Addiewell

Today Braehead toddlers went to softplay at Addiewell. Becky came along too with Aunty Laura. Neive loves spending time with her big cousin and copies everything she does. Namely spinning round and round and round a soft play pole.

Even though it's termed soft play Neive hit her face two times while they were playing. We are all a little bit grumpy just now as everyone in the house has a cold. Today was the first dose of Calpol for baby Beth. Eventually Neive's whinging became too much and we called it a day. Aunty Laura got to spend lots of time getting cuddles from Beth though whilst I ran around after Neive.

Laura and Becky came back to ous for play but Neive went straight to bed for her nap. Even when she woke up she remained a grumpy poo! We took Laura and Becky home and swung round to see Alison, Isla and Lee Lee. It was great catching up with them as they've been on holiday for a month to Texas, Las Vegas and Mexico - lucky things.

Mirror

Whilst Neive was in the bath, Beth and I were standing in front of the mirror watching her play. I noticed Beth must have found something that was really amusing as she was giggling and smiling lots. Turns out she just noticed herself in the mirror for the first time and just couldn't stop laughing. I managed to take a quick photo of her reflection and this is the toothy gumsey smile I was talking about. Ultra cute!

J K Rowling

I am very excited by this...... Neive and Beth got a present from J K Rowling. A signed book "The tales of Beedle the bard". Neive loves books and already has over 150 in her collection. It could be that we love books and are forcing that on her. So i'm keeping the book on the top shelf of our bookcase until they are both old enough to read it without marking it. I'm not completly mean we read it to Neive at bed times so she can still enjoy the all the stories of wizards and muggles.

Great Granny and Great Granpa

We went to my (mummy) grannys and granpas yesterday to show off Beth. The snow had us all stranded in the house over christmas and we never made it through. Now that everythings back to normal we decided to catch up on our visiting. Neive decided both her and Beth were to wear pretty dresses. They both looked gorgeous.

As soon as Neive saw their cat (Heidi) she was obsessed. The poor thing got chased around the house as Neive loves animals and was desperate to pat her.



I think great granny and Grampa were glad we visited and we'll try and get back sometime soon.



Next we went to my mums brothers house. He married my dads Aunt so its was hard explaining the relation. It's all legal by the way. They met at My mum and dads wedding. They also had cats which was great at keeping Neive entertained. As uncle Don doesn't always keep too good this was the first time Neive had ever met them and was as good as gold all day. We had a great time catching up.

Weekend

On Friday we went to visit Caitlan. Caitlan and I played brilliantly all day. We were painting and dancing and spent at least 30 minutes chasing each other round the coffee table in the middle of the room. Caitlans mummy even made us a delicious lunch so I was so spoiled. When Dad came home he took me for a night walk through the woods with a torch. This was great fun and I loved the flash light and shadows. When dad came home he was really cold and couldn't get a heat. Funnily enough the next day he was loaded with the flu. He didn't wear his hat and gloves to the woods like mummy said! So all day Saturday and Sunday Daddy stayed in bed ill. Mummy took Beth and I to grannys house to play on Saturday and shopping on Sunday to get my cousins birthday present. Zack will be a very very old six soon and i'm practising the happy birthday song for him.

Neive x

Teeth

Beth got a visit from the childsmile people to talk to her about taking care of your teeth. Not that she needed it as Neive always tells Beth if you don't brush your teeth they fall out! - God knows how I'm going to explain why her 1st teeth are falling out. Beth got a green toothbrush and Neive was showing her how to use it. Althought I think Beth will need to start brushing her teeth soon as she's started teething already!

Beth days

Wednesdays are Beth days. Neive goes to nursery and i get to spend the day playing with Beth. I try not to coo over Beth too much in front of Neive - as I don't want her ever to get jealous. So I save all my cooing for our alone time. Today she rolled over from her front to her back all by herself. She's getting reaaly strong. I took around 100 photos trying to get a good one of her goofy smile. It's to die for. Basically, Anyone gives Beth attention she hits them with the biggest toothless smile. But she must have known what I was up to as all i got was a tongue stuck out at me!



Fraser and I are constantly argueing about the colour of her eyes. Just now they are bright blue and i'm convinced they will stay blue whereas F is adamant they'll go brown like Neives. It takes a year for them to change so we wont know for a while. I don't mind waiting. With Neive I was always desperate for her to learn the next thing or move to the next stage. But with Beth I can't believe how big she is getting already and she's only 2 months old! Looking at Neive just reminds me she's not a baby anymore - as she like to point out so frequently "I'm a big girl now mummy"

Playdates

On Monday George, Suzzanna and Rosa returned from their trip to London. Yeah - it's been over a nonth and Neive really missed Suzzie. They came round for a play date. They played brilliantly with each other until Neive stole a toy Suzzie was playing with. Suzie is very very laid back little girl and is constantly getting toys taken off her by other kids, or her food, juice etc. She always shrugs and takes it. Obviously George is a little worried she's too soft and wont ever stick up for herself. Well this time she gave Neive a good old slap for taking her toy. Now on the one hand we are meant to give Suzie into trouble but we just couldnt help giving her a wee pat on the back. Well done Suzzie! p.s Suzzie has been on the receiving end of Neives hits for a long time so don't feel too sorry for her.

Yesterday we went to Zara's house to play in her new playroom. Neive has been brilliant playing with other kids recently and it was Zaras turn to grump at Neive playing with her toys. After lunch we got ready to leave. I took Beth to the car to strap her in and came back for Neive. I must have been 60 second - but when i came back to the house everyone was in tears! i mean everyone. Neive had jumped off of the sofa and banged her head. Now when Neive experiences bad pain she holds her breath and passes out. Charlene knew it could happen but got the fright of her life and was blowing frantically to get her to start breathing again. So by the time i get back Neive is screaming blue murder scaring Zara and Charlene is in tears from fright. I didn't know who to hug first.

Holes

Friday night and sleeping was not an option. Beth has been very grumbly at nights and eventually fell asleep around 1 am. Then Neive woke up around 3 am and was sick all over her bed - Poor Sausage. No idea why as she felt fine. So Fraser takes the dirty sheets downstairs and trips on the top stair. Falls down the whole flight of stairs and crashes into the stair gate at the bottom with an almighty bang! As I said to Neive I have never seen an adult fall down stairs unless they were drunk but now she beleives us when we say that stairs are dangerous and to be careful. We had to strap Frasers toe up because he smashed it and now we have gained a new hole in our wall as Fraser punched it on the way down!. Every time we go upstairs or downstairs Neive like to point out the hole and recount the story. So we all crawled back to our beds around 4 am and tried to get some shut eye. On the up side Neive didn't wake up till 8.30 instead of her ususal 5.30.

Snow Days

The snow has us cooped up in the house. Our car can't get out of the drive and it's too cold to take Beth outside for any length of time. Today we've played with stickers, colouring, painting, decorating cookies, watched 101 Dalmatians, made 24 pretend cups of tea, singing and dancing. Thankfully as I was running out of things to do Caitlan came over for a play date. Neive must have asked her 30 times "are you my friend?". She's obsessed with who is and is not her friend and will list each day who she likes. Two year olds are a fickle lot as people keep getting moved from friend to not my friend by the hour.




Potty training going real well. Neive got a note home from Nursery yesterday saying she was an excellent girl at going to the toilet. Well done Neive! and for the first time ever she came home saying Amy was her friend. hallelujah! She has been going to nursery over a year now and every day Amy is in with her.



Beth got her first set of jags on Tuesday. No temperature but having grumps at nights. She was a trouper though and after the first shrill she was fine. Lets hope they are all as easy as that.

"Hocuspocuscannaefocusfreethegeeniedinnaebeameanie"

Yesterday we went to see Aladin the pantomine at the kings theartre. I got Fraser to park next to the theartre royal (as I got mixed up with the theartres) and we had to walk ten blocks to get to the right one. This would not normally be a problem but the streets were covered in ice and we had to skate there. We met up with Neive and Beths Granny and Granpa Coyle and their cousins Ben, Zac and Rebecca. We all had a great time. The set, music and singing was brilliant. It was great to see Neive singing along and shouting out "he's behind you!!!!!". We've been to quite a few different types of shows but this has been the best at keeping Neive's attention. Beth was even transfixed.

Zac couldn't keep in his chair and had to stand up and dance to every song. Wishae Washae "the buttons character" came over and squirted Zac with a water gun which was his hightlight but Becky got wet too and this was her worst bit. Granny Coyle brought along a horrendous amount of sweets, chocolate, popcorn which was Neives highlight. They then got ice-cream!. Got a taxi back to the car park so Fraser would stop grumping at how far we had to walk after the show.

Beth

Beth is two months, two weeks and 1 day old. She is a great baby and very loved by her big sister. If Neive has to go out of the house there is only one question on her lips - "Baby come too?!". If the answer is no then she wont go. She also loves to teach Beth everything. From words to how to use her toys. In fact beth never gets a minutes peace so sleeping at nights is brilliant. Beth only wakes up once during the night normally as she is totally exhausted. Its only when she has bad wind that she'll be grumpy and keep me up.

Comedian in the making

MUMMYS POST -

This morning Neive told me her first joke.

Neive - "muummmmmmy - knock knock!"

Me - "Who's there?"

Neive - "Granpa"

Me - "Granpa who?"

Neive - "Grampa Dougie and Granny Joan." Then she bursts in to a fit of giggles!

She got the gist of it but - honey you need to work on your punch line!

She also got her first pet as a christmas present from her cousins. She named it "Bun" the hamster (it's a toy - thank god). This is the first thing Neive has ever named all by herself. Neive insits that Bun is to sleep in her bed at night.

New years day!

Uncle Graeme and Aunty Kylie came over to Grannys house today for a big family dinner. Aunty Kylie has our baby cousin in her tummy - just 4 months till we met them for the 1st time. I'm sure I'll love her just as much as I love my baby sister, zac, ben and Becky. They gave Becky and I pretty dresses for christmas and we twirled for ages - till we got really really dizzy. We had dinner and then went out to the back garden to light lanterns! They were the prettiest lights and we were to make a wish which will come true for the future year. So tommorrow I should be getting a really big bar of choc choc!

I can't wait!!!!!

Hogmanny

Tonight mummy and daddy took us to stay at grannies and granpa coyles house. We had a brilliant time. Aunty Laura and our cousins were there too!. Granny has a Wii and there was constant fights to see who was going to get on it next. Zac won mostly! Just when we thought it was bed time mummy and daddy told us to put our coats on - cause we were going out to see a bonfire or "firebomb" as zac called it. We drove up to the high street and Daddy almost got stuck in the snow. It was very cold outside but there was a massive bonfire which kept us nice and toasty.
Aunty Ali met us there to wish us a happy new "ear". Once we got back to grannies I had to go to bed because I was so tired but Beth stayed up with Zac, Ben and Becky to see the bells. They were singing and dancing. It was lots of fun.