How did we end up with an 18 month old?

A few months have passed and it's been busy busy busy! It's now coming into Autumn and having my mum and dad out to visit seems like a distant memory.  Looking forward to our trip back home in October, only 4 months to wait.  Eek!  Never thought I would say this but Eva is now happily engaging in some mind numbing children's TV which will obviously assist with toddler entertainment when 35000ft in the air…..time to start practicing with the headphones!

Easter was fun, we organised an Easter Egg hunt for a few friends of ours from mums group.  Eva, Lucas, James and Millie were in the veggie patch, 'hunting' for eggs.  Very funny to see how their wee personalities differed…..James found one, ripped the wrapping off and proceeded to gnaw away until it was gone in 5 seconds.   Then asked for more.  Eva found one, took herself away to a corner to slowly peel the paper off and nibble at it, making sure no one was around to take it off her….Millie grabbed one and ran around waving it in the air, sharing it with everybody.

In March, Bob and I, Meg and Gary had a ball at the Summit Survivor in Trafalgar while Eva stayed behind with Auntie Deb.  Mud and more mud, with some obstacles thrown in including an ice bath and a water slide.  So much fun, but I really do need to work on my upper body strength! And no, I wasn't game enough to run through the high voltage wires soaking wet!

In May, we popped Eva off to Corinna and James' house for an overnight stay while we went to see the Lion King in Melbourne.  Absolutely fabulous! Eva had fun playing with the clothes pegs apparently and seemed to sleep well enough in a strange environment.  Gold star.

In July, we went to Wilsons Prom for a 'Christmas in July' get together with the Dickinsons, Hulls and Meg and Tammie.  A cosy fire, red wine and a fabulous roast cooked up by Becky made for a wonderful weekend, despite a mild case of 'dodgy tummy' doing the rounds.  Christmas jumpers an excellent addition.

August arrived and we were off to Sydney for the World Netball Championships! Cheering on my old team mates was fun, quite bizarre to watch as a spectator this time but the atmosphere was amazing.  Caught up with Claire Cooper and Lisa Harper to watch the Scotland vs Samoa match, can't say we had much of a voice left after that victory, amazing.  Bob had a night out with Alan and Matthew and Eva had a great time at Sydney Taronga Zoo, especially loving the cable car rides over the elephants.

Now we are on our count down to the next big holiday.  Can't wait!

Goodbye UK, hello jetlag!

Cannot believe I haven't posted on here since February! However, there are several reasons for this.  Since my parents visited, and encouraged me to set up my own business, it has been 24/7 work for me trying to establish myself with runners and dancers as a musculoskeletal screening service.  It is an all-consuming, time consuming process and very difficult to switch off and have some down-time.  Furthermore, Bob has been doing his leadership course with local government and has just been promoted to Senior Manager within the council.  And in addition to this, our little girl has been growing up so quickly and is now talking and running and generally being rather cute and mischievous.  We have barely had a minute to scratch our backsides! This parenting malarky can be rather full on at times.

Having said that, we are just back in Oz following a fabulous month in Scotland.  We may be somewhat jet lagged but I can honestly say it was worth it and to be honest, Eva was a gem on the plane, give or take a few moments of boredom and frustration.  Let's just say it could have been much MUCH worse.  Hurrah.  We all survived.  Let it be said that we will not be going on a plane for a very long time!

So what has been happening in the last 7-8 months?  Winter has been long and tedious in Australia, just a bit wet and miserable.  I have been playing hockey most Saturdays instead of netball (just for a change) and Bob has been playing golf as usual.  And we have our usual steady stream of box sets ready to watch when we get home from work and put Eva to bed! Ah, the confinement to home when you have a toddler, no wild nights out for us!

On to more interesting topics, like our holiday! Usually when we return home to Scotland we spend a lot of time catching up with our friends and having a few nights out etc.  This time, the focus what on Eva getting to know her cousins, grandparents, aunties and uncles and that she did.  Caterina was a hit in Edinburgh and Fraser and baby Scott were favourites in Glasgow.  We managed to spend quality time with all four grandparents and Bob and I were celebrating the fact we had some onsite babysitters for the occasional lie-in! Eva enjoyed baking scones with Granny Barr, washing the car with Grandad, reading Fireman Sam books with Papa and was taken to the book library by bookworm Granny Mo.  We had visits to Edinburgh Zoo with Granny Barr, Caterina and Auntie Lindsey to see the giant panda, some fun at Almond Valley farm with Auntie Helen, Uncle Steven, Fraser and Scott, soft play antics at Pandamonium and mayhem at the Science Centre with the Fraser/Black family.  Time spent at Crieff Hydro and St Andrews was fabulous, with trips to the beach for some stone throwing with Papa and swimming with both Fraser and Caterina.

Highlights for me were seeing Eva interacting with her big and little cousins (she couldn't get enough of baby Scott, giving him a few 'affectionate' headlocks and big kisses), and also catching up with my sister for some days out and a takeaway curry (not the same in Australia!).  I got to have a lovely evening out with my husband at the Tower Restaurant in Edinburgh, despite us both falling asleep into our desserts (oh, how I love you jet lag).  The view of the castle was tremendous, I love being a tourist in my home country!  I was also pleased that Eva could celebrate her 2nd birthday with her family and we could celebrate my mum's 60th birthday in St Andrews too.  Thanks to Steven and Bob for babysitting so we could go out for dinner and have a proper giggle with a few bottles of wine! My dad certainly hasn't lost his touch when it comes to complaining and getting a free drink…….

I also got to spend time with my gran at her nursing home in Greenock, including joining in on the physiotherapy exercise session! Never a dull moment.  She looked happy and content there at least, despite not being sure of my name or who Eva was.  For 95 she is doing well.

Lowlights were the almost-swallowing-a-ScrewballScramble-metal-ballbearing incident at the start of our holiday!! The less said about that the better.

Let's hope we have visitors soon because I'm missing my family so much already! xxx