Welcome Home Baby........Simon

Some of you reading this will by now know of the very late arrival of baby Simon. For those that don't, now you do....

So, here I am at the helm of the blog once again, I do this once every new baby to make myself feel useful. I'm not as soft and snuggly as mum and I don't have boobs, so there isn't much else for me to do for the next few weeks.....or so I'm told...

I'm very pleased to announce the arrival of Baby Simon James Hawley, this is his full title, which he goes by if you ask his big brother Ollie. For the rest of us it's simply Simon, (that's "simply" not "simple", Bernie!)
He was born at 14:06 on Saturday 22nd November and weighed in at a reasonable 9lb 3oz. Most would consider this large, but after Emma (9lb 13oz) Simon seems like a bit of a light weight.
Everything went very well.....eventually. Rachael was admitted to the hospital on Saturday morning after we received the phone call instructing us to come in at 06:00. Rachael had originally been booked for induction on the Friday, however we were told there was no room at the inn and we had to wait to be called in.

Ollie and Emma came to the hospital for a visit last night with Nannie Frances and Grandad Bernie and were very excited to finally meet their new baby brother. Ollie was desperate to give him a "two arm hug and a kiss", let him know that he doesn't need to worry because "he is going to take care of him", and lastly that..... "he doesn't have much hair!" Emma simply stated that "he was cuuute" then because of being in a strop with her mean daddy, almost whacked little simon over the head with her shoe.....nice.....this is going to be great fun!

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes, flowers, cards and everything else, Rachael I am sure will be updating this before too long, I just wanted to get some pictures up of the new fella for all too see.

Thats all from me...hopefully I will be able to get some pictures uploaded....until next time......

The Birthday Party!

As promised here's some photos from the "Dinner Party". Emma had a great day at school with her mates. She shared her cupcakes that she and Ollie had decorated and received a lovely dolly from Teresa which then had to go to bed with her!
When she arrived home....there were presents galore on the kitchen table from Nanny Carol which arrived today!!
Later Uncle Mike and Nanny Frances arrived for a delicious meal that Daddy had prepared followed of course by ice cream cake....Ollie and Emma managed to eat 2 pieces...greedy piggies!!
Bedtime was great as we had all sorts of new stories to choose from...for once we haven't heard any peeps from the shared bedroom!
I mentioned to Ollie and Emma that they needed their rest because tomorrow is also a very big day as we will be celebrating our new baby's birthday...to which Ollie responded, "Are we going to have a cake to celebrate???"...you see...his father's son!!
Enjoy the photos!

I'm a Big Girl Now!!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY EMMA CHARLOTTE HAWLEY!!
Emma turned two today....my how time flies! She announced to us this morning that she is a "big Girl" now. Which is good as she quite often aspires to be a big boy just like her brother!
She and Ollie are sharing a room now so she was woken to a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday to you by her big brother (after reminding him that the reason the day was so special was not because he was going to able to have cupcakes at daycare with his mates but rather because his sister was turning 2 which is the actual reason for the cupcakes...apparently when you are three and a half the only good thing about birthdays are the edibles...he truly is his father's son!!).
Ollie and Emma incidentally are sharing a room because Ollie's room is now home to a monster. The monster arrived one night approximately 2 weeks ago leading Ollie to fly out of his room and scramble over his sleeping father into our bed...only to refuse to ever go back. He has kindly suggested that he stay in Emma's room so they can keep each other safe and the new baby can have Ollie's old room...nice welcome isn't it sacrificing the one you don't know to the monster inhabited room!! The sharing of rooms has not been without hiccough as Emma loves to chat and sing to her roomate well past 9pm and would sleep in if her early morning rising brother would let her...so suffice it to say we have late to bed early to rise scenario which Mum and Dad are hoping will change in the near future!!
Below are some pics from earlier this morning...Emma woke to presents and balloons and a pancake breakfast. From Mum, Dad, Ollie and Baby (tba tomorrow) she received some dollies which she calls "princees" that she can dress and undress (the shoes are a favourite) and a beautiful dress. From Nanny Carol she received her birthday dress that she is wearing in her pictures.
She will be having a "birthday party" tonight with Nanny Frances and Uncle Mike. She has kindly promised to save Grandad Bernie some Birthday cake although Ollie stated that he wouldn't since Grandad Bernie isn't here....it's a good thing for Grandad Bernie that it's not Ollie's birthday he is missing!!
There are also some pics below taken by my cousin Claire Kugler (nee: white) who has recently taken up photography with a special interest in "big bellies" so the pics of the family below were taken on a beautiful day in October (the 13th I do believe)...Enjoy.
Barring any emergent trips to the labour and delivery ward I will upload pics later tonight of the birthday cake and party!














Birthday Girl




Helpful Big Brother














Thanksgiving Day....36 weeks




















Highlight of Ollie's Day...Tree Climbing!

Oooohhh Gross!!

February-July 2008

I know, I know...It has been far too long. Well, although I have thousands of valid excuses as to why no blogs for the past 5 months, I will spare you all and get on with more pertinent issues.

April 2008

....Hmmmm....just got back from Cuba. Came home to a tonne of snow which stuck around until maybe...June? Major excitement for the month of March was the discovery that the Hawleys will (in 8.5 months) consist of an extra person. I am sure anyone who reads this allready knows this item of news however, definitely worth reporting as Mum and Dad are very excited (well, Mum was immediately and Dad is now). Ollie and Emma are also looking forward to the arrival of their new brother or sister. There may actually be more then one addition as Emma keeps telling us that there is a baby in my tummy, as well as her tummy, Ollie has one and so too does ddy. Now of the three (other then Mum)mentioned only one of those has a belly that might suggest there is a baby in there but thus far it is physiologically impossible so there must be another explanation I am sure.
We did have a few nice days in March which, due to the enormous amount of snow we had lead to ridiculously large and fun puddles. Ollie and Emma became expert puddle jumpers . One day we went to the Elmira Maple Syrup festival. We had invited Auntie George to meet us there because after all, how busy could the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival be? Well after getting there we realized that all of Canada must know about and attend this Maple Syrup Festival so unfortunately, we never met up with Auntie George as she must have been lost in the crowd somewhere. Despite the crowds we managed to have a good time. Ollie and Emma especially enjoyed "old MacDonald's Farm" where Emma frightened all the young lambs, piglets, chicks and calves with her excited squealing. Ollie andEmma also enjoyed a turn on the tractor that was there. They waited patiently for their turn on the tractor and reluctantly got off when it was the next person in lines turn. Emma had to be removed forcibly as despite the fact that she looked rather non-plussed while on the tractor, she was decidedly unhappy about having to get off. In fact, she stood in front of the tractor and wept and wailed ensuring all onlookers were aware of her dismay! On our way back to the car, we of course skipped the long line ups for pancakes and opted instead for a big ice cream! Yum, Yum! After the ice cream we continued our travels back to the car and managed to find an absolutely ginormous puddle that demanded a stop!







On other decent days Ollie and Emma helped Mum and Dad in the garden. Foolishly, Mum and Dad felt that this was the year of the garden. We would finally have a weed free outside living space. Unfortunately, soon after the snow and frost kept everything at bay, work schedules have once again interfered with our best intentions and the gardens have fallen into a state of horrendous disarray. Now, the gardens have taken on the look we like, where there is very little bare patches of soil however, when we originally envisioned the garden the space would be filled with plants we had picked and planted, not the enoromous thistle bushes that have taken over!
E
Emma also perfected the art of nose picking as you will see by some of her photos, there is no point asking her to remove her digits from her nose as this is interpreted by her to mean, "put another digit in as far as it will go!".





May 2008

Of course May is always an exciting month!! Of most importance Ollie celebrated his third birthday!!! A wonderful day was had by all, except poor Nanny Carol who had made arrangements to fly in on Ollie's birthday and be in time for birthday dinner and of course, ice cream cake. Instead she was delayed by 12hrs in Manchester and missed the dinner. She did however, make it in time for Ollie's official birthday as she finally got to our house at 10pm. Ollie and Emma were too excited to wait until the following day to see her so, they both woke up and had a quick visit before heading back to bed. Lots of fun things happened in May. We had a family trip to the African Lion Safari in honour of Ollie's birthday and were joined by both Nannies and our friends Auntie Tarika, Uncle Balaji, Sachin and Rhea. Fun was had by all but I still think Ollie's personal favourite are the elephants. After watching the show where the elephants would stand on three legs and lift their back leg up in the air, Ollie and Emma decided to practice this themselves, pretending to be elephants while walking down the main thoroughfare. Ollie and Emma not only got to touch an elephant, but they also got to ride an elephant with Mummy and Nannie Frances!!













































We had many other exciting events/trips planned while Nanny Carol was with us. Ellie, Noah and Hannah would have been envious of our day out on the train. There is a new train ride from Waterloo park to St. Jacob's and if you are really lucky...it's a steam train. Well, we were lucky ducks that day because we were on the maiden voyage (for this year) of the steam train which Ollie insisted was Donald (although the train driver said he had a different name).




































May was marked the start of Ollie and Emma's soccer season. Ollie and Emma were on the same team "Team Orange" (very original names in this league). Ollie andEmma made up 2 of the 5 players on the team! Can't say that they will be named team MVP as most games were spent clinging to Mummy's leg demanding a dody or proclaiming that "I'm too tired to play soccer, lets go home". Perhaps 18months and 3 is a bit too young to start! They did however, have some stellar moments...they were just very short lived! Here are a few pics of the cutest members of team orange!
















Well folks, I know I promised more, but this has taken me over two weeks to get to ...so perhaps I will just post this and then take up where I left off in another five months or so!! Ha ha. I will try and get to it some time this week however, all you brits might prefer to see us in the flesh as we will soon be over there! We are enroute on Dad's birthday on August 12 arriving on the 13th. Not looking forward to this flight since the last flight we went on Emma wasn't walking yet...She is very proficient now and not one to enjoy sitting still for too long!!
I will sign off now. Take care.....looking forward to seeing everyone...will try and get to june and july before we go!
TTFN!