Magnus is Two

Where has the time gone? Magnus turned two yesterday so we celebrated in the usual style with presents and cake. The lucky lad got some new lego, some "In The Night Garden" characters who he has really taken to, some Bob the Builder toys, and a very hard (as I discovered) toy camera.

 

 

 

He Walks

Magnus has been walking a bit for a week or so, but this is the first video we've managed to get of him. Hope you enjoy it.

It never rains....

Blimey, Blob fans, it's been far too long since I dazzled you all with my wit and wisdom. So long, in fact that I don't think it has ever happened. However, it has also been a long time since I filled these pages with my usual nonsense. The reason? Well, for starters, the great book of face has turned my head with it's slick interface and silly games. Also, I keep finding that there's not much to blog about, or I'm too busy doing stuff that I would blog about to find time to blog about it - basically, it all seems to happen at once, as I hope to demonstrate with some quick -fire posts.

Enough waffle, shanksi; time to give the people some of what they want, starting with a video of a baby climbing some stairs. Go Magnus!

From 2009-03-20 Magnus climbing the stairs

Where's the Year Gone?

Happy Birthday, Magnus. Yes, he's 1 today, and it hardly seems a blink of the eye that he was merely a glint in that self same eye. I managed to get away from work early so that we would have some time for cake and pressies before Calum and I had to go off to Beavers. Vikki made the cake which was very nice - Magnus would probably still be eating it if he could.

Our present to Magnus is a bit of a sneaky one. It's this really cool little daysack for him to wear when he starts walking around. The sneaky bit is that he'll have to carry his own stuff, and also, it comes with a strap so we can keep him under control. Mwaah-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Magnus's First DIY Projects

 My brothers are very untidy - they're forever leaving things lying around. Well, I thought we should try and do something about it, so I grabbed my screwdriver and got to work.

 Here, I've just about finished putting together a shelf to put up in the play room. The shelf is to hold Wii and PS2 games, and keep them neat. I've been told I have to put it up out of my own reach, which sounds impossible - I might just have to sub-contract that job to dad, although who knows when he'll get that done.

Talking about dad, here he is, helping me attach some castors to a big bit of chip-board. Why, I hear you ask. Well, the idea is that Lachlan and Calum can use the board to build Lego models and that sort of thing on, then, when they reach the end of the day, the whole thing can be rolled under the bed and out of the way - hopefully this'll lead to less stuff being left on the floor of their rooms, but we'll have to see how it works. Bye bye for now, from Magnus.

I'm Still Standing

 

Look at me. I'm standing up, using my very own little legs. OK, I'm using things like the dishwasher, magazine racks, and my toys to help me, but I'm only little and I feel I'm making significant progress. I've also got 11 teeth now, so don't give me any lip, or I'll bite you. And don't think I won't - I've bitten daddy and he wasn't even doing anything to annoy me at the time; I just thought his finger looked quite tasty. Talking about daddy, he apologises that he's not been blogging much but he says he's been busy. Busy doing nothing and playing silly games on the computer, if you ask me.

Bye for now. From Magnus

Uh-oh. We're in trouble.

In the last few days, Magnus has become independently mobile. He has learned to crawl, and nothing is safe - least of all Magnus himself. Looks like we're going to have to a lot of tidying, securing, attaching stair gates etc.

When Two Blogs Collide

Well, we had a fine time on our trip to Lewis to escape from our elder children for a while meet young Alasdair Morrison, catch up with his parents and gatecrash go along to his gran's birthday dinner.

All in all, it was a good trip - great to see everybody again and to meet wee Alasdair. We stayed at the Dacama B&B in Ullapool on the way up and at The Rowans in Stornoway. Both were very nice and Anne at The Rowans certainly serves up a hearty breakfast.

The weather wasn't great but we went for a drive and had a quick stroll in the drizzle at Luskentyre beach - we really will have to go back in the summer some time.

If you want decent photos of Alasdair, check out Alex and Fi's blog or Ian and Nikki's. If you want to see some dodgy photos taken by me, see below or click on the images to get them bigger.

Magnus at 6 months

Magnus is 6 months old already! The time is flying by and there are so many changes to report. He isn't a fan of rolling over like his friend Rachel, but he does like to stand up and sit up. He is too big for his pram cocoon so we've changed the pram settings. Now he is paying more attention when we go out for walks instead of just falling asleep. He is also sitting up in his playnest and grabbing at the toys. He's in his highchair for his meals now and using a sippy-cup for water. Magnus does like doing that usual trick of banging the cup on the table just like his big bros did. He is still a very happy boy most of the time and is sleeping through from 8:30pm - 6 am. I think he's going to get another tooth soon as he is slavering all the time, hence the bibs in most of the photos!
I sent off his passport application yesterday as we are planning a trip to The Hague to visit Faye and Wessel next month. It's all go for Magnus! I take him to toddler groups on Tues and Thurs mornings and he goes to the cafe with me and my Mum quite often. Nearly forgot - he had his first go on a swing and enjoyed it for about 5 mins.

2008-08-09 Magnus Update at 6 months

Magnus at 4 months

 

 

 

 

If you have been following my status updates on Facebook you will already know the big news on the Magnus front - he cut two teeth last Saturday!! He is a month ahead of his bros and two months ahead of average. We got zero sleep on the Thu and Fri, it was so bad that I didn't run on Sat morning. Then Iain was bathing M and shouted through "Magnus has got two teeth!!" He saw them cos M always screams his head off when Iain is changing his clothes. The other excitement in M's life is he has started on solids. He has had baby rice and pureed apple, carrot, pear, and papaya and likes them all so far. The baby rice has come from a packet but I have made the rest myself which I'm pleased about. I wasted hundreds of pounds on babyfood jars with the other two boys so I thought I would try to do my own this time what with the credit crunch... One of the photos is the scene when I'm on the laptop. Thought you might like to see the chaos!
Magnus is a really contented baby now and is back to sleeping through (hurrah!) This is probably due to the fact I've stopped breastfeeding and started him on formula. It had reached the stage where he was feeding for an hour at 4am every morning and we were all getting v tired and stressed so we thought is was time to change. Magnus is really happy so I don't feel too guilty.

8 weeks later

Magnus is eight weeks old already so I thought I would give you an update on how things are going. The main thing is that Magnus is a really good baby and is happy most of the time. He is feeding well and he's only had two formula feeds and all the rest from the breast which I'm pleased about. He usually wakes us up once in the night around 5 am so we are getting some sleep. He still gets a bit gripey but Woodwards Gripe Water seems to work. We are also using cloth nappies and that is going well too. Doesn't seem like much extra work and I keep thinking of how much money we are saving, especially since we didn't need to buy the nappies as they are from a friend. I think he's started smiling but I can't make him do it so these photos don't really show it but he was smiling within minutes of the photos being taken:

2008-03-30 More Magnus

I have managed to have two 2.5 mile runs with JogScotland and the second was a lot better than the first due to wearing two bras instead of one... I've signed up for the Baker Hughes 10k again so my first race back will be the same one as my last race befor having Magnus. I wasn't going to do that cos I thought I didn't want to get a slower time than last year; then I thought it doesn't matter, I just want to race again! I might even do Balmoral if my sister backs out of it! I also swam 36 lengths this morning so my fitness is getting back to normal. Now I hear Magnus crying upstairs so I'd better sing off.

More photos

Life as a family of five continues to be fun but tiring - Magnus is generally being good through the day (and attracting a lot of attention from the women of Stonehaven), not too bad at night, but he generally has some sort of screaming fit in the evening. Again, this could have something to do with his dad coming home from work but could just be coincidence.

My dad very kindly bought Magnus a nice play nest, which I finally got inflated and put together. He seems to like sitting in it, although we often have to kick Calum out first.
Anyway, we've taken a "few" more photos, the best of which can be seen in the album by clicking the picture below.

2008-02-27

Life Is Good

Well, it's almost two weeks since Magnus was born, and we're starting to adjust to having a baby in the house again. As far as sleep goes, we're getting more than possibly expected, but still not as much as I'd like - and Vikki gets even less since she's doing all the feeding, and doesn't get to go to work and fall asleep at her desk. As a general rule, Magnus has been a fairly peaceful baby over night and during the day - in the evenings when daddy gets home, he tends to bawl a bit more. Is this just coincidence we have to ask ourselves.
Lachlan and Calum largely ignore their wee brother, but occasionally show signs of affection or annoyance depending on how noisy he's being. He'll no doubt get more interesting when he's big enough to push around in cardboard boxes, dress in weird clothes, throw balls at etc.
We've had a lot of people stopping by to meet the wee fella, and our friends have been amazingly generous with all their gifts. Big thanks to all, even though I know most of you won't read this. About time you did, if you ask me!
Anyway, here are some photos from the last week or so, including ones of my Auntie Aileen, Eleanor and her family, and Sonia who is an old friend of Vikki's family and babysat when Vikki was a little girl. Click on the picture below to see the album.

2008-02-15 Magnus

More Magnus

Well, Magnus is two days old now and is settling in nicely. He's sleeping well. During the day - at night he's keeping me and Vikki awake. He's had a wee outing in the pram and been cooed over by various other mums and dads waiting for their kids at the school gate (and grandparents and teachers and lollipop men).

As promised, some pictures....

...you can see bigger versions here.

It's a...

...nother boy. Born on 2/2/08 (which is 2/2/08 if you're a Merkin) at 21:47 (although I think it was more like 10 to 10 because I want him to grow up to be a cowboy), and weighing in at 7lb 13.5oz, he will be called Magnus Andrew Shanks. He and Vikki are doing well, spending tonight in the hospital, but hopefully home tomorrow. Updates and pictures to follow.