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