Pip is not a kettle!

Whilst we thought we'd chosen a nice, simple name for our daughter, it appears that we've actually chosen one that nobody knows how to pronounce or spell.

My mum for reasons I still don't quite understand, thought her name was Aleffi. She even gave us a little keep sake box with this name engraved on it! Opps. I love it though.

Then last week I had a message on the answering machine from our Doctor's surgery and the nurse called her Alicia and then Alessi (the 'i' pronounced "eye"). Both names in the same message. I guess she was covering all bases! If anyone reading is still wondering, it's pronounced Ah-less-ee.

During her 6 week check up, our Doctor smiled when I told him her name and said "oh, like the Italian design company?" No. Not like the Italian design company.
The bloody Italian design company that I hadn't even realised existed until after she was born and someone asked us why we'd named our daughter after a kettle.

Actually, we named our daughter after this lovely lady.

Her name is of course, Alessi and as you can see from the picture at the top of this post, she's a singer going by the name Alessi's Ark. If you're curious you can listen to her music here. It's so beautiful.

When I was pregnant I used to play a few songs to Pip over and over again and Constellations was one of them. 

As it turns out, she is named after that Italian design company. At least if Wikipedia is to be believed anyway. Speaking of which, they've recently opened a store in town so Dan went in to check it out and guess what he found? A keyring called "Pip" - Pip being Alessi's nickname. I'm not even making this up, look..

We tried really hard to find a name that we both liked. One that was a little different, but wouldn't get her teased in the playground. 

Let's just hope the kids at school don't know about those kettles..

A trip back home

This weekend we visited the family in Wales. I was pretty nervous as I had no idea how Alessi would take such a long car journey and staying in unfamiliar environments. As it turned out, she couldn't have been less bothered by it all.

The first stop was my Mum's place. My Mum works really odd hours and this photo was taken at midnight, shortly after she came home. We eventually went to bed after 1am as poor Mum was looking pretty knackered, but despite this I still had to prise Alessi from her arms! It was really lovely to see how she was with her though and I managed to take a few sneaky shots with my phone when she wasn't looking!

Fritha over at Tigerlilly Quinn will appreciate this. After visiting mum we stopped off in Aber as Dan wanted to show Alessi the sea and 'kick the bar'.

I have no idea how or when this started, but kicking the bar is a bit of a local tradition. At the end of seafront there's quite literally, a bar and it's customary to kick it once you reach the end.
Of course we had to take photos of ourselves doing it. The tourists thought we were nuts.

Next up was my Dads. I'm totally kicking myself now as I didn't get any photos of him with Alessi. I'm hoping to visit again later this summer though so I'll make sure I get some then.
I did take loads of photos of the valley where he lives. It's the most beautiful place and I always come away from any visit there totally desperate to be surrounded by trees again. His house is the only one on that side of the river and there are only two ways to get to it. You either drive through the river, or if the river is too high, as it was, then you have to walk.

First we parked the car up the road and then crossed the little footbridge..

 ..the view from the footbridge..

Then we walked along the footpath

Until we got home!

This is the 'beach' and it's where Dan proposed to me. We go there almost every time we visit to skim stones. The picture at the top of this post is one such stone. He etched "D,K+A" on it before skimming it across the river.

The Kari-Me wrap being used for reals. I bloody love that thing!

I was really worried that Alessi would be wired the whole weekend and would spend most of her time crying. In fact she spent most of her weekend like this..

Unlike now. Clearly the Welsh air agreed with her! If that's not reason enough to go back very soon then I don't know what is.