Joe and Trina's Aberdeen Adventures!

Brothers

2012-01-24T14:44:00.000-08:00

One of the things I love about these brothers is that they love each other! They play together a lot and when one wakes up and doesn't see the other one there, they ask, "Where Duncan?" or "Where's Ewan?" I just thought I'd share some of the more recent photos of them together:

Lunch time!

"Sad face" is definitely their favourite face to make.

'Really, Ewan? More sad face?'

"Surprised face"

Enjoying some snacks after nap time.

Playing racket guitars first thing in the morning.

Listening to one of the favourite 3 songs on the computer.

Sad face again, cause that's all I've got for now!

CHEESE!!!!!!!!

2011-12-28T14:44:00.000-08:00

These boys love to say "CHEESE!" when the camera comes out.
Here's a little story about them when Joe was away at a conference and I wanted to take their picture to send to daddy:

Ewan was just up from his nap and I put him next to Duncan who held his hand, then saw the camera come out.

Duncan is realizing that he is the only one saying "cheese."

Duncan decides to help out the situation

Now with heart, getting into the 'cheese'

And since he is plug-free, Ewan joins the "cheese" and Duncan is satisfied! And we have a GREAT picture to send to daddy!

I absolutely LOVE these boys!

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-26T15:44:00.000-08:00

Duncan and Ewan participated in their first (of many, I'm sure!) Christmas pageant at church this year. They were the cutest shepherds in town.

Little shepherd boy

Smiley shepherd boy

Here's what Christmas morning looked like. Duncan and Liz got Santa and Rudolph's snacks ready - a glass of milk, a carrot, 2 muffins and a mince pie.
Also Duncan wanted to leave out a nappy for Santa to see... (not sure what that was about, but he did ask in the morning if Santa saw his nappy).

Duncan finding out who's names are on each present

Duncan with his new tools, "fixin some-fin," as he said

Ewan trying out his new guitar

Ready for church!

Boys in their Christmas church clothes

Ewan in his kilt with his new guitar. What a stud.

Duncan sporting his new tool belt.

And here is a photo of Christmas cake on fire! (I'm sure there is a much more fancy name for it) It was cool to watch and tasty to eat. (Thanks Katie and Cam!)

James and Other Chris

2011-12-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

Duncan and Ewan are into the instruments lately -- mostly the drums and guitar. As you can see, the drum sticks can be anything from the actual toys (yellow), chopsticks (orange) to knitting needles (gray).

They'll get their drums and guitars (toy guitars, pots and pans, rackets...) ready and then Duncan will often tell me that I forgot to ask him who he is. So, I ask. He usually replies, "Other Chris." Then I ask Ewan who he is, and he says, "Ummmm, James!" Then the music begins.

"Other Chris" and James are two of the men at church who lead worship - both play guitar and Other Chris also plays drums. I guess I should explain that Other Chris has the "other" in front of his name, in order to distinguish him from our good friend, Chris and Uncle Chris.

So James and Other Chris play and sing all sorts of songs. They also stop every once in a while and say "Pray time" and put their heads down for a few seconds before shouting "amen!" and beating out the songs.

Some of the recent favourite songs are "Friend of God" and "Oh Happy Day" and we still sing (at Ewan's request) Na Na's (Every Step).

Duncan put a pair of Big Boy Pants on his head because Ewan had done that, but Ewan took his off before I could get a picture of him.
Such funny little boys~
Love them!

Treats and Fire

2011-11-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

The end of October and beginning of November have a few events taking place.... The boys dressed up for Halloween and we went around to other AWF-ers houses for trick-or-treat and hang out time. Duncan and Ewan thought it was great that they got to eat some "sweeties," since that is a very rare treat for them!

The beginning of November, of course, sees the Bonfire and fireworks for Guy Fawkes Night. Remember remember the 5th of November... (ask Joe to quote the rest). For Bonfire night we went to another American student's house to eat and hang out before heading to the HUGE bonfire and the fireworks display in Banchory.

So, here are some photos of Duncan and Ewan in some costumes:

He comes in peace.

Ewan is a fire fighter-drummer-backpack-belt guy with a helmet on...

Just take another look at this awesome combination!

More than meets the eye

A Bills fan (although this isn't a costume, more of everyday-wear)

And what they actually went trick-or-treating in: Duncan was a transformer, and Ewan was a spider with a pumpkin hat. Awesome.

The boys at the bonfire getting ready for fireworks.

Not sure why Ewan is eating his entire fist....

The bonfire

And finally, the "before" pic...

And the "after" picture.

Bye bye!

THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-10-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my baby just turned 3!

Duncan was quite excited about his birthday and when I got him out of bed on his birthday morning at 6.30am, he asked us to sing to him. It turned out he wanted us to sing, because obviously, after the birthday song you get to blow out candles and eat cake! Well, we saved the cake for later, but soon enough he got to open his presents. We had a nice family birthday morning, then a bunch of people came over for a celebration later on.

Duncan looking at his presents he's about to open.

Opening presents while Ewan gets the party blowers ready.

A book from Liz about a Squash and a Squeeze.

Big E is ready to party.

Duncan gets the party started

Duncan got a Big Boy Bike for his birthday....

...and LOVED it!

He put on his new wellies from Grandma and Pops and peddled around the house, read books, ate snacks, and did everything he possibly could on his bike.

Mumbles and Pops sent diggers and dump trucks, which Duncan and Ewan both loved.

Later on at the party, this is Duncan waiting for everyone to sing him the happy birthday song.
(I took video of that part, so maybe will post that next time)

Enjoying his birthday cake!

Getting full of cake and ice cream (or maybe not), and leaning back on Chris.

Happy happy birthday, Duncan! You are such a big boy and we love you lots and lots!

Days Going By

2011-09-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

One of the difficult tensions within the PhD process has been the time I've lost on my thesis. I've never regretted the choice to stay home with Los Chicos, even as I've known it has extended my program. I've watched some friends that I've entered my PhD program finish while I continue working away. But we don't regret the choices we've made. As a good friend of mine once said, "The days are long but the years are short."

Lately, I've really felt that reality from both sides. I have a keen awareness of the brief nature of this season in life, even as my own research necessarily goes longer than I'd necessarily like. And yet, over this past month I've had a number of moments--brief episodes through my days--where I'm reminded of the truly important priorities in my life. First as a father, and then (secondarily) as a scholar.

Duncan has begun the process of dropping his afternoon nap, which means we've come into some fun Daddy and Duncan time together while Ewan sleeps. This past Monday, Duncan took his snack (a bowl of oranges) outside with his Mouse and decided to eat in the sunshine.

To call it precious would be too minor. It was one of those parenting moments where everything seems to align. It was wonderful outside, a rare enough occurrence in Aberdeen, and he was just soaking up the sun and eating his oranges.

Then, quite randomly and totally on his own, Duncan picked up mouse.....

And kissed him.

This continued for the next five to ten minutes. Duncan eating his oranges, and randomly kissing Mouse as he did.

Somewhere around the 3rd or 4th kiss, I quickly got up and grabbed the camera, and (luckily) Duncan didn't seem distracted as I took my pictures.

And so, I just kind of watched and took it in--as a parent you get those moments from time to time. Moments so precious you're terrified to do something to break the spell, and--miraculously--nothing does. And I watched him, knowing I wouldn't have a moment like this for a very long time, perhaps ever again. But here, today, I was able to be with him as he ate his oranges and kissed Mouse in the bright sunshine.

It reminded me of how blessed I am to be home these days, to enjoy being with Duncan and Ewan, sharing their growth and being part of their lives in such an intimate way. Yeah, it's going to take me longer to finish my thesis, and lately I've begun to really feel the pressure to finish. And yet.....and yet....I just can't make myself feel bad about being with my boys as we share life's little moments together.

Which I thought I'd share with you too.

We have lots of fun together in the morning as Ewan takes his nap--but not for much longer! Ewan's going to (probably) drop that nap within the next two or three weeks

This is one of my fave pics. Ewan just woke up from his morning nap and Duncan held him on our couch. Duncan and Ewan are so precious with one another.

It's so fun watching Ewan grow into his own person, with his own sense of humor. As tough as it will be to have Duncan go off to nursery, I am looking forward to some more one-on-one time with Ewan too.

Duncan is growing up so quickly! He begins nursery (preschool) in January and we're already getting excited for him to be with the "big boys" in school.

Trina recently came back from an airshow that featured the Red Arrows (the RAF's equivalent to the Blue Angels), and she came back with a poster for Duncan. Which, he promptly hung up next to his bed. Here, Duncan is being a "Red Arrow Guy" (note the jacket, helmet, and backpack) and "flying" in the rocking chair.

Thank you all so much for all of your love and support. We love and miss you!

New Hoose!

2011-09-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

So, we've moved into a new house! It is less than a 5 minute drive from the old house, so we're still surrounded by a lot of familiar things and people. From the new house we'll have to take a bus ride (or the car) to get to some of the old groups we're still part of.

The new house is MUCH bigger than our old one AND it's cheaper! So, now you know why we moved. Here is a picture-tour of the new house.... (The photos were taken only a day or two after we moved in, so excuse all the stuff and boxes everywhere!)

This is standing at the back door looking into the Conservatory (sunroom, as we call it). The toys are all in this room:

Ewan standing at the sunroom (an optimistic name for where we live) doors looking into the garden:

Here's a view of the sunroom from the kitchen door:

The kitchen (taken from the dinning room). The door on the right goes out to the sunroom

Dinning room (taken from the kitchen). The door on the right goes into the living room.

The HUGE living room (taken from the kitchen):

The living room (taken from the other end):

The bathroom. There is a shower stall to the right behind the door:

Duncan and Ewan's room. Yes, the walls are pink!

Ewan's side with his crib and changing table:

Duncan asleep in his Big Boy Bed - which he loves! (With Mouse and digger and pillow and blankie, of course.)

Our bedroom (that's a huge closet with all mirror doors):

Liz's room (she hasn't officially moved in yet, but there are a few boxes and books in there just now):

The other bathroom (although you're supposed to call it "the toilet" or "the loo" because there is no bath in there):

So, that is the inside of our new house. I hope you enjoyed the tour and the little tour guides/models who love exploring each room, too.

Lastly, for your tip of the day:
Don't forget to floss!

Reading Time

2011-08-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

With all the rainy days we've been having, there has been lots of reading going on at our house. On this morning, Duncan and Ewan decided to read some of Daddy's books.

Reading while sitting on the window sill of course.

Ewan decided to taste his book, too.

Duncan is serious about reading.

Ewan liked tasting these books more than reading them.

On one of the rainy days, Joe put on a movie and made some popcorn for some indoor entertainment. Duncan wore his Mater pajama shirt in honour of the movie.

Well, gotta go to bed!
Night-night!
(Such messy sleepers...)

It's July

2011-07-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

Even though it's July, it isn't warm here. I guess I should be used to that by now and not expect any warm days, but it's still a disappointment to me when we have to bundle up before heading outside in the summer! Oh well, we make the best of it and still go out in the cold, rain, wind, sleet... whatever!

Since we don't pay attention to the weather (except for how many layers and how much water-proof gear goes on) days are spent walking in the Moores (and picking raspberries, lately!), going to the playground, coffee morning, play groups, jumping in puddles, digging in the back garden, and playing with cars/instruments/airport-people/reading books inside. Duncan and Ewan both use their little laptop to "Skype," too. Usually they are yelling "Hi, Pops!" to their little blank screen. It's pretty cute.

Ewan recently had his first haircut! He looks so much older, I think.

Ewan showing off his new hair cut.

\
Duncan in one of his favourite places ever - in the digger (thanks to the Nigh's for giving it to us!)

Shifty-eyed Duncan

Ewan still mastering the art of feeding himself with a spoon....

Random

2011-06-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

I like Ewan's Sox-look.

So, I just wanted to say GO RED SOX! in the hopes that they'll win a game tonight. And it would be great if they win on Sunday, too, since that is the game we get to watch LIVE.

And a few photos of the boys:

Ewan having a pregame snack, I think.

Eating pasta outside makes the clean up a bit easier (at least the clean up of the floor, cause I think their faces get like this no matter where they eat!)

Sitting in the window with his Big Boy Pants on.

Huh?

Duncan being "helpful" by carrying Ewan.

And Duncan delivered Ewan to me saying, "Here you go, Mommy."

Take one last look at this sweet curly mop, cause I think the next post might have some photos of a different looking little boy...

Good Morning

2011-06-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd write a bit about what our mornings look like...
The little boys wake up no later than 6am. Everyday.
We all come downstairs and play, make coffee, eat breakfast and hang out before Ewan goes back down for his morning nap and Joe and I take showers and get ready for the day - work, office, Messy Play, Toddlers Group, American Playdate, Coffee Morning, City Church, or walk to the diggers and Asda.

Sometimes we play cars or with the airport/airplane (thanks, Mumbles!), and sometimes we read books, but most of the time we play guitars and drums and keyboard first thing in the morning - mostly lead by Duncan.

By the way, sunrise is at 4:13am today and sunset is at 10:08pm.

Duncan likes to wear a "Haribo Helmet" as he pretends to work in his digger, but he also...

...likes wearing Haribo Helmet while playing his racket-guitar and singing into the microphone.

Just up from his nap, he plays a song on his guitar

Recently, Duncan's last plug broke - RIP Purple Plug. But, he still insist on holding it when he goes to bed. So, he likes to have in his cot: purple plug, mouse, a toy (usually a digger), his pillow, blankie, and another blanket. Good thing he has an American-sized cot to fit all this!

Ewan gets a plug for bedtime and his fuzzy blanket is already in his cot. His cot is UK-sized, so its better that he doesn't require a lot of extra stuff.

Night night, Duncan!

Night night, Ewan!

France - More details

2011-06-12T14:26:00.000-07:00

This is where we stayed in France. It was a town of about 5 houses and lots of countryside, so it was pretty peaceful. Neil's parents were gracious enough to host us for the 6 days we were there, and they were such great hosts - lots of good food and drink and they also took us to a few sight-seeing places nearby.
Duncan and Ewan were superstar-travelers and did great adjusting to the new places and new rules fairly quickly. We greatly enjoyed the relaxation of hanging out in the back garden on the swings and playing in the grass.
According to Hayley (who had been there a week prior to our arrival) the weather was beautiful and hot. Of course we had to take the Aberdeen weather with us, so most of our days were cold and cloudy. I know it doesn't really matter what the weather is like when you get to hang out with family, but I was still quite happy about the one day I actually got to wear shorts and a tank top!

Here we are on that warm day! Hayley took some family photos for us.

And Joe took some family photos of Hayley, Neil and Juniper.

And of course Hayley and I had Joe take some pictures of us, too.

Duncan loved the little rocks out by the patio and kept his digger and dump truck busy for most of the day.

Ewan getting a ride on the bicycle from Grandpa Frank.

Baby Juniper loved holding her mommy's hands and walking around.

Riding bikes and walking around the back garden.

Of course there is football to be played as well.

And Juni was trying Ssome footie, too.

Shifty-eyed Ewan.

Juniper and Hayley.

Ewan, Joe and Duncan. So sweet!

Ewan, Me and Duncan - kisses all around.

Neil and Juniper.

Ewan wearing Juniper's hat. With this hat on, he sort of looks like his cousin, Sojourner.

Hayley and Juni.

Duncan.

Duncan and Ewan sharing the buggy. Although Duncan likes to walk everywhere while we're at home, while we were in France he seemed to want to ride in the buggy much more than usual. Our single buggy can lay all the way down, so Duncan just sat behind when he wanted a ride.

One of the days we were there, Neil's sister and her husband and 2 kids came and stayed overnight. Duncan loved playing with (perhaps better described as "being bossed around by" haha!) Emma and Kian.

Swinging on the big boy swing!

Sweet little boy.
Night-night!

France!

2011-06-09T14:03:00.001-07:00

We went on holiday to France! My sister Hayley, her husband, Neil, and daughter, Juniper, were there visiting Neil's parents and invited us to join them for a few days.
We had a GREAT time and at the request of my sister, Vic, (who we wished could've been there with us, too!) just wanted to give you a sneak peek at some of the photos from our time together:

Taking a walk together

I LOVE my little sister!

Juni, Neil, Hayley, Ewan, me, Duncan watching the deer.

Look at all those deer!

And some swinging in the garden:

Sweet hugs!

More photos and some more words about our holiday to follow....

Beach

2011-05-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

In April, our friend Liz had a birthday party at the beach! It was a nice sunny day, so it turned out to be a great day for going to the beach. Of course we're still in Aberdeen, so that means two things: 1. The weather is never hot 2. The sea is always freezing cold.

So, here are some photos of the little boys (mostly) enjoying a good "Aberdeen-beach-day"

Ewan had fun playing in the sand.

So did Duncan.

We were at a spot on the beach where there is that extra little inlet part (or whatever its really called) that is always a bit warmer than the waves-part.

Splashing in that part.

Pouring sand.

The birthday girl having fun running down the sand dunes

Ewan gonna share his apple with Lizzie

Tanja playing with the boys in the water

The boy loves to eat! And he loves his apples.

Dig dig dig!

Getting to the beach part from the car park we walked on some board walk and up some sand dunes.

He sees the water!!

Daddy and Ewan walking to the beach

Mommy and Duncan walking to the beach

I love this face! I think he was getting splashed at that moment.

Duncan and Daddy went to the waves to feel how cold it was

Until next time....

Banged Up Boys

2011-05-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough week for our little boys...
On Tuesday (10th May) Duncan, Ewan and I were walking to Asda to buy some groceries. Duncan kicked his football (soccer ball) as we went and found things to climb on along the way. He climbed up some step-like landscaping things (that is the technical term) and fell off onto the concrete side, not the grassy side, of course. Sod's Law, as they say (which is the same as Murphy's Law). Poor little dude banged his head pretty hard and was gushing blood from his forehead. We were really close to the local surgery (doctor's office), so with the two of us covered in blood and pushing Ewan along in the buggy we stopped in and got checked out by a nurse and doctor who happened to still be in the building. Joe was on his way home from the office, so met us there and they steri-stripped Duncan's head and told us to go to the Children's A&E (ER) where he might get stitches.

Some quick texting while we walked home had Chris show up to take care of Ewan so that both Joe and I could go to the hospital with Duncan while Ewan got fed and put to bed. (Thanks again, Chris!) In the end, the doctors at A&E said that as much as possible they avoid stitches in kids, so they just cleaned the wound again and re-applied the steri-strips making sure the gash in his forehead was closed tightly. He was a little trooper and told us "Duncan's fine, Mommy. No hurts, Daddy." Bless him! So here are some photos of Duncan with his "Special Plasters" (Band-aids) that we got from the doctor:

He's also not allowed to get them wet for 5 days, which means a very dirty little boy will be having a bath on Sunday!

And with his "goggles" on now.

OK, Ewan's turn....

On a Wednesday Ewan and Duncan and Joe go to American Playgroup (that's what I call it anyway) which is a bunch of University students' families getting together once a week at different people's houses to let the kids play, chat, and have some lunch. This past Wednesday (11th May) playgroup was at the Malone's house and the weather was nice, so the kids were outside. There are some concrete stairs going down from the top part of the back garden (yard) to the bottom part, and I think you see where this story is going.... His tumble down the stairs was so quick there was no time to catch him.
So here he is with his scraped up little nose:

Ouch.

Poor little boys are all banged up, but they both just LOVE being outside, climbing and playing. This isn't the first time they've scratched/cut/bruised their little faces, and I'm sure it isn't the last time, either, so I'm really thankful for the fact that, in Joe's words, "Bumbles bounce!"

Friends

2011-04-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

We have some great friends here in Aberdeen. Some of them watch Duncan and Ewan a few hours each week while I'm working so that Joe can go to the office and do some PhD work. I am really thankful for our friends and just wanted to post a few photos of some of them having fun:

"Wiz" with the boys at the Winter Gardens

"Ciss" making Ewan laugh.

"Nani" holding the boys just after nap time.

Liz and Ewan down the slide!

Dani, Duncan and Ewan with drinks

Chris giving kisses

Looking at the fish

Ewan enjoying his birthday present from Chris and Dani

See you la-ter!

BIRTHDAY BOY!

2011-04-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

We had a party to celebrate Ewan's first birthday! (his actual birthday is 12 April, as I'm sure you know.) We had an E-I-E-I-O party because Ewan likes to sing that song and he knows some of the sounds the animals make (horse, cow, sheep, duck). We used the church right down the street from us and had a bunch of friends join us for some snacks and brownies with ice cream. It was a fun time!

I can't believe my baby is One Year Old. Wow.

Duncan and Ewan playing before cake-time.

And watching some other kids play.

Singing the happy birthday song.

The birthday cake (or birthday brownies, even)

Eating his birthday brownies. Yum!

Having some ice cream, too

I LOVE this kid!!!!!!
Happy birthday, baby.

Hoodles

2011-03-21T15:04:00.001-07:00

For my birthday present this year, we had a family-day and went to Hoodles for the morning, then stopped at a local farm deli for some panini, crisps (chips) and juice (soda). It was a GREAT birthday present! Not only did the 4 of us hang out together all day, but the little boys got to play and climb and slide all morning (and so did the parents) and we got a special treat of buying lunch out afterward. That was a great birthday! Thank you, Joe.

Because we were playing most of the time we were there, we didn't take a lot of photos, but maybe you'll recognize some of the soft play stuff from when Mumbles and I went with the 2 wee ones when Ewan was only 4 weeks old.

Ewan and I just came down the little slide.
I'm pretty sure I was right when I said that I thought Ewan would appreciate Hoodles a lot more when he was a bit older - he loved it!

Duncan coming down the big slide

The big slide was really fast!

Trying the big slide on his belly

Getting ready to slide down the little slide together

Duncan and Daddy going down the big slide

Getting off at the bottom. Bye!

Writing in Pluscarden

2011-03-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

So I’ve taken a weekend away at a (somewhat) local Benedictine monastery, and I thought I’d give a bit of a rolling blog about my time here and some of my reflections. It’s really neat to be here, I’m in the building with about 5 other men, but I honestly don’t see them apart from our meals, which are held in common.

I didn’t think of it at the time, but it was a good idea for me to pack and wear my Boston Celtics t-shirt. Over here, the term “Celtic” is specifically associated with Celtic Football Club, based out of Glasgow. Celtic is the “Catholic” football/soccer team, and Rangers is the “Protestant” football/soccer team. There is a very deep pseudo-religious divide between the teams and their supporters, and one very often associated with violence. I say pseudo because for most supporters—particularly the violent supporters—religion has very little to do with it. After all, no matter if one is Catholic or Protestant it seems pretty clear that Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection weren’t based in any sense of stabbing fans of the opposing soccer team. Anyways, I smiled to myself over breakfast this morning as I sat around a table of Catholic men (including two priests here on retreat) and answered the, “so, who are you and how’d you come to be here” types of introductory questions. It was a bit of a fortuitous choice on my part to casually throw my Boston Celtics t-shirt into the mix and wear it down to breakfast today. In some respects, it’s almost as obvious a fashion declaration as it would have been if I wore a clerical collar like the priests do. Except I’m not Catholic…..shhhh. I won’t tell if you won’t.

Dinner

Lunch and dinner here are held within the monastery itself, instead of the retreat building I’m staying in, and it’s an experience quite unlike any other. There are about 15-20 monks, seated at long wooden tables arranged together and forming a large rectangle. The other men on retreat and myself were invited into the dining room, and arrived to find all of the monks already standing in front of their seats. The monks were seated with a definite order, but I wasn't too sure what it all was. Except to say that we sat nearest to the youngest brothers in the monestary--in fact, there were four postulants there (obviously set apart because their habit was charcoal gray instead of the white habits of the full monks).

I came in to find my own place with a name tag in front of it. We all stood in front of our seats as the abbot led everyone in a call and response type of blessing, entirely in Latin. It really was an interesting moment, especially in realizing that I was taking part in a mealtime practice that is hundreds and hundreds of years old.

The brothers then sat and unrolled a long white piece of linen. Inside, also rolled up, was another, smaller, piece of white linen. The smaller piece contained their fork, knife, and spoon and the second linen I later saw was their washcloth. The larger linen was unfolded, with half laid on the table as a placemat and the other half tied into the brother’s neckline as a napkin (kinda like this). They then placed a dinner bowl on the placemat and used a smaller bowl, almost rice bowl sized, for drinking. Each brother had a small decanter of drinking water in front of their seat. After grace, another brother came around to each of the tables and served dinner.

There was an initial reading of scripture, and we had a chapter from the Rule of St. Benedict read before we began. After the blessing and the readings, dinner was distributed and the brother who read scripture and the Rule transitioned and began reading from a second book. We sat and ate in silence as he read to us through the meal. The book seemed to be a novel—I was actually kind of surprised by this—about the Second World War and a priest in a concentration camp…..I think. It was kind of tough to get up to speed on a book that I’ve picked up well into the narrative. I was reminded of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s own experience in 1940, as he was working on his Ethics manuscripts at a Benedictine monastery in Ettal. There, during his meals, he sat as the monks (completely unbeknownst to them) read Bonhoeffer’s own words to him as they were working through Discipleship. I just kind of sat there and thought about how bizarre it must have been to be sitting, eating your dinner, and to suddenly hear your own textbook read for the spiritual enrichment of others.

So we sat and listened to reading as we ate together. Dinner itself was a really enjoyable vegetarian dish of mushrooms, corn, and rice (the brothers only eat meat on festival days and holidays). After the meal, we had fruit and cheese for dessert (apples, which I’m presuming came from their orchards at the abbey).

Once the meal was complete, each brother poured water into their drinking bowl and used it to clean their eating utensils with the washcloth. After cleaning their bowl and utensils, they wrapped everything back up. They took their napkin from their neck and wiped any crumbs onto the table which they swept off from the table into a wooden dustpan. We then stood for an after-meal blessing, again in Latin, and were then dismissed into our rooms for the evening.

Mass

Yesterday was one of the high holidays for the brothers here at Pluscarden Abbey, as it was the patronal feast St Aelred. St Aelred is the patron father of the community here, and yesterday was his holy feast day—which meant it was a very special day indeed for the brothers. We not only had meat with our dinner, but they also had wine and beer with the meal as well. To give a sense of the special-ness of the occasion, they only have wine/beer with meals on Christmas, Easter, and the feast of St Aelred. It felt distinctly special to be invited into this special celebration and to enjoy it with the brothers.

This holiday also meant a special high mass in the chapel. In many ways, it was a very unique thing to be part of. In the first instance, the chapel itself dates back to the 13^th century. Though large sections of the church were destroyed as part of the Scottish reformation, one still captures the grandeur and medieval feeling of the community itself. The church itself is fairly small, as the altar remained intact through the reformation, but the sanctuary was, by and large, destroyed. Thus, the only seating area that remains is along the wings. Almost all of the church is altar(the church is on the left of the image).

The mass itself was entirely in Latin, something I’ve never experienced before. I remember my father talking about growing up Catholic before Vatican II, and about being part of the mass in which absolutely nothing was understood…..and now I’ve been there myself. Though my own theological education and background in church history allowed me to pick up bits and pieces along the way, it was still bizarre to feel as if I wasn’t very much removed at all from 16^th century Germany and Martin Luther’s push to have the mass said in the vernacular. Hoc est corpus meum (This is my body), as the moment of transubstantiation within the Eucharist, suddenly became much closer to “Hocus Pocus” in my own experience. Still, with that said, there was also something strangely appropriate about a monastic order that is hundreds and hundreds of years old, in a 500 year old church, saying the mass in the exact same manner as it has been said through their entire tradition.

Without a doubt, my favorite thing about the service was the incense. Though often derogatorily referred to as the “smells and bells” of the liturgy, there really is something about the tangible reminder of the metaphors of scripture. I recall the imagery from Revelation, where the incense burning at the throne room of God is said to be the prayers of the saints. Walking into an enormous stone building, filled with sweet smelling incense—again as the church has tangibly reminded her people for centuries upon centuries—was really powerful to me. The prayers of the Body of Christ are a sweet smell to God, and I love being reminded of that in such a genuinely tangible manner.

All things considered, it was a very successful writing weekend. I wanted to write 20,000 words (just about 60 pages or so), and I came away with 18,500. I would have written more, but--oddly enough--monks aren't really concerned with ergonomic desks in the rooms and my wrists were hurting pretty bad by Sunday evening so I had to stop. Hopefully this will prove to be the skeleton upon which my thesis will take shape.

This Weekend

2011-03-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

I finally took a picture of the boys watching the diggers! Of course this was the day that Duncan decided to wear his pumpkin costume out. Oh well.

Many days have at least one outing to go "see diggers working" or "see diggers sleeping" and those outings could be with Daddy or Mommy or Liz or Chris (and Dani sometimes). I'm so glad the weather has been getting better so that we can enjoy these digger-watching adventures. I wonder what we'll do when the housing development is all built and the dump trucks, power saws, loud machines, diggers, saws, piles of dirt, digger-guys and everything else goes away?!

This weekend I've taken some annual leave days to stay home with the boys while Joe goes away to a quite place (Pluscarden Abbey) to do some serious writing of the PhD. I'm thinking we'll be out doing lots of these things, while he's away:

Riding the bicycle that our neighbours gave us,

riding the scooter our neighbour gave us,

playing in the cold, wet grass,

going out to see the diggers working,

and whatever else we feel like doing!
Hopefully this will be a great weekend for Joe to get some extended time to think and write without interruptions, and I know that I will enjoy the long weekend of getting to stay home with my sweet little boys. Just look at how sweet they are!

D & E

2011-02-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

Duncan and Ewan. I just love them and all their little funny things they do!
Work has been busy for me lately, and it seems like Joe never gets enough time to do all the reading/writing work he needs to do, but life is good and we are enjoying Scotland, friends and life here.

Just for the fun of it, here are some recent photos of the boys. Enjoy!

More later ~ Bye!

Dig Dig Dig

2011-02-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

Something that we've been doing a lot of that makes both Ewan and Duncan smile is watching the diggers. Not far from our house a new housing development is being constructed so there are lots of diggers and dump trucks and "digger guys" and all of the other machinery and things you find at such a site. Duncan LOVES the diggers. He loves going to watch them when they're working, loves seeing them when they're "sleeping," loves hearing them working as we get close, loves playing with his toy ones out in our neighbour's dirt, loves playing with his other toy ones in the house, loves taking the toy ones to bed with him, and loves talking about the diggers "working" or "no working" or "nigh-nigh" or "dig dig dig" or "pile" or whatever it is the diggers have done.

One day walking home from watching the diggers, Duncan kicked his football (it was just a cheepy bouncy ball that looks like a soccer ball) under the fence into the construction site and no one was around to give it back to us, so I told him we'd have to come back another time and ask the digger guys for it. The next few days Duncan talked about the "digger guys" taking the "football home," and since I thought we probably wouldn't see the ball again, I agreed. A few days after that, we found the football in a ditch near the construction site and brought it home - hooray! Ever since that event, when something is missing, Duncan seems to think one of two things: either we can buy more at Asda, or the digger guys took it home. He cracks me up as he says quite seriously "Digger guys. Home." (like when his plug went missing for a few days) Or when he says, "Asda, mommy! Asda!" in quite an excited little voice - as if he was the genius who thought of the perfect solution to our problem (like when we couldn't find a certain part to the stair gate).

Duncan can voice his admiration and love of the diggers, but Ewan quite enjoys a good long watch of the diggers working, too. I haven't taken any photos of them watching the diggers (or even any of them playing with their toy ones), so here are some other random photos:

Duncan getting ready to do the "yuckies"
(Thanks to Mumble for introducing this, and to Aunt Vic for helping him do it over the summer.)

Duncan doing the "yuckies"
(yes, it means washing dishes)

Look at that smile! Love this kid!

Night-night, Duncan. Night-night, Ewan.

Love These Boys!

2011-01-17T12:28:00.000-08:00

I do love these boys!
How cute are they?!
Duncan is at a really fun stage of learning tons of language just now. He is putting words together to make semi-mini-sentences and trying out lots of new words he has heard, too. The other day, for example, when he asked me to do something and I kind of said something like, "Well, I don't know..." Duncan said to me, "Just try." It was so out of the blue! Of course I did "just try" after he said that. How could I not?
There are so many new words and phrases he uses consistently, but one of my favourites is when he says "Carry you." That means he wants to be carried or he is telling Ewan that he will carry Ewan (yes, he does try that - Ewan is such a good sport!). If Duncan wants to be carried or picked up, he'll come over and say "carry you, mommy." It's so cute! So, here he is:

Marbles!

Reading his books.

Wearing his gloves and sandals with no trousers on. Nothing odd about that.

And now a little bit about Ewan:

Look at that sweet face!
Ewan is crawling everywhere these days and pulling himself to stand up a lot. He is all into standing on his own and just the past few days has taken some steps on his own! He isn't a full "walker" (that has nothing to do with zombies in this case, Joe) yet, but he is certainly heading that direction fast! I love watching him stand and then wiggle his little body around to get one foot to take a tiny little step out in front. I also love it when he's standing and decides to squat down to pick up a toy. He is just so much fun to watch! So here are some photos of Ewan:

Enjoying the outside - even though it's cold!

Eating Cheerios.

You can see 2 or 3 of his 7 teeth in this photo.

They are precious little boys, and together they're great fun, too! Ewan loves watching Duncan and Duncan loves making Ewan laugh. They play together in a lot of different ways - like playing Boo! or crawling on top of each other, or sitting next to each other each with a toy, or singing together. One song that we can all sing together is "Old McDonald had a Farm" because Ewan can sing the "E-I-E-I" part, and Duncan sings the animal names, noises and "E-I-E-I-O" part, and Daddy and Mommy sing the rest!
Here are a few photos of the boys together:

Kisses while playing in the tent together.

We've been on an apple-kick lately (and by "we" I mean Duncan and Ewan), so here they are both munching away.

See you la~ter!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

Well, it's 2011 now!
Here are a few pictures of Ewan and Duncan playing with their daddy.
Fun times!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-30T13:22:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas in Aberdeen! This is how the day started - with Duncan and Ewan awake at 6am and looking at all the presents under the little tree.

Duncan had put out a mince pie for Santa and some rice for the reindeer on Christmas Eve (which they ate of course), so now when Duncan sees pictures of reindeer, he says "eat rice." Yes, Santa's reindeer eat rice.

We started out the morning opening presents and eating cinnamon rolls and eggy-bread (also known as French toast) and drinking coffee. Yum.

Ewan opening his present with the help of James.
Poor James was supposed to catch a flight back to America for Christmas to be with his family, but because of the weather and all the cancellations and delays, he got stuck in Aberdeen. Although I'm sure he would have rather been home, we were glad he spent Christmas with us!

Duncan had been waiting so long (like days) to open the presents under the tree, so he was super excited to finally get the "yes!" from us.

Before nap/lunch time, we went outside for a walk and some sledging while Joe cooked a turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and stuffing. Ewan and Liz are going down the hill while Duncan and Amie wait their turn.

Hold on Ewan! Hold on Liz!

This was Duncan's attempt to make a snow angle. He obviously didn't know what he was supposed to do, but he's making a good effort.

Ewan loves being outside. Even when it's so cold that his little nose turns all red!

Duncan has been loving playing in the snow - at least until his fingers get too cold and hurt!

Bye for now! We're off for more sledging!

Advent

2010-12-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

Our first Christmas in Scotland (2008) one of Joe's office mates had given us a little Christmas tree (complete with baubles and lights and tinsel) and my mum sewed us an advent calendar, so we brought our little box of Christmas things down from the loft to decorate. Duncan was excited about the tree and remembered where it was last year (so we put it in the same spot) and Ewan was "helping" with the tinsel.
These days we are enjoying our Christmas decorations, some Christmas music and stories as we prepare for celebrating Jesus' birthday in about 2 weeks time!

Ewan and the tinsel.

Duncan getting Joseph's staff ready for him.

Let It Snow!

2010-11-30T06:08:00.000-08:00

Aberdeen has gotten quite a bit of snow these last few days! I think it all started last Wednesday (the day before American Thanksgiving), and it hasn't stopped yet! It was great to go out and play in the snow, but driving to work and shoveling with our garden hoe are two parts of this winter-wonderland that aren't so fun.

Maybe its because Aberdeen doesn't typically get a ton of snow in the winter, but whatever the reason, they really are not very good at clearing the roads here. Only the main roads get cleared (when the trucks finally come out), so all secondary (or third-ary) roads are a nightmare! My drive to work starts out in our unploughed neighborhood and ends with a 1/2 mile drive down a windy, skinny untouched-by-plough-or-gritter road that leads to the long hilly driveway into the residence where I work. Drives to and from work have been very slow this past week, and it doesn't look like this weather is gonna let up anytime soon.

Duncan and Ewan both love going outside, and the snow and cold doesn't stop them from having a good time! Liz and Duncan built a snowperson in our back garden on Sunday while Ewan and I watched and Joe rode the bus to Asda to get us some food.

Duncan getting the snowperson's nose ready...

Putting the nose on

Ewan "watching" the fun!

Tying the scarf

The finished product (except Duncan decided the nose needed some more nibbling)

Ewan singing in the snow

Eating some (not yellow) snow

Sleepy Boys

2010-11-19T14:16:00.000-08:00

Poor little Ewan was so sleepy he could hardly sit up after eating his porridge.

Duncan couldn't stay awake to finish his sweet corn.

He's trying to fight it, but he's loosing this battle.

Sweet baby needs his cot!

Somebody better go put these boys to bed now!!
Bye!

Crawler!

2010-11-10T12:24:00.000-08:00

That's right, Ewan is now officially a crawler! He has been balancing on his hands and knees (or on his hands and feet) and rocking back and forth but Tuesday morning, he crawled forward a couple of steps for the first time! Way to go, Big E!! He is quite pleased with himself now, and has been crawling around to find all of the toys that were out of reach before. He has also gotten brave enough to pull himself up to standing to see what he can see from a higher vantage point. He's getting so big! Also this past week Ewan's first tooth popped through - what a week of milestones!

Ewan looking surprised at himself for his new forward movement.

Here are some of our recent pictures:

Tickle tickle tickle!

I'm the only one looking at the camera, cause Joe is holding it out to the side. Guess I should've kept looking at Joe like the boys are. Oh well.

What a sweet face!

Duncan has been wanting to wear a shirt like this and calls it his "helmet." So far he has gone to the store and the doctor's office with a "helmet" as well as just around the house and neighbourhood.

Posing for the picture

Duncan wearing his Sunday Best

Bless you, Ewan!

I LOVE his laugh and smile!

Duncan likes to have Ewan sit on his belly (most of the time)

And finally, our most recent family photos:

Sports Fans

2010-10-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

Duncan and Ewan are sports fans. They wear the gear, and they love playing with American footballs, proper footballs, baseballs, golf balls, and bouncy balls. You get the picture. Some of their newest sports wear has come from two very good friends - one here in Aberdeen and one back in Boston.

Chris bought them each this year's brand new kit for the Dons!
Of course Duncan and Chris kick the football around and I've seen Chris make some diving saves in the living room against Duncan's quick left footed kicks. I'm sure it won't be too long before Ewan is joining the game.

JC sent a box with some Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabers stuff in it for Ewan and Duncan. I'm pretty sure Joe's Bills jersey also came from JC. He's our Buffalo supplier.
GO BILLS!

I just thought I'd add this photo of the boys in their matching tops, since they're matching in most of the other photos. Ewan is enjoying his porridge (see that Vic and Hay?!) and Duncan his apples.

Bills fan.

I think Chris is teaching the boys one of the songs they sing at Pittodrie (not NaNaNa's).

Aberdeen fans checking the scores online

I like Duncan's pouty-face here.

These fans are looking pretty knackered, so we'll say good bye for now!

Birthday Boy!

2010-10-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Duncan!! He turned 2 on 16 October and we celebrated on both Saturday and Sunday. Duncan is funny cause he asked for "cake" and "eat cake?" all day everyday from the moment he saw his birthday cake (made on Thursday night). He finally got to have a piece (or two or maybe three) on Saturday and he greatly enjoyed it.

On Saturday AWF had a Family Ceilidh to welcome in new students/families, and since that was Duncan's birthday, we took some cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. A birthday and a ceilidh - 2 great reasons to wear his kilt!

Duncan enjoying his birthday cake

Ewan wore his kilt, too. I think this was the last time for that kilt (thanks, Micah and Rachel!), cause he was sort of busting out the back of it!

Duncan and Daddy dancing at the ceilidh

It's a pretty cool look to wear your Scotland top with your kilt. He's a pretty cool kid.

On Saturday morning, Duncan opened his present from us and LOVED it. To give you a little background on how we decided to buy him this gift, Duncan has been using a squash racquet as a guitar for several months now. He often picks up other items to use as a guitar, too, but the 2 racquets we have got used the most:

Guitar playing in the pumpkin hat

Ewan gets to play the racquet-guitar sometimes, too

Opening the present~

HOORAY for a real guitar!!

He's a rock star

Another thing Duncan loves is helmets. He got to wear a few different ones while we were in America (thanks to Cousin Will and the Fair family), and has been asking for a helmet ever since. Liz got him a Bob the Builder set complete with a yellow helmet.

Liz finally let Duncan have a turn wearing the helmet

On Sunday we had some friends from church come over to celebrate. More presents and more cake - happy day!

Happy birthday to you...

High-fives for blowing out both candles!

What's a party without party-blower-things?!

Ewan getting into the party, too

Enjoying some little haggis pies. Yum!
(Thanks Christy!)

One more guitar solo +

one more bite of cake =

Good times!!!

2 Years & 6 Months

2010-10-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

I can't believe they're that old! Duncan just had his 2 year old check up and Ewan had his 6 month old baby wellness check up, and they're both doing great! Duncan is weighing in at 28.66 lbs and measuring 86 cm tall. Ewan weighed in at 19lbs 13oz and measured 67cm long. Ewan's weight puts him in the 91st percentile, but other than that they're both right around average of other kids/babies their age.

The two of them are pretty funny together. Ewan loves watching whatever his big brother is doing. Sometimes he laughs so hard at Duncan doing silly things, which of course, makes Duncan do them all the more. It's fun to hear Ewan's laugh and see how pleased Duncan is with himself for being funny!

I think it's pretty common for a younger sibling to want to do whatever the older one is doing (remember those days, Vic? Hay?), but sometimes the big brother wants to do what the little brother is doing, too. We've captured a few of the times that Duncan gets his turn with Ewan's toys, too...

Ewan in the doorway jumpy thing

He does enjoy it for a few minutes at a time

Duncan likes to jump in the doorway, too

He likes to spin around in it as well as jump

This is when Duncan was actually the right age for the jumpy thing!

Ewan has been using the walker and all the fun lights and buttons on it, so of course Duncan decided he wanted a turn, too.

Maybe a walker wasn't really designed to fit a 2 year old, but he'll make it work

It's serious business working all those buttons

We don't have any pictures of Ewan in the walker (yet), but this is Duncan when he was 6 months old trying it out for the first time after Grandma and Grandpa McGarry bought it for him.

Sometimes Ewan takes a nap on the couch with the fuzzy blanket

At nap time the other day, Duncan and Ewan got their plugs and tried to talk me into letting them sleep on the couch instead of in their cots.

They're deciding who gets to sleep where...

Don't worry, I wasn't convinced that either of them would fall asleep, so they both had to go upstairs for naps.

Well that's it for now. Thanks for checking in~!

Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug!

Video-rama!

2010-09-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

I wanted to post a couple of videos that we've recently shot. The first is from a couple of weeks ago. I was about to go grocery shopping with Duncan and Ewan, and Duncan came up to me asking if he could wear his pumpkin costume. What kind of father says no to that? Not this one--that's for sure.

I shot this next one last week, as Duncan was finishing up some granola while Ewan took his morning nap. This is SUCH a fun season to be a dad.

Photos From America

2010-09-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share a few more photos from our visit to America last month. These are just of Duncan and Ewan from our Buffalo part of the trip.

Asleep in the swing - just like my nephew, Adam, LOVED when he was a baby.

Ready for the sunshine!

Thanks to Mumbles for those water shoes - we used them a lot!

Duncan went on his first boat ride, and Ewan just tried on the life-vest.

Duncan liked riding the tricycle (thanks Grandpa and Grandma McGarry!), but never quite got the hang of how to pedal.

Chillin in the baby bouncy chair reading a magazine.
That's a great way to spend a day on holiday!

Americaland!

2010-08-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

We had an AWESOME holiday in Americaland in the middle of August. After a full day of flights on 4 airplanes, we landed in North Carolina to enjoy a week of Stevenson family fun on the beach. The week in NC ended with my little sister Hayley's wedding.

My parents rented a big house where we all stayed and went to the beach every day. The weather was actually hot (not just warm!) and the sun was actually out all day!! It was most exciting! At the end of the fun week of playing in the sand, waves and house, Hayley and Neil's wedding on the beach was beautiful. Seeing my family in NC was a great way to start our holiday, and the great holiday continued onto Buffalo and Boston.

But one thing at a time...
Here are some photos of our first week with my family:

We saw the sunrise every morning from this porch - that's what happens when you've got 2 little ones with jet lag, I guess.

Mumbles! My beautiful mom playing with Duncan.

Pops! My wonderful dad holding Ewan.

Some of the family enjoying the waves (Micah, Sojo, Tyler, Mumbles, Duncs, Whit and Rachel).

Duncan loved running into the water ("da-wa!") and jumping in the waves.

He fell asleep on Aunt Hayley, and...

Ewan fell asleep on Aunt Vic.

Duncan kissing cousin Sojo,

and feeding cousin Whit.

Did I mention we played some beach volleyball? We did.

Ewan gets cuddles from Aunt Vic.

WEDDING DAY!
Here are the boys all in kilts ready for Hayley and Neil's wedding.
Since I was in the wedding, and Joe was taking care of 2 wee boys, we didn't take any pictures of the actual wedding... There are some really nice ones out there, though!

Doesn't every mother-of-the-bride get the kiddie pool ready on wedding day?

THE BRIDE!!!

You looked beautiful, Hay! And I'm so glad you found such a great guy to marry. (Sorry no picture of you, Neil!)

OK, there are tons more photos, but we'd better stop for now and let Joe do some posting of our Buffalo part of the holiday.
Catch ya later!

Beach Day!

2010-07-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

WHOO!

Sorry about my general lack of updated-ness around here, but it's been a bit of a gear shift going from staying home all day with one to staying home with both boys during the day. All I've got to say is, "Hooray for summertime beaches!"

Last week, our good friend Chris took Duncan, Ewan, and myself to Balmedie Beach. There are really cool sand dunes all along the shore, and we climbed and adventured all over the place. It's really beautiful there--one of our favorite places we've found.

*Side note, here's a really interesting glimpse into summer "heat" in Aberdeen. It's early July and here we are at the beach. I'm in heavy jeans and no, I wasn't uncomfortable. Think you'd wear that to the beach where you live?

Anyways, I digress.....

Duncan, as can be imagined, LOVED it there. Particularly because he could practice one of his favorite things in the entire world, and do it to his heart's content. Yes, that's right. He could throw. See, the beach is FULL of sand. And all you have to do is sit down, and clench a bunch of it in your hands (you can see Duncan having the word 'throw' forming on his lips).

Then, you can stand up and begin flailing your arms all over the place, at which point you randomly release the sand and let it fly, while saying, "Throw!"

Much to Duncan's initial consternation, we continued walking along the trail, promising him more sand as we adventured further. Here's Duncan showing us the North Sea, in case we missed it.

Duncan plopped himself back into the sand, and the throwing commenced again.

And again.....

And again......

And again.....

Ewan kinda conked out early on this trip.

Eventually "throwing sand in the sea" time was finished and we had to start walking home. Duncan's body language pretty much shows us what he thought of that idea.

Dunc's really loved running all through the sand. This is one of my favorite pics from the day. We've said this for a long time, and it really is true: whatever Duncan does, he does it with extreme gusto!

Here's Chris walking back to the car after a great day on the shore. Thanks for coming by everyone! We love you all!

Explain a Passport

2010-07-08T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well, Duncan has had his passport for ages now - like a whole year - so he is clearly an expert on what this little blue book means. He is explaining to Ewan that this little book will let you go in and out of countries as you please (sort of) and that without it, you're just stuck at home.

Duncan is telling Ewan that he should be quite pleased that his passport is here.

Ewan just asked "Why?" and Duncan gives a smirk...

"Because, Baby," Duncan replies, "This means you get to come with Daddy and Mommy and me when we go on holiday if a few weeks!"

"Oh. Cool," Ewan says.

Duncan gives Ewan a little kiss on his head, "You're just a baby, so you might not understand," he tells Ewan, "but this is kind of a big deal, cause we're going to America."

"That's where we'll see our family and friends, right?" Ewan asks.
Duncan is pleased, "I think he is starting to get it, Mommy."

Well done, Duncan, for explaining to your baby brother that we are going to be in North Carolina (to celebrate Hayley's wedding and see Mommy's family), Buffalo (to see Daddy's family) and Boston (to see our good friends) in just three weeks time!! We're so excited!

Helicopter Saturday

2010-06-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

Speak louder--I can't hear you!

One of the cool things about living in Aberdeen is the oil industry. The North Sea has a number of off shore oil rigs, and we live under the helicopter flight path. So, we have helicopters flying over all the time. We're also fortunate enough to have a good friend who pilots those helicopters. We look up when we hear one, and if it's a red one we wave because one of these times we're going to be waving to our friend TJ and he'll be waving back at us.

TJ flies for Bond. This was a picture I took one day while Duncan and I were walking through the moors. If you look closely, you can see the offshore workers sitting in the back.

TJ and Lynn took us to see the helicopters, let us climb around, and even gave us some basic explanations about all the switches and gauges inside. There are TONS of buttons and things in those cockpits - it was amazing to see. Though, I must add, he didn't let us shoot the machine guns or fire the rocket launchers. Nevertheless, it was SUCH a fun day!

Pretty cool.

It was our first time to be in a helicopter.

Duncan enjoyed being inside the helicopter and the next few days at home, he got extra excited when he heard a helicopter flying overhead - pointing and smiling and saying "helicopter!" (though it mostly sounds like, "coter").

TJ showing Joe the controls.

We're pretending to fly.

Just as we were about to leave, a helicopter started preparing for takeoff. TJ got us all some ear protection and we watched it get ready to fly (Duncan was pretty keen to make sure we knew where the helicopter was).

Here we are watching the helicopter warming up. We had to wear the ear protection because it's so loud!

It was really cool to see what helicopter pilots have to know!

A big thanks to Lynn for holding Ewan (even while he was screaming!) and spending the day with us!
Thanks, TJ and Lynn!!

It's June!

2010-06-04T05:42:00.000-07:00

It's June now, which should mean warm weather, but since we live in Aberdeen, I'm not holding my breath for a hot day. I'm hoping for one, don't get me wrong! But this will be our second summer here, so I'm trying to be realistic and accept that the hottest day we'll get will only mean that I can go outside in a t-shirt and jeans without a sweatshirt. How I miss the heat!

Anyway, the weather is warming up a bit now, so we aren't wearing our winter coats out anymore, which is nice, and is an improvement from just a few weeks ago when Mumbles was here.

Speaking of Mumbles, while she was here we took the boys to a soft play place and Duncan had a great time climbing on and through and around things. It was fun to watch him and I'm sure we'll head back there on another rainy or chilly day. In the meantime, here are some pictures from Hoodles:

Mumbles and Duncan in a tube

I think Ewan will appreciate it more when he's a bit older.

He liked climbing up to the tube and then out to the end to look down.

Or to squish his face against the end.

Gonna run down the slide? He might.

Giving "Mumbos" some cuddles.

There's only one good reason to stop playing, and that is to have a snack.

"Let's go over there."

After such a busy day of running around (and lying around) the boys need a bath.

Duncan loves the bath.

Baths and soft-play wears a boy out!

But Duncan is keen to do some hoovering (yes, in a wet suit) before going to bed. Gotta love a boy who cleans the house!

Gotta go finish the cleaning now - bye bye!

He's a Talker!

2010-05-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Duncan is talking more and more every day. It's *such* a fun age right now. He's transitioning from signing to speaking, and he's adding more and more words to his vocabulary every day. He's also leaned full-on into his love of 'hoovering', and can even play with it while it's on!

Trina took this little video clip of him while Mumbles was here, and we though we'd share our little chatterbox with you.

Thanks for coming round everyone. We love you all!

A Wedding In Ireland

2010-05-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

Hey--where are you going? Get back here and read this update!

As many of you know, last week I was honOUred to perform the wedding ceremony of our great friends Bryan (Res) and Lizzie Resnick. They asked me to perform the wedding last July, well before El Niño was on the horizon, and said they would give us a hotel for the week if I could come. Of course we said yes, and the original plan was for the entire family to make the trip over. Things got a tad more complex, however, when we learned we had an El Niño on the way. Basically, Ewan was due only 4 weeks before the wedding and that would have barely been enough time for us to get his passport and visa sorted out if everything worked perfectly.....which never happens. So we decided that I would go to Ireland without the rest of Clan McGarry (SAD SAD!) and get some uni work done while I was there.

The wedding was held at Lough Cutra Castle, and it really was one of those storybook kind of days. Phenomenal weather, a unique and breathtakingly beautiful site, and a snappy minister to perform the ceremony. Well.....two out of three ain't bad.

Everything at this castle was fancy--even the Port-a-pottie was decorated!

**side note disclaimer**
You'll see me holding a Guinness beer in my hand in a number of the pics. It's a wedding in Ireland--they kick you out if you don't have one in your hand. Them's the rules.
**end disclaimer**

The ceremony itself was so fun. One of the real blessings of my life is being able to marry my friends and family.

Res and Lizzie have been such great friends to Trina and me.

"With this ring, I thee wed...."

And now, by the authority vested in me by God, the community of faith, and the state of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride!

An absolutely WONDERFUL day.

I've been blessed to perform the ceremonies of some really great friends and family, and every single time it's such a special day. I'm so thankful to have been part of Lizzie and Res's wedding.

And yes, I decided to take the day and do a little modeling for GQ on the side.

Thanks for coming round everyone! We love and miss you all!

What A Blessing!

2010-05-13T01:35:00.000-07:00

Mumbles has been with us for almost 3 weeks now, and it has been GREAT! I know I already wrote how great it is to have her here, but I really can't say it enough. Duncan LOVES her - maybe ADORES is a better way to put it. He is constantly asking for her "Mumbos! Mumbos!" when he can't see her and follows her when she goes upstairs, into the kitchen, into the bedroom, outside, in the bathroom - everywhere really!

We will all be really sad when Mumbles leaves on Tuesday, but I think the shock will be especially hard on Duncan. Poor little guy won't know what happened. (The shock will be hard on me, too, but at least I'll know what is happening!)

But we're not gonna think about that right now. We're just gonna enjoy the last few days of Mumbles being with us!

And here are some pics of time with Mumbles:

Loving Ewan

Walking in the Moores with Duncan. Mumbles and Duncan even have their own special bench they walk to and play on in the Moores.

We went to Crathes Castle and walked the beautiful grounds there.

Ewan loves Mumbles, too!

And Mumbles loves Ewan.

Duncan likes holding his little brother...

He just needs a little extra support to do that safely.

Off on another adventure. Bye Bye!!

Mumbles is here!

2010-05-02T06:14:00.000-07:00

Ewan is almost 3 weeks old now! He has gained at least a pound since his birth weight (which was 7lb 13oz as a correction to the original post) and is due to get weighed again on Monday when the Health Visitor is coming here to check him over again.

It has been great having my mom (Mumbles) here this past week! She got here on Tuesday and will be with us for 3 weeks. Duncan is loving having her here to play with and Ewan is loving having her here to hold him, too. Joe and I are loving having her here with us for many, many reasons - like just being able to be together, and having our kids get to know her and play with her, and having help with housework, meals, play time, nap time... The list goes on!

Ewan John McGarry is so sweet and is changing so fast. I guess he is loosing that "new born" look and starting to look more like a little baby. I think he's pretty cute!

Mumbles and Duncan trying to give Ewan his plug.

Duncan thinks that Ewan should always have his plug. Who wouldn't want a plug in their mouth all the time, if they were allowed to?!

Well, since Ewan won't take it, Duncan decided to have a few sucks. He's a helper like that.

Daddy and Ewan enjoying some cuddles on Joe's birthday. Happy Birthday, Joe!

Duncan helping Mommy hold Ewan.

Duncan showing Ewan how to play on the baby mat thing.

And then giving more hugs.

Mumbles giving Ewan a sink bath.

He enjoyed the warm water.

Duncan moving in for a hug.
(Ewan is under the blanket and wearing the hat Aunt Lauren made -thanks!)

Hugs for Baby Ewan!

Duncan having a snack of strawberries.

Yum!

It's nap time at the house now, so we're all off to get some sleep!

A Wee Bosey

2010-04-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

Duncan *loves* his brother Ewan. He's learning that hugs, no matter how gentle, can make a one day old cry. And when Ewan is sad, we're all sad.

The Boy, El Niño, And Us

2010-04-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

It's just over 24 hours since we welcomed Ewan, and he's been home now for about 8 hours. What a whirlwind kinda day!

As a quick point of clarification, let me explain, "El Niño" as our nickname for Ewan. As many of you know, we've called Duncan The Boy pretty much all his life. It was, and remains, a good nickname. The only problem was that, if we had another boy Duncan would no longer be The Boy in our family. We didn't really know what we were going to do if we had another boy, and we kinda hoped the situation would sort itself out with The Girl. Fortunately, God has smiled upon us in so many ways....including newborn nomenclature. Liz reminded us on Sunday that April 12th is the Dia del Niño in Bolivia, and that it would be particularly awesome if Ewan was born on it. We agree--it WAS particularly awesome! It has, among other things, provided us with a Ewan specific nickname while still allowing Duncan to be The Boy. So, for future reference, we're going to keep referring to Duncan as The Boy and will refer to Ewan as El Niño (which, for the Spanish-ly non inclined translates as "The Boy").

Ladies and Gentlemen of the blogosphere, we would like Liz to introduce you to El Niño!

As today was the "bringing home" day, we were somewhat concerned about how Duncan would respond. We did the stuff the baby books and websites tell you to do: buy the older child a gift "from" the newborn (Duncan's got himself some new Tonka trucks) and make sure Mommy/Mummy isn't holding the newborn when the older child arrives. Now, I'm not going to necessarily say that any of those things did or did not work or helped create this afternoon. What I WILL say is that it really couldn't have been more precious. From the get-go, all Duncan wanted to do was give Ewan "a wee bosey".

Duncan, meet your new brother Ewan!

He just didn't want to stop touching him

Katrina is protecting Ewan's head from Duncan's wicked fast hands

Incoming!!!!

We had to remind Dunc's that he needed "gentle hands", and so he's showing Liz where her hands are too

Ah, Ewan's first thumb-in-the-cheek. Duncan was absolutely precious through the entire meeting. In fact, this is exactly what Duncan did the first instant he could get next to Ewan:

You know, every once in a while, life really does play out like it is in a Hallmark movie. It's the kind of stuff that melts your heart if you let it. Duncan loves his younger brother.

Three hours after going into the hospital to pick Trina and Ewan up (THREE HOURS!!!), we were finally able to pack up and leave. Liz played with Duncan around the hospital while Trina and I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Liz was a phenomenal help through every single step of the way. We couldn't have done this without her. Anyway, after a wait that felt like an eternity, we were finally ready to go. And, like his older brother, we made sure Ewan left the hospital in style.

Of course, a day of having babies, sitting in the hospital, and entertaining Duncan while everything settles out can really tucker a person out. So naps on the couch were certainly in order.

Thanks for coming by everyone! We love you all! Goodbye from The Boy, El Niño, and the rest of us!

It's a BOY!!!

2010-04-12T16:35:00.001-07:00

Ewan John McGarry was born April 12^th at 8:45 pm, 7 pounds 2 oz and 21”.Here are some pictures from our wonderful day. We'll post more tomorrow and give a bit of a lowdown on everything.

But for now, we're so thankful for a very healthy baby and mommy/mummy.

Easter!

2010-04-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hey Everbody! It's PIANO TIME!!!

Ok, well, not really, but it is the week after Easter. And if I was a better blogger, you would have had this update on Monday morning, instead of the following Friday. But, unfortunately, you're stuck with me so you get the Easter update on Friday. Oh well, it's one of the fun little quirky ways in which I find myself rolling. :-D

Anyways, Easter WAS last Sunday, and as I'm pretty much a sucker for any chance to pull out Duncan's kilt--we gussied him up! Easter Sunday was the big "dress nice for church" day of the entire year when I was growing up. So, harkening back to those days of yore, I put on a suit, put Duncan in his kilt, and had some Easter Sunday fashion.

The funny part of it all, of course, is that our church isn't really a very "dress up for Easter Sunday" kind of church, and so we were both WAAAAY overdressed. Even to the point where the dude doing church announcements poked fun at me in the middle of the service. He said he was all ready to welcome the new visitor to the church when he realized it was just me in a suit.

Duncan thought he'd check his Facebook before we went to church. It's ok, no new messages for him though.

Growing up, my family always did an Easter egg hunt and we also hid Easter baskets. I won't go into the details of my developmental psychology and such, but suffice it to say I was notorious in my family. And it wasn't for quick Easter basket finding. So you can imagine my relief in knowing that, over here, they don't really do Easter baskets. Instead, you get a chocolate egg hidden and you've got to find it. One egg in a box is much easier to locate than an entire basket filled with goodies. It's easier, mostly, because my father now lives in Phoenix and isn't associated with my Easter candy locating anymore. I tell you, that dude is lethal when it comes to Easter baskets being hidden for children......and 25 year olds......named Joe.

Our good friend Liz bought us fancy eggs this year and hid them in the back yard/garden for us. We did our own mini little Easter egg hunt after church!

Duncan didn't really know what was going on, but he (like his father) doesn't really do anything without gusto. So, it took a couple of starts for him to quite grasp that there was more to Easter Sunday than dragging that big blue ball-thingey around, but he (kind of) got it.

Liz brought Duncan to his well hidden egg, cleverly disguised as a bush. Duncan, unfortunately, didn't really know what to do with it and only picked up his egg after much cajoling.....to then be promptly dropped and walked over. Cheers to Liz for being a great sport about it all!

After "The Hunt". Check out, even Notcourtney has an egg! I'll do my paternal duty and take care of it, no worries.

Here's a little video we took of our Easter egg hunting. Thanks so much for stopping by everybody! We love you all!

The Return of the Tongue: The HOOVER!!!

2010-04-02T01:21:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, wassup?

As some of you may remember, Duncan had a brief flourish last year when he learned that he had a tongue. Well, for some strange reason he spent two days this week remembering he had it once more, so we thought we'd share!

One of Dunc's favOUrite things to do is to vacuum (or hoover as they call it over here). Though, like many small children he doesn't actually want it to be running while he's playing with it. He'll pull the cord out, because he likes pulling on things, and then the cord just drags behind. A while ago we learned to make sure it's unplugged before playtime, lest he accidentally turn it on. When that happens, he freaks out at the sound, drops the hose and B-lines it for either Trina or me.

BUT, when you've got the complete freedom of an unplugged, slightly weighted and unevenly balanced long thing with a hose, it's like Duncan-crack and he'll play with it for an hour.

And so he and I played pretty hard for that hour, dragging the hoover all through the house, running it along the floor and the rug.

The tongue remained out, early Michael Jordan style, for the entire time. What does it mean? Is Duncan the Michael Jordan of hoovering? Maybe. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it means. In which case Trina's excited about the long term prospects for a clean house and chores. I'm excited because I'm pretty sure there are multi-million dollar contracts out there in the wild world of professional competitive hoovering. This little dude's gonna change that game.

And how do I know? It's all in the tongue man, it's all in the tongue.

Springtime in the 'Deen!

2010-03-30T01:33:00.000-07:00

Hi there everybody!

Spring is springing here in (sometimes) sunny Aberdeen! We've just moved to British Summer Time which really accelerates the amount of sunshine we get every evening. Just a month and a half ago, we were pitch black at 4 pm. Now we've got sunlight through 7 pm -- and we're getting almost 5 minutes more a day. Pretty soon the sun won't set till 11:30 pm!

Aberdeen's daffodils are popping up all over the city. This is a picture I took of our neighbor's back garden. In case you weren't following us last year, here's what they'll look like in full bloom. These pictures were taken just off the road in a nothing-special-about-it 300 yard bed of daffodils (Look at how wee Duncan is!). The vast fields of flowers really do lift your spirits after the dark winter.

Springtime also means that Duncan can (finally) play outside! And, as we soon found out, priority numero uno was finding the garden tools and "getting to work' on our back yard/garden. Which, of course, requires a pitchfork. All good gardening does.

Mommy is raking up the leaves and Dunc's is just kind of dragging the pitchfork along the grass. He's such a fun little helper. Duncan is transitioning into that age of mimicking us and wanting to do what we do. It's both fun and scary to see the world through his eyes.

Our little tool shed is locked, and every time Duncan walks past it he says, "keys!" because he wants to play with the tools. Often, when Trina comes home from work, we'll spend about a half hour playing or "working" in the back yard/garden before dinner time.

Locked and loaded and ready to go!

Thanks for coming by everyone! We love and miss you all!

Updates On Work

2010-03-17T15:03:00.001-07:00

Work is getting busier for me these days as we get closer and closer to having people move into the residential home where I am officially the team leader! It is great that things are finally moving in the right direction and we have 4 potential clients that need completed assessments and possible transition plans (which is what I will be doing the next wee while). Of course as the work days get busier, I am also getting bigger and more tired! The timing of all this certainly isn't ideal, as I'll be leaving for maternity leave just about the same time as things really start picking up at work - observations, paperwork, assessments, meetings.... Oh well.

Even though work is getting busier, I have still picked up a few more phrases or words at work that people use a lot. My boss tends to say "OTT" a lot, and it took me a few times to decide that he meant "over the top" as in too much information (TMI). The other word I figured out (given context cues), is when coworkers would say something like, "I cannot mind if it was yesterday or the day before." Obviously, "mind" in that sentence means "remember." I love hearing these little differences and am trying to be conscious of certain words/phrases that are more American-English than... Proper English. One of the things I'm trying to change in my own vocabulary is my use of the word "call" for telephoning someone. The better way to say it is "phone" (since I don't think I could bring myself to say "give a wee tinkle!").

So, work is going well, and I only have 4 weeks left until due date! I'm planning to work right up until the date - or maybe a week before, so that I get most of my time off after the baby has arrived. In the meantime, visits to the midwife are now once a fortnight. It's the usual stuff - blood pressure, baby's heartbeat, testing for protein/glucose, and seeing if there are any issues that I want to bring up, so no big deal.

On a Duncan note, he is just the sweetest little boy ever! He got sick this past week and threw up pretty forcefully several times - on the floor and on me. Sorry we don't have any pictures of that for you, but here's one of him before he started to feel unwell:

Tea time with cowboy beans, sausage, and cheerios. Yum!
(No, that is not why he got sick!)

A certain little boy enjoys carrying things around and putting them in unusual places (I wonder who he gets that from?!) So, this is what happens when you don't check the washer before putting clothes in and starting it. Yup, there was an entire deck of cards in there. Oh well.

Some Day, We'll Know What it Means

2010-03-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

One of the joys of parenthood is getting a front row seat to your child's development. Seeing their nascent personality emerge from the very earliest stages of life. Or, at least that's what my parents have told me. Duncan's WAY too young to see any of that quite yet. But we see......something.

My mother, in particular, will often say that she knew I'd somehow end up using my mind in life. She actually thought I was going to become a lawyer, which is what I would have done had I not gone the theology route. But, no matter what I ended up doing, she knew I was somehow going to be asking questions and developing arguments.

Why do I take us all down that little bit of memory lane? I mean, besides the fact that today is "Mothering Sunday" in the UK and I'm giving a mini shout out to my "Mum" back home? It's because, some day we'll know what it means, but right now we just see something about Duncan.

It's his right foot.

See, he just can't keep it on the ground. It's like a prehensile tail, winding its way of its own accord. Finding things to step onto, rest on, pull himself up on. It's always moving. Always trying to "grab" something and take him someplace new. Like, for instance, the middle of a snack cart at our church's Friday Coffee Morning.

I was sitting down with my good friend Chris. He has recently had minor surgery, and we were talking about his recovery. Suddenly, I look over and see Duncan standing next to the cart and his right foot started flapping around on the bottom shelf as he held on and stared toward the woman behind him. Suddenly, and without warning, his foot found a sure hold on the bottom level and he instantly spun around, ready to climb. Which, of course, he did.

Now that you're here, what are you going to do?

Fortunately, Chris had his digital camera with him and let me snap a couple of pictures before I pulled Duncan out and let him go back along his way.

Some day, when Duncan is just graduating high school, there's going to be some aspect of his personality that we'll look back and say, "We saw this in you when you were 18 months old." But 'till then, we're just sitting back and wondering.

What is up with that foot?

It's Flat Stanley......or Alex

2010-03-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

Hey You! It's update time!

I'm not too sure how many of y'all are familiar with Flat Stanley, but it's a very popular children's story about a boy who gets flattened and decides to make the best of his newly thinner existence. Amongst the things he does is get himself mailed (or posted, depending on how British you are) around to see friends.

Well, it turns out that I've got a friend of a friend of a friend, and that friend knows a first grader in San Jose, California named, "Flat Alex." We received a package in the mail about a week and a half ago from a school in San Jose, inviting us to be part of this fun adventure. So we went to King's College Chapel, one of the coolest photo ops in the city, and took a couple of pictures of ourselves with our new friend Flat Alex. I've emailed the pictures to his teacher, and we'll be sending Alex a postcard from Aberdeen before shipping him off to his next destination.

We're going to pack Alex up and send him off to a friend of ours that lives in Basil, Switzerland. I think that we're gonna make sure that Alex has the coolest postcards in his class!

Here's Daddy, Duncs, and Alex hanging out in front of Kings.

One of the other great things--this picture was taken at 5 pm! It's not pitch black, there are blue skies, and the sun is actually shining! SPRING IS HERE!

Duncan and Daddy taking a little walk along the cobblestones in front of the college. He's just so cute!

And we're just about ready to pack up and head home. Thanks Aunt Hayley for the cutest hat ever created. We wear it everywhere we go!

Thanks for coming round our little corner of the internet! We love you all!

Naptime

2010-03-02T13:11:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

As many of you know, since Trina has taken her job, I've been spending most of my days taking care of Duncan and doing my uni work at night. Probably 2-3 times a week, I'll need to take a wee nap when Trina comes home so I'm not falling asleep on my laptop by 10 pm.

Monday night I woke from my nap to hear some serious laughter downstairs. When a baby belly laughs.....it's one of the most enchanting sounds on earth. So I just sat and listened to Duncan laughing hard about something. He was making deep belly laughs that make me smile even now as I close my eyes and listen again. Then I heard Trina laughing too--the same kind of big, full, laugh. Usually when Duncan is laughing like that, we're happy but we're very rarely as entertained as he is. Trina was laughing just as hard as Duncan. I slowly walked downstairs to check out what was so (genuinely) funny to everyone. I walked into the kitchen to see this:

Followed by this:

And then this again:

It turns out that Trina had filled a pot with about 3" of water, and Duncan was "dunkin" his head in it, which was pretty much the funniest thing in the entire universe. To all of us!

Going in for one more dunk!

Of course, we tried to get pictures and a short video clip of it. Unfortunately, whenever the video camera comes out, Duncan stops everything so he can watch what's going on in the little screen.

I tell you what, there are a lot of really crummy ways to wake up from a nap, but there aren't many better.

He's a Talker!

2010-02-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

Duncan is a talker these days! He still uses his signs for "help/more" and "finished" and has recently added the "eat" sign too. For "no" he shakes his head slowly back and forth, and usually when he wants to say "yes" he does the happy dance and laughs! He has been making sounds and babbling a lot and is finally uttering some meaningful sounds, too! He has started to say "dada" and "mama" consistently and in the appropriate context - we love it! He also does some other sounds/words consistently. He makes some gutteral "ga ga" sounds in the mornings when I eat my granola for breakfast (and share with him, of course), and when he points to the crackers he says "cu cu." His sounds for "keys" and "cheese" are quite similar (or the same, some might say), but in the moment and paired with his pointing you'll know what he wants. Clever boy! One of the very first of these meaningful sounds (maybe I should just call it "words") he said was when I opened the cabinet where we keep some canned/dried food and Duncan pointed to the bag of dried apricots and said very clearly "Ka ka!" I was impressed, and of course rewarded him with some dried apricots! This requires some background story, so here it is: One of my friends in Boston who was pregnant before me told me that often times pregnant women can have issues with their bowels and such and therefore develop hemorrhoids. She informed me that eating a few prunes or dried apricots a day would help with this problem and hopefully help avoid the hemorrhoid issue. She didn't steer me wrong in my last pregnancy, so I have been sticking to that plan in this pregnancy, too. All that to say, Joe and I call the dried apricots "poopy-kaka's" whenever we talk about them. Obviously, Duncan has picked up on this and was letting me know that he wanted to eat some poopy kakas for snack. I love it!

The sweet little boy sure does like his food. I think he is a hobbit at heart, since he has First Breakfast (yoghurt, cheerios, and raisins), second breakfast (shares my breakfast of granola), and shares Joe's breakfast of hard boiled eggs (Elevensies). His toes are not hairy (yet!), but maybe other hobbit-like characteristics will develop in time.

Loving the pasta with bolognese sauce

Cute dungarees (overalls) from Aunt Hayley!

At work the other day, I had to laugh and text Joe to let him know that I was driving one of the clients' cars to the mechanic because everyone else working that day was afraid to drive it. They were afraid because the car is an automatic. That really makes me laugh! No one quite knew what to do, and when I explained that the point is, you don't have to do anything - just push the gas pedal to go and the break pedal to stop, they were all concerned about what your left leg does - to which, of course, I answered that your left leg goes up on the seat and comfortably rests against the door (but on a side note, the steering wheel here is on the right hand side of the car, and therefore, there is no comfortable place to rest your left knee, so it doesn't really work the same way). Anyway, they were all relieved when I offered my expertise and said I would be willing to drive to the shop. Who would've thought that being able to drive an automatic vehicle would save the day?!

Duncan found this pair of red boots (wellies) under our bed and wanted to try them on after his bath one day.

They were Aunt Hayley's when she was little.

The boots are a few sized too big for him, so that means his legs are not long enough to pull the boots all the way on. He doesn't seem to mind.

And of course he has to carry things around, so why not grab some hair product? (We've got plenty of it!)

See you later!

It's Quiet in There.....Too Quiet

2010-02-25T01:51:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

I don't know how many of these moments we've had, where not only was it "too quiet", but it was that quiet for a reason. Generally speaking, Duncan is very prone to getting into stuff, but not on his own. I guess it's somewhat typical (especially for only/eldest children) to need to play with mom or dad. Anyways, Trina and I were hanging out in our living room on Tuesday night while Duncan amused himself in the kitchen. We suddenly both had that little bit of a sense of it being "too quiet" in there as Duncan played (he had even shut the door on us and everything!). So Trina got up and opened the door into the kitchen........and this is what she found.

Duncan had not only gotten into one of our "baby stuff" drawers, but he'd also found a container of baby porridge. And why not use your wonderfully developed skills of "lid removal" to see what's inside? Which, it turns out, is surprisingly yummy.

And who doesn't dive face first into a huge pile of yummy when you find it? You know?

Oh, but that's not all! He also found a brand new pacifier/dummy! It's Christmas day! (Note that you can see the back corner of his high chair behind his left arm. In order to get into the drawer, he pushed his high chair away from the drawers so he could 'explore.')

Jackpot!

You can also see the spilled porridge over his shoulder, by the leg of the high chair.

Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom

So, I guess it means that we're going to have to start paying close attention to his noises and special attention to his silence. It's quiet out there........too quiet......

Breakfast with Mommy

2010-02-20T13:07:00.001-08:00

Hey there everyone!

As many of you know, children thrive on routine, and Duncan is really into the swing of things and knowing what is supposed to happen when, and why. Every morning we wake up, go into Mommy and Daddy's bedroom and say hello to whomever got to sleep in a wee bit longer today, and then head downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast with Duncan pretty much always consists of yogurt and some combination of raisins and/or hard boiled eggs. Bizarre, yes, but what can I say, the little dude likes it.

As Trina is getting herself ready for work, she'll have a bowl of granola for her own breakfast. A couple of weeks ago, Duncan developed a keen interest in the granola (even learning to say the word--which really just comes out as a loud "Gaaa" sound). And so, now, as part of our morning routine Mommy and Duncan share the bowl of granola together. And now we get to share it with you!

First, you take the apple that you've been munching on and put it at your feet. Then you and Mommy hold the bowl together.

Then Duncan gets a bite to eat

And he looks at Daddy taking the pictures

A quick turn around to see what's going on

Then Mommy gets a bite to eat too

And then we all chew our cereal together and get ready for another bite!

Thanks so much for coming around our little corner of the internet everyone! We love and miss you all, and love sharing life with you.

New and Improved.....take two

2010-02-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the little hiatus from the internets, but I had no sooner hit "post" on my blog post about having my laptop back than my hard drive crashed. Now, fortunately I had all of my data backed up already (A lesson I learned the hard way three years ago when a hard drive crashed and we lost 10 years of digital photos. Back up your digital stuff!). So we didn't lose any data, but I was out of commission (again) with my laptop, though this time only for two weeks. It was covered under warranty so the replacement was free, and now we're back and running. Which means another Daddy Daycare blog update!

Dunc's and I have a lot of fun playing together through the day. He's just beginning to start entertaining himself and playing with his toys for an extended amount of time. One of the current favorites is his little dump truck.

He'll push it all around the living room, making his version of a "vroom" (which really sounds like him going "errrrrrrrr"). He'll also screw his face up in a very determined manner, as if this dump truck vocalization is real hard work. Somehow, he hits it right even with his pacifier/dummy in his mouth. He's pretty talented like that.

Around and around the living room we go. Switching trucks and still going. Of course, when I'm not taking pictures, I'm going right next to him as we take care of all of our living room's dump trucking needs. Surprisingly, that's no small amount.

A day of trucks can tucker you out. Sometimes you've just gotta take pause for a moment or two.

And, of course, after playing all day, it's a great idea to smear squiggly pasta noodles all over your face. Sometimes they even end up in your mouth! Though, they also end up in your nose so you've gotta take the good with the bad. And try to make sure Duncan doesn't eat the pasta after it goes in his nose. That's kind of important.

Then, after a long day of playing together, we put on Mommy's hat while we're in our pajamas! Thanks for coming round everyone! We love you all!

Health & Safety

2010-01-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

Health and Safety. I've never heard those 2 words together so many times in my entire life before moving here to Aberdeen. Health and Safety is sort of a big deal, I guess. I know it's a good idea to have rules and regulations to keep people safe, but sometimes it really is a bit over-the-top. I think I was caught off guard by the rules one time when I took some food to church to share at the coffee time. If I recall, it was cookies and cakes that were left over from Duncan's birthday party, so I gave them to the kitchen volunteers that day to put out after the service. Later when I realized that none of it was offered after service I was told that because of Health and Safety, they can't put anything out that has already been opened. I know there are good reasons behind that, but I guess I wasn't expecting that at church. At work now, too, I hear a lot about Health and Safety. If you can't do stuff, someone will just say "Health and Safety" and everyone understands and agrees that whatever it was shouldn't be done. I'm pretty sure Health and Safety was the reason that the workers at the University of Aberdeen couldn't carry a chair up 3 flights of stairs all in one day. Anyway, some of the rules just make me laugh, some irritate me and some I think make sense. I guess that's true of most things in life,though, isn't it?

At work, besides hearing about Health and Safety, I have also had the privileged of hearing more of the Scottish lingo. It can be fun to hear and determine what is being said or what certain phrases mean using contextual clues. One that I have heard lots before going to work is the phrase "I dinnae ken," and now I hear it all the time. The word "ken" (which sounds exactly like "can") means "know," so when people at work are speaking, I often find myself having to listen hard and think to myself "she means know right now." Since I've heard the "dinnae ken" phrase a lot even when we first got here over a year ago, I am used to it (and sometimes think it, although it hasn't come out my mouth at work, yet), but hearing it without the "dinnae" part is still taking some getting used to. Here's what a coworker said just the other day that took me a couple extra seconds to interpret: "He can nae see the cups, but he kens they're there."

"Aye" is another word that is used a lot. It just means "yes," so that's an easy one, but I think I link it to the Japanese for "yes" which is "hai." I have said that one several times, although I'm not really sure if I've said "aye" or "hai." The opposite of aye is "nae." Another easy one to pick up without too much thought. When someone asks you how you are doing, you can say "nae bad."

One of the phrases I hadn't heard before I started working is in reference to time. There was a meeting scheduled at work that I was supposed to go to, so my boss's boss told me to be there "back of 1." I said OK and she left before this sunk in and I suddenly panicked and wondered what in the world time that meant!? I got to the meeting around 1pm and all was fine, but I still wasn't sure if I was late or early. When another worker said something about going out at "back of 10" I asked her what that meant in numbers. She just laughed at me, so later I asked my friend, Jay, to explain. Jay explained that generally the term means "around" whatever time you're talking about. If you say "back of 1" you're probably meaning anytime around 1:00. Thanks Jay!

When I heard my co-worker say, "Just give him a wee tinkle," I HAD to go see what or who she was referring to! It turns out, she was saying to phone someone, so it wasn't a big deal, but I've heard her (and others) use that phrase a few times and it makes me giggle every time.

Another great thing about being at work is, in addition to the lingo, there are some pretty strong Aberdonian accents around. A couple of my co-workers especially have strong accents that I have to be ready to listen to in order to understand what they're saying. I think the same is true about me and their ears, cause I often have to repeat myself to the same people who have to repeat themselves to me! Just when I think my ears are getting more tuned to the accents, something happens like one of the workers looked at me and asked if it would be alright to call "hoom" just now. I was racking my brain trying to figure out who exactly she wanted to call when my boss answered her that of course she could call home. Oh. Home. Of course.

One more quick phrase that I've heard a lot is that people at work "take a fag break." Now before your mind spins out of control about what that is, let me just tell you that it is a smoking break. That's a common phrase that isn't offensive at all here.

There are tons of other examples of words and phrases that I'm hearing more and more since I'm at work all day, but I think I've given you enough examples for one blog post, and you're probably just wanting to see pictures of the boy - including some with his newest shortest haircut - so here he is!!

Here's the happy boy!

Walking in the snow isn't easy.

Good thing Liz bought him wellies to keep his feet dry.

This is us on our way to Asda for groceries.

All bundled up and still smiling!

Duncan listening intently to what our neighbor, Mrs. Marr, is saying.

Talking to the neighbors.

Having a good day.

It might be cold out (or just chilly, according to some people), but Duncan does love going outside.

Holding a car and sitting on the couch - it's a good morning!

And here's the new buzzzzzzzz cut.

He looks so much older with short short hair, doesn't he?

Cheerio we'll be back soon...

We've Survived the Great Wine Flood!

2010-01-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

IT'S BACK! My laptop is back!

On October 17th, a day that shall live in infamy, I had just finished preparing my powerpoint slides for the sermon I was going to preach the next day. We had just celebrated Duncan's first birthday earlier, and I had spent the evening wrapping up my sermon. It was around 11 pm and I was beat, so I poured a glass of wine to enjoy while I photoshopped Duncan's birthday party pictures. Space and time slowed as I watched my left hand hit the glass and pour everything into my laptop's keyboard. Then the dreaded occurred as everything went blank.....except my mind which suddenly kicked into hyperdrive. Sadly, the laptop's motherboard didn't survive the Great Wine Flood of '09. But the laptop is a Dell and they sell wonderful accident protection coverage for just these moments. Yay! I ended up having to ship the laptop back to the states for repair, after taking a month and a half to finally be told that Dell UK wouldn't repair it. So I shipped the laptop back to my parents in Arizona, who very kindly shipped the laptop to Dell repair and then back to Aberdeen. Just about three months later, and after much weeping and gnashing of teeth, the laptop arrived all shiny and pretty on my doorstep! Yay yay yay! Now we can Skype our friends and look at them, instead of doing something like this:

Duncan is looking at Grandma and Grandpa McGarry and Daddy is smiling because they're telling him the laptop is coming home.

Duncan and I are enjoying life as Mr. Mom and The Boy. It's wonderful and we thought we'd share some of the fun we get to have together.

He's taken to climbing up the back side of the stairs and doing the good 'ole, "Putting stuff on top of other stuff until it falls over." Never ending fun!

Duncan has also found out that he fits perfectly along the armrest of the couch. Here he is chilling out in the morning, after breakfast and before his morning nap.

Who doesn't love to Hoover?

We'll go grocery shopping pretty much every day. Not only is our fridge small enough that we really do need to go most every day, but it's also a good way for us to get out of the house and have some fun adventures. Duncan's still learning about waiting till we get home (and after we unwrap the food) before eating. One thing at a time....

Daddy and Duncan time rules--we love playing together! Thanks for coming by our blog everyone. We love you!

X-mas Pictures

2010-01-09T07:53:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd add some pictures from Christmas day.
Duncan likes putting this plastic bucket on his head and walking around with it on. He smashes it down and squishes his nose. It's funny every time.

Duncan opening his presents.

He got a few cars for Christmas this year.

Liz and Duncan playing with the racing grannies.

We're getting ready to race the grannies.

Daddy and Duncs watching the videos from the last blog post.

Mommy (or Mummy) and Duncan opening presents.

Duncan "making" a gingerbread house (also a video clip from last post).

Duncan had a great day!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-27T03:29:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Merry (or Happy as they say 'round these parts) Christmas from the Northeast of Scotland!

It's kind of odd to think that this is now our second Christmas over here. It kind of makes us feel like we're semi-official Scots now. We had a fantastic turkey dinner (pretty much a full blown Thanksgiving dinner), which is traditional to eat on Christmas. Our good friend Liz was able to spend the day with us and helped us eat Trina's sweet potatoe pie casserole. Liz is such a servant. :-)

We thought we'd share a couple of videos with you today--two from Christmas and one from a bit before.

This is Liz and Duncan making a little bit of Christmas soup in our living room. Generally speaking, we have to be pretty sneaky about videoing him because.....well, you'll see. If you look closely, you'll see him adding Grandpa and Grandma McGarry's little sock/bootie Christmas present going into the soup!

Here's what Dunc's was running for, hoping to see. He loves watching himself on camera!

This video clip is from Christmas afternoon. Some of our American friends at playgroup built gingerbread houses earlier in the week. Duncan is still just a wee bit too young to build his own, especially in the small kitchen everyone was working in, so our friends generously gave us a "to go" bag for us to build his gingerbread house at home. He's still working on the whole "build the house before eating the house" part of Gingerbread architecture.

We shot this little clip a week or so ago. Duncan LOVES sweeping, and the only thing he loves more than sweeping is seeing that Daddy is making a video of him doing it.

Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks for stopping by our little neck of the internets. We love you all!

Working Girl

2009-12-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

So, I started working at the end of November at a place called Autism Initiatives. I am the new Team Leader for a residential program that is just opening. The house was used in the past few years for respite services for people with autism, but due to lack of use, it has been switched to a full time residential place for people with autism. Currently, there is no one living there, but we are in the slow process of getting at least 3 new clients, who may be able to move into the house in Auchenhuive in the new year. The house has 7 or 8 bedrooms (I don't remember exactly!) with bathrooms, and a shared kitchen, dining room, living room, sensory room, and a nice back garden (or "yard" as we'd call it). Because there is no one living in the house at the moment, I am working at one of Autism Initiatives' other services for supported living. This place is similar to where I will be, but there are 8 clients (or "service users") who each live in their own flat. The services users at this place each have their own living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and back garden. They each have their own washing machine/dryer, and some of them have their own cars, too (that staff can drive them around in)!

Staff who work here assist the service users in basic life skills (like bathing, cooking, cleaning), and in recreational activities (like going out to eat, bowling, or going to the movies). Each of the service users have different likes and dislikes (of course) and differing abilities, so I really appreciate the focus on each person as an individual who can make decisions and lead an enjoyable life.

Although it's only been a few weeks and I'm not even working at the place I was hired for, I do enjoy this job and I think I have a great boss. My hours are pretty flexible right now, and I am at work every other weekend (as is everyone who works there). Still, the hardest part of my day is leaving Duncan in the mornings and my favorite part of the day is coming home to Joe and Duncan in the evenings!

In other exciting news (ok, so it's exciting to me), we are in one of the neighborhoods that is testing the new compost program. We were given a little green bucket and special bags to put our compostable waste into and then we'll stick it out on the curb fortnightly to get picked up by the yard waste crew. One of my friends (was it Jay or Liz?) was laughing at me for how excited I got when our little green bucket finally arrived! I tried to get a picture of Duncan carrying around the little green bucket, but when he saw the camera, he dropped the bucket and came running over to me. Oh well.

In Duncan news, he can now sign "more" and he uses this sign to ask for help, as well. His other sign is "finished," which we're still working on, but it's pretty cute because it looks like he's wiping crumbs off his hands or something. That's close enough to the American Sign Language sign, I say!

Signing for "more" or "help." Sometimes it just means "I want something."

Standing in the window singing (or yelling?) and maybe texting a friend.

Duncan was so proud of himself for using his spoon to eat his yoghurt all by himself!

It was sort of messy, but he was concentrating pretty hard to get food onto the spoon, then into his mouth. It's amazing what hard work it is to coordinate all those movements and control when you're first learning these things (right, Melissa Fitzy?!).

Gotta get every last bit. That mango, papaya and passion fruit flavoured yoghurt is GOOD stuff!

Just chillin' on Daddy's lap.

See you later!