Hello 2013

After Alex’s long spell of being under the weather, he made a sudden recovery around new year. It was such a relief to have our fun, happy boy back – and made for a fun start to 2013 🙂

Auntie Katharine joined us to see in the new year. The children slept beautifully whilst we enjoyed scrummy steaks, chocolate orange cheesecake and bubbly – yum. I’m proud to report I managed to stay up to enjoy the London fireworks at midnight on TV. Sophie was a super baby and slept till 4am – her longest single stint yet 🙂 Happy New Year!

On New Year’s Day, we drove to Crowthorne to spend a lovely afternoon with Dick (Matt’s dad) and Michele. Alex was on great form, loving the tropical fishtank (he was convinced it contained a shark!) and the dogs

All too soon, we got to the final day of the holidays before Matt returned to work and Alex to Jacqui’s. We had a quiet local day – Alex had a very professional haircut (aided by Peppa Pig on the iPad!) and Sophie had her first innoculations (poor baby). We had both children weighed at the baby clinic. Not surprised at all to find Alex remains on the 91st centile for weight, weighing in at 12.75kg. Sophie is a little more petite on the 50th centile, but putting on the pounds nicely! Here’s Alex playing the public Herne Hill piano with his smart new haircut:

Thursday saw a return to normality. Alex loved being back with his friends at Jacqui’s – here he is having fun with his friend Ben:

Sophie and I had a lovely quiet day together. I took her to a trial Gymboree class for babies which was unbelievably cute – she seemed to really enjoy the sensory fun. Like her brother, she was enthralled by the bubbles and singing. We’re signing up to go each week – can’t wait!

On Friday, Sophie and I ventured to the Brixton Ritzy “Big Scream” cinema screening to see “Quartet”. Watching a film about opera and classical music in a room full of babies, many of whom were crying, was not entirely ideal, but I did enjoy it and loved the chance to get to the movies! Sophie was an angel, sleeping the whole way through!

This past weekend was all about birthdays! It was mine on Saturday, and I was surprised by an iPad mini from Matt. It’s a fabulous present, but sadly I am restricted on when I can use it; Alex LOVES iPads, and I’m determined to keep this one sticky finger free! Alex and Sophie gave me some photography equipment ready for the course I’m going on later in January (more on that soon!).

But there wasn’t much time to celebrate my birthday as we were off on the road to our nephew Edward’s birthday party in Shere. Alex was in his element with the massive farm-themed bouncy castle. It’s blurry, but I think you can see he’s having fun:

He really enjoyed spending time with his cousins. After the party, we popped back to Richard and Margaret’s house for a delicious dinner, and Alex followed his older cousins around and had a fun bathtime with them.

On Sunday, we were off again, this time to Alex’s friend Sasha’s 3rd birthday party in Chiswick. At Chiswick Theatre Arts, this party had a theatrical theme which Alex took a little longer to warm to. But soon enough, he was running around, dancing and enjoying all the props. Here he is occupying the princess throne proudly!

Sophie got dressed up for the party in a gorgeous dress her Uncle David and Auntie Sarah bought when she was born – how cute is this?!:

What a busy weekend – Alex ate a LOT of cake, so I was a bit nervous about a full day on my own with them both. I needn’t have worried as we had a fabulous day today. Both Alex and Sophie were on excellent form, and I managed to spend time with each of them. Whilst Sophie was napping, Alex and I got artistic and did some painting with duplo blocks: