First week in Edinburgh

Rod and I sat eating steak and ale pie today in a little restaurant called Mackenzies, with no children. It was peaceful. The noise of the last seven days had finally subsided and we could eat, talk in full sentences and stay seated. It was nice.

The wallpaper in the wee man’s room was unexpected…

Not to say our first week in the capital hasn’t been nice, it’s just been a bit mental. The biggest problem has been the stairs. We have lived in a bungalow for the last three years, so the wee man has turned into George of the Jungle and KD has become a penguin, sliding down on his belly at any opportunity. It’s been tricky carrying boxes up and down and preventing A&E trips (again. See last post.)

We’ve had the inevitable sleepless nights as the big one plays musical beds and the wee one cries for no apparent reason, we’ve had the hourly shouts of “have you seen the…?” and we’ve been trying to only put things in the attic when the wee man is distracted otherwise he demands to ‘help’.

But now that everything is unpacked and the boys are in nursery for their first full day, Rod, who starts his new job tomorrow, and I can congratulate ourselves a bit. We’re here – we made it! We’re still standing and still married. We LOVE Colinton and we were pleasantly surprised with the size of the house, which actually fits all our stuff.

We were delighted to discover a lane between our neighbours’ houses which leads almost directly to the Water of Leith and a fantastic playpark. The local shops, which we can walk to, include two pubs, two restaurants, a coffee shop, a post office, a dry cleaner and an art gallery (we are in Edinburgh after all). We walked up to the nursery this morning and we can drive to our fancy-pants new gym in 15 minutes. (I might give the gym its own post I’m so chuffed with it.)

I think, though, the best thing about being here has been the people. On Monday night we pretty much turned up at Karrie and Andy’s demanding dinner. They live a 12 minute walk away and we had only just got the keys and the kids were hungry. Their little poppet, who’s two and a half, even offered her booster seat to KD. Love.

On Wednesday my mum came through from Glasgow for the day and on Sunday my sister just popped by with her boyfriend – I can’t tell you how much I love that they can do that now. We even got a lovely welcome from friends we’d made on holiday this year who live in The Grange in a fabulous house they’ve recently extended. They gave us coffee and cakes and didn’t even fuss when the wee man mistook their daughter’s treasured snow globe for a bouncy ball and hurled it against the wall. Mortified, I helped search through Amazon for a replacement – only to click ‘buy now’ and casually charge it to our friends’ account. Guys – again – I’m sorry – we will make it up to you. *cringe*

Tomorrow I’ll wave Rod off with his new schoolbag, take the wee man to nursery and have my day with KD. We’re booked into a baby singing class at the gym (told you it was awesome) and then I’m looking forward to a long walk exploring my new city. I think we’re going to like it here.