Merry Christmas from the McLeods!

Lots of love from Naomi, Malcolm and Calum

Introducing Calum McLeod

We realise that this introduction is far overdue, but for those of you who haven't seen pictures, we wanted to post them here. Calum John Bruce Squire McLeod was born August 8th 2009 at 5:17pm weighing a healthy 8lbs 8oz and measuring 50cm.

This is our first family photo that was taken when he was about 3 weeks old.

He is definitely daddy's boy. Malcolm was born to be a dad and Calum adores him. I know that this is the start of the two of them ganging up on me :-) But who can resist that face?

He started smiling pretty early and this is one of my favourites.

Living in the residence, we have a formal dinner every Thursday. It's an excuse to get dressed up and to put Calum in really cute outfits that I know he won't like when he's older. This picture was taken when he was around 12 weeks old.

We work on having tummy time each day and he's getting really good at holding his head up. This was taken at about 13 weeks.

We will try to keep this site updated with more pictures, but you can also see his videos on youtube.

Gotcha

It's been almost two weeks since Stacie came for a visit. She really surprised us by bringing mom over with her! We thought the most exciting thing she would be exporting from Canada was peanut butter, but we were wrong. We came home from work to find them in our living room and it was quite a shock.

As if this wasn't enough of a shock at 35 weeks pregnant! On the following Saturday, our friends had arranged a surprise baby shower for us. It was perfect timing that both Stacie and mom could be there for it. Again, not a good idea to surprise the pregnant lady...they're very lucky they didn't also get a baby for the shower!


We are very fortunate to have the friends that we do. They went all out and spoiled us beyond belief. In addition to a MOUNTAIN of food, there were games, incredible decorations, a home-made cake and very generous gifts. It was the gentle push that we needed to start getting ready for the baby. I think that before this, we thought it was too soon, but it was very helpful to have a reminder that it's not that far away. Here are the things that we bought with the generous vouchers from Mothercare. We also received a Boots card that will keep baby McLeod in nappies for a while, which will be very helpful.


So, it's been a very exciting couple of weeks and it's very sad that Stacie had to go home, but we're thrilled that mom is going to stay for a while. Hopefully there won't be any more big surprises in the near future, although there were the nicest we've had in a while.

Waiting for baby McLeod...

Well, we're anxiously awaiting junior's arrival which will be in less than 2 months now. In the meantime, we thought we would post some pictures to give you an idea of what's going on.

This picture was taken at 23 weeks, not too long after the scan picture from the last post.

This was taken at 26 weeks.

This is us at 32 weeks.

August 2nd will be here before we know it. We're very excited! We'll keep you posted. All the best from all three of us!

Introduction to Baby McLeod

We are expecting a new arrival in early August 2009. With any luck, the timing will work out and we will still be on track to move home by Christmas. Although baby McLeod will be born in Scotland, we are hoping that it won't be long before you can meet him/her in person!

Mom's Birthday Surprise

I realise that this has been a long time in the making. We were finally able to get our pictures off of our old computer and I've had a few spare moments to put together a post of mom's birthday surprise. This was also quite a few months ago now, but I still wanted to share it with everyone.

For mom's birthday, Malcolm and I told her that we were taking her down to London. What she didn't know is that we were actually taking her to Paris! It was amazing that we actually got on the plane before she knew what we were doing.

It wasn't until they started making the announcements in French that she thought something wasn't right.

This was the view from our hotel. Right outside Gare du Nord, it was a very central location that allowed us to take the tour bus from right across the street.

We explored the city and enjoyed the sights and sounds.


This was where we caught the bus. We were pretty lucky with the weather. It rained a little bit, but as you can tell from this picture, it was mostly sunny.

We visited the Bouillon Chartier in Montmartre. Established in 1890, it is the only one left of its kind and it provided meals for the working class that couldn't afford to eat out. It was a fascinating piece of history and a very good meal.

Inside, it is bustling with people. Long tables that you share and waiters that are keen to get you in and get you out. It was a great recommendation from mom who cut a review out of the Toronto Star 3 years ago!

We also took recommendations from our friend who lived in Paris. She told us about Chez Papa. Another great meal followed by chocolate mousse made from scratch.

Aside from the fun food, we also took in the more typical sights.

When we arrived home, we had a more traditional birthday party with cake and a few friends. We were welcomed home to a flat that had been decorated with balloons and enjoyed a nice evening at home. A welcomed rest after the surprise weekend getaway. Mom went back to Canada shortly after the trip. I feel bad that it took me so long to post, but you can see more of the pictures in our webalbum.

Long overdue

I realise that much time has passed since our last post and I really don't have any excuses. It was really nice to have mom here over the summer and we were incredibly sad to see her go. We got up to all sorts of shenanigans while she was here...

We went to the lamas fair, a carnival that comes to St Andrews in the summer and went on some rides. Mom and I went on a 'roller coaster' which was an adventure in itself. I think we gave the guy a hernia because he had to push us up the ramp.

Mom got the chance to meet some of our friends. Little does she know, she secretly adopted most of them while she was here as a lot of them want her to be their mom too!


We went to a surprise birthday party that was World War II themed. It was held at the secret bunker and was a lot of fun.

Malcolm enjoyed sporting his kilt. Strangely enough, living in Scotland he doesn't get to wear it that often.

I also wanted to share that Malcolm was able to grow vegetables in our bedroom! He managed to grow peppers, herbs and tomatoes which is quite an accomplishment given the lack of sunlight. The three of us had many more adventures that I will add in the near future. Our computer died not too long ago and I've been unable to get the photos off of it, but I will post more when it's fixed.

It has been a rough start to the semester and Malcolm and I have lots of news to share. I will try and be more diligent about writing about it as it happens instead of these compact overviews of our life. I can't believe it's almost December, I think we're living in a time warp! Can't wait to see you all soon.

Six weeks of summer

Wow! It's hard to believe how fast the time has been going and it seems like we haven't stopped to enjoy it. We had a wonderful time home in Canada, but it seems so long ago already. We had 2 weeks full of time with family and friends, punctuated by weddings, funerals and unexpected visitors. It was really nice to be home for a while and we realised that we're now in the home stretch. Since then, we've kidnapped mom and are holding her hostage in Scotland. We returned only for a few days before heading off to Poland for a magical wedding. Again, hard to believe that it happened. When we returned, I went on a course in Edinburgh and when I got back, my niece arrived! She's staying with us for three weeks and I hope she's not bored since we really had to get back to work. We've been trying to get back in the swing of things which is difficult in St Andrews during the summer. Since the students have left, the tourists arrive and there is a very different vibe to the town.

Aside from being sick far too much, the last six weeks have been a blurry blast! Here's the condensed version:

When we were home, poor Malcolm had an emergency trip to the dentist

We had an amazing birthday celebration for my dad

When we got back, our good friends got a kitten

We went to Poland for the wedding extravaganza

We celebrated Canada Day for all of St Andrews to see

I had the chance to see Elton John in Perth with Malcolm's co-workers!

And much more in between

I think we're all caught up now. Aside from that, I'm just working towards my deadlines. I apologise in advance if I appear to drop off the earth, the next eight months determine when Malcolm and I get to come home. That is, after all, the whole reason we're here. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

So, just a quick update to let you know what we've been up to. I will post more of my family's adventures in Scotland soon.