long weekend in the country ........

Nelly attending the first party of the weekend ...My cousin Becky's ( on the right of the picture ) daughters Disney party - ooooops N does not do fancy dress just yet !

Nelly and her cousin Anna - that will be the one on the left that has her name tattooed on her forehead!!

Nelly and I enjoy dinner chez ma soeur...

Nelly and Beth feeding the calves...

Hey you got more than me!
Ok I will give you some of mine....

with only two weeks to go before we move Nelly and I decided to check out and go visiting! well there is only so much packing you can do with a small person running around..! s0 we loaded up the car - put Maisy on the DVD player and headed up the motorway to stay with my sister and attend a number of family parties - one for a three year old and one for a 40 year old! ...Nelly had a great time, as my sister lives on a farm and she loves watching the cows and tyhis time helped feeding all the calves they have dotted around the place. There are more than normal at the moment as all of the bull calves that are normally sent to the market to be sold for beef rearing ( the girls are kept and raised on the farm to join the herd ) are hanging around due to the movement restrictions - foot and mouth and blue tongue - so lots of small animals to feed!

She went to two parties and I moved the travel cot from house to house more times than I care to mention!

I never used to think that when people said their kids got wired on sugary things that it was true ! Well hey I saw it in action this weekend again - another party bag later and the temptation of two cousins sucking on lollies, she took part in a game with them which involved giving them a kiss and in return getting a long lick or suck on a lolly!...you have never seen such pleasure on a small person's face! SHe then ran around for ages before flaking out for about two hours on my friend R's sofa while we caught up on chatting and ate a lovely lemon drizzle cake!

cake making and partying...........

With half term ongoing our usual round of play groups closed down for the week so we organise things to fill the days! Wednesday was one of absolute extremes! ....My friend Fiona invited us over to her house for coffee followed by her local playgroup - she lives In Kennington and the group was across the Walworth Road in the Elephant and Castle borders! the place was lovely with a great fish tank, birds, painting, fab toys.....in the afternoon we were invited to a 2nd birthday party for another of N's friends that we met through China adoption, the party was held off Ken High Street ! we rocked up from the wrong side of the river and the tracks! a lovely little party but I was conspicuous by the absence of a nanny companion! Well we took Percy Panda with us instead!

Yesterday we headed off to Harpenden to visit her new cousin( well my cousin's new baby - so technically not a real first cousin but not having any first cousins on R's side she will be grateful for all the ones she can get! !) the train was fine on the way up there - direct from Herne Hill but on the way back we hit the rush hour and I suddenly realised I was one of those women that commuters sit seething through their teeth thinking ...' stupid woman she had all day to travel on the train and picks the one at 5 15 to return home!!!!!!!!!!...but hey I have aright to travel too and it is hard keeping a small person quiet on a stoppping train!

Today was more relaxed Nelly had double naps as we went to dinner with the Kennington friends and Nelly had a disturbed night being moved from travel cot to car seat and into cot ( well bed... ) so this afternoon we used up our usual overripe bananas to make a cake. N helped out and her face when she first taste the mixture was a treat!!!



The best bit of baking -
MORE - a recurrent word in our house!

Nelly and her friend Plum at the party in Kensington!!!!!!!

Plum and her cake


All I want for Xmas!!! Nelly loved Plum's scooter - a few sensitive moments over it !

cake

people are reading....

SO since I added the neocounter I noticed there are people lurking here in the shadows from quite a few countries as well! wow better brush up on my grammar and vocab and write something of interest........



Nelly has had an interesting week so far - she spent a day with our Godson's twin sister - who was on half term and spent the day with us! She helped look after Nelly...a morning at a playgroup, followed by a few hours MSNing whilst she napped and then full on play in the park - swings, slides, and tea in the park cafe!



The weekend was glorious so we headed off for lunch in the local Gastro Pub ( in fact it won Gastropub of the year in Time Out http://www.therosendale.co.uk/time_out_page.asp ) and we are proud to say that we were there http://lifewithnelly.blogspot.com/2007/09/week-thirty.html not sure if this was week one but there or thereabouts! As ever the Opinion Formers if the local area!...anyway we had a lovely lunch this Sunday with Karen and Lisa marred by only one thing...The sun was shining, the temperature was about 15 degrees C....and they had decided that October was their cut off for serving food outside! so we ate inside but that meant containing N in a highchair until some food arrived! OK it is family friendly - small babies OK in buggies not moving....Four / Five Year olds sitting nicely at the table waiting for the kids menu ( which is very good ...£5.50 for two courses of great food and a decent juice ....) but I am not sure if anywhere is really ever toddler friendly. 2/3/4 year olds need those horrendous play areas or they need the awful wax crayons that Cafe Rouge ( just along the way provide! ) I never thought I would even be thinking about this ! But hey we had a good time - took it in turns to run around outside with her and ate delicious chocolatey brownies in the garden while Nelly ran off some energy before heading home...!


I am not sure if many of my frends even know that I have kept this site going...I just spoke with a friend and she had only ever read the waiting for nelly blog that I stopped once we were home...!






Big Godsister Lily helping entertain in the park!

Lisa and Karen helping Nelly with the energy expulsion!

T- three...........

countdown to the move ....



looking at my diary I cannot quite believe that we will be gone in three weeks nearly...so that means fitting in lots of people to meet, the occasional evening out ...and thinking about packing>! I guess that packing is easier at this end but harder unpacking at the other - because you think you want something in one place and then reaqlise it should be in another! will keep you posted!



Half term now so playgroups and regular stuff pack up ! but we have planned for outings with our friends ...... this morning we were at the bargain priced Peckham Pulse soft play ( £1.35 ) with free parking! where Nelly had me rollicking around in the ball parks and careering down slides! until my knees ached! she loved it and she and Fraser had three whole hours in each others company without one hit, pinch, scratch or push!!!!!!!!! they shared nicely and sat and ate their lunch side by side in their high chairs without incident! hurrah!

I sometimes sit here as I write this and wonder if anyone ever reads this blog....??? I know some of you do but I have only ever had two comments on this blog since its inception! One from a fellow adoptive mother whose daughter is also from Dianbai and one from a guy who thinks he knows our cleaner and would like to get in touch!!! If you are there --...echo echo echo!!! then please leave me a little note! True Brit reserve means that people do not like to do this sort of thing! I follow a number of other blogs mainly in the US and there is a whole community going ! So I would love to hear from you - I still need to work out how to use the country ticker thing and see how many visitors there are to the site...then that will out you! Otherwise I move to facebook and that is really too sad! ...............( OK I have a page because someone asked me to join - I did and then realised I only knew about ten people on the whole thing!!!! )

gardening .......

The chap that is buying our house is a geophysicist specialising in oil exploration - so West Norwood is his perfect choice for work!!!!...



anyway Rob is now obsessing about the world running out of oil...his latest worry ( he really should start a worry blog he could fill pages with stuff every day! currently builders and people ripping you off! ) is that we need to become more self sufficient!



So last weekend we took a trip to the house so I could see progress for myself! His father and I wandered around the garden and investigated the soil and looked at the sorry state of a veg patch where I am desperate to get in and prune the raspberry canes but keep forgetting which way round I need to prune the autumn canes and the summers ones, so keep backing off and will end up doing it late and then wonder why I have no fruit next year! So Rob is committed to digging and nurturing a veg patch which means hard slog... we shall see ..stay tuned !



Potatoes should be an easy one ....beans maybe...tomatoes in the summer in the greenhouse, someone in a playgroup yesterday said that she grew butternut squash and it was really easy ....so heh what wiht our chickens....who knows!!!!!!!!!!!



In an attempt to garden Rob's Dad and I pruned back the lavender ...looked much better when we had finished! sorry no photos completely forgot to do it ...

week 35 London...moving....and stolen details...

I love this hat - so does Nelly ( it came with a particularly horrid denim pinafore with embroidered flowers on it!!!!!! so not her, but as I keep saying there is only so long I can dress her in cute clothes before she is wearing a pink Barbie number! God forbid!!!)

Enjoying a Bambaccino ! it sent her crazy for half an hour with the chocolate on top!!!

Daddy and Nelly get active in a bit of an overgrown garden...

weekending London .........we will miss it

Nelly and I had a lovely few days last week, well the sun was shining and that makes a difference,( I am writing this on a wet Tuesday afternoon trying to make phone calls and do some work under a very grey sky! ) Last Thursday she played outside in the garden for most of the afternoon while I did some work and then Friday was another lovely day so we headed off on the train to London Bridge for the afternoon for a pootle around Borough Market and then wandered along to the Tate Mod for a quick jaunt around and then tea in the cafe on the top floor where Nelly could run around on the terrace to her hearts content and get in no-ones way ( that membership really pays off sometimes! ) She was looking particularly adorable last Friday and as we walked back to the train station she turned so many heads! See pictures of her in the strip outfit before we set out ....or maybe people were staring because she was looking so much like a zebra!

I will miss this ease of popping up to the West End when we move - I know that the train is only one hour into Marylebone so not too far to get a fix of Selfridges or a mooch down Marylebone High St of a Saturday afternoon but I think we will miss it .! Last Friday my friend and neighbour Hati came to playgroup telling me that she dreamt I went round to her house in tears because I hated the thought of moving to the country! She admitted that she had been reading an article in Red magazine about a woman who moved to the country and hated it! I assured her we would be fine!

Credit Card Security - who said that Chip and Pin was going to revolutionise the way we shop in terms of security.......I know more people that have had their cards cloned since its introduction than anything. And what really annoys me is the fact that leading high street retailers ahve now decided that the lowly chequebook is no longer acceptable in their stores...! Frankly after my experience last week I fell a whole load more comfortable writing out a cheque these days than I ever do inputting a PIN number.... Debit cards rant .....! last week I was alerted by my bank that my card had been used to take out money in Congo / Canada ( they could not tell from where! ) while I was trying to use it legitimately in London! my card details had been taken ! apparently it happens a lot in corner shops and petrol stations so I am now cardless and pinless until the dreaded postal service gets back to normal and I am not sending off the from with the old cut up card until I know there is a decent service up and running again...

I know this is meant to be a blog about Nelly but hey we have a new house and here are some pics of the splendid work that Mr N has been project managing with his hard hat on!!!! All week he has been managing my expectations saying it has not really changed since you saw it three weeks ago...well to be honest that was a mess with builders beds all over the place and tools in every corner and lots of dust and not many ceilings as you will recall from previous photos... no bathroom photos as these are empty and boring to look at two will be completed by the time we move in...
still the same outside
the lavender garden and annexe
the drive

This is obviously the most important room in the house - Rob's play / shrine room upstairs

This is Nelly's room only plastered today and there will be a new sash window going in there next week

This is the smallest bedroom in the house but a very cute little one at the front of the house above the front door - we ummed and ahed about making it Nelly's room but for now it will be a small guest room . All windows at the front of the house will have full length shutters split in two...

Our bedroom - those panels are the biggest deepest walk in wardrobes ever - the only thing that we have left that the previous owners had put in!

Window in the master bedroom

Main guest bedroom .....

View from the media room into the family room...This is the annexe part of the house with a bathroom and another guest room above this . We will probably spend most of our time in this room eating, watching TV etc

Utility room - that joins the main house to the annexe
French doors out of the family room into the lavender garden at the side of the house - the doors were previously a nasty orange pine colour!


View from utility room through into the family room and into the media room..( hate that name so I will call the whole room a family room! )
sorry repeated image !the banisters are up to the other guest room .

The media room ....those are all the cables for the plasma and home cinema etc! yikes I hope it all works when connected!

This was their dining room - although we will not use it as such and will be another reception room ..fireplace on order and will be fitted beginning December

Drawing Room - new fireplace to replace the monstrosity that was previously in there!
Kitchen - well not much change except the quarry tiles have been taken up to reveal another tiles floor below, obviously the reason for a little step up into the kitchen! Ikea units have been delivered so we are going basic white storage cupboards to start and then see where we get to...

Nelly and her Girls

We are going to miss them, miss our mornings each week, our shared rice cakes and biscuits, our shared music classes, watching their progress in classes, watching their personalities develop, watching them grow.....holding hands, running, exploring together....

Here are some pics from a recent families with children from China meeting in Croydon last weekend. The girls had a great time just like a party, sharing toys and food. Nelly did a little bit of pinching but on the whole she was good...well almost!


Nelly and Nina waiting for tea!

Molly, her big brother Ben and Nelly ....
Three little angels ....