Friends in NZ

Since we've been back from Scotland, it's been a busy old time! We were back only 2 weeks before Owen had to fly to Wgtn for music, so we took the chance to all go and catch up with friends. It was a fantastic blink-and-you'll-miss-us trip but we managed to see a good number of people. One hour on an airplane was almost like nothing at all after flying to Scotland and back!!

Ruby spent some time with her Uncle Andrew and Aunty Megan and their fantastic three kids (oh look - a piano says Ruby!)

We had a great day with Aunty Toni and her boys, Jack and Oliver (Olly especially like Ruby, but Ruby wasn't quite so sure about it all ...)

and Aunty Cathy and her daughter, Eleanor.After that trip, it was time to catch up with our Auckland friends at a cafe, where Ruby is always just one of the gang...

until she tried on Uncle Mike's sunglasses for size, and then she was just plain scary!

We then all went (yes, 6 adults and a baby) to Lollipops, an indoor playground. Ruby had a whale of a time and Uncle Gareth is just itching for an excuse to go again!

Not long after that, we took advantage of Hannah and Gareth's kind offer to babysit for an evening and we went out for our first evening alone together since Ruby was born. It was bliss, and they struck it lucky, (or are top-notch babysitters!) because after a week of being really sick and not sleeping or eating properly, Ruby took all her medicine, ate all her dinner and went to sleep in 5 minutes flat... they must have the magic touch! Gareth evidently had a good time too...

Finally spending some time at home again, Ruby parked up in Dad's guitar case ...

spent some time IN her toybox (not got the concept quite right as yet)...but after all these fun and games, a girl has to get some rest at some point, sideways or not...

Tripping around the world

Can it really be over a month since we took our girl to Scotland and experienced 35 straight hours of travel with a 1-year old? Yup! Rather a delay in getting the photos sorted, but here are a few to show our busy three weeks.

Our first 'touristy' thing was to visit Stirling castle, where Dad insisted on a photo with a cannon...

while Mum went for a view from the archers' post... We visited Owen's university friends, Stuart and Morag and their three lovely kids... here we are all together...

and here they are making friends with Ruby.

They had two Border Collies, Snoozy and Fij, who adored Ruby and vice versa. After a moment or two sussing them out, she came to the conclusion that they were hilarious and they realised she could 'throw' a ball, so it was mates all round!

They also had a piano - and we all know Ruby's a sucker for music, so it didn't take her long to get her fingers on it!

Gavin and Gillian introduced us to their 'local', a fabulous cafe connected with a deli that sold the most delicious raspberries (and other stuff). The cafe soon became our 'local' too and we had many a lovely breakfast there and Ruby was usually quite happy with toast... and the occasional hand puppet game with Grandpa!

One day we visited Glasgow zoo, where Ruby discovered penguins and Gavin discovered how heavy Ruby can be after a while!

We followed that up with an afternoon visiting Gillian's gorgeous horse, Beagan, who also got up close and personal with Ruby. Does nothing faze this child?

We spent three days travelling, in which we got to see Inverness, Findhorn and the Isle of Skye. This involved a lot of car-sleeping for Ruby, and of course Piglet had to come along.

As with most travelling, there was a fair amount of 'make-do' going on - there was the 'we can't stand the smell any longer, we'll have to change her on the side of the road' nappy change...

and the 'you're too wiggly to sleep with us and the B&B doesn't have a cot but you can sleep in two chairs pushed together covered in a towel' bedding arrangement... (so long as piglet was around it was all ok apparently)

Ruby is one for making her milestones extra memorable: not only were her first steps holding onto a wall in an airplane somewhere over the north sea, but her first conquering of stairs was at the Invergarry Castle Hotel. We took turns eating our scones and jam and trailing her up and down the staircase. Here she is waving to her fans (the staff of the hotel thought she was the bee's knees) and showing off her skills.

Back 'home' at Bridge of Allan, Gavin and Gillian's huge bath was a daily round of fun and laughs. She finally had enough hair to have her first mohawk... just (mummy was fairly determined).

Another first - grass! Our grass at home has always been too muddy for her to play on, so Scotland was the first place she crawled on grass (crawling while trying to maintain as little skin contact as possible with the actual grass is quite a feat!).

We had a day trip out to Loch Catherine and a trip on the steamer. Ruby thought that was fabulous, especially looking out the porthole - just her size!

Our travel to and from Scotland was a test of endurance for all of us, not least Ruby. We already thought our daughter was a star, but her easy-going nature outshone every other experience of the trip. She would wake up from only 2-3 hours of sleep to disembark an airplane at some ungodly hour, only to sit quietly in the stroller, wiggle her feet and gaze around her with eyes wide open, devouring all the sights, sounds, heat, and smells. She had different sets of air crew, hordes of passengers, strangers in airports, people on the street all wanting to greet or kiss her and play with her and she took it all in her stride. If she grows up and wants to travel the world at 16, we only have ourselves to blame! This is her at about 2am according to her body clock, after only a couple of hours' sleep crunched up in an airplane seat, a taxi ride and a walk in 40+ degree heat to a strange hotel room. She was exhausted, and this is the face she presented... what a trooper!