The Newest American

Yesterday was a GREAT adventure. Isla, Grannie and Kenna headed into Edinburgh to register Isla's birth with the American Embassy. It was an early morning, a car ride and a train ride to get to the city and then a taxi ride up the hill. The Consular Services were less than impressive (and Kenna felt a tiny wave of relief that her "dream" job with the US Embassy wasn't quite as "dreamy" as she had it made out to be, so giving up that opportunity 4 years ago doesn't feel as bad now!)
Once Alisdair sends in his form that gives consent for Isla to have a US Passport, everything can be processed. After that, we headed back down into the shopping district and explored John Lewis'. Starting in the toy section, Grannie gave Isla a Peter Rabbit, but it was decided that between Alisdair and Michael's sense of humour, it would soon end up either with a cross-hair on it or as part of soup. Isla found great delight in the toy section and squeeled with glee when Grannie showed her a doll named Emily. It was decided that was a keeper and Isla now has her first dolly! She also has "Peeka Farm" (a cloth book) and some great summer clothes. Alisdair is slightly scared at how delighted, content and happy Isla was in a shopping premises. He may be in for big trouble if that trend continues!
The three Troup ladies continued down Princes Street to pick up a few things and then over to the Art Galleries for some lunch. The weather in Scotland continues to amaze with blue skies, fairly warm temperatures and the sun. It's been almost three weeks now!

New Toys

This week Isla got a new toy...and so did Charlie. Charlie wasn't as keen to "play" in her box, but it was sure helpful when Alisdair was cleaning the floors to have a place to keep Charlie. I told Charlie my mom always threatened to put me in a box....

Charlie isn't looking as "puppy" like anymore, but is still cute. Alisdair also brought home the clippers and gave Kiwi a massive shave. She looks SO much better and that hopefully means less doggy hair on the floors.
Isla also got a new toy. A doorway jumper! She is still trying to figure it out, but seemed to enjoy "hanging" and pushing with one foot to make herself spin around. She's super keen on kicking in her tub and in the pool, so we thought she'd enjoy this.
She went swimming again this week, and stayed up WAY past her bed time, but the pool is so warm, it's hard not to spend a long time in it. It's about the same temperature as the bath. She's getting more control over her head and arms every day and is smiling away at everyone. She can definitely see longer distances now and is noticing more and more things. We took her to the Scottish Deer Centre today and wrapped her up in her camo suit that was so big on her the day we brought her home. It fits better now, but is still big. She's almost too tall for her pram and moses basket too! It's a good thing she's happy in her crib at night. She slept 12 hours the other night and this morning, woke up at 5:30, but talked to herself until about 6:15 and fell asleep again. We're trying to get her into a predictable pattern now so we can all get a little more settled and be able to go out.

We're excited to have everyone see her when we go to NH next week and Kenna's only mildly scared of the trip. Between Isla's first flight and Kenna's hobbling it will no doubt be an adventure!

A Trip to the Highlands

Yes, that is Isla's little pink sock sticking up there in the pram. On Saturday, after a long week in the house, we decided to drive up to the Highland Wildlife Park near Inverness. It was meant to give mom a break from being a "shut in," Isla a chance to sleep in her favourite place--her carseat, and dad an opportunity to get some new pictures for the next catalogue. We quickly remembered that roadtrips with a baby aren't as "quick" as they used to be, but we finally got out of the house and only had to make one stop to calm a screaming sproglette. The weather has been glorious all week and so the animals in the park were "uncomfortably warm"...

The wild boar piglettes were all sleeping in the sun, except one who was making a pretty determined effort at tunneling out of the enclosure.
Alisdair decided to do a Britney Spears and kick it old style, by letting Isla drive...Hahahaha. Part of the park is a drive thru (no, not like Dunkin Donuts), where you roll down your windows and drive through the bison and yaks and deer. Isla was tired of her seat by that point and considering the road was dirt, it's a one way track and you never do more than about 2mph, we let her ride upfront and help dad drive, while mom took some pictures. Here she's mirroring dad's technique at driving...either that or getting ready to give a one fingered salute to the tourists from the continent. :)
The red panda was cute and Alisdair had the patience to wait until it turned around. Mom was busy hobbling around the paths and so we didn't make record time on our visit. Dad had a lot of waiting time on his hands....but we did get a discount for mom being "disabled" (the man at the booth's idea, not Kenna's lame attempt to save £2) AND we were told we could drive our car through the walking bits! How's that for "accessability!"

The baby ducks were another big hit. They walked across the road infront of our car, but Alisdair caught this one just as it ws jumping in the pond. Gotta cool off from all that oppressive Scottish heat!

"Uncomfortably Warm"

Kenna used to have colleagues at the Council who loved to talk about "uncomfortably warm" days in Scotland during the summer. From under her felt cardigan she would roll her eyes and and shake her head at their ridiculousness...But, in unseasonably warm weather, it was in the 70s again today! Isla, Grandma and Kenna took off to the (indoor) pool at Gleneagles and Isla had her first swimming adventure. She wasn't as excited as mom thought she would be, but she didn't scream either...so that was good. We stayed almost 30 minutes and she took turns laying in a baby float and just kicking about. Luckily it was mother/toddler class so there was plenty of noise and despite the sign at check in that the jacuzzi wasn't working today, Isla got her own bubbles going and seemed to enjoy that bit a lot...In getting her dressed this morning, we decided it was best to use her summer clothes, as this could be the only summer we get, so we put her in her most summery outfit that Auntie Erin gave her.
Once we got back from the pool, we sat around on the patio with Charlie (who somehow found a golf ball in the garden) and enjoyed the lovely weather until Alisdair got home from work and we had a cookout.
Charlie and her golf ball. She likes to lay in the heather and she has a little friend, a bumblebee, that she always tries to scare out and then eat from this particular clump. Charlie is a terrier, but we're trying to teach her a bit of retreiver tendencies. She's slowly getting the idea she's supposed to bring things BACK to you. If you note, she has a raccoon tail that we think is pretty funny. She still fits through the fence and runs out to say "hello" to everyone who comes down the path. She's a big hit with most people, but there are some giant poodles and a few springer spaniels who have put her in her place.

Springtime in Scotland

Today we took off to Glasgow with Kenna's friend Anne. Being highly cultured (and expecting typical Scottish weather), we headed indoors to the Kelvingrove Art Museum....it ended up being a GLORIOUS day, in the mid 70s so we had to break out Isla's floppy summer hat and ended up walking around Kelvingrove Park. Scots are so excited when they see the sun, they tend to strip off and all lay out, the result being a lot of lobster red Brits in pain the next day...but darn it, it's always worth it...you never know when that big yellow thing in the sky will reappear! At 1pm every day there is an organ recital in the Kelvingrove. I'm told the organist caters to the crowd. No "Roll out the barrel" today, but we had a little taster with "The Bonnie banks of Loch Lomond" and the "Star Wars" theme. Isla thoroughly enjoyed it.
We kept Isla from getting her first sunburn, and daddy's decision this morning to not put socks on her turned out to be quite fortuitous! She enjoyed a little time outside without a blanket or an umbrella!
The West End of Glagsow is lovely and right now all the trees are in bud.
The Kelvingrove has all kinds of cultural exhibits...Charles Rennie MacIntosh, Ancient Egypt displays, world history, and their Elvis, who is probably the most loved.

Monday Mornings

Hello! It's a lovely bank holiday Monday here in the UK, but Bushwear is still open. Isla and mommy are off to Glasgow today. In exciting news, Isla slept in her own crib last night from 10:30pm until 6am this morning!! HOORAH! In other news, she decided the best time to "cleanse" herself after four days was on daddy's desk at work at 7:30am. His colleagues were not amused :) but as he's the boss, they couldn't be too grossed out..hahahaha

Catching Up

Isla had her first manicure! Well, she woke up one morning looking like this and with three scars on her face, mom decided that it was time to file down those fingernails. It was much less difficult (and dangerous) than trying to cut the nails or bite them off and she didn't mind at all. As Mom and Isla are "one floor" bound, they spend the morning upstairs, until Grannie Troup comes to supervise the move to the downstairs. Kenna is getting more mobile, however and on Friday put Isla in the baby carrier on her front and slid down the stairs on her bum so they got to change parts of the house all on their own. But, back to the picture caption, while mom is in the shower, or pottering around, Isla hangs out on the bed. She's made good friends with this pillow and regularly has indepth and entertaining conversations with it that have lasted up to 25 minutes!
Isla is also quite the charmer. She smiles quite regularly and makes faces to get attention. She has a whopper of a pout, complete with lower lip quiver and 1/2 moon upset eyes, but this is her grin.
She is getting more and more attentive and noticing things around her. Not only does she love the wallpaper in the Wyoming room (it's Ralph Lauren, what's not to like about it?), but she also is taking more notice of the dogs. Here is her attempting to play with Charlie who had taken up a spot on mom's good leg. (yes, that's the knee brace on mom's other leg) Charlie doesn't mind the attention, but did get kicked off when she got too interested in Isla's sock and wanted to start chewing on it.
Incidentally, the mri on Kenna's knee came back and the doctors think she re-dislocated her kneecap. In the process she also bruised the patella and femur, stretched some ligaments and possibly chipped off another bit of the patella. (....but they really couldn't tell what was new damage and what was old..) The good news is she won't need surgery and is just going to physiotherapy once a week to try and get it better. Hopefully she will be driving again in the next few weeks (the problem with the UK only having manual cars) and getting back to the gym. Grannie Troup, Kenna and Isla are planning their first trip to the pool next week to introduce Isla to the water and start rehabing Kenna's knee. She is hobbling much more effectively than before and with the brace on is down to one crutch, or using Isla's pram like a zimmer frame (walker)...Everyone is adjusting well.