Weekend in Fort William etc

I think it's gone just over a week since I last blogged, so thought I should put something here before the week is finished! :)

We went to Fort William at the weekend to see Dad and the kids. Since Tuesday & Wednesday were holidays, it meant not having to rush back home on Monday to get orders sent out to customers, so we decided to have a longer weekend there from Saturday until Tuesday afternoon. We had a lovely time there and Abigail had loads of fun as usual! Naomi was also there for the weekend (tho she arrived a day before us and left a day before us) - it was really nice to see her again too! I didn't manage to take any photos, but Sarah (as usual! :) ) took loads and has emailed me some, so the below photos are all taken with Sarah's camera - either by her or one of the other kids.

Hmm, trying to think if there's anything interesting to say. That's the problem with blogs - they're actually meant to have words (well, at least I think that's what the original idea of them probably was). But usually I just think of putting photos up, and the few paragraphs around them are just an afterthought!

Abigail's been doing better at nights with sleeping - going down quite early since she doesn't have naps anymore. But seems her routine has been upset with being away for the weekend and I've been landed with some extra late nights since we got back! Wednesday and Thursday nights had her falling asleep early (once accidentally before dinner and the other night the usual time after dinner), but she was restless and woke up again and it was nearly 1am before I got her back to sleep, on both days! The only positive part of that was that she slept thru till 7 and 8am respectively - but still not very wonderful if it was soooo late that we actually got into bed. We'll see how things go tonight. I put her to sleep soon after 7pm and she was awake again about an hour later but went back to sleep fairly quickly. She made a few sounds in her sleep about an hour ago but so far so good at quarter to 11. Anyway, this must all be very boring! Sorry! I guess a mother's life pretty well revolves around their baby (or toddlers) eating & sleeping and if they do it at the right times and get the right amount! LOL

Benjamin has a second tooth now! Quite cute when the little teeth come through the gums. :) Not sure if it's this 2nd one that's causing him such pain or more trying to get through, but he's had a miserable two days so far. He's been really fussy and clingy and wants me to hold & cuddle him lots. I feel so bad for him seeing him unhappy, as he's usually such a bright & happy baby. Not to say he isn't still full of smiles, but just not as much as usual. Just hoping he won't be teething for as long as Abigail was - which was a long time!

A lovely photo of the two of them, even if they aren't looking at the camera!

Abigail posing for Sarah

Making a funny face :-)

Anna & Abigail working on a jigsaw which was a map of the United Kingdom! Peter, Abigail & the kids managed to do 2 x 1000 and 1 x 500 piece puzzles while we were there! (I did a few pieces on two of them.)

My lovely little Benjamin with is sweet smile :)

Gerrit and Benjamin

Well, I think I'll "publish" this post now. Sorry to those who will have already seen at least most of the photos from Sarah! Next time I'll have to make sure I use my camera so I can get some original shots and not have to borrow photos! :)

Below Freezing ... Brrr!

Guess it's time I put something up here again! :) I try and make a weekly attempt to post photos and at least a few paragraphs to go along with them. Don't get round to much more than that.

I'm nearly over my cold (after 2+ weeks) and feeling normal again. Benjamin and then Abigail got the cold as well (I think B first started feeling poorly around Fri/Sat of last week). Abigail's not been too bad, though I did have at least 1 night where she was waking up every 30-60 minutes for at least half the night, and another night which wasn't a lot better. But she's sleeping better now, though still a sniffly nose. Benjamin been worse with it - very stopped up nose, which has resulted in him gagging at least twice (since he couldn't breathe very well) and emptying his tummy (big time) all over his mummy! Poor thing! He's still not completely over the cold, still coughing, but is settling better at night (his first night with the cold had me awake at least every hour, I think!). Seems Peter has finally caught something of the cold too! Guess it's just the season for these things.

As for the weather here, it's *freezing*, and that is literally! Actually, below freezing! For days most of the town has been quite frozen - no snow, just frost on top of frost, so everything is white and solid. It was -4C (24.8F) this afternoon, and a freezing -7C (19.4F) in Inverness. I think some snow would be quite fun and not quite so cold either. We finally managed to get a fire guard that was big enough to go around our solid fuel stove. Peter found one in the Farm & Household Stores in Inverness on Tuesday that was wide enough and we used some panels from a fire guard that was from *Peter's* baby days(!) to add to the sides and make it come out far enough from the stove. (Pic below) So, now the house is lovely & warm, and safe for kiddies too!

Can't think of much else that I've done. Finally gave the bathroom a good clean & scrub today! Won't say how long it's been since it last had a thorough cleaning! But it's spotlessly clean at the current moment! :-)

Benjamin finally has a tooth! It's only just escaped out of the gum and is hardly visable, but can certainly feel it when he bites my chin! He's continuing to become more mobile and walks along the furniture and from one thing to another. Still not standing on his own, apart from brief periods of mere seconds, though I'm sure that will change soon enough. He's also finally learned to say Ma Ma! Both my babies have started with Da Da long before they ever could say my name. So it's lovely to finally have him calling me, especially when it's accompained with him crawling to find me - so sweet! :)

Here's some photos (and then to bed I go!):

Abigail and some of her many babies! She loves to play with her dolls and copies all the things her Mummy does!

A rather sleepy looking Abigail - sitting *backwards* in Benjamin's walker!

Happy Benjamin :)

The new fire guard put in place

Benjamin nibbling a bit of apple while he slouches in his high chair. Just *can't* get him to sit up straight - he purposely slides down! I think he prefers to sit in my lap for eating, but gets rather messy! :-P

Cold, drive in the sunshine, and books & more books!

Here I am again, with a lingering cold still, a week later! My head and chest are quite congested and makes for a bit of misery when in bed. Seems I'm the only one to have it - neither Peter nor the kids have got it yet - guess I'm just rather run down & should be getting more sleep. I *have* been trying to get to bed earlier, and Abigail goes to sleep early in the evenings as well - but I get woke up a few times in the night by each of my "babies", so getting there early doesn't mean everything! Anyway, hopefully I'll be feeling better soon.

On Monday morning we went to Cromarty. We were picking up a couple of steam cleaners that someone was kindly giving away on Freecycle. It turns out that they (well, the one that works) is really more like a steamy mop for doing tiles, rather than cleaning my grubby carpets (which obviously require a carpet shampooer!), but we were actually glad of the excuse to get out of the house & have a nice drive in the sunshine. We took the scenic route which was only slightly longer, and winds along the water etc. The sun was nearly too bright, but it was lovely after so little of it lately. I don't think we would have seen much of the sun had we just stayed at home, as in the winter, (when it comes out) it only barely peeks over the hills and glides along them until it disappears. Guess whoever decided to build all these houses here didn't think about lack of sunshine during certain parts of the year! We're really in quite a dark place, so when there's ice or snow it can often take a lot longer to melt than in other parts of the town.

Today (Wednesday) we were very busy packing up book orders. It seems that people were buying rather a lot, or at least heavy books/largish sets. I was nearly wondering if we sent out a record weight of books for one day, though I'm sure we may well have sent more before. But I totalled the weight this evening and it was 51 kg (just over 112 lbs!). This included an 11 kg box sent within the UK and 6 M-Bags (sacks with a box inside) to customers in USA, not to mention a number of single books to various places! So quite a lot really, which kept me busy with taping lots of bubble wrap over books and packing them into suitable boxes and then taping the boxes securely etc. And it's not like this was post needing to go out over a long period, as we just sent things out on Monday (we post on Mon, Wed & Fri). Anyway, don't suppose many people are interested in such silly details! :)

Here are a few pics of my children. Afraid they're not very good quality, and Abigail's face isn't showing in any of them!

Music lessons! lol Abigail & Benjamin playing an old electric organ together.

Where I found Benjamin the other night! Sitting in the bathroom floor, nearly wedged between two nappy buckets! He gets excited if he thinks someone is leaving the bathroom door open so he can go exploring! And gets rather sad if the door shuts him out!

My newest laundry helper! Benjamin watching his nappies going round & round!

Abigail "checking" to see that Benjamin knows what he's doing, as really she prefers to be my laundry lady! :)

And one final photo, taken just before I started typing this blog. I was trying to see if I could get a reasonable photo of him without using the flash. He seems to close his eyes every time now (he dislikes the flash so much), so most of my attempted pics of him are rather ruined. Peter brightened this photo afterwards, so it's a wee bit better. Thought it was such a cute smile that I'd have to post it anyway.

Well, it's past my bedtime! Guess I'd better get in bed so Abigail can wake me up in an hour's time! :) She usually goes to sleep around 7-8 (or as soon as I put her to sleep) but always seems to wake briefly around midnight. Sometimes I prefer to let her wake again *before* I get in bed, though maybe an extra hour does help me. OK goodnight!

Already December?

This year seems to have just flown by! It's hard to think it's already December. I almost think time actually moves faster when you have kids (though I know there are still the same amount of hours in a day and days in a month etc lol). But I can't think where 2007 has gone! My "baby" will be a year old in just 3 more months! They grow up too quickly.

Just more of the usual things happening this week. Did some baking on Tuesday afternoon. Seemed to have loads of book orders to send out yesterday (Wednesday) and I was kept busy packing lots of boxes (for M-bags) and smaller parcels of individual books. Nice to clear out books though, as our house can only hold so many of them! :) Amazing how many fit in.

It continues to be very wet here, but then again, that's what winter is like in Scotland! Not be able to go outside really, except to and from the car, and getting wet just to do that! Yesterday seem particularly dark! We had to use the lights the entire day, even though all the blinds and curtains were open. You would have thought it was the shortest day of the year, but Peter says it's still some weeks till then! Will be nice when the days start to get longer.

Well, can't think of anything else to say, apart from the fact that I ought to be in bed! I've come down with a cold the past few days, so not feeling very well & ought to be getting some sleep instead of sitting here! Here are a few photos anyway. Yep, of my lovely children, of course! :)


Playing in a toy box (basket!) together. See, I told you they were best friends! :) They just always have to be together and have such great fun too.

"Would you like a strawberry?"

Playing together again - this time with toys piled up on Abigail's "bear bed" (because it has a duvet cover with bears on it).

All dressed for bed, but in a box instead of bed! ;-) He didn't get in there himself, but he *is* always climbing on and over everything.

Guess I shall say goodnight for now & publish this. Maybe someday I'll have something interesting to say. I always come to my blog late at night and my mind goes blank. Sorry!

A few lines & photos from me again

I might get this blog post up tonight ... that is, if Benjamin decides to let me! :) He keeps pulling my mouse, hitting the keys, and grabbing anything else that's within reach (which probably means quite a lot, since my desk is so messy!).

It's just been another usual week. Nothing out of the ordinary happening. Been very dark and damp too, so means being rather confined to the house. Can't really get out and do much of anything in the rain. The sun finally came out today - first time in like a week, I think. So I decided I'd had enough of being in the house and would take Abigail and Benjamin out for a bit this morning. I'd forgotten to get onions when I did shopping on Tuesday, so we went to Lidl to get some, since the recipe I was making for dinner required them. I get groceries on Tuesdays and Fridays, but usually go by car - so doesn't really feel like getting out of the house to take a 2 minute car trip to Lidl & Tesco! Sometimes I wish I only had to get groceries once a week, but I don't think my fridge/freezer is really big enough, hence why I go twice a week.

Seems I've rather rambled past what I started out talking about - going out this morning with A & B (not that it was anything exciting). Anyway, the sun came & went, as did the rain - got a bit wet, though I think the kids stayed fairly dry under the hoods of the pushchair. (Must find a new raincover to go along with my new double pushchair - then we can go out in downpours even! lol) We popped in a few shops along the high street too. In one of the charity shops I found a "vintage" (1971) Fisher Price school set, complete with children, teacher, desks, swing set, and merry-go-round. I know Abigail has loads of toys, but I found it hard to pass up something that I had as a child! :) No, I wasn't around in 1971, but these toy sets were still very much on the go when I was younger and I spent *many* hours of my childhood playing with Fisher Price little people. Anyway, not sure Peter thought it's asking price of £2 was a bargain, since it was so old - but I had a look on eBay later and found that people pay as much as £20-£30 (inc postage) for these sets, so looks like I got a real bargain! :-)

OK, enough of my silly nonsense. No one will be interested in such detail about my charity shop find - except maybe Sarah! ;-) lol Pity I can't think of anything more interesting to say. Oh yes, my little boy has turned into a duck! .... His newest thing to say is "quack quack" and it sounds very duck-like too! Not sure what he means by it, but it's really funny.

Here are a few photos of my children once again - and then I'll be off to bed!

Benjamin standing up at the fish tank. He finds it fascinating to watch them swim around and will stand there for ages.

Benjamin standing in his cot and a "shy" Abigail hiding her eyes from the camera

Abigail taking over Daddy's computer

Standing up at Mummy's lap

Look what we found under this box! Well, you can only see his socks in this photo, but there's a Benjamin under here! I heard a sound from under the box and was very surprised to find what was inside. He was happy too - not scared at all.

And no, he didn't come to any harm from the above incident. Here he is, as happy as ever, playing with his big sister.

OK, my weekly blog post is now finished. Seems I never get round to it more than once a week, so that's why you get a whole bunch of photos at once - sorry! But I'm sure someone, at least great-grandparents in Texas :-) will be glad to see them!

I'm still around - are you? :)

Hello again!

It's now over a week since I said anything here, but I'm still alive & well! Not sure anyone is reading this, as there weren't any comments on my last two posts! ;-) Then again, maybe they were just too boring!

Nothing out of the ordinary has happened lately. Just all the usual day to day things involved in looking after children (husband too!) and selling books. Abigail and Benjamin are as active as ever. I know I've said it before, but I hardly remember Benjamin ever being a baby. It feels nearly like I have two toddlers. If it wasn't for the fact that Benjamin still lives on just mummy's milk (and the occasional nibbles of food, though not to satisfy his hunger), I'd forget he was still a baby! :) He continues to spend lots of time on his feet and is really getting good at keeping his balance. He walks along furniture and even moves from one piece of furniture to another, provided there isn't toooo big of a gap between them. I'm just waiting for him to start walking next! He certainly keeps me busy, as he loves to eat paper and anything else he can fit into his mouth. At least Abigail like to help monitor his actions, though it results in lots of "No Benjamin, No Benjamin, No Benjamin" - and occasionly she thinks it's fun to tell him "No" for no reason at all! But at least they're such best friends and love playing with each other. You should see Benjamin's smile when he sees his sister coming up to him! Just not so good when Abigail prefers him to be awake at all times, and will wake him up just to play with her! :) She is doing a bit better though, and today she played in her room for quite a long time while he slept in the cot and she never tried to disturb him.

Here are a few photos - of A & B of course! ;-)

Benjamin just after a bath - he can't stay still for 2 seconds! lol He's already sat up and has a carrier bag in one hand and bubble wrap in the other (yeah, untidy mum's fault for leaving stuff on the bed), but really it's a big struggle for every nappy change even! He's determined that he's meant to be on the move 24/7!

The two of them playing together

and again

Standing up at his walker in the kitchen

Two in a bed :) Abigail really wanted benjamin to lie in bed with her, so we manged to tuck him in for a few seconds and I got this pic. But she was rather annoyed that he wanted to crawl out immediately!

OK, it's gone 10pm, my new bed time. I've got myself on a bit of a new routine. I decided to keep my computer completely turned off all during the day so I'll not get distracted with it and can get more useful things done. So it doesn't come on until sometime in the evening, once Abigail is asleep or when I'm putting her to sleep. Today is my 3rd day since this change and I think it's loads better than before. It's been too easy to just sit down in front of it for unknown lengths of time and waste too much time that should be spent doing something else. Early bedtime is also part of the change (like heading for bed at 10ish), so I can cope with Abigail wanting to get up early in the mornings.

Goodnight & hope I haven't chased everyone off with my boring ramblings! :)

Photos from Abigail's birthday - part 2

This is the second half of photos from Abigail's birthday, so please scroll down and see post 1 first! :-)

Another photo of Abigail and her guests

Abigail trying out her slide and Gerrit holding her lovely baby doll that she got from her Grandpa, Aunties, and Uncles

Abigail playing with her basket of "shopping" (also a gift from dad and the kids). This was taken on Wednesday morning and she's been having loads of fun with it all and having lots of tea parties! :)

Some birthday cards

Not birthday related ... but here's a pic of Benjamin taken today. He's discovered that this lamp is a touch lamp and he loves to stand in the crib and tap it to make the light go on and off! I think it's quite clever for an 8 mo baby - but then again, most mums probably think their babies are clever! ;-)

Ok, that's me for tonight! Must get some sleep. Probably could think of other rambling things to say, but will leave it for now! :) Goodnight!

Abigail: 2 going on 24!

Conversation this evening:

Mummy: "Abigail, how old are you?"

Abigail: "Ummm...."

Mummy: "Abigail, how many years old are you?"

Abigail: "Twenty-four!"

- - - - -

Abigail's 2nd birthday was on Monday. We invited Dad and the kids to come and stay the night with us, which they agreed to! :) Abigail was all excited for nearly a week before they actually came. I think she was wondering if her birthday would ever come - though she kept telling us that "Abigail's birthday is next week" or "Abigail's birthday is on Monday", so she had some idea when it was!

Abigail was quite decided on the idea of having a "kitty cat" cake, so I got a couple of cake decorating books from the library to get some ideas about how to create a cat. The books were all for really very talented people and I could have never made a cake like the ones in the books, but it did give me a few ideas anyway. I decided to do my decorations (from sugarpaste coloured with food colouring) last week, so I would only have the cake to bake and the buttercream icing to make on Monday. Anyway, it was fun, even if it didn't turn out as well as it might have done. And most importantly, it was good enough for Abigail, who asked later that day: "I want to see Abigail's lovely kitty cat cake!" :-)

So here are a few photos now:

Birthday cake!

Abigail pointing to her cake just after I finished it

Not very sure about candles! She wasn't very keen on the idea of blowing them out, but for the rest of the evening she kept on talking about her birthday and "blowing up" the candles! :-D

Opening presents

Abigail and her "party" guests (aunties & uncles), with her new slide from Mummy & Daddy in the background

.....more photos to come in a few minutes in second post

Snow

I realised that although I've posted quite a few blogs of photos, it has been a while since I actually said anything! Not sure this blog will be much different though, as I've already got the limit of 5 photos uploaded here! Oh well. Maybe I should have said I was doing a photo blog rather than a chatty one?! ;-)

Haven't been up to much out of the ordinary these past couple of weeks. Just trying to catch up with things and get back to normal. Finally made a start at some housework like dusting and hoovering - only managed to get the downstairs a bit more tidy, as Abigail was sleeping & didn't want to wake her. Maybe I'll have some energy tomorrow to do upstairs, which is actually worse ... and the bathroom too! :-p

I'm trying to see if we can cut out Abigail's naps (at least afternoon ones) and see if she sleeps better at night. She went to sleep at 7 last night and did wake a couple of times, but otherwise not bad and a quiet evening for me! But it meant she was ready to start the day at 6am this morning! :) But that was OK, at least I'd got into bed before 11 last night (rare for me!) and was nice she got me out of bed early. She went to sleep this evening at 8 and so far (nearly 11 now) she's only been awake briefly when the sound of some packaging tape woke her up. We'll see if I can get to bed before she wakes again!

Here are a couple of photos of what it looked like outside this morning. There was snow on the low lying hills around the town, and a big blanket on the "local" mountain (as seen in 2nd pic)! I took these photos from Abigail's bedroom window. The snow wasn't a total surprise though, as we had about 3 minutes of snow flurries yesterday afternoon - nothing stuck though.

Snow on the hills around town.

Big white object is Ben Wyvis covered in snow! Brrrr

Benjamin now wants to stand up at every object he can find! Here he is standing at Abigail's bed (with Abigail making a rather funny face beside him). Benjamin is also practicing climbing and was on a box yesterday. I don't think it will be long until he's walking. Seems I nearly have two toddlers already, rather than a toddler and an 8mo! Sometimes I feel I can hardly remember him actually being a baby - he just wants to grow up so quickly.

Abigail and Benjamin playing in a tent that Aunty Leah got for Abigail. The two of them are *always* playing together - they're such great friends! :-)

This photo here isn't staged at all and I thought it was too cute to miss getting a photo of. She was playing "house/mummy" in her room with her dolls, teddy bears, kitchen and pretend food. Here she is "cooking dinner" while she is wearing her "baby" in her sling (which on this occasion happens to be a tiny bear). But it was just so sweet to see her doing this all on her own. :) She looks so grown up.

OK, I'm signing off now & getting into bed. Morning will come all too soon, not to mention babies (or not so babies!) waking up in the night multiple times!

Photos from Texas - final post!

Here's my last installment of photos from Texas. It's possible that this long list of photos (30 in all) has run on to multiple pages, so you may have to click "older posts" to see them all.

Abigail showing great interest in the train magazine her daddy was looking at!

Benjamin wearing his biscuit rather than eating it! ;-)

2nd cousins: Matthew, Claire, and Abigail

cousins again :)

Uncle Ernie reading a story to Abigail ..... photo taken by Nat, with his camera