Blogger is playing up or I’d have made this a post full of pics…

Anyway, look up, waaaaaaaaaaay up a map of Great Britain to find our holiday destination for the next week. We are going to the Scottish highlands, past Ben Nevis, turn left at Fort William and head for the sea. We’ve booked a holiday let that is part of an ancestral home, Kinlochmoidart House. I fell in love with how it looked, so we had to book it.

So, this afternoon we bundle Mark, me, Oliver and Piper into the car and start the very long drive up. Probably including breaks it’s going to take like 16 hours.

I’m planning to find Nessie while we are up there, and enjoy some relief from the heat. See you on the other side.

So I’ve recently had a couple of driving lessons, in order to try to get me out of the house some more to reduce my cabin fever. They’ve been with an instructor, with dual controls, on an automatic one of these:

It’s gone okay. The point was to increase my confidence on UK roads, to deal with things like being on the wrong (!) side of the car and narrow lanes. I felt okay about things like roundabouts having been in the passenger side so much for the past 4 years.

The only problem is that he’s teaching me to pass a test I don’t have to pass, so all my bad I’ve-been-driving-a-while habits are a big issue. And he doesn’t like how fast I pull up to roundabouts (blame Mark) and a few other things.

But he’s actually had me driving in (gasp!) urban areas – parts of Dunstable and Luton. I never thought I’d make it out there.

Also, a Mini is a lot smaller than the automatic car I am actually meant to be driving! :

(except ours is red and Mark will probably tell me it’s a different year but whatever)

We had a lovely weekend attending the wedding of Samantha (who used to work for me) and James.

We got spiffed up…

We went to the ceremony near our old house in Kingsbury, at a C of E church. Much longer than a registry office job! But still nice. And they looked really really happy.

The reception was at Tylney Hall in Hampshire; we all made our way down there in 3 hours of traffic. Ouch. But at least we were all late. The building is gorgeous and I am sure they had great backdrop for photos.

We used their baby listening service which enabled us to stay at the party as late as we wanted to while Oliver slept. Better than a babysitter when you know they are just going to sleep through it anyway.

And we stayed over at the hotel, and used their nice facilities the next morning before we left.

Sometimes I wish we had gone all out and had the super expensive posh old hotel/stately home wedding that befits this country. But then I think we preferred not to spend that much money! (This couple can handle it; James is in property development) And I do think people genuinely had a good time at our little party in our garden. This too was a good wedding.

Someone is being slightly annoyingly clingy today and he won’t settle for a nap unless I am holding him which is driving me a bit mad and it’s almost 3 and I want to eat lunch (and blog!) and so I have stuck him with his dummy in front of some CBeebies and it’s not ideal but I don’t care. He’s quiet.

What’s worse than that? Turn away if you are easily grossed out.

Want to know what happens when you leave and forget about for a few weeks, in a bucket with a lid, two pee-soaked cloth nappies and some tea tree oil drops?

You can harvest your own mushroom farm. I am not kidding. There is plant life.

The contents of his nappy bucket are about the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. I can’t believe I forgot to wash them before I went to Canada, and then when trying out a new Kushies cover over a Motherease today, discovered the filth.

They are probably not salvagable, which is really annoying as that’s a lot of money down the tube, but I am soaking them in some warm water and Napisan. Argh.

I sit downstairs with him and think of all these wonderful things I would like to blog about, and then he goes to sleep and I manage to escape up here briefly. And promptly forget everything I wanted to write about.

Anyway, I can think of some other stuff.

Since we’ve been back on UK time, Oliver is doing pretty well at sleeping. In fact, he’s slept through the night since we’ve been back despite the 5 hour time difference he was accustomed to. However, we’re having a lot of trouble actually settling him down. I only like to use his dummy/soother to put him to sleep during daytime naps (he’s the grumpiest ever when tired in the day), but we are having to use it at night now too, with a lot of shushing and other interventions. He was putting himself to sleep at night before we went away.

It might be the heat, or it might also be the fact that he is now insisting on rolling over everytime he gets put on his back (suddenly it’s easy and fun to do), which includes being put down in his crib. So then we get screams when he can’t roll himself back over or when his foot is caught in the bars. In the last few weeks, he’s just suddenly a lot more physical, with all this rolling and pulling his torso and head forward (hence the somersaults in Canada) and grabbing for everything that passes his way.

He’s dealing pretty well with the heat actually. He’s spending most of the time just in his nappy, except when facing the public, and in the last few weeks he’s started to sweat when too hot. Which is good because it means his body is beginning to regulate his own temperature. Last night when we put him to bed his room was 29 degrees, despite his fan going and the windows upstairs all open. I just hope that we get back to a normal colder UK summer soon.

We are going to a wedding in Kingsbury (our old part of London) and a posh hotel in Hampshire this weekend. Hoping that he won’t be the only baby there, and hoping that he doesn’t disrupt proceedings with his wonderful high pitched screams.

Happy birthday to me.

God 29 feels old. It’s good ’cause I physically feel like an old woman so at least the two match up.

I actually feel like I already had my birthday as I got surprised when I arrived in Canada with a big package and card from Mark. And this had been ordered for me from the US as they didn’t seem to have any orange ones in Canada!! (Maria, I am catching up on your wonderful kitchen items!!) He’d been organising it for months and got my parents involved in the operation. So yes he won some brownie points for that one, and it’s waiting for a new kitchen to go in when we move back to Canada.

But then he also randomly produced the ingredients for a jug of Pimms at 6:30am this morning – I wasn’t expecting any other gift and I certainly didn’t expect that! I had it recently at a party and really liked it though. I think we’ll have that tomorrow as the temperature is meant to break all records. Am dying without the air conditioning of Ontario – have returned to the same temperatures (though less humidity) and am melting.

Also got a nice big iced cake from my parents (can’t get that sweet creamy kind of icing here too easily) and presents and cards from friends. All before today.

But tonight we are out for dinner with Mark’s mum babysitting so that will be good. Except I left my nice new top I was going to wear in my parents’ dryer. Argh.

Just spent a half hour in our illegal paddling pool (we are under a drought order, please don’t tell on me) with Oliver. Ahh sweet relief in amongst floating dead wasps.

We had so many adventures in Canada, I don’t even know where to start. So I’ll go with some photo highlights (people, send me your photos if we met up please, I didn’t take enough) and write something more legible when I am not consumed by jet lag.

Hanging out with his Grandad on the slightly scary horse:

Meeting his great-grandparents in Ottawa:

Playing with loads of fun toys at Makenzie, Braeden and Riley’s house in Kanata:

Jen and Jaden came to visit us, a nice whole day of babies checking each other out (more pics at his site):

Lovin’ the arrowroot cookies (I brought some back):

Hanging out with my favourite residents of Kitchener-Waterloo (except missing Jay who took the pic!) and finally getting to meet Cael who was born since the last time I was at home:

And, he was a SAINT on the plane ride home. Slept 6 of 7 hours. And I didn’t resort to the doping method I had planned out – thanks to a helpful tip from another mum whose name I won’t mention in case people scorn the use of drugs in dealing with travel!!! I was desperate, though, after that terrible awful flight over. But I just gave him some baby Tylenol normal dosage to help deal with the ear pain, and after some relutance to sleep when we first got on board, he went down for the count before we even took off and didn’t wake up for the next 6 hours. Wonderful fantastic baby. I didn’t sleep at all, but who cares, he did!!

Ahh, it’s good to be home.

(even with only 1.5 hours of sleep in the past 30 or so hours)

My family, I am sure, thinks I am trying to kill this kid. Since we’ve been in Canada, Oliver has mastered pulling his neck and his body forward. Which has resulted in two somersaults (I have never typed that word before and it looks really weird) – one off of the couch at my grandparents’ house onto their floor, and today off of my lap on to my parents’ floor. Yes I am a great mother. Also today Oliver was happily feeding himself some arrowroot biscuit (President’s Choice brand not entirely full of sugar and palm oil) when he managed to gum off a big chunk and then choke on it. Like really badly he thought he was dying choke on it.

Anyway, today was good generally as Jaden came to hang out with Oliver along with his wonderful mum Jen and the baby got to hang out with a baby even younger than him! I have cute photos but they are stuck on my camera until I get back home. But Jen should put some on Jaden’s blog soon.

Oliver was pretty crabby today unfortunately as last night we managed to have our first messed up night of sleep in months. He was stirring when I went to bed at 11, woke up crying at 2am, was fed a bottle, went back to sleep reluctantly, started stirring a couple of hours later, and woke up fully at 6:45am. I forgot how much sleep deprivation sucks until today. Anyway, I overfed him today (he didn’t eat so much yesterday so I hope that was the cause of the weird night) and he went to sleep really really easily, so let’s hope for no more of that.

Just back to Oshawa from a weekend in Ottawa. Well, actually, unfortunately didn’t see much of Ottawa which is a shame as it’s my favourite place in Canada (so far – travelled all over the world and have still seen so little of the homeland). Spent all weekend at my grandparents’ house, which I can’t complain about. Was spoiled with grandma cooking and attention. Oliver got to meet his great-grandparents, his great aunt and uncle, and his…I think…first cousin once removed?? Anyway, my cousin Anne! My grandmother had a bunch of their friends over on Sunday for lunch to meet him and to catch up. The party kind of headed indoors from the garden once the World Cup final came on, however. How did I end up actually watching a lot of the matches after all??

Saturday was great as I got to catch up with Sandy, Richie and their three kids (with the fourth on the way – yes they are insane but they love it). Spent loads of time with Tami last week, saw Aimee for the first time in years, and this week we’ve got Jen (and Jaden), Jamie (hopefully?) with kiddies Keyzia and Ephraim in tow, and Kristen and Grace with her son Cael still to visit before we head home.

Since I’ve been here, this is probably way too much information, but I have had almost a continuously upset stomach. And on Friday I got really really ill, like never before, at dinner after eating Taco Bell for lunch. I don’t know what’s happening except that it’s definitely linked with fast or restaurant food (as my grandmother’s house provided a reprieve from any gurgling bad tummy). Is there some additive or oil that is used here that isn’t in the UK? I don’t get sick like this at home.

The good news is that things like Taco Bell that I have eaten, that I was looking forward to eating, have been fairly disgusting. I was worried that if we moved back here, it’d be a big one million calorie festival everyday. Now I feel no need to eat it. The one good fast food item I’ve had since being here was Pizza Pizza for dinner tonight. Except I ended up ordering some giant family combo for my family and I, and didn’t know until it got here that it didn’t come with dipping sauce. The whole reason I ordered it. Mark will feel my sadness. I literally almost cried. Oh well, I’ll probably get sick later anyway!

So today at the grocery store, I picked up a bunch of stuff to cook my dad and I dinner for the rest of the week (my mother doesn’t eat the kind of food I like to cook), moving on to homemade options and hopefully my intestinal tract will recover.