On the Malvern Hills

Spent a weekend visiting Grandma and Granddad, and took Natalie out walking on the Malvern Hills.

Dad, Mum, Natalie and Grandma out walking. Natalie is inside Mum's jacket.

Natalie on the hills

Reading Dad's magazine

Natalie with Grandma

Being fed by Dad

And by Mum too. Must be hungry!

Injections and Weighings

Natalie had her latest set of injections at the doctors today, and was not happy at all. She cried at the first jab, and then with the second one she went into her supersonic silent scream which really pulls at the heart strings! On top of this, she was weighed for the first time in a month (cancelled health visitor appointments and clinics due to schools half term meant we had no chances to get her weighed in the past 4 weeks), and her weight gain was considerably less than expected. Now she might just be destined to be a slim perfectly formed little beauty, but it is a big worry for her parents who do not know if there is anything wrong with her development which might be affecting her growth. She is now in the bottom 2 percent of the average weight range for babies her age, after she had made such good progress from a similar position when she had a lot of catching up to do due to being so premature. We feed her as much as she wants, but don't want to shorten the time between feeds as this just means she needs feeding all the time and takes less at each feed. It doesn't help our worries to have people saying 'Oh, isn't she tiny!', especially all the other Mums at the parent and baby groups whose babies seem to be much bigger. Hopefully in years to come they will all be jealous of our beautiful slim girl!

Smiles All Round

Natalie has developed a lovely smile in recent weeks, and now smiles profusely whenever she gets our attention. This has been a challenge to capture on camera, as she stares with fascination at the lens whenever Dad points the camera at her. But he devised a technique to get around this today. By holding the camera under his chin rather than looking though the view finder, Dad can smile at Natalie and get her attention. Then every time she breaks into a smile he snaps away. Eventually a lovely in-focus picture of a smiling little girl is captured!

Smiling on the sofa for Dad!

Here she is smiling again in the kitchen with Mum

A Walk By The River

The weather was lovely again this Sunday, so we went on a long walk by the river with Natalie and our friends Linda, Richard and Mark. Thanks to them taking some pictures we got some of Natalie with both Mum and Dad, and also had an excuse to go to the pub!

Natalie on the river bank with Mum and Dad

Natalie and Mum reflected in the river

Natalie in the pub with Mum

Dad and Natalie in a comfy chair in the pub

Natalie attempts her first pint of real ale!

Natalie's Friend Mark

Our friends Richard and Linda came to visit again this weekend with their son Mark who is a few weeks older than Natalie.

Linda and Richard with Mark and Natalie

A Walk Among the Snowdrops

After the family get together yesterday, it was another lovely day on the Sunday. So we went for a walk at a nearby manor house which opens the gardens a few times a year for charity. This was the snowdrop open day, and we had a lovely walk round the gardens with our friends Jeremy, Annette and their dog Ben.

Natalie in the baby sling

Among the snowdrops

Mum and Natalie with snowdrops behind

Mum and Natalie in the formal gardens

A Family Gathering

We had quite a gathering this weekend as all of Dad's siblings came to visit, along with Natalie's cousin Frankie. Frankie was born a few weeks after Natalie, but is already quite a bit bigger.

Frankie and Natalie together.


Natalie with Aunty Maria

Uncle Chris with Frankie and Natalie

Aunty Anna holding Frankie, and Mum holding Natalie

We all went for a walk round the village in the afternoon. Here is Natalie in the last sunlight of the day.

We passed this field of cows, silhouetted against the setting sun.

On the Sofa with Dad

Transfixed!

And soon fast asleep