Happy Birthday, Alyssa

Happy 3rd Birthday, Alyssa :)

 

xx

Time Flies

Oh my goodness, I can't believe how quickly the time is flying by at the moment.  The days seem to pass in a blur and at the moment I don't have much time to get on the computer - I haven't been reading blogs regularly or commenting very often at the moment.  All I can say is that I'm looking forward to when I can sit down and catch up with what everyone has been doing. 

 

 I had signed up for both Karen Russell and Katrina Kennedy's classes (which happened to be running at the same time!) but haven't really had a chance to do either.  Last week I made a point of downloading all the lessons to do at a later date - I certainly don't want to miss out either class.

 I also made a point of sitting down and watching all the Katrina's videos and now need to work out whether I can save them to watch later as well or not.

 Last Tuesday Claire had a midwife appointment and I popped round to the flat to look after Alice while she was out.  When Alice likes something at the moment she does a little wiggle and pumps her hands in the air and says WeeHee!! It's so cute and I'm so glad I caught her this time :) 
While talking about Claire and Alice, can you believe that Claire is now 30 weeks pregnant!! She'll be finishing work 3 weeks on Saturday and then the countdown will really begin. We're so excited to meet our new granddaughter - just hoping she doesn't make her appearance on Christmas Day ;)

 We've been going down to visit Dad each day, weather permitting (we've had some nasty fog for a few nights now). We had a meeting at the hospital last week and they were saying how pleased they are with Dad's progress and that he's quite determined to do as much as he can.  We will be meeting with them again a week on Thursday and they're hoping that he'll be ready to go home a week or two after that, providing he continues to make good progress.

 Iain has moved in with Mum for his last week here (he leaves to go to Australia on Sunday) and he's set up Dad's new laptop ready for when he comes home.  We took it down to the hospital on Saturday for Dad to see.  As you can see, the photo above is one I've journalled on for my Project Life album and pretty much says it all :)

 Claire and Alice came round on Sunday and Claire was telling me that it was National Apple Day.  I had actually bought Bramley apples to make an apple cake so it seemed like a good day to bake.  The cake was ready in time for me to take a slice down to the hospital for Dad to have with his coffee/tea. This cake never lasts long and was finished by the following afternoon.

And a final photo of Alice to end with.  I bought Cinderella a couple of weeks ago and she loves it!  Fortunately this is one DVD we all enjoy as we've watched it a few times over the last week ;) 
xx

Catch up Sunday

I started writing on the blog again with very good intentions of trying to post at least every couple of days. Unfortunately, sometimes life has other ideas about how you spend you time and this week was one such time. However, here is a quick recap of our past week.

 

 Emily turned 16 last Saturday.

I can't believe my "baby" is now old enough to work and has her National Insurance Number.  Jon did print out a list of all the things she is now able to do - not all of which I would want her to do ;o)

 She got to open one present first thing in the morning before I headed out for a short while. She had decided to keep opening the rest until I got home again.  This one is a lovely little silver bracelet with a heart charm.  I did mean to get a clearer photo but forgot until I was putting this together (oops!)

 Alice and Claire came back to the house with me and Alice was more than happy to help Aunty Em open her presents.

Emily's birthday balloon was a big hit with Alice and she carried it around for a good part of the day.

 Emily probably won't be thrilled that I've posted this photo ;o)  The one I took when she was blowing out the candles was way too dark so I asked her to blow again - this was the look she gave me lol!

 Sunday saw me meeting up with Claire and Alice again for a cup of coffee at Starbucks.  I guess funny faces run in our family.

 The weather has certainly been cooling down recently but, if I'm honest, I'm actually enjoying the cooler weather and being able to cosy up in warm jumpers.  When we first moved back to the UK I might not have been quite so excited.  I was so chuffed that I managed to get a shot of this spider web in focus.  It looked so pretty from the kitchen window so I'd gone outside to take a photo but it just didn't work.  I came back inside and tried again and managed to get this shot.

Tuesday certainly didn't begin the way any of us expected.  I was woken by the phone at 12.50am and Mum telling me that Dad had had a stroke and had been taken to one of the local hospitals.  I spoke to the paramedic who was with Mum who confirmed this but advised that we wait and phone the hospital in the morning.  Fortunately it was a mild stroke but it has affected the left side of Dad's body and he wasn't able to feel or move his left arm and leg.  Fortunately, each time we go down to visit we are seeing some improvement which is very encouraging.

I've still been having Alice while Claire is at work and she does wonders to take my mind off the more serious issues.  I love watching her play and playing with her ;o)  She really is a little ray of sunshine and so funny too.

 She loves my iPad but did make me laugh on Friday.  When it's time to go and pick Claire up from work Alice helps to collect all her things together - her dummy, her bunny, her blanket (which should stay here but she likes to take it) and then on Friday she said "my iPad!"  She wasn't very impressed when I told her it was Grandma's iPad and it was staying here. 

 

And finally a photo of Dad, taken yesterday.  He was in good spirits and was making us laugh with some of his "stories".  When it came to taking photos he had great fun making faces at me. I did manage to get this one which I really like. 

The good news is that yesterday Dad was able to lift both his left arm and leg off the bed - something he wasn't able to do at the start of the week.  He did make us laugh when he told us the Physio lady said they were going to move him to a bed in the Rehab ward as soon as one became available and he told her he wasn't really that keen on going to the gym or exercising!  So funny!! He was enjoying not having to do physio over the weekend but was sure they were going to make him work twice as hard on Monday.  It's good to see the improvements, they may seem small to him but they are all steps in the right direction and we're hoping they continue. 

My thoughts and prayers this weekend are with Deb (Paper Turtle); Deb's Mum, Marti; Carrie (Rosalind Revival) and their family. Love to you all. xx