Happy New Year!

Beatrice rang in the New Year with much fanfare. She was awake (and eating) around midnight. A very exciting start to the new year for her indeed!

I have been thinking a lot about this new year and how Zack and I will remember it. In the weeks before Beatrice was born I finally got all of our pictures from 2006 into photo albums - we have certainly been lots of places. In putting them together I realized we could measure the year almost entirely by Beatrice:

* January - Life before Beatrice...we rang in 2006 in California and then spent the month hanging out in London, planning lots of travel...

* February - still very happily NOT pregnant, visiting a friend in Budapest (here we are at the hot baths) and skiing with Trevor and Jason in Courmayeur, Italy

* March - Pregnant! A bit of a surprise, but a good one. We found out after I went to the U.S. for a week for work (and a night of line dancing with Linda and Heather)

* April - Lots of travel and "morning" sickness fun. We went to Barcelona for our anniversary, and to Slovenia and Croatia for Easter to visit with Andreja and Urban. We called Beatrice "flipper" then as we didn't yet know who/what she would be.

* May - South Africa and Namibia with John and Jasandra, followed by a visit from Mom and Dad (soon to be grandparents) in London, and rounded out the month with a trip to Michigan for Rick and Audry's wedding. Best of all we got our first view of Beatrice!

* June - We travelled to St Simons Island for a great week with Megan, Colby and Eleanor and all of my family. Everyone loved Eleanor! At the end of the month we moved to St John's Wood for the second bedroom and to prepare for Beatrice (our flat is the one with the turret!).

* July - We finally made it to Wimbledon and Berlin for Zack's birthday. And Beatrice was really starting to make herself known to the world - pushing out.

* August - I spent much of the spring and summer going back and forth to Paris on Eurostar for work, and Zack finally was able to join me for a long weekend. We went to Normandy and Mont San Michel for a nice weekend of touristing. Unfortunately Beatrice did not like the train...

* September - Another trip to France, this time to Lyon to visit with Glen at Herve and Michele's house. We got to meet Adrien, Alexis and Amy's new little one - & swim! They had a wonderful soft bed, perfect for someone 6 months pregnant! At the end of the month Kathie and Mom came to visit. We visited Bath and spent lots of quality time rubbing my belly! It was amazing to have them here to see me so big with Beatrice.

* October - No more travel for me (finally!), so we spent lots of time around London preparing for Beatrice and I started on my path to HUGENESS. Mary Ann visited us as well!

* November - Pretty much spent the entire month waiting and waiting and waiting...and continuing to defy gravity and GROW EVEN BIGGER. Then, finally, on the 27th of November, little Beatrice joined us!

* December - Beatrice, Beatrice, Beatrice and lots of friends and family. But you can see all those days on the previous posts!

Wow, it all seems so fast in retrospect (though I can assure you, it felt like I was pregnant FOREVER when it was happening). So what will 2007 bring? Not daily blog updates I'm afraid! Now that the grandparents have met little Beatrice, or will in the next few days, the updates are going to slow down to just a few a week (or month). Apologies to everyone who has been checking daily! I promise to include good, fun pictures of Beatrice as she grows.

Happy New Year!