Gotta love Picasa

Picasa is a great tool for organising photos, and this "Collage" option is pretty good too. As soon as they allow you to move each photo around within the collage, it'll be perfect.

We went to the supermarket at 10.30 last night - there seemed to be a lot of invisible children in there, given the number of cars parked in the Parent & Child spaces. Actually, there were more toddlers around than I expected - Lara doesn't know what time it is (we've not bought her a watch yet) but it must have been way past these kid's bedtime. Now I sound like a judgemental parent, oops!
Anyway, we did get a Parent & Child space, and we got the carseat fixed on to the right flavour of trolley, and it was all quite civilised in Asda at that time.
The trouble is that we only got home at midnight, and by the time I'd put the shopping away and Olga had fed Lara, who was a calmer in the supermarket than she was at home, it was well after 1am before we could try to get some sleep. Between Lara's grumbling and Olga possibly coming down with a mixture of overtiredness and a cold, it was the most disturbed night we'd had so far.
I went back to work this morning, but not before I'd stuck photos of Lara up around the house to surprise Olga and put a smile on her face. By 9.30 she'd found the two in the bathroom (I was particularly pleased with the one stuck to the underside of the toilet seat lid) and as I write now, before I go home again, I presume she's found the 6 others (one on the cans of Guiness in the fridge, another on the back of the cupboard door under the sink, and so on).

An experiment with Skype and a webcam worked last night, as Grandma and Grandpa were able to cooo over Lara; hopefully by the New Year we'll be able to get a video-conference going between Wycombe, Radcliffe and Bristol for family gatherings!

Another minor miracle happened yesterday too - a mere 9 months (or more!) after we inherited a wardrobe from a colleague at work, I was able to put it together in the right place. It's been in 6 pieces in various sheds and rooms since we brought it home, and has been taunting me everytime I've stubbed a toe on it or had to move it from one room to another to get at whatever it was leaning against.

OK, off for a haircut then home to the girls. Olga better not have done the washing up, ironing, or hoovering, she's under strict orders that the most energetic thing she had to do this morning was channel surf during the adverts in Jeremy Kyle's programme (I love that!).
On second thoughts, I'll let her off if she's done one of those three...

Monday morning and all's well

We had a visit from the midwife this morning, and she's very happy with Lara's and Olga's progress, and was very pleasantly surprised with how soon Lara could come home considering she was premature.
We're thinking of having our first trip round the supermarket this afternoon, making sure Olga's got enough food in the house for when I go back to work tomorrow, albeit I'm only going to do half-days in the office for the next few weeks. It's all complicated because of Christmas Week next week (when I'll probably go in for full days but Ola and Lara will come in too), so I'll do half-days for the first week of the new year. Which shopping trolley to use?! We're looking forward to using the parent and toddler parking spaces with clear consciences, and annoying those selfish gits who use them unnecessarily.

Weekend catch up - Sunday

OK, ok, so Liverpool lost, I really must wake Lara up next time to bring us luck. The sooner she grows into her LFC baby grow, the better.
I was back in the study after the football, again trying to finish it off so we can empty the storage boxes that are in there and make it into a usable room.
Lara had no social engagments today, it was a quiet day in, apart from perfecting her projectile poo-ing over Olga's lovely white fluffy dressing gown. She had been wondering why she had so many bathrobes - now she knows!
Olga did take some photos of Lara, as it had been a day or two since we'd taken any!:

Weekend catch up - Saturday

We had an appointment at the drop-in clinic at the hospital on Saturday morning. Lara had some blood taken for testing - her reaction to the midwife pricking Lara's heel was to fart forcefully in the midwife's direction.
Everything was OK, Lara had lost some weight, down to 2.66kg, which is fine.
After that it was off to Wycombe town centre for a shopping adventure around Mothercare & Woolworths. Given that I was driving the pram with the carrycot for the first time, 2 Saturdays before Christmas, I only clipped one shopper with the pram, and that was out in the street and not in the crowded aisles of Woolies.
Lara had her second social engagement on Saturday night, when we took her to the Prince of Wales in Marlow so I could meet up with the football lads, who were on their Christmas Night Out. Of course the real reason was just to show Lara off!

We started getting Christmassy today too, we put the tree and some decorations up. I did expect Mishka to either pull the tree down or mark it as "his" tree by the time we got back from the pub, but he'd behaved himself. We'll have our family portrait taken by the tree as soon as all four of us are looking presentable at the same time!

Lara's still being good during the night, Olga is sensing when Lara needs a feed before the tears start, so I'm getting reasonable sleep, and Olga's getting a little more than she was expecting, I think. On Saturday night Lara was particularly good, having a feed around midnight, then again around 3.30am then again around 7am.

Weekend catch up - Friday

As you might guess from the lack of posts, it was a busy weekend Chez Armstrong.
On Friday afternoon we ended up attending the Tigress Christmas Meal in the nice Italian restaurant next to the office. Lara was asleep in the car seat, and the staff gave us a table for two, next to the big Tigress table, where we could put her on the floor, next to the table, safely out of the way of passing waiters. She only began to stir as we were having our dessert, and Olga took her off to the office for a feed.
In the evening I popped back to Marlow for a Christmas & Baby-Head-Wetting drink with the guys. Arriva buses stole half an hour off my time with Lara because the bus I wanted to catch was early. It's more frustrating that buses are early than late, at least there's probably a good excuse for being late! Anyway, enough of the Victor Meldrews.