Could Have Been Worse, Could Have Holidayed in Yorkshire!

The last few days has seen England lashed by storms with heavy flooding as a result. What a wonderful time to visit the Isle of Wight!

We went over on the ferry for a day. Luckily Helen had vetoed the "Let's just take bikes" idea at an early stage of planning. We firstly got stuck in a traffic jam for half an hour as soon as we got off the ferry. We headed off to The Needles, but never left the car as we didn't want to wake Emma for a walk that would have soaked both of us. We went to Cowes and up until lunch got very wet going from shop to shop. After a pleasant sandwich in Tiffins the weather brightened and even stopped raining at point so we walked along the prom. The view was all dark skies and Fawley Power Station.



The sky and Emma's face says it all.


As a final salute, we spent two hours getting out of Portsmouth thanks to road works baying the traffic back to the ferry terminal. Emma went ballistic in the back as it was from 5 until 7pm and she's normally fed at 6pm.


Either side of our wet day trip were two lovely visits to friends in Portsmouth. Firstly Bryony and Andrew cooked us a wonderful gnocci and we spent an hilarious evening playing silly letter writing games and pub name games.

Emma slept through the night - an improvement on previous nights when she had been up at 3am!

We spent Monday night and some of Tuesday with Helen, Stephen and Alex. Helen took us to a friendly pub called the Fisherman's Rest and then we visited Titchfield Abbey.

Emma Does London

And sleeps through most of it! Here she is snoozing at various landmarks...



She was very good on the train to Waterloo, and the underground.


After lunch I took her to Hamleys. We stayed there for hours playing with the displays and then visiting the cafe.

We also popped into some "interesting" shops. This one on Dover Road had the weirdest baby gro and the most expensive jumper I've ever seen.

Emma was absolutely exhausted on the way home in the train and slept in my arms. In fact, she's done a lot of sleeping since then.

On Friday we went to Fair Oak to see Great Granny B. Granny treated us to tea and biscuits, then we went to a large gardens centre. Emma wasn't demonstrating walking, but she did thoroughly investigate Granny's flat, some of the while wearing an attractive tea cosy.


On Friday night we caught the train into Salisbury while Mum put Emma to bed and babysat. We met Craig and Sharon for an amazing curry at Anokaa on Fisherton Street. The menu and food were amazing. Most impressive was Sharon's duck.


Rosie visited us this morning and played with a new tea set. Emma was very pleased to join in.

Peter and Claudia treated us to sea bream and chips for lunch. The fish was delicious. Afterwards I stayed and played with Caroline and Thomas. We played football, then messed around with the camera taking action shots.



There are some more pictures here.

Freedom!

The holiday's going really well. Today Mum took Emma in the afternoon when she went to pick up Billy and Rosie from school. They went to see Bison in nearby West Knoyle.
Then they came back and Rosie helped feed Emma. We took the opportunity to go shopping in Salisbury. Helen got a cute little watch and I got a new jacket.


Yesterday Helen, Emma, Mum and I went to see her friend Mary in Wellow. They met at a counselling course in Salisbury many years ago and have remained close friends. Mary has a beautiful garden where we found this frog. I helped scoop some algae out of the pond so her fish could see out better. Emma enjoyed exploring and meeting new people. She was very well behaved.



Emma has taken up rugby. She still needs to master running with the ball though.

This morning Dad took Emma to feed the ducks. Forty two came to breakfast. Emma was excited to meet them all, but in her crawling to pat them on the head, ended up covered in duck poo.

Despite brooding skies, Helen, Emma and I headed out this morning to cycle to visit Granny S, Dad's mum. It was 6 miles each way and there were a few trying hills. We got caught in a shower on the way back but ended in good spirits. Granny was well and still full of stories about South Africa. Emma was very good but wouldn't eat much of her beetrooty savouries, then wolfed down her strawberries.




Emma sleeping on the way back. I had to dodge the potholes!

We got back to find Dad with his air rifle having triumphantly slain a rat who had been visiting the bird table.
Having been initially unsettled in the new surroundings, Emma has now relaxed and is sleeping and eating better. We had two unsettled nights and she was only managing one weetabix instead of her normal two. This morning we woke up after a full nights sleep and she attacked breakfast and tea with gusto.

Here are some more pictures : link and link

Blogging from Wallmead

We're now on holiday. Hurray!

We've been given a warm welcome at Wallmead by my parents. We spent yesterday with Craig and Sharon who had a day off. Craig and I got measured for suits for their wedding in October. We then went to Southampton and spied out some places to eat for the stag do.

The big news is the capture of Emma walking (well, kind of walking) on video. Here is the link.


We also took lots of photos of a trip to Ansty to feed the ducks on a an idyllic lake. Here's a link to the album. I've put some photos here too.

Unassisted Walking!

Today Emma walked to me from leaning against her Great Grandmother's table. She managed two steps. Attempts to replicate the feat later in the day failed but she is very steady on her pins now. Connie (GG) was thrilled to have witnessed it.

These pictures come from Tuesday when Leila, Helen and Emma visited Connie together. Some persuasion got Connie outside for lunch.

Here's Emma chasing bubbles later in the day.

Emma's main present from Granny S (Jenny) was a paddling pool. What fun she had in the warmth of the sudden Summer we're enjoying.


She also enjoyed escaping and helping her mummy with the gardening.

Then found time for a little streaking.

Helen's lined herself up for an exam this coming Tuesday. It's the completion of a counselling course that she took last year. She missed the exam thanks to a little package that arrived on the 3rd of June last year. To enable her to study I took Emma away on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. With Daddy in charge of tea, things rapidly took a turn for the messy.

This morning we had breakfast together and enjoyed some bubbles.

I took Emma off on the bike. We investigated some rock pools then sat on the beach.

We took a walk down Clevedon pier past a fishing competition. The sea fishers had managed one small mackerel between them. They looked very fed up. After our walk we cycled on to see Connie where Emma took her first steps.

When we got back Helen and Emma played in the garden while i got Emma's lunch ready.

The sun got to Tigger's head and he was rolling around on his back.

Here's Emma playing with a bra in John Lewis. Helen was measured for a bra in the largest lingerie department in this part of Bristol.

Afterwards we went to Eleni's party. Her parents, Mary and Kostas we met at antenatal and Helen's stayed friends with Mary. The girls are seen here planning on the best way to get into the washing machine together.

We went to a get together at Rob and Leila's afterwards where they'd invited Rob and John from Waveband. Considering we were gatecrashers we were made very welcome. Emma even managed to cheek-pouch some olives.

That's the end of this week's blog. We've reverted to the old camera as we lost the charger for the new one. I've ordered a new charger so we won't have to slum it for too long hopefully!