Sugar and spice and all things nice...

...That's what little girls are made of!

It's a girl!

There’s no other way to start this update other than with the biggest news of the past week.

Our cute little alien

I never realized I'd be this excited about there being a new lady in my life! I had the chance to go to my first ultrasound appointment last Tuesday where we got to find out the flavor baby we are having. Before the appointment, we had run an online poll to see what our friends thought the gender would be. Here in Washington DC, elections are a big deal, so it’s no surprise that our little one adhered to the voice of the people and turned out to be girl. Ever the showoff, she even managed to give us a little wave during the ultrasound session.

Baking while beautiful, barefoot & pregnant

The baby has reached 20 weeks – the half way mark - and is now the length of a banana. Her mother has just gone past that “Has Erin picked up weight?” phase and is now in the “I think Erin might be pregnant, but I’m too embarrassed to ask in case she’s not” stage. That said the bump, is still kinda little and she has only just purchased her first maternity clothes. One plus has seen the return of energy levels. This was particularly helpful given that my birthday party went on till 2:30 in the morning. Pregnant she may be, she remains an amazing hostess (she even baked three cakes for my birthday!).

As mentioned above the other big event last week was me turning a year older. The baby has of course meant that events like my birthday have declined in significance and even though she is still a few months away from introducing herself to the world, she is already the star attraction in the Golding household. She even has her own gifts already (thank you to Linden and Nishi). While I may have turned a year older, it appears that I may not be doing too well in the "getting wiser" department. The day following my whiskey tasting birthday party, I was once again reminded that I am well past the age where I can play hockey with a hangover. As they say in South Africa: Jy wil mos!

Whiskey: putting the "Happy" into Happy Birthday for centuries

In other news the universe has conspired to reconnect us with one of my mother's former work colleague from her days at  BP. The last time I saw Tebe Seretse I was 7 years old when she used to call me "Big Al". But in truth it is her that is the real "big" person after all these years, as she has gone from "Aunty Tebe" to Her Excellency, Ambassador Seretse. My mother's old friend is now Botswana's Ambassador to the USA. We had a chance to have lunch with her and once again got reminded how lucky we are to have friends who are like family. It turns out that she may be even more excited than anyone else about the arrival of "her granddaughter" and has told my mother not worry because she will be at the hospital when that baby arrives!

We are taking something of an early babymoon this week as we head down to the Dominican Republic for our good friends, Lillilan and Cristobal's wedding. This is a much needed trip because spring weather has once again deserted the Nation's Capital. Even the cats are cold - they are putting aside their sibling differences to share their cat bed at night in an effort to keep warm.

Finally, a thank you to all who reached out to check in on us in the aftermath of the events in Boston last week. People from all over sent us notes, especially concerned about Leslie, my sister-in-law who lives in Beantown. She, along with all of other friends, are all doing fine as the city continues to move forward.

Hope you are well,
aL

Skip the mockingbird and give me the diamond ring

Sunrise picnic at the Tidal Basin to see the Cherry Blossoms

As mentioned before I have very little expertise when it comes to babies. I pretty much know where the food goes in (and where it goes out) and that they don't really bounce. As I was doing my research on all things babies, I came to realize I don't really know the words to too many lullabies. I think this may be an important piece of knowledge given that I anticipate that helping the little one fall asleep will be one of my chief tasks (that and cleaning up where the food comes out).

Rather than making up my own words or just humming, last week I memorized all the words to Hush little baby. Everyone knows that the baby shouldn't say a word cos Papa's gonna by you a mockingbird; but few people know that if that cart and bull tip over, Papa's gonna by you a dog named Rover.

Don't tell Tonic that March madness is over

This past week made me realize that there is a good chance that this child of ours is going to be born a joller. Despite being pregnant Mrs G and I went to two concerts - David Guetta on Saturday and then Maroon 5 on a school night. Pregnancy or not, Erin Golding still showed off that she has the moves like Jagger. So much so, that she (as always) got hit on by some sketchy boys while at David Guetta. We have an ultrasound coming up this week and I wouldn't be surprised if the little one is tapping its foot.

If all goes to plan, next week's ultrasound will also be the time that we get to find out what flavor baby we are having. I encourage you to vote here http://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/mkxtb on whether you think its a boy or a girl. Click on the link, if for no reason, you'll get to see pics and judge who was cuter as a kid between Erin and myself. 

If you look closely, you'll see
the beginning of the bump.

This past week saw the passing of Margaret Thatcher. The press reports have contained both praise and vitriol; even an article in the New Yorker debunking that she invented soft serve ice cream. However, one story that hasn't gotten any press is how she once had the good fortune to meet me. Even more remarkable was that I was wearing a Santa Claus outfit when it all happened. I bet you think she's even cooler now than before!

Finally, so much for fruit salad? Babycenter says the little one is now the size of turnip. I had a hard enough time predicting fruit, predicting veggies is simply impossible.

Be sure to leave comments below and I have now added a subscription gadget on the blog. Just drop your email in their and follow the instructions and you will get an email notification each time there's an update on the blog.

Cheers
aL

Mobile Blogging...

So this me blogging FROM MY PHONE!

I'm too cool for school. If I'd known it was this easy to get my thoughts on to the internets I woulda did this ages ago.

The sun is in Aries and so many good things are afoot and my birthday is around the corner. One place the sun is not is Washington DC. We have been keeping up with some spring cleaning except while we've been doing the cleaning no-one brought the spring. It snowed on Sunday and Monday. Proper snow. Not DC snow day snow.

Weird thing about mobile blogging is that it's hard to tell how much you've written.

In other news, our beloved car Snowball Fierce has been traded in and we are now proud owners of a Nissan Rogue. Two door cars don't work so well with car seats so it prompted a change. This is a big deal because I married the only American girl who loves driving a manual car. I'm super excited about driving an automatic again and given how bad I am at parking, having a car with a rear view camera is a massive bonus.  The car is yet to be named but I have bought some Carolina licence plate holders to give it some additional swag.

Easter has now come and gone. The Easter bunny was good to Erin and I and dropped off a couple of Lindt chocolate bunnies. Little did I know that one of them was for the cat.

The baby is now the size of an avocado. I'll be honest I didn't guess that fruit.

More news to come
aL

PS Be sure to leave comment below

Erin and the new chariot

Look what the Easter furball left for me