Just in case anyone'd missed the news

I've little idea who reads this blog that might not already know, but here you are:

20 weeks so half way there.  Marisca sat watching the monitor and pointing out the baby, which was really lovely.  Not quite as often as she pointed out Percy's smile in the book she had with her, but for a first real interaction with her new brother or sister, it's pretty good going.

PS I think the bright shiny bit is Elspeth's phone's flash as she takes a picture of the photo we have.  Rather than a star on its way to being born.  The star is the baby shaped thing just about the white blob.

S(w)inging

A trip to the park today and I remembered that my new phone does video as well as pictures.  So you can admire Marisca's swinging while she sings a little song for you.  We think it's easy to work out which nursery rhyme she's singing, but you have the disadvantage of not having her doing the actions this time...

A big girl bedroom

Yesterday morning was spent in IKEA, spending a small fortune to equip Marisca's room as befits a big girl with lots of clothes and lots of toys.  Marisca enjoyed trying out all the beds and was definitley keen on one in particular, so that's the one we bought her.  Once we got it home she helped Daddy put it together:

And then tried it out:

Here's the room with all its new furniture: plenty of storage, a nice big bed and still room for playing.  The cot is still there, in the corner, in case we have nights where Marisca will not stay in the big bed, but the aim is that by the time we need the cot for its new occupant Marisca will happily stay in her bed.

Based on one night, Risky is happy to sleep in the bed but wants someone there while she falls asleep - at least you can lie next to her rather than lean over the side of the cot!  She fell out once and had to be cuddled back to sleep, but all in all it could have been worse.  Let's hope the transition goes smoothly...

Family birthdays

As most of the people who we think read this blog know, we visited Bristol and the Spencers at the weekend to celebrate Izzy & (my) Mum's birthday.  We had a lovely time playing with the children, having a sophisticated birthday meal without the children, and out in the park on Father's day too. 

Risky slept pretty well in her readybed for the first time, all things considered.  No worse that at times when she's slept somewhere new in a cot, I think (in retrospect...).

Unsurprisingly, all of my favourite photos involve the children and not the grown ups.

Not sure who is copying who...

Elliot says Cheese



The Spencer children are clearly more practised at getting into a pose for a photo...

New friends

Since Marisca has been at nursery, and particularly since she's become so chatty, we regularly find ourselves in an odd situation.  Marisca will see a family with a child her age, and start saying "Ella".  "Ella".  "Ella", or similar.  After some confusion where we each try to work out what she's seen and what she's trying to say, one of us will ask if she knows the child, and it turns out she probably does, from Bonbons.  Now what do we do?  "Hello, it appears our child knows your child" doesn't quite work.

It's often particularly the case when I'm out with Marisca, as Elspeth does the majority of drop offs and pick ups, she recognises some of the parents.  I have been at the swimming pool, minding our own business, when a small child walks up and says "Hello Marisca".  If it's odd and slightly uncomfortable out on the street, it is definitely more so in a changing room.

Ladybirds

I had to sign the accident form at nursery yesterday. Hasn't happened for a while as despite her toddler clumsiness Marisca doesn't yet get into many scrapes. She's fallen somewhere and grazed her knee. Both knees are already well grazed, and she must be so used to it that she didn't tell any of the nursery staff about it, they only noticed during her nappy change, and it's not been at all painful. Ask her today what she has on her knee and she'll tell you it's a ladybird!

New blogging

I bought a new phone this week, a super whizzy one that brings me to the modern age. Or something. I'm still working it out but two things I like are being able to take photos of Marisca when I've not got my real camera, and being able to do all sorts of things without sitting upstairs on the computer. Like blogging. Like this post. Which also features one of said photos. Fun.



Edit.  Still some work to do in making this photo the right way round...

Another weekend with another visitor

This weekend we had Ruth visiting from the south on a tour of Yorkshire. Given the weather warnings recently we've been lucky to be able to get out into the Dales yesterday with a walk up to Malham cove where the rspb were letting people use their telescope to see nesting peregrine chicks. Very cool.

Then today we did our usual visitors' walk around Saltaire with very nice roast lunch at the old glen house. Risky walked a very long way out along the glen, hopping from rock to rock, and then down through the woods. We were pretty impressed at how far she walked over rough terrain. And proud, obviously.

Thank you for visiting, Ruth!

A walk with a pinnacle

One extra day on our long weekend and we went for a short walk.  We keep seeing these two monuments on the skyline as we drive up the valley, and planned a walk to take them in.  The walk went from the village below up to the ridge, along between Wainman's Pinnacle and Lund's Tower, and then back down again.

We were so proud of Marisca, who walked the whole distance along the crag, referred to as 'a long half mile' in the book, and certainly a good distance over rough ground.  It was really nice to wander slowly along as a family, enjoying the views and walking together.

Mary and Stewart visiting

We had a lovely weekend just gone, with Mary and Stewart visiting for a couple of days.  We were originally going to be camping but the Jubilee weekend was booked up long ago at every campsite we could find.  As it turned out to be a wet weekend, we weren't too upset by that.

So on Sunday we went to White Scar cave - Marisca's first underground experience.  It was a great trip down - very busy, given the weather, but with lots of interesting things to see.  I think Marisca enjoyed it, although she didn't keep her helmet on for longer than a single photo, and she certainly didn't enjoy the very loud waterfall.

Monday turned out quite nice: changeable but good enough to go and visit Hardcastle crags, over by Hebden Bridge. It's a really nice valley, with craggy rocks, a winding stream, and a mill with a lovely still mill pond.  We had fun walking down the side of the valley, we saw a frog, we had lunch and Marisca did an amazing job of eating an ice cream without spilling it everywhere.

Thank you for visiting, Mary & Stewart!  Marisca is still saying "Mary and Stewart" about once an hour.