Friday, October 09, 2009

What's in a name?

Ever wondered why Aengus is an Aengus not an Angus?

Here you go!

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/aengus.html

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

It's getting better - only 5 months since the last blog update!

Well Summer is almost over - if it can hang around for another week that would be great as we're going back over to the Isle of Wight for a break. So nice over there - almost a trip back in time and great for kids too. We rented a log cabin there in May so are doing the same again and taking Nanny & Gangdag too (Aengus language)!

Not a lot to report - other than Aengus' ongoing progress of course! He now has one full day and one afternoon at nursery but he'd be over there full time if he had a choice. I am hoping this bodes well for schooltime! He is totally mad about fire engines and we are turning the house into a fire station for his 3rd birthday in December. Things get so busy here from now onwards I have to get his party and most of my Christmas shopping all sorted in August!

Following on from my previous post, we also now of course have a new member of the family! Laverne Rosebud Macdonald arrived on 13th July and is a truly bouncing baby. I thought I would remember but ..really ... they are soooooo small! She's not so small now - she's a hungry little miss, giving my Sister and Gordon no sleep whatsoever but to the rest of us she's very chilled out, squishy and cuddly!

I am also pleased to report that Harry the dog is still going strong. He's here next to me snoring like an old lawnmower! We had some difficult times with him recently but have set up Aengus' playpen for him in the kitchen so he has an 'escape bunker' where he can snooze and get away from toddler terrorism. Harry also now has his own personal dog walker - Jackie from Rolling Bones (how cool is that), she takes him out for a mega romp on the downs twice a week which he loves and it keeps him ticking over. I only get the time to pop him around the block of an evening as it proved impossible to take Aengus & Harry out at the same time - there's a power struggle for attention going on you see? Jackie is excellent and it's pretty tricky with a dog who can't hear atall or see much because you cannot let him off the lead for his own safety.

I don't think I mentioned before about Paul driving? Ah ha! At long last - he has a driving license! Having spent years fighting it and generally being bodily beaten about it, he can now travel on 4 wheels without a qualified passenger - praise the lord! Can you guess what has happened? Oh yes, he has discovered the utter convenience of driving a car - no funny gear to wear, not even a martian style hard hat, you can go somewhere in your shorts & slippers if you want to, it doesn't matter if it's raining, you can carry all your crap (and trays of lager) around and you can even sleep in it, dry and reasonably warm - yes my friends, he has joined the rest of us sardines!

I really must sort out why our photo uploads aren't working but I'm a bit tired now!

Until the next blog ... Carolyn x

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Ahhh ... only nearly 2 years since I last blogged, soon Aengus will be able to type this himself!

I guess my blogging tailed off, OK stopped, when I had my foot operated on in Sept 07. It all turned out to be more invasive than I expected and I couldn't get about much. Had a neuroma removed and three toes broken, shortened and pinned back together. Done not so that I could get into groovy shoes, but so I could walk properly! All good now after a lot of physio, much better and toes look normal, and not like a few chipolatas sewn onto my feet - yuk! I am not going to get into the details of how I ended up having my gall bladder removed last September - a painful business which saw me being nee-nooed (ambulanced) with more gas & air than I had whilst in labour! Anyway, I had some morphine and a nice 2 night rest in Goring Hall for my trouble.

Aengus is of course now 2 yrs & 4 months young, and bonkers with it. He's very active, extremely cute and much to our pride, very polite! He is still swimming and has graduated from Little Dippers to Water Nippers, collecting 3 certificates and 2 badges on the way - bless him - I have to wear him out somehow. He also now goes to Angmering Day Nursery two afternoons a week. Gives me a chance to clear up the mess and possibly even get some work done. He absolutely loves it there and has come on in leaps and bounds. It's a super place and I am very tempted to see if he can have one full day there a week but I'm worried I'll do too much work or miss him!

Aengus had his first flight Feb last year to Marsa Alam in Egypt where we all had a wonderful time. Nan Nan came too and they got to know each other more. The trip back wasn't so wonderful at around 7 hours in the air and he exercised his lungs most of those hours. We've decided not to go away this year - we're scared!

Just before his 2nd Birthday in December, Aengus came down with a nasty tummy bug for over a week(along with thousands of others, including most of our family), which had us worried, but a 1am visit from a lovely emergency doc put our minds at rest and we all just had to ride it out. Aengus coped like a trooper, so did the washing machine! Nevertheless, he was back on form for his birthday party with his friends, although Uncle Gordon was looking a bit green around the gills and Auntie Clare was too ill - it really went through us all!

On the subject of Auntie Clare, Aengus has a new cousin on the way - how exciting is that? Due late July .... all great excitement and fun for the rest of us but the memory of labour still hasn't left me so my Sister has my empathy! Dolly is very excited!

Harry dog is getting to be an old fella now and had to have surgery on his eye, only to get the same problem in the other eye and has since appeared to also go deaf. I am quite sure that he actually is very deaf now and his sight is limited - doesn't stop him creating havoc left right and centre though, although he does sleep a lot more these days. He wees a lot and is quite smelly - I guess we all end up a bit like that - trouble is he still looks like a puppy - people have no idea that he's a geriatric!

Buried in the chaos, business goes on. Despite the economic climate, things are going well, seems people are hunting around on the internet more and doing more of their shopping online in general. www.rockedout.com has been rebranded to great response and I have been working on a new online business which will go live in a couple of weeks called EarlyWhirly. It's taken a lot of analysis and time but it's nearly ready to go - the products are being loaded into the site now, so if you're a curious type, have a look at www.earlywhirly.com - should be reasonably self explanatory!

Right, it's bathtime for Aengus - so I'm going to do that and then get some photos loaded (which let's face it, is what most people only look at anyway)!

Hmmmm .... seems we have an issue uploading photos. This is strange because all our photos are in Google Picasa so I guess until I have time to figure out how sharing them on my blog without sharing with all an sundry works, just drop us an email and I'll send you some links to our picasa albums!