Well, this week marked my final full week of maternity leave – and what a wonderful week it was! As part of his final settling in with Jacqui, Alex did a full three days with her – which meant that I had three full days to myself. What an amazing treat – and what a lovely time I had! I spent a wonderful day on the King’s Road stocking up on some new clothes for work, I had my hair done and got a massage and I spent some lovely quiet time at home with my feet up.

But you’re not reading this to find out about me doing very little – what was Alex up to? Well, it seems he was having a lovely time with Jacqui and his new friends (who seem to love him – every evening when it’s time to go home, he gets kisses from all the older children!). He’s been to lots of parks and baby groups and eaten lots of new food (in fact, Jacqui says he “eats like a horse”). And he’s getting really good at sitting up on his own. He seems really happy with Jacqui and has settled in brilliantly – I am so relieved to have no concerns about returning to work. Hoping he’s on his best behaviour next week as Jacqui is being inspected by OFSTED.

I was a bit nervous on Friday about how I’d manage to keep Alex entertained all day after his three exciting days with Jacqui and his new friends.  I’m not sure Alex would define what we did as entertaining, but it was certainly productive.  After his first nap, we got the bus to Camberwell to pick up a parcel, do a spot of shopping, and most importantly, to get Alex his first passport photographs.

It was quite amusing as the photo shop owner held Alex up to the backdrop and tried to encourage him to look at his assistants camera.  With a lot of shouting and toy waving, we managed it – and here is the result.  With the stripey top and serious, guilty look – I think he looks a tad criminal (but then I guess most people look like that in passport pictures!).  Alex seemed to really like the shop owner – he had a very stubbly beard which Alex kept stroking!!

In other news, Alex is STILL sleeping through the night – we continue to be amazed by this!  I have no idea why he suddenly decided not to bother waking up, but I am loving it!