Our 6th month old

Where has the time gone?? Isla is 6 months old now! She is over 16 pounds and growing every day. She is becoming much more fun and interactive, although more work too.

(Sorry, no pictures this post, but I will get some put up soon.)

The rain has let up a little in the past few weeks, but we are still sick of being indoors and it seems like it is October, not August here. Erin, Kenna and Florence all went to the Edinburgh Tattoo the Monday Erin was here, and except for the Americans being booed by the crowd, (when they go around and have different nationalities cheer when their country is named) it was a nice evening. The rain even stayed off long enough for the whole performance to finish (Not that rain would be a reason to cancel it). Erin made it safely back to Ireland and Salt Lake and is now back to the world of her university teaching schedule.
Now that we are back in Scotland and our summer o travelling is over and Isla has reached the "magical" age of 6 months, she has started eating solid foods. Her favourite seems to be peaches and porridge (sometimes together, usually separate). She's not so fond of rice, and finds apples a bit too tart for her liking (we've been feeding her the applesauce we made two years ago at Drumdruills and has been in the freezer). She makes some hilarious faces though when she doesn't like a food.
She has another tooth as well....a fang really...it's a side incisor on the top right. It's quite funny, but she can bite quite hard, and that's not so funny.
She is very independent when it comes to meal time and likes to have something in her hand to prove "she's in charge"....that usually means a spoon or a biscuit of some sorts. Charlie LOVES mealtime and has learned if she just sits under Isla's highchair and is patient, she'll end up having something thrown at her. It's dead handy for Kenna as there is less mess to clean up!
Isla has now decided that sitting in the stroller isn't enough. She likes to yelp when she wants out or sit up and talk to anyone and everyone that walks by. Today we went to the Home Show in Glasgow and she made lots of friends as she talked to herself the whole time. (She also loves "blingy" stuff....door handles, dog tags, mirrors and has a great time noticing the floor or ground when we travel.) She continues to be a very content baby.
She is quite good at rolling onto her stomach, although gets very frustrated when she can't get back over and has a habit of throwing up when she is on her stomach and then falling face first in it...not very nice.....we're hoping she gets a little better at not throwing up.

Alisdair has been off hunting or helping gamekeepers with their grouse and we're getting ready for the next big Bushwear catalogue to hit stores and post boxes in a week or so. The new shop is coming along nicely and should also open soon (the upstairs. The downstairs is already open).

We've also bought a new house. We sign the papers on the 31st of October and will move within Blackford to the Bank House. It is a very cool old house that was once the Royal Bank of Scotland (complete with an amazing safe that has marks from the old oil lamps they used). It is much bigger than our present house and we're excited to have some room so we stop tripping over baby stuff. No one ever warns you when you have kids how much "stuff" comes with them. We went to a friend's house up the Sma Glen on Friday and discovered that Isla likes swings....so in the new house we will have a tree in our garden and that means we'll probably buy a swing...it's amazing the stuff you can accumulate!

That is all the excitement for now. I will put up some Isla eating pictures...but with the warning that they are a little gross as she is a messy eater!

The Emerald Isle

On Thursday Isla and Kenna packed their bags and headed off to Ireland to meet up with Erin (Kenna' sister). The flew Ryan Air (always an adventure) to Dublin, rented a car and drove to Galway (via a few town thanks to a sat nav that was a little more creative than they'd hoped). They saw beautiful countryside and stopped to stretch their legs at the Glendeer Petting zoo. (not on anyone's Top 10 list of things to do in Ireland, but it was fun). Isla thought the goats, imu and cows were great fun and they liked her just as much.

From Galway, it was North to Cong to live out every John Wayne fan's dream....visiting the village they used to film "The Quiet Man." They took a walking tour (in the rain..it rained the entire four days). The town is next to Ashford Castle (so there was a place for the actors to stay) and every person in town had a little "claim to fame" back in the summer of 1951, when the movie was filmed.
From there it was off to the Cliffs of Moher, for some great scenery and more rain. Erin braved the elements, while Isla and Kenna sat in the car, changed diapers and ate dinner. The pictures show it was a beautiful site though! They spent two night in Limerick and used it to drive to Cork where they went to Blarney Castle.
Due to the problem in brining prams up a castle, Kenna and Isla stayed at the bottom while Erin went up, kissed the Blarney Stone and met hundreds of other American tourists. It was a lovely walk and nice to be out of the car.
Speaking of the car, Isla was so tired of her car seat, we learned that the back was just big enough for her to roll around and play with her mobile. We also went to a few family cemetaries that Erin had looked up and ended up talking to one town historian (just before he milked his cows) who gave us lots of information about the Longs of Templemartin.
We flew back to Scotland from Shannon on Sunday (again on Ryan air....not always a good adventure!) and have been letting Isla sleep ever since to catch up. She is a great little traveller, but even she has limits of patience....so today we've walked most places and let her sleep as long as she wants!

Other Excitement in Baby World

I promised a picture of Isla in the blooming heather, but only once it stops raining, and for that reason, there is no heather picture in this lot. Instead, there are more pictures of Isla learning the joys of eating solid food. Emily brought over Zwebieback toast...which Isla was happy to try out, but wasn't overjoyed with. She does, however enjoy her new highchair and it's "super-spring harness" that flies open with the push of one button (we assume to rescue choking children, but it's good for a laugh, to those that aren't choking). She also likes her snazzy new bibs that have full arms on them so she can be as messy as a 5 and 1/2 month old can be. Her official first food was rice cereal. She has a little trouble figuring out why you can't try and suck on a spoon, but eventually got the hang of just gumming the paste until she swollowed it. We didn't stay inside all day Sunday, as we had another new toy to go tryout, Isla's backcarrier. Alisdair, thanks to Bushwear, found this little item in a catalogue and ordered it, with all the gadgets and gizmos that go along with it. Raincap attached, we headed out on a family walk on Sunday of the hills above town with three dogs, a mommy and daddy in appropriate rain gear and Isla, snug as a bug in a rug on Alisdair's back. The rain and wind didn't seem to bother her at all and she generally got a kick out of being so high up. You can just see her little pink hat from behind Alisdair's head. Alisdair just had to remember how tall he was in the house and be careful when walking through doorways and under lights. We had a few near misses.
Yes, we haven't forgotten about our "other" baby in the house (who isn't so little anymore). Charlie is learning the benefits of having a baby about (and for those of you who are mortified by this picture, it was a bottle teat that doesn't work and we threw away once Charlie had touched it)...Isla as well is more and more interested in the dogs everyday. On our daily walks of the games park she watches them like a hawk and giggles at Charlie's incessent yapping as she chases Cassie as fast as her little terrier legs will take her.
Speaking of little feet, Isla has found hers and no sock is ever on for more than 2 minutes. She LOVES her feet and falls over when you're trying to change her diaper as she holds both feet (while on her back) and then tips..

Visiting Dad at work day

Not that we ever have days where we do nothing here in Scotland, Saturday Alisdair took off to work, bright and early to finish working on the new shop. Around lunch time Kenna and Isla went down to check on progress and bring the "workmen" some lunch. Isla sported her matching Carrhart overalls to Alisdair's and borrowed Paul's boots. (the new floor hasn't been finished, so everyone wears socks until it is stained and sealed).
Paul, the joiner, had a good time playing with Isla and she enjoyed trying to take away his pencil, but he was already to give her back when it was time for a nappy change.
I think we've found our next babysitter!
The work continues on the upstairs shop, but for now, the downstairs is open and looking better and better each day! The rough cut boards were Alisdair's idea and make the shop smell great!

Milestones

Hello!
No trips this weekend. The only thing that has travelled this week has been our house keys arrived by post back from Paris! (a helpful thing)..
We're just catching our breath, getting ready for shooting season to start next week, drying out our shoes and wrapping ourselves up (it's been a cold, wet week in Scotland!) Isla has made the most of her lack of time in a car seat and has figured out all kinds of new tricks. Her latest joy is laying on her stomach. She used to HATE "tummy time" but with a few strategically placed pillows, her strong head and neck mean she can sit this way for quite awhile. As you can see on "new sheet day" she supervised the cleaning of our bedroom and unmaking the bed. She was happy as a clam! She is wearing her "4th of July headband". Her other fun is her "activity centre." In a step of remarkable maturity, unlike what I used to do to my younger siblings, I have left Isla alone and let her figure out things by herself. She has now discovered how to spin the circles, play with the puppet, she tries to attack the star, and she can press all the buttons on the round "noise making" bit. If you press the animal once, it makes the animal noise, twice, it says the animals name in English, three times and it is the name in Spanish, four times and it plays a tune. She bangs away and then tries to get her mouth close enough to talk back to it (like it's some sort of drive thru speaker at Taco Bell)....a genius in the making I tell you! She also accidently figured out she can spin the seat around and it is much more fun if her feet hit the ground and she can push off. You can see she has her doggie "shoes" on. She is very gifted at getting shoes off as well. When we first bought this, her feet didn't hit the bottom...now she can stand flat footed and push off.
She spends more time watching EVERYTHING now. (Feeding can take a lot of time!) Remarkable as it seems, Kiwi is the calmest house dog, and will sit by her ignoring her for quite awhile. This is Isla and Kiwi sharing some kitchen sun, and no, she doesn't have any electrical cords in her hand, it just looks that way.
The other fun she has had this week is rolling. Here she is on the carpet in the living room, doing her best to get over.
And this picture made me laugh. I have better ones with her eyes open, but this was her reaction to the flash. She is much happier on her stomach now.
The heather on the hills is in bloom and it is quite purple, so maybe today while Alisdair is finishing the shop we will head up to Sheriffmuir and get some pictures...that is if the rain stops...

Meeting up with Auntie Em

Miss Isla is getting quite a personality.
Along with her two teeth, she is growing leaps and bounds and showing her likes and dislikes. Along with French waiters, we've learned on this trip that she enjoys swizzle sticks that have been dipped in juice, chewing on hard baguettes, when people pay attention to her in long queues at the airport check in counter and she laughs quite heartily when you do imitate the dogs or any of Grannie Troup's farm animals. It will be hard to not give her some solid food before she is 6 months old as she enjoys sitting up to the table and salivates when other people are eating and reaches for whatever else they have. She has a terrific laugh too, sort of a whole body, belly laugh. This is her at Notre Dame...where we left quickly as she was a bit of a magnet for drunk men to come talk to her.
We did meet up with Emily on Sunday morning, just outside the Opera House where she'd taken the Roissybus. Once Kenna got a strange man to leave her alone, on the walk up there, Emily and Kenna walked back to Alisdair and Kenna's hotel room as Emily's friends were staying pretty far outside Paris. There was a neat old car rally that was taking place in the Place Vendrome about 9am on Sunday morning that we watched for awhile.
Then we all walked across the park to the Louve. Here is Emily, Kenna and Isla.
Alisdair protested greatly, but Kenna found Isla a beret to complete her wardrobe of "hats from around the world." This is her in it, with the little balcony behind her.
The streets around our hotel had the names of the businesses done in mosaics.....we took this shot just for Grandpa Maughan :)

More Paris

We took lots of pictures this weekend, so I thought I'd put some more up. This is Isla and mom (yes, it was very humid in Paris, hence the hair) in the Plaza de Concorde again (where they executed people during the revolution). Here we are at the Arc de Triumph..there was a military ceremony going on, so we didn't go in and up, but they say the views are tremendous!
Alisdair got to be the master of stairs and bottle making this weekend. This was a bridge under the bridge just for pedestrians.
These are the gardens at Versaille. The weather was slightly warm, and very humid most of the time we were there.
A family picture in front of the Eiffel Tower.

BONJOUR!

This weekend we were off to France to meet Auntie Emily in Paris.
Rather than do the typical flight, our kind neighbour drove us to the Gleneagles train station at just before midnight (his wife had babysat Isla earlier in the evening while Alisdair and Kenna went to dinner for Grannie Troup's birthday...they are very nice neighbours). In a very "1920s -ish" feeling trip we stood at the deserted platform at Gleneagles in heavy fog, a fine mist in the air and low glowing lights until the sleeper train pulled up. We had berths (all neatly planned and purchased under ScotRail's "bargin berths" program..£19 each to London...a great deal in my book!) and quickly climbed in and settled down for the night. The chug of the engine and the repetition of the tracks put Isla to bed pretty quickly and at 7am the next morning we had a tap on the door that we were just pulling into London Euston. By 8 we were off the train and took a short walk to London St. Pancreas, where we caught a connection on the Eurostar, thru the chunnel to Paris. Having travelled a few times this summer, we had our needs pretty well concentrated into two bags. It wasn't very warm in London though! This is Isla with our luggage in London. By 2pm (time on the continent), we'd escaped the hen party (bachelorette) on the train and were at our hotel near the Louve and two blocks from the Seine. We learned that taxi drivers in Paris are completely mental and there is a reason that drivers in Egypt are nuts...they all got their licenses in France!
Glad to be alive, we put our stuff down, let Isla roll on the bed for awhile and took off for a walk up the Champs-Elysees up to the Arc de Triomphe. We took our time and stopped to try French hot dogs (ironically we first had these in Sweden...hot dogs that are stuffed into 1/2 of a baguette...they are great!), crepes and some local flavours of ice cream. This is Kenna and Isla in the Plaza de Concorde.
By the time we strolled up and back it was about 7pm and as our hotel restaurant was closed (it's August in Paris...all Parisians leave and go to the south of France or Normandy, so the city is over run by tourists), we decided to eat dinner. We found out that Isla has a thing for French waiters and she laughed hysterically every time this waiter talked to her. He was a really nice waiter and even agreed to a picture. No, we didn't eat any snails or frog legs while we were there. We learned that street food is much tastier than restaurant food, and about 1/8th the price, so we steered clear of restaurants for the rest of the weekend.
We walked a lot that night, down the Champs-Elysees, over the Seine, by the Embassies, through the park with the Louve and saw all kinds of sights. Here is Alisdair by the river, with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Isla sleeps a lot in the pram, so walking is always relaxing.
On Saturday we headed out to Versailles on the local train. It was raining and the French aren't half as understanding as the Swedes about prams, so Alisdair stayed outside with Isla while Kenna roamed around the Hall of Mirrors and fought her way thru the mobs of tourists. They wouldn't let prams in the 44 acre garden either, so at that point we gave up and went back to Paris. There we got off by the Eiffel Tower, took a cruise down the Seine, got off at Notre Dame, and then walked back up the river to our hotel. This is Kenna and Isla just outside the Louve.