Heidi, Travis and the grapes

Today we had a visit from Heidi and Travis before they head back to Australia. Heidi worked with Helen in Southmead Hospital before we got married and they've stayed in touch ever since. This was the first time they'd met Emma and they were pleased that Emma didn't cry as soon as Heidi picked her up - apparently she normally has that effect...

In fact Emma was very pleased to have visitors and was on top friendly form. She did lots of smiling and was happy to be cuddled. She demonstrated her new skill of supporting herelf with her legs, although her balance still has a long way to come.

After 4pm, we went to raid Rob and Leila's vines in their garden. The grapes were just about ripe enough and Leila gave us a hand cutting off the bunches, then stripping the grapes from the stems.





I've left out the photo of the spider that was hiding in the grapes to spare Becky's nerves.

We've decided to make white wine and I'm hoping the cloudiness will settle and the wine will look a little less green...

More Sunny Days

The weather's continued to give us more sun and warmth, much to our pleasure! I took Emma on a walk around Poet's Walk whilst Helen had a sleep in the garden.


On Thursday night we went to The Salthouse with Rob and Leila taking Emma along. She was very good and had a sleep whilst we ate some excellent food. Here's Rob enjoying a floater coffee afterwards. Rob has uploaded some of his photos he took on Friday to a website which can be found here. His super-dooper camera has wonderful definition!



On Friday, Kath visited Helen and Emma in the afternoon and was very popular with Emma who smiled at her lots. Here is Emma making a lunge for Kath's nose - getting a bit hungry perhaps?

On Saturday morning Leila, Helen and Emma walked all the way along the seafront to see Connie. There were some lovely blooming creepers on one part of the footpath.

Emma sat on my shoulders for the first time on Saturday afternoon. She didn't know quite what to make of the experience. Here she is in the Moses basket nearly filling it now. A bit of a change from the photo taken when she was just 4 days old!



On Sunday morning Helen was able to take a shower in between preparing Chicken Merengue for Rob and Bex who came to see us before heading off to Reading. They gave Emma a bath and Helen gave Becky some sweets they used to enjoy when they were little - alphabet sweets! Emma was not very impressed at some of the words they created!



We took a walk along the seafront and bumped into Fiona and Ben from antenatal. They now have a beautiful daughter, Harriet.



We didn't get a picture of Harriet unfortunately. I hope you enjoy this picture of kids with unusual dummies.

Sunny September

Emma's been waking up more and more for feeds this week during the night. Last night took the biscuit with 1.30am, 3.30am and 6am. Luckily I had today off so took Emma off to Tescos in the stroller after 9am and Helen managed another 3 hours sleep.


Helen went into Weston to see how the Intermediate Care Team has been managing without her. Emma was passed round and gave lots of smiles. Becky Barnes was there too with her little boy, Joel. Here is Mallory holding Joel, and Nancy holding Emma.

Here are some pictures from today. We had soup in the garden at lunch time as the weather was so nice, then afterwards Helen dug and weeded the roses and I took everything out of the garage, then put everything back in, only slightly tidier! We disturbed some enormous spiders. Nancy popped around half way through and we had a nice chat.


Here is Tigger being naughty again and catching a catnap in Emma's cot. He was shooed out pronto!

Marlens Festival Weekend

This weekend there has been a Marine Lake Festival at the Clevedon sea front. The organisers got lots of bands to perform and the fun fair has been in town. The Clevedon sailing club band, Waveband performed on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Helen, Emma and I went along after I finished work on Saturday and enjoyed a performance. I captured them playing "A Crazy Little Thing Called Love", and "Come Up and See Me, Make Me Smile". We sat next to fellow groupies, Sue and Jonathan who are friends of Rob and Leila's. Jonathan's wedding present to us was to be our photographer at our wedding. His photos can be found on the Coles Family Website. Here are some pictures too:



After we'd watched Waveband, we walked along the seafront with Emma asleep in the stroller and the replica of the HMS Matthew, a wooden sail ship kept alongside us out in the Bristol Channel. We got a few nice snaps of her out by the pier. And a funny one of Emma with her legs in the air.



In the evening we ordered an enormous indian takeaway from the Red Rose. Emma's bed time is now between 7pm and 8pm. If she's awake after 7pm she gets quite cross! Helen normally gives her a feed at about 11pm during which she only half wakes up. This used to get her through to 7am, but she seems to be getting hungrier and often now needs a feed at 5am, then sleeps until 8am.



She has been picking up some new skills too. Her attention span is growing and she gets fascinated by faces, whether they be friends, relatives, in books or on television. The Beebies channel will keep her occupied for 30 minutes.

She's started grabbing Helen's hair and not letting go! During a feed, she'll use a straight arm to keep a distance between herself and Helen so she can breathe easily. In the papoose today she was bouncing with her legs on my hands. She can lock her knees and take some of her weight, and is able to sit more easily although not unsupported yet. When put on her front she will lift up her head and shoulders with her arms and look around, but doesn't normally do this for more than a minute before getting upset.

She won't have anything to do with a bottle. Putting formula in a bottle and offering it to her gets her very angry indeed. It makes it hard for us to leave her for more than an hour or two.



Today we cooked roast beef for Rob, Leila, Connie, Jean, Rob and Becky. Rob arrived by bicycle wearing his Mallorca team colours - exactly one year after they were acquired on holiday.






Afterwards, Leila, Helen, Emma and I took a post-prandial stroll down the front, past the festival festivities and watched the sailing boats. We also took a walk down the pier. We bumped into a friend of Leila's called Denise who is also a doting grandmother. She enjoyed a cuddle of Emma.

We got back and Tigger was very pleased to see us (as always!) Here are some pictures of him. His wound is healing up well on his head.