2011 - a retrospective

2011 has been a good year for the Black Family. Here's some highlights....

Michael (4) rode a bike, and loved school, where he dramatically improved his ability to read and do sums!

Emma (1) walked, talked and counted up to 27!

 

Emma and Michael both learned to get themselves to sleep in their own beds! Michael usually manages to stay there 'all night long', and whilst Emma still requires some reassurance through the night, she no longer needs to get it in our bed!

Sarah (31) continued to feed her insatiable appetite for cake!

Martin (34) coped better with his condition by pacing himself, which sometimes involves napping for up to 8 hours per day! As a result, he only had 10 sick days this year. 

The pipes of peace

You may have thought that the German and British armies getting together on the fields of battle on Christmas day 1914 to play football was a great sign of the power of Christmas to overcome carriers. That pales in comparison to Emma not only not crying when she saw uncle Scott today, but actually playing with him for an extended period of time! It was great to see. This photo doesn't do it justice.

Christmas come early

Here's a picture of the scene at aberdeen with the Adams. We've agreed to have Christmas on Christmas eve so we can spend tomorrow with the blacks.

Michael sleep

Michael's started sleeping with pillows covering him rather than his duvet. Not sure why, but he seems happy with it.

Decking the Halls

Michael pushing Emma in the car

Emma getting into the Christmas Spirit

I don't know about you, but I've got a really bad feeling about this!

Emma working out how to make the fisher price nativity set play the song

Michael getting into the spirit of things

A retrospective visit to the cot for emma and michael

Emma gets all excited about some pizza

Granddad helps Michael and Emma with the oversized Magnums

I haven't blogged much recently. It's not that there's been nothing happening, but I just haven't got around to it.

We went up to Auntie Clair's for her birthday. Emma was happy of the chance to wear her uggs! She did manage to get the colouring from a full packet of wotsits all over them. There was a feast of pizza much to their approval. Clair offered them some magnum ice lollies, but they proved to be a little big for them both.

Emma's been a bit better at sleeping. Sarah's been holding the course for getting Emma to sleep in her own bed, which seems to be getting over to Emma.

We put up the Christmas decorations last week. It's made the place be a little more festive. Michael and Emma helped, but Emma's version of helping was holding out decorations to me and saying "Thank You", meaning that she wanted me to put them on the tree.

We had Michael's nativity at school today. It was fantastic. I really loved it. Michael was one of the singers in the choir. The nativity itself was more about the innkeeper wanting their breakfast than about the birth of the messiah but it was still fantastic (maybe I got caught up in the moment).

The Santa hats

I've spent a bit of time and effort trying to get a decent photo of Michael and/or Emma in a Santa hat. Unfortunately I'm lacking in both with them and this is the best on my phone so far

Parents night

I got to go to Michael's parent's night last night, and found this outside the class. When I showed it to him, he said the one on the left is Sarah, and he is the other one.

More about parents night when I'm near a proper keyboard.

Adampalooza

Emma failing to pose with Granddad and Grandma

Michael being more successful with David and Deb

On skype with Jamie, Roz and Uncle Alan

Me failing to get a decent picture of Emma in her incredibly cute Ugg boots (thank you auntie Clair!)

Emma and Alyson go 'Night-night'

After struggling for 4 and a half years with toddlers in bed with her, Sarah's decided to exact revenge by putting Michael and Emma in the same bed to see how they like it. Poor Michael gets moved around a lot.

Cake Pops!

Our thermostat being on high, people falling asleep at random times of the day on our couches and our fridge begging for mercy saying there's no more space are all signs of multiple branches of the Adam family descending on us at the weekend.

It was great to have them around. Michael and Emma were a lot of fun with them. Friday night was a bit of a treat for Emma and Michael, as just as they were getting to sleep Granddad and Grandma arrived, and 20 minutes later David and Deb arrived. I don't think they've ever had so many stories read to them at bed time.

On Saturday Michael got to play on the wii a lot with David (who also got addicted to cut the rope on my phone). Alan and Alyson came over, and they all went out to the park in the afternoon and had a great time playing football (both proper and american) and playing about on the rides at the park. Sarah and I went out briefly in the afternoon to investigate replacing the silver almera, which may prove to be a lot more high-maintenance than we'd hoped.

As usual, there was a lot of good food. Somehow the idea of mixing nando's chicken with chips from the chip shop came to fruition. It was delicious. Don't get me wrong - I really like the chips from Nandos, but having it with chippy chips just gave it that extra edge.

Sarah got the chance to (finally) make cake pops, which she's been going on about for ages. They were really nice, but quite a lot of effort.

Ultimately though, everything was tinged with a bit of sadness, as we all knew it was David and Deb's last weekend in the country. We wish them good luck, and hope all goes well for them in the new world (and that David can find a decent source of salt and vinegar crisps).

The pirate princess

Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

2 Pumpkins and a numpty

Michael and Emma had a really good time tonight on Halloween. They went out with Joseph McNeish to the houses in our street dressed in the same costumes from the disco last week. Michael and Joseph were really enjoying running to the doors. Emma was really excited, but was just running in any random direction and trying to scoff all her sweeties.

The evening was marred a little by my numptiness. Somehow I managed to lock us out of the house. We're still not sure how, but there was still a key on the inside when I tried to lock it from the outside, and somehow the door locked but wouldn't open again. I tried all kinds of things, then Sarah tried to put her arm in through the letterbox and even Michael was roped in to trying, but even with the help of screwdrivers and a recorder found in the car, we couldn't get it. Anna and Gavin (Logan's dad, a policeman from our street) also tried various things, but nothing was working. After about 20 minutes, I eventually called a locksmith, and Sarah went off with Anna to get some cash to pay him. No sooner had they left though, than I gave it one last try and it worked (they must have somehow got the key in the correct position or something). I called Anna with the good news (Sarah's phone was still in the car) and tried to cancel the locksmith. He turned up 15 minutes later though (his daughter hadn't been able to pass on the message), so I was very apologetic and offered him a tenner for his time. He was very gracious about the whole thing, but accepted the tenner. I figure you don't want to upset a locksmith in case they get vindictive.

Michael and Emma have both not been too well. It's a cold/cough/sore throat thing. Both Michael and Emma have been really hot and quite grumpy to boot. Sarah and I are both a little under the weather. Michael's not been suffering in silence though, and was talking about how he thought his throat was going to explode the other day. We kept them off of church yesterday, and Michael was still a bit out of sorts today so didn't want to go to school. Sarah was rightly concerned with setting the correct protocol for him being off, so that he knows he can't do the things he'd like to do like playing on the wii or watching total wipeout on tv. He did make some marshmallow cakes though with a little hep from Sarah, so was obviously feeling better in the afternoon.

Auntie Sandra and her boyfriend Ian popped by last night for something to eat. It was really good to see them both, and Emma and Michael were actually on their best behaviour. Emma seemed to by ok with Ian, which had been a source of concern, but she still got a bit upset when her mummy left the room. Sarah made some delicious deserts.

Oooooohhhhh - spooky!

Michael raises an eyebrow in appreciation

The newest (and somewhat short-term) pumpkin members of the Black family

Michael's cakes........

and mummy's!

.......because he had no body to go with!

Michael and Emma ready to go to the Halloween Dance

...I'm not sure about you either

Happy Michael

Pouting Emma

The whoopee pies Sarah made

Michael had his Halloween disco at the school tonight. Sounds like he had a good time. Both Michael and Emma enjoyed getting dressed up.

Sarah made some delicious cakes, and was happy to see that there were even more at the dance. Unfortunately, someone took away her half eaten plate of cakes when she left it unoccupied. She was not impressed.

When Michael got home he was quite upset. He'd had an accident on his scooter on the way home. Sarah said it was pretty spectacular in that he'd flown over the handlebars and landed pretty badly. He'd nothing more than scrapes and bruises but it made him quite upset for a lot of bedtime. I was proud of him though, as he'd stopped then started again when getting his jamas on, but I had a quick chat with him about choosing how to react and he was very brave after that.

Emma and Cake

Emma with some pretty things in her hair

The giant cupcake for Anna McNeish's birthday

Emma puts in some light reading on her daily commute from the kitchen to the living room

More pretty things in her hair

Whoopee Pies!

Emma and Jacob Freed discussing Sarah and Colette's parenting styles

Emma in a bouncy castle at the Stake Summer Fete in Linlithgow

Mother and Daughter illustrate their fundamental disagreement about the purpose of meal times

It's been frantic as usual here with Michael and Emma. I'm still not happy with my status as 'parenting consultant' due to me being not well, but I'm getting to do more with Michael and Emma which is great.

Emma's started throwing tantrums, which are kind of funny, but at the same time are very frustrating. She was pretty bad a couple of weeks ago, but seems to have calmed down a little. Michael seems to be pretty tired out by being at school. In saying that, he was totally hyper tonight before bedtime, but he did get some chocolate ice cream as a snack before going to bed. I don't think Sarah will be doing that again in a hurry.

Critically, both were very well behaved this weekend during Stake Conference (big church meetings in Edinburgh), allowing Sarah to play the piano. She was going to play anyway, but Emma not screaming from the back of the chapel made it a more pleasant experience for everyone. I was very proud of them for being well behaved, and look forward to being back up to speed enough to be able to help out for things like that.

Michael's back at school after having the week off, and was excited to tell me that he learned the letter 'j' (pronounced by Michael as 'juh'). Sarah's already warned me not to get him to pronounce it as some, but not all in Scotland do ('jie' - rhymes with pie). When he's old enough, he can make his own decision.

The sleepover wasn't a complete success. I went to bed just after midnight, and met Joseph on the stairs who said he had a sore leg. I checked he was ok, then helped him back into bed. Sarah told me the next morning that he woke her up about 2am saying the he had a sore leg and wanted to go home, so she bundled him and Emma into the car and was the first person to be able to wish Anna a happy birthday (at 2am).