Quick roundup



 On Thursday when we went in to visit Dad we were told that he had been assessed and the hospital were happy for him to come home as there were no beds at the rehab unit coming up any time soon.  Dad had been having physio at the hospital and they said he was doing well.

So, on Friday Mum and I went and did a weekly shop in the morning so that Mum had enough food for Dad coming home that afternoon.  He was brought home by Patient Ambulance and got back to the house just after 3pm.  I popped round a little bit later to check up on him and he was settled in his chair. The transfer had been a bit traumatic as Dad had been taken down to the patient transport waiting room at 9am where he was left sitting/slipping in a chair until after lunch time. By the time he got home he was quite tired and cold.  But, he's home and that's the main thing. Now to get his physio at home up and running again :)
 one of Megan
On Saturday Claire and the girls came round in the morning and we all (Claire, the girls, Emily and I) went round to see Dad in the afternoon. He finally got to meet his youngest Great Granddaughter :) although he had seen photos of her while in hospital.

Sunday was spent quietly at home and a visit to Mum & Dad's.

I don't have many photos from the weekend but I'll leave you with this one of Megan asleep on her Aunty Em :)   Can you believe Megan was a month old on the 25th - doesn't the time go quickly!

 xx

Lazy days

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, Claire's boiler wasn't working and with the weather being as cold as it has been we decided it was best that she and the girls come and stay with us until her boiler is sorted. They arrived on Sunday evening and stayed until yesterday morning when Claire needed to go home again because the gas people were due to fix it.

Below are a few photos of what our days were like while they were here ;o)

 Claire working on her Project Life album with Megan watching her and Mac close by.

 Alice playing before breakfast (again with Mac close by)

 Emily had a snow day on Monday and here Alice is showing her one of the pictures she'd drawn.

 We had sleeping children (love her little hands in this photo)

Once Megan is asleep you can generally hand her over to someone else if you need to do something or pop her down wherever is handy and she carries on sleeping ;o)

Alice was extremely busy while she was here - she played, drew, read books, watched Netflix and just generally had a good time. I love that both the girls are so comfortable when they come here and we all just slot together and get on with things.

Things are getting back to normal, Emily is writing exams on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Hugh has managed to get to the gym and will be back at work tomorrow. Mum and I are able to get to the hospital to visit Dad (and yesterday heard that he should be coming home again soon) and life continues.

I'm now off to Claire's to drop off the few bits that were left behind and have some cuddles with my granddaughters :)
xx

Snow photos

We had been warned about the snow that was due to hit us at the end of this week. Emily was quite excited about it and hoping for a snow day but when Friday dawned clear, she headed off to school as usual.  She hadn't been gone long when the snow started. It was really fine and didn't look like it would come to much - I was wrong!  It started lying on the ground straight away and within a couple of hours we had a fairly respectable layer of snow.  I got a text from Emily at about 10.30am saying that the school was going to close at 11.30am and she'd see me soon :)   She got home and changed into comfy clothes and we watched as the snow continued to fall.  

Saturday stayed clear all day but because it's been cold the snow continued to lie and our road was quite icy. Today we had been promised more snow and we haven't been disappointed.  It started fairly early this morning and hasn't stopped since.

 Looking from our front door to the entrance of our road. The cars parked along the side of the road aren't always there but when it starts snowing everyone moves their cars a bit closer to the main road to be able to get out.  Although we only have a fairly small incline from our house towards the main road, it's amazing how a little bit of snow makes it difficult to negotiate.

 Looking to the right of us.

 The children in the road have been having a great time on their sleds.

 I, however, prefer to watch from the comfort of the lounge ;o)  In this shot one of the Dad's was out there having as much fun as the children, I think.

 The oak tree on the green in front of our house.

 Looking out the back towards Forest Way - a wooded footpath which leads down to Forest Row.

 Alice's swing adds a little pop of colour in the back garden.

My photo for today. Although it looks a bit misty it's actually the snow falling - it's very fine at the moment but it still hasn't stopped. Jon also saw that it's supposed to get heavier again over the next few hours. Emily, naturally, is hoping for a snow day tomorrow too!

In the meantime, I'm having a little bit of grandchildren withdrawal as I haven't seen them since Thursday.  Claire didn't have any heating or hot water this morning and I thought we might have to pick them up and bring them down to our house but her landlord (and friend of mine) went round and managed to sort them out again. I think a Skype call is going to be needed :)

xx

UPDATE:  Claire's heating has gone off again so Jon has gone to pick her and the girls up to come and stay with us tonight. Certainly wouldn't be much fun staying in a cold house tonight with a little baby!

Claire and Megan

This post is photo heavy - just to let you know ;o)

Claire and I decided to try and get some photos yesterday. I took photos within the first two weeks when Alice was born and as Megan is already nearly three weeks (tomorrow) we thought we'd better get some of Claire and Megan together. We'd really hoped to get a photo with Alice in as well but she told me "No, Grandma!" when I asked her if she'd like to sit with Mummy and Megan.  She was far too busy playing to be bothered with having her photo taken.  Hopefully we'll get one of the three of them soon as Claire would like a canvas for her lounge.

Anyway, not a lot to say about the photos so I'll just let you have a look through.  

Claire and Megan (2 weeks and 5 days old)

You can click on the images to see them larger.

xx

Photo update

Life is pretty  hectic here at the moment.  Dad is back in hospital and has been since the 23 December 2012. He was taken in after a night of severe vomiting and after tests and scans ended up having to have an operation to remove part of his small bowel.  He has recovered well from the operation but went through a stage of extreme confusion/hallucinating which was quite upsetting. Fortunately, for the last couple of days he has been himself again but we are now facing the prospect of him having to be moved to a rehab unit at a different hospital. I'm fighting to try and get him moved closer to home or back to the rehab unit at the hospital he was in after having his stroke. There he would know the people and hospital and it would be less traumatic for him. Just hoping we can arrange it.

Claire is over the baby blues and, apart from being tired, is back to normal.  Alice has adapted to Megan being here without any problems and is very good with her.  I know the photos are a little bit blurred but they are so sweet.  In the one above she was talking to Megan and in the one below she had wanted to hold her (Claire is sitting to the left of the photo and was holding Megan too). 

 Megan is a very content baby and, as you'll see from these photos, sleeps a lot and tends to only cry when she is hungry.

 Aunty Em is totally smitten with her and is more than happy to sit and hold her (or rock her) when Claire and the girls come round to the house.

 Alice decided some lip balm was required - everywhere apart from on the mouth ;o)

 I love this photo of Claire and Megan

 Uncle Hugh having his first hold.

 I've been going round to Claire's most days (or she's come here) and on this particular day Alice and I were building a tower with her Duplo. I think she was quite impressed that it was so much taller than she was.

 Alice has given up a few of her day time naps since Megan has been born.  ON this occasion she was having quiet time and watching a DVD.  Cinderella and Tangled (Rapunzel) are her favourites at the moment and she can now sing along to some of the songs, which is very cute!  Fortunately both DVDs are ones the older members of the family enjoy as well.

 Megan has now outgrown the newborn size clothes and is in 0 - 3 months.  Unfortunately, they are all quite large on her at the moment so she does tend to swim in them a bit.

 Yesterday Alice wanted to do some puzzles. This meant she took all the puzzle pieces out and played with them and hadn't quite got round to putting them back in the boards by the time I left ;o)

And Megan slept through it all :o)  She sleeps through all the noise Alice might make and isn't sleeping too badly at night either.  Thank goodness for happy babies.

Emily is back at school from tomorrow and writes a GCSE exam on Thursday. My plan is to start the coursework I need to do from tomorrow as I need to complete 4 modules by April.  Wish me luck!
xx