Babies and books

I've been wanting to share some really special photos with you and today I have a good reason for it - apart from the fact that they're just so darn cute. Shane and Sarndra had some professional photos taken recently - a day in their life, and they said I could share them with you. This first photo of Alexander is part of that series, taken by photographer Hsu-Yin. I think you'll agree with me that they're charming and beautiful and from one who knows my family well, they have captured their truth. I invite you to look through the entire album on Hsu-Yin's blog.

This little red donkey that Alex has above is a Steiff animal I bought for Shane when he was a baby in Germany.

This photo of our little cutie pie Alex was taken by Sarndra to show an outfit that Aunty Benita sent from England. Alex is almost seven months now and he has seven teeth. :- )

And here is the gorgeous Jamie, all dressed up on Christmas morning on his way to visit Santa at the Neighbourhood Centre.

Jamie again discovering our floor for the first time on Christmas Eve. No doubt this is territory he will walk for many years to come.

POSTING THE BOOK

I had a lot of inquires yesterday about sending a signed copy of my book to all corners of the world. Thank you for your interest in it. Hanno spent quite a bit of time looking around as different options and gave me the rates when I came home last night. It's not good news - the book weighs over 1 kg (2.2lbs)  and the international postage is quite expensive, especially when you consider it is on top of the book price of $35.

New Zealand - $30.50

Asia-Pacific - $37.00

USA - Canada - Middle East - $43.25

The rest of the world - this takes in UK,  Europe and South Africa - $53.25

But there is some good news. If you go to the Fishpond au site, you'll find their postal rates. They're reasonable because they send out so many books and are much more attractive than the prices at our local PO. I am guessing that most of the online stores would have similar rates, but you'd have to check if you wanted to use a different store.

Of course, if you still want to go ahead with your international order, let me know and we'll add your name to our list, but I'm assuming that everyone of you will order online. One of the readers suggested I sign a name plate and I would be happy to do that. I'm sorry, I forget who mentioned it. If you buy a book online or in a book shop and you'd like me to write an inscription, just send me a letter with a stamped self-addressed, return envelope and I'll make up some name plates, inscribe one to you and send it back. Then you can paste it into your book. Our postal address is: Rhonda Hetzel, PO Box 249, Landsborough, 4550, Queensland, Australia.

So I'm keeping all the orders we got from Australian readers and over the next day, I'll be contacting all of you with our bank details.  I'm assuming all international orders are cancelled unless you contact me to tell me otherwise.

Please accept this as a response to your email - there are over a hundred emails just from yesterday and it would take me too long to reply personally to all of you. And if you did send an email, thank you so much for so many words of kindness. It was a real treat for me to read them all. I am very thankful I am part of this wonderfully supportive online community. I well and truly feel the love. Thank you.