What a fantastic week!  My return to work was brilliantly timed with the return of good weather!  It’s been a stunning few days of sunshine and warm weather.

My first three days in the office were a pleasure – it was fabulous catching up with all my friends and colleagues, and particularly nice enjoying lunches outside every day.  I must admit, I’ve been easing myself in gently – spending this week finding out what’s been going on and what I need to focus on over the coming months.  I’ve not done much actual work yet, but the “to do” list is beginning to grow, so I’ll have plenty to do next week.  It does feel strange sitting at a desk all day, not talking about babies – but I rather like it!

But as I head home after work, I look forward to getting back to being a mum.  Alex had a fab few days with his childminder – he’s been all smiles when I’ve gone to collect him.  The sunshine has meant that all the children have been spending the day outside – so Alex had his first experience of sun tan lotion.  Here he is having fun in her garden (if you look carefully, you’ll see that despite being surrounded by toys, Alex is choosing to eat his socks!).

Alex and I enjoyed our day together on Friday.  We had lots of our NCT friends and their babies around for a leisurely lunch in our garden.  We spread blankets on the grass and let the boys play together (mostly managing to prevent them eating too much grass)!

With the wonderful weather continuing throughout the weekend, we spent as much time as possible outside.  On Saturday, we headed up to London for a picnic in St James’ Park:

The picnic was closely followed by a late afternoon bbq at our friend Charlie’s house.  And today, we drove over to Chiswick for a long lunch with our friends, John and Sladana (and their gorgeous girl, Sasha).  Quite a bit of food was consumed this weekend!  Alex ate his first meat today – sampling some chicken casserole.  And he had great fun watching Sasha – she’s 9 months older than him, and he watched her very carefully, laughing and giggling whenever she was.  So cute!

To close, here’s a quick movie of Alex enjoying his door bouncer: