29/01/2012 by stupidgirl_no1.

Last year I did this same idea and reading back over it now its a lovely overview of the year, although I seem to remember it took me ages to do!  So, the rules - 10 photos from 2011 that I took with no more than 2 of a certain young man who I apparently go on about a bit too much!

Well, I’ve just spent…forever…looking through my photos and trying to pick the right 10.  It’s not easy.  I have managed to pick 10 with which I can demonstrate, explain and summarise my 2011.  However Owen is in 4 of them, I am justifying this by the fact that only 1 of the 4 is a photo of Owen, the other 3 he is just a small part of a photo.  So there.  They are my rules, so I’ll bend them if I want to.

Without further ado, please scroll down for My 2011 in 10 Photos.  This year I present them in chronological order.

Photo 1: my beloved Jaffne and a gorgeous rainbow (and that bloke Ahlun who she was hanging around with).  I had various trips south to see Jaffne and we had much fun together as usual.  This lovely day we went for a walk over to Crammond Island and we were just so lucky with the weather - a common theme this year, often had very good luck with lovely weather it must be said.  We went beach combing, ate ice cream and saw many pretty sights.

Photo 2: the Robertsons and trains.  Unfortunately baby Maya isn’t in this photo, although she was in Nicole’s belly at the time!  Anyway at Easter we took Lucas and Owen to ride on Thomas the Steam Engine at Brechin.  Owen is quite train obsessed and I hope in the future he will appreciate the awesomeness of his first ever train journey being in a steam train.  It was a hard call as to who enjoyed themselves most that day it must be said - the train was pretty cool!  We spent many happy days playing with Ray, Nicole, Lucas and, since October, Maya. 

Photo 3: Royal Wedding in my work’s library.  I love my library, so much so I talked myself into working on the extra public holiday this year.  Well, I say “work” but our social events are often enjoyable and this was just one of the ones I really enjoyed.  It would be rude to complain about drinking champagne and eating cupcakes at 10am wearing a pretty dress and tiara and watching a wedding with most of the rest of the country (or was that world?!).  It was lovely to share the day with other people who were excited about the wedding, reminded me of when Charles and Diane got married and I watched it with the ladies who worked at the hotel my parents were employed by at the time.

My job was great in 2011, got lots done, got to know some of members much better, had some great events (chocolate tasting, cheese tasting, trip to Pitlochry to see My Fair Lady, farm trip when I got to sit in a John Deere tractor, a BBQ, walking tours of Aberdeen, a quiz, Stuart MacBride author event and, many lunches and dinners.)  Then in November the Society gained its first ever Lady President, this means I have a lady boss - a very keen, enthusiastic lady who is doing great things - and gave me an excuse to wear an Ann Summers outfit to work!  Click the events link above and scroll down to the bottom to see photos!! 

Oh yes, 2011 - the year the doctor told me I had to watch my weight didn’t go any lower - my dream!  I am now a size 10 and most of my clothes hang off me.  Totally awesome.  Obviously I haven’t taken photos of myself really so am cheating mentioning this as its on a link rather than in one of my 10 photos!  But it is important enough to be mentioned, goodness I’ve hated my body most of my life, never realised that the result of childbirth would be that I finally get the figure I’ve always dreamed of!  Anyway, back to the 10 photos.

Photo 4: my folks, their chickens, eggs and Creagan.  My parents got chickens at their restaurant this year, Owen is now really quite obsessed with chickens and eggs.  Ask him what he wants for dinner and the answer is usually “egg”.  He loves going to visit my parents, or just their house and chickens as we did when they were on holiday and we were in charge of the chickens!

One of our visits was for my Dad turning 60, I now have OAP parents - crickey!  For his special occasion we all went to Blair Drummond Safari Park-and we all had an ace time!  I couldn’t believe both my parents thought it was the first time they had seen live meerkats, poor deprived folk.

The scary thing is that at the end of the year my parents sent out a letter to their regulars and family to say that they would be putting Creagan on the market in 2012.  I had, of course, known for a while this was on the cards.  Indeed I have been told I need to move all my stuff out.  This is quite a mission as I still have loads of stuff there.  Obviously I’ve lived without it for a while though but things like my Wade pottery collection, postcard collection and rocking horse are essential - I just don’t know where to put them!  Luckily the property market is an unknown quantity in that it could take 2 weeks or 2 years for Creagan to sell, so I’m not panicking yet.  For those that know my parents, they hope to buy a B&B or place with self catering in Scotland.  They won’t fully retire but need to tone it down a bit as…well, they aren’t getting any younger bless them.  Big news but could take a while before anything happens.

Photo 5: Summer holiday in Carnoustie.  Yes, this is Scotland in the sunny picture.  Bryan and I hadn’t been on holiday together since our honeymoon in 2003 so decided it was about time we did!  I was given the choice of the whole world and told to “just book something” and we ended up self catering in the every exotic Carnoustie.  We had a fabulous time though and traveling with a wee lad it was the best way, just a wee car journey and we could take as much paraphernalia as we needed.  I love my 2 lads and it was amazing to have a week just the 3 of us with no other complications or distractions.  Plus there was a swimming pool at our accommodation so Owen and I went swimming each morning whilst Bryan had a lie in and then during Owen’s afternoon nap, or once he was in bed, I went back for a “proper” swim and Bryan had some alone time.  This arrangement suited all of us very nicely.  We had lots of trips out - St Andrews Aquarium, Camperdown Wildlife Park in Dundee, Arbroath beach and mini railway, Brechin castle centre with its big bouncy cushion type things.  All great fun!

Photo 6 - TRACTOR!!  This photo was taken at The Store in Foveran, where we went to a Farm Open Day and Owen and I were ecstatic to have a go in a John Deere tractor and sit in that huge yellow combine harvester.  It was brilliant!  Owen absolutely adores tractors - and as folk who know me have probably found out I love John Deere in particular.  We both had huge smiles all day, and Bryan seemed to enjoy it too, especially the yummy burger.

Photo 7 - squirrel in London.  Okay so I just love this photo, the colours of the squirrel and the gravestone.  But also I had a brilliant time that day, several squirrels came over to speak to me and a lovely Australian lady gave me some monkey nuts to feed them in a lovely random act of kindness.  I ended up looking like the mad woman in the park with about 6 of them jumping on and off me and fighting over the nuts - amazing experience.

This photo also signifies my recent move to get more involved professionally.  I joined a committee which has given me the opportunity to go to meetings in London and Birmingham.  I also wrote a blog post for them - and an article for the Scottish Law Librarian’s Group newsletter (but its members only so I can’t share that!).  Feeling quite proud of myself but goodness knows what I can find to keep up with myself this year.

Photo 8 - Disney and our wee man turns 2!  For Owen’s birthday we took him to The Disney Store for his first time.  Strange to think our son managed 2 years of life before making it into the wonderful world of a Disney store, especially as Daddy used to work in them and we are determined to take him to Disneyworld when he’s 5.  Owen was given the choice of the entire store and chose a little Simba teddy, bless him.  We forced him to add a cup to the purchase.

Unfortunately our savings account isn’t growing as well as we’d planned it to ready for our holiday once Owen is 5, but we have time to catch up, hopefully!  I am most determined that it will happen one way or another.  I’ve wanted to go to Florida Disney since I was tiny and now I have a child I have the perfect excuse - plus I don’t want him to grow up without the things I wanted.  Of course he will want different things than the things I wanted but you have to start somewhere and I won’t give up on the concept of us all going to Disneyworld.

Photo 9 - my lovely gals in Crail.  Isabel, Lorna and Jennie are my special law librarian chums, we have an email based support system and in 2011 we went for 2 brilliant weekends away together.  Relaxing, chatting, eating and a wee bit of drinking and sight seeing.  Just what we all needed.  First weekend was at Loch Tay and ended up with my face painted as a dalmatian, second weekend was near St Andrews and included a dinner of chocolate eggs.  I love these ladies.  Lots.

Photo 10 - Bryan’s Dad and brother.  Obviously this photo was Christmas Day - I couldn’t get these macho men to wear silly crowns any other day of the year!  Lee lived with us throughout 2011 which was lovely, Owen totally adores his Uncle Lee - and is quite confused now he’s moving out - but that’s another story.  We invited “the Robertsons” round for Christmas Day and had a lovely time opening presents and eating too much - just as one should on Christmas Day!  We had a few days with them through the year and it was great to be together.  Watching Owen with his grandparents and the reactions they induce in each other is just amazing.

And that was my 2011, hope you enjoyed it too!

Posted in family, Photography, Trips out, General waffle | 1 Comment »

18/01/2012 by stupidgirl_no1.

We had an ace Christmas break, we were all off work and nursery inbetween, with Owen and I off the Friday before and Bryan off the Wednesday after so we all had some space as well!  Worked out nicely.  We managed to see various friends and all our key family members over the break which was great too.

Christmas Day Bryan cooked turkey for the Robertson side – that is his brother and their Dad and his wife.  Then Boxing Day we went down to my parent’s place for some more turkey.  The weather was bad so we ended up staying the night and Bryan made a new friend in Dad’s malt whisky cupboard…

During the holidays Ray and Nicole came to visit with their wee ones Lucas and Maya.  We had a lovely day together then Ray stayed with us and the men went out drinking before we all met for lunch the next day in town.  It was a lovely chance to see them all, and for the guys to chill out a bit. 

Well I hope 2012 is glorious and splendid to you, and that you had a good Christmas and Hogmanay as well. 

Posted in family, General waffle | 1 Comment »

18/01/2012 by stupidgirl_no1.

Still being naughty and not blogging much so thought I could share the letter I sent with Christmas cards as a bit of a round up of last year (may edit it a bit to allow for public consumption):

So 2011, what have you been to me?  Great in the main – or is that just my family that’s great?!  I’m still loving being a Mum although I can’t believe Owen is 2 already.  He’s fascinating right now as he learns new words and meets new things “oooh what’s that?”.  He is super cute and awesomely intelligent (not that I’m biased at all obviously.)  The other day I counted to 5 and then he said “6, 7”.  Of course show him 2 or more of something and its “2” or “more 2” – yes, he’s still learning!  Obsessions seem to be: “heigh ho” – that’s anything to do with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves; “yo ho me” – that’s pirates and his shortened version of the song “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life For Me)”; “buk buk egg” – chickens say, so are called, buk buk and he loves collecting their eggs when I take him to Creagan to see his doting Grandparents; and, usually linked to his Dad and Grandda “football” – he could kick and dribble a ball long before he could talk very well.  One thing I hadn’t expected to come with being a parent is the amazing feeling when you watch your husband, parents and in-laws with your wee one and see the effect they have on each other, it overawes me frequently.

Bryan’s brother Lee is still living with us – we even had his 4 kids visit for a while in the summer which was ace.  Owen didn’t sleep very well as he was so excited to see his cousins but they helped with him so it worked out fine – and it was lovely to get some quality time with them.  Lee now has Access Rights sorted but its not easy as they moved to Hastings earlier in the year.

Bryan’s work took on a big new contract so he’s been working hard on that, whilst mine has continued to provide me with a varied and enjoyable social life all in the name of “work”.  I even got a bus trip to Pitlochry Festival Theatre to have lunch and see My Fair Lady in September.  It was so fab I got my parents tickets for their birthdays and they loved it too. 

I can now strike “Join a Committee” off my bucket list.  I have attended meetings in London and Birmingham accordingly and met some lovely people.  I’ve even written an article for a professional journal so may soon be a “published writer” as well.

For the first time since our honeymoon Bryan suggested we have a “summer holiday” together this year.  Given the choice of the whole world…I booked us a week in Carnoustie (east coast of Scotland!).  We had an ace time, with Owen and I making full use of the pool.  We had trips to St Andrews Aquarium, Camperdown Wildlife Park in Dundee, Carnoustie beach, Arbroath beach (and cool miniature railway!) and Brechin Castle centre where they have those huge bouncy pillow things.  And the best bit was…Bryan talked about “our next holiday” – hurrah!

I have toned down my concert going somewhat but still managed: The Script, McFly, The View, Take That, Noah and the Whale, Katy Perry, Bryan Adams and Kasabian.  Theatre wise I saw: Cinderella by Scottish Ballet, History Boys, Avenue Q, Jekyll and Hyde, Sleepless in Seaton (local student show), Thriller, My Fair Lady, Flying Pigs doing The Silence of the Bams and I went to 2 fashion shows!  I also had a lovely couple of weekends away with my “gal pals”, one on Loch Tay and one near St Andrews.  Whilst I was out gallivanting Bryan obviously had some bonding time with Owen – and dedicated a few hours to his Xbox and Playstation addictions. 

As a family we went to see Beauty and The Beast (darling Owen was good as gold for the whole 3 hours in the theatre!) and Disney on Ice – which was amazing.  Other things we did as a family were to take Owen to Edinburgh zoo, a Baby Boogie in a nightclub (actually Daddy didn’t make that one for some reason…), a ride on a steam train made up to look like Thomas the Tank Engine, a steam fair (“tractor” was one of Owen’s first distinguishable words!), a farm open day when we got to sit in a tractor and a combine harvester (not sure who enjoyed that more, him or me!), Christmas tree light turning on carol service, and we went to Blair Drummond safari park with my parents on Dad’s 60th birthday.  Yes, that’s Dad joined Mum in the OAP bracket now – scary!

Health wise the boys are good.  Owen was at the hospital again about his eye, he was born with an underdeveloped tear duct and we’ve been keeping an eye on it but it was deemed unworthy of putting him through an operation, thankfully.  It seems to have got better since then too so hopefully we’ll just be able to cancel next year’s appointment when it comes and forget all about it!  I am finally happy about my weight and body – not something I expected to happen after having a baby, but something I am doing my best to enjoy to the full.  I even wore a mini skirt recently – and I bought shorts this summer!  I’ve had some health issues but it’s nothing unusual after giving birth and getting older apparently! 

Talking of birth – Bryan’s cousin Ray and his wife Nicole now have a boy and a girl – perfect set.  I’ve managed to have a few lovely baby cuddles with Maya – and its ace watching Lucas and Owen interacting with each other. 

Hope this finds you and yours well, and that any 2011 was good to you too.

Posted in family, body issues, Trips out, General waffle | 1 Comment »

04/01/2012 by stupidgirl_no1.

My primary school teacher, Joan Mann, wrote an article for the local church’s newsletter “The Belfry” about our beloved wee school.  It includes photos, names and so is a lovely trip down memory lane.

Balquhidder Primary School

I don’t have permission to reproduce it here but they didn’t ask permission to use a photo of me in shorts so I think we’re quits!! 

Posted in General waffle | 1 Comment »

23/09/2011 by stupidgirl_no1.

On Monday my Dad turns 60 (regardless of what he says about being 21…).  Then next Saturday my Mum reaches 64.

Obviously their birthday’s are theirs, and I do hope they have lovely celebrations.  But still.  I’m taking this personally.  I’m going to have “OAP” parents.  Add to this the fact that my darling little baby Owen turns 2 on 18th October (already?!) and I’m feeling rather old.  Certainly can’t deny being a grown up now can I?!  Even had a conversation with one of my friends about giving up my stupidgirl tag.  I can’t bear that obviously but I did discuss it.

That’s really all I have to say on the topic, just that its scary, getting old.  Of course the greys don’t help trying to deny it.  So I dyed my hair this week.  Oops.  Colour was a bit darker than usual, I now have pretty much black hair.  Which it must be said I have always wanted to try.  I just didn’t mean to do it just before 2 important functions at my work and then going to visit my parents.  Actually it was probably kinda fitting for the first function as we had the crime author Stuart MacBride into the library to do an author event for us.  He has nothing against the colour black.  Last night though was the President’s Dinner at my work, lots of VIPs from organisations around the city, including the Lord Provost.  I bet he didn’t like my hair.  Oops.

Dad won’t like it either when we go down to support him in his old age…I mean celebrate his birthday!  Ah well, such is life.

I am very excited about our impending visit though, we’re going down on Sunday so we will wake up with him (not literally obviously) on his 60th birthday.  SIXTY!!  The plan is that we have a family day out to Blair Drummond Safari Park so fingers crossed the weather lets us do just that.  I used to go every year when I was wee as we got a free family pass in exchange for having their brochures in the hotel.  I hadn’t been for years until this summer when I went with some fellow Law Librarians.  We had a fab time and I went home with my face painted as a dalmation…

Anyway I know you don’t care about me, so here’s the update on Owen…
He’s doing great, can count to 2, speaking lots of words now, obcessed with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Hi ho being frequent words on his lips!), loves cars, tractors, our cats, flirting with girls. He is really intelligent, last week I told him we were going to see his Grandda at lunchtime, he pointed to Bryan and said Dadda’s Dadda - which is right. It wasn’t a fluke either as back home that night he pointed to the football strip Reg bought him and that he was wearing proudly and said Dadda’s Dadda again!

Last time I took him to my parents’ place we drove down at his bedtime, the plan being to let him sleep in the car then quietly transfer him into a bed at their house. However I got out the car to find he’d woken up and was saying “Grandad” very excitedly. We’d got him and all the bags into the house and the monitors set up when he realised he shouldn’t be awake and started crying, but as soon as he was put into bed he rolled over mid cry and went to sleep! Bless him!

Anyway lunchtime over so will shut up for now, but will try and report back after the weekend!

Posted in family, Baby!, Animals, Trips out, General waffle | 4 Comments »

09/06/2011 by stupidgirl_no1.

Well, hello there!  Been a while huh?!  I do apologise, not really sure how that happened.  Especially as I have a task reminder set up on my phone that bleeps at me most days with “Blog”.  Hmm, then I finally log on to see I haven’t done it since February.  And its now June.  How did that happen?

I can’t say its cause I’ve been ill or out of the country or anything exciting like that.  Nope, I’ve just been working and looking after Owen (and my other fellas) and trying to fit in having some fun in-between.  We are all fine and dandy, if a little pushed for time and skint - but we’re not special in that!

Owen is almost 20 months old, he’s obsessed with Toy Story at the moment, but recently its been Cars, trains (we took him on a steam train), and Mickey Mouse (we took him to see Disney on Ice).  He is talking lots now - not all of it understandable.  Important words in his vocabulary are: Dada, Mama, No (who taught him that one?!), Ball, Tractor, Cheese, Pasta, Cat, Dog, Please, Ta, Hiya, Tata (and started trying Bye bye).  He prefers to eat the same as us whenever possible, although still takes some off your plate as well as eating his own.  He now uses a Doidy cup to drink from after deciding lids on his drinks were silly things.  He occassionally will give kisses (with the hugest pucker you can imagine) but he has to be in the right mood or you get No, No, No with much shaking of the head!

Bryan’s fine, working away, dreaming of winning the lottery and stopping work.  Just his usual!  He’s started playing (doing?!) Airsoft with his cousin Ray occassionally.  It’s like paintball but with pellets instead of paint and they use replica guns.  Still it gets him off the sofa and means Owen and I get some Sundays to ourselves which makes up for all the times I go off and leave Daddy in charge.

George and Benson are usually miaowing hungrily but are also fine.  They are so cute with Owen and seem to know he needs to learn to be gentle so they put up with him.  He is usually good with them, and they love his new habit of bringing in a few bits of grass for them when we get home!

Lee, my brother in law, is still staying with us.  He moved in about November time when his relationship ended, unfortunately she’s now moved to England with their 4 children so he’s kinda lost them too but they talk most nights.  They used to be home schooled but yesterday was their first day at “proper school”.  I was so proud when I saw a photo of them all grinning happily in their green uniforms, bless them!  Its so lovely having Lee around and I’ve really got to know him a lot better over the past few months.  Owen loves his Uncle Lee too so is great that he’s getting the chance to spend time with him.

And me, well I’m my usual busy self.  June is even more mental than usual with me being away 3 weekends out of 4, but you only live once so I might as well enjoy it!  I must admit I tend to update Facebook a lot more than on here, its quicker and easier to do I guess.  I love the “check in ” feature to show all the places you’ve been, quite fun!  So if you miss me blogging you could always cyberstalk me over to FB…

Posted in General waffle, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

19/01/2011 by stupidgirl_no1.

Yesterday, 18th January, it was 15 months since Owen was born and 13 years since I met his Dad.  Funny when dates collide like that.  Can’t believe its been 13 years since I met Bryan, I was such a different person back then, luckily he seems to like me now too so that’s fine!  Next month we celebrate 8 years of marriage too.  Happy days!

So, how’s Owen at 15 months?  Well he has 8 teeth, he loves dancing, eating, shoes and our cats.  He tries to copy things you do and say.  His attempts at piggie “oink”s and car “brum”s are really quite amusing.  He insists on putting his own nappies in the bin in the kitchen, and woe betide you if you don’t take him straight there to do it once he’s changed.  He helps take his clothes off before baths and knows that Mum likes to make a pile of them in the corner ready for washing, so he likes to be able to get to the corner thank you very much!  He wants to walk everywhere himself and giggles whenever you let him when outside.  He wants to brush his own hair but often just hits himself in the head with the brush instead.  He’s getting quite good at feeding himself, but it works a lot better if you load the spoon first.  On the bus home from nursery he usually woos at least 2 ladies, often blondes and often at the same time. 

Oh and in case you were worried about this situation - don’t worry we bought a duplicate Babbity from eBay so the problem is no longer a problem!

Posted in General waffle | 1 Comment »

07/12/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

Well that’s Owen walking now, video proof here.  He’s so cute about it, been building up to more and more steps unaided but sometimes still needs a finger to hold onto.  Not a whole hand, just a finger, he is a big boy after all!  On Saturday Bryan and I spent quite some time at opposite sides of the lounge going “come give me a hug Owen” and he toddled from one to the other of us, hugged us and then walked to the next person and hugged them.  So cute, I had a lump in my throat a couple of times.  Oh and he can do kisses now, sticks his lips out as far as he can - unless he’s blowing a kiss in which case he whacks himself in the face (see video of this too!).

Owen now has 6 teeth, 4 up top and 2 down bottom and likes all sorts of different foods.  Give him a whole apple and he’s happy for ages…and the lounge gets littered with bits of reguritated apple skin!!  Generally he eats well, and anything we give him.  There are favourites - such as banana, blueberries, chocolate buttons (yes he’s mine!) and haggis!  When he first discovered lasagne and garlic bread he literally giggled with delight through the entire meal.  He no longer has bottles, although he still has some milk before bed but just normal cow’s milk, we’ve finished with that super-expensive, annoying to make formula stuff!

Trying to think what other major developments I should report on..  He says Da, Ta, Ma and versions of Duck, Cat and Tractor.  The other day his Uncle Lee spotted that he’d said Tractor with a Devon accent - no idea where he got that from… (for those who don’t know I was born in Devon and lived there till I was 8 which is where my love of tractors came from.  Owen has a John Deere calender in his room which one of my Twitter friends gave me and the first time he said tractor was when we were changing it to November and seeing what the new picture was.  Proud moment, and luckily Dad heard it from the next room so it was verified!). 

Owen does some cool things, like tonight it got past 7pm and suddenly he just crawled to the bottom of the stairs, waited for me to follow him, then went up the stairs, into his room (once I opened the door) and stood up next to his cot.  Yes Mummy, bed time now.  Bless him!  He has ways of making you do what he wants, like when he brings you a book and then turns round and sits on your lap - or if you’re not on the floor stands between your legs and reaches up the way so you pick him up.  A lot of the time he points at things he wants - like the bubble machine in the bath, he loves baths and bubbles.  He does sometimes cry if he doesn’t get what he wants, can understand how kids become spoilt brats as giving them what they want shuts them up but we try not to give in too often - especially if the cheeky brat points at my chocolate!!  Generally though he’s a happy, smily wee guy.  The other morning he woke up giggling and kept giggling whilst we got up and ready for nursery.  Oh and nursery, he loves nursery and the ladies that look after him.  The other night with all the snow we offered one of the ladies a lift home and he was sooooo delighted that she was getting in his car, just giggled and smiled.  So nice to know he’s happy there, much easier to leave him in the morning when he’s all excited to be there and see all his wee friends.

We had a long weekend booked last weekend to go to Edinburgh and attend 2 birthday parties of our friends (a 3rd birthday and a 31st!).  Unfortunately with all the snow we decided it was best not to go.  I grabbed the chance to take Owen to Codona’s Winter Wonderland so he could meet Santa.  Good time to go too on the Friday as there was hardly anyone there so we could take our time and let him have the chance to examine things in his careful considering way.  Not that Santa got any smiles, it must be said.  But once we moved through to see the reindeer there were huge smiles - and would he let go of his present?  Nope!  He didn’t open it either, just gripped it in front of him as if his life depended on it.  Was a bit of a mission getting his snow suit back on and getting him in and out of his car seat to go home!! 

As for us, well we’re fine.  We’ve both had various bugs and stuff that comes from having a wee one at nursery but we’re coping!  I’ve benefitted indeed, as I finally lost the weight I always wanted to and am less than 10 stone (for possibly the first time since I was in my early teens!).  Not sure I enjoyed the sickness bug, diarrea bug, winter vomiting bug etc etc that got me here but at least they all had a silver lining!

Last month we had a week off work, which was lovely.  My parents were on holiday in South Carolina so we went and housesat their house.  Nice to get away for a bit, and it gave me the chance to see some pals and Bryan the chance to play in the big kitchen! 

The added benefit of parents owning a hotel is that we could have some friends to stay whilst we were there, so we’d invited all our Hillside buddies for the weekend.  Bryan cooked us a 3 course meal ready for their arrival on the Friday night and I laid up the Baronial dining room, so once the kids went to bed we all had a yummy dinner.  We also indulged in cooked breakfasts both mornings, naughty but nice!  On the Saturday night Bryan had help in the kitchen, all we could hear was Kieron yelling “yes chef”, “right away chef”, “is this how you want it chef”, in his role of commis!

Anyway, must get to bed, Owen doesn’t always manage to sleep quite as long as we’d like and I can’t cope with 6am starts if I’m late to bed!  Hope that’s brought you up to date with us a wee bit though, couldn’t miss blogging that our baby is officially a toddler now though could I?!

Posted in Baby!, body issues, Trips out, General waffle | 1 Comment »

25/07/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

I’m having a nice weekend.  We had no plans so declared it was a weekend of nothing.  It has been most nice, just spending time with my favourite boys.  We have managed to do quite a few chores, I cut the grass and Bryan cooked 29 meals for Owen and baked some bread, for example.  Had some of the bread as it came out of the oven with some home made raspberry jam one of the solicitors from my work gave me - was heavenly!  Bryan and I also managed to get a little drunk on Friday night with some wine left over from a function at work, and last night we had fajitas and Corona - the perfect dinner partners!  Mostly we’ve been playing with Owen, he’s really got that crawling thing down to a T, he’s even been working on the climbing of stairs (no video as yet, its really all hands on the baby thing!).  *30th July - video now available, just click here.*

He can kind of say “Dada”, “Yes”, “Hiya” and he sometimes does a “Ta” when you give him something or take something away from him.  He understands more words than he can say, the smile if you mention “Petite Filous” at the end of a meal is quite lovely.  Even today - he’s not quite himself this weekend, so its good we didn’t have many plans.  He’s teething at the moment - now got 2 on the top to match the 2 on the bottom - but he’s also got a cold.  Not sure if its those 2 things that are adding to his usual pooping problems but he seems to be in even more discomfort than normal - and now his ears seem to be hurting too so he doesn’t want to eat as the ears and teeth must make eating quite uncomfortable.  Luckily we’re still managing to persuade him but its quite exhausting trying to keep him cheery and willing right through a meal.  Poor wee toot!  At least he slept in the last 2 mornings so I was able to sleep past 7am for a change, not by much but that’s fair enough! 

Talking of the teething - he’s been really cute the last few days wanting to see my teeth, obviously trying to work out what’s going on in his mouth.  He likes to feel them and and flick his fingers over them, really quite funny, when not sore!!

Owen even has an admirer, an older girl at nursery called Hannah who rushes over to give him a bosie every morning when I drop him off.  Of course we have to be careful as he is already bethrothed to the lovely Lydia - and she’s much nearer his age anyway!  Just a shame she lives in England, way south, and we’ve only met her and her Mum online!

Of course Owen’s 9 months old so Dad thought it was time he started taking a turn at driving us all to work/nursery in the morning.

Yesterday we all went out in the car, to the excitement that is the supermarket.  Owen is quite happy to sit in the trolley’s seat and look at everything going by..  Well, most of the way round - we have to carry him some of it when Bryan takes a while with his shopping but that’s not too much of a chore really!  I had almost put a changing mat on the shopping list as the second hand one I got from Freecycle has started to split at the seams, but I thought we could just make do rather than spending money.  Anyway walking through the baby section in Tesco, what do we see?  A Finding Nemo changing mat!  It’s fate!  This is the finishing touch to the Nemo themed nursery!  So yes, I may have put something non-essential in the trolley.  Oops.  But he loves it so who cares about the expense?!  The only downside is that its now even harder to get him to lay on his back and keep still so we can change him!

Talking of Disney, since Owen was born I’ve now entered 2 competitions to win a family holiday to Florida/Orlando/DISNEY!!!  I can imagine there will be many more over the next few years but I will state now that by hook or by crook we will go one day.  Bryan’s passport ran out the year we were married and now, 7 years later, we’ve finally renewed it - so that’s the first step!  Owen does now have a savings account as I mentioned we were planning a while ago, and his Child Benefit is going into it each month, and will continue to do so for as long as we can afford to do that.  We also put any monetary presents he is given in there - even when its just a wee amount, like one day this week when a lovely man gave him £1 on the bus for being so well behaved!!  We’ll do what we can to save up so the 3 of us can go when Owen’s about 5, and can appreciate it.  Of course if I win it before that we’ll happily go sooner!!  I’ve wanted to go to Disney World for as long as I can remember.  Have realised now that it will be even more magical to go with my own child so I’m glad I’ve waited this long to go.  Bryan did take me to Disneyland Paris when he worked for Disney Store and got a discount but that’s just not the same.  We did have a cool time but it didn’t stop me wanting to go to Disney World!

Anyway, that’s the weekend nearly over so I’d better shut up about my weekend!  Hope you had a nice one too.

Posted in Baby!, General waffle | 2 Comments »

07/07/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

As promised, some time ago sorry!

Well the boy has obviously been growing up!  He now weighes 1.5 stone and is nearly into 1 year clothes!  He has been wearing 9-12 months clothes for quite some time so I guess its not surprising but he is still only 8.5 months old, bless the wee lump!

I’ve started buying clothes for him.  We’ve been really lucky and been given a lot of hand me downs and presents so far so we’ve not actually needed to buy him any clothes.  We did buy him a couple of things but now we’re going to have to buy everything as the hand me downs are drying up!  Knew this would happen as he gets older and sizes last longer - at least we get the chance to get our money’s worth out of stuff from now on apparently.  Anyway I’m taking advantage of any vouchers and special offers I can - is a fun challenge to see what barguins I can get!

So what have we been up to?  Well before I went back to work we used to go to Kids & Co every Tuesday morning (babies play, Mummies gossip!) and Mainly Music every Wednesday morning (singing and dancing and having a fab time!).  Both groups were at our local church, neither was very religious but it was nice to feel part of the community and to see the same lovely folk each week.  In the modern way, I added as many as possible on Facebook so we can keep in touch now I’m back at work.  The last couple of weeks I was able to take Owen to Jo Jingles which started up in our area.  This is another music group but instead of all singing and dancing together each child sits on its own mat and gets given various things to play with. 

Owen loved both music classes and I’ve always sung to him quite a bit - hence him learning how to clap his hands!
Video here if the embedded version doesn’t work!

We went to a Bookstart Rhymetime in our local Library and Owen got his first Library Card.  Proud Librarian Mummy!  Not that I’ve let him borrow any books yet as he tends to suck them lots and so I only let him do it to his own books.

Other than that our days were made up of going for walks, doctors check ups, and visits from friends.  Lunches out were managed occassionally although any leaving the house seemed like a huge mission back then!  What to take?  What would Owen do?  Would we get home safely?  Quite funny looking back on it now when I jump on a bus with him every day to get home from nursery!

We had a family holiday - well a long weekend in Edinburgh.  My lovely friend Jennie let us use her flat to stay in so we had a fridge and cooker which made it easier with Owen.  We bought a travel cot so he slept in that in our room, he’s such a good sleeper it wasn’t a problem all sharing a room again.  Other than I had a cough so risked disturbing him!  I got some medicine on the way down from the Minor Ailments Service at the local pharmacists so that helped!  Of course that was mid May and its the cough I’m still suffering from!  Was lovely to catch up with our Hillside buddies, and I took Owen into my old work to show him off.

An amazing thing happened on Friday 28th May - Nicole and I actually had an evening together, just the two of us, with no husbands and no babies.  Much as we love them it was nice to have some girlie time together, just the 2 of us.  We couldn’t remember the last time it had happened but hopefully it will happen again soon - ooh must see about arranging that!  We spent some time getting “prettified” and then went out for dinner.  It was a really lovely night - and we did scrub up nice!

I’ve already blogged about going back to work.  Its still going well, with Owen still loving nursery so that’s cool.  My trip to Brighton was great, the conference was really good and the night out was awesome.  My usual “posse” was quite depleted at the conference so I did that networking thing and made some new friends which was good.  I may have also been snapped by the official photographer drinking Champers before noon with James!  Check out my cool bag though!  @Jaffne made me it, she’s so cool!  You can see some of her craftiness here.

The night out with Twitter folks was really good, apparently after speaking to folk for about 3 years you do know them quite well, even if you’ve never met them.  I have some utterly awesome friends, just a shame Brighton is so far away!  A couple of them that I was looking forward to meeting didn’t make it but one special chap I didn’t think was coming did so that was fab.  You know who you are folks! 

And yes, I went on the Carousel - twice - once with a Law Librarian Carousel-Virgin and once with 2 Twitter chums.  Hurrah!

So yeah, life is good!  Hope yours is too?!

Posted in Baby!, body issues, Trips out, General waffle | 3 Comments »