Big trip part III: Scotland

Outside of Bill's parent's house

Bill's bedroom is very small, but his parents had cleaned out some room and put a cot mattress on the ground between the bed and the wall. Isabella really liked her little hide-out - asked to be put in it and tucked in. Not to mention, she liked the fact that she could crawl right out of it into bed with mom. Very handy. Especially because she woke up at 5:30 and didn't really want to *be* awake.  So there was lots of crying, nursing, and an eventual return to sleep.

His parents had agreed not to smoke inside while we were there, and they kept there word, which was really nice. Especially since the weather was typically Scottish (cold and wet) so we were inside a lot. Isabella has reached the age where she repeats things that she's only heard once or twice. Including charming phrases such as "it's pissin' down rain outside". Oops. Grandpa was suitably chastised. She also learned "fire" (they heat the house with a coal fire), "pussy cat" (there's a couple that visit outside), TV, coins, biscuit, mom/dad/grandma/grandpa coffee/tea.

There were swings in a nearby park, and we went there a couple times. Also went 'round to the cemetery to visit Isabella's namesake's grave. Here we are in the cemetery - Isabella enjoyed walking around and picking up small stones. There was an old iron gate at the entrance that she was just big enough to open and close, which she proceeded to do many times.

We ran into some old friends at the grocery store (not hard to do, really) and they gave Isabella a 2 pound coin for her piggy bank (a Scott

ish tradition). She developed a fondness for coins - especially for putting them down dad's shirt and getting them out the bottom. I decided that was a fine game for *dad* to play, but not mom. She kept herself quite entertained, though, taking piles of coins and moving them from person to person.

The cracker selection was not the best, unfortunately, so no real cracker bunnies. That didn't stop her from pulling packages off the shelf, though. We were able to find some decent yoghurt, but the cereal collection was also a bit sugary. Bill's mom had set up a great little table with a stuffed dog to sit on for Isabella to eat off of. When, of course, she wasn't eating in mom's lap. Sigh.

She did down an enormous amount of mac and cheese, and quite enjoyed her smokey fish from Arbroath.

We also made a stop at Bill's godmother's, who is also a grandparent and has a bunch of  toys in their backyard for their grandchild, Cassie. So Isabella had a great time going down the slides, bouncing on the trampoline, riding on the scooter. Cassie wasn't so sure about this baby invading her turf, though, although she seemed to enjoy riding on the seesaw with Isabella. 

Isabella managed to climb up the bars on the slide almost by herself - a pretty good trick, given that they're nearly a foot apart and vertical. 

Isabella also proceed to down a banana and an entire collection of grapes while visiting. You'd think we never fed the child... she got sent home with an orange stuffed teddy bear. We were beginning to think we hadn't brought enough extra suitcases... We were also gifted with an amazing collection of hand-knitted clothes (Bill's mom) together with a doll, a stuffed pink pig you can sit on... The doll has eyes that close (sort of) when you lay the doll down (creepy for those of us who have seen too many horror movies) which was fascinating for small people.

The saturday we were there Brechin had it's "festival", complete with a tractor pull, a smash a piano and feed it through a tire, and fake sheep herding (don't ask - we never did really figure out what that was). There as also bouncy castles and a very big slide, which they let us take Isabella on. Since she was too small to climb the steps, mom had to carry her up and slide down after her. Darn. She really, really, liked the slide. Wasn't so keen on the bouncy castle with plastic balls - couldn't quite stand up in it. But she did like to sit at the "window" and watch, as long as there weren't any big kids inside with her. She liked to throw the plastic balls back into the castle.

Turns out the bouncy castles (and padded sumo wrestling) are owned by the parents of Mark's (Bill's best man) fiance. So we got to play in one of the big ones for free. They had a slide at the end of it, so I kept carrying Isabella up and letting her slide down the (smaller) slide. 

She also got to see some motorcycles (there was a bunch of really nice ones) in person. And some dog jumping trials.