Back to normal?

Well I'm pleased to report that Katie is almost back to full fitness, Sophie continues to pile on the pounds (14lbs give or take an oz) and that after a very hectic start to the school year I can now catch a breath, get back to running and try to get myself and our house in some sort of shape before the winter.

"Someone told my Mum that cabbage leaves would help
her get better, I'm not sure this is what they had in mind." 

Thanks must go to Hilary along with my Mum and Dad - they have all been amazing at supporting us through the last couple of weeks. We really appreciate it and Sophie has enjoyed spending so much extra time with you all.

The main highlights of this week have been:

* Grandparents coming and going, helping us all get better
* everyone feeling better
* stuffing fingers in the mouth (Sophie) - we think teething may be upon us
* grabbing things with both hands (Sophie)
* new noises (Sophie)
* new smiles (Sophie, Dad and Mum)

The highlights of the upcoming week are plentiful and going to include a visit from some Kiwi friends who we stayed with when we were in Napier (click to follow this link) It will be a flying visit from them so we're just going to be a base camp for them really. It will be good to see them though and it looks like the weather may just come out for them in a late summer flourish (or is it early autumn?)

And we're also continuing to make progress with the house although you won't be able to tell from these photos.

We've almost got a dining room - well we have a table cloth!

Just the fire to be removed, the walls all prepared, the walls painted then the floor done and the dining room will be almost finished - until we knock the kitchen wall down and start again! Arrgh.

My Mum and Dad have certainly been putting in a shift lately....

Just when I thought the back garden was a job that I didn't really need to start yet,  I have kind of decided that the devastation of the front garden is in order to make us all have a better outlook and try and put a smile on face of the house.

Today my Dad and I removed most of a huge tree, two bushes and lots of extremely prickly brambles. Oh, and I re-homed a large frog that was in the front garden - when I say re-homed, I think i probably mean evicted. The garden is certainly starting to look very different though to when we moved in.

I have quite a few other photos to go up from this week and I will get them up as soon as possible but for now, here are a few more of the star of the show.

"Hi Grandad, my hair is too long for a spikey hairdo now."

"I'm enjoying eating my hands these days - won't be long until
I'm eating everything i can get my hands on!"

"I've had so much fun this morning I think I'll just sleep here."

A very peculiar week

We've all had a bit of a peculiar week truth be told - Katie's been battling with a lot of discomfort recently and it turns out that it was a pretty bad infection that hit her with full force in the middle of the night on Monday. After a bit of a late night phone in with NHS 24 - who it should be said were excellent  but sounded like they were reading it off a flow chart on the computer screen (which of course they are) - we headed off to Stobhill out of hours at 3.30am.

We saw a wee Irish doctor in there who fed Katie some anti-biotics and then sent us to the Western.

Katie got a bed

Sophie and I got a chair

At one point we thought Paul Daniels
and Debbie McGee had arrived to do tricks

It was a really weird experience and although we have to say that the NHS were brilliant and their staff were so nice, they just couldn't find a proper place for us all - the natal unit didn't want us because Sophie is over 6 weeks and besides it wasn't her that was ill. The Western didn't want us because for all intents and purposes we were hogging a bed in what is essentially an A&E dept - so we were hanging about a bit waiting , not really being told much. But, you can't get annoyed when there are people who are terminally ill being treated and people who are seriously injured. Did try my patience though and I did have to at one point say to a student Doctor who was screwing up inserting a canula for a drip, "can you get someone else to do that please?"

Sophie actually had a great time and was a
popular wee girl on the ward

Katie and Sophie were both real stars and are much more patient than I am - it does get increasingly more difficult for me though when I am caged in a small space, deprived of sleep and then deprived of food. It doesn't get much worse for me - although i was the lucky one to be fair, I wasn't sick.

Here is one of the few gluten free options they found for me at the hospital - where they found it and how long it had been lying around for I don't exactly want to know.

We spent all night Monday, all day Tuesday and all day Wednesday in hospital and we were so glad to get home again. Everyone's doing well and Katie's feeling much better.

Sophie is still having a great time although she's getting even cheekier these days:

"I wonder if I could have a chocolate"

"I'll just pretend it didn't happen"

"No, it wasn't me!"

She didn't really get a chocolate although she's only 3 months away from being able to eat whatever she likes!

"what a week!"

"yawn"

"So happy you guys are my Mum and Dad."

I said in the last post that I was going to add photos from Sophie's visit to my work but here they are now:

Angie and Sophie

Kenny and Sophie

Ladies who lunch and Dads who build fences

Sophie's 11 weeks this Tuesday, we all can't believe where the time has gone. Seems like just yesterday Katie was shopping at Debenhams with Hilary during second stage labour. ;o)

At her last weigh in - I forgot to tell you - Sophie was 13lbs 1oz and that was a week and a half ago - she is still piling on the pounds but on the bright side Katie and I are getting really strong carrying her around all the time. She's doing great and last night slept for 6 hours, fed, then went back to bed for 6 hours. Tired wee girl. She's doing lots of dancing, dribbling and grabbing now and progressing just fine.

Sophie and Katie are officially ladies who lunch, you know, just hang around, meet up with friends, drink cups of tea, eat cake and complain about how busy they are. ;o)

Well, kind of, but without the complaints - they're certainly now flying solo and they've had plenty of lunch dates and meet ups - it's a sharp change of pace but they seem to be taking it in their stride. They even managed to get into my work for a wee visit - photos of that should be added to this post in the near future. (when I charge my phone)

Sophie meets Sally

"Mum - are we having another busy day?"

"Great, I love busy days."

Auntie Shirley, Emma and Alistair (Katie's cousins)

Emma holding Sophie

Dad has been out in the garden a lot this weekend after a mega busy first week back at work that meant he didn't have a lot of time on his hands to spend with the girls.

Gary from over the back garden was keen to get a fence up as his kids were getting rabbits but I had a lot of clearing to do before we got to the stage where the garden was ready.

Some of the positives? Well apart from exploring the bottom of the garden I got to see how many apples and plums are now growing - a pleasant surprise. Anyone know how to make plum jam and homebrew cider?

How do you like them apples?

The other positive is that having cleared out the garden it now looks amazing (ok so not amazing but more amazing than it did) - there is so much more space than we first thought. It's involved cutting back a lot of trees and bushes but it has been worth it. The fence is level by the way - the height of the ground changes to make it look off.

Sophie and Katie came out to inspect the work and start to plan where we were going to put the trampoline and the play centre, chute, swings and barbecue.

"Dad - you've been in the garden for two
days and this is all you've done?"

This darn thing called work!

I've been back to school this week and have a lot of things to do in the first couple of weeks so time at home has been really limited and time to do the blog has been non-existent.

Hopefully i can update you with all the news over the weekend from the girls adventures on their own this week but for now you'll just have to make do with a cute photo.

stripey sleepsuit Friday

The last week of my Paternity, I mean Summer Holidays!

The last week of my Summer Holidays is coming to an end and I return to work on Monday with the kids coming back to school on Wednesday. I haven't really taught much at all since the 3rd of June - crikey - I hope I remember how!

I have to say that although the summer has been mega busy and there have been lots of things to do to a) the house and b) help Katie and Sophie (cooking dinners and stuff) I have had the best time ever being able to spend time with Katie and Sophie at a stage where Sophie changes on a daily basis.

The other day she got her first jacket, she loves it but she needs to do a bit more growing to fit into it. ;o)

She also had her first injections the other day and although the Doctors surgery was full of screaming weans (just like being at school!) Sophie had a wee scream when jagged and calmed down immediately - we hung about in the Doctors surgery a wee bit longer so all the other parents could ask for advice on how to be quite so awesome. ;o) (I'm 100% certain that this calm and laid back approach will not appear at the next set of injections in 4 weeks time - I am just joking around) 

"Did you say more injections?"

Sophie this week was missing the Commonwealth games and did her best during a wee sleep to do an impression of Usain Bolt - needs a bit of work but we'll get there. 

Sophie's personality is really starting to come out and she's having a right old laugh most days - she's loving all the attention she's getting.

She's also continuing to develop her mohican along with her pout - quite the wee diva.

So - the summer comes to an end, well being at home with Dad every day does - but at least next summer I will be able to take her out and about and have even more fun. And  it's only 5 or 6 weeks to the September holiday then the October week a week after - so there'll still be plenty of hanging around. It also means that now Dad is back at work Mum and Sophie will start their own wee adventures and maybe start with a wee swim next week.

Perhaps though I will be too busy doing DIY in the house to hang out with the girls - I started this week in the hallway - I thought now would be a great time to remove the polystyrene tiles and woodchip wallpaper....someone had said it would be a messy job - i think somehow I forgot this until I had got halfway and stopped for a cup of tea.

Anyway - over and out - I am going to need to stop these late night updates and bottles of cider as I have a job to return to next week

More of the Games

Well, we continued to enjoy the Commonwealth Games action this week - above is a really short video to give you a taste of the atmosphere. Sophie won a Gold medal for sleeping and generally being a star coping with very basic changing and feeding arrangements. (Katie gets a gold medal too)

I should probably also say that it was our anniversary last Sunday - it really doesn't feel like a year, so much has happened it feels like two years at least. Great memories of a great day, and we were able to get out for a meal thanks to my Mum and Dad who came to babysit for a few hours. Thanks!

We went to the Gymnastics on Tuesday at the Hydro - what a great venue. We also got to see some cracking Gymnastics with Claudia Fragapane the star act - can't believe she is only 16 years old and only 4ft 7" - blimey.

A good thing about being a member of Nuffield Health was that we didn't feel too cheeky popping in there for a quick bite to eat and some baby changing action - was really quiet and we couldn't believe that with thousands of people walking past the front door that noone was outside trying to sell sandwiches or memberships!

After Athletics on Monday and Gymnastics on Tuesday we were all pretty knackered on Wednesday but on Thursday we were up and raring to go again - Sophie did so well.

In the car seat again - home at 11.30pm.

On the changing table at Hampden Park after watching Davie Weir

This girl sure does get photographed sleeping  lot - so next post I can assure you there will be plenty of up and about, awake shots.

Also for your info, anyone that's keeping track that is, Sophie is now 12lbs 4oz.

The wee girl below seems like an awfully long time ago - but it's only been coming up for 9 weeks. What did I say about the Wedding feeling like it was years ago?