Anna Merriman

http://twitpic.com/2muhm – BCG even

Anna Singleton Hospital Swansea BCG

http://twitpic.com/2muhm – At the hospital, where Anna is about to have her TB jab.Have promised not to take a swipe at anyone with a needle

Towards the end of March, with Anna being just over a month old, these videos was shot back in Clydach.

So far I have had one picture disappear completely, and several state they are unavailable for half a day or more. So for now, I’m just going to occasionally host some on this site, and post them separately. Hover your cursor over each image for a little background info.

Dad came over again to see Anna on the 27th March, and we went to pick a tree in a newly planted forest-to-be that Anna’s Great Aunty Chris (on Dad’s side) had adopted on her behalf. After we all managed to meet up (which reminds me, I still need to find a good recommendation for a GPS unit for Dad), we took Anna’s pushchair off the beaten track for the first time, and found the saplings (is that the right term? Baby trees basically). Having marked off the exact point on TomTom, we took a few photos, went for a walk around the countryside in that area, and then went off to find a nice place to have a pub lunch. After that we headed into Cardiff, as despite family living there, Irina and I hadn’t been around the city at all, and I’d not been to the bay area at all since it has been redeveloped. Once there, we had to take the obligatory photos next to one of the fictional entrances to the Torchwood Institute, went for another wander, then had a nice drink by the sea.
In years to come, I hope we can take Anna back to the forest, and show her the tree slowly maturing into a unique feature, just as she will

Ready for the day … http://is.gd/p3dw http://twitpic.com/2gidn

View Larger Map

This day (26th March) was quite a landmark for everyone around in Clydach at the time – Anna took her first ever bottle feed. Although Irina is still breastfeeding Anna, we wanted to make sure that if Irina ever had to go somewhere for a few hours without Anna, that feeding would not be a problem. Having expressed enough milk in advance, we put her in her favourite chair, introduced the bottle’s teat to Anna’s mouth, and that was all that was needed – she immediately sucked (suckled?) well, and finished the bottle in one sitting. Afterwards, she showed no sign of confusion about going back to the breast. Hopefully we’ll not need to actually use the bottle until she is weaned off the breast, but it is very reassuring to know that it shouldn’t be a problem if the need arises.

Anna Taking Her First Bottle Feed From Chris

Tummy time with Anna. As with all tweets with pictures included, click the url to see the cameraphone photo. http://twitpic.com/2fi5k

http://twitpic.com/2eup3 – three cuties in a row

Taken the next day (24th March), here we have a single picture of Anna shot whilst John was grabbing some passport photos for her (have you ever tried to follow the rules when in a normal photo booth with a baby? Practically impossible, so we didn’t even try)

Anna Not In A Photo Booth

Finally Testing PockeTwit(ter?)app on phone.Fring was convenient,but2limited4twitter spcfclly. http://twitpic.com/2doy5 http://is.gd/ozxs

Before Seb left we took a few more shots on the 23rd March, with Gwen once more making an appearance during one of her voluntary (and always supervised, should any readers be concerned) guard dog shifts, Mum not trying to run away from the camera for once (mainly due to not wanting to wake Anna up I assume, me catching up with some English TV before I returned here to Kazakhstan, and Anna’s favourite chair, that vibrates, plays music/ambient noise and lights up…

The day (22nd March §) after Marilyn arrived, Seb came over to say hi to all of us, and so we decided to take a walk on the beach. As there are three main beaches within easy reach of Clydach, we had to decide where to take him. The Mumbles is possibly the most famous beach near us, but unless you time your visits with the tides correctly, there can be no sand left at all – just the wall and then the sea itself! This left us a choice between one of Swansea’s beaches and Port Talbot’s. Although Swansea itself is a little prettier and seen as more up market (relatively speaking) compared to Port Talbot, Irina and I had been down there quite a few times recently with Anna (and sometimes Gwen), so we hopped onto the motorway for a few junctions, and parked up along the sea front in Port Talbot.
As ever, hover your cursor over the image’s to see their title/description… You could do that, or I could just remember that I only need to leave the caption field blank on tweet posts that are displayed as asides. (Runs off to edit a few earlier posts)

§ – Why this constant fascination with the dates photos were taken? In case the EXIF data is some how not retained with these JPGs, I wanted to ensure that in years to come, I could easily tell when the pictures were actually taken, rather than when the posts containing them were published. You’ll just have to put up with it for now, sorry…

Here we have Marilyn’s first visit to see Anna back in Clydach, on the 21st March – Anna’s one month (as opposed to four week) birthday! Which reminds me, I forgot to include the date on the last Gwen and Tummy Time post – it was a couple of days previous to these photos, so around the 19th of March. You can see Gwen in a pictures here, in one of her favourite positions, dozing next to an adult holding Anna, with Anna’s feet resting on her back

Just a couple of days shy from her one month birthday, here we have all three of us sat in the backyard in Clydach (Gwen soon saunters into shot, but Anna isn’t so clear in that one)

Ira Anna Chris Backyard Clydach

Now six and half weeks old (at least in this photo ), we have Anna chilling out on her playmat.

Anna Smiling On Her Playmat