It didn’t take long to realise that she obviously understands much more that we think. So I got her a ‘My first words’ book. It must have over 100 things in it, pictures of animals, people and objects with the words underneath. She’s had it about a week and she can identify probably 20 of those consistently. That’s with probably less than 10 mins per day reading through it. Although she has started forming some words, on the whole she’s not speaking but I do love that for most of the animals she recognises she can do the noises for them if I ask her (again, bright enough to know when I’m asking her to point and when I’m asking her to make the noise).

I’ve no idea where this puts her on average compared to other kids her age, but even if it’s not true I think she’s a little genius. Added to that she’s gorgeous, funny, active and affectionate, I really do count myself the luckiest Dad in the world.

So why a new account and not a rename? Well I guess I like to have a second personality. That’s not to say I don’t like who I am, or am ashamed of anything I am, far from it. But I often feel like the geek side of me yearns for other geeks, and I don’t really know any in real life. None that I have regular contact with anyway. So I just felt like ‘splitting’ my online life a bit, following and talking with like-minded internet folk on a separate account. Although real life family and friends are welcome to follow my new account it’s not for them that I’d be posting things. It’s for Me and people with similar interests. I may switch between the two accounts on more personal things or post on both I’m not sure yet.

For Christmas I got my wife a little book of promises I’ve made to her. I won’t list them (some may make you blush and/or vomit), but the general gist of it and the reason behind it was that with the arrival of Hannah, she has dominated our lives, so for 2010 I have promised to be a better husband, to focus more on ‘us time’. Hannah will always dominate our lives, and rightly so, but there’s no reason we can’t plan to do more couple-y things!

So they are my promises, and here are my ‘aims’. Things I aim for in 2010.

Work: Little and often. It is the habit of a lifetime that I shall never break, but I can try and make a dent into it. It has always been my nature to work on things last minute. I actually perform better under pressure. My job doesn’t help things. With school holidays never more than 7 weeks away at any time, the temptation to leave work until then is great. And of course, without fail, once those holidays do arrive I don’t want to do any work at all. However, if I just did about 30 minutes a day and perhaps more at the weekend, I’d probably easily keep up!

Gaming: I have already started to, but I need to try more things! I play WoW to death and miss out on some great indie games. I also have the terrible habit of buying a game and then not playing past the first couple of hours. I need to get round to doing those games! Mass Effect, Fallout 3 and Dragon Age stare at me with sad eyes from my shelf every time I fire up WoW.

Blogging: More of it. I like writing. I think I am good at writing. Not in the creative sense. I’d struggle to write a story. But I just like composing letters, emails, posts etc. Trying to perfect them. I also miss the glory days of being well known in certain online communities. Those were fun days, but those sites are now dead or dying, so I guess I miss the ‘audience’. I know few people in life with my interests, and I can count how many of those I actually see in person on one hand, and of those that I see more than once a year on one finger, so an outlet for my interests is needed, even if these words fall on blind eyes. Were things in life not as good as they are and I had never met Kat, if I hadn’t decided I want to be a teacher, the idea of being a games journalist/blogger (delete as appropriate to your snobbishness) is a fun one. A dangerous one, I don’t think I could live the freelance kind of life. But it’s fun to imagine what it would be like.  So I think I’ll post more on things that interest and outrage me and just pretend there is an audience.

Lottery: Seriously, I really need to get round to winning the jackpot. I need to stop buying these faulty tickets, they just don’t ever win.

That’s it really! So, imaginary audience, what are your promises and aims for 2010?

Well I really should get on with things!

So I have tidying to do which will be done by lunch. Then I should really do some OU work. As per usual, have done none at all during the holidays.

Overall pleased with the holidays (despite horrible man-flu for a week) but ready to go back to work. Cabin fever was setting in and that’s no good for anyone in the house. I know I get irritable and grumpy. The downside to having such a small and open plan house, and no friends locally. I can count on one hand the number of hours I’ve been apart from wife, child and dog for the past two weeks. Love them to bits but I do enjoy being on my own more than most I think.

I’ve found a new WP theme I like, but can’t remember my FTP details. Unfortunately stupid work network blocks access to the website CPanel so I can’t check it till I get home either.

So due to all the work I’ve been doing recently I’ve had little play time. WoW is calling to me. My copy of WOTLK arrived today. My character is 68 now so I can technically go to Northrend but I remember going to Outland at 58 and not really being prepared enough. Not only that, but I have only experienced 3 zones from BC so far and feel I’d be missing out as the BC content so far has been quite enjoyable. Plus I need to get all that gold still for a flying mount and the training that goes with that. In aid of this I’ve decided to use my lvl 20 warrior Moonrock as a banking character. I’ve kitted him out in a nice looking cloth outfit and positioned him in the very quiet city of Exodar. I am trying my luck with Auctioneer, finding bargains and selling them on for profit. I shall see how that pans out, it’s another activity along with fishing that I can easily do while holding Hannah, or if I just need a quick break from work.

Website wise I’ve changed the theme. I like the background but it makes everything too dull. I do want to play with it as I like the layout of this theme. I’ve also added a Twitter sidebar. My Tweets have been updating my Facebook status, but the two don’t really mesh well grammatically. Facebook really is for your status, Twitter is a little more flexible. So I shall split the two. I’m sure nobody reads this website anyway, I don’t publish it really. I might start adding a link to it and a Twitter box in my signature on various forums. 

Well I suppose I’d better get on with some work, it won’t do itself.

Oh before I go, I’d like to say Lost returns tomorrow night for a double bill. 

There’s no other word for it really than *SQUEEEEEEEE!!!*

In my defence I have been busy. Our baby finally arrived 13 days late on the 9th December. We named her Hannah. I have blogged about her but on her own blog. To summarise, she’s a perfect bundle of perfection

I shall endeavour to keep updating here throughout 2009.

In gaming news it’s pretty much all about WoW. Had fun the other night with a few guildies, killed Onyxia and got the “Leeeeeeeeroy!” achievement in some dungeon that I can’t remember the name of. Did both with holding Hannah too.

I have had to adapt my WoW playstyle to take her into consideration. Creating macros so I can click on actions that normally require both hands. Making sure party members know I may have to /follow them while I give her a feed. Oh and also fishing! I have taken this up recently and discovered it’s quite relaxing, and something that I can do with one hand. I have neglected my fishing/cooking skills so it’s been a good opportunity to get those up to scratch. 

That is all for now.

Well it took several trips to the tip (and a couple to the charity shop) to get rid of all the crap from the spare room and start putting together the nursery, which is now complete. It’s the first room that we’ve done just the two of us. Well, 99% of it we did, Kat’s Dad drilled 2 holes for us, but apart from that we painted it all and put together the furniture. It looks lovely, all we have to do now is wait for the baby!

So after two or three weeks of doing house jobs we had a couple of lazy weeks. It’s a shame we couldn’t really afford to go away, even for a weekend, but hey ho, it was a nice break anyway.

Back at work now. Took on a couple of extra responsibilities (web security and the Mac suite), which no doubt will bite me in the arse at some point. In a couple of weeks I’ll be doing 2 level 2 courses, baby in November and by Feb will be doing 2 additional courses. No pressure there then!

Overall life is still good (apart from a falling out with a certain somebody, won’t waste the e-ink talking about it though!)

Oh, finished The Dreaming Void last night. Good read. Like the first book I read of his though, it’s not a self contained story, it’s only part of the whole. Luckily the second part is out in a few weeks though, but the third will probably be another year after that. 

That’s all for now. 

It would have been better if I’d gone and posted directly after said events to go into detail but never mind. I’m actually working on getting up a website for the baby related stuff. I’m playing about with coding it myself but if I can’t cobble something together myself by November I’ll either go for WordPress or (if it’s a boy) I’ll use iWeb. Yeah not everyone in the world will want to know about our kid but it’ll be an easy way for Kat’s family especially to keep up to date with what’s going on without needing a Facebook account. I’ll try and be sensible with privacy though.

Work wise it is the last week this week, YAAAAAY! Finish on Thursday. I’ll be a little bit sad as I’ll be saying goodbye to my form group. They’ll still be there, but I’ve got a Y7 form next year. On the one hand I’ll miss my current lot, but on the other they’re becoming a pain in the arse, have been since Christmas. They’re all getting their rush of hormones and it’s really changed them. Still love them though.

Got back into WoW recently. Today I’ve re-rolled because several SCM folk (under the guise of Velocity Gaming) have started up. It’s nice actually as I’ve known a few of these people for years via the SCM forum. Perhaps I’ll manage to get a character past lvl 42 this time!

Plans for the summer hols are basically to get the house ready for the baby. Within the first couple of weeks actually we expect to have decorated the nursery and at least bought a pram, if not the whole shebang.

Anyway, I should perhaps go to bed now. 

For those that don’t see anything, on the left side you can see the two eye sockets forming, and it’s hard to make out but there is a nose and mouth forming too. Yes, it does look like an alien at the moment, but I’m assured that it won’t be born that way.

I wish I had gone to see the scan. I suppose the reason I didn’t was that with the previous pregnancy (which sadly ended at 11 weeks), we had a scan at 6 weeks and you really couldn’t see anything but a tiny blob. In my head I didn’t really think it through that this would be another 6 weeks older, and it’s amazing how much of a difference that makes in the early stages. So I thought I won’t bother to see it, I’ll just go to the next one. Which of course I will!

We have both been on tender hooks for the last couple of months. They say the first 12 weeks are the most dangerous and where most miscarriages occur. So now we are relatively safe we have decided to let it be public knowledge, though most good friends and family already knew. 

So the due date is November 26th. I am crossing everything I can hoping that the rest of the pregnancy goes well, and above all else that the baby is born with perfect health. That is the thing I think I worry about the most, that it will be born with some kind of disability. I know that we would cope regardless, but above everything else in my life I want our child to be healthy.

On a final note, we had pretty much picked names before we even started trying to conceive (which was 14/02/07. I remember well because it was Valentines day, and it was three days before our wedding) For a girl, Hannah and for a boy, William. I picked Hannah because there is a girl in my form group who is very intelligent, talented and full of personality which is just how I’d like a girl to be. We initially joked about Will, because a work friend had a girl called Grace, and we thought it would be funny to have “Will and Grace”. Then we said that actually, we really like the name. Of course things could change, although I like William, I am not as attached to it as I am with Hannah. 

Anyway that’s enough on that for now.

So far I’ve just set up my profile and done a few exercises. I came in at just over the line for average and into overweight, which is what I expected. Ever since I moved closer to work and no longer needed to use my bike, I lost my only real form of exercise, and started to put on the weight.

So I have set my target to lose a stone in three months. I shall see how it all goes!