All is OK and we are enjoying being a bigger family. As mentioned it does seem easier the 2nd time round.

I love the fact that we had a little girl and my mate said that we now have a Gentlemens family of a Boy and Girl. Not heard that saying but I like it.

I have been sipping Honey Dew by Fullers this week and if you like a beer I really recommend it. I get it from Waitrose and not bad value at £1.85 or something.

Take care and I will post some pictures over the weekend,

Back to the guitar

My Gibson SG
Recently I have been getting nearly all my blogging fixes from the Croydon Chronicles written by the very funny Istvanski , whilst on his site I got listening to a youtube video of a couple of quite talented girls (although I did think the older one was a boy for a while) playing guitar and singing. I then surfed round youtube at guitar videos and it got me thinking wouldn't it be good to play guitar and then I thought.... You know what I am meant to be able to play a couple of chords and spent a shed load of money a few years ago on a SG so I dusted it off, still needs a good clean !, tuned it up by plugging it into a tuner as I'm tone deaf and banged out a couple of chords and I mean only a few. Think it was Em, D, C, C that I used in my little "play". Still not plugged in the amp though ! I might run it through my laptop later as the amp is in the bedroom and there is a baby Skye in there so cant get it.

I also went out and bought Total Guitar in my new found eagerness to learn the guitar and will have a read through that and see if there is anything easy I can try. They do have Feeders Forget about tomorrow tabbed and Feeder are a real favorite of mine so I might have a look at that.

Skye one week on

Skye Lilly at one week

Well here we are over a week into having Skye with us and all is good !

Faye is feeding her lots and lots as she always wants feeding, Faye is a bit shattered by all the feeding but all in all we are coping loads better then with Max.

Skye's weight is already back to her birth weight and that is a great sign.

So why is it all so much easier this time? Well I think there are a few reasons:
1) Fayes labour was a lot shorter.
2) We have had more time to establish our lives with her.
3) We have a bigger house.
4) Been there and done it !!

1 - Rather then starting at lunchtime on the 29th and Max arriving just before midnight on the 30th involving a couple of trips to the hospital and lots of stress and no sleep, Faye had a twinge in the morning and 4pm felt strong contractions and when we arrived at the hospital, about 17.30, she was already 9cm dilated ! Skye Lilly arrived into the world at 20.20.

2 - rather then having everyone round straight away we have basically set our own times and not had anyone round until we was ready for people.

3 - a 2 up and 2 down full of people is no fun whereas a 3 bed house with lounge and diner has enough space for everyone.

4 - Yeah a strange one but simple things like dressing her is quicker, with Max we was both so worried about hurting him we would hardly bend his arms and it would take ages to get ready whereas with Skye we just get on with it and it is done really quick.

She had her first bath today and even that was quite easy :-) I sat there with the new camcorder so was a breeze for me :-)

We have decided that she will be Skye Lilly and no middle name but known as Skye for day to day. Thanks everyone.

On the camcorder front I bought the JVC GZ-MG175 and it is a HDD model and well after a bit more research it is not as Mac friendly as I hoped as the USB is not seen by iMovie HD but is by iMovie 08. iMovie 08 is slated and a reason why I have not bothered with iLife08. To get round it I had to use mpeg streamclip with a Quicktime add in then save as DV format BUT have since worked out that I can just connect the DV cable / firewire from my older DV camcorder to the dock and play it and to see the clip in iMovie and import it. I'm still playing and getting there with it now so will hopefully have something to show you soon. It seems as though JVC sorted it by adding a DV output to the dock on my model.

The Simmonds' PART 2

Max has been really really good with Skye and as you can see from the following shot he loves Baby Skye very much.



What do you think we should do with Skye's name, Skye Lilly as a first name OR Skye and Lilly as a second name?

Thanks for the messages,
James, Faye, Max and Skye Lilly

Just off to collect...

Image "borrowed" from www.krittercards.com

A camcorder and a BABY GIRL, hooray Faye gave birth last night to a daughter and we have names her Skye Lilly. She was born without any complications at 20.20 last night and weighed in at 7lb 15 and a bit. She is shorter then Max so a bit chubbier. As births go she was a lot easier then Max and Faye did really really well and had no pain relief.

The camcorder has also arrived so I will collect that just before I collect the "girls"

I will post up a photo a bit later.
James

Still Waiting...

Well today is the day that our 2nd baby is due. Faye has gone out for a walk with Max and her mum to try and hurry things along while I popped out to the greatest electrical shop there is... Comet, Yeah I work for them but they do have some great deals and the layout of the shop in Hemel is so much better then the Currys on the same site. I went in Currys and it was terrible for a new refitted shop.

We have puchased a new camcorder because the one we have, a Sony DCR TRV20E, a great camcorder and the spec is still really good but it is a bit "Large" nowadays.

We have had to wait for the price to drop on the smaller ones to get a mega pixel camcorder for the sort of price we wanted to pay. They have always been over £300 but Comet have the JVC GZ-MG175EK at a great price of £249.99 can not argue with that and once I added my discount (I get a couple of 20% voucher once a year) I ended up paying £199. Collect it Wednesday although it might be in on Monday so I will have to wait before using.

Hopefully will be filming the new baby for you all to see.........