Apple and Rice seems to be a winner – we had a small paddy when the pot of it was finished…. Something tells us that weaning is not quite going to be as difficult as we have thus far imagined since he seems to have really taken to it well.

The pool party was a success yesterday as Greg’s neighbours came around with scuba diving gear (apparently they are qualified instructors) and the kids loved it.  Too much wine was consumed by just about everyone – we think Darren M may well have been in big trouble when he got home 🙂

We have been down to get our pool maintenance training (ready for the next couple of weeks as we look after Greenlea) and there is certainly a lot to remember – I think we will be OK though.

We apologise for the lack of new photos – the cameras have not been out this Christmas with the Video Camera kind of taking over a little.

The last holiday is up – back to it tomorrow, and to make it worse, we are right into a 5 day office week (i.e. in the office every day from early until late) and next week will be just the same.

We collected Elliot’s new car seat today and it has to be said that it looks awesome.  It really is worth the additional cash in that it fixes directly to the chassis of either of our cars via ISOFIX, reclines as and when desired, and has very neat seat belt management to offer (we hope anyway) much better comfort for the little guy as we travel around in the car.

We have also been and bought some new outdoor lights today for the external doors – about time since we have been saying we want to swap the cheap crap that the builders supplied since the day we moved in.  The RING factory shop certainly spoiled us with some very nice stainless steel items at almost 66% discount :-).  Simon has ordered the automatic light bulbs (they switch themselves on in the dark and off again when the sun comes up and burn a fraction of the wattage of ordinary bulbs however, they cost almost as much as the fittings !!!) to go in them and will fit all next week sometime…… let’s just hope the the buggers don’t stay in their boxes in the hallway for the next month…….

Gregory’s birthday tomorrow so there is a pool party on again – should be a whole heap of fun as there are apparently nearly 40 people going…….

Pear and Baby Rice (even though Simon thinks it tastes like eating wet paper bags….) seems to work well with the little guy – he was almost biting the end off the spoon this afternoon 🙂 We certainly have lift off with solid type food eating and moving Elliot forwards.

The Holiday is coming to a close 🙁

Simon has really enjoyed the time away from work for the last 2 weeks and is certainly not looking forward to those mega journeys to and from Warrington again.

Elliot has been in today for his second round of injections and for about 8 seconds or so, it looked like a walk in the park, and then the 8 seconds of screaming.  He was pretty quickly back to smiling and laughing at us again, so I guess all ended well.

Simon has been helping Greg with the telephone system and the TV system @ Greenlea today (i.e. ensuring that we know what the electrician is actually doing) so that once the electrician has left, we won’t be left holding a hot potato.  Vicky seems to be getting tress annoyed with the amount of time Simon has spent helping out just recently so the cool off period has commenced – no help for a while – sorry Greg.

We have also agreed to stay in Greenlea when the residents go off on holiday in a week or so, which should mean using the gym a little more frequently to get both Simon and Vicky back into proper regular exercise other than dog walking (and the other 🙂 )

We have also ordered the new car seat for Elliot as it will not be long before he is too big for his current seat, and then we will be in trouble.  A nice ISOFIX item has been ordered from BMW that fits the car perfectly and should be more comfortable as the seat belt management is better.  Should be here byu the end of the week – possibly tomorrow.

We had a weigh in on Tuesday – 16lbs 14oz, so the little guy is definitely piling the weight on nicely – it certainly shows as you try to pick up his car seat with him in it from the inside of the car !!!

Well there we have it, a major year in our lives gone – it has certainly been a quick year.  Much happened in 2006 and all of it possibly the most important and challenging of our lives thus far.  We are very thankful that all are healthy and that the littlest one arrived safely.

We spent the last night of 2006 at home eating, drinking and playing games such as HedBanz (I think is it’s name) which definitely caused a laugh for a few hours.  The night seemed to disappear and in all fairness it was 11:55pm before we knew it.  Fireworks have sure become a major part of celebrating the New Year in recent years – was it just the Millennium celebrations that caused this change? The fireworks seemed to be going from about 10pm onwards and people sure do spend a small fortune on them.

We have Becca staying over tonight and tomorrow we are going shopping for teething rings, sleep suits and vests for Elliot, oh and to check out new TV’s – they will have to be very good deals to prize a wallet open, that’s all we will say.

What a GREAT movie Cars is – if you have not seen it, rent it or buy it – it is worth the cash – awesome movie.  We watched it tonight and will definitely watch it again sometime pretty soon.

2007 will for sure be a fun year as we have many knew things to prepare for and to look forward for – toddler about the house – look out…..

Well, we have replaced the tyre on Simon’s car 🙁 We have put all of Elliot’s cheques in his bank account finally but we have still not managed to get a replacement bulb for the oven.  We simply keep forgetting about it – or rather Simon does…..

We had a pool Volley Ball tournament down at Greenlea today – great fun – 5 a side and the teams were:

•  Rusty, Guy L, Christopher L, Jake L and Dave (neighbour)

•  Greg, Darren M, Frank R, Curtis M and Adam (neighbour)

Water laugh we all had – the important bit though is that Rusty’s team took the game 3 to 1 🙂 Nobody got hurt and all enjoyed it big time.  The pool tournament took place right afterwards in the play room, with Darren M being the victor – not that he was too smug about it ……

We have decided on new car seats for Elliot for when he is a little bigger as he is already almost filling the existing seat and apparently he should not be changing to a bigger seat until he is nine months – no chance if he is nearly already too big for the existing item.  A nice ISOFIX item will be ordered tres soon from the dealership and will fit the car better than most seats since it is designed for the car – will of course also fit other cars with ISOFIX fitments.

Elliot sampled his first ever Milkybar today – he LOVED it.  We know it is really too soon, but he was watching us eat and was salivating so we thought “what the heck”.  The only issue was that he thought that he could get it all in at once sideways and of course was none too pleased with us when we took it out of his mouth and only allowed him to suckle on the end and bite off little chunks.

Leads us onto the other news – he has been on Baby Rice twice daily (only one tiny spoonful mixed up) along with his bottles.  He seems to be taking to thicker food from a spoon really well, although if he is tired, we are definitely wasting our time – the bottle is all that will do.  It is unfortunately turning his stools, well, solid – he struggled for 5 minutes to pass something tonight – upon inspection it was almost the size of a squash ball and certainly not as soft 🙁

Still not sorted out what we doing for New Year’s Eve yet so I guess we will be spending the time at home on our lonesome.  Hey ho…..