19 sleeps till Christmas!

Christmas is coming fast! So on Saturday I decided it was the perfect time to put the Christmas tree up. It seemed like half my Facebook friends also put their Christmas trees up on the 1st December! And quite right too. In France we don't have this 12 days before and 12 days after nonsense. We put it up when we feel like it, and usually it comes down on the 2nd January. But I would agree that anytime before December is a bit early. Nothing wrong with the 1st December though, expecially if it falls on a week-end.

It was quite late when we got everything down from the loft, about 5.30 pm. With Logan's bath at 6.30 pm, I thought, 1 hour to put up the tree and the decoration, plenty of time. Of course that didn't work out, and Logan ended up not having a bath and eating quite a bit later than usual!! I dug out the Christmas Songs CD and put it on. I can't put my tree up without Christmas Songs in the background. Doesn't make sense to me.

I have a fake tree. I can't be bothered with the mess a real tree makes, and I would feel quite bad having a real, dead tree in my house when it takes it decades to get to the right size. And yes a fake tree is awful when one thinks of the carbon footprint but at least I keep it for a few years before it goes all horrid and needs replaced. The one we've got at the moment looks a bit sorry for itself, but it's a cheap one. Next year we should be in a bigger house and I'll treat us to a nicer, bigger, fuller FAKE tree.

First thing Logan wanted to do once I'd built the tree was sit in its box. It was hard to get him out of it: if there is one box I don't want damaged, it's the tree's box so I can put it back in the loft in January!! But then I opened up the box of decorations: oh the excitment! All the little "balls" to throw up and play with! It was so much fun! He did get the jist after a wee while and would go and get me baubles and show me where to put them.

All of a sudden he then picks up the box and empties it on the rug! Why would he do that?? To play with the box of course! Next thing we knew, he'd managed to contortion himself inside the box!

Once the box was wrecked (that was a great box for the decorations...) his Dad brought out the new lights string and they had a Christmas Lights dance on the Waitresses song. It was hilarious.

I wonder if he's going to help me tidy everything away after Christmas?

Amber necklaces

An interesting thing happened this week. Logan was teething and the first thing everyone told me was "amber necklace"! He's got one, but he'd never worn it because he's only wee and I was really worried he might strangle himself. However after the last episode, he is now wearing it every day. I do take it off at night though as I'm still a bit neurotic about them.

This latest teething episode was the worst one yet. I haven't yet managed to shove my fingers in Logan's mouth and see whether one or more back teeth have popped out. The signs were there: he wasn't happy about brushing his teeth anymore, was a bit whiney every day, was dribbling more than usual, but we didn't put 2 and 2 together and it took us by surprise.

It lasted 4 days of constant pain, dribbling by the bucket and hardly any eating. It was awful for all of us, sleepless nights, the lot. I even had to change his bed sheet in the middle of the night, it was so wet he couldn't sleep on it anymore.

But it's over now and we've got our happy chappy back, even chirpier than before.

And before this nasty episode, we had a great morning at the beach, where Logan was really adventurous and ran into the sea a couple of times. No matter how cold the sea was as he's got great little snowboots, I had to stop him going too far in! It was great fun!

WTF??

Yeah, WTF was going on last night? We'd just been asleep for about an hour, so were in a nice, deep sleep, when Logan started to wail. Quarter to one in the morning it started. So I get up and go to see what's wrong. Checked if he was warm or cold, didn't seem so. Cuddled him for about 10 minutes then put him back down, with a blanket.

He was not happy. But I ignored him for a bit, and we both fell asleep again.

Some time around 1.20 am he starts crying again! So we'd be sleeping, what, 10 minutes? Nice, deep sleep as well. I zombie along back to his bedroom and give him another 10 minute cuddle (it's nice to have the sofabed in his bedroom after all!), and his dad brings him some water.

Back to bed and asleep, he starts wailing again at 1.50 am!!!

This time I cuddle him for about 45 minutes, during which he does not fall asleep. I'm fed up by now so with his dad we give him some Calpol, which I hate doing if he's not ill but maybe he was teething? Maybe he had a sore tummy? At least Calpol helped him sleep, but when I went back to bed the clock showed 2.50 am... He had been up for 2 hours, with apparently no reason whatsoever!

Oh I can't wait for him to have enough speech to tell me what's wrong!

And it's my BIRTHDAY today, so to make up for keeping me awake half the night, Logan got me a super duper present and card!!

We've overgrown the house!

6 weeks since the last post, life is busy! Quite a lot has happened during that time so let's recap the most interesting stuff.

The first event that took place was that I went on a second trip with work. This one was much more fun as I was sent to Paris to visit some hotels and show this great city to some of my colleagues who came on the trip with me. However, we had to go over the week-end so Logan and I didn't get to spend any quality time together for quite a while. We Skyped for the first time! The first night, Logan was too tired and didn't really understand what was going on. But the second time he was well with it and quite happy to see me, started talking (in his own language) about his day, it was really cool. He learnt to say Spider while I was away... When I came back on Sunday night he was already fast asleep, so I decided to take my time on Monday morning, giving him breakfast, getting him ready, and not worry about being at work for 8.30. We both needed to spend that little extra time together. I made it at work for 9.30 am :).

The other major event was that we've decided the house is now way too small for us. Logan's dad is running his business from the little box room, Logan has a massive double sofa bed in his bedroom which means the amount of toy space is limited. We don't want to get rid of the sofa bed as it is very handy when friends or family want to stay over. So we've frantically repainted the house and put it on the market 6 weeks ago. We have already spotted the perfect new house for us, just crossing fingers that serendipity will do its thing and that ours will sell in good time to snap our future house.

Last week-end we had one of our monthly mummy and toddler (they've been upgraded from babies) coffee afternoons. It was phenomenal: the first time that we the mummies have actually been able to relax, enjoy our coffee whilst hot and lovely Halloween cakes, without having to worry about one of ou children getting tired and cranky, hungry, clingy etc... The kids played really happily together and we were able to tell each other about our lives. It was bliss. We can't wait for the next one in a couple of weeks, and we'll then have a Christmas one when the kids will get little presents from Santa.

First trip away from home

For the first time since Logan is old enough to notice and understand, I was away from home with work this week.

I had to go to London on a training course, which meant leaving the house at dark o'clock on Thursday morning, and coming back after 9 pm on Friday night. So Logan and I didn't see each other from Wednesday night to Saturday morning.

Logan's dad did a brilliant job, and told me when I got home that Logan did indeed miss me.

On Thursday morning after getting up, my wee boy walked round the house looking for me. On Thursday evening, coming back from nursery (his Dad picked him up which is very unusual), he again went round the house trying to find me. And after his dinner, he was sitting on the sofa and noticed the family photos on the side table. He pointed at me at started crying!

Although quite sad I can't help but be happy about this as he did miss me!

He was very happy to see me on Saturday morning, and as his Dad was away all day, we spent the day just the two of us and had great fun at the beach.

I am going away with work again in a couple of weeks, and across the week-end. This is going to be much harder for him as there won't be any nursery to occupy his mind with activities. But hopefully he'll be ecstatic to spend some quality one-to-one time with his Dad!

The Jack & Jill market

Maybe it was just me...

I discovered the Jack & Jill Market at the end of May this year and thought it was a marvelous idea. They take place all over Scotland and come back to each place every few months or so. The best thing about them: although second-hand, the stuff for sale is nearly new and in excellent condition.

Back in May I bought Logan some toys and clothes for the winter, and couldn't wait for the next one. We then decided that we have the perfect family the way it is so we now have tons of baby stuff that we won't need any longer. The Jack & Jill Market seemed the best place to try and sell some of the really nice clothes, toys and most importantly the Travel System that takes up half the space in the loft! So I spent a few hours going through bags of clothes, making sure the pram, chassis, car seat etc... were all still in perfect working order and clean. I also decided that, instead of putting clothes in some random order on my stall, I would bundle them in outfist and put each outfit in a clear plastic bag so potential buyers could see what they would be buying. I went through a mountain of clothes from 0 to 12 months to do this, it took me a while.

It costs £23 to have a stall. That's fine as long as you sell enough to make up for it and more. I had a Travel System for sale so no issue with covering the cost. If I sold it.

We bundled Logan off with his grandparents for a couple of hours and set up our stall. It took 2 cars to bring everything (baby bath, baby gym, so much stuff that one stores!!), mainly because there are 6 bulky items to the travel system. I'd put shoes in a couple of DVD racks and the organisers thought it was such a brilliant idea they took photos! 10.30 am struck at the clock and I was ready to sell everything.

Well... maybe it was just me, but my 2 biggest items, the Travel System and the Babygym, did NOT sell. They had to come home with me. We checked our prices against the other babygyms and travel systems and they were pretty matching. I think if I'd sold these I wouldn't have minded so much about not selling that many clothes, especially since clothes didn't seem to sell much on the other stalls. Toys definitely! And I bought some myself, Logan is very chuffed with his new drum and tractor.

I'll give the clothes to charity, but keep trying selling the pram on the internet somehow!!

I will go back to the J&J as a buyer, but I don't think I'll try as a seller again. Unless I have some smashing toys to sell :)

Click below to see a short video of Logan having fun with his new toys.

Logan's new drum and tractor

First dip in the sea

Logan and I are back! We had 2 fabulous weeks in France, full of new experiences and good times with great people.

The outbound flight took place during the day, and despite only having 1 seat for the 2 of us (approx 80 square cm) it all went well. The couple next to us interacted with Logan, and we walked up and down the centre aisle a few times. The only issue was at landing: although I was able to keep his buggy all the way to the plane before take off, I could only get it back in the luggage reclaim area. I don't know where on earth we landed at Lyon, but it was about 2 km from the buggy. That was not easy with a toddler who's not able to walk long distances yet, and a heavy rucksack.

The first week was spent at my parents' house in the Alps and we managed to see all the family. Some of them hadn't met Logan yet. Logan was his usual sociable self and had great fun with everyone, especially anyone who would let him sit at the wheel of their car, or would let him play with their dog, no matter the size. We spent a day at Walibi, a theme park with both terrestrial attractions and a waterpark. Logan couldn't do much as he's way too young, but we took turns in looking after him. He didn't really do much in the waterpark as he slept most of the time we were there, which enabled me to do all the big scary slides!! We had a picnic lunch where Logan tried for the first time Pate en Croute, which is some sort of pork pate surrounded by a crust. He couldn't get enough of it so we had to hide it as it really isn't very healthy for a 16-month old.

The rest of that first week was spent visiting more relatives, doing the sales (clothes in France are expensive compared to the UK, but well worth a consideration during the sales. I managed to get just about all of Logan's winter wardrobe for a fraction of the price!), and generally getting organised for the second week.

For the second week we had booked 2 flats on the Cote d'Azur. These flats have been in the family for nearly 30 years and we are really lucky to be able to use them. As we were 6 to go (Logan, me, my parents, and my sister's 2 sons) we borrowed my sister's Grandis which is a massive car that can sit up to 7. Lots of "firsts" for Logan that week, including merry-go-round, dip in the sea,  play in the sand, and the fruit!! How different are peaches in the South of France to peaches at Tesco's!! Direct from the producer to the shop within a few kilometres! Logan particularly loved apricots, peaches and watermelon. Bananas are still is favourite though.

As you can't spend a whole week at the beach with a toddler, we spent a morning at the local market (hmmm the smells of local produce, the atmosphere, the saucisson!!), another one in the nearby town of Ste Maxime walking along the lively streets and eating at a lovely wee restaurant where Logan ate up all of his gran's strawberries, and the rainy afternoon was spent taking a stroll to the harbour and back in between showers. It cooled the air down a bit, but not much.

Logan had trouble sleeping the whole time, not wanting to go to bed at nap or bed time, and getting up early (6.30 am! I'm use to at least 7 am!). He changed houses 3 times in 2 weeks I suppose, and went from an environment of 18 degrees to one of about 32 degrees within the space of a flight.

We've been home nearly a week now and Logan has moved back into his usual routine effortlessly. He's picked up a few French words whilst there and I would really like to see the faces of the girls at nursery when he says "encore" "poisson" or "bateau" to them!!

Cododo

Cododo... I have no idea what it would be called in English and I hope it doesn't sound rude. Dodo is French for "sleepy time". "Off to bed" would be "Au dodo", "Time to sleep" is "c'est l'heure de faire dodo" so "sleep" in kid's language is "faire dodo".

And Cododo is the practice whereby babies/toddlers and parents sleep together in the same bed. It is a very cosy practice, but can be really dangerous so we have never done it (mainly because had we done it I would have had a sleepless night to make sure Logan wasn't being smothered). That is, until a couple of weeks ago.

Logan is a really good sleeper (we are very lucky). He goes to bed at 8 pm at the latest, is asleep by 8.30 pm at the latest, and sleeps through to around 7 am. So when he wakes up in the middle of the night, something's wrong. It is horrible when he cries at night and I don't know what's wrong with him. It is usually teething, or so we think becuaae he can't tell us. His dad and I take turns to pick him up, hold him against us (all 11 kg - it's quite heavy), soothe him, give him some Calpol and/or tooth gel and nothing works, everytime we put him back down he cries again. When such nights happen, all 3 of us are kept awake for about 3 hours. Plus I've found I'm too small for him now, he can't get comfy in my arms if I'm standing.

It does help him when he's in our arms though, so we started changing our handling of the situation. We don't hold him for 5-10 minutes, put him back down, he cries, we let him cry for a bit, he's still not settling, so we have to go back, pick him up again etc... anymore. We now go to him, give him Calpol and tooth gel straight away, and then one of us will stay with him, lie down with him on the sofa that's in his bedroom (used to be the spare room!) and have an hour or so of "Cododo" with him. It is a much better position for us: lying on our back with Logan on top of us, as opposed to standing up carrying all 11 kgs of him. And it's been working so far: after that cosy-up time, he goes back in his cot and that's him for the rest of the night.  

Only one week till the holidays!!

Countdown to the summer holidays

We did have our week-end away on 2nd and 3rd of June but it's been so busy at work that I haven't had a lunchtime available since to update on how it went. Logan's Dad and I had a lovely time just the 2 of us, except that, sod's law, our first week-end away we were both ill. Mike had conjunctivitis and I had both conjunctivitis (thanks Mike) and a cold. We must have been at our worst during the week-end, because Logan didn't catch any of it before or after. That was very lucky!

He behaved really well at his grand-parents, ate everything, went to bed without any problem, woke up a bit early (6.30!! it's ok for us, but really early for his grandparents) and went to a Jubilee party on the Sunday before we came back to pick him up.

We stayed in the new Riverwood B&B in one of the prettiest areas of Scotland. The owners are some of the friendliest Scottish hosts we know and they've done a great job with the place. We'll definitely be back!

Since then the weather hasn't been fantastic so we haven't been up to much with Logan. However one of the best things we've done was the new Riverside Museum in Glasgow, which should really be called the Transport Museum. Bikes, cars, busses, trams, anything with wheels is there and Logan had a fab time taking everything in.

4 weeks till Logan and I fly to France for 2 weeks. I'm dreading the airport + plane experience as I'll be on my own so I can only hope my boy will behave. And then we're going to the Cote d'Azur with his grand-parents (the other ones) and his cousins. Yay!!

In the sunny weather

We had our first proper summer weather of the year last week and gosh how good it felt. It was like being in France! Temperatures reached 29 degrees and the sun was shinning non stop for about 10 days. Logan's nursery asked for each child to come with a sun hat and suncream as the children were spending most of their time outside in the courtyard.

On Saturday we bought Logan a small paddling pool as he loves to play with water. He didn't really understand that the whole point of a pool is to go in it and play but he'll learn as we'll have it out anytime it's warm enough now. I then took him to Ayr beach which was crowded (never seen so many people at Ayr beach) but unfortunately filthy with litter left by the day trippers who came for a picnic. It's a real shame that, as it made me decide never to go again when it's busy. I don't remember beaches in France getting that dirty when there isn't enough sand between holidaymakers to lay another towel down. I don't understand why people do that. It doesn't take any effort at all to bring your rubbish back home and bin it there.

On Sunday it was another fantastically warm and sunny day so we went to Culzean Castle to have a picnic by the swan pond with Logan's friend Freya and her parents. We had to pay £9.50 per adult just to go in the country park: you know what, it was CLEAN. We might just get membership so that we can go anytime we want and be assured of a rubbish-free environment. After the picnic at the swan pond we walked over to the private beach where people were having barbecues and making sand castles and taking their rubbish back home with them. The water was really cold, so cold it was hurting. Logan needed a lot of persuasion to go in knee deep. Freya was a bit better!

It was so hot I decided I would go in the sea all the way myself. Took me about 10 minutes to manage! That's a long time to get into the sea! I couldn't feel my limbs! But hey, I swam in Scottish Sea! :)

Tomorrow is the start of the long Jubilee week-end that lasts until Tuesday. 4 days off work! Logan's dad and I are going away, "just the two of us", to the Aberfeldy area. It will be the first time we're leaving Logan overnight. I'm not really worried about leaving Logan, I'm just hoping he'll be good to his grand-parents, with no teething overnight, coughing, crying or waking up early.

Back from the Hebrides

We've been back a couple of weeks and I haven't really had time to give an account of our trip since. I was also going to try and post something over in the Hebrides, but unfortunately the Wi Fi was behaving badly and it was only ever working long enough to check emails, not even reply to them. Anyway I'm not supposed to be on a computer when I'm on holidays.

We all had a fabulous time in the Western Isles. The weather was sunny most of the time, although cold and windy. But we had planned for this, and as Sir Ranulph Fiennes said, "there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing".

Logan was sensational during the travels to and from Stornoway. He had a wee turtle rucksack with some toys and happily played with them on the plane up. We were in a very small plane that was very loud but it didn't bother him. On the way back we had to take the bus to Stornoway before going on the plane, and again he was amazing in it. One hour journey and he spent most of it standing on my legs looking over the seat in front of us. A very happy little boy.

I'd bought a Patapum baby carrier before travelling as the Western Isles are an outdoorsy destination with pathways to go to sites and pushing a buggy on gravels or soil or sand isn't easy. It's a great carrier that's very comfy and really takes Logan's weight off. The only downside is that I can't use it on my own: another adult needs to be there to put Logan in. Maybe when he's a bit older he can climb on my back and I can then strap him in.

We stayed in a 3-bedroomed cottage in Tarbert which I can highly recommend for its convenience all round (next to shops, all you need and more in the house, fantastic views to the sea and Skye). Logan got a bit spooked by the change of surrounding and completely stopped trying to walk that whole week.

We visited the Isle of Harris with its gorgeous beaches and lonely standing stones. We had a picnic on Borvemore Beach, complete with winter coats and woolly hats.

We travelled to the Northern tip of Lewis and nearly got swept off the cliffs by the strong winds at the Butt of Lewis lighthouse - but the sun was out and it was magnificent. We got sent back in time at the different attractions on the Western coast. We had lots of fun playing between the impressive Sea Stacks at Tolsta Beach on the East coast.

We took the bridge to the Isle of Scalpay - just to be able to say we'd been there! Turns out it has a lovely little harbour.

We sailed to Berneray in order to visit North Uist and Benbecula, and to be honest the best bit was the half hour or so that we spent on the breathtaking East beach as we were waiting for the ferry home. As we waited for the ferry we let Logan clamber around the car and he managed to get from the back seat to my knees (driving seat) on his own, then sat on my lap turning the steering wheel making vroom vroom noises! It was hilarious!

So all in all we managed to visit 6 of the Western Isles - even if Scalpay is tiny and we did Benbecula, North Uist and Berneray in one day, it's not bad at all in a week.

Planning for the Hebrides

Logan's French grand-parents arrive tomorrow afternoon and we're all going to the Hebrides on Saturday.

My mum, Logan and I will be flying while my dad and Logan's dad will be driving. It's a 7-hour drive (including lunch stop) from Ayr to Uig on Skye to take the 1.5hr ferry to Tarbert on the Isle of Harris. We decided that Logan was too small still to withstand that. So we spent a little fortune on flights to Stornoway for 3 of us.

You know, Logan doesn't get his own seat on board the plane. He will have to sit on my lap. He still pays £25 per leg!!! That's just wrong. He doesn't even get luggage allowance. Who's ever travelled with a baby? How come they don't get luggage allowance?? They travel with more stuff and crap than BOTH MUM AND DAD together!!

I have made a list of everything we are taking for Logan:
Potty
Changing mat
Bath mat (just in case the cottage doesn't have one)
Bath toys
General random toys
Some books (he loves books now, it's only been a week or so)
A full bag of 56 nappies (Huggies were going cheap)
Wipes
Tissues
Travel cot
Duvets to put at bottom of travelcot (makeshift mattress)
2 bedsheets (in case of an accident)
2 sleeping bags (see above)
Swimsuit (in case we have time to go to the swimming pool)
so, of course, armbands
Swim ring (he sinks with only armbands)
Swim towel
Towels (cottage only provides towels for the adults)
Calpol
Twixilix (there's a y in there somewhere)
Karvol capsules for blocked nose
Thermometer
Bottles
Cups
Plates
Cutlery
Bibs

This is all the stuff that comes on top of what adults normally take, which is really just items of clothing and toiletries.
It's unbelievable! And they are not allowed luggage on planes????? Despite the fact that we pay for the priviledge of having a wriggly, impatient, annoyed, tired, bored, restless child on our lap (of course Logan isn't like that at all, he will, as we say in French, be as quiet and well behaved as a picture: "sage comme une image").

Of course he has no clue what's happening just now, but I think he'll enjoy the airport and plane experience with his mama (that's me) and mamie (that's my mum), especially since he can WALK now woohoo!!

Keep checking for an update on the whole travel experience with a 1 year old... :)

Logan is 1!!

10 days ago (already!) Logan turned 1! How the time has flown since he was born!

Logan at 1 hour old!

At 4 weeks old he gave us his first smile, and we moved him into his own bedroom (he was waking up every hour and a half for a "healthy snack", but as soon as he was in his bedroom, he went to sleeping for 4 hours at once)

At 8 weeks old we got the first ever proper laugh

At 10 weeks old he went to the swimming pool for the first time, and then every week after that

At 3 months he spent his first night away from home, in Edinburgh. He also got his French passport at the same time!

At 4.5 months we went on a 2-week road trip all the way to the Northermost point in Mainland Scotland, took a boat to the Orkney Islands, took a boat back and drove back home.

At 5 months at last he started taking the bottle - he had to as I started work again. We were doing half and half. He was spending every morning with his Daddy, and every afternoon with me.

At 6 months I went back full time and Logan was completely weaned and started nursery! And also spending a day and a half with his grand-parents every week.
He also got his first teeth: 2 at the top and 2 at the bottom, right at the front.
And he started eating solids, yum!!

At 7 months he could sit up really well, but we were still using pillows around him, just in case. 

At 8 months he was dressed up as a skeleton for Halloween. His favourite toy was the TV magazine!!

At 9 months he started cruising along the furniture, wanting to walk all the time. He took a plane for the first time, to spend Christmas with his French grandparents. What fun he had with his French cousins!!

At 10 months, still not crawling, still not quite walking, but he got his first proper shoes. He also started brushing his teeth, and using the potty.

At 11 months, after a couple of weeks of not being very well, he went on his first ever course of antibiotics. He also started crawling at last! He began to be really good at using the potty every morning.

And 1 year old, 4 more teeth (big molars on all sides, up and down). First ever birthday party! Well, 2 parties even. He had a great time with lots of other children at home, and then with his cousins, aunts and uncles at his grand-parents'. We had a lovely cake with Winnie the Pooh decorations all over it, banners and balloons everywhere around the house. 

Now he drinks his bottle on his own, which saves me 10 minutes in the morning. He is taking his first few steps on his own and isn't afraid of standing by himself anymore. He has 10 days to walk properly: his French grandparents are coming, he'll want to show them what he can do on his own!!

 Exactly 1 year old to the minute!

 Logan's 1st Birthday Cake

I can't wait till same time next year and see all the developments that will have taken place over the next 12 months.

Week-end in Fife

What a lovely week-end we've had...

For Christmas, we didn't really know what to get Logan's grand-parents: what do you offer retired people who already have everything?

So we thought and thought, and decided we needed to get them something that showed appreciation for them helping out looking after Logan and saving us some money on nursery fees.

So we thought and thought some more, and decided that it would be great to spend the week-end away somewhere altogether, and so we booked a 2-bedroomed cottage by the beach in Lower Largo, Fife.

The grand-parents were delighted with their present!

And last week-end was the date we had selected to go away together.

We left on Friday morning around 10.45 am, perfect for Logan's morning nap. The weather was drich but we made the best of it. At lunchtime we stopped in Culross to stretch our legs in this gorgeous preservation/listed village of multi-couloured houses with gable ends and rough walls. We had a lovely lunch at the Red Lion Inn where Logan was able to burn off some energy.

Next stop was Dunfermline where we wanted to visit the Abbey, unfortunately it was having some work done and we couldn't get in. Logan was being taken around on his dad's shoulders which he just loves. Apart from the Abbey Dunfermline is pretty forgettable.

Eventually we got to the cottage which was just the cutest little ground floor flat with a garden at the front and steps to go down to the beach. Very comfortable, nice and warm, cosy in the living room, and Logan loved exploring it.

Saturday morning we woke up to magnificent weather that stayed with us all day.  As Logan woke us up long before his grand parents were up, we went down to the beach and my boy was absolutely fascinated by the sea and the waves and all that. Kept staring at it and didn't want to go back inside!

We spent the morning touring the East Neuk villages (St Monans, Elie), had lunch at Cambo Estate (unfortunately no more snowdrops, and not quite ready for daffodils) where we had to eat with our coats on as the tearoom was not heated. In the afternoon we went to St Andrews and climbed up St Rules Tower for panoramic views of the town. We bought extortionate rod-caught seabass from the fishmonger's for dinner then drove back home.

Logan got a bit freaked out that night and half an hour after falling asleep, he woke up in a panic, probably not knowing where he was. It didn't help that we didn't hear him at first so he stood crying for a bit in his cot before we went and "rescued" him.

On Sunday we spent some time by the sea again as Logan kept dragging us towards the stairs every time we went outside the cottage. We packed up and drove back home via Falkland Palace.

During all this driving and going in and out of car seats, Logan was absolutely amazing. He only really got fed up during the last 2 hours (which we had timed to be during afternoon nap, but he was not going to sleep, was he!!) when I was trying to keep him entertained by singing, playing, feeding even. One fantastic little boy who had an amazing time with his 4 favourite people in the whole wide world.

I wish babies could talk...

My boy was up for 2 hours last night and we had no idea what was wrong with him...

It started at 8.30 pm, an hour after he'd gone to bed for the night. He was tired so had gone to bed a bit earlier than usual. He woke up very agitated, and sure enough he was feverish. As bad as fever is, at least we know what to do about it and we duly gave Logan some Calpol, plus tried to bring it down a little by applying some wet, damp cloths inside his thighs, where the femoral arteries are. He didn't really understand and didn't like it at first, but it did make him feel better. We put him back in bed without his sleeping bag and he then went back to sleep really quickly. I then tucked him inside his sleeping bag again when I went to bed a couple of hours later.

At 3.30 am he started being all agitated again. The fever had come down so no need for Calpol. A drink of juice, a nice cuddle and back in bed. But he didn't really fall asleep again and an hour later we went through the same routine again, this time with the addition of milk and some teething gel, in case that was what was bothering him (and with the fever a few hours before, it sort of made sense). Milk used to work and put him to sleep, it didn't this time and he was awake babbling to himself for a wee while longer. Last time I looked at the alarm clock it was 5.30 and he was still babbling! I think I fell asleep shorlty after that so he must have too.

Weirdest thing was that after being awake for 2 hours in the middle of the night (sounds like he's back to being 4 weeks old again!!), he woke up as normal around 7.45 am!! I would have normally woken him up at 7.30 am but thought I'd leave him be, thinking he would have a long lie! Kinda ruined my schedule but hey, that's what cereal bars are for...

If he could talk, he would have told us what was wrong!

On another note, we had to cut his hair tonight and he can claim to having had his first ever bad haircut from his mum at 11 months old!

 Waking up from a nap!

 Logan loves the swing

 Bad haircut!! Ah well, it'll grow back!

To walk or not to walk...

Definitely not to crawl, that's for sure! My boy Logan is 100% not interested in crawling. He tries though! Sitting down he will put his hands forward and move his legs but can't quite keep his knees bent so flomps onto his stomach and wails.

Everybody tells me that's brilliant that he won't crawl because then he doesn't move and you know where he is! True, however as he can't move he can't follow me about and has massive separation anxiety everytime I leave the room. His pals Enzo and Hannah can crawl like nobody's business and when they're together all 3 of them I wish that Logan could crawl too so he wouldn't be just sat somewhere while the others go explore.

On the other hand, he might well be the first one of the 3 to walk on his own. He is really not far off, but he's been not far off for the past 5 weeks now. Everyday he gets a bit more confident cruising along the furniture, and even standing unaided for a few seconds. At nursery they think he'll walk before he's 1 year old. Better hurry up then, only 7 weeks to go.

Oh my goodness 7 weeks and he's 1 year old!! I only gave birth last week!! 

On the toilet front (ha!) we started potty training and it's not easy. He doesn't like sitting on the potty very much but we just have to get him used to it. We're going to try every morning during the week, and a few times a day at the week-ends. We'll see! It's maybe a bit early.

We went to a baby charity event last Saturday where we met up with our friends from our monthly gatherings. It was organised in memory of a little girl who died shortly after she was born and all the profits went to the neonatal unit at Crosshouse Hospital. It was very well organised and a great event to be part off. We'd given lots of Logan's things that we'd hardly used or knew we wouldn't need for a second baby. It was quite difficult to look through the items for sale with Logan wanting my undivided attention but somehow we managed to come back with a few bits and bobs: a new toy, a really cool pair of brand new Winnie the Pooh slippers for the Autumn and some clothes for this summer.

This week-end we're hoping to go to the pool!!

FIT

Oops it's been a long time since the last post. Well that's not so bad as quite a few things happened so I have stuff to talk about!

My wee boy, a week from being 10 months old, cannot crawl. But he is absolutely desperate to walk. He's been grabbing our hands to pull himself up and walk around the house since we're back from France. He can easily pull himself up from the floor using furniture now. The first time this took place was in the bath 2 weeks ago. Scary. He is standing constantly. Sometimes when he reaches an area of interest he will sit down for 2 or 3 minutes to inspect something, and then wants to get back up to explore further.

So I decided that the time of £5 pairs of plastic floppy shoes out of Tesco's was finished, and that he needed a proper pair of shoes that will hold his feet proper and FIT well in order to learn to walk without getting sore feet/ankles and bowed legs.

We went to Clarks of course - where else!! They had a sale on - dancer! Logan loved the experience. He was walking about somewhere he'd never been before, with lots of things to look at, touch, go to etc... And mirrors!! There were 2 little boys in front of us so we had to wait a little. I spotted a really nice pair for him in size 3 (I'd no idea what size he was) which seemed to be the smallest. That was only £5, like Tesco's!! Our turn came, and guess what, he's only a size 2.5! Well he was only 9.5 months old last week. Tiny feet, tiny shoes that weren't in the sale... But it doesn't matter, they FIT and that the main thing. So he's wearing them all the time now and at last his feet go nice and flat on the ground and he's making great progress. And I bought the size 3 at £5 for next month - might as well when they're so cheap!

While Logan's getting nice FITting shoes, I'm getting FIT again! I was running 8K twice a week before I fell pregnant with Logan. I'd only been doing it for a year or so, and I ran a couple of races up in Glasgow. Great feeling. I ran once, pathetically, back in June last year but it was somehow too early. 2012 came and with it new resolutions, so my work got a team together to run for Sport Relief on 25th March. It's 6 miles so I need to build up stamina to last!! I can only run once a week, at the week-end when Logan is having a nap. 3 times so far, and the last time was the best as I felt I could have run longer (I did about 5K - half an hour). I realised that I'd been thinking all along about this blog entry, so my mind was not about running and wanting to stop. Definitely need to sort out my iPod as that will keep me going too! Horrible feeling on Sunday when a boy about 10-12 years old over-ran me (does that exist? ran past me much faster). But he only lasted about 5 minutes. I had to keep running until I got home!

We had another Mummies and Children meeting on Saturday and it was the firt time really when the children actually played together. It was brilliant. Up until the mummies sat down for their lunch and they all started to get grumpy and tired and demanding... Ah well...

If you would like to sponsor our team for Sport Relief / Comic Relief, please click on the link below.

http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/ibtteam

If you do want to sponsor us, please leave your name so we can thank you!

I'm sure there is some whisky in tehre somewhere...