One day I'll fly away

Came home yesterday and there was a pair of huge green parakeets in the tree in the front garden! They were having fun tucking into the little crabapples, they stayed there for ages, squawking away. What next?
Joe is having fun working on his scooter technique but I think it'll be a while before we need to buy him a helmet! Slow and steady and all that...
Sylvie is back at Roehampton on Wednesday for more audiology checks. Her bald patch where her pressure sore was is causing her some discomfort so we'll be off to Kingston hospital again to have that checked when we get our appointment. What Simon didn't mention was that she started walking on Christmas Eve - at mum's house, just like Joe! She's still quite cautious and I get the feeling she was able to do it months ago as she's very steady on her feet. Anyway she's very pleased with herself and has developed a fierce love of hats to celebrate!
Mr Mackie was staying with us for a couple of days before flying back to Singapore. Joe was particularly enamoured and now says hello, JoeJoe and Roly (steamroller on Bob the Builder) with a Scottish accent! Neil will probably need a week off to recover, not sure he knew how exhausting carrying a two year old around on your back all day was!

Rocking around the Christmas tree

A lot to catch up on! Left for Ireland on Dec 17th: Heathrow, Dublin, Hire Care, Ardara - and hence began 2 weeks of bliss with Niamh's mum Breda.
Let's have some photos:

Our stay included a lot of lie-ins (forever grateful Breda), nights with Sam & Paul, days with Siun & Murphy, Christmas with Conor and Liz , a visit from Sarah, Pete and Rosie (incl Sarah's birthday), Niamh's birthday, a night at 'O'Fabulous', some trips to the beach a lot of guinness, home made moscow mules, and, as any decent compilation album would claim: 'much, much more'.