We’ve been feeling bad for not posting for a while – but to be honest, I’m not that sorry as we’ve been having so much fun we haven’t had time!!

It’s hard to know here to start as we’ve been packing lots into our weekends. We’ve been out and about in London, checking out Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park with Alex’s Uncle Richard, Auntie Margaret and his cousins Thomas and Edward.  It was incredibly busy, very tacky and pretty expensive – but the children loved it! Alex went on his very first fairground rides, trying out some spinning tea cups and the Big Wheel.  He wasn’t much of a fan of the tea cups, but loved pressing his face against the window and door of the Big Wheel capsule (which freaked me out immensely as I watched from the ground – it went really quite high!).  Here he is with his daddy on the tea cup before he started screaming!

And checking out the Serpentine ducks:

Last weekend, we visited the Science Museum again – this time heading down to the basement area which is designed for little children.   I can’t believe we haven’t discovered it before – it was heaven for Alex.  Packed full of sensory toys and experiences, Alex enjoyed funny mirrors, tactile wall coverings and best of all, lots and lots of water!  He got completely soaked, despite the waterproof tabards.  Here he is getting stuck in:

We also made a quick visit to Deen City Farm – we’ve visited a couple of times before and Alex wasn’t particularly interested in the animals, but this time he went crazy for the chickens and turkeys. His favourite thing there was one of the tacky rides – here he is hard at work:

With the days being so short, we’ve been struggling a bit to entertain Alex in the late afternoon, but last weekend we discovered that Crystal Palace have a family swimming session that perfectly fills the slot between nap and dinner. Alex seems to adore being in the water and he giggled and splashed his way around the pool doing a fabulous job of kicking.  We’ll certainly try and get there most weekends now that our swimming classes have finished.

Besides all those exciting trips, we’ve enjoyed some lovely family meals out.  Alex is getting much better at sitting in a high chair in restaurants, and is beginning to get the hang of cutlery.  Last weekend he had a mini roast meal for Sunday Lunch in our local pub which was great, and he’s getting more international by trying Mexican food at Wholefoods last weekend 🙂  One amusing eating habit he is developing is a love hate relationship with ice cream.  He knows he likes the flavour, but that doesn’t stop him wincing and pulling the funniest faces at the cold as he puts it in his mouth!

He’s getting on so well with his childminder – he’s really social and confident.  It’s really noticeable when he’s with us – he’s started saying “hiya” and waving at strangers every where we go, resulting in embarrassed people who feel obliged to return the greeting!!  Very cute.  He’s chatting more and more, with his current repertoire of words including:

• Mama
• Dada
• Yeah
• Bye Bye
• Hiya
• Duck
• Up there – in relation to planes flying over (apparently he even said “aeroplane” yesterday, but I’m not convinced!)
• Get down – whenever he seems his childminder’s puppy
• Mine – whenever his childminer holds another baby (referring to her)

He’s growing up!