Abigael's many hair styles.

Daniel's 2nd Birthday

On Jan 4th my little boy turned two years old. It is amazing to me how long 9 months felt while we were waiting for him to grow and how quickly time has gone since he arrived at 3:18pm on 4th Jan 2008.

Since Daniel's birthday landed on a Monday this year, we decided to have a family day with just the 4 of us and then celebrate with family, presents and cake the following weekend.

On the Monday we headed to Deep Sea World located next to the Forth Rail Bridge. We figured that due to the weather (snowing and icy) and time (we got there for the 10am opening) there would be few people and we would be able to run around without worrying about other people. Well I have to say that Daniel was very impressed with the fish and in fact - he wanted to get into the water and swim with them. However much Daniel was excited it was nothing compared to Daddy once we entered the underwater tunnel. This tunnel allowed you to walk through a tank that carried sharks and all sorts of other fish. It was great watching Daniel's and Luke's reaction to the sharks swimming over their heads. We ended the day watching movies and having some good family time.

The following Saturday we went through to my Dad's where Daniel got to go sledging for the first time and play with his cousin (well sort of) Cameron. He got a tent Mack (from the movie Cars) from his Granddad and Aunt Jennie and a number of other things.

On Sunday we celebrated at home with Aunty Rachel, Uncle Werner and Grannie. Daniel had great fun opening all his presents which included a toy Mack (notice a theme going here), lots of books, a swing and a car garage which Daniel has not stopped playing with since. We ended the day with a Cars Birthday cake with Daniel blowing out candles and eating the icing.

A mixed Christmas

Christmas 2009, what can I say about it - there was plenty of laughing and gift giving however there was also equal amounts of crying and lack of sleep. A few days before Christmas, I took Abigael to the doctors as she had been coughing during the night. It turned out that she needed antibiotics for a chest infection, this lead to holding her down every time we tried to give the antibiotics and sleeping most of the night with Mummy while Daddy was kicked out of the bed so that at least one of us could get some sleep. Therefore Abigael really did not feel well over the Christmas holidays which meant little rest for her or Mummy as no one could make her feel better except Mummy. She did however get some amazing and beautiful gifts that she is starting to really enjoy. She loves her little drum which allows her to sit and play with Daniel.

Daniel did not sleep well Christmas Eve which meant that we were all exhausted on Christmas day however I am still overwhelmed by the amount of gifts people gave to Daniel and Abigael. Daniel had a great time opening gifts and playing with his new toys. Due to his love of the movie Cars - most of his gifts where related to this. The main gift that Luke and I bought him was a moving dinosaur, I was very excited about it however as it turns out - Daniel is scared of it and in fact tries to put it into the bin whenever he can. Due to the lack of sleep we moved Christmas dinner to the evening which as it turned out was not the best idea as by this point Daniel was tired and cried throughout dinner. Dinner did taste amazing mainly due to the turkey that Luke prepared and cooked.

Christmas was therefore a mix of emotions, wonderful gifts were given and time spent with family however due to the lack of sleep - Luke and I did struggle to fully enjoy it. Hopefully as the kids get older, Christmas will become easier on all of us.