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After a fantastic Christmas in England January went very slowly and then February rushed by!  Now we're at the beginning of March and there is still snow on the ground but we're hoping that spring will come soon!  We are looking forward to spending some time out in the garden and in the park.  Jessica had her first swing last weekend and loved it!

Christmas in England was lovely and Laila and Jessica made it very special.  They both had so many presents that they opened them over two days!  We spent most of the time with family and only caught up with a few friends, there was a lot of illness about!  We had a very traditional family Christmas Day and then a nice walk along the beach on Boxing Day with coffee in the seafront cafe! We also spent a night with Helen, Lewis and family before a very early drive to the airport!  New Year's Eve was also quiet, just the three of us.  Thomas, Jutta, Hanna and Daniel visited for New Year's coffee and cake.

We have had a quiet start to 2009.  Michael has been working long hours and Catherine and Jessica have started going to the baby groups again.  We have added family swimming sessions to the calendar and Jessica enjoys baby music as well as the English and German playgroups. We have made lots of new friends, Jessica enjoys being with people, especially children.

Jessica is already nine and a half months old and a lot of fun to be with.  She enjoys her food and eats almost everything we have given her, to date she is not so impressed with spinach but loves avocado!  She moved into her own room at the beginning of the year and we have all slept a lot better since! She sometimes manages to sleep through the night but not on a regular basis!  She now has four teeth, the top two appeared this week, is crawling, sitting up and very proud of the fact that she can clap!  She loves swimming lessons and splashes everyone in sight!  She likes to be on the move and loves the baby bouncer that we have bought her.

Our 'night life' is non existent at the moment, we now do brunch with friends instead!  It was lovely to catch up with Sean and Steph when they were over from England for for the weekend.  We've also been over to visit Thomas, Jutta, Hanna and Daniel and when they visited last weekend we cooked them a traditional roast lunch with crumble for desert :o) 

We're looking forward to a visit from Anne and Mark and family at Easter and then hoping to catch up with a lot of the family on holiday in the north of England.