Marie's Web Log

There's been a bit of a hiatus in the blog - OK, I know it's happened before, but this time it was partly due to the fact that I took Amelia up to Scotland from Saturday morning until last night, to visit our relatives up there. Mum was up there visiting too, and she kindly offered to pay for the flight up, so how could we refuse?

The relatives are Mum's first cousin Rhona and her husband John (whom we always we called Auntie Rhona and Uncle John when we were kids) and her mother, my mother's Aunt, who, for various reasons I won't explain here, we called 'Granny-in-Scotland'. We saw Rhona and John very briefly last August, when they visited as part of a big trip they were doing around the country, but I hadn't seen Granny for a long time, nor Rhona and John's kids Fiona and Alasdair, who now have a daugher and son respectively, and came for lunch on the Sunday. Nor Mum's sister Joan and her husband Robert, who were also there on the Sunday. Phew!

It was a lovely visit. The weather was mostly sunny, though quite windy and chilly for the time of year. Scotland in the spring sunshine is very beautiful - all green fields and sparkling water and purple hills in the distance. Rhona and John live in a bungalow (with her mother in a cottage next door) set up on a hill with fields all around and views for miles on a clear day. Sheep and cows graze the adjacent fields and often come up quite close to the house, which was really nice for Amelia.

One of the funniest things that happened while we were there was the morning the cows trampled a gate and got out on to the road. John had to chase them back, though they are not his cows. The view from the kitchen window was of him holding a broom aloft and waving his arms, running down the road shouting at the fleeing livestock. It was very amusing, though unfortunately we did not have a camera or camcorder to hand.

Yesterday, Mum and I took Amelia into Glasgow, about half an hour by train from Kilbirnie, which is the nearest town to Rhona and John's place. I don't think I'd ever been into Glasgow before, and I really liked it. The centre seemed to be quite compact and a lot of it was pedestrianised. There were lots of lovely shops, many of which I haven't seen since I left Toronto, and most of which I didn't dare to go into. Even some of the architecture reminded me of the few old buildings that are left in TO - probably because of the Scots who were the early settlers there. It made me pine for the city.

So, you're wondering, why the hallelujah? Because Amelia is now toilet trained, at least as far as 'pee' goes. Last Friday night she clearly had to go desperately, and was begging me for a nappy. I told her she could put one on as soon as she had done something in the toilet. After four tries, she finally did. The next day, at Rhona's, the same thing happened. But the following day, she asked to use the toilet and did it right away. (We had brought the detachable seat from her potty.) And even when we were in Glasgow, she used the public ones there. She is very proud of herself, and each time she does it she says, 'My doing a wee.' And then, 'My a big girl now. Big girl.' It's amazing how such a simple thing as this can make a parent so happy!

I have some photos from Mum's visit, though unfortunately none of Scotland yet. I will try to post them soon.

Posted by marie at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Kenda and Chad, sorry I missed your birthdays. Chad, I can't think of yours without thinking of, "But I was thirteen years old in 1986..." Makes me smile every time - as did your reminder of the wonderful baking Kenda used to do. And still does, I'm sure. Maybe I'll get to sample some in August.

Posted by marie at 01:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last Sunday wasn't Mother's Day here. That was back in March. I did give my Mum a card, though, as she's here. Yesterday we spent the entire day going round the shops of Exeter. We also went to have a look at a place called the Exeter Natural Health Centre. I'm thinking of having a reflexology treatment. Or maybe a massage. We had coffee in my favourite place, called The Boston Tea Party. They have a room upstairs with really high ceilings - I think it used to be an old-fashioned post office. And we had a quick tour round the exhibition of drawings by Leonardo DaVinci at the local museum - it' s on loan from the Queen's collection in celebration of her 80th birthday.

Last weekend Ian and I were lucky enough to go out twice in the evening - something we haven't done since I can't remember when. On the Friday we went for a couple of drinks with our friends Sarah and Dan. The pub we went to isn't particulary quaint or olde-worlde, but it's nonsmoking and within walking distance, and they have a good selection of beer for Ian. I struggled through two pints of cider, and was somewhat tired the next day!

On Saturday, we were invited to a party at the home of Ian's mother's cousin Val and her husband Gordon. We see Val and Gordon quite a lot. The party was in celebration of his 70th birthday, but he is the youngest 70-year-old I know. He goes to the gym a lot, for instance, and he recently started studying Russian. The other guests at the party were mostly very arty and smart, which made for some stimulating conversations. The first person we were introduced to was a freelance set designer currently working on a couple of productions in Hyde Park, in London. I also had an interesting talk with a woman who is engaged in writing a novel, amongst other things.

Mum babysat both times. The first night, Amelia screamed for half an hour when Mum tried to put her to bed. The second night was better.

Amelia has not been sleeping well lately, and has been clinging a lot to me. She also seems to be starting yet another cold. Ah, the joys. Thanks to those who commented on my previous post. Of course you're right, Chad - I don't think many people would have children if they knew what it was like. I mean really, really knew...

Oh, it was my birthday today. I'm not telling you which one, but I'm a little more than half as old as good old Betty Windsor.

Posted by marie at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

My mum arrived today. Amelia and I went to pick her up from the bus station. No, she didn't take the bus all the way from New Brunswick. She flew to Heathrow via Halifax and got the bus from there. She went to bed a little while ago, at 9 p.m. She'd been up for 24 hours or maybe more.

Amelia seemed excited to see Granny, and all the little gifts she brought. She even suggested that Granny might need to "buy some more books," for her of course! Amelia's stuttering is still there, though mostly evident when she's tired.

I haven't said anything about toilet training for a while, and I bet you're glad! She's still not completely toilet trained, though she does wear a special type of underwear during the day. According to the current crop of parenting books, most children are potty trained between the ages of 2 and 4. Four! Before I became a parent, I laboured under the illusion that most, if not all, kids were trained by 2, if not earlier. So why does this myth exist? A friend whose son was trained at 3 years and 3 months explained it nicely: all those parents whose kids are trained early brag about it, and those whose kids aren't, don't say anything. And so the myth goes on...

I'm still doing some editing work on the autobiography, the job I got through my friend Linden. I'm almost two-thirds of the way through. I got an e-mail the other day in response to some freelance work I had applied for some time ago, with an e-learning subsidiary of The Guardian newspaper. They had had 300 applications, but they said they would like to use me and were adding me to their database. So maybe something will come of that.

That's all for now.

Posted by marie at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)