Christmas Pics - 2007

We've had a good Christmas break between Kendal and Bridge of Allan. Thanks to Andrea for hosting our Christmas meal, and to everyone for their lovely, thoughtful gifts, including Team Canada and Team Japan (and to Charlie Bear for the santa suit hand me down). xxxx

Some pics below, although sadly none of Great Grandma playing Glen at tennis on the nintendo wee.

The "ladder tree" in Bridge of Allan. Dobbo made a lovely lindt chocolate reindeer with sleigh display on the shopping belt when purchasing 7 of them for the tree and then for our consumption.



















Andrea hosted at Cedar Grove and Savvy was spoiled with clothes, toys, ornaments, a special book about louie and shiny and more.











Jessie joined us for a walk on Christmas day (although mostly chose to avoid the camera while searching for ponies), and we made it out for some fresh air the next day as well (before the rain hit).

Food On Face - But Still Cute

The wee one is doing well - sleeping through the night more regularly and starting to get in the Christmas spirit with ribbon chewing and paper eating.

Re -Food on face...it's permanent. Doesn't come off. Stopped trying to keep her clean. What's the point?































Thanks to Jonathon for these pics.

Eco Blog Number 3 - Cleaning Green

Our third eco move requires a serious clear out of the cupboard below the kitchen sink.

Bleaches, drainos, windex - be gone!

Once these bad boys are used up, our cleaning cupboard is going to join our green(ish) laundry/dishwasher soaps - either using all the new e-brands that have hit the supermarchets, or homemade stuff.

The web is full of recipes. Most seem to be based on varying combinations of baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and warm water. All that stuff's gotta be better for planet earth than our current collection of hazardous agents.

We'll let you know how we get on. How many lemons will it take to clean savvy's nappy bin!? Can Ashley actually tear herself away from her new found love for fabric softener? Will bridge of allan mud budge just because we added a bit of salt or toothpaste to our baking soda and lemon juice fusion? Is 40 really the new 90 when it comes to water washing temperatures?

Happy Apple - at 8 Months

Savannah made it to 8 months and is still smiling (and standing).

Her achievements:

1. She "gets" sleeves -key in the mornings when in a rush

2. She can eat like a horse

3. She has two teeth just starting to poke through on the bottom

4. She can (when she chooses, which is rarely) sleep through the night

5. She can play "the ball game" with a wide variety of balls -
soccer, sponge, ping pong...back and forth it goes for hours

6. She is getting more dangerous in so many ways...she can launch off the couch, she thinks she can walk (but cannot), she can projectile poo and vomit, and she is getting more and more aware and able to manipulate the parental unit

7. She can shuffle about in her cot until she reaches her music toy and then she can pull the ring to create her own tunes

8. She can knock on her cot in the mornings for at least 20 minutes before starting to shout for a pick up. knock knock. pause. knock knock. pause.

9. She can throw her hardy hippo the length of the living room

10. She will almost always smile for the camera

Ratho and The Edinburgh Christmas Markets

After 3 years of sitting on some vouchers, we finally made it to the Edinburgh Climbing Centre (Ratho) for our shot on the aerial assault course (we are the two dorks standing together waving).

Savvy watched from the cafe along with Nonno, Nonna, and Jessie. Then it was to the play room where Jessie pulled some moves on a young-one's rock wall.

The markets were nice, but very very very cold. Thank goodness for crepes and egg nog lattes.

The Little One Stands

Sitting was so October. November was all about the stand...

More time in the pool

Glen & His Lova

A handsome hubba from our dinner last Friday, followed by a yummy breaky with savvy's sitters, jon and liz.

Trash Talk

It's a bit old news since Ron and Monica's wedding was a while ago now, but still worth highlighting Savvy's first shot at trash talking (re Shouter over squash). Not a bad effort if you ask me!

Have you ever heard the one...

...about a Mexican, a Scot, and a Canadian in Belfast?

They had a good time, although a bit rainy. The B&B was lovely and kind, and the giant's causeway very cool but a bit dark. The seafood and guiness were yummy. They discovered Savvy's love for balloons and loud music. And they even picked up a bit of history too, from a taxi driver slash tour guide with a big red nose and a very very very Irish accent.

Bath Time

Savvy is still loving the water - regular swims and long bathes. Glen and Savvy play the ring game. Hope to be inspired soon to add a video link. In the meantime - a pic.

Dear Santa

This is my first letter to you so first of all I'd like to say hello and tell you what a great job you're doing. Keep it up.

My Christmas present list.

1. Money for college, dance school, astronaut academy, carpentry apprenticeship or other. (I have my own bank account you know, so Mum and Dad can't spend it)
2. I would love to see a tree planted and grow like me. Then I can sit under it when I'm older.
3. Recycled toys and books are great from any other children that have got bored with theirs.
4. A cardboard box.
5. Champagne and chocolates (to be "looked after" by my Mum and Dad until I'm old enough).

A simple list really. If I am lucky enough to be receiving any gifts this year, and you need any help with eco ideas that the elves can't manage, try some of these links, although I'm sure you know them already.

http://www.greenbaby.co.uk/

http://www.buyorganics.co.uk

http://www.earthlets.co.uk

http://www.thenaturalstore.co.uk

Thank you so much Santa, careful with our skinny chimney.

Savannah.

XXX.

Eco Blog Number 2 – Eco Friendly Presents

I know you’ve all been eagerly awaiting this month's ecological promise from Rob, Dob, Howard and Co.

So here it is - From now on, all the presents we buy will have an environmentally friendly theme. I can’t say too much about it, as it may give away some of this year's Christmas surprises. Basically, we won’t be buying any plastic items such as plastic toy santas from China. If we can’t find anything to buy you as a present that’s eco friendly, we may buy/plant you a tree, much like Chris and Liz did last year. (They bought us an acre of rainforest, which is exactly what we wanted, thank you). Also, we will always use recycled paper/boxes for wrapping (but will also use up the new stuff that's still in the house before we start wrapping your presents in pages from pop's old encyclopedia).

Having said that we won’t be so rude as to not accept anything that’s made from oil or pesticide embedded cotton (since we’re not buying that stuff ourselves, we may need some help there). However, we love getting acres of rainforest (to add to our ranch ;-), recycled gifts (anything unwanted from last year, especially good books), wool or organic cotton clothes, etc, etc. With Savvy being so young and having been already given more toys and clothes than she knows what to do with, she has asked Santa for some simple things this Christmas (see Dear Santa).

PS - Ashley says to tell all her Canadian friends and family that while we are trying to make an eco effort, we are hypocritical enough to still support the posting of heavy, large (very large) parcels our way. We will do the same. After all, choosing, wrapping, sending, receiving, and opening presents is pretty cool, whether it's green, or lime, or olive, or not quite green but almost green.

Nonno, Nanna, and the Nincompoop

A few more pics from our weekend in Kendal.

Nonno and Nonna spoiling the little one.














Brushing teeth/gums in the caravan, our home away from home.














A crisp morning walk/snooze.

Annual Pumpkin Carving Competition

This year's annual pumpkin carving competition was held at my parents in Kendal. Basically, the competition consists of who can carve the best pumpkin. I'm usually the only one to enter, but this year Ashley and few others entered. I'm judge so I decide who wins. This year, I won - again, with Savvy as a vampire.



Ashley came a respectable 2nd with Mysterio, her favourite WWF wrestler.



Savvy with her cousins at the pumpkin carving world championships.

True Recycling

I think my mom told me that the jumper Savvy is wearing was knit by my grandmother (correction GREAT grandmother). Lynn wore it when she was growing up over 30 years ago. The jumper is still in great nic, with an amazingly clever drawstring around the neck to make getting the jumper on and off a breeze. Why don't they make this style anymore!

Eco Blog Number 1 - Organic or Recycled Cotton

We are officially inspired by all the eco-blogging going on.

Blogspot is celebrating these efforts on the blogspot home page ("action week"), and we have just read about a few cool not-too-smug environmentally friendly blogs in Intelligent life, Autumn 07. This includes one individual's efforts to add a new eco-rule to her daily life each day of the year for one year. We can't quite go the full 365 day distance, so we are going to start with one new eco rule a month, finishing our year with 12 new rules that we aim to keep for life. Will it work? Will we cave? We'll see...

Rule number 1: When buying cotton, we're going for only organic or recycled. Pretty easy for trendy yoga gear, but what about for towels, sheets and work shirts? Turns out it's all out there. If anything, it'll force us to use the cotton we've got until it wears thin thin thin.

Why organic cotton? Apparently most cotton items are only actually 73% cotton with the rest being chemicals and resins used to grow the cotton. Can't be good for the skin. It seems that out of the world's total insecticide usage, 25% is used to farm cotton. Yowza. Can't be good for the environment.

Why recycled cotton? We've read that many clothing factories leave heaps of cotton trimmings on the floor, and these go straight to landfill. Some companies are sweeping up these leftovers and are using them for recycled cotton products. Makes sense.

Ok - that's October's eco blog.

Dad and Savvy Hit the Pool

A no hands shot, and swimming with Dad shot. All small and bad focus - phone camera at work.

Baby Jail

Savannah's upgraded from her bumbo seat to a proper high chair for meal times. We call it baby jail since she's nice and safe there, but also very "stuck" giving parental freedom for other things. Same with baby jail number two...the famous brown cardboard box.

You can see the hole in the box through which Savvy's dad tortures her.

6 Months and Counting

Savvy officially passed the 1/2 year mark this weekend gone.

She can boast of many achievements including under water swimming, eating mashed foods of all kinds like a pyggy at a trough, sitting unaided, and playing a mean game of peek-a-boo. She can also pull a 1000 faces. Unfortunately, she has yet to deliver on her sleep-through-the-night target and so her halloween bonus has been withheld.




After a posh black tie dinner on Saturday night (thanks for the dress cday!), we had a lovely warm outdoor Sunday lunch with Jon and Lizzie. Cept it was without Jon and Lizzie due to an email mix up.

At the Commonwealth Games awards dinner, Kirsty Balfour, our top swimmer, came second to Chris Hoy, cyclist. Maybe because Gregor, a swimmer, won it last year? Or maybe because Chris Hoy is a huge force winning world champs left right and centre... Pretty cool to have Savvy passed around the breakfast table of champions the following morning.
Also, pretty cool to be anticipating the 9th of November - will Glasgow win the bid to host the Games, or no?

We are looking forward to a couple of weekends off of work for some biking and hiking, followed by a Halloween journey to Kendal to hang with family and a whole bunch of goblins.

A few of Savvy's 1000 faces below.

Albania

Just back from Tirana, Albania to see my buddy Elton get married to his Fiance Voltisa.


Elton has told me so much about Albania, that I've wanted to go for years, so I was very excited to be finally going. Great trip started with meeting Elton's mate Dave who happened to be on the same flight as me. Spent the first night in a hostel, which reminded me why I never stay in hostels anymore. Had to climb over a 8ft high wall to get in, in the first place, then didn't sleep much. The next day I moved on to the Tirana International Hotel (where the wedding was to be later held), much more appropriate as I didn't wake up with bite marks. Elton's family live across the road, so it was very convenient. Spent the first day with Elton and his cousin Arsen. We ate, drank, went to the beach and generally caught up on old times.

The next day Elton had his first wedding to go to. Yes, in Albania they do it twice, with two cakes, two dresses, two parties, etc, etc. One for the bride's family and one for the groom's. So we didn't see Elton for a couple of days as he traveled to the other side of Albania to "get married". The real wedding which we were invited to, was a lot of fun and not too different from a British/Canadian wedding, dancing, eating and drinking, no speeches and no long drawn out ceremony thank goodness, just the fun part.



From L to R, Dave, Elton, Voltisa, me, Jason. Jason, is Elton's best mate from uni and only told he was arriving from Korea the day before the wedding. A great suprise for Elton. Notice the funny Korean outfit Jason is wearing? Nobody batted an eyelid, but they all thought I had either just landed from Mars or was a lady-boy from Thailand.


Traditional Albanian dancing - went till 3am.


Tirana main square with the museum telling Albania's complex past.


The view from my hotel room. Can you count all the Mercs?

A great trip apart from getting a nasty bug I've cleverly named Tirana Tummy, which I then brought home for Ashley. (sorry - I keep shouting to the toilet)

Special thanks to Elton and his family for their very kind Albanian hospitality.

P-saster

Yes- a full on Pppppisaster Disaster took place at 117 Henderson Street. Dob's been away for a week in Albania so the girls stayed home and went wild. We listened to some party tunes and combined naked play time with eating time. And instead of dinner in the kitchen, we had it in the living room. Not sure of the logic but hindsight is twenty twenty.

Puréed peas everywhere. And then the wee bandit peed all over me...and the couch ...

That might be a last.

The cruel things we do....

I don't really think the above pic needs too much explanation. A rainy day, burned out from a busy week at work, what else to do but treat Savvy like a doll?

We're enjoying Savvy's new found love of "sitting". She can stay perched upright, even freestanding, and focus on wee toys for 20 minute blocks before the slow motion topple takes over and she face plants.

We're also loving the backpack we picked up at MEC. Guaranteed happy (or sleepy) baby.