A few thoughts

JA is describing how our weekend went but I just wanted to share a couple of extra things.
1) I can't believe how much Emily is smiling at the moment. She really fixes her eyes on you, listens intently to the gibberish coming from your mouth and then cracks into a huge smile. Not only that but she loves to chat back in her best cooing and gurgling. The only downside (when she's on her back) is that she ends up getting hiccups from taking in too much air from her talking!
2) Getting the chance to use the baby carrier has been wonderful. Spending last summer with the Hendricks and seeing Soren enjoy his Bjorn put me in the mood for one of my own! JA kindly bought one for me last Christmas and this summer has provided me with some opportunities to use it. In fact, Emily is strong enought now to face outwards which I'm sure is much more exciting for her. I may even let JA use it the odd time!!
3) I had my strangest ever purchase over the weekend - a J shaped marrow from the Hampton Court organic garden!! It only cost me £1 and as you can see was value for money. What I'm going to do with it I don't know. I think if I give it to Andy he may have some idea on a tasty outcome.

Well, work starts for me next week and I not sure how I'm going to cope after 8 weeks with the 2 ladies. I am going back to a new responsibility and am looking forward to it but the thought of leaving these 2 behind is quite hard. However, they will have a great time together and it will be a start to another new adventure in Emily's life.

Bank holidays with family

This weekend we spent with the McCulloch clan. we went to the a beautiful cottage near Woscester and Leominster. We spent our time playing 'settlers of catan', drinking coffee, enjoying cooked breakfasts, sampling the local produce and putting the worlds to right!

We also visited Hampton Court (Herefordshire) where we enjoyed the beautiful flowers and vegetables ) Jamie bought an interestingly shaped marrow and showered under sunflowers that are taller than him! We especially enjoyed the maze that led to the sunken garden complete with an Indiana Jones style waterfall.

The gardens were great, the organic food in the restaurant tasted delicious. Emily enjoyed her day out... she was transported in her Bjorn carrier (first seen in Canada with a cute Hendricks on board). We had an amazing weekend, the weather was great and it was so nice for Emily to spend concentrated time with the McCulloch clan. She has slept through the night for the first time. Sunday night to Monday morning from 10.30 pm to 6.30 am. Less than 8 weeks old and she has slept through the night! Wow!

That's the end of the bank holiday but we look forward to more time spent with both the McCulloch and Patterson Clans.

trail and error

For the grandmothers

Let sleeping babies lie! Thought our mums would like this one!

Summer days out in the summer sun

We finally made it out yesterday to enjoy the sunshine in Lythm St Annes. ( Katie... we can just imagine you as a teenager walking up and down the high Street) Apart from bringing the average age down to 65, we had a great time lying on the green having a picnic and walking the long promenade. It was also a good chance to try out the baby bjorn, she seems to like it, what a cool way to carry a baby!
She continues to be great, her rash seems to have cleared up. Today the trauma is the BCG, we will fill you all in on how that goes but we are not looking forward to it! Let's hope that she is a lot more chilled out than her parents on this one!

A tiring weekend for Emily ( but lots of fun)

Sleeping alfresco... what a tiring day!
Meeting Lucy

To dummy or not to dummy? that is the question

Emily has found her hand! Not only does she like to look at it a lot, but she has realised that it tastes good. She is now regularly seen with most of her hand stuffed into her mouth and plenty of drool dripping off her chin. If she is feeling less peckish she can manage just her thumb. So here is the question. To dummy or not to dummy? Any ideas? Answers on a postcard please.

We had a great weekend. It was a real honour and pleasure to share Mark and Tomoko's wedding day. It was a truly amazing day with a great mix of traditions spanning across the world. Emily especially liked the farm noises whilst we preferred the heartfelt and entertaining speeches and traditional music from Japan. It was asloe really nice to meet up with friends from near and far and introduce our god-daughter to our daughter. It was a fabulous day, and yet another first for Emily.

We then visited the NYI Youth holiday yesterday. It was quite strange as we haven't been on a youth holiday since we got married. ( 6 years ago) ... We slept on Oswestry floor for one night the year after we got married but I don't think that counts! We were chatting about that and Jamie hadn't missed a holiday until then, having been to 12 consecutive holidays since being 12 years old! It was also quite strange because a girl tapped him on the shoulder and said, "did you do the music at holidays before? I came to Bearwood with a lady called Rosemary Arnold." That really was a blast from the past as the Bearwood holidays were 1994, 95 and 96! We started dating on the 1995 holiday... 11 years ago today in fact! That is enough nostalgia, but it must be said that NYI holidys were the highlight of our summers, they were (and maybe still are) a great way to meet new people, attend great services and to feel recharged in faith.

It was a great but busy weekend, Emily slept from 11 pm through to 5.30 ( Sat night) and 4.30 (Sun). I think she found it quite a tiring time for her... well she really can sleep anywhere! (Photo to follow)

Why can you only upload a max of 3 photos per blog?

Dunham's friendly residents

Emily doing her exercises (complete with rash) on her gym mat

One of the nicest places in Earth ( that I have been to!)

Dunham Massey. Jamie and I have spent some of our best and worst days here, we have had pleasant and not so pleasant conversations, make good and bad decisions, had sun, wind, rain and even snow and it is a place that we just love to visit.

It is only fitting that we would introduce Emily to the National Trust property and see if she likes it as much as us. As she spent most of the time sleeping with her usual 'Hallelujah' style pose we assume that she agrees with her parents.

We also bumped into some Dunham residents who weren't feeling camera shy.
Emily has also been developing her voice and making sounds, as well as her arms and legs flailing around when she is on her gym mat.

It truly is amazing how quickly she is changing and growing. We are both so aware of the blessing of Jamie's long holidays - it has been great to be learning together and sharing the responsibilities in this way. On the sleeping front she is doing well but she really is an early wake up call between 6 - 7.30 am EVERY day!

Sadly for Emily she has developed a red rash on her face, neck and chest, we have been told it may be exczema? (spelling?) but it is too early to diagnose. It looks so red and sore, if we are honset it is so hard not to be neurotic, it looks bad to us but we are sure it will clear up soon. next week she gets her BCG, THEN we will be neurotic!
That's all from us today, a visit to Tesco, a Youth Team meeting, a trip to the 'walk in clinic' to check out the rash, grandmum popping in to reassure us about the rash, and england looking like they will win a friendly against Greece ( it's 4 nil at the mo!)

Just a few shots sorry if you are bored!

Another First and a busy week!

Yes.... we left Emily last night with some keen babysitters ( Grandparents) whilst we went to the cinema to see Pirates of the Carribean. We were gone for 4 hours and really enjoyed the film. It was great to spend some time, just the two of us. We love being parents and being with Emily is just the best, but it was nice to be out without the nappy bag! She had a great time with her grandparents, a walk, a visit to neighbours, a bath, lots of food and a nap! What a lot of activity in 4 hours! We are so blessed to have family so near by.
On the routine front, Emily is catching on quite well. We are not sticking religiously to it, but she is going to sleep between 7-8pm and sleeping until 10 -11 then feeding and sleeping until 3 or 4 then up between 6 and 7! We are hoping that this will continue and that we may even have a full night sleep in the next few months! The feeding is getting better too, she has finally learnt how to drink from a bottle, the drool and sogginess is reducing but it is still pretty bad. About hair... she is still losing it. Every morning there is so much on the sheets, I never knew it would just 'rub' off!
Bathing.. Emily has now found her feet and legs and has begun to kick in the bath. We dread to think how messy this may become.
This week we hope to attend baby massage, baby clinic, Jamie's school on GCSE results day and at the weekend we are so excited about our friends Mark and Tomoko's wedding. Another busy week just gone by with lots of exciting and new things, we look forward to the joys this new week will bring.

Balding!

And it's not Jamie!
Yes the dreaded time is here, Emily has been losing her hair for a few days and now sports a crew-cut most soldiers would be proud of!

Private McCulloch reporting for duty!

We have also tried Gina Ford's routine over the past few days, it is so hard to know what to do to do the right thing, but last night she slept from 7.30 pm till 10pm then 10.30 until 2 am, then 2.30 until 6.30am. The biggest advantage to that was that J and I had evening time. Cleaning, ironing, putting stuff away, having tea etc. Nothing exciting or glamourous!
So we are following the gospel according to Gina, sometimes it works sometimes Emily tells us she doesn't like auntie Gina and rebels! We will see how this goes. We have just over 3 weeks before J goes back to work, we would like an established routine if Emily allows us! I tried giving her her first piano lesson, she seems to like the piano, - she heard a lot of it whilst growing inside!

* It must be said, Emily is a great baby and is doing brilliantly. For all the weightwatchers out there, she was weighed on Tuesday (5 weeks old) and now weighs a healthy and bouncy 9lb 9oz. She has also begun to smile (especially at J) and continues to bring much joy to all who meet her!*

DIARY DATE:

Dedication Service and Celebration ~ Saturday 21st October @ 3pm here in Manchester.

Anniversaries!

Well, yesterday we celebrated 6 years of marriage together. I have to say it was a funny experience because we had both been unable to buy each other a gift or even a card! Such has been the change to our lives with the arrival of Emily that certain other responsibilities have been put on the backburner! We of course will try to make sure we get out together and leave Emily with some willing baby sitters!

Of course we also need to congratulate the Hendricks on their 6 years of marriage together. As they married the day after us it will always be easy for us to remember their special day!! We also need to add a happy birthday to Sara who celebrated this in the middle of moving house! Hope you found some time to get out for an A&W's Rootbeer float or something!

This week... Happy Anniversary to Lucy and David and Esther and Eifion. Enjoy your special days. Anniversaries are special occassions and should be celebrated.

Here are a few shots from the last week or so:

Emily modelling Uncle Dave and Aunty Nic's choice of clothing (good choice!)
New found pleasure in a bubbly bath (bubbles introduced this week!)
Cuddles and smiles with Grandmum and Great-Nana
Fun and amazement in Uncle David and Aunty Jude's funky pressie

Home

We're home!
we had a fabulous visit and got to spend some great family time together with Nana, Judith and David, Emma, Paul and Ellie-May and Delwyn. It was fun to have the car too, to zoom around and visit a few touristy places. Emily is now asleep in her own crib again probably oblivious to her first trip to her granny and grandad's but we and they won't forget it!
All is well after our first trip with a 2 week old baby.(We won't be doing a ten hour journey again for quite a while!)

experimenting

4 weeks today...would you Adam and Eve it?!

Just waking up today realising that Emily has made it to 4 weeks - ALREADY! Where has the time gone? I'm sure only yesterday I was trying to make sure Julie-Ann's pregnant body was getting enough rest. But, instead yesterday we spent at the seaside with our new little daughter!
All nine of us toddled off to Newcastle for the day expecting to enjoy the sun, sea and ice-cream that British seaside resorts offer. We only managed 2 out of 3 and I bet you can imagine which one we missed out on!

A lovely picnic interupted only by wasps, wind and rain!

After a frantic picnic we took a stroll along the promenade (be careful how you pronounce that Gregster!) only to get blown away and rained on yet again (Emma and Paul had just spent £35 on a rain cover for their pram - it was well used today!). We had to make a quick escape in order to find some cover, which we did - an arcade!

After wasting our money trying to win cuddly toys using those grappling machines and shoving endless amounts of 2 pences into a pointless sliding game, we moved on my favourite place ...the ice-cream parlour! (Picture to follow in next blog!)

After enjoying a variety of sweet things we knew we had to get back as the raining was shrinking our options of what to do at the seaside! All money spent we got back into our cars and came home for a BBQ - done on the kitchen grill of course!

So, a quick summary of Emily's first month:

• visited Manchester city centre
• been to Primary and Secondary School
• been to Scotland and Norther Ireland
• been on a ferry
• met her Great-nana and other various extended family members
• watched her first 11-a-side football match
• slept through 4 sermons
• joined the library
• been up Cave Hill (in Belfast)
• suffered through a heat wave
• endured rain (now in Belfast!)
• had a 6-and-a-half hour sleep at night - hallelujah!
• endures Dad's silly songs
• brought lots of smiles and joys

We look forward to the next month - hope it goes a bit slower than this past one!