Friday afternoon was sports day at Holly and Louis' nursery. There seemed to be more kids than last year, and about a million* parents. Holly was in the blue team, and took part in the egg and spoon race, and the sack race. Helen and Louis ran in the "brothers and sisters" event. Medals and ice cream for all at the end - everyone's a winner at a nursery sports day!
* This may be an exaggeration.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Self Portrait With Bicycle
On the way home from Holly's sports day - pictures to follow - I took the promenade along by Silverknowes. Overcome with the multiple joys of new ownership, a smooth-running bicycle and a tail wind, I decided to record the event for posterity. It really is a lovely bike, and I hardly worry at all anymore about it collapsing underneath my not inconsiderable weight...
Barefoot on the Bike Path
On the way home from Grandma and Papa's on Wednesday, unbeknown to me Holly and Louis had removed their shoes and socks, and were riding along with their toes en plain air, so to speak. So I took a picture. That is all.
Blue Monday
Followers of my Twitter feed have already seen this picture, but on Monday Holly disappeared upstairs while I was doing jigsaws with Louis. "That's nice," I thought to myself, "she's off playing happily." And so she was. She emerged later, naked but for a coating of ink (from her printing set) and conditioner (from goodness knows where). She needed a lunchtime bath to get it all off...
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Grandma's Birthday
The sun shone brightly on Sunday, which was (a) Father's Day, (b) the day Niall did a PB on the Glasgow 10k, and (c) the day we had a wee barbecue in honour of Grandma Sheila's birthday (which was actually the following day). The kids (with a little help from Helen) woke me with breakfast in bed, chocolates and splendid cards (which I'll try to scan). But there wasn't much time to hang around, we had a barbecue to prepare! It was a collaborative affair, everyone brought food and we all ate well I think. Calum did a special performance of "Happy Birthday" on the trombone. The weather was so nice, we all hung out in the garden afterwards drinking, chatting and playing boules. Scott and Michelle documented the afternoon much better than we did, check out their pictures here. The sun must have gone to the girls' heads because we suddenly found ourselves treated to a Mamma Mia sing-and-dance-along, led by Holly of course. There's video of that to follow. All in all a grand afternoon, and a reminder what a great asset the garden can be on a summer's day.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Ballet Moves
Saturday morning, and with end of term approaching it was parents' day at ballet class. Helen went along to watch Holly at work and snapped a few pics. There's also a video clip which I'll post later on. Afterwards, it was off to the café for the usual post-ballet ice cream, with Nutella on toast for Louis.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Déjà Vu All Over Again
On Tuesday morning, Louis was in the throes of one of his usual colds, only moreso than usual. Helen tried to make an appointment with our GP, but couldn't get one until 5pm, despite explaining the circumstances. Helen decided to take him straight to our old stamping ground, the Sick Kids. Is this starting to sound familiar yet?
He was admitted and given a course of oral steroids and ongoing multi-doses of Salbutamol inhaler, to which he responded well. Helen spent a few sleepless nights by his bedside, and eventually he was able to go four hours without the inhaler, and slept through the night without needing oxygen.
He was discharged on Friday morning, and returned home to catch up on lost time with his footwear fetish. He was pretty chipper throughout, though I dare say the whole thing would have been more stressful for all concerned had they not been through much worse last year...
It's too early to say what the long-term prognosis might be. He's got an appointment with the asthma clinic, but the doctors referred to his current condition as "virally induced wheezing". He may grow out of it, it may be a one-off. Whatever happens, we have an inhaler and we just need to keep an eye on him, especially when has a cold. Another FAIL for the GP.
It's just nice to have everyone back home.
He was admitted and given a course of oral steroids and ongoing multi-doses of Salbutamol inhaler, to which he responded well. Helen spent a few sleepless nights by his bedside, and eventually he was able to go four hours without the inhaler, and slept through the night without needing oxygen.
He was discharged on Friday morning, and returned home to catch up on lost time with his footwear fetish. He was pretty chipper throughout, though I dare say the whole thing would have been more stressful for all concerned had they not been through much worse last year...
It's too early to say what the long-term prognosis might be. He's got an appointment with the asthma clinic, but the doctors referred to his current condition as "virally induced wheezing". He may grow out of it, it may be a one-off. Whatever happens, we have an inhaler and we just need to keep an eye on him, especially when has a cold. Another FAIL for the GP.
It's just nice to have everyone back home.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Clothes Swap
Last Sunday, we had our regular (in fact increasingly irregular) rendezvous with the Evanses, and back at our old summertime haunt - the reflecting pools outside the Scottish Parliament. As usual the pools became paddling pools and all the kids got soaked with the notable exception of Louis, who was uncharacteristically cautious. We had no spares so Holly ended up wearing my fleece as a dress. Earlier on that morning, Louis was snapped dressing up in Holly's ballet clothes. This was all hot on the heels of a busy Saturday when I can barely remember what we did, but I think it involved lunch down at Skye's house. No pictures were taken - I'm getting lax.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
A Quick Plug
Holly seems to have inherited her father's appreciation of free branded clothing, although I think the pink suits her better than it would me. This one's for Ticket Soup, a new venture from the SECC that Helen's been working on at Blonde. It's been adopted as a nightdress...
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Pictures & Pizza
It seems like a long time ago - only a fortnight in fact - that we headed out to IKEA on a Sunday morning to pick up some household essentials. Among our purchases were some picture frames, which we used to hang some off Holly's artwork in her bedroom, along with the poster Chris Hoy signed for her at the Discovery JCC training day. In the afternoon, we went to see The Sunshine Delay at The Village as part of the Leith Festival, and the kids loved it, dancing in the isles and - in Louis' case at least - storming the stage to say "hiya" to Paula. We rounded off a splendid day at Pizza Express, our favourite family-friendly national pizza chain, and sat in the window seat under a scorching Edinburgh sun.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Cycle On Your Bicycle
As promised, here's a (lightly edited) video clip of Holly riding her bike on the way back from Tesco. That was a 2km round trip, and she did the whole thing herself apart from a couple of bumpy bits. Her confidence has come on in leaps and bounds, and my heart was in my mouth a couple of time as she shot off ahead at top speed. Can it be long until we remove the stabilisers?
Pre Prandial Pottering
A busy wee day, after ballet we headed straight to Jasmin's 2nd birthday party, where we had a lovely lunch and emotions ran a little high as the afternoon wore on. Back home, Holly and I went for a wee bike ride round to Tesco, a video of that to follow. Then we pottered around doing a bit of colouring while Helen made dinner. I was just mucking about taking a few snaps with the phone, here's a wee sample.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Video Postscript
A couple of wee phone clips from Monday morning, when Holly and Louis were mucking about on the trikes before we headed out to meet Sarah, Skye and Jasmin.
And one from the afternoon, when he was chasing a ball around with Jasmin:
And one from the afternoon, when he was chasing a ball around with Jasmin:
Monday, June 01, 2009
At The Beach
Summer continued for an unprecendented fourth consecutive day on Monday, so we headed down to Gullane, there to meet and have a picnic with Sarah, Skye and Jasmin. It was hot, and Holly, Skye and Jasmin headed straight for the water and loved splashing around in the Firth of Forth. Louis, on the other hand, didn't want to stand on the sand. Not the dry sand, not the wet sand, and certainly not in the water. Poor wee guy, he wasn't on top form but I eventually got him settled in one of Sarah's wee parasol chairs. Before we left, we stopped for an ice cream and Louis was much happier running around on the grass, chasing a ball with Jasmin.
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