Little babies and big fun

I feel like there’s a recurring theme with my blog – posts are becoming less frequent and I start each one with an apology for my absence.

So I will just say that it’s been another busy fortnight packed full of lots of long hours, a few gorgeous little baby cuddles, some excellent adventures with the children and a couple of frustrating bouts of illness for all of us.

Just after my last post, Sophie and I were struck down with a bug which got in the way of a short trip I had planned to visit some girlfriends up in Newcastle – a proper girly trip for the first time in years. Needless to say, I was gutted to miss out on wine and gossiping! But things soon improved with the arrival of Katharine and her gorgeous daughter, Emilia, for their first trip up to London.

Cue the first set of wonderful little baby cuddles. Emilia was an angel, sleeping beautifully and seemingly fascinated in watching Alex and Sophie career around the house. So cute! We had a lovely visit from our university friend, Kate, on the first day of Katharine’s visit. While us ladies were enjoying a leisurely lunch and catch up, Alex went to his first proper fancy dress party, finally having an excuse to don the NASA outfit my parents brought him from the USA – how cool does he look!? Sophie loved wearing the cap afterwards!

On Sunday, we headed over to Ealing for a 2nd birthday party. A friend had taken over a rugby club hall and brought in some fabulous entertainers for the little ones, so Alex and Sophie had a wonderful time. Now that Sophie is confidently walking, I took the opportunity of trying her out in a proper party dress – and she loved it! She was enthralled by the skirt and looked unbelievably cute running around the party

Here are our wonderful houseguests – Katharine and Emilia!

Last weekend saw a return of Spring sunshine, so we spent as much time as possble outside. Having read about a mini steam fairground in Battersea Park, we headed off with a picnic after a quick morning swim in Brixton. We slowly meandered at Sophie’s walking pace along the river, stopping to inspect leaves, sticks, rubbish (!) and stones, before settling on a bench for lunch.

We explored the peace pagoda up close for the first time, and with all the beautiful blossoms on the trees, it felt like we could be in Japan!

Finally, we made it around to the steam fair, much to Alex’s excitement. He immediately began negotiating with us about how many rides he could go on! Thankfully there were only a handful of beautiful, traditional rides so he had a crack at most of then. He’s getting braver, and went on the tall helter skelter on hsi own and some faster solo rides.

Sophie was getting too sleepy to enjoy much, but we did do one attempt at the Merry-Go-Round before it was time for her to nap in her buggy. Matt and Alex went off to explore the brilliant children’s adventure playground while I wandered around the lovely, quiet lakes and gardens with a sleeping toddler.

Mother’s Day brought an opportunity for more baby cuddles – this time with a very tiny pair! We headed out to Berkshire to meet my beautiful new nieces, Rose and Lucy! Aren’t they gorgeous!? Quite a handful for my brother and sister-in-law, but so very sweet!

On the way, we stopped in for a play at The Lookout where we met my parents for an hour. I love this picture of my dad with Alex and Sophie wandering off to explore the woods. They seem huge compared to their new cousins! The children had a brilliant time as usual in the playground, even playing together a little bit (despite her expression in the picture below, Sophie did enjoy the slide with her brother!)

The final highlight of Mothers’ Day was a wonderful lunch with Matt’s family in Crowthorne. The weather was mild enough for the children to spend most of the time in the garden, and Sophie was clearly quite taken with her older cousin, Honor, who was also visiting!