We had a great weekend – drove to Newcastle (we had to stop 4 times for Elliot to wee – pretty sure he was just testing out his new found ability to make the car stop whenever he wanted, by just statng the need for a wee wee :-)), played for a couple of hours in the giants den playcentre which was ace.  We then spent two hours in the Metro centre shopping centre.

We stayed in the Marriot right next to the Metro Centre, which  was really nice.  Had a pretty disastrous meal at TGI Friday’s – we walked down (2/3 mile so not a major drama), got most of the way through the main course, Oliver started to let us know of his state of displeasure, and then Elliot stated a need to visit the facilities for a number 2.  Unfortunately it arrived a little sooner than perhaps he thought and Vicky had wished for 🙁  Then, because of the lateness, Elliot was cranky as he was tired so he sat in Olly’s pushchair, and Simon carried Olly back the Hotel.  By the time we got back to the hotel, Simon had lost the feeling in his arm from carrying Olly – pussy !

We got all the way up to Edinburgh with needing just ONE wee wee stop and then made our way to the show.  It was not the TV presenters but was very well put together – Elliot was frightened of the dark in the theatre though unfortunately.  He got over it in the end, but we did have a few moments where he wanted to go home (as if it were just around the corner 🙂

Oliver LOVED the show – the darkness around hi with the contrasted bright lights and strange looking people in massive teddy bear type outfits had his attention pretty much the entire time.

We stayed in the APEX International hotel which was OK – wouldn’t recommend staying there but was OK – certainly no match for the cheaper hotel from the previous night.

We set off for home on Monday morning at 9:30am and the plan was to stop at the same play centre in Newcastle on the way home – BUT both boys were asleep, so we took the opportunity to keep heading south.

 McDonalds on the way home and we ended up at home just around 3pm 🙂

Today, Elliot has found the Nintendo Wii and has had a GREAT time playing WALL-E and Mario Kart. We suspect that we will be playing more games tomorrow 🙂

It is 08:50, the car is almost packed, and we are shortly heading out to go to Newcastle upon Tyne ready for the first leg of the trip to Milkshake! live show in Edinburgh tomorrow afternoon.

Elliot has had two totally dry days now in a row – he is really picking up on the underpants now – this morning, he came downstairs and while daddy was getting his breakfast ready, he removed his own nappy, had a big wee on the potty and asked for some Thomas underpants !!!

On our way out now – see you soon….

So, Elliot is now through his third day of wearing underpants, and while he has had a few accidents, he is doing really really well.  He has been to nursery today and did not wear nappies while there.  He has also delivered a #2 in the potty this evening.  Mummy and daddy were really pleased when this occured.

Oliver is back to normal now and is smiling away when daddy comes home – he slept through again last night which is GREAT news – we were definitely beginning to worry about a new schedule that perhaps Oliver was priming us for 🙂

We are booked to go and see a Milkshake! Live show in Edinburgh at the weekend so will be heading up there on Saturday or Sunday.  The daddy has a week vacation next week so we are hoping to do a few days out – like a train ride out etc.

Simon got home from VMworld (San Francisco) late on Friday evening.  Elliot seemed VERY pleased to see daddy – even more pleased when the presents came out.  Even Oliver smiled when he woke up to see his daddy’s ugly mug – Vicky had said that it was the first time he had smiled all week 🙁

Poor little soul has had a bad week this week it seems – Vicky took him to the hospital at 2am on Thursday morning – he had a temperature of almost 40 degrees Celsius = not good at all.  Anyway, with calpol plus stronger paracetamol, he is pretty much under control now thankfully.  Since Simon has got back, we have endured two nights of being up 4 times and then 2 times in the night – apparently this is WAY better than before Simon came home 🙁  Poor Vicky has not really got more than 45 minutes of continuous sleep for almost a whole week….

We are definitely on the mend now, and so we went out yesterday to Sheffield and daddy and Elliot when to Monkey Bizness with Granddad (who just slept the whole time 🙂 ) while mummy went shopping with Grandma and Oliver and went to see Debbie (one of Jane’s friends from University) who Vicky has only just re-located via facebook (or one of those other web 2.0 things).

Today is a pyjama day for all of us – and Elliot asked to wear underpants and not a nappy this morning 🙂 It is only 2pm presently and he has only had one accident so far – plus a sprinkle before he could get to the potty.  We are really pleased and very proud of him to want to crack on with it.

We are trying to plan out what to do for Elliot’s 3rd birthday the week after next – that’s right 3RD !!!! where did the time go?

Simon has finally broken and signed up to twitter – he can be found at @SimonARust – missed out on his usual user name since somebody else already had it….Can’t be THAT many Simon Rust’s in the world can there? Vicky would certainly suggest there could only be ONE 🙂 or should that be 🙁

It’s 9pm on Sunday night and we have just got the boys in bed having bathed just 30 minutes ago.  We only got back home at 8pm.

We have had a really busy fun filled weekend with just a couple of issues – read on….

On Saturday, we head down to Thomas Land, in Drayton Manor Park in Tamworth with the Giarlettas.  It was a wonderfully hot day with no signs of clouds all day.  We were a little late in setting off and then there were mega road works on the M1 motorway so we were nearly 45 minutes late in arriving. The to top it off, we had only been in there just over an hour, we had almost completed lunch and then it happened….. Elliot got stung by a wasp on the front of his middle finger of his left hand.  It took TWO hours before he had stopped crying and got over it 🙁  At the time of the incident, his finger and then his hand swelled up, and his whole arm got very warm 🙁 This lasted about 10 minutes and the finger stayed swollen for another 20 minutes.

In fairness, the wasps were everywhere- by lunchtime we had definitely seen more wasps than the whole rest of the year up until that point…

Once he did get over it, we had an ace time on the rollercoaster, the Harold helicopter ride, the Percy train from Tidmouth up to Knapford Station, playing with Spencer at the playground, and then finally driving Terrence the tractor (although Elliot was a bit too too tired by this time).  Both boys were alseep before we found the motorway on the way home.

Then, on Sunday we went with Rebecca, Alicia and Tyler to Sundown Adventure Land in Retford.  Again the weather was fabulous and the kids had an absolute ball.  The boys played in the sand for over an hour and a half, then we had lunch, we played in and around the little houses, followed the yellow brick road, checked out some houses of the likes of the three little pigs, and jack from the Jack and the Beanstalk story etc.   We went on the barrel ride (water ride) and got wet – Elliot and Tyler were very much not impressed with that ride it seems 🙁

We went on the Robin Hood ride, the Railroad train ride and then finished up with an hour in the Fort Apache.

.All the kids had a great time and I am sure will all sleep VERY well tonight 🙂

I wish we could spend more weekends like this one – it really has been fantastic.