Lewis's Blog - Month 03

Week 12

The week started with a trip to Haddo house where Finlay had a great time running round with Ellen, Joseph and Connor. Beautiful weather again has seen Annie and Lewis out in the garden and greenhouse and this year we have planted potatoes, leeks, parsnips, red onions, turnips, green beans, beetroot, rocket, tomatoes and strawberries.

Lewis is becoming much more alert and is responding to facial expressions. Finlay thinks this is a great game and when not showering Lewis with kisses loves smiling at him so he smiles back. They also enjoy doing "row row the boat" together.

We also had a trip to Duthie Park, where Lewis had his first glimpse of McPuddock the frog. Another attempt at Geocaching and Finlay was absolutely made up to find treasure and chose a plastic frog from the hoard of treasure, and swapped this for a suppermarket trolly token which we left behind. We were also lucky to have friends from Chile come and visit us.

Week 11

We tried to take some family mug-shots while Nanny and Gramps were up, just imagine trying to get a babe and toddler looking and smiling in the right direction at the right time... and as for the adults...

Lewis is giving us lovely smiles, especially after his first morning feed. We had a trip to Macduff to the aquarium, where Lewis was mesmerised watching the fish, before he fell asleep during a talk on rock-pooling. After a run around on the beach we came home for a BBQ.

The weekend saw us attempting our first trip away in the campervan with both boys. We headed to Balvenie Castle ruin in Dufftown, which Finlay enjoyed exploring and clambering around and then we had an ice-cream stop in Charlestown in Aberlour before reaching Grantown-on-Spey for our overnight stay at a nice sandy beach by the River Spey.

Lewis slept like a dream in a modified camp-bed that Nik made to go across the front seats, while Finlay needed a little more persuasion to go to sleep because he was too excited.

In the morning we headed to John and Alison's in Forres, and Finlay played hide and seek in the garden and Lewis got lovely cuddles from both John and Alison. Afterwards we went to Brodie Castle to hear Paul Anderson play his Fiddle. Lewis was serenaded by the music and only became startled when people clapped. Finlay listed to the music for 30mins and then had great fun in the castle grounds playing with Hector, Paul Anderson's son. They were both running around after bubbles, and balls and the like. So we weren't put off camper-vanning with both of the boys.

Week 10

Nik's folks arrived this week for a visit. We were blessed with fabulous weather so had an action packed Easter weekend. We went to Bennachie and did a bunny trail and Finlay was very good at finding paw prints around the woodland trail and was awarded with a cream egg at the end by a rather large rabbit. A trip to a playpark on the way back saw Finlay clambering on a climbing frame, going down a massive slide, a zip wire, playing football all while Lewis was content kicking on the grass.

Lewis got to watch Finlay at Jumping Beans and then we all headed to the Lemon Tree where Lewis was wide awake and listened to lots of lovely music, and Finlay got his face painted as a snake.

On Easter Sunday we went to Castle Fraser and did a wildlife quiz, Finlay was very good looking for blossom and different coloured flowers and counting the number of petals on daffodils. A chocolate egg, and face painting later and we headed to the parkarea to burn off some energy running along an earth bank caterpillar, and clambering over wood and rocks.

We also made the most of Gramps here to help with DIY and boarded some of the loft and Finlay donned his work outfit and tools too.

Week 9

The week started with a trip to Banchory to see Maddie and family. Finlay had an absolute ball playing with David, Peter and Laura, doing jigsaws, playing on the trampoline, climbing frame and getting rather wet with water pistols. Luckily Lewis provided a good excuse for the rule Not to spray Mummy.

Lewis had his developmental check this week, and now weighs 10lb 5oz, so he is working his along the 25 percentile just as Finlay always has. He was less than impressed getting a needle stuck into each leg for his first set of jabs and let everyone know this. Luckily a bit of milk and he seemed to forget all about it. We were back to the doctors the following day for Finlay because he has been getting mild eczema, then a visit to the dentist where Finlay was a star opening his mouth lovely and wide.

We had a lovely visit from Steve P. and the three girls who all loved having a cuddle with Lewis, and Finlay delighted in showing them the play den, sand pit and slide. The afternoon saw another playdate in our garden with Holly and Freya, Innes and Connor and Kirsty. The glorious weather continued for an Easter Egg hunt at the Wildlife Garden in Newmachar where Finlay was charged with making Bunny Ears and had a fun time with ar little girl, crawling through the willow tunnel that he helped make last month. The following day we headed to Doonies farm to see the lambs and calves. Finlay had a lovely time feeding the sheep, chickens, horses and goats and the playpark was a big hit too. Lewis enjoyed basking in the sunshine. We followed this with a trip to the beach where Finlay took wave jumping to extremes and ended up face first in the sand and sea hurrah for the campervan for an impromptu change. Although Mummy hadn't brought a change of clothes for Daddy!!