Happy Christmas

Just like to wish all of our family and friends a very Happy Christmas and peaceful New Year. Hope we'll see you all soon in 2005! Love Andy, Ruth, Hannah & Thomas

A bit showery

Despite having written as long ago as July 19th that Hannah had started using her potty, there has been very little potty progress until the last few days. We decided to go all out with a major potty drive this weekend to see if we could slow down the speed with which the Cardiff land fill is overflowing with our families' nappies. Chocolate was the bribery tactic that we decided to use, but Hannah soon cottoned on to the fact that it was easy money. Sit on the potty, one drip = chocolate! Sit on the potty, another drip = chocolate! Once we realised that we were spending more money on chocolates than we had ever done on nappies, we decided to qualify our generosity with the rule of 'big wees only'! Hannah's doing pretty well now. If you do come and visit us in the next few weeks, then it may be an idea to keep your shoes on, but it looks like we're almost there...

Photo Update

It's taken a while to sort out all of the photos that we've taken over the last year or so. The main problem has been trying to find photos where Andy and Ruth look as if they've brushed their hair that day! Anyway, we've selected some of the best and have updated the Hurley Home photo gallery at www.hurleyhome.co.uk, so please wander over and have a look at some of the things we've been up to this year (and the last few years if you haven't seen our gallery before).

First day at Nursery

Hannah had her first day at Nursery today. She's going to the Lighthouse Nursery that's based at our local church / community centre, and she loves it!

We've tried to wrangle out of her exactly what she did while she was there, but she was in one of her "Just answer yes to all the questions and perhaps they'll stop asking me" moods, so it seems like she did painting, playing in sand, reading, drawing, playing in water, playing in the toy house, cycling and singing! Sounds like a busy afternoon!

Updated: I've finally got a copy of the obligatory photo of Hannah's first day, complete with nursery uniform and school bag...

Holiday

We've just spent a week in Center Parcs at Elveden Forest with Ruth's Mum & Dad, and Ruth's brother and sister-in-law and their two children.

I'm not completely sure that 'holiday' is the best word for it, as we got home more shattered than when we left! Four children under three in one villa / chalet / hut does not make for a quiet, peaceful time. We did have lots of fun, though!

Hannah and Chloe loved the swimming pool, and riding around on the back of bikes, while Thomas and Anya also enjoyed the swimming pool and all the attention that they were getting from everyone else. Thomas had his first ever swim, but found the water a bit cold for his liking! Hannah had her first ever go at a water slide - it took her a little while to get the hang of it, as most of the time she just ended up stuck in the middle of the slide and having to wriggle down, but once she started lying on her belly and sliding, nothing could stop her!

The photos below are of Hannah and Chloe sharing a chair, and Thomas with the shocked expression that a holiday with all the family can cause!

There's no arguing with them

A couple of days ago, the sun was beaming down outside and it looked like the start of a gorgeous day as the Hurley family wandered around the house getting things ready for breakfast. Until Hannah looked out of the window and earnestly said "It's a foggy day today". We knew where this had come from, as she is a big fan of the Winnie The Pooh video, where a foggy day leads to lots of adventure for Pooh and his friends. "It's not foggy! Look the sun is shining - it's a lovely day outside," we argued. Hannah nodded thoughtfully, and then replied "But it is a little bit foggy!" We'll cross 'weathergirl' off her list of possible careers when she's older.

Zzzzzz!

It seems like Thomas is really getting the hang of this sleeping thing. For a few nights this week he's managed to keep his eyes closed for 8 or 9 hours, which is fine with us. He usually goes to bed at about 8pm, so he's waking up for an early morning snack at about 4 or 5 o'clock. If he can just hold out for two hours more, then it would be almost human (and so would we in the morning!) And, not sure whether it's related or not, but he's started getting a lot more smiley now. For the last few weeks Ruth has been adamant that he's been smiling at her, but we all put it down to over-active imagination or lack of sleep. But, there have now been at least two other eyewitnesses, so it seems that Thomas is also getting the hang of cheeky grins.

We're going potty

Even though this will cause Hannah plenty of embarrassment in the future when she reads this entry, we've had huge excitement this last weekend when Hannah has successfully used her potty twice! Huge celebrations followed, and Hannah looked pretty pleased with herself. Her dolly is also spending a lot of time sitting on the potty now, but the dolly hasn't had any notable success yet! We're already planning a new extension to the house based on the money that we'll save from not having to buy so many nappies in the future!

RIP Charlie

After a long, and fun filled 13 years of life, our friend Charlie the cat is no more. He'd been doddery on his legs for a couple of weeks, but it got to the stage in the last few days where he could barely walk or eat. His brother Ebby is still going strong, and seems to be missing him - even if it's just because he can't eat Charlie's leftovers anymore! Our laps are a lot colder now.

Baby Snap

Don't worry, this blog entry is nothing to do with accidentally dropping children, but more to do with how much Thomas looks like his cousin James (which is the name of Janet and Mike's new baby). We went around to Nanny and Grumpy's house for dinner today (which is our usual Sunday feeding post!) and Janet and Mike took James along for his first ever roast dinner. It was all a bit of a squeeze with the one big family there, so Nanny and Grumpy are going to have to get working on building an extension now. Anyway, Thomas and James (whose names I keep mixing up, much to the despair of everyone else) both spent most of the time asleep and looking cute, and you can certainly see some similarities between the two. The photo below is of Thomas in Grumpy's arms and James in Auntie Ruth's arms. Aaahhh!

The Terrible Twosome

While all of the excitement with the new cousin was going on, Hannah was busy having lots of fun with her first ever cousin, Chloe! Tim, Abby, Chloe and Anya were down in Cardiff for the weekend, so Hannah and Chloe spent a lot of time together getting into mischief! It's impossible to say who the ringleader is, as they're both as crazy (and cute) as each other! I guess that it won't be long before Thomas and Anya are joining in the fun, too! And we'll invite the new "Cousin Thomas" (still no name, yet) along as well, just so that Thomas doesn't feel outnumbered by all the girls. I think I'll make sure that I'm out that day...

It's another baby!

Not ours this time, though! Congratulations to Janet & Mike on the excellent production of a brand new cousin for Thomas and Hannah. Master Thomas (that's his surname, not his first name!) arrived on the 28th June, weighing in at 6lbs 9 oz - so Thomas has got a friend to play with, and Hannah has got another person to boss around! Mike - make sure that you get lots of sleep tonight, because it'll be your last chance for a while!

Two is tiring

It's been two weeks and two days since Thomas arrived on the scene, and Ruth and I are just about getting into some kind of routine now. It basically involves sleeping as much as we can during the night, and then simply not stopping for a moment during the day! It's not out of choice, but it's all that Hannah and Thomas are letting us do! To be fair to both of them, they're being really good, and things could certainly be a lot worse(!), but juggling two young children is going to be a skill that we'll need to get the hang of fairly quickly! It seems that they've synchronised their 'attention needed' times, so that always one of them is in need of Mummy or Daddy at any one time. And there is often a fun couple of moments each day when they both want both of us at the same time! Life would be very dull without them!

Spot the difference

One of the biggest things we've noticed since Thomas arrived on the scene is how grown up Hannah is when compared to him. It's amazing how quickly children can change in just 2 years. Thomas is almost the splitting image of Hannah when she was his age (apart from some very obvious differences!), and yet it's hard to believe that Hannah used to be like that just 26 months ago!.

One thing that they both still have in common, though, is that they both have very ticklish feet!

Thomas Matthew

After what seems like months of deliberation, with comittee meeting after comittee meeting, and shortlist after shortlist, we've finally settled on a name for the 'Boy with no name'. Thomas Matthew Hurley is going to be the name that he's stuck with for the rest of his life - or at least until he's 18 and can choose a name for himself. He doesn't seem to mind it yet, and Hannah likes it, so that's half of the battle over! We're very impressed with Thomas' sleeping ability so far. Last night he was put into his Moses basket to sleep after a feed at about 11:30. He then slept solidly through until 4:30 in the morning, when he had another feed. He then slept solidly through until 8:30 when we all got up. If he keeps that up, then that promised rise in his pocket money will be his! It's not just nights that he's sleeping though - the weather has been so warm here in Cardiff today that he pretty much spent the whole of the day asleep, only waking up for food. That sounds like my kind of day...

It's all too quiet...

Ruth and 'The boy with no name' did come home from hospital as we hoped yesterday. The house, which had been looking like a building site, suddenly instead resembled a Pampers advert, with nappies, cotton wool and wet wipes everywhere that there was an empty piece of floor. All that Teeny seems to want to do at the moment is sleep and drink, which is fine with us. The only problem was that last night he didn't want to sleep anywhere except on his Daddy's lap (even though he had an incredibly comfortable looking, and inviting, Moses basket just sitting there waiting to be used). Daddy spent most of the night watching MTV and UK Gold, so he's wandering around in a daze today, but Teeny slept pretty much right through from 2 o'clock to 7:30, so if he can learn to do that in his Moses basket he'll get an instant rise in his pocket money! He's fast asleep right now as I type, and still looking handsome. The builders are back with us today, finishing off the driveway and stairs, so if he can sleep through that noise then it wasn't surprising that he slept through MTV.

It's a baby boy!

The important stuff: male, 6lb 8oz, born at 6:45am. The crazy stuff:

• Ruthie started getting painful contractions at about 4:00am, which is an obscene time of the day to be woken up. Maybe about 7 minutes apart.
• We made a phone call to the hospital, and they said exactly what we were expecting them to say - "Go and have a warm bath, and phone us back if they get more regular".
• Ruth made an executive decision and decided that this time the baby wasn't kidding, so we had the fun of waking Ruth's parents by telephoning them to ask them to come around and babysit Hannah while we went to the hospital. Unfortunately, we phoned their old telephone number first, and it rang three times before we realised, so our apologies to whoever it was in Witney who got woken up at 4:30 this morning!
• At about 6 o'clock, Ruth's parents were at our house, looking bleary eyed. We were heading for the car, also looking bleary eyed (but with a wild glint!). Contractions were about every 2-3 minutes.
• We got to the hospital at 6:23. The baby arrived at 6:45. This baby was not going to hang around for anyone. We're so glad that it wasn't rush hour, or we may have needed to have the car valeted tomorrow...
• There was a problem with the afterbirth not wanting to go anywhere, which meant that the doctors had to do a bit of extra work on Ruth, but it all went smoothly and mother and baby are doing really well, and hoping to come out of hospital tomorrow. Our huge thanks go to the staff and midwives at UWCM for their great work - we can't fault them!
• The baby still doesn't have a name, so any suggestions gratefully received! We know it's definitely a boy, because the first nappy change that he had also involved a mini fountain all over Ruth's hospital bed.

This one is going to be trouble...

It's Happening Again

Well, the false alarm yesterday gave us a chance to do a second coat of paint in the kitchen, and put a few sets of curtains and coat hooks up. Obviously Teeny didn't want to be born into a house that was looking such a mess! But now, the contractions are back, and this time they look like they mean business. I refuse to get too hyped up this time, as I want a good night's sleep...

False Alarm!

Despite only getting about 3 hours sleep last night, it looks like Teeny was just winding us up! We phoned the hospital at about 4:30am, and they told Ruth to just go and have a warm bath, and then to phone back if the contractions got any faster. One warm bath later, and everything stopped! Ruth managed to get back to sleep after that, but I was way too hyped up to sleep after that amount of excitement! It's going to be a long day...

Contraction update...

Every 10 minutes now! It could be a May birthday...

Towels at the ready?

We managed to finish one coat of paint in the kitchen yesterday, before completely flaking out. Kitchens have got to be the most awkward rooms ever to paint - we must have gone through about three rolls of masking tape! It's probably a good thing that we got some of the painting done, though, as there's a tremor of excitement running through our house at the moment. Well, a tremor of excitement running through Ruth's belly, actually! Ruth is experiencing 'mini' contractions every 15 minutes while I type. She's pretty sure that they're not the real thing, but we're still packing the bags just in case! Should make for an interesting Sunday evening...

Good News / Bad News

The good news is that the builders came yesterday, and fitted our new staircase and finished decorating. The extension is nearly there! The bad news this week, though, is that Ruth is currently slightly anaemic, which means we can't have the home birth that we were hoping for. Well, at least not this week, until the next blood test hopefully shows that her iron levels have gone up enough. So, we're currently stuffing Ruth fill of iron tablets, chocolate, orange juice and even broccoli! The next blood test is due on Thursday, so the midwifes will decide then whether they're happy about a home birth. It's bank holiday weekend, and the builders are pretty much finished, so we've got a huge list of things that we want to get done around the house - painting the kitchen, putting up curtain rails, coat hooks and towel rails, cutting the grass, creosoting the new part of the fence... I thought it was supposed to be a holiday!

15 days and counting

June 10th is the due date for Hannah's baby brother or sister, and it's currently a race against time for the building work to finish on our extension before the baby arrives! On the inside, we've reached the final decorating stage, but we've still got to have a new staircase fitted (latest date for that is May 28th...) On the outside, we need to have a new driveway laid, and then a bit of tidying up in the back garden to re-landscape the building site! It's all almost there - we just have to keep Ruth's legs crossed for a little while longer!

What's it all about?

You're looking at the weblog (or 'blog') for the Hurleys. It seemed like a good time to set up a website where you can get our latest news and photographs with just 2 and a bit weeks before the due date of our second baby. We'll try and keep this updated as often as we have something (relatively) interesting to write, but it would be great to hear back from you, too, so feel free to comment on this site as often as you want. P.S. For those who've come here by accident, we're nothing to do with Liz Hurley. As far as we know we're not even related to her!