Aidan Andrew McEwan Wansbrough - Aidan's Gallery

It's been a month of summer fun! Aidan went to the beach twice (once at Aberdour and once at Portobello), and had lots of fun building sandcastles. He also went up to play at Beecraigs lots of times: with Daddy, with Grandpa, with Stacey and Becca, and with cousin Philip and Uncle Jeff. We've been to several barbeques, which Aidan is quite enthusiastic about - now every time we go out to eat he takes a serving tray and pretends it's his barbeque. And since the diggers over our back fence have gone, he now has to walk to other parts of the estate to see diggers.

One highlight was a Sunday afternoon walk (July 8) with Daddy down at the River Carron. Aidan's not been being very good at walking long distances on his own - he always insists on being carried. But this time he walked the whole way there (1.2km) by himself, without needing very much encouragement at all. We walked to a small clump of trees, which we decided was the Gruffalo Wood (NS923826) - we didn't go in to check though! - and made it back (on Daddy's shoulders) before the rain got too heavy. That evening, Aidan joined us for tuna pasta - and so had fish for the first time, with no ill effects! (Carolyn is allergic to most fish.) Speaking of the Gruffalo, Grandma and Chappie took Aidan to see a play of the Gruffalo performed as part of the Edinburgh Festival - Aidan's first Festival show! He enjoyed the first half, but towards the end he wanted to go to the toilet and when he was finished he couldn't be convinced to go back in - the Gruffalo was quite realistic and scary.

Aidan has been playing on the computer with Mummy, in particular playing the Come Outside game on the excellent CBeebies website. He's getting pretty good at dragging and clicking. He's also been learning road safety - every three-year-old in Scotland can join The Children's Traffic Club for free, and it provides excellent materials (sticker books etc) to learn the basics with Mummy and Daddy.

On the 5th we all went to Twycross Zoo in Nottingham to meet up with some other mums whose children were born in July 2003 and who post on the website Carolyn belongs to. It was nice to catch up, and the zoo was excellent for the kids to run around and explore. The group was quite a lot smaller than it had been for the first birthday party two years ago, though. On the trip we also visited our friends in Leeds, and met little baby David for the first time - aged just 13 days! He was very cute.

Grandma and Mummy took Aidan and Megan to the Falkirk Wheel this month, which they both enjoyed. Aidan especially enjoyed playing in the Irn Bru play area, and he walked (playing trains with Grandma) the whole way from the car and back again.

See also Aidan's bonus three years one month page!

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Image 0056-1703
Canon PowerShot S45
1/60 sec., f/2.8
2006:07:08 08:41:50 UTC
(c) Keith & Carolyn

Playing with his new track. Aidan really loves playing with his new racing track. It has its own fire station, and the fire engine he's holding has an all-too-realistic siren!

On his new bike. Aidan got a bike for his birthday - here he is learning to ride for the first time!