David Currie

992After much indecision on my part, we have finally bought Emma’s new bed (her first full size bed) and it duly arrived on Friday. I managed to get the bed itself assembled by bedtime (although, as you can see from the picture, the drawers didn’t arrive until later in the evening). Emma was very excited and was suitably pleased with the bounce of her new mattress! The biggest change, however, was for Duncan who was finally able to move out of his cot and transfer to Emma’s old bed. He has been preempting that move for sometime by climbing in to Emma’s bed just before lights out, tucking himself in and shouting “my bed” on a regular basis. Much to our surprise, he didn’t take advantage of his new found freedom and went to sleep without leaving his new bed. He also doesn’t appear to be quite so prone to falling out of bed as Emma was (and sometimes still is). The best bit, of course, is that they can both get in to our room for their morning stories without either of us having to leave the warmth of our bed. Even better: Emma has taken to waiting in her bed until our alarm goes off – whatever time we might have set it for!

989I had suggested that on Sunday we get the train to Brockenhurst for a walk but the day before Emma managed to get a cut between her toes by standing on the edge of the up-turned washing basket! Emma has been hopping/hobbling around ever since (except when she forgets when she runs around quite normally!). Our fallback plan was to go to nearby Lakeside Country Park and have a ride on the miniature dual gauge railway. Christine declined to join us on the train and, in the 20 minutes we had to wait for it to leave, could easily have walked the length of the line several times!

Unlike last time, Emma seemed entirely unperturbed by the smoke and noise. When we got off at the playground, Duncan spent most of the time watching the other trains go round and, as each one departed, he would shout “another train, another train”. We walked back through the park taking in the planes from the nearby airport and the r/c sailing yachts on the lake. We didn’t linger though as, despite the sunshine, the wind was bitterly cold.

983I had a full two weeks off over Christmas so it was a nice relaxing period. We were at Christine’s parents in the run up to the day itself with her Dad’s birthday part of the festivities. Father Christmas had brought Emma a doll’s house and Duncan a balance bike (both from eBay I’m told). Needless to say, the bike is still too big for Duncan and Emma likes riding it and Duncan is probably the prime user of the doll’s house. We attempted a walk up the Skirrid in the morning. It proved far too muddy for even the off-road buggy and, although Emma surged up the hill with Granny Sue, the wind turned them back once they left the trees. Christmas Day didn’t end too well for me as I was sick – I put it down to eating too many pistachio nuts!

After a return home we then decamped to my parents but we were back home again for the New Year weekend when we attempted to get done at least a few of those things on the to-do list before returning to work. Not one of those items but Emma and I particularly enjoyed putting together and decorating the gingerbread train I’d received for Christmas – a much more successful effort than last year’s gingerbread house. On New Year’s Eve we had a bit of screaming from Emma when the first few sets of fireworks went off but, by some miracle, she slept through the half hour of fireworks that came around midnight. Although I was back at work on the Tuesday, it was an inset day for Emma and she had a very enjoyable afternoon with a few friends from school over (including starting to demolish the train!). That seemed to leave her ready to go back to school the following day.

980After weeks of preparation, Christine and I finally got to endureenjoy Emma’s first school production: the obligatory nativity play. Christine went to the first showing with Duncan in tow (and the local nurseries also in attendance) and I had the pleasure of attending the adults only performance. The show was quite entertaining with each of the three classes split in to two halves and each half doing a dance routine. Emma was in the star group and I don’t think I’m being biased if I say she wasn’t the worst in her group! If nothing else it gave me a chance to give my new flash (Canon Speedlite 430EX II) a run for its money. Sadly no photos here as I don’t have any good ones with just Emma and I don’t want to suffer the wrath of any other parents. We have some amusing videos for posterity. Let’s just say, it isn’t always obvious that all of the children are doing the same routine!

In the run up to fireworks night Emma was once again very excited and was in high spirits as we set of for the display at her school. That lasted until all of 15 seconds in to the display when, as two years ago, she then proceed to scream the place down and we had to make a rapid exit. Even the other side of the rec (from where we had watched last year) wasn’t far enough away for Emma although the display did mercifully finish as we reached that point. Worse still, Emma has now become absolutely paranoid and the slightest bang during the evenings will set her off in to screaming fits, even if it’s just someone closing a door. There has still been the occasional firework going off this weekend but hopefully that’s it now at least until the New Year. Duncan, of course, loves fireworks…

I was on child minding duty today. We had a good morning with a trip to the swimming pool where both children had a great time. It’s the pool where Emma has her lessons and she certainly seemed at home paddling up and down with a froggy float (it was fun time) and jumping in from the side (although still trying to ensure her head stayed above water). This afternoon we headed in to Southampton for a bit of shopping. I can’t claim it was all that successful. We spent the first half an hour waiting to pick up my wedding ring (now without a break in it and also looking very shiny once again). Duncan and Emma had their feet measured – still 6F and a marginally larger 10.5G so no new shoes.

We did manage a few purchases before heading back to the car. A decided we should pick up an IKEA catalogue on the way which required us to descend to the first floor in the lift. I mistakenly still pressed button two – the floor for our car. We let the floor pass… and then the lift ground to a halt with the doors open adjacent to a blank wall!

The buttons no longer responded so we hit the alarm. There was a series of modem like noises from the speaker and then nothing. We tried again. More noises. I had no mobile reception but one of the other people in the lift did and she phoned her Mum who phoned the number under the CCTV. After leaning on the alarm button for a couple of minutes we also eventually raised someone on the intercom who dispatched assistance. It turns out that they had been ignoring the alarm up until then – apparently people are always setting it off. So, the moral of the story is that it pays to be persistent. Mysteriously, when they finally prised the other set of doors it turned out that we were on the 10th floor! Somehow the lift must have taken us to 10 instead of 1 and consequently opened the doors on the wrong side before shutting itself down.