From Wednesday to Wallmead

On my day off on Wednesday morning I popped into work to drop in some keys, then into Bakers the butchers in Nailsea on my way home. They are part butchers and part abattoirs, their meat is always excellent. I got a brisket of beef, some chicken fillets and a brace of partridges. It was the first time I'd cooked partridge and I used this Anthony Worral Thompson menu.
We went to see Marie Antoinette at the Curzon mother and baby showing. Not crazy about the film - it was beautifully shot but lacked accuracy and didn't tell a very convincing story.

Here are some pictures from Thursday when Becky and Helen went shopping with Nanna in Street.


And here are pictures from the weekend in Wallmead. Look at Emma standing by herself holding onto the chair!


And here she is eating some meringue.




She kept moving around in her cot last night, ending up at some very odd angles. She had Helen up a few times in the night too. Helen was glad of a lie in whilst mum and I administered a breakfast of porridge and mango.


After breakfast, Dad and I tuned in the new car stereos mum and dad have had fitted. We did this on top of a hill on the farm where a trench is being dug for a new water supply to Haygrove. There were some interesting fossils in the stone that had been exposed.

Rosie and Jane dropped by in the late afternoon and Rosie helped give Emma a bath.

Here are some pictures of Rosie playing in the kitchen.

New Clothes and Roast Lamb

These are pictures of Emma showing off some new clothes on Friday and Saturday.


On Saturday she helped her Gramma Leila and Mum shopping in Ikea. The queue for the tills was 30 minutes!

On Sunday her Auntie Becky, Uncle Rob, Gramma, Grandpa and two Great Grandmas visited and enjoyed some roast lamb.


Here's Tigger enjoying a James Bond film that same evening.

And photos of me with old glasses, and with the new glasses that arrived today from Economeyes. A superb play on words that sadly took me a few days to realise... It is wonderful having new glasses. Everything is crisp and clear again. It's not until you can see clearly that you realise how blurry everything was...

Weeks and weeks to catch up on!

The last fortnight has been a bit of a blur for me. I worked on my day off last week to cover staff shortages then we had a wonderful weekend at Wallmead. This week I got poorly myself with a bad night in the toilet on Wednesday night. I've had today and yesterday off work to recover and feel a lot better, particularly after a long day in bed today reading and sleeping.

The camera has continued to be in use however, and I'll start with some pictures of the weekend before last, general frolicking with Emma mostly.

Helen, Leila and Emma went shopping in Shaftesbury, near where my parents live, on Saturday morning. Rob drove me down later in the afternoon. We had a meal out courtesy of Mum and Dad in an Italian restaurant in Shaftesbury. It's a converted church and the seating area, although inside, is designed to feel as if you are in an Italian piazza. Emma was very good and slept throughout in her car seat on the floor. Here are Mum's and my sea basses sharing an intimate moment.

Mum fed Emma some milky rice porridge and then gave her a bath. Here is a video of her bath with her smiling at her Daddy making a stupid noise. Click on this link.


The last pictures are of Leila and Ria on the sofa taking turns to hold Emma. Here is Rosie's birthday cake - can you guess what it is? The second picture is her opening a shiny new radio-CD player. There is also a video of it in action - click here.

Here is from left to right, Thomas, John, Tim, Billy and Rob.





The last picture shows an improvised game of "throw the rabbits onto the chairs".
On to Wednesday now. Here are some pictures of Emma enjoying her new high chair, generously passed onto us by Lin, Mike and Ria. She loves to be fed in it. It's so comfortable, she's even fallen asleep in it a few times! Click on the pictures to enlarge them.


These pictures were taken while I fed Emma and Helen had a lie in until 10am. Helen then went to the cinema with Emma. The film started at 10.30 so they had to dash! I went to the optician's in Cribbs Causeway - its been two and a half years since my last eye test. I need new glasses unfortunately. Especially unfortunate as Vision Express wanted over £200 for a pair. I went online and found the same frames for half the price. I hope they're OK! I went on a bit of a spend in the baby shops. These pictures show Emma posing in a new jerkin from Monsoon.

We popped into the Health Centre to get Emma weighed. She'd only put on a couple of ounces in the last week. There we saw Leila and an hour later she was out of work and sharing some red wine with us in The Cellar! There's something of a gangster about Emma in the second picture, don't you think?



And finally, here's Emma on Thursday having fun bouncing in the door frame.