Little girl

And now its almost June. How bizarre. It really seems that time is hurtling by, and 2009 is disappearing far too quickly. We are getting quite excited as it looks like we will be in North Carolina in September for at least 9 months (possibly 11)....so its going to be a summer of packing and clearing everything out of this flat before heading on over. I will be taking a research sabbatical funded by my Bial research grant - which buys me out of my teaching duties and other on site duties at Hope.....by paying for someone else to be in my shoes for a while. We are waiting to have final approval from the Hope powers that be...just keep fingers crossed. The idea has been approved by head of department and dean...so it *should* be real. I just want to know for sure before I really feel it is real. We hope to live in North Carolina and I would base myself partly at UVA in Charlottesville and partly at the RRC in Durham. [thus necessitating a desperate need to finally learn to drive!!!].
In the mean time, our little baby is a little girl. She has long curly hair, and a cheeky smile. She is a big livewire who just loves people. Very chatty and happy and full of cuddles and kisses (and eskimo kisses - taught to her by Ms Charmaine Noyes this bank holiday weekend - it is very cute!). She is now getting into nursery. She goes two mornings a week, thus allowing Mr Moore to have two mornings a week to himself and focus on his writing. Said nursery is just around the corner from our house, so very convenient indeedy.
We have just had a lovely bank holiday weekend. Well, one and a half days of sun out of 3 is not half bad for the north west of England. Charmaine came up to visit. We had lots of lovely food and a picnic and beach visitation...sienna was in her element swimming in the sand and running around by the sea. She was not too sure about putting her toes into the cold sea, but the sand definitely had her seal of approval and it was hard to remove her from the beach at the end of the afternoon (when everyone and his aunt had descended beachwards - British people are amusing sun suckers when it does appear, and there were lots of red faces around today post bank holiday). Charmaine and I managed to down a few vodkas one evening and head to Lark lane for a mini adventure, but were not quite brave enough to go to town....lovely to see her. We are planning a girlie get together for later in the summer as I want to try to see people properly before I go.
I am (as ever) supposed to be working at the moment, so had better sign off. Steve and I are going to watch Driving Miss Daisy this evening, so only 30 mins left of possible school work now for me!