Germs and a Holiday – the perfect combination!

Things have been ticking over pretty much as normal here in the Winchurst household – lots of washing, lots of cleaning and yet still finding a laundry pile the size of Everest and wondering if you just dreamt the last 2 hours you thought you had spent with the hoover and damp cloth!

Unfortunately, we are a bit of a plague pit at the minute. Dan has been working too hard and his immune system has finally over loaded and landed him with a cold – Isabel also has a cold but I’m not sure if this has come from Daddy or another source……..so far (and not for much longer I suspect), I have not succumbed to the evil germs but I’m sure my turn will inevitably come!

Last week, Isabel and I spent a few days at Hotel Radcliffe whilst Dan was away at Center Parcs in Brussels on a course – it was nice to have a few days away from home (but this may yet prove to be the culprit of the cold!) and to be able enjoy the delights of Grandpa Jeff’s cooking! Isabel even had the chance to get up close and personal with a cat – Biba wasn’t too thrilled (the pinned back ears were a bit of a give-away!), but tolerated Isabels attempt at gentle stroking and placing her head on her whilst she said “Ahhhhhh!”!

Next week, Dan is hopefully getting some time off and we plan to spend it with family (just in case of emergencies that would cause Dan to need to zoom back here!). First we’ll be back at Hotel Radcliffe where we are looking forward to seeing Good Old Uncle Ted, who is making a flying visit from the U S of A – given that he has never met Isabel and the last time we saw him was the week before I discovered I was pregnant with Isabel, it’ll be good to catch up!
After that we will be heading to Devon to stay at Hotel Winchurst until the end of the week – yet more furry creatures for Isabel to torment and a good chance to show off all her new skills to a new and willing audience….she’ll be in her element! (And I’ll apologise in advance in case we bring our stinky germs with us!)

Saturday will see us back here in time for a fancy dress Halloween party – look out for pictures from this as Isabel has a Spider costume, especially brought back for her from the “Best Costume shop on Broadway, New York”……….many thanks to Aunty Catherine for going above and beyond the call of duty (as usual!) – and giving Mummy a good excuse not to feel guilty about her lack of dressing up!

A tale of 2 feet!

I’ve heard little rumours of people being a bit miffed that we haven’t been updating our blog much recently – not surprisingly, we mostly have been doing very boring and mundane things like cleaning, washing, changing stinky nappies, removing things that Isabel has found and shouldn’t have etc, and I wasn’t sure that would make very riveting reading! (Feel free to correct me if this isn’t the case!)

We have had the minor adventure of suffering our 1st puncture in one of our buggy wheels – having never fixed a puncture, and therefore not owning a repair kit, this was going to be an interesting experience! The first hurdle we had to over come was actually getting the repair kit. No buggy meant finding an alternative way of transporting Isabel into town – having quickly discovered that putting her in the rucksack was no longer an option (the fact that I couldn’t even lift it onto my shoulders was a bit of a give away!) meant there was only one thing for it……..we would have to WALK! So, we put Isabels new shoes on and strapped her into the reigns and away we went – you would have been forgiven for thinking that we never released her from the confines of the house…….she literally ran all the way to town, shrieking with delight and trying to trample through every puddle available! She was a bit slower on the way home (which was unfortunate given that the heavens opened about half way back!) but all in all, it was a great success – I don’t think we will be doing it too much just yet mind……..given that once we got home she grabbed her bottle, collapsed into her bean bag and didn’t move for the next 30 minutes it was pretty safe to say that she was exhausted!

You’ll also be pleased to know that we are making sure that we are educating her in all aspects of life – if you now ask her “What noise does your bottom make?” she will reply by blowing a raspberry with great enthusiasm! (It’s much better than the original response of “Miaow” which we were slightly worried about!)