A high drama of new youth, parenthood and smelly nappies

Posts from November 2007

11:51pm Thursday, 22nd November 2007

Gethin and P share a good ol’ wake-up sing-song:

01:42am Thursday, 22nd November 2007

Profound apologies to all and sundry for the excessively delayed update from the Henley trilogy.

This past fortnight started off quietly with a chilled weekend at home by ourselves – our first since moving – and a spot of exploring our new home county, Falkirk. We had the chance to catch up on some stuff around the house and went into Falkirk for a stroll around Callendar House, sampled some culture (and muilled wine) at an arts and crafts gallery opening and paid a trip to the shops to stock up on supplies. Then on Sunday we had a magical trip to Muiravonside Park, resplendently aglow (how pretentious does that sound) in rich oranges and reds, and the chill air of autumn. In fact, sod that. We seem in Scotland to have bypassed Summer this year, made a brief stop at Autumn and then headed straight into Winter where, no doubts, we will remain until May next year.

Anyhows, we went to Muiravonside and saw a range of lovely fauna at the farm and lovely flora in the woodland walks, stopping at some benches for a lunch before a stroll down to the gorge(ous) river Avon.

After our lovely, chilled weekend the week past quickly before a visitation from Todd on Tuesday who had come over from Vermont in the US of A. Todd works for Rich Frog, a company which Cole has been designing the web site for. It was quite a hectic week, working in pubs in Edinburgh during the evenings before a mammoth coding slog from Friday through to Monday – with a break in the middle to watch the Scotland-Italy game and imbibe some points in Linlithgow. Was pretty full-on and Peta and Gethin got to be web design widows/orphans for the week but it was great to have Todd over and hang out. He even brought with him some lovely duck slippers which Gethin has had great delight in sporting this past week. Will try to get some snaps up soon.

Enough about Cole’s webaholic pursuits. G has been in fine form of late and is proving to be a right chatterbox. He constantly has a smile on his face and can usually be found quite busy doing something – whatever that something might be. He delights in brushing the teeth of his toy animals and on occasion can be seen kissing anything that moves. He talks to everyone and everything: animal, vegetable or mineral – this weekend he delighted in saying “hello buckle” as he got in his car seat. Our hesitance at moving to a multi-story property has been promptly demonstrated to be unfounded as wee G delights in sliding down the stairs on his belly at apace. Oddly though – and completely unlike his parents and previous form – G has been getting up quite, quite early in the mornings since we moved. Perhaps it is just the excitement and anticipation of making his next slide down the stairs, but it is quite out of character for the wee fella. Rarely a peep from the wee fella before we moved and now he is up at 4.30/5 in the am. Will have to get to the bottom of it as it is very poor form to be waking up ones parents at such an ungodly hour.

Elsewhere, P has mostly been a domestic darling the last few weeks, whipping up all manor of delightful foods for family and visiting friends and whizzing around with a duster and vacuum when possible. She has also taken the ultimate step in motherhood and wholesome wifeliness by taking up knitting – no doubt prompted by her recent attendance at the local stitch and bitch sessions at the bonsyde – and is slowly working her way through a number of hand-crafted christmas gifts.

There seems to be so much more time since we have moved to do things (like knitting) and most evenings we try to make time to sit down and watch a film after G has had his bath and bed – that is when Cole is not scribing away at his computer (like now, for example). It is amazing since we moved how little we seem to have missed not having a TV signal, save for missing the odd game of fitba.

Otherwise all is dandy – although saying that we have had a few problems with the boiler and radiators. One of the air locks on the bedroom radiator flew off on Saturday whilst bleeding it causing the whole radiator to drain out all over the bedroom and a day or so without heating whilst we tried to find a spare part. We managed to get a part for next to nothing at the local hardware store but it really brought home how expensive this house buying malarky has been, unable to afford a plumber (although few people can given the astronomical hourly rates they charge) and perched precariously on the precipice of our overdraft.

No one ever said it was going to be easy and it has to be said there have been a few moments where we have thought about whether we made the right decision in buying a house, well, I mean helping the bank to buy a house. We knew it was going to be a struggle, particularly the first few months where bills seem to be coming out of the woodwork left, right and centre.

But it has, of course, been worth it. We are all loving our new abode and it is great to have space for guests to stay. We hope to be here for many years to come, at least long enough for Gethin to take as much enjoyment from going up the stairs as he seems to get from going down them. G’night all

05:26pm Monday, 5th November 2007

The Henleys are now back in northern climes after a fun but fleeting weekend in middle England, catching up with the relatives and bidding a fond farewell to aunt Nickie, Ade and the twins as they prepare to away to the southern hemisphere, moving to Brisbane next month.

After the chaos of thursday night’s hospital visit, Friday was a relatively tranquil affair although it was another late night for G with a late flight to Birmingham, Oompa collecting us from the airport. On Saturday C + P had an enjoyable lie-in with Uma and Oomps entertaining G (and vice-versa) before a trip to the park to feed the ducks, indulge in football and frisbee and some hot chocolate before a trip to town. Cole and Oompa popped off to watch the footy at lunchtime whilst P, G, Uma and others went off to explore the Cotswolds. We all then headed off to Nottingham for the farewell bash – yet another late night for G but a fun affair with a host of entertainment (disco, chocolate fountain, magician) for all the family. After some fish and chips and some exhaustive dancing from cousin Samuel, we bid our farewells and headed back to base.

Sunday saw the end of our flying visit south, heading out for a spot of lunch at the old mill, Bagington for some fine culinary fayre, although not the greatest options for vegetarians.

Before we knew it we were airport bound for our return home, less than 48 hours later. We had such a lovely weekend – was great to catch up with the grandparents plus the Withers and the Mortons – and caught up with a whopping 12 relatives, a good dress rehearsal for the family-a-geddon that will ensue at Christmas!!

01:11pm Friday, 2nd November 2007

well, y’all be pleased to hear that G seems to have made an almost immediate recovery from last night’s unwellness/parental paranoia and at 6 this morning was brightly bouncing about! need…more…caffeine…

04:23am Friday, 2nd November 2007

time for the weekly update from henley’s 3.

as previously reported, this last week has seen peta’s birthday, a house warming soiree, visitations from peta’s best friend and brother plus lately a trip to the hospital for wee gethin.

last wednesday peta’s bestest school friend kate popped up from cambridge and by friday was joined by p’s brother martin who had come up from london. on friday eve we all sat down and supped on some lovely fajitas, before settling down to a movie before saturdays exertions

saturday was the house warming and a busy morning was had. cole did a spot of impromptu gardening whilst martin hoovered and kate and peta dashing off on a booze and nibbles run. by 2pm we were fully stocked and ready for guests and slowly they arrived, from far and wide, bringing with them gifts and babies. it was lovely to have such a wide range of people over, particularly lots of toddlers, and by the end of it we had bizarrely ended up with more drink than we started the day with (although were by no means sober) – how civilized is that!!

sadly, the day flew by and before we knew it the last guests were heading home. a quiet night was had and we all went to bed fearful of gethin’s ignorance of the clock change (and the prospect of awakening an hour before we’d like)

fortunately, the party had proved too much for wee g who slept through until a respectable 8am GMT, enough for all to have a lie-in. sadly, on sunday we bid an adieu to our guests kate and martin as they embarked on their long journeys home, but not after some more quality coffee at the boathouse in south queensferry. mmmmmmm.

the rest of the week has hurried past with the exception of the daily slog into work with roads and rail constantly delayed. gethin has proved quite the inquisitive little fella – as usual into everything but it seems that every day there is another trick, some new words or another cheeky expression to his repertoire. alas, he is turning into quite the mummy’s boy of late – at times only placatable by p – which has put extra pressure on p but also makes daddy feel a little left out but such is the life and times of an 18 month old.

on thursday evening G took a turn for the worse after a fun day in edinburgh, with some breathing problems that the helpful folk at nhs 24 thought should be checked out. a mad dash to the hospital in falkirk ensued but after a wee check up all seemed fine with the problem being a cold having got onto his chest quite suddenly. nothing a bout of antibiotics shouldn’t shift. the good news was not enough, however, to deter young gethin from puking up in the car on the way back home. a messy affair leaving our car and g’s car seat adorned with a less than desirable aroma. vomit aside, so pleased all was well – at one point it all got a bit much for paranoid daddy!