Megan is now nine and a half months old! It's been a fairly quiet fortnight, especially with the summer holidays, but we've spent lots of time outdoors enjoying the lovely weather and meeting friends.

Auntie Jeanne and Uncle Jeff came for the weekend so that we could all celebrate cousin Philip's birthday with him. Megan had a great time showing off all her new crawling and cruising skills, and really enjoyed a trip to Beecraigs with "the boys" (Aidan, Daddy, Philip, Uncle Jeff and Grandpa).

We have also been up to Beecraigs on several occasions, had a good few barbeques, played in the paddling pool, visited the Falkirk Wheel, checked out a new (to us) soft play in Bo'Ness, spent time with friends (Stacey and Becca; Morag and Iona; Mel, Jordan, Natalie and Samara), been out to lunch at the Golf Club and of course visited Grandma, Grandpa and Gungle.

Megan is turning into a real chatterbox, and babbles away a lot of the time. She's very clear in what she wants, and is very good at communicating her needs to us - usually crawling over to us (or even crawling towards the stairs) if she needs a clean nappy. She is also clearly able to understand some of what we are saying to her - especially if we are telling her to come and get her milk - the usual response is to drop everything she's doing (except her snuggly which comes with her), and to crawl over and pull herself up to be picked up. She loves her milk! Megan has also figured out how to climb the stairs - but not to come back down again!

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Image 0056-1778 Canon PowerShot S45 1/249 sec., f/2.8 2006:07:15 14:33:22 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

Standing up at Beecraigs.

Playing in the paddling pool. Megan had a great time splashing and playing with her toys in the water.

Image 0056-1785 Canon PowerShot S45 1/399 sec., f/3.5 2006:07:21 14:50:44 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

Image 0056-1787 Canon PowerShot S45 1/319 sec., f/3.5 2006:07:21 14:50:58 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

Practising pulling herself up!

Megan and the mirror. Taken at Grandma and Grandpa's house - this photo was taken in the previous fortnight, but is such a good shot that we had to include it!

Image mce-10-066 FinePix F601 ZOOM 1/4 sec., f/2.8 2006:07:02 09:28:17 (c) Doug & Pat McEwan