22/02/2010 by Aileen.

Oh it’s ages since I’ve written. Here’s a catch-up. We had a great weekend with Ali and family. Unfortunately M, F and baby A didn’t come. I hardly expected them to, as Alexander was only a week old, but of course it was disappointing. It would have been nice for Liam and Kieran to meet their cousin, and of course Ali and Eric to meet their nephew.

Anyway,  the Scottish contingent arrived on Saturday, and Kieran wanted to go and buy a pressie for Alexander, so Ali and I took him to Mothercare just outside Hull, where he spent £10 of his money on a cuddly monkey!

Ali, Liam and I went to Mass on Sunday, and then just chilled all day.The boys spent ages on the Wii-fit, and it was really good as the ‘turns’ don’t last long, so they didn’t mind waiting for one another to finish. Also, there is a league table, so they were watching their scores increase as they got better at the games.

On Monday we went to Mr Chu’s and had a tasty meal. As it was Chinese New Year on the Saturday a dragon came dancing round the restaurant, to accompanying drums. We played Charades a lot over the weekend. What a laugh.

We’ve seen Alexander on Skype during the week, and his bruising from the forceps has gone. He’s a little bruiser though! Very rounded and chunky. I was hoping to have lots of photos of him by now, but I’ll have to content myself with posing a couple when he was less than two hours old.

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11/02/2010 by Aileen.

They finally named him. I think they were getting worried that MJ would stick. So the little mite is Alexander. It’s a lovely name. There are lots of Alexanders in John’s family tree, going right back to about 1760, which is an Alexander.

Ali and Eric are coming on Saturday for a few days. It’ll be lovely seeing the boys again. Kieran wanted a baseball bat for his birthday this week. He is so exuberant I only wanted to buy him the glove and ball, but I suppose that was a bit silly of me. Anyway, he got the set and loves it apparently.

Liam has been chosen to play in a good football team. Don’t do football, so don’t know the details, but I’ve always known he is very good.

Martin and Fiona say they (the three of them!) will come for a few days too. It’s not definite, but it would be lovely if they did. It would give Ali and Eric a chance to see Alexander. It would have been a long journey for the two lads to travel from Renfrew to Oxford and back again in a few days.

On the OU front, I submitted a TMA today thinking it was due tomorrow, but it’s not due until next week! Oh well, now I am ahead of myself. I haven’t done tomorrow’s assignment for my writing group, though, so will stop now and see what it is.

Oh, John’s fine. He can’t get over seeing such a small baby. He’s never seen one so young. (Alexander was under 2 hours when we saw him)

Night all, and thanks be to God for everything.

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08/02/2010 by Aileen.

Little Billy No-names is here. They’ve had months to decide on a name! Anyway, poor little thing is bruised from a forceps delivery but so so sweet. Fiona was fantastic. She said she wouldn’t scream out as she didn’t want him to hear that when he arrived, and she didn’t. (No, I wasn’t present at the birth. Martin was, and he found it quite traumatic. All that blood. Worst thing was, when baby arrived someone called out, ‘Flat baby!’ and within minutes a team of medical people rushed into the room and got ‘Angus’ breathing. (John’s been calling the littl’un ‘Angus’ for months)

Baby (oh I do wish they’d decide on a name) has a middle name of ——-, (Details of names deleted on 11th Feb as parents don’t want it flying round in cyberspace.)

He’s very heavy. He was 8lb 8 oz and arrived at 08.17 on Sunday 7th February. Here’s a photo of the Happy Family!

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05/02/2010 by Aileen.

It’s Friday evening, 7.40. Fiona might be being induced tonight. Or is the baby that is induced? Anyway, it was meant to be tomorrow morning, but Ali rang to say Martin had rang and it might be tonight as there is a lull in the wards at the moment! Oo-er. Won’t be able to sleep tonight. John and I are going there tomorrow for the weekend. Camera batteries charging!

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04/02/2010 by Aileen.

Martin rang last night to say that Fiona was staying im hospital overnight. She had a recurrence of the liver symptoms and they kept her in. I think she must have taken herself in quickly, as her checkup is normally on a Thursday, and Martin had to get to the hospital to get Fiona’s car. He didn’t sound worried though.

As it’s only a week to go, John and I are wondering if they will induce the baby. Last time she had these symptoms they said they often induce if the baby’s lungs are mature enough to cope. She isn’t going to be allowed to go over 11th Feb, so we could very soon have a new addition to the Urquhart/Spillane family. Every time the phone goes I’m going to jump out of my skin.

Birding was excellent yesterday. The venue was switched to East Park, as snow was threatened, but although there was black ice underfoot throughout the park and it was freezing, we had a good time. Saw woodpeckers, pochards, goosanders, lots. See Michael’s website for details.

http://www.eybirdwatching.blogspot.com/

Here are some photos. BTW, my Viewfinder friends confirmed that I overPhotoshopped the last few birds, so I’ve resisted it here!

Ooh, I’ve just found that out that if I upload a thumbnail (like the squirrel above) I can click on it and it will enlarge. I did know this fact, but hadn’t applied it to my website. Doh! Will do thumbnails in future. It will save loads of time as I resize all the photos before uploading. Double Doh!

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