It's Christmas in Edinburgh

The big wheel has enclosed gondolas now- classy!

The city of Edinburgh turned on its Christmas lights on Sunday and, not ones to miss an occasion, William, Freddie and I walked into town with our friend Anthony to take in the festivities. I was expecting to see people sipping on mulled wine, snacking on crepes with nutella and some overall holiday cheer. What we got, simply, was millions of people! It. was. PACKED.

Once we weaved our way through the crowd we took in the activities in St. Andrew's Square (carousel, gingerbread factory, a scary version of the swing ride, etc.) and then saw a pretty cool fireworks display. After that we found solace in the Princes Street Gardens and the cute train ride they have set up there. With lots of room to roam, this was the best place to be for Freddie and us crowd-sensitive adults.

Apparently the Christmas festivities in Edinburgh this year have been completely revamped. It's all been organized by a different group of people than usual and, from first glance, seems more involved (in a good way) and a bit classier. Only complaint- the ice rink is a lot smaller! 

Checkin' out the train and rockin' the Rudolph hat.

All in all, it was a great evening out "on the town" and, despite not getting the gingerbread lattes we wanted, a fun way to kick off the Christmas season. (What can we do- there's no Thanksgiving here!) Ho ho ho!

None of us felt the need to put on make-up. Ha!

Photo of the week: Freddie in the leaves!

The days seem to be alternating between Fall and Winter as far as temperatures go but we were lucky enough to have a warm(ish) and blustery Fall morning on our hands today. Freddie and I celebrated this small miracle by playing in the piles of leaves in Holyrood Park.

The park (or Queen perhaps?) employs a couple of leaf-blowers to blow all of the leaves into long lines and piles for a tractor with some sort of combine harvester (I think that's what it says on the side of it) to pick up. Lucky for us (and unlucky for them) are the days when we get to the piles before the tractor!

Freddie loves running through the piles, inspecting individual leaves and throwing them in the air. It's definitely an activity that reminds me of my childhood (we used to go door to door and ask our neighbors if we could bring their leaves to our yard to make our mound bigger) and the best part is- we didn't even have to rake them up!

New baby update!

We had a check-up with our midwife today and I'm happy to report that everything looks good with the new baby! I've been a little stressed out lately, thinking I should be fatter than I am and worried that the baby might not be in there. But, thankfully, it was just nervous pregnancy hormone-related feelings (or at least that's what I'm blaming it on).

We got to hear the baby's heartbeat and, just like last time, it was amazing to hear. Freddie and William were there too, and it was an exciting moment for all of us. Freddie was a little protective of me during the appointment and wanted to sit on my lap while I had my blood pressure taken etc. He was full of skeptical looks for our midwife Lyndsey (who couldn't be nicer) but once he noticed the clock in the room he was able to relax a bit (clocks and the moon are his two biggest obsessions at the moment).

17 weeks down, 23 (or more haha) to go! And since we don't have any more pics of the new babe (next ultrasound isn't until next month), here are some from the last time around!

Yowza! 8 months prego

Just after Freddie was born.

What a cutie!

Time to Par-tay!

Posing

Freddie and William went to the Dad's Rock Halloween Party yesterday and had an absolute blast! Dad's Rock is a great organization here in Scotland. It's a playgroup for just dads and their kids. We found out about it from a friend of mine and William and Freddie have been going every since.

They have multiple locations around Edinburgh and welcome dads and their kids every Saturday morning. They play with toys, sing songs and dance around. It's completely free and they even give the kids a snack.

Fred and his cowboy Dad

For the Halloween Party yesterday Freddie reprised his role as Freddie Mercury. We changed his costume slightly from last year (added a belt) but figured, why mess with a good thing?!

Freddie and one of his best friends

He even kept his fake mustache on the whole time, which I was shocked at! It made him look very serious and really aged him- he could have passed for at least 3. Note to all the guys out there- nix the facial hair if you want to look younger!