Breaks from Blogging

Hello!



You may have noticed we haven't posted anything lately. For those who hadn't heard, Kenna had a bit of an accident on Monday the 14th (I think that was the date). While attempting to be motivated and healthy, she decided to go to the gym for a "Gentle Pilates" class. Grannie Troup came over to babysit. Kenna had everything in the car, was about to leave and ran back in the house for her gym card. Going out the door, she turned to get past the screen door, twisted her ankle and completely wrenched her knee. She landed on her side (ah, the advantage of learning to fall in rugby), but had to yell for Grannie Troup to come help. Alisdair got a phone call at work and came back and took her to A & E (no, not the cable channel...here that is Accident and Emergency). 4+ hours later she was sent home....with nothing....except a lot of heavy drugs. The doctor x-rayed it, but all he had to say was "wow, you have a lot of degenerative arthritis in your knee." Luckily, Uncle Michael saved the day with his crutches and Alisdair ordered a knee immobilizer on line (perhaps this is how the NHS saves money!).



For a week she was on the couch unable to walk without crutches. Isla slept next to her in the Moses basket and didn't seem all that bothered (well, would you if your mother was on codiene?). Grannie Troup came up and helped with the dogs and chores, and Alisdair did double duty before work and coming home at lunch times when Grannie had to go to Shetland.



Day by day the knee has gotten better. Monday Isla, Grannie Troup and Kenna went back to the Hospital and the doctor drained it. Today they are going back for an mri scan. They're not sure what is really wrong as they can't separate "old damage" from "new" and comparing it to the other knee is a bit of a laugh as well.



In the meantime, Grannie has continued to win the "World's Best Grandma" Award by cleaning up after dogs, and Kenna and Isla and Alisdair, taking ironing home with her(!) to do and even taking Isla and Kenna to Baby Massage class yesterday. She is a quick study in baby massage and Isla enjoyed it (until she got cold and then she was a grumpy bear!)



We will post more pictures when we take some...but it's been a boring few weeks with us just laying on the couch. Isla now spends time in her stroller, in the house, so Kenna can get her around. We're all being very creative about mom being unable to walk and having a baby around.



Isla is doing well. She didn't mind her 8 week vaccinations (Daddy took her in. He's now quite friendly with the Health Visitor, who I don't think deals with many fathers). Isla only yelped because they straightened her leg (she didn't like that).



She had a 25 minute, indepth, conversation with a pillow yesterday. It was hilarious to watch. She'd babble, then laugh, then go quiet, then coo, then stare intently at the pillow, then babble some more. Here I thought she was only that animated when I gave her some feedback and talked back to her, but it seems pillows work just as well at soliciting responses from an 8 week old! We read "Make Way for Ducklings" and she will laugh when you go through the Ducklings names fast. She atleast looks like she is looking at the pictures as well. (possible because the book is so darned big though).



Off to the hospital again today though!

Thursday Pictures

Thought you might like to see some random pictures.
Here is Charlie, quite proud of herself for figuring out how to get the puppy treat out of Mr. Twinkie. She is getting long legged, and is much more obedient than Kiwi (the other terrier). She will stay with you off a lead, and has learned to "sit" on command. She's a great little pup and will be a good playmate for Isla in a little while. In honour of Derek's (my older brother) birthday yesterday, here is Isla showing her "guns." :)
This was Isla's first High Tea at Gleneagles with Mom, Grandma and Emily when they were here. She's too posh to be impressed by cucumber sandwiches with no crusts...(that and she was sound asleep).
Not only can she growl, but she's learning to whistle! (hahahahaa)
Also, yesterday she was 6 weeks old!

That meant learning to sleep in her own room and so last night she slept in her crib for the first time, rather than her Moses basket. Mom was more upset by the whole arrangement than Isla was, who seemed fine at the prospect of a quiet room with no parents snoring or no wee light on as dad decided to stay up reading! She slept from 22:30 to 3:30 and then to 8:30am when Mom woke her up. Mom on the other hand stayed up until midnight to check that Isla was okay, slept with her flashlight in hand and glasses on, just in case....

The Health Visitor

No picture with this post, but thought I'd let you know that this week the Health Visitor was out and Isla has gained another 7 oz. .Guess she has the Maughan knack for putting on weight! The Health Visitor is very pleased with her growth (she'd gained 6 oz. last week and is now up to 10 lbs. 13 oz.---here they do it in metric, but I don't know what it is in kilos).
Today we also went to baby massage class, which she seems to enjoy. It was our second week going. Last week we learned leg massage. Today it was tummies. She always sleeps a lot after class. I guess she finds it highly relaxing. Then we had a little talk on weening. No venison until she's 6 months old!

She is growing every day and doing fun stuff like smiling and imitating faces (she and Alisdair spend a lot of time sticking out their tongues at each other). It also seems that she has been paying more attention to the dogs than I'd thought. She has a try patch of skin on her head and when I put creme on it, she began to growl at me. It was really funny. Hopefully she won't adopt all of the dogs behaviour, as Charlie's habit of leaving "curly sticks" in corners might be one that is frowned upon when Isla starts school! hahahahaa.

For those of you who are wondering, Charlie is doing very well too. She is getting very long legged and learning to walk on her lead with the rest of the "pack." As long as she stops eating Alisdair's garden plants, she will be just fine!

The Forest of Arden

The Forest of Arden Country Club is set on 1000 acres that has lots of old oak trees on it and lots of wildlife. After our adventures on Saturday, we took Isla for a walk through the herds of fallow deer, and the golf course (play had ended for the day). Alisdair got lots of good wildlife pictures and wants to go back for more. There are lots of pheasants, red legged partridge, deer and other birds running around the place. It's a beautiful place and if you don't see the mountain of a landfill just behind it, you'd swear you were in the middle of no where, instead of 4 kilometers from Birmingham Airport!

It's not a cotton ball

Isla's first "face to face" with snow (from the windowsill)...she wasn't that bothered...

SNOW!!!

Who would have thought it, but in driving south, Isla had her first snow storm! We woke up on Sunday morning to snow....in the courtyard and everywhere! By the time we went out to take pictures a lot of it had melted (and we had to put up with all the wingeing men at breakfast complaining about their tee times on the golf course being cancelled). Isla wasn't that impressed, and unlike her New Hampshire relatives and friends we had to walk around a bit to find bits of ground that still had enough to photograph.

"Sit up and look around. I didn't drive all this way for you kids to sleep."

(My sibilings will be able to cite the source of the above tag line. :) )
Anyhow, for those of you who think we're nuts for traveling with a small baby, Isla is the perfect traveling companion. She slept for 5.5 hours down to Birmingham (only waking up just on the outskirts of town) and then she slept from Birmingham to outside Glasgow on the way home on Sunday night. Car rides tend to put her to sleep and coupled with her binki, she's perfect! She did miss some parts of the trip, but I figure that we can show her pictures of her being places (while her admission charge is still free) and then she won't feel like she missed out on stuff when she gets older. BRILLIANT idea! The mirror in the car (second picture) gives us a perfect view of when she is awake and not, but the distortion does mean that when replacing her "dummy" she often gets it put in her nose or eye as we attempt to find her mouth....oh well, one of the many reasons she will probably need counseling when she's older! :)

The UK's Hershey Town

As the trade show didn't start until Sunday, Saturday we headed off on some family exploring. We went to Cadbury World! Bringing a baby is a brillant idea as you don't pay for infants under 4, but their parents still get their "share" of the kids chocolate...that meant THREE dixie cups of liquid chocolate after the Essence show, and THREE bags of "snacks" for the tour! Here we see Isla and Alisdair infront of the main window, Alisdair discussing what to do with roadkill deer on his mobile while we stood in line, and Kenna's efforts at chocolate writing on marble in the "hands on" chocolate room. A good time was had by all...and Isla hasn't been too ill from the chocolate that mommy ate...

Lovely Brum

Here is a shot from out in front of the hotel with the lovely spring flowers. Birmingham is only a few hundred miles south of Scotland, but their flowers were in bloom and it was much greener than here.
We also did lunch at the "Mailbox" in the city centre (where Fashion week was going on with Kelly Osborne and Trinny & Susannah). This is Isla with the Canals behind her.

Urban Camo

Being culturally sensitive, Isla opted for some "Urban Camo" and wanted to fit in while in Birmingham. This pink Boston Red Sox outfit was the nearest thing she'll ever own to a shell suit, so she put the "hoodie" up and fit in nicely with the natives...

Isla's First Road Trip

This weekend we loaded Isla into the car and headed south to England. (and for those wondering, no, you don't need a passport to go from Scotland to England, nor is there a border check).

Alisdair had a trade show in Birmingham and Mommy and Isla decided to tag along. We stayed at the Forest of Arden Country Club Marriott, just outside Birmingham and here is Isla, upon arrival, enjoying the bed, breakfast menu and movie selection!

Little Bunny Fu-fu

Grandma Maughan gave this nightshirt to Isla before she was born. In the hospital it was the source of great hilarity among the nurses and great frustration for a baby who loves her hands. As she has grown out of most other nightshirts, and this one has snaps on the neck, I put it on her after a long day in her hunting camo (she carries her bunny around with her---sort of sick, but slightly funny). Her frustration now at not being able to get at her hands is a little less and she is growing nails that she scratches herself with. It's also just funny to sing "Little Bunny Fu-Fu" to her and watch her flail about with her rabbitt hands! Plus, the bunnies can be folded back and now that her arms are a little longer, that seems to be the better option.

Isla's first encounter with the Police

Today Isla went for lunch with Jim and Malcolm from Central Scotland Police who run the CCTV suite ...(where Kenna works) and Peter from Stirling Council. They got a good laugh out of her camo outfit and she was very well behaved the whole time (and mostly asleep). "Uncle Jim" even showed his dynamic babysitting ability which may be called on at some future point.

Maybe the Police can start a creche and Jim can make that his next assignment!