Isabel's First Smiles

Isabel has been smiling now for almost a week, but for fleeting seconds. She had a good laugh, however, this weekend which allowed me to get a few shots off.

Life is going well, if not a little hectic. I was back to work this week and I know Lynne is also ramping up her daily working activities. Mum is a great help around the house, walking Daisy and with Isabel of course.

We had Matt, Laura & Adrienne over for dinner Saturday evening. Lynne made a prawn (shrimp) curry which went down well.

 

 

Mum Preparing Apple

Mum really liked this picture and wanted me to post it on the blog...here it is!!

We bought loads of apples(15lbs) last week at the orchard and Mum peeled them all for boiling down. We store them in the freezer for tasty deserts during the winter...yum!!

 

Isabel gets Thrush

Late last week we noticed that Isabel was not feeling very well and had some white residue/spots in her mouth. Lynne suspected that she had thrush and was proved correct after a short visit to the doctor.

Just like Ruby we got her treated with Gentain Violet. She is now well and over her ordeal but it was a tough few days since she reacted badly to it and had difficulty feeding. She is better now, although this week she has a nasty cold.

 

Happy Birthday Dad

Yesterday my Dad, Tommy, turned 60 years. This is a big milestone in anybody's life but those of you who know Dad will know that he did not flinch an eye at such a milestone.

Happy birthday.

Eilish and many others organized a surprise birthday party for him last night, with many of his brothers and sisters travelled overseas to attend. I hope everybody had a great night.

Our love from here, Paul, Lynne, Mum, Anja and Isabel

 

Granny Owens Starts to Help Out

So after a few days in West Lafayette, my Mother, or Granny Owens as Anja likes to call her, has settled in well. She is over her jet lag and is already a great help with everything round the house. She is primarily helping with Isabel in the mornings and taking her for walks in the afternoons but she is also helping with lots of other small jobs. I think she is really enjoying herself.

I took some holiday this week, mostly to help Mum get settled in but also to get a few odd jobs done. This morning got a leaky tap fixed that has been bugging everybody for months. Daisy got a bath and I also managed to take a visit to the dentist. Lots of little things.

I took Anja to the Dentist for the first time also this week. It was really just to start the dentist visits. She sat in his chair, rode up and down on it for a while, he chatted with her and he counted her teeth. Done. I wish my visits were that short and enjoyable!!

Lynne is nearing the end of her third week in a cast. It's like counting down the pregnancy weeks all over again. She is already truly sick of this cast but there are still four weeks remaining.

Took a trip out the country to an orchard yesterday, a place called Dispennett's Apple Orchard. One of my true enjoyments this time of the year, juicy apples freshly picked from a tree.

 

 

Pat Has Returned to England

I know it has been a few days since my last post, it's quite tricky to get a few minutes to oneself.

So few little things happened, most notably Pat has gone back to England after her six week working holiday!! She was a great help and we will miss her. She was clearly very sad going back, we first had tears on Wednesday and they quite naturally made an appearance every day right up to her leaving Saturday morning. She will be back, however, in a very short time. She has agreed to return to help us yet again when my Mother goes back in six weeks.

Mum arrived safely last night (more on that later) so we have had an official changing of the guard. Mum is actually rocking Isabel to sleep as I type.

Davey had his big bike ride yesterday. I'm not sure how it went but I'm sure they will be posting details on their event blog.

 

 

Weekend Update

Greetings. I hope everybody had a great weekend. Ours was relatively uneventful if one considers being up a few times each night non eventful!!

We stayed close to home for most of the weekend, only ventured to the shops and to Randy and Lorraine's this morning for breakfast. We were also treated to dinner Friday evening by Kaisa and Kevin so our cooking this weekend has been limited!

Both girls are doing well, although Anja had a 24 hour bug yesterday which resulted in a full emptying of the stomach at 1.00 AM this morning!! Just what you need when your already pretty tired.

Lynne's wrist is as before, no lifting until further notice.

Getting ready now for another full week. This will be Pat's last week, she goes home on Saturday morning. We will miss her, she has been an enormous help.

Shown below is a picture of Isabel at one month (yesterday) and Anja at several months but in a very pretty dress that Sam and & Davey sent us.

 

 

Lynne's Wrist Update

Lynne had another visit to the hospital yesterday, this time to see the "Hand" guy!! He seemed to think that it was a straight forward fracture and proceeded to put a cast on it (purple). She will have it on for five weeks and no lifting for a total of seven weeks!! Just need to get though these weeks now.

Shown below is Anja with her magic wand, she is the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. She goes round the house transforming items with a mere "Bibidi-Bobidi-Boo" Oh if it were that simple!!

 

Friends Children 5.0

Shown below are our friends from Sweden, Jonas and Katarina Johansson with their two children, David and Johanna!! Boy these two have grown up so much in the five years since we left Sweden.

 

Davey Owens, MBa Congratulations

Congratulations Davey, you made it. We're all proud of you. Lots of hard work which I'm sure you now believe was worth it.

Davey graduated on Wednesday. Mum and Dad were over in the UK for the occasion. I have not spoken with anybody since then but I'm sure all went off without any major hitches (although Davey did not have a gown ordered as of the day before graduation:))

 

Friends Children 4.0

Shown below are Oliva (the older) and Doris Sihlbom. They are the daughters of Björn and Carina, our very good friends from Sweden. This picture is a little old now but perhaps this may prompt a more recent?

 

Friends Children 3.0

Shown below is Monica Pinal. Lynne works with both her Dad, Rodo and her Mum, Tere. This is an older photo that I came across just now as I was scrolling through some photos, but we actually met her today at the water park.

 

Friends Children 2.0

Shown below are Emily and Rosie O'Donnell, children of Paul and Kate. Lynne went to University with Kate and went travelling together in Asia for six months. I do not have a picture of Kate or Paul but in any case they would not be needed. Kate looks identical to Emily (the older girl) and Rosie looks like her Dad.

Where does time go?

 

Friends Children 1.0

I'm going to start a new theme. The pictures of friends children. Recently I have been asking for pictures of children that we knew a few years ago. It's really nice to see how these little people change over time and so rapidily. Another interesting element of this is to see how these children start to greatly resemble one or both of their parents. This will also happen to us no doubt, some of our friends are just slightly ahead of us.

So...send the pictures and I'll post them for all others to see.

Shown below are Emily and Daniel Minion, children of Paul and Jo. Lynne went to school with Jo.

 

Here Comes Daddy with that Camera Again

A recent picture of Isabel. Still photos do not show it best but even after three weeks it's clear that she is a lot more aware of her surroundings and her appearance is constantly changing. The hair is still the same!!

 

Nearly the End of the Weekend

We are into our final day of Labour weekend. The weather has been absolutely perfect, cool in the mornings, clear blue skies, low humidity and highs in the 80s. September is a great month in the Midwest.

We are all still tired here. Lynne cannot do much lifting with her wrist so everything is a two adult operation. She is still having quite a lot of pain in it and that certainly doesn't help. She will get another X-Ray this week and hopefully get it fully set.

Shown below is a picture of Anja sporting her new slippers (and dragging that beautiful dress) that Uncle Davey and Autie Sam sent over (Many thanks). She loves the slippers, wears them everywhere.

 

Lynne's Broken Wrist

If you managed to read yesterday's post you will remember my enthusiasm for going for a short bike ride with Lynne. It all started out well but half way into the ride when we needed to stop at a traffic light, Lynne was unable to unclip from the pedal in time before she fell from her bike and breaking her wrist. She is unsure how the wrist broke since she actually landed on her elbow but it's rather trivial at this point.

So try nursing a three week old with a broken wrist that really hurts....not easy but we are getting through it. It's a little more difficult on everybody with Lynne out of action for most heavy duty lifting but we are managing. Everybody was a little more tired than usual this morning but I'm sure like everything else, time will ease the burden.

Other than this incident, the weekend is going just fine....