Finally I have time to post about our busy week a few weeks ago now. He is so exhausted after last nights Halloween do that he is crashed out on the floor on Chester the Chicken.
Well the week of the renal scan went on to get much better. My mum had given Stuart a voucher to spend the day flying birds of prey for Christmas and we finally got chance to book it. Stuart went first thing in the morning and Mum, Alfie and i went to meet him in the afternoon, slightly later than intended due to community nurses turning up late with urgent supplies and no apology again.
We got there to find Stuart all lit up due to his wonderful morning. The weather was perfect and they has had chance to fly all sorts of birds. We all went to see the eagle display together which was amazing. It is towards the end of the season and quieter so they tend to 'wing' it a bit more, no pun intended. This means you get a few more demos thrown in that they are intending to put in next years programme, they may have a little less finesse but it is great to see something at its inception. A couple of the eagles flew really low over the audience almost clipping a couple of people! When the lady doing the display warned to duck she really meant it! It became more apparent that you had to listen to her when the rather dim and clumsy vulture flew back to his keeper and nearly clobbered a couple of people by accident.
Just made me laugh!
Enjoying his day out :-)
At this point Stuart went back to his day and getting to know his hawk for the rest of the day and Mum and I went to meet a Harris hawk with Alfie (after a cup of tea a course). Laura the hawk is a bit of a star, she has appeared in a number of adverts, TV shows and films so it was a great privilege to hold her and have her fly to my hand to take food. I got to do it twice because Mum had a camera malfunction.
Laura the Harris Hawk with me..
and Mum.
A beautiful pairing.
We all then had a wander round to see all the birds of prey and for some reason ferrets that they have at the Hawk Conservancy in Andover. After this we went to see a new display which was woodland flying to demonstrate how the birds adapt to obstacles like trees etc. We met cinnamon who apparently is the owl worlds equivalent to tom Cruise, huge film star and small but perfectly formed (according to the bloke doing the display not me!). Alfie was showing his huge enthusiasm for all of this by being sound asleep as he had been since we had got out in the fresh air! He was in his car seat on the buggy frame and chose to wake up when a huge and I mean huge eagle owl flew over it so close he almost scratched the handle with his claws, Alfie far from being scared grinned at the under side of this amazing creature and went back to sleep.
Mum and I then had a photo shoot with the film star.
Cinnamon, the owl worlds Tom Cruise, does that make me Katie?
and Mum Nicole?
We bumped into Stuart in his training session so had a little watch of that before moving on to more tea and cake, well we had to to keep Alfie company while he had his afternoon tea. It was then off to pick up Molly the West Highland terrier who was going on her hols to Mums. then home for a takeaway.
So onto Saturday and down to Kate's for Harley's birthday shopping trip. We went to the Build a Bear shop to get Harley's bear Biscuit a new outfit from us. Crumble (as seen as a pumpkin on Halloween), Alfie's bear came from here and Kate kissed his heart when it was put in. Another lovely takeaway there, food seems to be of paramount importance in our family.
Sunday brought a trip to the zoo for the rest of Harley's birthday. For some reason giraffes have become very important in Alfie's life, he got a lot of soft toys when he was born that were all giraffes, all completely unrelated and apparently there is a nursery decoration set that is called 'Alfie Giraffe', what a strange coincidence. We met Kate's and family and had birthday cake, then we left them to go on the safari bus as we can't take out car round due to the monkeys and soft tops not being compatible. Thanks to the new suction unit we could go on the bus easily (you aren't allowed to take a buggy on so with the big unit we would have struggled. Alfie went in his sling for the first time and loved it, so much so that he went to sleep (another pattern developing I hear you say). He did however stay awake long enough to see the giraffes. His most recent giraffe travelled all the way from South Africa specially for him thanks to Nic and Tim :-).
First use of the sling.
Best we could do from the bus.
We are going back to Longleat on Saturday on our way down to Cornwall to use the last of our passport tickets before they expire so when I do a holiday post I will fill you in on the rest of it.
Alfie snuggling his own wild animal!
We had a great time and a wonderful week feeling very much the 'normal' family. I have to say much of this is due to the new unit and our glorious, easy going boy. He is so worth the wait and trite as it might sound all these things are so much more enjoyable now we have him to share it with. For all the problems we have had when we are out and about there is the sense of being the 'perfect' little family, a real feeling of contentment and happiness.
Sorry if some of the pictures are not too focused, Alfie moves so much it is very hard to do the arty thing, much as I would like to (or I am laughing too much and get camera shake). They are all taken on my phone which is fab as it is always with us so we never miss a moment and I get to carry all the memories around with me.
The Bog of Doom 
....and it used to be so clean!
