Aidan Andrew McEwan Wansbrough - Aidan's Gallery

Aidan is now two years seven months old. January has been a busy month, with trips out, new experiences nearby, fun at home, and lots of visitors.

Trips out: The Mariner Centre is our local swimming pool, and Aidan had fun showing Mummy, Grandma, and Megan its delights. Mummy went in deep with Aidan and jumped along with the waves from the wave machine, and he loved it. Aidan also demonstrated the use of the various slides. Callendar Park has very high tower and slide, and once again Aidan tired himself out while Megan watched happily! Less conventionally, Aidan loves going through the local carwash - it's a manual carwash, where you sit in the car and drive past a series of attendants who spray the car with shampoo, wax, and water. The rushing water had its effect on Aidan, though, and we now know where the toilets are there - sadly not quite quickly enough!

Aidan is convinced that the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre is "Glasgow"! He loved the big wide aisles in John Lewis, although his idea of the right way to go tended to differ from Daddy's! When Daddy shrugged and walked off his way, though, Aidan soon got bored with lying on the floor and wailing. He's a competent escalator-rider now, and would happily go up and down them all day if he could.

Nearby: Happily we've discovered no less than three good play parks in the neighbourhood, and Aidan has enjoyed playing on them all and taking friends there too. He made a good attempt on the climbing wall, and is completely confident on the ladder and the rope bridge - and the fireman's pole, but he still needs to be held on. His regular weekly trips to Beecraigs with Grandma and Grandpa, as well as his Tumbletots training, are clearly paying off!

A big new thing this month is playgroup, which Aidan started on the 16th. He's going for two two-hour sessions per week, during which time they have craft and play time, a snack, story time and finally singing time. It's taken him some time to really settle in and he usually comes home exhausted, but he seems to be doing well and loving all the new toys - and occasionally constructing works of art to bring home.

Aidan loves going to church. He especially loves the singing, although he's following his father in taking a keen interest in the technical side too. He enjoys crèche too, although he's still protesting a bit when he's left. He's much more comfortable there than he ever was at St A's. When we went to the monthly evening service, we discovered there was no crèche - but Aidan was good the whole time, not making too much noise, and even being perfectly quiet during a time of silence! It's lovely that he's getting to be known at the church, and it feels a bit like an extended family.

At home, Aidan has been finding things a bit difficult this month. He's understandably jealous of the time and attention Megan gets, and is deliberately naughty, attention-seeking. The resulting friction has made him a bit fragile at times. His hair is getting quite long, but he flatly refuses to let anyone near his hair with scissors or clippers, and gets quite hysterical. It's still long. At bedtime he's been refusing to stay in bed, coming out with all manner of excuses, and staying up for a couple of hours past bedtime before collapsing at last. Thankfully here our strategies have worked, and he now gets fifteen minutes of playtime after bedtime before his lights go out. After this he now always stays in his room, and usually stays in bed and goes to sleep. He's also been unwell a couple of times this month.

Aidan and Megan are actually very cute together, and Aidan is not so rough with her now. Megan often sits in on Aidan's bedtime stories, which both of them enjoy. He also likes cuddling her on the sofa while watching Tellytubbies, and pushing her around in her bouncy chair.

Other fun home activities have included making potato prints, and making fairy cakes (every Monday after playgroup).

Visitors: Aidan has hosted lots of visitors this month - Natalie, Samara, and Mel from church; Uncle Jonathan; Steve, Varya, Benji, and Toby; Lorna and Andrew; Auntie Allie and Uncle Ken. He's taken great pride in showing each of them his playhouse. It's a place he loves to play with Daddy, too - it's a bit cold for Mummy just now! He really enjoys visitors and the chance to play different games and draw them into his world.

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Image 0049-9664
Canon PowerShot S45
1/60 sec., f/4.0
2006:01:14 13:33:26 UTC
(c) Keith & Carolyn

Aidan and his plugs. Aidan has a real fascination with all things electrical at the moment. Obviously we are not encouraging this, but here he is playing with his "music" (CD player) and the "ironing plug" (extension cable that Mummy uses when doing the ironing).

"Splodging"! Aidan really enjoyed his first attempt at potato printing.