Videos

Alisdair has a motion sensor camera that straps to a tree to take pictures of nature..these are some of what he's "caught" lately at the farm

3 weeks old!

Wearing our matching aprons from Auntie Emily and Grandma Maughan, Isla playing with Ailsa.


Alisdair got out his big camera today and got some fantastic shots.

Isla, Ferg and Monty playing on the trampoline.
One of Isla's favourite phrases (and best ways of getting out of doing things like going to bed) is "What have I forgotten?"...this is her most pensive pose....with tons of pheasant pellets to her back.
Isla and Ferg looking in one of the huts.
Polts (baby phesants) on the rearing field.


The rearing field. Isla insisted on looking in EVERY hut.


"Bud" , Kiwi's brother. When we went to leave we found him in the front seat of our car. He'd climbed in through the back of the station wagon and was quite comfortable on the passenger's seat.


Ailsa is 3 weeks old this week and we're starting to find our feet around here. Daddy has been busy with work. We got to see Uncle Michael this week. His first comment at seeing Ailsa was "she's like a person, but 1/8th the size." Always full of useful observations!

Isla and Neighbour Anne have had great fun this week. They went into Edinburgh on the train on Friday.

Thursday mum was finally tired to staying in the house and fed up not getting anything done so she made a desperate phone call to Grannie Ella (not Isla's Grannie, but everyone's Grannie! The mother and Grandmother to the McGregor clan who is forever helping us out). Although 79 years old the woman is incredibly spry and hilarious. We don't have a double buggy and taking two girls anywhere is a bit of a chore. Grannie Ella, with no real notice, agreed to come grocery shopping with us as well as out to buy a birthday present for Grandpa Maughan at "the fish store" (well, that's what Isla calls it. It's the local garden centre that also has a big tea room). We had a great time with her and she was tons of help.

Wednesday mom and Isla decided to try and have some fun (as lately we've spent a lot of time with baby Ailsa) and we decided to invite Neighbour Anne over and make Jello (Emily had brought stuff over from the states to make Knox blox) and home made pretzels (Isla loves playing with dough). Mom got all the stuff out to do both and we emptied the Jello packets into a big bowl for Isla to stir up. Just as we finished the phone rang and mom answered it. It was the doctor in London setting up a follow up appointment for mom's eyes. She wasn't on the phone two minutes, when she hung up Isla announced "I'm all done! She had taken the WHOLE packet of yeast (not like American sachets) and dumped it in with the Jello and mixed it up....there was nothing that could be done at that point, we had to feed it to the hens and think of a new project. Luckily Auntie Tiina had sent us some peanut butter chips and we made cookies. Anne held Ailsa for us. It was a fun morning. Isla had her swimming lesson that afternoon and then we took cookies over to another family in town who also recently had a baby.

Isla is AMAZING (if I do say so myself) in the pool. Auntie Claire and Grannie have taken her the past 4 weeks and mom went for the last lesson. Isla loves to jump in the water, can dive under the water (like a duck, she goes straight for her toes) and is getting the hang of swimming. We need to find a good snorkeling destination now to let her try out her skills! She's definitely Alisdair's daughter. Those two would have a blast if we sent them off together to look at fish.


The weather has been pretty warm and nice and we're enjoying being outdoors as much as allergies let mom! (someone told her though to eat some local honey as it works as a natural antihistamine and it seems to be working! Thank goodness for the Drumdruills bee man.)

We'll try and get some Ailsa pictures this week to show how she is growing. She is more alert every day, although has developed a pretty impressive milk rash. We're following "The Baby Whisper's" advice and working on her her sleep pattern and trying to keep Isla from doing any more binki stealing.

Thanks to everyone who has sent baby presents. I have tried to keep on top of Thank you notes, but will get another batch done this week!

Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

Mum's new lightened hair and the girls in their matching outfits, courtesy of Auntie Tiina. My favourite are Ailsa's socks that look like Mary Jane shoes. Daddy managed to convince Isla to wear her outfit by about noon, after she'd already gotten filthy in her first outfit of the day by playing with the dogs.

Breeze died this week (one of the old labs at the farm) and so rather than have her alone, we've brought Dee up to live with us (a very useless lab who is a gun dog that just happens to be frightened of guns!) Isla has great fun with Dee and Dee is slowly learning how our "pack" operates. She is a big fan of all the rabbitts that live down by the "humpy-bumpy," and managed to go swimming in the burn tonight on her way back from the walk. She isn't so good on house rules and followed Charlie into the dining room tonight (soaken wet) which caused some panic.

Ailsa did have a little choking episode in the tub tonight (turned her head in the tub while being soaped up and took in some water), but luckily Alisdair used to be a trained First Responder and managed to stay calm and get all the water out of her throat and help her start breathing again, all very calmly. Thank goodness for Daddy! She had suds coming out her mouth for a bit after that....oops...no mother of the year award for me this week.
Isla being entertained while Alisdair checked emails....You Tube is amazing. Afterall, who doesn't love Paul Simon on Sesame Street (in 1977!) singing "Me and Julio down by the school yard"...Isla has her own headphones and is so quiet it's remarkable.


So, Alisdair's gone back to work (despite having the legal right to stay home another week) and we've survived another week. Neighbour Anne is still around and has been helping out and taking Isla all kinds of great places. On Thursday we went to Blairdrummond Safari Park. It was great fun, except for Ailsa messing herself so bad mum had stained hands for two days and we had to change EVERYTHING that Ailsa had been near. Who knew a little kid could do that kind of thing?

She is quite remarkable as the Health Visitor came on Thursday as well. Since last Friday (so 6 days), she has gained .4 of a kilo! That's almost a POUND!! She does eat a lot and we're just pleased that she's stopped losing weight. She's more and more alert every day and you can tell by watching her that she can focus more. She turns toward lights, dislikes the vuvuzelas from the World Cup (settles better if you can turn them down or off) and makes some hilarious faces while she sleeps.

Isla has been on form this week too. She's been hanging out with Neighbour Anne who always gives mum grief for having such a little American child. Isla is now clearly on her way to becoming a weegie (Glaswegian). She comes out with phrases about her "wee doggie, Charlie", she asked to have a "shot at Isla's dummy" (pacifier) tonight and told mum to "hang on two ticks, pet" while she went to do something. She refers to Ailsa as a "wee bab-ie" as well. If Anne continues to be home on sick leave, who knows what Isla will start coming out with!

Isla also continues to make us laugh. She likes to "read" stories and as mum reads her "Buenas Noches, Luna" in Spanish she's decided she can to it as well. It's pretty funny what her "spanish" sounds like! It's sort of a Catherine Tate impression...kind of funny really.

The other night while trying to get her ready for bed she started throwing a 2 year old tantrum because daddy had put the toothpaste on her toothbrush wrong. Being sarcastic Alisdair said "oh no, is that a crisis??" She stopped crying, looked at him and in her best "I know everything" voice said, "no, it's Winnie the Pooh!" and pointed to Pooh on her toothbrush. We both started laughing and the tantrum was over.

She's a pretty funny kid and is doing better about not stealing Ailsa's binki this week (although now is trying to convince us that she needs her own), using the toilet (for some reason this is much more exciting at other people's houses), phoning Anne every morning to "check in" on her (she knows how to use mum's Blackberry) and tying up Charlie when she is "naughty" (poor Charlie!)

The weather this week has been fantastic for the most part and we're looking forward to more of it. The long summer days are upon us and Ailsa has slept from 11pm to 6am for two nights in a row. Long may that continue!!! It's now 11pm and the sun is just setting, but it will be light again by 3:30. As it's Father's Day tomorrow, Alisdair is off fishing (he claims at first light!). We'll see what time he really gets away. The girls and I will hold down the fort here.

Me and the 'cute baby'

A picture I thought you might like...Isla and Ailsa on Day 1...

The First Week Down!

Ailsa's GYNORMOUS feet and tree climbing toes. She likes to put one foot flat on the opposide calf or can have both feet flat on each other for a long time. It's no wonder she was always kicking like this in Kenna's stomach. Her feet completely fill the feet on those baby outfits. A friend (who also had a baby with large feet) told Kenna if they get too tight to just snip the feet off and put socks on her.
Introducing Ailsa to the dogs...Charlie could have cared less. Cassie will do anything and everything you tell her. She was good with her.
Isla thought Cassie should get to know her "baby" too.


Ailsa is more and more alert every day.
The girls having breakfast. Isla does like to flood her waffles with syrup and then dunk her fingers...


We did it! We survived the first week with Baby Ailsa with no trips to the emergency room, major meltdowns from Isla (or mum), run away dogs or other catastrophes. Hoorah for us :)

It did help a TON that Alisdair has been home with us however and Neighbour Anne has also been around to offer assistance. (Baby Ailsa didn't do the very neighbourly thing however yesterday and emptied her entire insides through her nappy and all over Anne, who had to go home and change. Good thing Anne is a good sport about it all).

We've managed a few trips out of the house and realised how much STUFF we need now with two in the car. (Heard a great story about a lady Kenna used to work with who had 5 kids and on a family holiday had the car so packed they took out the spare tire in order to fit the nappies in...we're not quite that bad but any family holiday may challenge the space capacity of the Volvo).

Alisdair yesterday also found out he has been elected a National Representative to BASC (British Association for Shooting and Conservation) for the next 5 years. He has meetings now about every 2 months in Wales---guess it's a good think Isla likes watching "Fireman Sam" and can learn to understand Welsh people speaking English! (to get out of the house, Mum might insist we get to tag along on the roadtrips). It will be a fairly important term as the shootings in Cumbria mean there is a lot of pressure right now to further restrict gun ownership and BASC is by far the largest lobbying organisation in the UK.

http://www.basc.org.uk/en/

If we can just hide all bubble wrap from Isla, Ailsa might get a full nap one of these days!

Our little addict

This afternoon, about 4:30 Isla said "I'm tired and going to bed." She'd been outside all afternoon with daddy and was pretty dirty, so mum wasn't keen on her going to bed in that state, but as she was feeding Ailsa, there wasn't much that could be done. About 5 o'clock it was time for the dogs' walk and a family walk and Alisdair went off to find Isla. He discovered her, in her room under her blanket ("hiding") with Ailsa's binki in her mouth, sound asleep!
He'd already confiscated Ailsa's binki (pacifier) off her once this morning and gave her a speech about how they were only for babies, but obviously the draw is just too great.
She was none to happy to be woken up and more upset she'd been "caught."

The next day while preparing dinner, mum turned her back to hear Ailsa whailing and Isla no where to be seen. It then dawned on mum Isla had taken the binki OUT of Ailsa's mouth and done a runner upstairs with it. Dad went and found her....Isla, again was upset she'd been found out....Ailsa calmed down when it was given back.

She does try to find the binkis and hide them in her hand (or back pocket) and go find a place to suck on them....what do you do?

She's also expanding her vocabulary more and more. In the garden she and Alisdair were playing and she asked him to swing her around. He was laying on the grass so just grabbed her legs and swong her over his head. When he was done he said "so how was that?" and in her pensive little voice said "not so good Daddy." Ah, honesty from a 2 year old.

She does like bath time with Ailsa though and is much better about going to bed if Ailsa lays down next to her during story time.

Tomorrow Ailsa is a week old! We've almost survived a whole week.....thanks to the midwife and her feeding assistance.

More Pictures

"Why'd I get stuck with HER?" heeheehee
Me and my daddy
"Doh!"
Isla and her sister
Her "blanket" (kitchen towel). Isla is helpful.....:)

Baby Ailsa is changing every day!
Isla is having more and more fun with her new sister. Here are some more pictures.

Comparisons

If you go to Feb 2008 you can see Isla baby pictures and compare the two. Isla seems a bit lighter (Alisdair has just informed me that some relative of his has been doing geneology and is convinced thru a black and white photograph that they have "ethnic" ancestry)....pretty funny really. I told him if only he'd discovered this earlier, he could have been eligible for all KINDS of scholarships growing up :)

Ailsa's nose is a bit different than Isla's was as well. Isla had chubbier cheeks too. Ailsa has the most ENORMOUS feet (and long fingers) and her toes look like she could climb trees with them. It's no wonder Kenna wasn't pleased about being kicked in the ribs for so long.

A Name!!

After much deliberation we have decided to call her AILSA RIGBY TROUP.

Ailsa is an island in Scotland in the Firth of Clyde--west coast of the country (Ailsa Craig) It is pronounced "ale-sa."
Pub Trivia fact: all curling stones have a bit of granite from the Ailsa Craig in them.

Rigby is Kenna's Grandma's maiden name (and also a gun maker).

Baby Details

8 fish in one afternoon!
Day 2
Big Sister
Ah, Lucozade and Bovril---they will never be the same (see below)
First bath


Miss Troup, about 9 hours old
Just a few hours old. Her redness has faded now.
Gas and air...Never did get the knack of it. Just gave me a sore throat and annoyed me. I gave up and ended up (stupidly) doing all of labour on 2 paracetamol (like aspirin). NOT RECOMMENDED!
One of the hottest days of the year in Scotland and the ice machine was broken. Luckily Alisdair's friend Adam was at a pub and brought us a pitcher full of ice (green) which was fantastic and got Kenna through the first few hours of things.


So, after much waiting around and less than 24 hours from a scheduled induction, Little Miss Troup decided to come into the world. At 1am on Friday morning Kenna woke up with what she thought were labour pains, but as there had been so many false contractions this time she just stayed in bed. By 4am she thought they were something real so she took the dogs out for a walk (it's Scotland! it's totally light by 4am), came back and phoned triage. They said to just phone back when she wanted to come into the hospital.

By 7 it was evident things were slowing down and a trip to the hospital wasn't quite as needed, so she sent Alisdair off to work in the car (rather than with his usual ride share) with instructions that he might need to come back and as we'd already made plans for Isla to go to one of her "appointments" (the older ladies from the Cathedral that Grannie visits enjoy Isla's company and request her now :). They set out all kinds of food for her and she thinks its great fun), Alisdair dropped Isla off at the farm.

About noon things picked up again and Alisdair came back to work from home. Isla was still off being social and Kenna was debating whether to go get her eyebrows waxed at her 3pm appointment. By 2:45 it seemed an unwise decision to head to the spa, and instead we headed to the hospital. We checked in a triage about 4pm who after playing a little "game" with their student midwife during an examination (the real midwife did the exam, winking and saying "I think you'll be quite pleased" to us) but refusing to tell us what what she'd "discovered" until the student go to have a turn diagnosing dilation, direction of baby's head and all kinds of other details, told us things were definitely happening tonight.

As it was a LOVELY afternoon (and we don't get that many in Scotland) and it was horribly stuffy and warm in the basement of the hospital, we headed outside for a walk. The sister in charge of labour was none too chuffed that we were walking laps in 22 degree (C) heat outside and in active labour, but whatever--and a very concerned woman at the tennis club we passed stopped her game to come check Kenna's 'tree hugging' wasn't something more traumatic! We ended up walking for about 2 hours and finally got into a labour room about 7pm. Just as we were walking in, Alisdair's friend Adam showed up with our ice too!

Labour was pretty uneventful until about 10pm when (thank heavens!) there was a shift change and our SUPER annoying midwife had to go home. (Kenna had, in the midst of things told Alisdair he'd better get rid of the woman before she went nutty on her. The lady--a student midwife--had a hard time finding the baby's heart rate and wanted to listen every 15 minutes, but it took her 10 to find it and then wanted to have her hand on my stomach through every contraction as well. I'm not a fan of being touched during labour and found her SO annoying). She followed me to the bathroom, talked to me through the shut door, wanted to know why I was shaking ("is it a contraction??"), and the highlight of her shift was offering me a drink...

Most people get offered the usual, "tea, coffee, toast, hot chocolate" (the thought was repulsive on a hot Friday night, in the middle of labour), but as I said no to each she must have gotten desperate and said "Bovril?" (Beef tea! honestly!!!!) I just kept saying "no"....between that a Lucozade (a glucose drink I'd never had but she was quite insistent I needed to have). It's a bit of a joke with us now.

So at 10pm she left! and the nicest lady (Claire) and her student midwife came on. They were fantastic and super laid back. (and a bit more confident my "shaking" was adrenaline). We'd been promised at 10 they'd get a "consultant" to come break my waters. He couldn't come until 10:40, but once he did it all went okay. By 11 they were broken and baby was born at 11:25pm, Friday, June 4, 2010.

The midwives were so relaxed it was hilarious. They gave her straight to me without having to even clean her off (although they made a few jokes about her being" overcooked"). Alisdair got to cut the chord and tell me the sex. They went about making jokes, cleaning up and everything. It was a good hour later before she was weighed or banded or anything. When we told them that the sonographer had said she was no bigger than Isla and would be about 8 pounds 13oz, they all laughed (she was 9 pounds 8.5 oz and they laughed she would have been 10 pounds if they'd weighed her before she poo'd!)

Alisdair went home about 1:30am and we were moved just down the hall to another room. It was a shared room but the other lady and her baby were pretty quiet. Between buzzers, people in labour, phones and such we didn't get much sleep. Plus as we'd requested to leave in the morning they had to do all the tests so the pediatrician came in to take her away, then blood tests, a hearing test and before we knew it, it was 8am and Alisdair was back! Our paperwork was done and by 9 we were on the road heading home!

Isla has done quite well with "the new cute baby" and more importantly has now become daddy's new fishing buddy. (We had trout for dinner tonight) Ali says if 2 kids means time off from work, fishing more and helping grannie at the farm, he's a fan!

its a girl

At 11.25pm on the 4th of June Kenna and Alisdair had a baby girl. All are doing well. More to follow later.

9lb 8.5 oz and 20 inches long

Busy weeks

Isla watching Shane "give the sheepies a haircut, just like daddy does to Kiwi."

For those who haven't noticed, we still don't have Baby #2.....as Isla's favourite book says "I'm waiting!" (that would be "Kiss Sam Goodnight)....we all are.

As mom is almost 42 weeks and HUGE she's having trouble coping (in many ways). Monday we went for a membrane sweep and the midwife said things looked so promising, she didn't recommend driving the 30 minutes back to Blackford....exstatic at this news, we went to Bridge of Allan to hang out at Gannie's.....Four hours later we realised nothing was going to happen and gave up, but it was a lovely day and Isla thoroughly enjoyed her time at Gannies and having daddy around.

Alisdair took Tuesday off in an attempt to help and was only supposed to be taking the car to Perth for a much needed service. After a quick discussion at 7:50am we decided to wake up Isla and have her go with Daddy. That was a great decision as once they got to Perth the garage said the car wouldn't be ready until 3pm....SO, Alisdair and Isla hopped the train to Stirling, Uncle Michael picked them up and they went to Gannie's who the night before had organised her sheep to be shorn. The whole Troup gang (minus Kenna who had a nice "day off") spent the day in the barn helping Shane sheer, then clipping sheep feet, giving medicines and doing the nastiest off all the year's chores. Isla had a WONDERFUL time and had lots of stories to tell when she came home, exhausted and stinky about 9pm (after dinner at Gleneagles with them all). Despite the late hour, we decided a bath was a DEFINITE for her.

The next day happened to be "Scotsheep," the largest sheep fair for producers of the year and it was close to Stirling, so Grannie picked up Kenna and Isla and we had a great time wandering around the fair as Isla scared all kinds of sheep in pens (must be something about being little. They are much more frightened of her than adults). On the way back to Blackford we got behind a British car with two Wyoming license plates in the back...one was "LEDOUX"....small world huh??

After that Grannie took her to her swimming lessons where she was a star and will now "swim" underwater, sit on the bottom and kick off the sides of the pool. She's only had 5 lessons but is doing great and loving it! (Mostly because when she gets her entire head wet she has a ponytail she can feel!)

If you've been following the news, there was a big shooting in Northern England. We've spent the past two days waiting to hear what the UK government will decided to do about further gun control...there are some talks of completely banning all "non-professional" ownership, which would obviously have a huge impact on Alisdair's business, so we can only wait and see what comes out of the aftermath. The Parliament has claimed a vote will be held before summer is over....

Today was much less exciting but the weather was glorious so we spent a lot of time outside. It was laundry day (again) and we're still trying to potty train Isla so she's allowed to run around in a dress with her singing potty on the patio. She's getting quite good at knowing when she needs to go. She also played with pink sparkly playdough which we made fake "nail polish" out of and Isla did Cassie's toes....it was pretty funny seeing black lab with pink nails!

The highlight of the day was mom fell asleep just after lunch. She awoke to find Isla staring at her and saying "I'm hungry." Kenna said "Do you want a bar?" (meaning cereal bar) to which Isla got a super cheeky grin on her face and said "A bar in Toledo?" Not quite getting what she meant mom asked her to repeat it and she said it again and then started laughing (as 2 year olds do so well). Alisdair says she must be British as she gets sarcasm. When we retold dad the story at dinner Isla did the rest of the lyrics too..."across from the depot, she sat down and took off her ring"....who says Kenny Rogers isn't a family singer??? (We've had to reorder a Greatest Hits CD as the old one won't play in the car and every trip isla wants to hear "Reuben James"--she has suggested we name the new baby that!)

The plan now is Kenna is due to be induced on Saturday, but we're told there is a 50/50 chance that will be moved at least a few hours (ug!) and if it gets pushed to Sunday I'll be a "priority"....pregnancy just isn't meant to be 42 weeks and if this kid is over 9 1/2 pounds I'll be pretty annoyed that I was "left" to go this long!!!!!!