A high drama of new youth, parenthood and smelly nappies

Posts from February 2007

10:32pm Sunday, 18th February 2007

what a wonderful weekend. cole had friday off work for the arrival of mme. seely so peta and gethin caught some zzz’s on friday morning whilst cole did the annual car clean for the impending guest.

a tidy car and 2 sleepified henleys later we were off the airport to collect jo. we met up and awayed to fetch some lunch, a monsterous cheese and bread-a-thon. yummy! the day flew by and before too long gethin was in bed and after some cod teriyaki and noodle soup (cole is proving quite adventerous with his cooking these days) cole, peta and jo enjoying the bonsyde for some excessive beveraging with the neighbours until the wee hours (thanks to some sterling monitor-minding from ben).

on saturday we awoke, slightly hungover, to prepare for a day’s adventuring in edinburgh. peta had booked us all some tickets at north edinburgh arts centre for baby balloon at 2 so we initially headed to henderson’s for a spot of vegetarian lunch before some theatric delights. peta got to sit on cushions at the front with gethin, along with several other bairns and parents, whilst jo and cole sat at the back to watch the sensory feast that unfolded. what a lovely show. bubbles, balloons, music, it was all super-relaxing (perfect for both hungover adults and 10-month-old bairns), culminating in peta, g and the other mums and bairns sitting inside a giant balloon eating tangerines. it was amazing how they were able to captivate ten or so babies (and the same again number of adults) for 45 minutes!

after the theatre we set back off into edinburgh to hit the shops and get some coffees, spending most of the afternoon in a book shop, before heading back to linlithgow for a lovely jo-made feast of seafood linguine before all falling asleep at a very respectable hour.

sunday was sadly jo’s last day with us – the weekend really had flown by. peta (deservedly) lied-in until late so jo and cole entertained the bairn with some deeveedees before having to take jo back to the airport, not after cole’s speciality of tadpoles in the hole followed by apple crumble. yummy. after dropping jo off the 3 henleys returned, peta and g partaking of a monsterous siesta whilst cole did some cleaning and took the next steps on the never-ending task of re-upholstering the sofa.

11:34pm Thursday, 15th February 2007

my o my. the weeks just seem to be merging into each other at the moment. must be something to do with the wintry weather and shorter days.

anyway, after the high drama of a day out in the city (and rugby for cole) this week has been quite quiet, mostly doing work-type stuff. on tuesday night we settled down for some home-cinematic entertainment (sans popcorn), watching condorman. having seen the film being made in paris as an impressionable five year old, condorman has always been a firm favourite for cole who was particularly excited at it having arrived in the post, especially as he hadn’t seen it in a few years. sadly, without the nostalgic sentiment peta wasn’t nearly as enthused about the film, despite the fact that it has nasty russian baddies driving black porsches, speed boats, rocket-propelled ski lifts, explosions and fricking laser beams. oh well, you just can’t please some people!

on wednesday peta deserted the two boys (on valentines day of all days!) for a spot of swimming, but not before we settled down for a romantic, candle-lit meal for three – griddled salmon with sweet potato, brocolli and corn on the cob, followed by a nice tub of tiramisu ice cream which g seemed to take quite a liking to (but not as much as cole who woolfed down more than his fair share!).

to thursday evening and all three henley’s are very excited that god-mum josephine is popping up from southern climes tomorrow to spend some quality time with the wee fella (and parents of course).

adieu mes amie.

10:48pm Thursday, 15th February 2007

Gethin does enjoy a refreshing beverage from time to time.

Enjoy (volume up for this one).

02:19pm Sunday, 11th February 2007

wotcha! well the snow threatened and it did land for all of 5 minutes and then it went :(

gethin has been without a cold for at least a few days now and is still excelling at this not-crawling malarky. he and peta did their usual head into edinburgh for cinema and meander on thursday, this time not culminating in a trip to the hospital (hooray).

at the weekend all headed into e-berg again. cole to meet up with ryan, fraser and fraser’s family to head to murrayfield to catch wales vs scotland. peta met up with shelley to go swimming. sadly, wales were trounced (and despite the lack of snow we reached hitherto unexperienced levels of coldness) and the swimming pool was otherwise engaged with a gala taking place so a disappointing day all round for henleys 3 but it was good to meet up with r + s again.

so far sunday looks to be another henley speciality laze-a-thon although a trip to the shops and some tidying will be on the cards…alas

12:32pm Thursday, 8th February 2007

brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

despite the bbc weather completely forgetting about scotland (“snow forecast in england, wales and northern ireland”) we are currently experiencing a lovely fluttering of cold, whiteish flakes from the heavens.

not quite enough for a snowman – a snowdwarf perhaps – but enough to bring out childish exceitement in all three henleys, geth bedecked in his finest winter clobber (which he can still just about fit into).

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01:00am Tuesday, 6th February 2007

we’re back and sorry for the long wait.

without getting too technical, moving the website to a new host took longer than expected and by the time it was in its new e-bode cole has been too busy to get it back up and running.

what a busy couple of weeks it has been. since last we scribed we have had two visits to the hospital, a visit from half of g’s godparents, been to the cinema, up and hill and bounced some.

after last we wrote poor gethin was striken with a nasty case of the liquid poos. this meant he wasn’t eating particularly well, at which we were rather helpfully advised to starve him. not the best of options for a perpetually ravenous bairn but tried it we did, although all it seemed to achieve was to make an unhappy bairn a hungry unhappy bairn.

on the saturday morning (the 20th) we awoke and gethin was still poorly so we (cole) decided that some eggs might help with his tummy. g-man was not impressed with this novel foodstuff and promptly spat out any that passed his lips. unappetised, the next best thing was to have a morning bounce which was gladly done whilst mum did a spot of hoovering around him and cole supped some coffee. we are not sure what transpired between egg spitting and bouncing but promptly after a boing or two gethin started to swell. and swell. like something out of willy wonka his skin went redder and blotchy and his ears puffed up. this was quiet worrying. we rang nhs 24 who promptly dispatched an ambulance to collect boy in case whatever it was he had reacted to affected his breathing. fortunately it did not and once at hospital (cole in tow whilst peta and gethin got to ride in the ambulance – no sirens alas) his ears slowly returned to their normal size and the blotchiness spread to his exteremities before disappearing. after a check up from a couple of doctors we were referred to the children’s ward where they suspected an allergic reaction to something, possibly the eggs he had skillfully not-quaffed for breakfast. anyhow. because of gethin’s eczema (which is faring particularly well at the moment thanks to the burdock and chickweed concoction that denise had hunted down) the hospital were unable to do a skin test for potential allergies so he would have to return later in the week for a blood test (and return he did with the wee fella on his best behaviour for the blood extraction, although there is now a 6-8 week for the results).

on sunday ryan and shelley popped over for a long overdue catch-up and an epic feast of tadpoles-in-the-hole and apple crumble, with cole and ryan popping over to the pub for the arsenal-manu game before some beverages at the bonsyde house hotel.

after all that excitement the rest of the week was relatively subdued and by the following saturday gethin was back to his normal self and ready to embark on some fun and frolics when our neighbour celebrated a joint-birthday (ben and casper) with some fine fodder, a pinata (filled with addictive, filling-pulling japanese sweets called white rabbits) and…….a bouncy castle. given his fondness for the door-frame bouncer which he frequents, gethin was remarkably non-plussed by this large inflatable thing that adults and children alike (shoes off first though!) can jump up and down on. saying that, cole felt distinctly exhausted after only a few bounces – how can something so youthful make you feel so old?

so to this last week (our week days have been largely uneventful i fear so am just skipping over the weekend bits whilst i have your attention). on thursday cole took the morning off work and headed, with peta and gethin, into edinburgh for some cine-action. we sat there watching stranger the fiction, a fantastic film with will ferrell, dustin hoffman and emma thompson. i remembering the wise words from the dad’s classes all those moons ago about how the cry of a baby subconciously triggers adrenaline to stimulate a reaction from the baby’s parents/carers, a deliberately uncomfortable and distracting sound. yet somehow we (well cole) were able to filter out the surround sound of scores of screaming bairns to focus on the film and its plot. mind you, peta was gethin entertaining for much of the film though between the three of us we managed to get most of a tub of fromage frais everywhere but in gethin’s mouth.

that evening, after spending the rest of the day in town with baby g, peta called cole at work as gethin was not feeling too good and, after a few days with a cold, had upgraded to puking. by the time we got back to linlithgow he was running quite a high temperature peaking at 103/104 degrees farenheit. another call to nhs 24 and we were soon on our way back to the hospital in livingston. we were quickly seen and after a thorough inspection from the doctor it was decided that gethin’s cold had upgraded to some kind of infection, probably a virus but possible a bacterial infection so boy was prescribed some antibiotics (bright yellow) and advised to continue on calpol (bright pink).

after all that excitement g-man slept though most of friday, although we were spared that luxury over the weekend with what transpired to be perhaps the toughest couple of days of parenthood yet! from half seven on saturday morning until half seven on sunday evening – with the hiatus of saturday night in between – gethin was inconsolable. hungry, tired, moaning. in fact, the boy had the worst case of man-flu ever noted. even worse than cole and that is pretty bad indeed! our only respite was an inspired suggestion by peta for a trip out to local tall lump, binny craig, to blow the cob webs away (last seen somewhere over the firth of forth). the tall lump was taller than i remembered and steeper too, making a climb up it with bairn in sling quite tricky for peta. we made it and to celebrate the occasion scoffed some pineapple chunks whilst gethin snacked on a cornish wafer and cream cheese.

well that’s about us up to date. glad to report that gethin now seems much better. the man-flu is subsiding and he hasn’t blown up in reaction to anything – though we await his blood test results. sorry we’ve been away for so long and hope you like the new look.