Megan is now ten months old! It's been a busy couple of weeks, including a visit to England to meet some friends, and going to the beach for the first time.

It was Daddy's birthday at the start of this fortnight, and Megan enjoyed the celebrations most especially playing with the wrapping paper! There have been the usual trips to the park (including, once, feeding the ducks). And, as Mummy and Daddy have been doing a lot of DIY recently, a trip to IKEA was in order, which Megan found fascinating. Megan also got to go to Daddy's work and see his office for the first time.

We've had a couple of trips to the beach recently, and Megan absolutely loved going paddling in the sea. She can walk (holding our hands for balance) for fairly long distances now, and she had a great time walking across the warm sands and in and out of the water. She also had her first icecream cone (broken end of Mummy's) and loved it - I think she could probably manage to eat a whole one if we let her.

The biggest excitement of the fortnight was an overnight trip down to England. We left on the Friday morning to drive to Leeds, stopping at the excellent Simply Scottish coffee shop in Jedburgh for lunch (highly recommended). From there we went on to visit Sophie, Nick and Isaac, and their new baby, David (who was only twelve days old). After dinner, we drove on down to stay at a Travel Lodge near the East Midlands airport. Both Aidan and Megan were fairly excited, and it took us quite a while to settle them down to sleep.

On Saturday, we drove to Twycross Zoo, to meet up with some friends from a baby website, who all have children who turned three in July. It was a really fun day, and it was great to catch up with everyone again. Megan really enjoyed seeing all the animals, and especially liked going for a ride on the miniature railway. We then drove all the way back home again. A long way, but well worth it.

Megan's been chattering away a fair bit recently, and is starting to make some definite sounds. She said "Daddy" on Friday, 4th August, which we reckon must count as her first word! Well done Megan! She also loves to scream and shout when she's enjoying something - Mummy hopes the screaming phase will be over quite soon - it's very loud!

Her favourite games at the moment are peek-a-boo - guaranteed to elicit lots of screaming and giggling - and trying to figure out how to pull all the books off the bookcase. Megan can crawl at the speed of light, or so it seems, and cruises around the room very confidently. She will often walk holding onto just one of our hands, instead of two, and will sometimes stand unassisted. So she's keeping us on our toes!

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Image 0057-1816 Canon PowerShot S45 1/999 sec., f/2.8 2006:07:28 11:30:35 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

On the beach. Megan had a wonderful time playing in the sand, and paddling in the sea, when we went to Aberdour's Silver Sands beach.

A favourite game - pulling all the wipes out of the packet.

Image 0057-1871 Canon PowerShot S45 1/159 sec., f/2.8 2006:08:03 15:36:53 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

Image 0058-1898 Canon PowerShot S45 1/319 sec., f/3.2 2006:08:05 12:51:02 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

On Daddy's shoulders. (What is Daddy wearing on his head? Should I take it off, do you think?)

Megan and the babies. Megan with Leon and Lucas at Twycross Zoo.

Image 0058-1968 Canon PowerShot S45 1/799 sec., f/2.8 2006:08:05 14:45:28 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn