The big day dawned for a wee man on Sunday, straight down stairs to see what Mum was bringing in from the car….Paroxysms of delight at the sight of the red blue and yellow plastic trike. I have never seen someone so happy.
Sitting astride his trusty steed his “shhhhhoze” clad feet just about reached the ground and if he leaned over just a bit he could get forwards momentum (or topple over). Cousin Rachael was there to push and support and generally spoil.
By 11am we have 25 adults and a dozen kids of varying ages crammed into our house for a birthday brunch. Dad had Manflu as was propping up the espresso machine taking orders, the dull repetitive task was a relief to his aching limbs, joint and eyeballs. The table was in danger of breaking under the weight of cakes and goodies brought by Mums competitive baking mates, they can even tell which website others have got their recipes from (modern mothers I ask you).
Last Thursday the house contained one fairly small grass woven basket of toys, by Sunday lunchtime the house had become one huge toy box. And he got a bottle of cask strength Tasmanian Malt for his first birthday (far more expensive that scotch).

We kept waiting for the fall, when would his smile crack?
When would the birthday boy stop giggling and playing with all the new cars and trucks and books and stuff and crack it?
Would he throw up? We heard his grand father counting melon balls as he consumed them…. “Was that 13 or 14?” I hid from the impending power vomit that was bound to happen. There was none. No morning sleep, no time to rest had to play with everything at once. Had to keep energy levels high, had to smile and giggle at everyone at least once.

By 2pm it was over, and the realisation dawned on his parents, we had bred a party animal, God help us when he hits his teens….

Pics to follow.

Well the two weeks of mid winter holiday have sped past and it is back to work.
It has been fun to look after Hamish for the last 2 weeks and it has let Jenny make some progress with her PhD.
Today Hamish made the momentus decision that being fed was for babies and being nearly one he is no longer a baby, the hands plunged into the dinner squashing and squidging the contents. He smiled to hear the squelching noise that he was in control of, giggling he shoveled handfuls of food into his face. Shame it was bolognese and not something cleaner, we had to scrub the crevices and rolls of fat for hours.
Fungus loves the cast offs, I fear their food based relationship is only just beginning.

Photos can wait until I’m back at work.

After I threatened Jenny with doing the job myself with clippers she finally relented and took our wee man down for his first haircut the other day (it’s good being a teacher you get all these holidays to do stuff).

50 weeks ago our world was turned upside down by the arrival of Hamish.
For his birthday we decided to buy him a tricycle, well what else would you
expect from parents who cycled half way around the world?
>
So off we went to the toyshop to check if we could get one to fit him…
He loved it, I never seen him smile so much, he went nuts just at the sight of it…. must be genetic!

Mind you he is begining to look like his Dad….

Of course when we had to leave he completely lost the plot and had a the traditional tantrum demanded of children in toy shops. But he found something to suck on to keep himself happy….

The phone rang last night, my brother Mark for his home in the border region of Scotland.
He was 3 and half hours away from being fifty!
As the wave of middle age sweeps through my family it stuck me that in not so many years I will have siblings in their SEVENTIES.

Tommorro I click over another chronological hurdle and have to colour in new boxes in questionnaires “Over 45″.
That is getting a bit too close to end of my “three score years and ten” for my liking.

Hamish is proud of his first set of wheels.

Unfortunately his cold means it is rapidly drowning in snot!

Yes I know I haven’t written in some time!
But we’re in a bit os a rut at the moment.
Hamish turns 10 months old today and the ten months have been the longest and shortest of our lives. He’s up and about, walking along, with the aid of his wee trolly that he can now shove in straight lines at great speed. Soon it will be tottering by himself and then the toddling. Ominous lumps on the top gum line are signalling the immenent arrival of new gnashers.
Food is scoffed down in quantities that a teenager would envy.

Precursers to words ar ebeginning to be spoken, we constantly ask ourselves if the half heard utterance was really “Hello” or just wishful thinking..
We have got to wondering, what he is going to sound like? How will he speak?

I think we will be finding out pretty soon.

Family snap from the summer!