A high drama of new youth, parenthood and smelly nappies

Posts from March 2007

01:43am Monday, 26th March 2007

a tough week for cole and peta as poor wee gethin has been out of sorts, crabby to the max (hinting at another ear infection) and growing increasingly frustrated at his limited self-mobility.

his eating has also been out-of-sorts for someone who has always had a healthy appetite, although he did polish off a rather large portion of haggis, neeps and tatties last night, and has also acquried a taste for chocolate but more of that later.

sunday was a get-together to celebrate the first birthdays of all the babies from peta’s ante-natal classes. g is one of the youngest in the group so most of the other babies have had their birthdays already – an excellent chance to scout out relative successes and failures in the ‘first birthday present’ stakes. anyway, peta couldn’t make the party because she had to go to work so cole was stepping into the fray as lone parent ranger and had foolishly volunteered to bake a cake for the occasion (some twenty odd parents and wee yins).

fortunately, fellow mum jenny offered her assistance and expertise in the baking dept so cole, peta and gethin were to head over on saturday afternoon for some apron-clad adventures.

uncharacteristically, gethin decided to have a three-hour nap in the morning so, after a spot of lunch, we belatedly arrived. jenny had already made a head start with two fantastic chocolate sponges baked and cooling on racks. it was decided that cole’s efforts were best focused on making the cakes for the babies, so armed with a blender and some ingredients 12 fairy cakes were soon rising in their cases and poised for some icing: pink for girls and blue for boys. jenny did the boys’ and lo, they were all neat and tidy. alas the same could not be said for the girls’ but given that these were destined for the pallet of 12 month old bairns that was perhaps not so important. the final job was to bedeck the cakes with the baby’s initials and lick the remaining chocolate icing from jenny’s mega-cake. it was at this point that we discovered gethin’s insatiable appetite for the cocoa bean.

on sunday we all met up and had a lovely time. peta was able to come along for the start but had to dash to work before food. it was remarkably calm given the presence of 12 babies, plus their siblings and parents, and cole and g had an excellent time meeting up with the others from the group, some of which cole hadn’t seen since the ante-natal classes over a year ago.

it is at this point we start to get all ‘ooo, my how the last year has flown by’…

11:42pm Sunday, 18th March 2007

another week of man-flu for cole, thrills for baby g and babytainment for peta.

since last we scribed cole was laid low with a nasty sniffle for a few days, whilst gethin has been perfecting the art of not eating. a minor annoyance! moomin came up on thursday for a long weekend which has flown by but we managed to pack in some fun-filled activities including a day out in glasgow on saturday.

p + g managed two trips to the cinema this week, her usual fix on the thursday plus a trip to the dominion in edinburgh on friday with moomin. p, g + m bypassed the proposed trip to butterfly world (probably on account of p having a fear of small winged insects), instead venturing on a scouting mission to toys r us and elc to espy potential first birthday presents for baby g.

on saturday we tripped to glasgow, beginning with a lovely meal at the lighthouse where cole supped on the largest veggie burger known to humanity. from there we went to the glasgow science centre which was overrun with snp delegates, the party conference taking place there over the weekend. alas, peta did not see sean connery though.

however, we did have lots of fun learning about science and stuff, with loads of hands-on experiments, illusions and edutaining facts and gadgets galore.

gethins favourite was the levitating polystyrene ball – snaps to follow – whilst one particular exhibit created a gem of a telling off:

Gethin, don’t headbutt the vortex

Time flew by, and before we knew it we were being kicked out onto the wet and very windy Glasgow streets. All four of us headed back to lithgay for a quiet night of telly, cole doing some web-work whilst g slept and p + m played tantrix – a bizarre game involving lining up hexagons ()

on sunday, inspired by the trip to the science museum, gethin had his first real encounter with gravity – falling over onto his head. a rather fetching bump/bruise and tears promptly ensued. the winds had been up in west lothian and the chicken house blew over in the night. cole went to set it up again and feed the chickens to realise that colin – the dreaded evil cockerel of doom – had escaped. what to do?

peta was asleep, having a well-earned mothering sunday lie-in, whilst cole lacked the skills and the courage to face such a monster alone. the sensible solution was to run away like a coward and shut the door, hoping that peta awoke before colin devoured our new neighbours or any passing bystanders. order was soon restored. peta awoke and, armed with hockey stick, managed to usher colin back into his abode.

after such excitement we four ventured up to the bonsyde for some mothering sunday luncheoning and to see uncle pete. alas, gethin’s bump and some slowly erupting teeth were causing some grumpiness in the g so after a fine meal we all headed back home, cole and g getting a siesta. and that was that. sadly, moomin had to head back south in the evening bringing us to the present.

the end

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02:37pm Saturday, 10th March 2007

it has been another busy week for the henleys capped off with two trips into edinburgh and a visit on friday to the jelly club, a large soft play facility for kids of all ages (though don’t think the parents are supposed to get quite as much fun from it as we did), complete with large ball parks and slides, hidden away on an industrial estate in the south of edinburgh: (sorry, video from phone so quality is a bit poor)

although not quite crawling gethin has begun relative mobility with a commando shuffle, slowly maneuvering towards enemy lines (or the amplifier to pump up the volume):

he is also practicing on his gurning prowess and will hopefully have a few ugly faces to progress in the egremont crab fair late in the summer.

however, gethin’s most impressive development has been his starting to derive pleasure from headbutting the mirror in our bedroom. peta and i are so proud.

01:13am Monday, 5th March 2007

about time we put fingers to keys on this thing again. the dreaded lurgy has struck linlithgow and for a change gethin seems to have been immune, cole laid low for a couple of days after the cold he had been ignoring for four weeks finally caught up with him before moving on to peta over the last couple of days.

the last few days have been quite busy for p + g. scarily, thursday saw the first first birthday from peta’s antenatal group (30 days and counting until baby G’s). time has flown! then cakes and warm beverages for the mums group on friday.

cole has been knee deep in web stuff, doing the daily grind at work before his contract runs out at the end of march (although another contract may be coming up, fingers crossed) and also doing some freelance stuff in the evenings and weekends. poor p + g frequently are reduced to seeing the back of cole’s head for much of his spare time but it will hopefully bring in some extra money so we can afford to do nice things together in the summer months. this weekend was no exception and after a well-earned lie-in of saturday morning peta did a fine job of entertaining g whilst cole slaved away at the computer.

we did manage to squeeze in a couple of film-making sessions with baby g so for your delectation: