Diabetes, and also has to have 'Anti-D' in a few weeks as she is rhesus negative. Aside from that, the little man seems to be growing well and developing as you'd expect. I am eternally grateful for this; I come from a long line of 'worriers' and it's fantastic that everything is okay! His kicks and punches are getting stronger now, I've felt them too, although he does seem to be a cheeky blighter and stop as soon as someone puts their hand on Mummy's tummy!

As I've said before the time is slipping away very, very quickly he will be here in just 14 weeks! Thankfully for me, Loz is very organised, nothing will be left to the last minute and I imagine we'll be ready for his arrival weeks ahead of schedule. Thinking about it, we're not actually all that far off now. Most of the big purchases have been made, and we've even got his name sorted out!

We were both keen to have a name ready for the 20 week scan but we were a little tied to a tradition that is in our family. The tradition is that the son has the father's middle name as their first name (my Dad's middle name isn't Kip by the way, I changed my name from Christopher to Kip - long story!). Thankfully my parents were kind enough to give me a lovely normal middle name that we both liked as little man's name and his middle name is my brother in laws name. I'll keep you all in suspense until he is born!

The nursery is starting to look more like a nursery and less like the spare bedroom too; the drawers are filling up with little clothes, all neatly organised, washed and ready to go. Mother in law has knitted several sheep's worth of tiny clothes too - little man certainly won't go cold!

Loz does seem to have got her 'baby brain' now. Quite often she'll forget words or 'lose' things... Hah, good timing, my writing was just stopped to find some pasta missing from the Tesco delivery! It was on the list, but she couldn't see it - it was under some carrots she'd just unpacked *rolls eyes*.

I think the aches and pains of growing a person are really starting to take hold now. She's occasionally puffing and hobbling around, although this hasn't stopped her wicked sense of humour. She did play a rather mean trick on the Optician a few weeks ago...

'Oh I can see your circumstances are going to be changing soon' *looking at the little bump* smiled the optician
'Sorry? What do you mean?!' she replied.
*Panic look on the opticians face* 'Erm, you're, erm, pregnant?' He responded sheepishly.
'No, no I'm not!' she replied. His face dropped. 'Oh.. I..' he stuttered.
'Of course I'm pregnant, only messing with you!' she came back with.

It did make me laugh - that poor man!

She's had a few cravings, the weirdest was probably cheese-on-toast, with lashings of chocolate spread *wretch*. The most persistent one is Doritos. Cheesy Doritos, with sour cream and chive dip. I think the baby will be born orange and smelling of cheese! I did have to do a mercy mission to Tesco Express at 21.30 the other week to ease the craving for 'Chip N Dip'. I really don't mind nipping out on late night missions to ease the cravings, I appreciate it's not easy being pregnant, and I'll do my best to help make it easier.

Have any of you had any weird cravings, or have you had to go out late at night to ease your other half's cravings?

You know when you blog, and you muse over hitting the publish button? That.

2012-01-24T00:08:00.000Z

*Klaxon Sound* Socially awkward moment ahead!

This Friday, I'm taking the day off, I'm off to somewhere in Bucks for the Emma's Diary Bloggers Meet and Greet. I'm dreading and looking forward to this in equal measure.

Why?

Well... I don't like meeting new people.

Hmm no.. actually that's not true, I DO like meeting new people, I'm just not very good at it! I'm sure everyone will be wonderful, and lovely, but.. gahh. it's NEW PEOPLE! Really though, it will be okay, it'll be nice to meet other parents, chat, make connections and maybe friends.. But ARRRRGGGGGHHH NEW PEOPLE.

Thankfully the 'star' of my Pregnancy based Emma's Diary blogs, Loz, will be there with me. As she often says she's 'Penn' to my 'Teller', which is very true, she'll talk, I'll nod, and listen, and then maybe whisper something in her ear. Actually, I'm more Sooty to her Soo (I think that's how Soo in that context is spelt, rather than Sue *Googles* YES I'm right!). It helps in a way, I can get the lay of the land with a person and hopefully interject with something appropriate.

We've been asked to make a small introduction about ourselves to the assembled group, I think the last time I spoke like that was at my Dad's wedding.I've been musing over what to say in my introduction, I thought it might be an idea to open it with a joke.

'I've been told to the best way to conquer nerves whilst addressing a large group of people is to imagine them naked....... that's why I'm no longer a Headmaster.'

Yes.. That's right - I considered standing in front of lots of mums and make a joke about a fictional job as a fictional paedophile headteacher. *Sigh* I'm an idiot.

I'm sure it will be fine. It will, won't it?

Phew! What a whirlwind!

2012-01-22T18:42:00.000Z

So, the last 24 hours or so have been a bit of a whirlwind! We've just got home from the Splash Landings Hotel at Alton Towers. It all started yesterday lunchtime when Loz and I were musing at what to do with Georgia this weekend. What with Christmas and the like, we'd not actually done anything fun recently, it was all 'family admin' - you know, visiting people, doing homework, etc, all pleasant enough, just not FUN! Feeling rather random I had a look at the Alton Towers website, I knew when the park is closed the hotels can be pretty cheap..

Hmm it came up at £350 odd quid for a stay that very night, that wasn't cheap at all. Balls.

Loz said something along the lines of 'wouldn't it be amazing to pick G up from school and whisk her away somewhere'.. I agreed!

Then I looked a little closer, it had selected a suite. I changed the parameters and bingo... the price was much more affordable. We decided 'Fuck it!' and Loz called and booked it. We ran round like blue arsed flies finishing off our work and packing everything so we could actually collect G from school and leave. We also had to get Loz a maternity swimming costume too before we left, thankfully we did it! When we told Georgia at the school gates what was happening she was over the moon, and massively shocked!

The journey started off well, until the matrix signs told us that the M1 was shut, between junction 21 to 22.. and we needed to get to junction 24. Arse. I remembered that you could get to the Towers from the M6 too - that was at junction 19, so well before the troubles. Yay! Google Maps Navigation adjusted the course, and it suggested the M6 route would take about the same time as the original one! Yay! It wasn't wrong, although we ended up on some weird back-roads, we got there just after 19.30, not bad considering the delays and rush hour.

Splash Landings Hotel

We checked in and booked a table for dinner, usually at this time Georgia would be in bed, but she was pinging off the walls with excitement, it was lovely to see. After our dinner she wanted to watch the entertainment on the 'Ship' in the bar. We sat in a corner, and G sat watching the singers, when she got bored he came charging back to us, and then ran round, played in the themed lifts and generally seemed to have a whale of a time. It was actually Loz who was flagging from tiredness , so we headed off to bed!

It wasn't the best nights sleep I've had, I like my own bed, and it was odd having Georgia in the room too! We woke at 8am and headed to breakfast around 8.45am, there was a little queue to get into 'Flambo's Exotic Feast', but we were quickly seated and had a pretty decent buffet breakfast. When we left the restaurant the queue was horrific, it stretched back very far, I was glad we were early!

Cheesy Family Shot

We went back to the room and packed our belongings, ready to check out just before 10am as the pool opened then! We got to the pool and it was VERY busy, there was a very long queue, and seemingly not enough staff, we already had our tickets so G and I went to get changed while Loz joined the queue to hire some towels, she would meet us poolside.

Almost 20 minutes passed and there was no sign of Loz in the pool, I kept looking around, wondering if I'd missed her, keeping half an eye on Georgia going nuts in the water with all the cool massive floats. I was a bi worried that something untoward had happened, so we got out of the pool to look for her. On stepping into the changing room, she was standing looking very flustered and talking to a group of people. They have new lockers at Cariba Creek which cost two pounds to use, and when you open them you get just one pound back. A fair number of people were caught out by this as everyone assumed they'd be £1 (like most other pools), but on top of this, it appeared lots of the lockers were faulty, and eating all the money and not locking.

This had happened to Loz, twice! She'd found one member of staff who essentially said, 'Don't moan at me about the lockers as I can't do anything!', and she'd already been to the reception twice to complain but no one came to help. I don't like seeing anyone stressed, especially at six months pregnant, so we emptied Loz's locker and I carried her stuff to put in the locker I used. I had to battle past lots of angry people being very cross at the rip-off / broken lockers, there was lots of shouting, swearing and aggression, not very nice for a family resort! I piled the stuff into my locker and met Loz and G in the pool.

Cariba Creek Waterpark

Thankfully the rest of the experience in Cariba Creek was very enjoyable, it was very clean and looked after, all the equipment seemed to be working and everyone seemed to be having a whale of a time. I must admit to shouting at some children, I think I was justified. I went to queue for a dingy for G and I to go on the 'Master Blaster', the queue is about 20-30 minutes long, and whilst it's not too bad, it certainly eats into your time. There was a group of four boys in-front of me, probably aged 10-12, I looked around, and suddenly the group had increased to eight. Without thinking my mouth just shouted..

'Er, what's with the pushing in lads'

They all looked a bit taken aback, I think I looked angry.. The fattest kid stammered 'Er.. Er.. Erm.. Nothing'

I pointed my finger at them.

'Now, shall I get that lady (the staff member) to come over here, or are you going to join the back of the queue?'

Without saying a word back to me, the queue jumpers solemnly wandered off to join the end of the queue.

Jesus, I don't do stuff like that.. I'd probably muster a loud 'tut' and shake my head, but the words and stern looks just seem to pop out. I wasn't aggressive, I think just 'stern dad', and of course I was right, they shouldn't push in, the queue is long enough without some little bastards making it longer. In the end the whole group left the queue.. SWEET! :)

G loved the Master Blaster, it is pretty shit scary for a flume, I thought she might be petrified, but she came off buzzing and saying 'WHOA! WHOA! THAT WAS EPIC!'. We all had a fantastic time in the pool, it really is a great place to go (if a little expensive!).

We went for lunch in the Secret Garden Restaurant, the menu was a little limited really, but the food was lovely, and the staff were fabulous, we had the same waitress that served us on our honeymoon!

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing 'Extraordinary Golf' (Mini Golf), and then going to Alton Towers to have a look around the aquarium 'Shark Bait Reef'. I'd not actually been in there before, but was really impressed by it. G and Loz loved the rock pool with the shrimps that you can put your hands into and the shrimps nibble on them, I refrained, I hate that shit..

When we left I had a little look around 'Mutiny Bay', everything was all closed and a bit sad looking, and we decided it was time to head home. Thankfully the drive back was VERY good, and we arrived home fairly tired, fairly poor, but VERY happy.

2012 - Friends and the Offline Social Network

2012-01-17T16:36:00.000Z

Ahhh fucking hell it's 2012 already! 2011 was a crazy year, with getting married and moving house, and 2012 looks to be be equally as busy with the impending arrival of Master Hakes, hmm, that sounds a bit wrong.

Anyway! All my blogging time has been consumed by writing blogs for 'Emma's Diary', which I'll copy onto here in due course. Work has been MENTAL too, meaning lots of late nights hunched over the computer, at it furiously for hours (steady!) so between that being a husband, father and international cunt, my spare time has been limited.

I have been looking at my mate Dan's Blog - Caffeinated Dan, it's brilliant reading, he's very funny, he is far too similar to me for my liking, although I am better looking and have more hair, but yes.. READ HIS BLOG!

I've also decided that 2012 as well as being about having a baby is going to be about 'Friends'..

No, not the 90's sitcom, actual real people. I've never had a massive amount of friends, I generally dislike meeting new people (although working for myself has helped me put this aside slightly), so I've always been in a little huddle of people. Unfortunately as time has marched on, some of those people have fallen to the wayside, and I've probably not made the effort I should have but I want this to change.

A good example is Paul, I've known him for years, I was his best man, and we've both been through a lot together. We have, for about 6 or 7 years now, been trying to meet up for a drink and have a catch up, and for whatever reason, it's not happened, until just before Christmas that is..

It was his works Christmas party in Chelmsford and he emailed me the day before to see if I could come along for a drink, I jumped at the chance. So we met up, and it was like literally nothing had changed, we both knew roughly what had been going on with each other via Facebook, but it was so nice to catch up properly. We had a good few drinks, and ended the night sitting in a chippy for an hour putting the world to rights, perfect! I'm seeing him again near the end of the month so our wives can meet! I'm really looking forward to it.

Back to 2012 being about 'Friends', I want to try and be more sociable, get in touch with my old friends and make new ones. I want to create my own 'offline' social network, it is great having nearly 400 friends on Facebook and nearly double that in followers on Twitter, but how many of them are 'real' friends? Probably around 1-5% if that? It would be great if that figure were higher.

I'd like a network of nearly 1200 people I could call up and go for a beer with, have a coffee with or meet up at soft play with, although it would a nightmare remembering everyone's birthday...

P.S. I will get round to sorting out the retched theme on this blog.. it's not very nice.

'Dear Baby Boy, and Big Sister..'

2012-01-06T19:43:00.000Z

Well we're at 24 weeks now, and time is moving very fast, the end of April will be with us before we know it!

Time really does fly, and I'm sure when the little chap is born it certainly won't slow down either. Obviously there are ways of documenting the life of your little one, I've got literally THOUSANDS of photos of DD, from the moment she was born right up till now. I've also got a fair few videos of her at various stages (not as many as I'd like), and whilst they are fantastic, I want to keep a more accurate diary of the both of them growing up together.

I could keep a diary, and print photos off and stick drawings into it, but I obviously something physical can get lost, damged, etc! I'm a geek, I do stuff on-line, I don't keep a diary, it's all on my Google Calendar, I don't own a photo album, I have a Picasa account, I don't have an address book, I have my Google Contacts (You get the idea!). I wanted to document everything on the internet, I toyed with the idea of setting up a private blog, then I remembered seeing this..

Daniel Lee decided to e-mail his daughter throughout her life from the day she was born, sending her photos, videos, and pictures, keeping an email diary of her life. I want to do this, but perhaps take it one (crazy) step further, I'm going to e-mail DS and DD every day! One of my heroes, comedian Richard Herring has a blog, he blogs EVERY day and has done so for over 10 years (the second longest running blog on the internet!). Obviously some days there isn't much to write about, or say, but even so he does it, religously. If a comedian, who writes and tours can find a few minutes each day to keep his diary, I'm sure I can!

I don't imagine it will be easy, I know I won't be able to write hundreds of words each day but I'll just see how it goes! I'll have to make sure I back it all up some how as no system, e-mail or otherwise is 100% solid. In the future when DD an DS are grown up I can give them access to the account and little digital time capsule of their lives through my eyes.

Have any of you made your own digital time capsule for your little ones?

Getting through the first trimester.

2011-12-27T17:15:00.000Z

I joined Emma's Diary when my wife was 15 weeks pregnant, and we've had a few milestones since then, I thought I'd go back to the beginning to give you all a bit of background..

I remember the exact moment I found out I was going to be a Daddy again. It was 5.30am on 26th August 2011. I recall having a real feeling of being watched invading my sleep. I opened my eyes slowly to see a very awake wife looking at me. I patted her as a sort of 'Alright? '. She was holding something very tightly, and she pushed it into my hands. I woke up pretty damned quickly when I realised I was holding a pregnancy test, I held it up to my eyes, it was a big fat positive! Loz had woken up feeling very queasy and as this was a bit unusual taken a pregnancy test. Safe to say, neither of us went back to sleep!

We decided we wanted to let very close family and friends share in our good news, obviously if the worst were to happen it would be good to have their support. Loz did another handful of tests just to confirm, and they were all positive, with the Clearblue Digital saying that we were "3+ Weeks" through. A week or so later we had to register with our local GP to get those wheels in motion, the GP wanted to do another pregnancy test (apparently they test EVERYONE).

It was a very weird time, it's tricky not to be excited and thinking about how different life could be in 8 short months, but you also have to keep a level head and remember that it might not 'stick' (I hate that phrase, but Loz used it a lot!). Symptoms wise Loz was suffering with all the standard ones. As I've said before she wasn't actually sick very much at all, but the nausea just hit at very random times. My usually chatty wife would fall silent and go very white, usually followed by a quick sprint to the nearest toilet until it passed.

The symptom that hit her the hardest was the tiredness, it really was peculiar, usually after we'd eaten, around 7pm, she just wanted to sleep. So for the first 3 months from about 7.30pm onwards I'd be on my own pottering around while Mrs H was spark out upstairs. Whilst I mostly appreciated the extra time to prestige several times on Black Ops, it was a very lonely period. I did occasionally have a ping on Google Talk from Loz at around 9pm when she asked if I could fetch her a hot water bottle, but more often than not she'd be back to sleep again after the kettle had boiled!

The frustrating thing I found was I could really do much to help, you can't ease the need to sleep, or take the pain and sickness away, you just have to stand by and watch, hoping that it will all come together and it will 'stick' *shudder*. The only comfort was that each passing week meant we were slowly creeping out of the crucial first trimester.

Around 8 weeks we went to our local hospital to meet our midwife for our 'booking in' appointment with her. She asked us both a tonne of questions about our medical history and had a few pokes and prods of Lorraine and deemed the pregnancy to be 'low risk' (Hooray!) We left the hospital with the cursory bag filled with free samples and load of leaflets to peruse, it was starting to feel very, very real now.

The letter arrived with the date of the scan soon after, just 3 weeks till we'd finally get to see our 'Baby Mosster', and hopefully find out all was well. The symptoms slowly started to ease up at this point, they were all still there, but levelling out slightly, it meant we could start doing some walking or even go out in the evening. Us both working from home was helpful too as Loz could have a power nap in her lunch hour which would give her a little 'top up' to at least see the evening.

The day of the scan arrived, I was very nervous, I wanted to see a healthy 'mosster' on the screen, with a nice strong heartbeat, and thankfully, that's what we saw, a beautiful fidgeting baby with everything as it should be and a very visable heartbeat. It was so clear, I remember being amazed seeing G for the first time nearly 9 years ago, but obviously that's a very long time in technology! The movement was so apparent and vivid it was such a relief to see!

After 9 weeks of uncertainty it was excellent to know that the first trimester was over and we could start letting everyone know our good news!