I poo'ed!!

Saw this and couldn't resist - a present from neighbour anne.

Chips!

Her first french fry--at Wimpy Burger--she loved it

Alone time

Daddy went hunting much to the annoyance of Thing 1, without her (so he took her today at grannies--she wore her hunting shirt and everything) but Neighbour Anne saved the day and took her to the Perth pool (complete with waterslides!). Mom and Thing 2 stayed home and had a rare moment to play with toys uninterrupted. It was fun. Ailsa makes funny faces on queue now, spits her food if she doesn't like it (unfortunately I was covered today as she doesn't like bean casserole), rolls all over, managed to get all fours under herself in the tub and lunge forward, and cries if mom leaves the room. She still thinks Isla is the funniest person on earth and Charlie is fascinating--charlie has gained A LOT of weight since weaning began...Cheerios, bread, apples, bananas, in fact she's been caught climbing into the high chair once you take Ailsa out to clean her up.
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Containment policy

Chillin in the kitchen. Daddy brought home a new Johnny Cash kids cd and Barenaked Ladies 'snacktime'. They're both a hit. Who knew johnny cash sang about dinosaurs and "pollywog in a bog" was such a catchy tune?

Like grannie but 1/10th the size

Mini Grannie out tending her chickens. She's recently figured out that thanks to the snow crushing the fences she can climb in the coop all by herself. She's watched grannie feed chickens so many times she can do it herself--although the best was when I was raking leaves and I heard her using her bossy voice...I listened and watched to realise she was trying to teach them to fly---'flap!! Like this!!!'

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Horses

The carousel was a big hit too!
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Go west young man....

While daddy was away we decided to have a 'day out' and went to Amazonia 'scotland's largest rainforest' with neighbour anne....the tacky carnival rides were a bigger hit.
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A manicure

She was also SO excited about glittery fingers (she's not allowed to wear nail polish)
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Glittery magic

In an effort to have fun, one walk in the games park Thing 1 decided to pick up all the pine cones she could find and fill a poo bag. The next week she had her hearing test (which she passed so I now know she's just ignoring me!) But to get her cooperation she was promised glitter...this was our project and she LOVED it, so much in fact she is refusing to share with anyone or give any pinecones away...
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Fame

Toddlers playgroup just got back in their hall after it was renovated. They had a ribbon cutting and local photographer and cake (with horses on it)...mine's the child looking cynically at the boy in the centre..Haha
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Freedom!

Speaking of freedom and daddy away, a certain naughty 2 year old took the opportunity to run up the high hill and not come back on our walk one afternoon....mom had to ditch ailsa and scramble up the hill after her. It was a photo moment!
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Dog walk

With daddy off in America at business meetings we spent a lot of time looking for adult interaction (thank heavens for neighbour anne!) In the afternoon, as we took cassie to stay at grannie's, we went down and walked her. Grannie kept one girls and I took the other.
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Snug

Cozy in the buggy...
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Free at last!

With the snow gone FINALLY after 8 weeks it was a glorious day when we could finally go out again and RUN RUN RUN.....I'm impressed by the curls
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Frosty

With all the latest snow we built a snowman at the end of the driveway where it had all piled up anyhow. We put in the coal and carrot and hat but then decided to put food coloring on it---it was a mess! We had to run in and try to get it off her snow pants and hands--whilst left unattended she dipped her head in the dishwater she was supposed to be washing her hands in, but ended up with perfect ringlets all day! Who knew fairy liquid could do that??
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Every box should have a silver lining

Daddy brought home a new cage for cassie to help keep the mudroom clean at night (with all the snow filling her kennel she had to come in) but the bonus was the interior of the box was white. It provided days of coloring fun!
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Cheesy smile

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January

Isla and one of grannie's new lambies.


This was last week at Grannie's house. Ailsa's face makes me laugh as she's awfully good at crinkling her nose when something doesn't agree with her...here, it might have been the flash from daddy's camera.



Another week at home, we spent a lot of time cleaning. Isla decided using the hand held vacuum was brillant fun, but as it was loud and she's so sensitive to loud noises, she wore her ear defenders.

We've had more snow in the past two days, but it was easy to shovel.

Isla has a hearing test (Finally!) next Monday. We'll see how that goes.

Ailsa is changing everyday and getting ready to roll/crawl all over the place...OH, the trouble she and Isla are going to get in. Right now her favourite activity is to watch the fish in the tank and try to get to them.

Ailsa

Almost forgot, Ailsa is now sitting up, rolling from front to back and back to front. Loving solid foods, and at her last weigh in on the 23rd of December she was 18 pounds 12 1/2 oz. (I've lost her redbook so figure if I put it in the blog, once I find her book, I can add it!) She likes to feed herself cheerios, peas, corn and can hold her own cup. She also giggles A LOT and has taken to trying to play peek-a-boo if you give her a cloth. She loves laughing at the terries, bouncing like mad in her jumper and cries if mom leaves the room...(but only for a second). As long as you come back and say "HELLO Ailsa!" she'll smile again and all is right with the world. Mom made both girls new fleece stroller blankets and if the ice ever goes away, we'll go out for a walk again!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Ailsa's first Christmas. She wasn't so keen on sprouts, but liked turkey.


Family picture at Grannie's.
A crown, chipolatas and sprouts...it must be Christmas! She loved crackers.
New Year's and candles...it was pitch black, without the flash and we even broke out some Root Beer for the occasion!
Isla giving Charlie her birthday treat. (and sporting some of the snazzy socks she got from SmartWool)
The girls in their Harris tweed dresses..
Nurse Isla and her medical kit "helping" daddy. She loves to ask people "do you feel well?" if you say "yes" she has been known to punch you, so she can then treat you....very entrepreneurial of her really although we do our best to discourage it.
An Ailsa smile on Christmas morning.
Daddy and his "deers"
"And lo, the angels (and donkey) said "fear not, we bring you good tidings of great joy, for born this day in the city of David is a Saviour, Christ the Lord..." (luckily Baby Jesus survived the season!)

Ok, being stuck in the house for awhile our lives weren't that exciting....not that much has happened but Alisdair survived the Christmas rush, and most parcels arrived, despite the snow and he was happy to collapse at home on the 24th and we were happy to have him home.

As all the normal toddler activities ended the week before Christmas we had to make some of our own fun so we went swimming with Grannie Ella, had some other little girls in town over for a cookie party and Isla's friend Iona and Emma came to visit.

We had our normal "decorate Gingerbread/graham cracker" party on the 24th (with a distinct lack of Graham crackers as Auntie Erin had done her part and carried a box all the way from the US, to Russia, and Finland and here, only to discover that Ailsa LOVES them, and so we didn't have that many left by the 24th and those we did have left, it seemed a shame to eventually feed them to the chickens--the fate of the gingerbread houses after 2 weeks). We told the Christmas story (a very edited version using Isla's children's nativity set) and her costumes....she was the Angel of the Lord (or the tooth-fairy, depending when you asked her) and Ailsa, with her perfect tuft of hair, was the donkey. Then the girls went to bed, the adults ate dinner and then waited for Santa to come.

Isla had been all talk about Santa coming but come the morning of the 25th, she woke up like most mornings at 7:25, and didn't seem to think anything was different until we asked her if we should go check if Santa had come. She was DELIGHTED with the presents and wrapping paper (For the previous two weeks she'd been a little upset everytime Santa had come to a party--playgroup and toddlers--and hadn't brought her beloved guitar and yo-yo....we were doing our best to put her off). She also got a doll house, lots of socks and some new CDs (she loves them at bedtime). Ailsa got a baby jumper (we'd given it to her in November but wrapped the box for her to play with). She could have cared less about any of it, and Isla was just as excited to open Ailsa's stuff too.

We had a nice Christmas day at Grannie's and Isla and Grannie spent the afternoon playing with her playdoh dog while mom and dad got a rare 30 minutes of quiet to go walk the dogs. Blackford has been so iced over that the dogs haven't gone out on many long walks. The farm is a bit less icy and nicer for them to run. We also learned that Ailsa loves daddy's old bedroom and sleeps for hours (like4+) until you wake her....

Boxing Day we went back to Grannies and the rest of the week just hung out at home. Daddy worked on his list of chores, we watched all of season 4 Ugly Betty and 4 of the Harry Potter movies (when the girls were asleep).

For New Years we continued a Maughan family tradition and had hamburgers by candle light (Isla loved it) but we also had a birthday party for Charlie! It was her 3rd birthday. She got a special treat and we sang to her. That was a big hit with Isla as well.

The last day of the holidays Kenna hurt her back and was in bed all day. Isla thought it was magic as that meant she had free reign of the house and no one really watching her (Daddy was painting the doors and doing chores).....we followed the trail of chocolate coin wrappers to find her....she wore her pjs all day, watched all the tv she wanted and got to wrestle with the dogs with no one getting upset at her and fed herself from the little fridge in the kitchen (cold chinese noodles!). Luckily today Grannie came up to keep an eye on her and mom is feeling much better. Isla also got to go to her friend Eva's 3rd birthday party and she won "pass the parcel," had a great time playing "Pin the tail on Peppa Pig" and eating Jelly.