Photos from our Wales holiday

David and Alexa down at the Waterhole below our cottage.
The beach at Oxwich, Gower Pennisula. Tide was out - but the water was warm.
Kite Cottage at Cwm Irfon lodges. Photo taken from garden in front of cottage.
Part of the garden at Aberglasney. Alexa is fairly relaxed, not impressed by the scenery at all.

A week in Wales

We have just returned from our first family holiday – a week in the Irfon valley mid Wales. We found a gorgeous little stone cottage nestled into the side of Irfon valley with a lovely river flowing below. It came complete with a sloping colourful garden and regular visits from the owner’s three dogs – a collie, red setter & lab mix. It was picturesque, calm + the perfect antidote to our busy lives in London.

David and I had thoughts of catching up on some much needed sleep – but Alexa made this a bit difficult at first as she took some time adjusting to the new environment. We have purchased a travel cot for her – like a mini tent and she slept in this in the spare room, while David and I had a room to ourselves. Well when I say slept, she certainly spent plenty of time screaming in there. Meanwhile we took turns to sit next to her soothing and singing to her – the favourite song of the week being many many renditions of ‘10 Green Bottles’.

Meanwhile during her awake moments she was showing off her improved hand dexterity. She loves paper – picking it up folding it, ripping it etc. She was easily entertained as we gave her the cover of the TV guide to play with. She is also fascinated with our faces – she wants to touch us and play with noses, mouths, hair and eyes. This is heart warming until her pincer like fingers get hold of a bottom lip!

The area was fascinating to explore – made more so by balmy conditions with temps around 25 – 30 C. We were unable to do our usual holiday activities – mountain biking, day-long walks; but instead went for shorter walks, visits to an old historic garden (see pic of us 3 in garden - note how impressed with garden Alexa looks), and drives in the countryside seeing some of the best valleys Britain has to offer. One day we tiki toured down to the Gower Pennisula for a day at the beach. All three of us were able to enjoy the warm water with David and I going for dips, and Alexa dangling her feet in the waves. I was concerned that she may not enjoy the sea as the temps would be too cold, but no, she was captivated by the waves and happily, with the help of one of us, would jump the waves.

It was a perfect week! Now, back in London, I have thoughts of immediately turning around and heading back to Wales. It is stifling - hot & muggy with very little breeze. We can no longer hear the trickle of water rushing along the rocks from the stream below, or the calling of lambs in the hills. Our thoughts turn to our next holiday, in a fortnight, a weekend to the Isle of Wight.

Dougal and Alexa

We have had a lovely visit from my brother Dougal. Together Alexa, Dougal and I have been to Avebury to see some ancient standing stones from 5000 years ago, lunch at Marlborough, and also visited Henry VIII's residence at Hampton Court Palace.

The first shot was taken in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace - see the manicured trees behind him.

New tricks

These are Alexa's latest tricks. She has passed the 'hand regard' to her feet and now finds them absolutely fascinating. Grandma would be jealous of her flexibility! And yes she can suck her toes. Second trick lasted only a few seconds but look - no hands! My hands that is. This shot was taken while having a lunch break at Hampton Court Palace.

The little red car

The little red car with ELECTRIC SLIDING DOORS! After mentioning this in a previous mail I have been asked to show you the little red car. It has been fantastic and has been for a couple of trips outside of London with Dougal. We do get asked to show off the doors occasionally.

Jamie heads home

Jamie was back in London for 3 days before heading home and was greeted by a smiling Alexa at the door. She was very pleased to see him back and also has become chattier this week. It’s also been a week of outside baths as it is too hot in the lounge. So we take her bath out under the apple tree. Here are a couple of shots taken just before her evening bath.

It has been great to see my ‘little’ brother. He has adjusted to looking after a little girl and was very good with her, bathing her and going for walks around the garden when she was getting fractious. Family members will be surprised to hear he got up at 7am one morning to take her for a walk before heading off to see some sights of London.

I took advantage of having him here to go to a physio appointment on Wednesday. I put Alexa down for her afternoon nap warning Jamie that I expected her to wake before I got back and for him to apply the ‘pick up /put down’ technique I have been using to try and get her back to sleep. I have not been successful at it, so I wasn’t expecting him to be. I returned to find out that she had awoken just after I left and he had been trying to get her back to sleep since, resorting to pushing her back and forth in the buggy. He was determined and stuck at it and was finally successful after about 2 hours. We will make a babysitter out of him yet!

if you look closely

Look who appreciates our garden! Top left is Foxy Loxy, bottom atop our new fence is a friendly squirrel.

Summer in London

This last week has been a busy one. Dougal and Jamie spent their days looking around London visiting Lords cricket ground on Monday, and Greenwich park including the Royal Observatory on Tuesday, while I stayed at home. Then Tuesday night they headed off at 8pm for a 10pm bus journey overnight to Paris.

That same night Kate - David's aunt, visited for the day on route home following a holiday in Greece. Kate bought more gifts - including a lovely soft rabbit with a rattle in it's head and a soft unfilled body. It is ideal for Alexa as it is easy to grab and she can shake it back and forth happily making it rattle. We had dinner here for Kate, Mark (David's brother) and Caroline (Mark's girlfriend). Attached are some photos showing an early liking for the good stuff, and a cuddle with Caro.

Alexa is now on a 4 hourly feed and I have started to implement a structure rather than demand feed. This means 4 feeds during the day at 7, 11, 3 + 7pm, then to bed and one nightly feed around 3.30ish. I'm also trying to get her to sleep longer for her daytime naps. I'd like her to sleep 1 1/2 -2 hours twice a day (9-11 and 1-3). So far this has been unsuccessful and instead she ends up sleeping for 45 mins, then either giggling at me from her cot or crying while I pick her up and keep putting her back down for then next hour, all the while yawning and rubbing her eyes. She can't fool her mother! We will keep trying.

The temps in London are very hot at moment, so while it is freezing in NZ with power outages, we have people melting in the tubes where temps have been over 35.9 degrees. This makes it a bit difficult with a little girl who's body acts like a heater. The aim of the game is to hold her for as little as possible as she not only heat you up, but then herself gets over heated. So for those of you shivering in NZ, you can turn up the heat (if you have power) meanwhile we resort to cold showers and sitting under the apple tree.