Over the last few weeks it’s become our little weekend routine to lunch our way around the free samples at Costco and then head homeward with a $4.99 rotisserie chicken for supper. Yumm.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Are you a Costco member?

…when it’s a warm, sunny, Friday afternoon and you find yourself taking a nap with your favourite soft white kitty

Chesterfield Fitzwilliam Rupert is growing into a fine specimen of a feline. It’s hard to believe he’s only been with us about three months as it seems like much, much longer. I can’t remember or imagine life without him now. He is what makes our house a home xx

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as You know life is good…

The weather has gone from bright and sunny to drizzly and overcast, and in the space of 48 hours we’ve gone from owning practically nothing to having ordered the majority of the important baby stuff- the carseat and  nursery furniture should all be arriving at the beginning of next week. I’m of the impression today that the world would stop spinning if it weren’t for Amazon.com.

I would also like to thank each and every one of you for your sweet comments! I will try to drop you all emails to thank you personally during the coming week, but please bear with me if it takes a couple of days as my fingers aren’t as nimble as they should be this week. Just another one of those things that everyone else forgets to mention…

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as What a difference two days make…

“Mommmm” squeaked a tiny, little voice.
“Yes Paige?”
“Eliza says you’ve got a baby growing in your tummy and that’s why you’ve turned into such a fatso. But we all know she’s lying.”
“Why?”
“Because we all know that new sisters come through the mail in boxes.”
“But Paige, you’re having a new brother.”
“WHAT? A BROTHER? So you really HAVE got a baby growing in you?”
“Yes.”
“How is he going to get out?”
“Through my bottom.”
“WHOA. Will he still come in a box?”
“No.”
“When will he get here?”
“Any time after about three weeks.”
“THREE WEEKS?”
“Yes.”
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?”
“Yes.”
“Mom? Aren’t you supposed to get stuff for babies?”
“Umm…”
“OhMyGosh you SERIOUSLY need to start doing some shopping…“

In three weeks time I will be 37 weeks, by which stage the baby will be classed as full term and aside from some gifts from friends and family we still have yet to get anything ready. Do we have a carseat? No. Nursery furniture? No. What, not even a bassinet? No. Diapers? No. Clothes? A couple, but like I said, we’ve had gifts from friends and family. A pram? YES!!! My parents got us one at Christmas. Lotions and creams? No. Are you joking? No. So really, aside from a couple of clothes and a pram, we have EVERYTHING still to buy. It’s really about time that the shopping should begin…

And yes readers, Baby Peach has plums! We’ve known for quite a while, but wanted to make sure everyone in the family knew before I posted it here.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as The clarification

So I now have purple hair. I was attempting to dye my hair ‘light ash brown’ but it turned out more like ‘light ash mauve’. Oops. This photo does NOT do it justice, it’s far more impressive in real life (and darker… at least that bit worked).

***Update***
A good friend of mine who happens to be a really rather good hair stylist (not to mention probably the most glamorous person I know) has advised me to wash my hair in dish soap, and if that fails, try dish soap and a bit of bicarbonate of soda. She is the guru of all things trichological. So far so good, I’m now a shade of ‘light ash sludge’. She told me that pregnant hair reacts a bit differently sometimes, so it’s probably that… and combined with the fact that my hair is so porous at the ends from years of hi-lights and sun damage.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Oh.

The high temperatures over the past couple of days have given us a taster of what’s in store for the summer and BOY IT IS GOING TO BE HOT. I’ve forgotten just how searing Californian temperatures can be, I’m out of practise. Unless you’re in or around San Francisco itself where the summer fog rolls in and covers the city in a protective blanket of cool each afternoon, temperatures elsewhere can regularly rise above above 90F and beyond… and that’s probably going to start happening fairly soon. All the better that this year I have a small furnace residing in my womb. Well, at least until June. Until that time I shall probably spend my life waddling from air-conditioned house, to air-conditioned car, to air-conditioned shop and back again. If I choose to leave the air-conditioned house, that is.

So far I’ve managed to get through this pregnancy without buying many maternity clothes at all (total maternity items purchased = 7 , excluding 4 bras to accomodate my ever-expanding chest) and I’m hoping I can continue this way as there’s not long left to go now.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as 33 weeks

One minute we were sitting in the garden, topping up our tans and nibbling on cheese and crackers, the next minute we were skipping down the boatramp and climbing aboard a friend’s boat for fun in the sun ON THE WATER.

THE main reason we chose this house was because of the location. For the same price we could have got somewhere over twice the size but the novelty of having navigable waters at the bottom of our garden just couldn’t be beaten. And this was our first foray out onto it…

We got some great views of the neighbouring houses…

Most of them are custom built, where people have bought plots of land and built their own. This has to be my most favourite of all… I call it the dollhouse. I’ve always wondered what it looks like from the water- it looks huge!

But a few minutes further around the bend in the river is where the real fun begins… goodbye no-wake-zone and hello fast water!!!

It turns out that there is nothing more fun or refreshing in the hot weather than tearing around the delta at high speed.

And nothing beats sailing home at sunset…

Getting a ski boat is *definitely* in our grand master plan. And this weekend did nothing to talk us out of it. The only question is WHEN?!

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Messing about on the river

Perfect. I had a couple of hours to kill whilst DrMrNin was in a meeting before we would set off driving all over the Bay Area to attend our respective Dr appointments- me with my OB-GYN, he with his surgeon. Buying my coffee, I had happy visions of all the progress that I would make with my latest knitting project except I discovered that pregnant people who knit in public tend to attract rather a lot of attention. Every other passer by wanted to ask questions and chat, and consequently about a third of my progress became casualty to polite conversation so I spent about as much time unpicking as I did knitting. Lesson learned: next time I knit outside I will wear large headphones, and next time I shall choose to take a more simple project that doesn’t require so much concentration.

Next stop lunch, then the OB-GYN. It was the usual routine- pee-ed in a cup, got weighed, had blood-pressure taken, exchanged a few pleasantries and questions and then listened to the wisha-wisha-wisha of the foetal heartbeat before being told to come back in another two weeks. All is fine. Turns out I managed to gain SIX WHOLE POUNDS IN THREE AND A HALF WEEKS which is rather impressive, but hopefully it means that Little Peach is plumping out as all the weight gain has been on my tummy.

Then it was back to see the surgeon as it’s now been one whole month since DrMrNin’s achilles tendon was repaired. Much to my immense delight it was time for the cast to come off which means NO MORE CRUTCHES as he can officially weight-bear on that foot now. That should make things a lot easier around the house, whooop!

Aside from the saw being INCREDIBLY LOUD, the stench emanating from his month-long-unwashed foot was ABSOLUTELY WRANK making the whole process not quite so exciting after all. Seriously, even that time we spilled a load of milk in the car (which was the worst smell EVER at the time) smelled like ROSES in comparison to this. Dear God it was foul. I asked the tech if she had sneaked topical smell blockers under her mask and she grinned which said it all. I had to resort to improvisation with a paper towel and was rather liberal with a can of hospital air freshener that I found on the counter. It was either sit in a room gagging from industrial strength lemon or sit there gagging from unbelievable stench. Obvious choice. And eeeuw his foot looked like a shrivelled prune too. Bleurgh. But at least it’s better. Hopefully he can start physical therapy in another three weeks.

By everyday standards it wasn’t an entirely strenuous day, but when we got home I was completely exhausted and fell asleep almost as soon as I sat down on the couch. And it probably also explains the complete dead-end day that I’ve just had too for I couldn’t muster the energy for anything. We were supposed to go out with friends tonight, but instead I stayed in and barely just managed to drag myself into the kitchen to create something vaguely edible to put in my big, fat, tummy.

Apparently it seems that I now have limitations. A couple of weeks ago this schedule wouldn’t have challenged me at all, but it’s coming to the time where everything is such an effort that it’s just down right exhausting. I think I’m going to start taking it easy from now on, kick my feet up every now and again and make the most of having a bit of free time while it lasts. And take a moment to enjoy saying ‘my free time’ as I know for certain that I’m probably not going to have that for very much longer, so everyone at Starbucks kept telling me..

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Apparently I have limitations

32 weeks and increasingly uncomfortable by the day. Backache- check, excruciatingly sore tummy muscles that make it hurt when I do anything except sit completely still and in complete silence whilst also holding my breath- check, twanging muscle spasms, especially in the middle of the night- check, permanent fatigue- check, inability to walk and talk at the same time without wanting to pass out due to lack of oxygen- check, acid reflux- check, emotionally fragile- check, not being able to get out of bed in the morning because I feel so stiff from sleeping that I can’t move- check…

Tomorrow I shall be boom-babba-boom-babba-ing it down to the hospital to see the midwife again for another weigh-in and health check. The other week I was told I had gained a total of 20lb, 3lb of which were baby. The thought of another few weeks during which this child will double in size thereby doubling my discomfort of course fills me with nothing but joy… joy that it’s not much longer to go until I can get back to feeling more normal and hey, I’ll even be capable of shaving my legs again- lady legs, here I come!

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as 32 weeks

We had a lovely Easter weekend… I wore flipflops and pretty Spring colours, we had friends to visit, we slept in, ate lots of chocolate, watched a couple of films, I spent the whole weekend baking, and we caught up with some odd jobs around the house. We’re almost unpacked now except for the clothes, but a new closet is on order which should be arriving soon. My yarn stash now has a nice new cupboardy home, I rediscovered an exciting but forgotten knitting project and started a new one too, and my sewing machine now has a place to call its own. And I finally found my camera bag so had some fun playtime, SQUEEE! After months of feeling utterly uninspired to get my camera out, I think I’m getting my photo-mojo back.

I hope everyone else had a nice weekend too!

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Happy Easter Weekend!

Yes. What you see there is the aftermath of a finger trapped in door episode. Said finger also happened to be the one wearing my pretty wedding band.

Yes, that’s a chip of paint on my finger, and yes, that’s an almighty bend in the structure of my ring. You can also see it pinching hard into my finger. Ick.

And LOOK, ONE OF THE TEENY TINY DIAMONDS FELL OUT. Yikes. We had to use pliers to bend it back again so that I could get it off. Luckily I managed to find the diamond which was a pretty amazing feat seeing how small it is, and the fact that it fell onto the carpet…. but carpet doesn’t twinkle when you shine a light on it (thank goodness). All I was trying to do was find some cotton wool so that I could cleanse poor little Toby’s eye

HOWEVER our new couch arrived providing a nice distraction away from the little upset. It’s much bigger than the old one, SQUEE. Lots more room for me, him, and two little kitties (and whatever comes out of me in June). More pics to come soon when the room is more set up. By the way, it’s not as yellow in real life, more of a sandy colour.

And hopefully the nice friendly jeweler will be able to fix my ring and make it all better. Hopefully.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as SMOOSH!

I did warn you You can even click on it to see it even bigger, and even more sweet!

Exactly five days ago it was just DrMr and me in the house, and what an empty, cold house it must have seemed (well, except for my 19-strong plastic family, of course!). Five days on, and our little two bedroom apartment is positively *BURSTING* with energy thanks to our two little white furry additions. Two little people who have brought so much joy! I can’t now imagine what it must have been like without them. But they do bring quite a lot of work with them too. Take this morning for instance, and a 6.45 am alarm call for a wellness check at the vet (not to mention a similar visit two days ago for worming treatments and microchips).

They were both EVER SO good, so much so that we let them sit with us in the vet’s room as they waited patiently for the old thermometer up the bottom routine. This little wellness check was all part of the excellent adoption service from the  Silicon Valley Humane Society. As hygienic as the shelter tries to be,  little colds and infections are unfortunately very commonplace as there are so many animals all in the same location, and germs spread all to quickly when people go around sticking their fingers into cages to offer tickles without sanitising their hands between animals. So to make sure every furry person stays as healthy as can be, they offer a complimentary five-day wellness check, with a complementary 14 day followup afterwards, just to make sure nothing new develops in this time. And anything that does get noticed within this 14 day period is treated without charge.

One of our kitties unfortunately had a bit of a cold and an eye infection when he came out, but his cold has got much better over the past couple of days and is now almost gone, and his eye is getting much better now thanks to some antibiotic ointment…. which was covered thanks to this wellness program. Unfortunately for our bank account the FLV vaccines and the flea/tick/heartworm prevention treatment weren’t, but it was money well spent as far as I’m concerned

As with every situation they’ve encountered so far, they took it all in their stride and spent the rest of the day taking it in turns to drape themselves over me, sometimes two at a time, as I tried to get some things done on my computer.

Besotted. I am. Completely. How can I resist such cuteness? They follow me around from room to room, and sit there and smile at me. It’s like having two little white furry shadows permanently behind me.

And here they are, my dear, beloved, sweet boys, Chester and Toby…

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Prepare to be overloaded with cute

Now I’m not going to pretend that I usually resemble a complete glamourpuss every morning, but I did look particualrly rough this morning.

Why?

My life has been taken over by these two…

Morning, noon, and night…

And by ‘night’ I really do mean it…… 3.30am rambunctious stampedes right across the bed, repeated all over again just a couple of hours later.

But I don’t mind.

They’re very, very sweet when they do it xo

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Bedhead

Sixteen weeks old, brothers, and as pure white as the snow xo

More details to come soon, and photos (if they sit still for long enough!)

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as And we become a family of FOUR!

I also had to get creative with my carry-on too. Again experience has taught me that the two bag thing is most strictly imposed when going through security, and so long as you can more-or-less tuck bags inside of one another to make *two bags* you can get away with it. So although I had three rather well proportioned bags on this trip (one of which was ALL BLYTHE STUFF, heee hee!), I was able to tuck my brown handbag into the top of the tan one and waltz through with no problem. PHEW! I still had to wear my hat, my heaviest woolly jumper, carry a jacket and wear my rather large Dubarry boots in addition to the three bags, but  the point its THEY LET ME ON THE PLANE because I still only officially had two bags!

And something rather special was waiting for Paige, Fleur and me when we got back…

What a beautiful tableau!

I think they missed us

PS I also arrived home to a phonecall to tell us that our new couch is coming next Friday, EEEEPS! Finally we will *all* have room to sit, squee (this couch is rather small).

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Back in America