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.