More sunshine!

Hi! hope that this finds you well. We are fine here and have been making the most of the lovely weather!

Yesterday we had a lovely afternoon in the park with Ulrike, Rosie and Vanessa and the children. We met at Idylwood which is really pretty in the sunshine as the park is close to the lake. Silas had a 'first' moment whilst we were there in that I sat him up in his buggy so that he could see what was going on! This was quite an achievement, not so much for Silas but for me as I had been struggling to remember how to raise the seat from horizontal to vertical for a while now!! I finally worked it out!

The girls played very well and the boys were content to watch for the most part, although as they are both over one they are starting to walk and get cross about being in the pushchairs for too long! We went to feed the ducks but this actually didn't go down too well with any of the children as the ducks kept on flying off en masse which was a bit nerve racking really! We left them in the end!

In the morning, the girls played outside and had a tea party outside in the garden like Milly Molly Mandy does which pleased Naomi in particular! They set out their cups and plates and had their snack out there. They even put the juice into the teapot so that they could pretend they were having tea! They had fun!!

Today, Naomi had school in the morning. Silas slept for a long time this morning so Esther and I read lots of stories and did some singing which was fun! This afternoon we went to the park near the library and then went to the library to choose some new books!

Naomi made Tim laugh this evening. He was reading one of the Milly Molly Mandy stories where the roof is thatched. Thinking that Naomi wouldn't know what a thatched roof was, he tried to explain only for Naomi to tell him that she knew what a thatched roof was from Bob the Builder and she was able to tell him that thatch was made from straw and not bushes Daddy!! It was funny!!

That is it for now! Will write on Sunday all being well!

Winter Sunshine

Good Evening! How are you? Hope that this finds you well. We are fine and have enjoyed a weekend of glorious weather, which makes a lovely change! We have been able to see Mt. Rainier and the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges which was great as it has been too gloomy to see them for a while and you almost forget they are there!

We have had an interesting couple of days. The children and I went to a new PCC (food shop) in Redmond with the Eastside Mother's group on Thursday for a tour of the store. we do most of our shopping in the Issaquah PCC but this one is nicer! We had a good tour and the children enjoyed the free tasting of the flooding  available! They even had mini cup cakes that Esther could eat, which was great - needless to say that I bought some to take home. Ulrike, the children and I stayed on after the tour for lunch and then we went to the boat at Bellevue Square for a while to play with Maddie and Alex. We also collected my dress, which was very exciting too!

Well, sorry for the delay in the blog; I got this far when Silas woke up and took ages to go back to sleep. After that I was too tired to continue and so I went to bed. I am sorry! I will try and finish it now although he isn't all that settled tonight either!

On Friday Naomi had school and Esther had music class. Esther joined in really well this week and was singing away quite happily, which is good as sometimes she is shy and doesn't join in much! Silas enjoyed it too and I think I will enroll him in his own class in September.

After we collected Naomi we came home and in the afternoon Kevyn (a girl - Brooke's sister!) came to play with the girls whist I did some sorting out. Tim went ski-ing in the evening and so whilst he was out, I cleared out the play room. It looked very tidy until Saturday morning and now you would never guess that I spent over 2 hours tidying it up!

On Saturday we went to the park with the McNiven family and it was delightful as it was warm and sunny. We went to Kelsey Creek Park and so were able to see the animals before they went to bed. Mind, you, the girls really love playing on the stage and dancing etc so they were quite happy there for quite some time!  We ended up having supper out with the McNivens which was fun, even with all the children!

On Sunday we went to church in the morning and afterwards to the zoo with another family. They have older children and so the zoo was a good place to go to accommodate us all. I was excited about taking Silas to the zoo for the first time but he slept through it all - for about 2.5 hours; I was amazed! He never usually sleeps for so long! I think he enjoyed being out in the fresh air! It was colder though yesterday so we spent quite a long time in the Zoomazium, which is an indoor climbing and information centre. Naomi filled in a work sheet and was asked to draw something brown, something that lives in the water, something rough  and something bigger than you. So she drew a snake, a shark, a stone and a princess giant!!! We then took it to  the man who gave her a 100 points and she was allowed to choose a prize! She chose 2 large pinecones and she was very pleased with herself!

Naomi is growing into a beautiful young girl and I am very proud of her. She is kind and gentle and considerate of others as well as being sensible and great fun! She has her moments but she is only 4! She is such fun to talk to and regales us with such long winded stories and sentences sometimes that it is hard to keep up!

Esther remains her usual pickle-ish self! She had me worried over the weekend because she did a few puddles, having not had an accident barely all week! It was exactly at the same time as she started to do them in the summer so I was worried that she was going to regress again but she hasn't I don't think. She has been very good today, even managing to wait whilst we were in the car, which was good! I don't know!

Her eating is still erratic at best but she does at least feed herself now, most of the time! She is only little though - something she frequently tells me!

She is great fun though and is also very helpful with getting things for Silas in particular. She is also kind and she loves her baby brother very much even though she has an odd way of showing it sometime! She can be very persevering and will practice and practice something until she cracks it!

Silas is doing well, I think, although he has been a bit bitty with his feeding the last couple of days and is hopeless at sleeping in the day time generally! He cat naps even when we are at home, which is frustrating! However he can now hold onto things quite well and  always has his hands or toy in his mouth. Hope that we have a more settled day with him tomorrow. Mondays are always busy days with Gym class and school for the girls.

We heard this week that the McNivens are leaving to return to the UK in the summer; naturally we are very sad about this and will miss them greatly. I am really worried about Naomi as she and Maddie are such good friends. Naomi said to me only the other day that she hoped that there would be another power cut so that Maddie could come and stay again! Esther too will find it hard, especially after losing Eli too. I don't know what do we do to all our friends that they have to move so far away to get rid of us!!

Anyway, on that note, I will say goodbye and end it here!

Better weather at last!

Hi there! Hope that you are all well. We were so sorry to read about the proposed BA strikes and hope that they don't affect you too much. Today, I am not too cross about them as it means that Mum and Grandma are coming a few days early to miss the strike but Dad has to wait until Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the strike before he can come which is a shame. However, one seat is probably easier to come by. Never the less, I hope that it is all resolved soon.

We have done our usual activities here this week and the weather has been good too, which makes a pleasant change! We have been to the park both yesterday and today which was lovely and today it was really warm and sunny. We hope that there are a few days like this in February when Mum, Dad and Grandma are here so that Grandma can see how beautiful it is!

The girls have been very funny the last couple of days! Yesterday Esther was sitting on the floor next to Silas, with her head in his lap, singing her heart out to him. It was very sweet! Naomi likes to include him in things and so she often says to him, "Silas, do you know what ...." which is also very funny! This evening I wrote Naomi's name, letter by letter on her tummy which she thought was very funny and then she preceded to do the same to Esther and to Silas. Silas really wasn't that amused!

Naomi, Fritzi and Esther made me a mud pie cake yesterday afternoon at the park and Naomi came running up to me saying "Mummy, we've got a surprise, come with me", so I went and was told that I had a birthday cake, complete with candles, that I had to blow out! I said that I couldn't blow out the candles until they had sung Happy Birthday to me and so they all dutifully sang  Happy Birthday for me! It was very funny! They were all surprisingly tuneful! I then blew out the candles (or at least made the sticks fall down to their satisfaction) and carved out the cake for us all! A little later, Naomi came to give me some bark  chips from the playground and, thinking that it was supposed to be cake, I pretended to eat it, only to be told that it was money and I had just eaten the money!! Oh dear! Too much imagination! We have lots of "surprises" at the moment and lots of things are "a 'mergancy' which I have to attend to. These often involve Esther crying about a banged knee or Silas being a bit sick!

Silas is having a hard week this week, poor love! He is still smiley but he also has a lot of tummy ache I think and filled his nappy several times today! He has been crying a lot and then burping a lot which is good but generally not as relaxed as he was toward the end of last week, which is a shame. He has a bit of a cold and I find that if he is snuffly, then he seems to have a problem with his tummy. He was having a right yell in the shop at lunch time today and there was a very grumpy woman who was not happy with me or my children. I was feeling a bit ' got at' until she was quite rude to the lovely cheerful checkout lady and then I decided that it wasn't just me and so I felt better!

We had a long day today as we had to drop the car off at the tyre place to have an inspection and the tyres realigned as the tracking was off a bit. We didn't have to walk far but we had to keep ourselves amused for a couple of hours, which was OK until we arrived back at the garage only to be told it was going to be another 30 mins! That was the hard part but in fact it was ready a bit earlier! The car is a bit better now and will hopefully be better still when I get new tyres put on!

Anyway, that is about it for now, so I will end it here!

Take care!

Busy Weekend

Hello there! How are you all? I hope that you are all well and that you have not suffered too much from the wind and storms that hit you last week. We can empathise with you only too well! Take care as it gets cold and snowy outside! We saw several cars today with nasty side bumps that we guess are caused by slipping and sliding in the snow last week. Poor people! I am glad it wasn't us though.

We have had a busy weekend but it has been quite successful. Yesterday we had our annual church meeting which we attended. The girls and Silas were looked after whilst Tim and I were in the meeting. Tim was taking the minutes for it and typed furiously as he tried hard to keep up with all those giving presentations!

After church we came back to Crossroads Mall as Tim and I needed to have our photos taken to renew our British passports. It was a beautiful afternoon and so we also took the children to the park for a little while, which was nice.

Today we had church in the morning and then went to Bellevue Square to look for a dress for Tim's work prom / formal dinner. We found a very pretty one that the girls especially liked in Nordstrom that I ended up buying. What I liked about it was that it has very pretty beading both on the dress and the jacket, which means that the dress still looks pretty even if I get hot and have to remove the jacket. I  need to sort out my hair and make up but otherwise we did a good job today!

We have certainly had a better end to this week than we did last week. On Thursday we had a lovely day as we went to a musical event with he Eastside Mothers club on  Thursday morning and then followed it with lunch in Redmond with some friends. IT was good fun! After that, Vanessa and the children came round for  a bit in the afternoon and it was lovely to see them and hear about their holiday.

On Friday Naomi went to school in the morning and Esther was delighted to be able to go to music class again! Silas also enjoyed music class and sat on my knee (awake) for the whole time taking it all in! When it finished, he fell asleep and slept for ages! Esther is often a bit wary if she hasn't been to music class in a couple of weeks but she did well this week despite missing last week and wasn't shy. She joined in the singing wholeheartedly!

After we collected Naomi we had to return my breastfeeding cushion as it had fallen apart but we were able to swap I without any problems, which was good. In the afternoon, Kevyn (Brooke's younger sister) came round to play with the girls which gave me a bit of time to clear up and play with Silas, which was good!

Tim was away in San Francisco last week for Wednesday and Thursday night and the girls were very excited when he came home on Friday night. They were even more excited when he revealed that he had presents for them! He bought them new princess pyjamas which they have been wearing since and they look very sweet in them! Yesterday Naomi said that she wasn't going to take hers off until we told her that she would have to go to church with them on!!

Esther has done brilliantly in toilet training herself this last week and has since Monday only worn a nappy at bedtime. She has had a few accidents mainly when she has been playing and left it too late, but otherwise it has been very smooth and painless - a real contrast to the summer! She is a star and tomorrow she will be able to choose her prize I think! It is possible that I might be counting my chickens before they hatch and that she will regress again but I don't think so as she has been the one driving it this time. She has been able to tell me and get to the toilet in time today even when shopping which I have taken to be a good sign!

Silas has become both a lot more alert suddenly this week and also a lot happier, with a lot less tummy ache as the week has progressed. He and Tim have had some good 'bonding' time today too! He is playing and holding onto things well and loves lying under the gym playing and moving around!

Naomi has been very good this week too and has been very sweet and helpful! She still has her moments but generally she is being very easy and amenable at present which is lovely! She is such a good big sister to Silas and to Esther and loves to choose Silas' clothes in the mornings and talks and plays with him very gently. She clearly enjoys school and loves to play with her friends too. She is a leader amongst her peers, which I hope suggests that she is less likely to be easily led in the future?!

One final exciting piece of news to tell you before I go is that we have this evening booked our tickets for a visit back to the UK. We leave here on Tuesday 29th May (arriving in England on 30th) and leave England on 18th June so mark your calendars now!!

See you in about 4 months then!! Bye for now!

It is finally going!

I am so sorry for not writing a blog on Sunday night, but there really wasn't any thing to say! We had 8" of Snow on Wednesday night last week and it is only just going now. Consequently we have been mostly house bound all that time, which leads to very grumpy and bored children and their mummy after a week of it! IT wasn't helped by the fact that the girls and I went down with a very nasty but thankfully short lived diarrhoea and vomiting bug over the weekend. Tim had a bit of it too, but thankfully Silas escaped it!

We did venture out on Monday as I needed to go food shopping (we were going to go last week and hadn't got there, so we were desperate!) but it was not a pleasant experience. I skidded going down the hill and frightened myself silly and, although I did get Naomi to ballet in the afternoon, I decided that we weren't going to go anywhere else until it started to clear a bit more!

yesterday, Ulrike came round with her children as her car is a 4x4 and as the day went on, the temperature began to creep up and so by the time Tim came home the roads were starting to become clear. it was lovely to see Ulrike and the children and to hear about their trip back to Germany over Christmas!

This morning Tim took Naomi to school in his car and by the time we left to collect her, the roads were almost clear. As a result we were able to go to the KidsQuest museum this afternoon which was great fun!

So, as you can see, there really isn't much news at all! Silas is doing well and is learning to hold things which is very exciting! Naomi and Esther are fine too and are looking forward to seeing their friends at a music event in the morning.

Hope that this short blog finds you well and I will write soon!

Snowing again!

Hello! Guess what? Our bizarre weather is continuing, with over 3" of snow falling since 4:30 when the children and I returned home. It is still snowing now and so is going to be quite deep when it finally stops and then it is set to be very very cold here for the next few days! It looks like we are going to be housebound again for a few days then! Honestly, I shall be glad when this winter is over - we have had wind, rain, snow, power cuts and in some places flooding! I hope that the summer is nice to make up for it!

Our week started in its usual way with school and gym class for the girls but yesterday we were unable to get to  see Ulrike and Rosie at Rosie's house because the weather was so bad. There was an accident on the I90 that was causing severe delays even on the I405 (they join each other!) and so although we started off we came off and came home a different route - the one that you used to use Mum! It took an hour to not go very far really but at least we weren't stuck in Kirkland. I took the girls to McDonalds play land instead for a little while which Naomi enjoyed  but Esther didn't! There were some noisy boys that she didn't like and she spent most of her time on my knee.

Today, whilst Naomi was at school, Esther, Silas and I met up with our friends Amy  (Mum) and Elisabeth at the community center play time which was great fun for the girls! It is only for children up to 3 so it is too young for Naomi but it was great for the girls. Silas slept through it all and then woke up and needed feeding as we got home, having collected Naomi.

This afternoon, Naomi had her 4 year check, which was fine and then we collected her new glasses. We arrived home just as it started to snow so we were lucky, given how fast it has come down! The girls did a bit of painting once we arrived home and then sat and watched Tom and Jerry!

Esther has been her usual contrary self and decided that today, in the middle of January with snow on the ground, that she is not going to wear her nappy and "do wee wees on the potty!" I don't know - has this child not read the books that say that toilet training in the summer is the best time because they can run around with little on and accidents are easier to clean up? However, she has done very well today and has only had a little accident whilst she was eating her tea, but what was really good, she stopped herself and finished on the potty! I was delighted! You never know, she may do it this time! Watch this space! I really should learn with her though that I need to leave her to do things at her pace and at her schedule, because it is so much better when you can do that. The trouble is that you can't always do it!

Naomi and Esther have been playing some fun games this week! They both like having little notebooks and playing at restaurants! They both come up to you at various times of the day and say "what do you want" and you say "a cup of tea please" and then they say "we don't have tea, we only have baked beans (or something!)". Then when you have chosen an appropriate thing they write it down in their little books! When Naomi asked Esther the other day what she wanted, Esther said "wine!!" It was very funny! This morning, before school, Esther was playing at restaurants but when I asked her what she wanted for breakfast, she said "no. I manager" meaning that I couldn't ask her, only she could ask me!

The other game that they like to play is buses and they set out their chairs and their till on Tim's piano stool and take it in turns to be the bus driver and the passenger! It is fun to watch them!

The doctor said to Naomi today that Silas doesn't speak and she replied "he does, he says goo and ga!!" It was funny! She saw a family the other day in the supermarket that had obviously adopted their children because as Naomi so delicately put it "the mummy has light skin and the children have black skin!" We then had a discussion about how it isn't kind to always say things outloud and that although she might think it, she needs to say it to mummy later on when they are not around to hear in case their feelings are hurt!

I was very proud of Naomi though yesterday because she was really taking good care of Esther at the McDonalds even though Esther was not having any of it! Naomi was doing her best to get Esther to enjoy it too as much as she was! Bless her!

Silas moved into his cot over the weekend and has now got used to it I think. When I put him in it the first night, he was suddenly awake and alert and he knew he wasn't in the same place that he had been in. He slept Ok over night though but didn't sleep very well in it in the day time. He has been a little better yesterday and today and will be OK tomorrow as he won't be sleeping in the car at all! The cot is in our bedroom so he is still nice and close to me, which is good. It also means that Grandma can have a room all to herself when she and mum and dad come in a months time.

Silas has also found his hands yesterday and has spent some time studying them in great detail! Funnily enough he had already worked out that he can knock things over or hit things with his hands and now he looks at them too. He is so delightful and so smiley!

Anyway, that is it for now! I thought this was going to be a short blog but it doesn't look like it! Pray the snow goes soon....!

Goodbye to Aunty Hannah

Hello! How are you? Hope that you are well - we are fine here and have started to get back to our routines.

Naomi went back to school on Wednesday morning and after an initial "I don't want to go to school", soon changed her mind and went quite happily. She came home talking of her friends and of what she had done, so she had obviously had a good day! She had also told her teacher that she had been ski-ing on Monday too!

After we had picked her up from school, we all went to the park as the weather was dry but cold. As Hannah didn't leave until tea time, we had a full day with her and so decided that we would go to the KidsQuest museum in Factoria. We had a late lunch there before heading into the museum and had  good couple of hours there. The girls painted their faces with the face paints and looked scary as they had gone for a black look! Some of the smaller children were a little nervous of them I think and I don't blame them! I was pleased though that I managed to get it out of their clothes as soon as we came in and at least know what to do when we next go again!

Hannah left with Tim around 5:45 and had a good journey home, which was good! Naomi and Esther (and me!) obviously missed her on Thursday but Naomi and I had a chat about it in the evening, which helped her I think.

On Thursday we went to the boat at Bellevue Square in the afternoon, which was fun! We even managed to avoid the traffic on the way home too, which was good! On our way there we drove though a tremendous hail storm, which just added to the bizarre weather that we have experienced over the last few months! This weekend it has returned to being wet and very windy again!

On Friday we took Naomi to school in the morning and Esther was delighted to go back to her music class again! She enjoyed it and joins in well! Silas was OK, although woke up about 10 minutes before the end!  We collected Naomi from school and then came home. In the afternoon we took down all the Christmas cards, tree and decorations which was very sad! The tree still looked so healthy it was a shame to pull it down, but the scouts were coming to collect it on Saturday and so we needed to have it done by then!

Yesterday we went to Mary moor Park in the morning and then had lunch in Redmond. We did a bit of shopping in the afternoon, which was good! I bought a couple of new cardigans and a couple of pairs of trousers in Eddie Bauer's, which are lovely! I despaired at one point though as all the cardigans I found were dry clean or hand wash only, which is definitely not a viable option right now!!  Tim took the children to the book shop and read stories to the girls whilst Silas slept!

Today we went to church in the morning and then to see our friends, Paromita and Saptak in the afternoon at their new house. It was good to see them again and for Paromita to meet Silas! Poor Silas has not had a good day today as he has been very unhappy. Partly, he was very tired as he didn't get a good sleep in the day time and partly his tummy seemed upset too; I hope he will be better soon and that he will improve generally soon. Poor love! He had  a lovely start to the morning, smiling and shouting at the girls and saying "OH" very loudly, which they found very funny!

Naomi and Esther were playing a fun game on Friday as I was taking down the tree. They were running round and round the house dragging a piece of tinsel, playing at Rapunzel! One way round, Naomi would be Rapunzel and Esther the wicked witch and when they ran in the opposite direction, they swapped over! It was very funny!

That is about it for now! Will write on Wednesday!

2007 has arrived!

Happy New Year! We hope that you have had a peaceful New Year and are looking forward to the challenges and enjoyments that this year will bring!

We saw the New Year in with Melinda and Chad (and Hannah of course) and we had a lovely evening; we stayed up to watch the fireworks before going to bed! Tim and Hannah had gone to the Basketball in the evening but Melinda and Chad had come round earlier to help put the children to bed as they knew that I was on my own! What lovely people they are!

Melinda and I prepared a late supper for us all when Tim and Hannah arrived home and so it was nearly midnight by the time we had eaten anyway! Melinda made a delicious potato and cheese pie, which went down very well with us all.

On Monday, Tim, Hannah, Naomi and Melinda all went ski-ing! They all returned exhilarated and had all got on very well. Tim has bumped his knee and was probably the most uncomfortable but even he is moving easier today. Naomi didn't fall down at all and really enjoyed her first ski-ing lesson and learnt how to make her feet into a pizza slice and into french fries! She also went up the magic carpet and had started to move down the slope! I was very proud of her as she had to be left on her own in a little class with 4 others but she did very well; she got a little chilly she tells me though!

Hannah also had a lesson and really enjoyed it once she got going! Tim and Melinda went off for a general ski and Melinda even got to go on one or two of the more difficult slopes! She was the best of all of them apparently! (Although I bet it won't be long before Naomi catches her up!)

They all stopped off at the factory outlet on the way home and Naomi had obviously really enjoyed that too as she was telling me that she had been fetching and carrying for Aunty Hannah and Melinda! Melinda was telling us later that Naomi had been looking for a purple jumper for Aunty Hannah but it had to have an "x and a ssss" on it! She found one too!

Chad, Esther, Silas and I went to Bellevue Square for a couple of hours and Esther had fun playing on the boat for a while; unfortunately a lot of the places that I thought we might have gone to were closed because of New years Day, but if Melinda, Naomi and Tim go ski-ing another day they we would have more choice for ourselves. Esther played all day with Chad, so she was very happy anyway!

Today, I had to take Naomi to the eye doctor and was disappointed to discover that she needs a new prescription as her eyes have changed again slightly. The doctor was not surprised at this as Naomi was so young when she was first diagnosed; however, I was disappointed. Naomi will have new lenses soon, hopefully but I am keeping her current frames as they are only 6 months old.

Last week was a bit of a wash out for me as I was not very well and spent all morning on Thursday and Friday in bed. On Thursday I didn't do anything at all but I did go out with the others on Friday to Snoqualmie in the afternoon. I think I was just very very tired as we have had a very hectic few weeks. I am back to normal today but need to make sure that I get plenty of sleep when I can!

Tim and Hannah took the girls into Seattle on Thursday and they had a good time at Pike Place Market and on the carousel, which the girls loved! IT was a lovely day on Thursday which was unusual! We woke up to more snow on Wednesday and it has poured with rain since yesterday afternoon.

On Saturday, Tim and Hannah took the girls swimming whilst Silas and I did some shopping before meeting up for lunch and then going to the library. The girls did very well swimming and we hope that they might be able to have swimming lessons in the spring.

On Sunday we went to Alki beach as it was sunny again and were having a lovely lunch of fish and chips until the naughty seagulls crept up to Naomi and ate her lunch! They just grabbed the little plate and ate it! We were all sitting in a row on the sea front wall, with Naomi and I at each end. Naomi had placed her little plate next to her and because she was small I suppose, they grabbed it! However when I jumped up to shoo them away (Naomi was understandably upset) the swines sweeped round and stole my dinner too!!!! We were not impressed! Thankfully we had enough to go round! The seagulls did well though, we hadn't been eating long!

Naomi was a bit freaked out by the whole affair and so Tim and I were showing her how to scare the seagulls away! Anyone watching us would think that we were the ones to be avoided not the seagulls though!! The funny thing was, that when I threw away the wrapper that the fish and chips came in, it had "an adventure in eating" printed across the paper! I'll say it was!!

Silas is OK, but he has not been his usual happy self today as he has been very colicky! Poor boy. He has a bit of a cold, which doesn't help and so I am hoping that he is better soon. He has been smiley today at times and has had a nice play under his baby gym too, but he has fed a lot too! He has had a bit of eczema but this is getting much better with some hydrocortisone and Vaseline. He is 10 weeks today and so hopefully he will soon start to improve on the colic front! He is beginning to find his hands and loves to smile and talk to his hippo!

Esther was a typical 2 year old yesterday and said in a big loud voice "Mummy, that black man has no hair!". Oh dear! I did explain to her that it was not polite to say that but she was insistent and in the end I looked and said "yes, he looks just like Grandad" just to shut her up. I  need to get her to say "that African American has no hair" - at least then she would be politically correct even if the poor man still had to face comments about his lack of hair!

Anyway, that is it for now; hopefully I will get back into the swing of writing this twice a week on Sunday! Until then, lots of love!