This week has been all about family.  We’re used to operating as a small unit of four: we don’t have any local relatives – and most are hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away.  But I’m proud to say that this week four generations of women in my family shared my sofa in Herne Hill:

I’m not sure how many people have had that honour – but seeing that picture makes me grin every time, even though we’re not the most photogenic bunch!  I’m so pleased Sophie has met her great grandma, as I met mine as a child.

As you can tell, my mum has been visiting from Michigan, having not been here since November last year.  It’ll be her last visit back before mum and dad relocate to the UK in June – hooray!  As soon as she arrived at my house last week, she started catching up on all the Sophie and Alex cuddles she’d missed:

Mum and I had a lovely, quiet few days together at home and it was fabulous to see Alex enjoying having her around.  He loves his grandma!

He had a lot more relatives to remember on Sunday when we drove out to Reading to meet my grandparents, aunt, mum, brother and sister-in-law for a delicious lunch.  It was the first time my Scottish family had met Sophie, so she got lots of smiles and cuddles – very cute!  Here’s my brother enjoying a cuddle:

We took Alex out to my brother’s excellent local park to stretch his legs as he was going a bit stir crazy stuck indoors.  It was so shockingly cold and windy, we only lasted a few minutes.  We still managed to keep smiling though:

On the way back to London, we stopped into Matt’s parents’ house in Crowthorne where Alex played with some of his cousins who were also visiting, and enjoyed watching his granddad’s tropical fish as usual!  Thanks to Dick and Michele for looking after us  🙂

Our family fun didn’t end there though, as my grandparents, aunt and mum were spending a few days up in London with us.  Alex started off a bit shy with all the visitors in his house but by the second evening, Alex was calling his great grandparents “his friends” and leading them by the hand to show them his bedroom and toys!  Very funny!

Here are my grandparents enjoying a Sophie cuddle:

And Sophie with my Auntie Margaret (if you look at Sophie,  you can see she’s perfecting her raspberry blowing – this week’s new talent!)

It’s been a lovely week – the house seems very quiet now that everyone has gone.  But we need it quiet – next stop….potty training!