Emma Tries Some Rice

The weaning has begun. Emma still hasn't grasped the concept of opening her mouth to let the spoon in, but once it's in there she'll swallow it!

On Wednesday Emma had more vaccinations, the third of her three triple ones. That's it now until her MMR at 12 months old. She was a bit grumpy and difficult to settle on Wednesday and Thursday nights. By Friday, last night, she was back to normal again and nearly slept through. Before the vaccinations, we went to the Curzon to see The Wickerman. It was quite scary, but Emma dozed through a lot of it. We had a tapas for lunch at El Bodega in Clevedon. Here's Emma in the cafe.

Here's some pictures from Thursday morning. Emma woke at 7am so I got up and we read The Hungry Caterpillar book, and then got some breakfast ready for Mummy.

Later on Thursday, Jenny, Emma's Granny came to visit and they went to lunch at Great Grandma's. It had been a little while since Granny had seen Emma, so there was a lot of catching up to do.

Helen met up with some other Clevedon mums after lunch on Friday at The Little Harp. Emma was on top smiley form to entertain them despite it being Friday The Thirteenth...

Four Generations Meet

Over the weekend I got the urge to cook and invited everyone who could attend at short notice for Sunday lunch. Both Emma's great grandmothers from Helen's side came and Rob and Leila. Here's a picture of me pouring white wine over the seabass and roasted asparagus before it went in to cook.

Here's some of Emma standing and giving a regal wave.

Emma joined in with eating Nanna's profiteroles. Well, she had a little chocolate sauce...



After lunch we settled down for a nice chat and we printed off some photos for Connie and Jean. Don't look at the empty wine bottles in this picture....


Tigger didn't want to be left out so jumped on my lap for a cuddle.

Here's Rob having a hold of Emma.

We pushed the pram around Marshall's field after lunch to help the food go down.

Here's Rob during his Castle Combe track day. I think he looks a little happy...

Pushing Prams, Shooting Pool and Emma Grows Whiskers

These first pictures are from Sunday when Helen, Leila and I helped push Emma around Poet's Walk in her new Silver Cross pram. Getting up to the top of Poet's Walk isn't a one man job - the pram weighs a ton! It has amazing suspension and cushions any bump or cranny in the road. Nearly everybody we passed enthused over it and shared pram stories.



We walked to the bandstand then headed into The Little Harp pub for a drink and a couple of games of pool.




Emma went swimming with her Mummy, Gramma and some friends in Portishead pool on Tuesday. She had her first proper dip in her rubber ring and seemed to enjoy herself immensely.

On Wednesday morning I took Emma for a couple of hours to let Helen catch up on sleep. Emma's continued to wake for normally feeds during the night.

Helen went for a facial and massage at The Beauty Clinic at 11am.

I loaded Emma into the papoose and we headed around Poet's Walk. We saw a man feeding squirrels then shouting at them. He seemed quite strange.


Helen was due out at 12.30pm and had last fed Emma at 8am. I was a little worried I might have an explosion on my hands if she got hungry around noon. She started crying soon after 12 when we got in from our walk so I tried giving her some formula milk from her new Tommee Tippee bottle with life like teat, but she wasn't having any of it!

We went to GG's for lunch at 1pm. She'd cooked us roast lamb with all the trimmings in celebration of her birthday - what a lovely lady! We enjoed a nice long chat and afterwards, Leila came to join us. Connie made a wish before she blew out her candles.



Leila, Helen and Emma and I went shopping in the Mall at Cribbs Causeway after a nice afternoon with Connie. We all stocked up on Autumn/Winter clothes and Emma got this rather natty catsuit from Gap. She seemed very happy about it, until it was time to go when she cried in the car for 10 minutes before going to sleep, it was past her bedtime....





Today, the weather's turned rainy and horrible. Helen and Emma were rather stuck inside and after a while Emma started getting a bit irritable. Helen strained and poured the blackberry wine into demijohns so they are burping away happily now. Emma's been trying Farley's Rusks with milk. She hasn't quite got the hang of solids, and when she tries to milk the spoon with her tongue, she only ends up with a mess down her chin!

This isn't just pie....

We had a big tour of the Midlands on Saturday to pick up a pram Helen won on EBay from Telford, then to join in with warming Mike's new house in Kenilworth. I finished work at 1pm, we got to Telford at 5pm to be greated by a dwarf and a woman with two teeth. Their house smelt of dogs and cigarettes so we hope we can get the smell out of the pram. It certainly has an odour to it. Getting the pram into the car was a challenge. The body seperated from the chassis fortunately, and the toothless woman helped me squeeze it in. She even gave us an old smelly beach towel to cover it with to stop it scratching. Emma was crammed onto the back seat with it. We got to Mike's for 6.30pm and were treated to a new pie he's been helping to develop for Marks and Spencers. It's an organic beef and ale pie and it was very tasty.


It was a good reunion, lovely to catch up with Jane, Jim, Emma, John, Rowan, Maddie, Mike, Claire and Bethany again. Bethany has just started at school in Kennilworth and is very well behaved. Her bedtime is 8pm and she went upstairs on the dot despite all the excitement downstairs.



John and Rowan's daughter Maddie, who was born the week before Emma, is a very beautiful little girl. She has a very strong grip, and this was demonstrated on Mike's hair!

Our epic drive of 260 miles finished just before midnight and we were very relieved to see our beds. Emma was up three times before 8pm wanting feeds so Helen managed a lie in today whilst I looked after her.