A week at home, then back to normal

Our week at home when I got to pretend I was a stay at home mum was just fantastic. We met up with other mums and babies for tea and chatting, and swimming, and went to toddlers group, had long walks, spent lots of time rolling around the floor.. just generally having fun. Having more time meant that I could spend ages giving Owen his lunch, and let him feed himself a lot more. I usually give him a couple of spoonfuls, but now I let him loose on the bowl when he was nearly done. Lots of mess, but he really enjoyed it!

It was a shame it was just a week, then I was back at work and we all got back into our old routines. Owen was delighted to be back at nursery, upsetting his Dad by nearly leaping out of his arms in his rush to see the nursery girls. We take this as a good sign, though, it is nice to know he is happy during the afternoons, especially since he will be spending more time at the nursery with Dad's new job.

Owen isn't doing very much new. Still hasn't figured out crawling. If he is lying on him tummy and you put a toy out of his reach, he knows he should be able to crawl, and pats the ground with his hands, and can't understand why he is not moving. I think the other babies must make it look too easy.

He is still loving walking around, but only if he has two hands to hold on to. He still freezes still if you drop one of his hands. And turns his head to give you a dirty look for doing it.

He is learning to use his pincer grip, with the help of raisins and sultanas. He only started when he came back from Spain, and Austin was having some, and he is really good already. He just needs the right motivation to learn - if it is food, he is really good at it! He can use his cup now, too, he took his own drink the other day, for the first time. (He usually just picks up the cup and chews the spout).

He is making a lot more noise than he used to though, sometimes he'll shout for 5 whole minutes, mostly at his rubber duck, a favourite toy at the moment. He really laughs when you squeak it, I don't know why he thinks it is so funny.

Another game that makes him laugh is paying with my crocs. If he is on the floor in front of me, he will poke his fingers through the holes to tickle my feet and make me laugh. We spent about half an hour doing that the other day.

He was very amused today as well, we had some friends around with their Nintendo Wii, and we all jumped up and moved around and made a lot of noise. He didn't know what we were doing, but he did think we were performing for him. He did try to stay awake all day, but we had to put him in his cot when he got so tired he couldn't keep his eyes open.

He still gets nappy off time after tea in his baby gym. That has been our best baby buy. It cost us £5 from ebay, and we have used it pretty much every day since we got him home. We even took it to Spain with us. Here is a picture of him in it, where he is showing off his 50p shirt. His Di bought it for him from Sainbury's, where it was on sale because no one else would put their boy in a flowery shirt. We have no qualms about it though, in fact I think it really suits him. Gran bought him the trousers, along with tons of other things, despite saying lots of times that 'this is it, no more'. She is as bad as Grandma is with toys, but Owen is not complaining!

He was very pleased this week because Michaela is back from Australia, in fact we were all happy to see her family back home. Owen and Michaela have perfected the art of playing beside each other, without paying any attention to each other, except to occasionally swipe a toy or pull some hair. It is nice to be back to normal.

At Auntie Carol Ann's

After we got back from Spain, we had a couple of days before we flew home. We spent the time at Auntie Carol Ann's. Owen particularly enjoys spening time with big cousin Toby. Here we are paddling in the water at North Berwick beach, where the weather wasn't as warm as in Spain, but we made the effort!

Of course, he was also pleased to spend time with the rest of the family, and here he is enjoying some afternoon milk with little cousin Austin, helped out by Gran and Di.

We had a busy time in the couple of days we were there - a walk to the beach and town on Saturday, then Church, family day at the horse races and off to Mum's Auntie Mag's house for the night before we went home. We were so busy we forgot to take photos! Everyone was very nice to squeeze us in to their houses, hopefully next time we go Gran and Di will have a house to live in!

Fun in Spain

Owen really enjoyed his week at Grandma's house in Spain. He liked his Grandma very much, and was very well spoiled in return. He got to get up in the morning at whatever time he wanted, and he even got to get up and play and have a snack at 4am. He doesn't get that kind of treatment at home! He also was fascinated by Grandad John, and loved chasing Esme and Pepe the cats. He never caught them, but spent many a happy hour holding on to someone's hands and trying to run after them. The cats kept the game going by running off whenever he got near. Here he is in the garden, doing a bit of cat chasing. It was on Thursday or Friday when the weather was slightly cooler.

The area was lovely, and the weather very good for most of the week. The town and the seafront were nice, here we are out for a walk along the pier. It was breezy, which was nice, as anything above 20 degrees is too hot for us Shetlanders!

Owen spent quality time with grandma, while mum and dad went to the big supermarket (one of our favourite things, which we miss about 'South'), or the local markets. There we had to fight with our elbows to avoid being crushed in the crowds, but had fun and found a few bargains. If we had more money, we could have spent a fortune on tons of things for two or three Euros each. We went for lots of walks, as Owen needed a lot of sleep because he had a bad cough and cold, and we eventually realised we were doping him up with the medicine we got. We went to a great park not far from the house, and Owen liked the Spanish swings as much as he liked to local ones!

So we all had a good time, and are all glad that Grandma is booked to visit another couple of times this year. We hope to go back to Spain next year. We are going to save up and learn some spanish for next time, because we felt a bit ignorant and ended up in burger king asking for a 'double whopper, por favor', which isn't really experiencing the culture!

egg-citing time!

Well, it has been a week today since Owen had a major allergic reaction to his scrambled eggs. He took a day to recover, his mum took a little bit longer! At least when we went to the hospital to check him over, it wasn't the same nurse that we had for Dad's asthma, severe sunburn, broken ankle, and Mum's mastitis... A & E was our second home for a while, hopefully it will be another few months at least before we find ourselves back there. I did try to take a photo of Owen's rash before we went, but the camera batteries and card were out of the camera and I wasn't in a fit state to go looking for them.

I did take a photo of him on his very first trip to play at the park, on Sunday. He loved the swing, which surprised me, because if you move his high chair over an inch he just about has a heart attack! He didn't like the little shaky animal thing, and there were big kids on the train, so we mostly played on the swing. We will try the roundabout next time. The park is only across the road, so I'm sure we will be spending plenty of time there during summer.

During the week Owen had his last swimming lesson with Dad, but Dad was working at the weekend. Mum and Owen had a nice time together though, with swimming and lunch out and watching Michaela's mum play in intercounty volleyball on Saturday, and church and the park and general playing on Sunday.

On Monday, he said goodbye to Michaela at the airport, she is off 'down under' for 3 weeks, and he will miss her a lot. They were both interested in the fish which live on Dad's desk.

Nothing much else has happened lately, he is still rolling around and wondering how to crawl at his nappy off time in the evening, but he hasn't got remotely close yet. Before she left, Michaela's mum kindly sent some photos of him at their house a few weeks ago. He loved spending time in a box, playing with the ball. We tried to speak to him and entertain him, but he wasn't interested, he just wanted to sit quietly in his box. If only he was like that a bit more often!

We are off on holiday ourselves, so might not post for the next couple of weeks.

Welcome to the blog..

We thought it would be good for Owen to copy michaela and start a blog. We meant to do it ages ago, but have been pretty busy. (Our excuse for everything, I know). Here's a rundown on what we have all been up to lately. We had some nice weather a couple of weeks ago, and took him for a walk on the beach, but he wasn't too impressed.




He was a bit more cheerful than he looks in this picture, but it was pretty cold and he stayed in the buggy.
At home at the moment, his favourite toy is his 'bouncing baby play place' which was a gift from Grandma when she came to visit last. Here he is enjoying it. For a contrast, I've put underneath a picture of him exploring the old fashioned version at gran's old house - some toys in the wash basket. Never did me any harm!



The big news at the moment is that he has finally got some teeth, after 5 months of having teething symptoms. (He also takes a long time getting around to things - it must be hereditary.)
I will include a picture of his very first teeth brushing, which was tonight. He loved it - not only did we show him something which looked fun to chew, we put it in his mouth for him - he thought it was the best game. Shame it woke him up just before bedtime!



Owen was babysat all day on saturday, which meant mum and dad could have a nice lunch, start the spring cleaning and paint one of the hallways. Everyone liked this arrangement, even Owen and his babysitter! Yesterday, we celebrated Mother's day which was great, although I think it should maybe come once a week instead of once a year!