A Religous Experience

We went to a Summer Fayre at my Mam's work on Saturday. She works in a care home and each year they have a fayre with all the usual stalls and raffles etc.

John Middleton was there to open proceedings so it seemed only right to get the little-un in for a pic....

John plays Ashley the Vicar in Emmerdale, and of course we had to get Jen in on a pic too to add to the 'Famous People' section of our Flickr!!

NOTE: I use the term 'famous people' VERY loosely because there's some proper Z listers in there!!

Water Baby

Our local Sports Centre had an open day at the weekend to show off the results of the recent refurbishment.

We went along to look at the changes and were quite impressed. It was all well overdue and quite basic stuff, e.g. the addition of family changing rooms, but at least it's done.

The pools had extended ours for the day and as it was free entry we decided it would be an ideal oppurtunity to see what Abigail made of the water. After heading home to grab our stuff and the baby swim seat (another kind donation from a work colleague!), we headed to the 'little pool' which for me must have been for the first time in over 25 years!
After getting over the initial temperature surprise Abbie seemed to be really quite relaxed. She's quite used to being up to her neck in water from the Tummy Tub, and I think that might have actually helped to prepare her. After about 10 mins we tried her in the swim seat (pictured), and again she seemed to take the whole thing quite calmly.

There was a supervised photographer also around to take photos for the local swimming club. They asked permission to take our photo and I obviously leapt at the chance. He then kindly agreed to e-mail us the pic after we explained it was Abbie's first time in the pool etc.

Abigial was completely exhausted after her 20 mins of being in the pool, but it seemed like an enjoyable experience and something which we'll have to do regularly.

Monkey Tennis *

My usual fantasy football competition was disbanded at the end of last season so I decided to try the free 'metro' one this year.
As well as being free to join, you can have mini-leagues to make it more interesting. I set up a league and tried to get as many teams as possible for the start of the season, - ended up with a respectable 28 participants.

To say a lot of planning went into some people's teams is an understatement.... My work colleagues looked at literally all factors including; last year's player points, summer transfers and even which teams have the easiest start to the season. As it happens, for the opening weekend this all turned out to be in vain...!

On Wednesday evening (2 days before the deadline) Jen decided she'd like to try and enter a team. She insisted in selecting completely her own players and ignoring suggestions from me - apart from obvious help about who was currently injured and therefore wouldn't be playing. This was the result!! - A 5 point lead over her nearest rival, and me somewhere near the relegation spots!! ('Pos' refers to the teams position in the overall nationwide league as oppose to the mini-league).

Call it luck if you want, -but don't let her hear you say that!!

EDIT: You can keep track of the mini-league via the link which will remain to the right of my blog throughout the season. (Jen is no longer top after last night's game).

*A common metaphor for Women's Football

Lake District

We went to the Lake District last weekend as a kind of trial run for a wedding we're attending there in October. (Jen's a bridesmaid and had to go to be measured for her dress).

Stayed in a place called Stainton which is between Ullswater and Penrith.

We weren't really sure how it would go given Abigail has only just gone 7 weeks and it would be her first time away from home, but as it turned out everything was fine. She slept through the journey both ways, and thankfully didn't manage to keep the other guests in the hotel awake as she slept all night!

I guess the only thing we weren't fully prepared for was the amount of luggage a baby needs! We remembered everything but if we'd had one other passenger other than the 3 of us we'd defintely have needed a bigger car. Think the hotel receptionist thought I was nuts with the amount of trips I had to make to the car to empty it.

Best of all, the weather this weekend was better than it was for my whole 3 weeks paternity leave so we lapped it up!
Just need to hope that the actual wedding goes as well now....

Certified

Our Health Visitor seemed big in to all modern baby techniques and was qualified to run the Baby Massage classes. Jen decided to give it a try and although Abigail was the youngest baby they've had there, she seemed to find it worth while. Anyway as ridiculous as it seems, Abigail has her first certificate!

Abbie's development is still spot on - literally as you can see from her baby growth chart, which tracks weight against age. Most recent measurement was at 7 weeks when she weighed 10lb 9oz (+3lb since birth).

She's still sleeping like a dream (probably wrong choice of words there?), in that she sleeps from approx 9.30pm - 8.00 straight through with only one feed in between. Even then she goes straight back down after the feed. I know, I know her sleep pattern is unlikely to stay this good but for now we're trying to make the most of it by getting out and about whilst we're still relatively refreshed!

5 Weeks

Abbie is now 5 weeks old and it feels like she's been here forever!


The photo's were getting out of control in the original Flickr set so I've set up a 'Collection', which is basically a collection a sets.

At this point we would like to thank everyone for all of the cards and gifts. People warned us about how much stuff you get but we were still blown away by how many outfits Abigail has ended up with! And as for cards, - all I can say is there must be a canny bit of money to be made from selling 'New Baby' cards!!

Abbie was weighed again yesterday and is now a bouncing 9lb9oz, which is a gain of 2lb since birth and 1lb1oz in 2 weeks. Good stuff in that milk by all accounts!


Finally here's another video. The previously mentioned swing only seems to serve to put her to sleep so we felt she needs something to keep her entertained when at her most active, - hence her first Baby Gym. She loves it, but our dog and cats really don't know what to make of her on it! (Video was taken 2 weeks ago).

:o)

:o)
Originally uploaded by Beebop Alula

Abbie started smiling last week, and it's still early days so every one is like a little event! You dismiss the first one as "it'll just be wind", but they become unmistakable after a while. Jen just sent me this pic via MMS, - too cute!