Week 21 & 22

Well what a busy 2 weeks it has been, hence the delay on uploading the blog - sorry! The Millers were here for the first week and great fun was had all round. We went canoeing on the river Don (Finlay and Annie observed from the bank, making sure that we had the car keys good job as Nik fancied a swim!). Katie and Alistair seemed to enjoy canoeing and made Finlay chuckle with all their splashing. After Finlay had a particularly dirty nappy, Alistair decided he was going to join the army so he didn't have to have babies (he he he!!). We had a gorgeous sunny day at Cruden Bay beach, went to the Stratosphere (a local science centre), the maritime museum and had a meal out at La Tasca followed by a swim to work of all those calories. Finlay is really getting into this swimming lark. Katie & Alistair went down the water slides, but Finlay will have to wait until he is a little bigger.

At the weekend we headed west and saw Stuart & Leslie who kindly gave Finlay a kilt pin ready for his first kilt and Finlay got to see their big yellow digger - not for the eyes of the HSE me thinks. Finlay was full of smiles and chuckled lots when a big bouncy dog came along. Sunday saw a trip to the local village funday where Finlay won his first raffle prize - an extra large BBQ cover (when they called to tell Finlay he had won we had to make excuses why he couldn't come to the phone, in case the gambling commission looked into his winnings). He also had his first taste of solids which went down well and since then he has been enjoying a wee bit of puréed apple, pear, carrot, sweet potato and butternut squash. He is now in his own room and has slept through from 8-6.30 ish on a few nights but other nights Finlay has had us up at least once - every day and every night is different!

The next week saw a trip round to Michelle's for playtime and a lovely lunch and then lots of Mums and babes came round here on the Wednesday for a walk on the railway line. Nik got a shock when he came into the living room to find the carpet covered with 5 hungry babies, and the house seemed very quiet when all the mums and babies had headed home.

Stafford, Lisa and little Emily came up for a long weekend which was great. We spent the best part of a lovely Saturday on Balmedie beach, with the kite surfers looping the loop. There was sand-castle building, shell collecting, poi-spinning and general splashing about. Finlay enjoyed rolling on the blanket and being carried in the sling with Annie acting as his own personal sunshade-carrier.

At the playground Finlay and Emily both sat in a big car, where upon Finlay grabbed the steering wheel, a habit he seems to have acquired recently. We also went to Haddo House and had a lovely walk in the woods, fed the ducks and played on the play area. Nik and Emily rolled down the grassy banks and got very dizzy. Finally, we went to a local play-barn which has a big soft play area - where Emily was in her element. They even had a little area just for under 2s and Finlay loved the big mirror and the wall of spinning titles, which he enjoyed kicking. Annie helped Finlay ride a foam dolphin and Nik took Finlay down the slide on his lap. We all had lots of fun.

Katie and Lisa paddling the canoe

Alistair and Ewen paddling the canoe

Finlay and Katie having cuddles together

Walking in the woods; Finlay loves trees.

Finlay sitting in the digger bucket with Annie in the driver's seat

Nik & Finlay take a walk in the garden

An outing on the beach...

Just like a Jack Vettriano painting.

Finlay & Emily drive the car, Finlay likes steering wheels.

Lisa & Emily help Finlay & Annie collect raspberries

Week 19 & 20

The week started with Granny & Grandad T homeward bound on an epic journey not arriving back in Cornwall to 1.30am having left here at 7.30am.

Claire and Charley and Emily came round and Finlay and Charley were both so well behaved playing on the playmat. Finlay loves rolling from back to front, which makes nappy changes interesting! He now manages to get both arms free most of the time but once on his front hasn't quite mastered rolling back again.

We all headed to Michelle's summer party on Sunday which was lovely we all enjoyed the impromtu folk tunes with Michelle and others jamming on their instruments, and Finlay and all the other babies from yoga particularly liked Michelle playing "Mr Sun" on the fiddle - a song that we all sing at yoga.

Finlay and Christina were very cute holding hands bringing tears to Annie and Lorna's eyes but by the time we grabbed our cameras, a brightly coloured toy had beome the object of attention not each other - How fickle young love is.

This weekend, Finlay enjoyed a lovely sunny day out raspberry picking along the railway line and ever dextorous with his hands Finlay decided he wanted to hold his bottle himself. We also had another trip to the swimming pool this time to the pool in Inverurie, which was great, with better baby changing facilities and it has a seperate shallow training pool for the under 5s which was lovely and warm. So much so it felt like a jacuzzi to Annie after she decided to plunge into the big pool for a few lengths leaving the boys to it.

The Millers arrived safely after their long journey from Englandshire, and FInlay has been loving all the attention he has been getting, with Katei and Alistair both wanting to push his pram.

Finally, we have now bought a travel cot so watch out, we are now ready for travel - the big wide world and untold adventures beckon.

Finlay and Christina chuckling on the mat together

Finlay wearing rattles as arm-bands

"Mmmmm! I like this water, and feeding myself is fun too!"

Family Miller with little Finlay

Week 17 & 18

Finlay weighed in at 13lb 10oz this week. Finlay enjoyed watching lots of people come to watch Blade Runner on the big-screen but didn't think much of the film choice much prefering Mamma Mia which we went and saw at the 'Big Scream' with Claire and Charley. The Big Scream is run by a local cinema for Mums and babes to watch films. Finlay with his love of music was mesmorised by the whole thing. Finlay was then very brave with his last set of jabs no more until 12 months now - yippee!

Friday saw the arrival of Granny and Grandad T all the way from Cornwall who couldn't believe how much Finlay had grown and how active and how much he always wants to be on the go. Finlay has loved all the extra cuddles and attention from Granny and Grandad.

Finlay went to see baby Dylan's christening, and Dylan was looking very cool with trendy trainers sticking out below his christening gown. It seems Finlay associates churches with feeding now, either that or he is always hungry! Hopefully Danny, Donna and Dylan will enjoy lots of apples as Dylan grows-up, from the apple tree we got them (they have nick-named the tree "Magners" - a brand of cider).

Finlay has become a National Trust visitor this week with Granny and Grandad visiting Pitmedden gardens, Haddo house and Crathes castle. He particularly enjoyed the Bon Accord Silver Band at Crathes Castle. He also went on his forst playground ride with Nik, while visiting Stonehaven, although Finlay preferred to kick on his mat, while Annie, Granny and Grandad played putting.

Finlay has discovered that his feet are great fun and loves being on his back reaching his toes. And as a rather determined little boy is still trying to roll from his back to his front managing it sometimes but an awkward arm sometimes gets in the way.

Finlay takes a walk up a long hill at Haddo House

Grandad T, Annie & Finlay take a break on the bench

Finlay has his first ride at a play-park with Nik

Nik, Annie & Finlay at Stonehaven

Finlay loved the Silver Band at Crathes Castle

Finlay having some tummy time, ...I'll soon be crawling!!

Week 15 & 16

Well dear readers, you are a demanding lot aren't you - Sorry there was no blog update last week, things were a little hectic. Any further complaints please address to "The Management c/o Mst. Finlay Esq." - so we'll be updating the Blog fortnightly now.

So Week 15 was a busy week, Saturday saw a lovely long walk along the beach and back, and Sunday we had a family outing to the swimming baths. We would have loved to include a picture of this momentous occasion, but it seems you are not allowed to take photographs in swimming pools anymore (I bet the parents of the lifeguard who told us this rule have photos of him in a swimming pool!!).

Anyway, Finlay enjoyed his first swim, spending about 10-15 minutes in the pool, kicking on his back, splashing on his front, and just generally gapping around at everyone. He would have stayed longer, but we were worried he might get too cold. There was a bit of a panic when the siren for the wave machine started, but we managed to avoid the tsunami and escape to a quite eddy in the pool. So swimming was a big hit!

Week 16 seems to have flown by too. We had lots of gravel delivered for the paths around the veggie patches, and moved half of that during the week, and went around to see Claire, Dougal and Charley to celebrate Claire's birthday. Then on Saturday we packed the car and our bags for a big adventure. We went to see Rachel, Robin, Ewan & Alex near Huntly and had lovely homemade cakes there. We then went up to Elgin and saw Sheila who is a physio (Joe was away on one of his mad-cap adventures). Sheila gave Finlay lovely cuddles and had some "tummy time" with him. This is when he lies face down on the mat, which helps strengthen his neck muscles, and will lead to crawling (but not too soon we hope).

Next we went up to see Matt and Catherine, and Nina the dog. It was here that we had our first night camping! We pitched the 2-man mountain tent and laid out an air-filled roll-mat for each of us - full length ones for Nik & Annie, and an iccle half length one in the middle for Finlay. One problem was that unlike at home where we can draw the curtains, the tent was very light and Finlay lay looking around at this new environment - the inside of a tent. But when he did go to sleep, he slept well, woke early morning, and then after Annie fed him, and gave him some cuddles, he went down again. Sunday morning we packed up and went home to bake a cake, to then go around to Fairy Godmother Ruth's to celebrate her birthday.

Its a good job its a local bank holiday tomorrow, its been such a busy weekend we all need to rest from all the excitement!

Finlay loves his pink pig called "Bacon" and can now grasp it between his two hands

Finlay spends a lot of time trying to eat Bacon - but makes a pig's ear of it!!

Finlay looking cute having a naked kick on the blanket

Finlay and Annie treating themselves to a Saturday morning lie-in

Finlay having a cuddle with Winnie ther Pooh

Finlay with Shiela our friend the physio

Finlay's first laugh
(clicking the image above should allow you to download the video file)

Week 14

Finlay started the week by rolling on his front in the cot 3 times in succession - has no-one told him he is too young for such acrobatics! And Nik and Annie are getting prematurely old because of them.

Monday saw Annie and Finlay off for a lunchtime walk in a big park in town with Ruth & Imogen. Finlay who is quite partial to his lunchtime siestas decided to sleep through the walk having been awake all morning.

At baby yoga Finlay loved the singing and was impressed/bemused with the whole class singing -

'What shall we do with a lazy Finlay...
....roll him over and tickle his belly..."

Another popular song in our house at the moment is "Old MacDonald", who now seems to have started keeping "spitting camels" and aardvarks and a mongoose (make up your own noise!!) - thanks to Stafford, Lisa and Emily!

Finlay is still teething on and off and loves shoving everything in his mouth; we reckon the caterpillar came off worse (see pic). Finlay also likes playing with his pink plush pig, called "Bacon" (which he got from his cousin Caroline & Co.), and has eve n started stroking it like he does the cats.
Shoving everything in his mouth includes Annie, which may be the reason for his sudden growth spurt - he is now up to 12lb 8oz!!! So Finlay is now all of a sudden into 3-6 months clothes especially in length and feet size - don't know who he gets that from certainly not Annie with her size 3 feet.

At the weekend we headed into the big smoke to hear Michelle play viola in a lovely recital at the Cathedral. Finlay loved the music, seemingly thinking it was a lullaby and slept all the way through, only waking for the clapping at the end. Nik wasn't sure whether it was quite the done thing for Annie to breastfeed in a 'house of god', however Finlay didn't seem to mind. We did however wait until we got home to change Finlay's nappy, even though there was a perfect table for changing nappies at the front of the Church!

Produce from the greenhouse is coming on too. We have had two courgettes, lots of strawberries and there are two tiny peppers starting to form along with lots of tomatoes. Hopefully, the potatoes and spinach will be ready for when Finlay starts to wean.

We were all very excited about our first home grown courgette and a hand full of strawberries

Finlay playing with the caterpillar that he got from cousins Katie & Alistair & Co.
"Mmmmm, those antennae look tasty,
I think I'll put them in my mouth"