We would like to thank all the staff at Raigmore Hospital.

Two very proud parents and a happy big sister. xxx

Our friends from Italy Becky, Alex and their two sons came first and spent a few days with us in early July. The weather was not too bad although not really warm. We went to the beach in Rosemarkie, dolphin spotting on the Moray Firth (a very exciting boat trip!) and playing in the forest in Abriachan. Here are a few photos and there are more in the gallery.

Because the youngest visitor (roughly same age as A.) was walking very well, A. decided that she should try to walk more too and got a bit braver. She improved very quickly in July and August and she’s running around now.

At the end of July Jenny’s parent spent an extended week-end with us. Again we had good weather . Nanny and Grandpa took A. to the park a few times (they had great fun on the swings themselves!), we went for a walk in Strathpeffer and dug out lots of potatoes from the veggie patch.

In early August we went to the Black Isle Wildlife Park. For the first time A. met poneys, goats, geese, howls, peacocks, deers, meerkats and lemurs for real. Apparently they’re even better than in books. She had a great time and even became friend with a nice rabbit, see below. More photos in the gallery.

Finally JP’s parents came in mid-August and spent a week with us entertaining their granddaughter (park, walks, books, games). They also helped a lot in the garden and JP and his dad also sorted out a massive pile of wood for the stove this winter. During their visit, A. went to the swimming pool for the first time. She was not convinced to start with but now she loves it although she’s not convinced getting her head wet is such a good idea yet.

There are more photos of Papi and Mamie’s visit  in the gallery.

It was a poppet’s first holiday with her grandparents and we did lots of activities. We went walking to Holy Island to practise walking with Mummy and nanny, we went off-road push-chairing at Cragside.

We went to the beach in Bamburgh, discovered waves and sand … and obviously learnt how to build sand castles. JP gave all of us a geology lesson at Bamburgh Castle.

We played a lot at home too. The poppet was on fine form and entertained everybody and still managed to keep her parents awake at night a few times…

We all went for a long walk up and round the “slightly bigger hill” west of Wooler. It’s amazing how far a Mountain Buggy pushchair can go…

Grand’ Pa even let A. drive his classic car!

That’s it. More photos in the gallery as usual.

After a couple of days with Jenny’s family, it was time to head off to France. The car journey went well and the ferry crossing was great fun. Ferries are just like massive service stations and they break up the journey up nicely (if only we could fill up with cheap continental petrol on the ferry…). JP’s family was delighted to see their granddaughter/niece.

We spent a week enjoying the lovely French sunshine, playing with exciting new toys, having cuddles and meeting the family. Great fun.

A. learned and perfected a new trick: standing.  And she is very good at it! It sometimes looks as if she is surfing/skating but she keeps getting better. No steps yet but they’ll come soon enough.

We stopped again in Winderton on the way back up. This time H. was being christened. The ceremony was lovely although our poppet decided to spend most of it outside playing with flowers in the sunshine. It was lovely to catch up with the family at the reception. Vicki had also made a superb christening cake, see the photo below. A couple of days later, we also celebrated Jenny’s birthday (yes there were 32 cancles on the cake…).

There are more photos of the holiday in the gallery.

After a few days back home in Scotland, it was time to celebrate somebody else’s birthday… a first birthday this time! Jenny was working that day but JP and A had a lot of fun lighting up the candle and eating the birthday cake. We also had a party with some friends the following Saturday so lucky A. had 2 birthday cakes.

That’s it for now. There will be more when we find some time.

The past few months have really been marked by the weather. First it cold cold, very cold, then it snowed and the weather stayed like this for weeks on end. We all spent a lot of time watching the snow through the window! We rather enjoyed it though.

JP’s parents came to visit us before Christmas. However the journey was not easy because of the weather: it took them 3 attempts to arrive in Scotland (problems in both Edinburgh and Paris) and the return journey took 3 days overall (and involved a flight, a taxi, a ferry crossing and a train!). It was worth it in the end. It’s just as well they are retired! We all celebrated a “fake” Christmas together. There are more photos in the gallery.

We spent Christmas at home on our own. It was a very nice and chilled out Christmas. Jenny cooked amazing food, we drank some fine wine and we really enjoyed opening presents. Thanks to all for the presents for the poppet, she has really been spoiled and she loves her new toys.

In the new year year, we decided to brave the weather and did a few outings on foot. The hiking rucksack is a great success but being outdoors with a wee baby in this weather is quite challenging.

We made a quick trip in January to England to see Jenny’s family and in particular Jenny’s 3 month old niece: what a sweetie! The grandparents were delighted to see us to given that we did not spent Christmas together.

If it’s not obvious on the pictures, our lovely poppet is doing very well. She stands up very well now (with support, no walking yet). She is getting quite mobile (despite limited crawling) and we had to lower the cot so she does not escape just yet. She is a clever wee poppet too: she’s already worked out how to use the computer!

And that’s about it. We’ll try to update the blog more regularly if time allows.

First we went to the wedding of our friends Jeff and Michelle in Nottingham. We set off on Friday afternoon, had an overnight stop in Carlisle and then finished the journey to Nottingham. We stayed the night at our friends’ Molly and Matt. Jeff and Michelle had opted for a humanist ceremony which everybody found very touching. The food was delicious “despite” being vegan (ah prejudice…). We saw loads of friends from our Bristol years. Unfortunately we had to leave the dinner quite early as A. simply wanted to go to bed. Here are two photos of Jeff and Michelle: in flesh … and in sugar.

After the wedding, we drove to Birmingham airport and boarded a plane to Trieste for a very short visit to Becky and Alex, our friends who live in Italy with their two sons. The youngest is just 3 weeks younger than A. It was very nice to see Becky and Alex who tried to come and see us last year for New Year but couldn’t because of the snow (they were stranded at Bristol airport for 2 days waiting for the airport in Inverness to be cleared). We were luckier: Italy was warm and the flights were on schedule. Unfortunately A. managed to catch a cold and was not very well.

After Italy, we spent a couple of days with Jenny’s parents in England. Jenny’s sister Suzy and her husband Dean had a baby a few days earlier but unfortunately we could not come and visit as A. was still poorly. We stayed at home, being fed nice food and waiting for A. to recover fully.

After that, we drove to Dover took the ferry across the channel and carried on to JP’s parents in France. JP’s parents were delighted, they had not seen A. since she was about 6 weeks old. A. was getter by then and she had a good time playing with “papi” and “mamie”. JP’s sister Estelle came to spend one day with us and celebrate her birthday. There are a few photos below. Note that JP’s mum has already introduced A. to champagne…

After 4 days in France, we drove back to England and spent another couple of days at Jenny’s parents. We managed to go and see Suzy and Dean’s new baby girl. Very very cute.

Too soon it was time to think about heading back home. We drove North to see our friends Sarah and Alex in Sheffield. They have done a lot of work in their house recently and we put the kitchen to good use. We stayed just one night and then it was time to start the long drive back to the Highlands … and go back to work the next day.

Overall, we probably stretched ourselves a bit too much for those holidays: we came back completely exhausted. Travelling with a young child is not easy. The grandparents were absolutely delighted though and it really made it worthwhile. A. is not six months old yet but she has been in 3 countries by car, plane and ferry; let’s hope the French are right when they say that “les voyages forment la jeunesse“.

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(*) Unfortunately Sam could not come with us for the trip so it was not a proper family holiday. Many thanks to Tim and Ele who kept Sam all this time. He had a great time at Megstone, as usual.

How lovely, don’t you think they’d make nice parents themselves…

The family stayed for a week and once again they were lucky to have very good weather. We managed to go on a few walks and also ate outside in the garden regularly. JP’s family helped a lot with the veggie garden and weeding the back garden. Thank you! Obviously that’s on top of everything else, washings, washing up, baby rocking etc etc… Here are a few more photos of the visit. There are tons more photos in the gallery.