Old Dad

A little owl

2011-12-10T17:58:00.000Z

Yes - that's what it's called

--
Dave McLaughlin

Keyboard lessons

2011-10-01T23:03:00.001+01:00

Elizabeth was apprehensive before going. The lesson started with singing a simple melody accompanied by gestures representing "do", "re", "mi", etc. (Think "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and you won't go far wrong.) Throughout all this, Elizabeth was mouthing something to me; I couldn't make it out, but I assumed she meant she wasn't enjoying herself; I smiled (I thought) encouragingly. After a while, I realised she didn't want me to watch. After I took to reading my email and surfing the Web on my phone, she had a whale of a time.

Unfortunately, only three kids turned up for today's taster lesson, so they won't be starting a new class until they get some more - pity, because she's quite keen: we came home and took the stickers off the keyboard because she doesn't need them any more.

Vegetarian!

2011-08-28T19:12:00.000+01:00

Yup! That's what she announced earlier this week. I don't know if it'll last.

--
Dave McLaughlin

Tricky business, this reading

2011-07-10T15:29:00.000+01:00

Elizabeth [reading Alexander McCall Smith's "The Girl who Married a Lion"]: "What's a knob?"

I: "What's the context? What else does it say?"

E: "Soon the people were upon him, beating him with their knob".

I had a look. The word was "knobkerries", hyphenated at a line break. That, of course, made it much clearer.

--
Dave McLaughlin

Chocolate ice cream

2011-07-05T12:25:00.000+01:00

Very tasty!

--
Dave McLaughlin

Riverside

2011-07-05T11:32:00.000+01:00

What fun!

Wide-ranging discussions

2011-04-18T23:39:00.001+01:00

Elizabeth shouted for me shortly after going to bed this evening. When I went up, we had a chat about: Hawaiian life and culture; manned lunar missions; the possibility of life on Saturn and its moons.

--
Dave McLaughlin

Technology

2011-03-20T16:17:00.001Z

Elizabeth's going mad for console & computer games. She's started showing an interest in some Mario game we have for the Wii and she's been going on so much about the PS2 games she plays at the after-school club that we've bought an old console. Now she can regularly beat us at a couple of variants of Sonic.

When we're out she sometimes plays with her DS, though she's more likely to borrow Mum's iPod or my phone to play Angry Birds.

This morning she disappeared for half an hour. I found her in the dining room on the venerable PC that serves as a file/printer server, watching Bakugan movies on YouTube. Time for parental controls!

--
Dave McLaughlin

M&S quality control ain't what it used to be

2011-03-13T18:03:00.000Z

Can anybody see what's wrong here?

--
Dave McLaughlin

Test post

2011-03-10T08:19:00.001Z

Sent from my new phone.

--
Dave McLaughlin

First loose tooth!

2011-01-01T13:23:00.002Z

Not much more to say (lower right 1, if anybody's interested).

Hazards of growing up

2011-01-01T13:17:00.002Z

There are various stages in a child's life when there are new dangers to be considered. When they start to crawl, hot drinks and sharp knives need to be kept out of reach. When they can stand up, that reach is dramatically extended. Then comes the time when they can both drag a kitchen chair around the room and climb up on it.

In the run-up to Christmas (and a December birthday), when she can play games on Mummy's laptop, it's important to remember that she can read!

Swimming!

2010-07-17T20:27:00.001+01:00

Elizabeth's been very nervous of getting her face yet when in the pool
lately. I thought a mask would help, but she refused even to try one
until Thursday. Today her confidence dramatically improved and she
swam a metre and a half with mask and snorkel. Then she announced she
would swim two lengths (probably because cousin Daisy did that on
Thursday). It seemed outrageously ambitious, but she did it!

Photographer

2010-07-11T10:49:00.000+01:00

We had time to kill at the airport yesterday.

--
Dave McLaughlin - sent from my mobile phone
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/start-here/

Sma' Shot Day

2010-07-03T12:52:00.001+01:00

Lots of thrilling attractions in Paisley!

--
Dave McLaughlin - sent from my mobile phone
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/start-here/

Last day in Primary 1!

2010-06-29T09:03:00.001+01:00

Doesn't time fly when you're old?

Elizabeth brought her books home yesterday (Don't they call them jotters any more?) She's written a lot, especially about our recent trip to Arran.
--
Dave McLaughlin - sent from my mobile phone
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/start-here/

Rain and hail

2010-05-02T18:55:00.001+01:00

Cycling in Barshaw Park - and a chance to clap some big horses.

--
Dave McLaughlin - sent from my mobile phone
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/start-here/

Easter bonnet

2010-04-01T15:45:00.001+01:00

Today saw the Easter parade at school, then home early.

Elizabeth is ill

2010-03-15T10:22:00.001Z

It's my turn to look after her. I might get more work done here without all the distractions of the office.

--
Dave McLaughlin - sent from my mobile phone
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/start-here/

Old Dad blog

2010-03-14T09:27:00.001Z

My Old Dad blog is getting better. The main blog, olddad.mclaughlin.org.uk, is pretty much working (except internal links to the home page). There's a sort of mirror at olddad.Posterous.com. And if everything works as planned, this post will be notified to Twitter, and from there to Facebook.

--
Dave McLaughlin - sent from my mobile phone
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/start-here/

Elizabeth has a new bike

2010-03-13T15:05:00.002Z

Straight from the bike shop to Rouken Glen.

--
Dave McLaughlin - sent from my mobile phone
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/start-here/

This blog has moved

2010-03-06T19:27:00.001Z

This blog is now located at http://olddad.mclaughlin.org.uk/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
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Schoolgirl!

2009-08-18T10:33:00.004+01:00

Elizabeth started school today!

UPDATE: more pictures available now at elizabeth.mclaughlin.org.uk.

End of an era

2009-08-17T19:43:00.002+01:00

Today was Elizabeth's last day at Jennyswell Nursery. She's been going there for as long as she can remember, and the ladies there have been great. She brought home a scrapbook of material from her time in the 3-5 room, and it's moving stuff. Elizabeth seems a little subdued, but not nearly as emotional about the whole thing as the grown-ups. Now she's gone to bed quite quietly; she doesn't seem too excited about what tomorrow has in store.

In her own write

2009-02-09T20:23:00.003Z

Today at nursery, Elizabeth stencilled this picture:

Nothing too clever about that, is there? After all, she did almost as good a job 17 months ago. But what was more impressive was on the other side of the paper:

Even that could have gone unnoticed; she's often written her name before, copying a grown-up. But this time the ladies didn't help; in fact they didn't even know she'd done it. Apparently she did it from memory.