The new boy, and the new born

I treated myself to some cream roses

So, behind again with blogging. The heatwave didn't last, I get annoyed every year when the media talk about Indian summers in September, when in fact the expression refers to hot weather in November, however as usual I digress. The weather has changed, cold and wet; the rain rarely came exactly when forecast, we took the cotton sheets off the bed and replaced them with sheet and duvet, to be kicked off when overheating.
I may have forgotten to mention the incident when daughter caught Nat sucking away at an orchid drip feeder, and the subsequent panic, and calls to NHS direct, and the nighttime tummy ache which necessitated a trip to A&E, 10 miles away in the middle of the night, an ECG, and blood tests. He was pronounced fit to go home, and comments from my family included, 'Was he trying to make himself grow?' and 'He's fine, he has a lovely bloom'.

Looking smart in his uniform

Nathaniel started at Nursery, with just an hour the first day. If we ask him what he did, he always says he played with Annie and Clarabelle, as Thomas afficianados will know are the carriages. Who can forget Ringo Starr proclaiming 'We feel so full, we feel so full' on the Christmas special tape? It was an oft repeated phrase chez nous after eating too much! Nat does seem to be settling well, and has also been enrolled in a gym club to hopefully work off some spare energy. What a pity we can't bottle it! Our week didn't start off too well, I had a bad night on the Sunday, it rained and rained on the Monday, we both felt tired and unmotivated. Our Son in Law was unwell, so we stayed away, not wishing to catch anything. It was also discovered that a child who attended the same Birthday party as our two, came out in Chickenpox spots, so more watching and waiting for the parents.
 I was up late on the Tuesday, having had a better night. I went into town and bought a small gift for the new baby. Actually, I've just remembered, after Nat's first full day, that day, he was asked if he had had fun, and replied, 'No I was too busy'.
For a few years we have had some metal shelving in the bathroom, but no matter what we did it kept going rusty, I had tried kurust, and spraying it with silver paint, but to no avail, and I'd got silver paint on the painted pine clad wall, so recently we had bought glass shelves to replace the metal ones, and hope that the metals supports won't rust.
I had bought the wrong brand of satinwood which was too shiny, so had a trip to B&Q to find the Crown, low odour one I had previously used. It needed two or 3 coats to cover the silver. I also made it to Weightwatchers I had stayed the same. I am pleased to report that my back is a lot better, and that I can walk ever so slightly faster.
On Thursday, we drove up to meet our new Grandson. The other Grandparents had visited, so to make sure that they were not overwhelmed with washing and changing bed linen, we had booked into a hotel a few miles away. Our poor son had caught a cold, not from work,as he was on paternity leave, but they were both so tired their resistance must have been low. The baby had started with the cold the previous day, so was snuffly, unable to feed properly, and giving them bad nights. We missed meeting the other Grandparents as they had gone off early to visit other family members.
The baby is lovely, very fair, more like the in laws than our family. We went off to book into the hotel, and found that we were booked into an old converted stable block.

baby Ethan

The receptionist was not very forthcoming, and told us very little about the hotel. There was only one hand towel, so I had to go and ask for a second, I also managed to find out where breakfast would be served. The en suite had a bit of a musty damp smell to it, the heating was on, but this made the room over hot.
We went back to Son's home, and he made us dinner, they also went out to buy some saline nasal spray to try and clear baby's nose. We didn't stay too late hoping that they might get a better night. Tom, the dog, doesn't seem too fazed by the appearance of a baby in the house, in fact when they had skyped us he was determined to get in the picture!
Back at the hotel, the heating had gone off, I had borrowed indigestion tablets from daughter in law, but the bed was too hard, and despite herbal tablets sleep did not come till 4 am. The next day we were late getting up, but breakfast was good. We set off for Son's home, had more cuddle time with Ethan. We were going to walk into town, and they said they would come with us as they had an appointment to register the birth. However, by the time they were ready baby needed feeding again, (I remember those days quite well) So we set off without them, saying they could meet us for lunch somewhere. We had a pleasant walk in, browsed a few shops and were in the antiques emporium when they phoned, I think. The place we wanted to go for lunch had trouble accommodating the buggy, so it was back to our standby Costa. The young people just about had time to finish lunch before it was time for their appointment. We went back to the antiques place, but upstairs was so dusty I had to come out and take my inhaler. I browsed the deli, and bought a couple of items, then told husband I'd had enough. My back is so much better, but I didn't want to risk overdoing it.
We waited for a bus, but our Son kindly came back into town to collect us, it had just started to rain. We stayed with them till almost 7 pm, then went back to the hotel, where they were meeting us for dinner. They were both so tired we didn't want them to have to cook for us. The meal was in the bar as the restaurant was being laid out for a wedding the next day. We had said we were bringing a small baby, but the waitress had put out a high chair; she was somewhat startled to see one so small, but in no time was cooing over him. The food was good and plenty of it. Son and his wife left fairly quickly, both in need of some sleep. I slept better the second night, but it was husband who woke me at around 4 am, padding around looking for indigestion tablets.
Saturday, we were up earlier, enjoyed a good breakfast, and went for more cuddles with Ethan. They had had a bad night. We left at around lunchtime, shopped in the local Waitrose, had a reasonable journey back, stopping at Watford gap, where, still too full of breakfast, we had crisps and a coffee.
Then after unpacking the car, had a fish pie from Waitrose. It was good to be back in our own bed that night.