Nov 19 2011

Anna made cakes again today, t…

Category: Pictures,TweetsChrisM @ 12:22 am

Anna made cakes again today, to celebrate Nana’s return. Tim doing fine. http://t.co/udYvB7sd

Anna's Smarties Fairy Cakes

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Oct 24 2011

Anna And Tim Photos

Category: Anna's Photos,Tim's PhotosChrisM @ 7:46 am

I should have mentioned in my last post, all these pictures are coming from John’s blog (Celt Photographic). I’ll have a look through his facebook pictures as well, and at some point in the future check through our camera’s contents.
Anyway, the first photo is from the 21st of April, and shows Nana (my mum) holding Tim on the sofa, with Gwen (freshly shorn) once more in guard duty mode.

Carol Kavanagh, Gwen And Tim Merriman

Carol Kavanagh, Gwen And Tim Merriman

Then we have Anna having a bubbly bath on the 22nd of October. Overall, she is doing pretty well with suddenly having a new member in our family. She understood he was on his way, and they day she met him in the hospital was caught on video, I’ll have to check if I uploaded it to YouTube yet from John’s camera. (I was at home grabbing a nap before driving anywhere!). Anyway, back to the photo…

Anna's Bath Canards

Anna's Bath Canards


Anna With Suds On A Sponge

Anna With Suds On A Sponge

More to come later.

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Oct 20 2011

Beautiful baby boy born at 7.4…

Category: TweetsChrisM @ 1:19 pm

Beautiful baby boy born at 7.46am this morning. 9lb 8oz (4.3 kg). Mother&child doing fine.Singleton hospital staff great.Anna with Nana&John

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Oct 10 2011

Anna’s Progress

Category: PersonalChrisM @ 9:33 pm

Just a quick post to keep people updated with how things are going here for Anna. Since we moved over from Astana, we have been trying to make sure that Anna was slowly getting used to behaving like a little girl, rather than a large baby!
The first thing we did was to stop using her special high chair at meal times. Now obviously we were not looking for an armchair or lounge chairs to place at the dining table, but given that she isn’t quite tall enough to comfortably sit on a dining room chair and reach her food easily, we originally put a few folded up blankets under her. This was OK for a couple of weeks, but then she decided that sitting like Mummy, Daddy, Nana and John would be her preferred position.
I’m writing this post having just returned from taking Anna swimming again. Although we took her to lessons in Astana almost two years ago, that was in a huge paddling pool, and was really just to get her used to being in the water. Over here we are taking her to a lesson each week (when possible) and/or just some free time in the pool.
Although she has had her own “proper” bed to sleep on (rather than a cot/crib) in Astana for a while now, this visit was the first time she used a big girl’s bed here in Clydach. Other than moving the bed-side table further away from the bed (in case she falls out, having a wooden corner to break her fall didn’t seem to clever) we haven’t had to make any other furniture based changes.

Relaxing In A Chair

Yes, OK, I admit that I chose that picture because I think it will cause a few of this site’s male readers to actually read the post! Anyway, why are we trying to ensure that a lot of Anna’s behaviour and accessories from her baby years are altered or removed? Because when her little brother is born (he was due a couple of days ago!), and eventually starts using them himself, we didn’t want Anna to see this as her brother stealing “her” things, but rather him going through the same processes as she already has. “I’m a big girl who doesn’t need these things” rather than “My little brother arrived and now I can’t do lots of things I used to be allowed to!”. If I’ve not spoken with you recently, and we’re not connected on facebook, this post may be the first time you have heard Irina is pregnant; everything is going fine, no problems so far, and although her due date was a few days ago, that is using the UK ETA – Kazakh doctors reckoned she wouldn’t give birth until a week later.
Finally, we have potty training (round 2)! Although Anna had used a potty first thing in the morning since she was able to sit up unassisted, when we took her back to Kazakhstan, she straight out refused to sit on one! Rather than forcing the issue, we had originally hoped she would warm to the idea on her own. We now have a combined step/potty/toilet seat adapter, and during the daytime she now wears big girl’s knickers (with only a couple of accidents so far), though night time or long car journeys would probably be asking a bit too much too soon of her, so nappy supplies are still on hand. The step is used to reach sinks (so she can wash her own hands) and kitchen surfaces when she cooks etc.
Anyway, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that Anna will continue to (overall) happily shed her baby habits and furniture, so when the newest Merriman addition arrives, no ill will will surface towards him from Anna.

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Sep 18 2011

Anna happy that Nana is back h…

Category: Anna's Photos,Tweets,VideosChrisM @ 5:30 pm

Anna happy that Nana is back home 🙂 http://t.co/v34Getkm
Gwen hasn’t been on the blog for a while… http://t.co/pq3jweMx



Anna Eating

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May 24 2010

Mum Coming To Kazakhstan Again!

Category: PersonalChrisM @ 2:31 pm

In a little over four months, Mum will be coming to see us here in Kazakhstan again 🙂 Although we had all been hoping this would be possible, since she bought the idea up, with my younger brother and Roz having had a child recently, another bargain holiday for Mum and John found on eBay and the prices for plane tickets to Astana, nothing was guaranteed. We have told Anna that her Nana is coming over, and she points at the photo of her and John, so she might even understand what we’re talking about 🙂 We are all really looking forward to seeing Mum again, and I’m pretty sure Mum will be looking forward to seeing her granddaughter.
Now all I need to do is control my online purchasing, and try not to take Mum over her baggage allowance. If you visit relatives via road, gifts can be reasonably bulky, however as the flight isn’t direct, and you only get 20 kilos, I might need to limit myself to some Shreddies, Orange squash and a couple of powered USB hubs 🙂
Mum did find an airline called Baltic Air (a sort of Ryanair/EasyJet equivalent based in the Baltics) and although their prices were almost half of the next cheapest fare (Turkish Airlines), the reviews indicated that this wouldn’t necessarily be a wise choice to make.
Anyway, John (and Gwen obviously) will be staying in Britian, so we’ll have to wait until out next trip to the UK for a reunion with them, but we’re over the moon that Mum/Carol/Nana is coming to Kazakhstan again 🙂

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