October...

Callum is nearly 10 weeks and continues to thrive. He is a big boy (sometimes known as chunky!) In the last couple of weeks he’s become much more alert and seems to spend most of his time smiling at everyone… a big gorgeous smile. His development seems to mimic Bethany’s in terms of timing… he now enjoys lying on his playmate and kicking and hitting the toys. Sleep wise, dare I say it he is becoming a bit of a legend and we have had a couple of nights where he’s successfully gone from 11pm through til 0600, settled again until 0730.
We had that wonderful moment last Friday when Mark’s alarm went off and I realized that I hadn’t had to get up all night.

September came and went but at least we got some sunshine. We were very lucky to be invited to stay with Ellie and Eric at Ellie’s bosses house in Bath. It was an amazing house and we had a great time relaxing whilst Bethany enjoyed a great selection of toys with her new friend Mieke (one of the little girls Ellie looks after). On Saturday morning the weather was so nice that Mark, Bethany and I went for a dip in the pool… we repeated this on Sunday it was so refreshing. Walking round the garden was a great adventure for Bethany with Swings and slides, sandpits and a bridge over the stream where a good game of pooh sticks was played.

The following weekend we relaxed in Reading and got lots of jobs done in preparation for our trip to Scotland and the Peak district.

Last weekend we started our holiday adventure with a trip up to Manchester on Friday night. We arrived at Auntie Anne’s at about 11pm. It was the first time we’d been to their rather pokey flat!!!! A very over tired and excited Bethany enjoyed 20mins of running round the lounge (easily big enough to tire her out) then up and down the stairs several times before she finally settled in a rather palatial bedroom with Mummy and Daddy. We had a lovely day on Saturday, Mark then headed back to Reading for another week of work whilst I got the kiddies ready to drive up to Scotland. All was going to plan, until just as we were about to go to the car Bethany puked on the hall floor, along the corridor and all over the bathroom floor. Auntie Anne kindly cleared up as I changed Bethany’s pjs and my jumper! We then headed off with the aim of making it to the first service station in order to reassess whether driving 200 miles up the road was sensible… luckily both children fell asleep with no additional vomiting episodes and we had a fantastic, non stop, journey to Glasgow. Glorious weather waited for us on Sunday and Bethany was in absolute heaven with two dogs to play with - Dak, the old favourite, and new kid on the block, Hamish. The start of a relaxing 3 weeks for me.

I'm writing this from my laptop - I've put up some photos but haven't had time to delete any... there are a lot (rediculous amount) of Callum... I wanted to get a good shot!