Lady and the Trike

This is Arya on her new trike.

It's a little hard to make out specifics against the rug, but is has a handle at the back and the front wheel turns independently of the handlebars at the merest nudge of the handle. She loves it, and chose the colour herself (we tried her out in a green one at the shop, but she reached for the purple model we had down to examine the features). It has a cup holder, a sun screen, and a toy mobile phone that - in the short term at least - sublimates her need to press buttons.

On Sunday we went into town to get Hannah's new glasses. While she was being fitted, I wheeled Arya around the Grand Arcade singing Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, or as much of it as I could remember the lyrics of.

On Monday, I went to the doctor to find out if my bloodshot eye was anything to worry about, and took Arya with me. As we sat in the waiting room she just kept wanting to get in and out of the trike, and even tried to work out how to put her own seatbelt on.

That on the right is Arya sitting on the seat before we attached it. I'm not sure what that face is, but I think she might have just decided to be some sort of evil dictator with a palanquin and an inexhaustible supply of sherbet.

Holiday in Scotland - Part 2

Arya wears a panama now; panamas are cool

Edinburgh was... a little odd.

We set off from Glasgow with Arya not wearing my hat, but not for want of trying. When we arrived, I had to pretend to be just a friend, as Arya's Gran doesn't know about the polyamory. It was weirdly difficult, and also meant that Hannah had to look after Arya solo overnight while I stayed with a friend, which left her very tired.

Oh, evening one we also stopped in at the National Museum of Scotland to see the second Chronophage, which is apparently now in Cambridge with the first one. Still, we had fun in the gallery of transport, where significantly more buttons worked than at Kelvingrove. I reckon the National Lottery must be stinting on cover north of the border.

Our impossible astronaut.

On Wednesday, we went to Rosslyn Chapel, of Da Vinci Code fame. Weirdly, it seems to have responded to the surge of interest from the novel and movie by going all respectable archaeology and cutting off the Freemasons. Hannah was very disappointed by the removal of the Masonic museum and access to the nearby graveyard, and they had also gone very slick and sterile in the visitor's centre.

We took a little revenge by sitting on the grass and eating our picnic lunch, in spite of prohibitions by the licensed cafe. Damn the man!

Daddy and Arya at Rosslyn

After lunch, we went crazy and visited IKEA of all places, where we spent a surprising amount of money (I now own a fire extinguisher), ate tea and let Arya run amok in the food hall (forget cruising, she's fully mobile, if a little unsteady).

On Thursday, we went to the beach at North Berwick; Arya's first time and my first time in years. Arya isn't wild about waves, it turns out, but loved the sand and collected a shell.

On the beach

From North Berwick we headed south into England, then via Gateshead to Leeds and an overnight with Hannah's parents. On Friday we bought a tricycle and shoes for Arya, but failed miserably to get a Toothless for Hannah or shoes for me (and both are sold out online).

This fellow beach goer was conducting some
sort of thermodynamic experiment.

We got home Friday night and spent the weekend being horribly ill in one way or another, which was a less than ideal close to the week.

A good holiday in many ways, but I think it exposed an exciting range of issues in holidaying with children that we hadn't previously considered. On the other hand, it did mean spending a whole week with Hannah and Arya, which was good.

Holiday in Scotland - Part 1

So, this week Hannah and I are in Scotland with Arya for hols. It's had its stresses, but mostly it's been good.

We travelled up to Leeds on Friday, and then on to Glasgow to stay with friends. It was a long time in the car, especially for Arya, and we're going to break up the trip back across two days.

In Glasgow and indeed in Leeds, we saw once more that Arya's favourite game is the climbing up and down the stairs game, which combines exploration with the added bonus of terrifying and exhausting her parents as they labour up and down after her. It's not too bad when she's not tired, but come the evening and she's getting wobbly on her feet.

On Saturday she mostly slept and we saw friends for game. Sunday was Father's Day. At about six in the morning Arya woke up, crawled from her inflatable bed on the floor onto the low bed where I was sleeping, curled up beside me and went back to sleep.

Best. Father's Day present. Ever.

The rest of the day was chilled, and we had a barbeque with Thomas and Hazel in the evening.

On Monday we took Arya to the Kelvingrove Museum and park. She slept through the museum, but did a fair spot of walking in the park - she is now fully mobile on her own two feet, although she likes to hold hands still a lot of the time.

Anyway, Kelvingrove. She also enjoyed the play park, especially the slide, although the nicest photo is of her in the Jess the Cat rocker.

On Tuesday we moved on to Edinburgh, on which more later. I have to run now to see what Wednesday will bring.