Christmas 2012

Inspired by a colleague, I've decided to take a different approach to the traditional Christmas round-up letter this year.  In part it's because (yet again) I've not been organised enough to produce the paper form, but also because, let's face it, this type of letter is rather impersonal anyway, so why not blog it?  Anyway, if you don't want to be bored with the "highlights" of my family's year, stop reading now :)

I wouldn't say 2012 has been the brightest year of our lives, but nevertheless has had some highlights.  For me, one was my return to work (albeit part time) after an extended maternity leave after Erin's birth.  I don't regret those two years with her, but I am enjoying being back doing research.  Juggling part time work and family is challenging at times, but both are part of me.  May saw my office shift from the old grimy building in Aytoun Street to a shiny new purpose-built building just off Oxford Road.  You'd think that would be a good thing, right?  I'm not so sure.  Seven of us in an L-shaped office with just one source of natural light, around the corner from my desk.  Sensor controlled lighting and climate leading to headaches and discomfort :(  Oh well, I can work at home at least some of the time...  12 months back on the job (equivalent of 5 full time) and I'm finally getting back  into the swing of things, I think.  The other academic highlight for me this year is that my bound thesis was finally submitted.  Yes, that was a slow process...

Peter's had a tough year, still chasing grants without much success.  The upside is that he's had a chance to do some work on the house.  The downside is that there isn't much money to do it with!  The kids have enjoyed the chance to spend more time with him though.

As for the kids, well, Angus completed his first year (reception, equivalent of prep back in Victoria) at school and then started year 1 in September.  He loves school and his friends there, and has a busier social life than I do.  He loves reading and maths particularly, but really you'd be hard pressed to find something he doesn't enjoy at school.  He also loves swimming, and is starting to get the hang of the "proper" strokes now - he's been confident in the water for quite some time, and will happily dive to the bottom to retrieve items in the deep end of the pool.

Erin wants to be just like her big brother and suffers great frustrations at times when she can't quite do the same things as him yet.  She started pre-school in September (just one morning a week) and adores it.  After the second session, we've had regular tantrums when it's not a pre-school day (because she wants to be there).  She'll do one extra session per week next term, but I suspect that won't be enough to satisfy her.  She's also a water baby, loving the pool and working towards losing her armbands.  She's got a far more volatile temper than her brother, but we manage without too many standoffs.

The other entertainment for me this year has been that I've joined the training band of the local silver band, learning to play flugelhorn (similar to a trumpet...).  After starting in September, we played our first pieces at a concert just before Christmas.  Went surprisingly well!  I'm really enjoying playing, although it's a very different thing to the cello I played at school... It's nice to be doing something that is purely for me, not kids or work.

Anyway, to all my friends, especially those too far to see face-to-face, I wish you and your loved ones joy and peace this Christmas, and a happy and properous year in 2013.

Long time, no post!

Sorry to anyone who has been looking here, but life with two kids isn't leaving me much spare time! I can't believe Erin is almost a year old now! Angus is very definitely a BIG boy now too.

I don't have time to summarise the almost year since I last posted, so I'll just briefly mention that I've changed my photo-hosting site. They're now on Flickr. Most of my photos are only viewable by people I've marked as friends or family though, so if you want to see the full set, create yourself a Flickr account (it's free), and let me know your username so that I can add you.

The big boy

Well, Erin is getting bigger (almost reached Angus' birth weight when weighed last Wednesday), but it's my big boy that I've really noticed growing up over the last few weeks. He seems to have grown both in stature and maturity. Here he is up in the loft with Peter, where he found a hobby catalogue and picked out a plane he thought they should have. Then a day or two later he decided he should build one himself...

So far (touch wood!) all is going well between Angus and Erin. He has his moments of not wanting a baby sister, but they are few and far between. The main problem at the moment are his sloppy kisses!

The next two weeks should be interesting though... it's school holidays, so no pre-school for Angus either, and on top of that, Peter is in Vienna for work for the first of the two weeks. What timing!

Erin Heather, born 0140, 2nd March

Well, she's certainly taken us by surprise! We weren't expecting her for at least a couple of weeks yet, but Erin decided to make an early appearance. My waters went at 8 on Monday evening, but nothing else was happening. However things suddenly started happening quickly at about 11pm, and by midnight my yells woke Peter (I was in the shower). He timed my contractions and got 3 in 5 minutes... oops, well and truly time to get moving. Got out of the shower, and made it to the car, but was already ready to push. Made the trip to the birth centre in record time, and made it in the door, but that was it. So much for my planned water birth: Erin was delivered in the reception area of the birth centre - good thing it was the middle of the night!

Unfortunately I lost a fair bit of blood after the birth, so I had to be transferred to hospital. Luckily it had stabilised by the time we got there, so I got away with just monitoring for a few hours, then they let me transfer back to the birth centre (on the proviso I take massive iron supplements for the next few weeks). I've spent a few days there (which was lovely, although I did miss Peter and Angus), and came home yesterday evening. Suffering terribly from sleep deprivation already, but things are pretty good.

Who do you think she resembles? I think she looks like her paternal grandmother.

Awww!

Angus is quite enjoying the prospect of the arrival of his little sister. He kisses and cuddles "her" on a regular basis (although gets a bit freaked out by her wriggling... and boy is she a wriggler!). Yesterday while we were waiting for his swimming lesson I was looking after the little sisters of two of his friends while they were getting changed, and Angus was very interested. Speaking of swimming lessons, yesterday was his fourth. He's gone from spending the first lesson clinging to one of the instructors and screaming (this from a boy who's been to the pool regularly since he was six weeks old, and loving it), to being so eager that we get there early and he then sulks because he can't join in the lesson before his. At the end of yesterday's lesson, the class had a race across the pool, and Angus was very proud to jointly win with his friend Tilly. (Sorry no swimming photos - cameras are not allowed at the pool.)

Sorry :(

I've been terrible at keeping this up-to-date, and only a bit better with my photo albums. But once again, I've finally caught up, so now you can catch up on, amongst other things, our Christmas pictures. Oh... and I suppose you heard we've had a bit of snow?

Judging by my photos, the snowfall started on the 17th of December. There was a partial thaw just before Christmas, but it snowed again on Christmas Eve. Then another almost complete thaw on New Year's Day, with a heavy snow fall the following day. The last time it snowed was the 13th of January, and the snow has now finally gone from the village (although you can still see some up on the tops). I love the snow when it is fresh and crisp, but it's horrendous when it partially thaws then refreezes. The last few days before it finally disappeared were the worst, when the footpaths were like ice rinks...

It's been a while...

Ok, so I've been a bit lax in uploading photos! But here we are now, the tail end of August, all of September (not that there were many) and October to date. Since I've last updated, Angus' curls have gone, as you'll see. And my bump is growing. Oh and we know the gender of my bump too :) We've just returned from a long weekend in Paris, which included Julie's third birthday celebrations.

More updates

Just a quick note to let you know that I've also updated with photos from July now in my gallery as well.

It's carnival week again

First of all apologies on being so slow on my updates here. We've been so busy since we came back from Australia! I'm finally getting a chance to post an update thanks to being home sick with a bad cold! It's the middle of carnival week here, and although the weather has been less-than-perfect (apart from Sunday, when the picture above was taken), it's still been a lot of fun. For the first time we managed to go to the blessing of the wells on Sunday, and on Monday Angus had a great time at the duck race and street fair (I was too busy being led from stall to stall to take any pictures there). Last night was grey and drizzly for the fell race, so we stayed in. Tonight there's a treasure hunt that Peter and Angus might participate in (I feel too sick). Pictures so far are in this album.

Home again

Well we're home and settled again. We had a great time in Australia, and it was great to catch up with so many people, but there was so little time that we didn't spend enough time with most of the people we did see, and even worse there were so many others that we didn't manage to catch up with. I've uploaded the pictures from our trip both to my mac account (via the link to the right) and also to Flickr. I've put them on Flickr as well because it appears that some people are unable to load the mac photo gallery thing. To use Flickr you'll need a Yahoo account, and to access my photos you'll need me to accept you as friend/family - just go to www.flickr.com and get yourself an account, then search for me (happyLV is my username) and there should be an option to contact me.