We’ve had a busy weekend enjoying having my parents back in the UK – for good this time!  After nearly five years in Michigan, they are home to enjoy retirement!

And Alex has LOVED having them to say.  It’s been 6 months since my Dad was here, but despite Alex only seeing him on Skype since then, he recognised his grandpa and dragged him straight through to his playroom as soon as he arrived so he could play with the trains!

On their first day, partly to get them outside to avoid jetlag induced snoozing, we went on a lovely walk to Dulwich Village where we enjoyed ice cream and much scooting around the park

It was a gloriously sunny day, so Matt enjoyed some Sophie cuddles in the garden

With the weather turning on Sunday, we spent some time exploring Brixton and enjoying a delicious lunch at Franco Manca where Alex tried his hand at photography for the first time, capturing his grandparents, Sophie eating her sock (as usual) and grandpa hiding behind the pepper!  What do you think?  A future David Bailey?

We also spent a lot of time at the local park watching Alex scooting around and around – he’s clearly making up for lost time after all those months with the scooter gathering dust!

Yesterday and today, my parents have helped out with the children so much – letting me spend bits of time with each of them individually.  Quite a luxury!  It’s been such fun seeing both Alex and Sophie so comfortable with them – I know they are going to love having all their grandparents close by in the coming years!

Back to normal now though as my parents are up in the Midlands looking for a house to rent before touring the country to visit the rest of the family.  It’s back to the childminder tomorrow for Alex and Sophie – but judging by last week’s photographs from Jacqui, they’ll have a brilliant time!  With the gorgeous sunshine last week, they spent almost every minute outside, enjoying picnics with their friends (can you spot a nearly naked Alex?!):

Getting in some music practice:

And doing some exercise:

Thanks Jacqui for all the photos – they really brighten up my days at work!!

Must sign off and get ready for tomorrow.  But before I forget, Sophie learned to clap today – and she looks very pleased with herself each time she manages it.  Will have to try and video it!  Next thing for her is to start crawling – and she’s already pretty close.  Then it will truly be chaos!

Night night.

After lots of bear hunt themed fun with Alex in the past week, we went on a Gruffalo hunt in Sydenham Hill Woods yesterday afternoon!  With Sophie in the backpack for the first time, we spent a fun hour exploring the woods looking for the snake’s log pile house, the fox’s underground house and the owl’s tree top house!

I know I’ve said this before, but I love seeing the children thriving in the sunshine.  Alex is so happy being outside, getting nice and muddy and running around.  And I’m sure Sophie likes the wind in her crazy hair (and she certainly liked pulling mine from the comfort of her backpack)!  There were still pretty patches of bluebells in the woods, and everything looked so beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine.

It was the first time I’d been to the woods since Sophie was born, but I think we’ll be back quite a bit over the summer.

In other news, Alex remains obsessed with his scooter.  Today, for the first time, I ventured out with Sophie in her buggy and Alex scooting all the way down to Herne Hill.  And it went really well!  I didn’t have to carry Alex or the scooter at any point – so I consider that a major success.  And he spent the entire Hummy Mummies choir rehearsal this afternoon scooting round the room in circles.  Clearly the best present ever (thank you Michele!)

The scooter had a bit of a face lift yesterday at the Herne Hill market.  Amidst the gourmet food and yummy cake stalls was a youth group decorating bikes and scooters with spray paint!  Now we’re out and about much more with the scooter, we’ve seen that nearly every toddler in SE24 has the same one as Alex.  So to help us identify it, and not lose it, Alex selected a paint job for it!  It now resembles Fireman Sam’s engine (i.e it’s red and yellow) and has a very bling ALEX written in gold on the foot board!  Am slightly embarrassed by it – but Alex LOVES it!!

I’ve been quite a prolific blogger this past week – but back to work tomorrow, so don’t expect so many regular posts from now on (unless you fancy thrilling updates from the world of  my office!).  Hopefully I’ll post next week on the return of my parents to the UK for good.  My dad hasn’t seen Sophie since she was 4 weeks old, so I’m looking forward to seeing his face on Saturday when he arrives to see his granddaughter!

In the meantime, here’s Alex having a huge amount of fun with a cardboard box

And Sophie looking cute in some new Summer clothes!

I had to quickly post this photo from last week – I just found it on Matt’s phone and absolutely love it!

Here’s Alex trying binoculars for the first time.  But he’s much more interested in his Granddad than all the birds outside in the garden!  I love so many things about this picture – the look on Dick’s face, the fact Alex has the binoculars the wrong way round, and the memories of a lovely afternoon it brings back.

Happy Sunday everyone (especially Michele who I know will like this!)

Back in London, with the weather finally improving, we’ve been enjoying our last few days off.

On Thursday, after a lazy morning at home, Family Agar hopped on a train up to London Bridge to have a wander around Borough Market.  We took enormous pleasure (as usual) of sampling a vast quantity of food for lunch, including a large amount of cheese and bread.  And of course, Alex had an ice cream in his favourite shop there!

Sophie and I came home on our own (with a bag laden with Konditor and Cook chocolate brownies and curly wurly cake!), leaving the boys to get the tube out to North Greenwich to have a go on the Emirates cable car over the river.   I had two comedy phone calls from Alex – it was the first time I’ve really had a meaningful conversation with him on the phone – he sounds so little!  He delighted in telling me all about the many different forms of transport he used on his little excursion with daddy – train, underground train, overground train (yes, these are all different) and bus.

On Friday, Alex and I headed up to North London to check out the Little Angel Theatre – a children’s puppet theatre!  I’d heard they were doing a production of Alex’s favourite story – “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt“, so of course, we had to go and see it.  And it was well worth the trek.  He (and I) were enthralled from start to finish – it really was an incredible production which completely brought the book to life.  Alex managed to sit still for the full 45 minutes, except a few times when he tried (and failed) to escape my grip to go and see the puppets up close!  He dutifully screamed when the bear ventured out into the audience.  It was hilarious – I’d highly recommend it.

A boys trip to our local park in the afternoon proved somewhat of a breakthrough for Alex and his scooting skills.  He was given a scooter for his 2nd birthday, and despite many attempts to get him out on it, we’ve mostly ended up carrying it for him!  It hasn’t helped that the winter has been so cold and long – park trips just haven’t happened that much.  But on Friday, Alex suddenly figured out how to pick up speed and turn – and now we can hardly get him off it!  Here he is showing us his progress:

Now I just have to persuade him to wear a helmet…

We spent the rest of Friday afternoon lazing around in the garden enjoying the sunshine and some garden toys.

Isn’t she cute?  I just can’t get enough of her crazy hair and gorgeous eyes!

My family:

Yesterday, we decided to make use of our National Trust membership with a trip to beautiful Chartwell, family home of the Churchills.  We packed up the car with blankets, picnic, buggy and of course the scooter and headed out to the gorgeous Surrey Hills.  It’s less than an hour from home, but it really does feel like you’ve escaped to the country.  I think we all enjoyed the fresh air, and Alex certainly made the most of his scooter on the flat paths around the house and walled gardens (we managed to persuade him against scooting down the steep hills – it was a little too busy for that!)

Because it was the end of half term week, there were little activities around the grounds for children.  Alex went on a bug hunt with a magnifying glass and even got to help out in the kitchen garden, learning how to rake, dig and water raised beds.

The gardens were absolutely beautiful – I guess all the rain has been good for something!

Loving the wisteria (and proud of how much we’ve managed to load onto one buggy!)

Yesterday has inspired us to try and get out to more National Trust properties – and also to start working our way down their fabulous list of 50 things to do before you’re 11 3/4 with Alex and Sophie!  Alex has already done quite a few – Sophie not so much yet!!

Here are all our snaps from Chartwell:

It’s a holiday week for Family Agar!  Our childminder is away for the week, so Matt and I are both off work and enjoying lots of time with the children.  And of course, with it being our annual leave (and a British bank holiday) – we’ve already had a crazy week of weather contrast  – but more on that later!

We started our week with another family trip to Greenwich – which is fast becoming our top destination for a London day out.  We revisited the Planetarium (partly so Alex could see the brilliant Space Safari show again, and partly so we could replace his favourite star cup which Matt accidently melted in the dishwasher!) before wandering down to the National Maritime Museum.  Alex absolutely adores the massive ship in a bottle and cascading water feature outside the Museum – so it took us some time to actually get in the door.  We played a lot of “pooh sticks” and Alex managed to get really quite wet!

We spent more time exploring the museum than last visit, not having an exhibition we were specifically trying to see on this occasion.  We found the brilliant children’s gallery and enjoyed watching Alex’s face light up when learning to use a two way radio and morse code.  Matt loved trying his hand at manouvering into port on the ship simulator (perhaps a little too much given its intended audience was children!).

Just before we headed off for lunch, we discovered the Great Map – a fabulous open space which was great for children to run around in.  Alex couldn’t get enough of driving his submarine around the space and got quite frustrated that it was a bit heavy for him to push really fast!

After a rather overpriced lunch in the museum cafe, we slowly walked back up the hill to the car eating delicious ice cream.  Alex told me off for repeatedly licking his ice cream, and Sophie stared longingly at Matt’s for the entire walk back – she’s turning into quite a gannet!

Sunday dawned hot and sunny and we felt quite optimistic about our forthcoming mini break to the South coast!  We set off in shorts and drove down to Shere in Surrey for a lovely roast lunch with Matt’s brother, Richard, and his family.  They have a glorious garden and it was such a treat to sprawl out among the blossom in the sunshine.  Alex adores his cousins, Thomas and Edward, and loved running around after them.  They climbed trees, played on the slide, attempted a game of cricket (!), dug in the sandpit and much more.

I think Sophie enjoyed all the attention she got from her bigger cousins, aunt and uncle – as well as being outside in shorts and a tshirt for only the second time in her life!

We were sad to drag ourselves away from the heavenly setting and hit the M3, but we had to press on to reach Southampton where we were staying near the New Forest for a few days.  Our friend, Katharine, incredibly kindly gave up her new house for three nights so we could take it over (thank you!) and joined us for some interesting day trips!

We were a little apprehensive about spending some nights away from home – it was the first time since Alex stopped sleeping in a cot and moved to a proper bed that we’d been away.  We thought our worst fears were going to be realised when, for the first 30 minutes after bedtime on the first evening, he kept coming out of his room to find us  – but after the novelty wore off, he was fine and stayed in bed until morning.  And super Sophie slept through all three nights in the same room as us (despite Matt’s snoring!).  So, with sleep not an issue – how did we fill our days…

With the forecast for Bank Holiday Monday looking gorgeous, we decided to start our day with a drive through the New Forest to Lepe Beach.  Alex loved spotting the ponies and other animals in the Forest and was incredibly excited about seeing the sea (he’s such a city boy!).  It was gloriously sunny, but incredibly windy – and consequently quite chilly.  But that didn’t deter us (must be the Scottish blood!) and we managed a full hour on the beach.  The tide was out when we arrived, so Alex enjoyed some rock pooling, spotting lots of shells and even some small (dead) crabs.  We bought him a bucket and spade so he could attempt a sand castle – although he mostly just filled his bucket with pebbles!  It was Sophie’s first trip to the sea so we enjoyed showing her the waves and kite surfers.

When we couldn’t stand the cold wind much longer, we headed to the cafe for some warmth and a lovely lunch before climbing up to the playground for games and ice cream.  A very British seaside trip 🙂

When we’d exhausted the entertainment of Lepe, we drove back through the Forest to the Longdown Activity Farm – a favourite of ours from previous trips.  Sophie napped in the car whilst Katharine, Alex and I whizzed around the farm checking out baby chicks, pigs, goats, donkey, cows and other animals. He particualrly enjoyed looking at the hens, and seemed to find being pecked by them completely hilarious!

Of course, Alex mostly enjoyed the non-animal focused activities – the softplay barn, trampolines, tractor driving and digger operating.

It’s a great activity farm – and I’m sure we’ll be back again on our next trip to the New Forest when hopefully Sophie will be able to enjoy it a bit more!

Tuesday couldn’t have been more of a contrast – we woke to dark skies and heavy rain :-(.  But that didn’t dampen our mood – for Tuesday heralded the event Alex had been patiently waiting for over the past week.  We were going to Peppa Pig World!  Every day since we told him we were going, he’s asked us “Are we going to Peppa’s house today?” – and it was fun to finally be able to tell him we actually were!

Luckily for us, the horrible weather meant that not many other people braved the theme park – so the queues were relatively short, giving us the chance to go on most of the rides.  Alex’s face when we first saw Peppa Pig World was such a picture – he could barely contain his excitment.  He chose the tallest ride of all to start – and enjoyed floating on a cloud up to the top of Windy Castle.  He drove Daddy Pig’s car, sailed Grandpa Pig’s boat ride and rode his train.  And his favourite of all was riding George’s dinosaur!  He even got to meet George and give him a high five!  Very exciting!

Poor Sophie spent quite a long time getting rather damp in her buggy, but she kept smiling despite the fact I forgot to bring the rain cover!  She liked going on the little train with Auntie Katharine!

After lunch, we discovered that Alex is developing into quite a thrill seeker.  Matt decided to take him on the swinging pirate ship.  I thought it was a bit extreme for a two year old, but thankfully for Matt, Alex giggled and giggled!  Phew.  The two boys then had a few goes on the very fast and very high water slide – and we had one of our very few grumpy tantrums from Alex when we tried to drag him away!  Here are some rubbish photos of their extreme rides (Matt’s hate me for including the water slide pic – it makes him look enormous!)

Despite the horrific weather, we stayed at the park for hours and had a really lovely time.  I’d definitely go again – although suspect on a gloriously sunny day, the queueing would be a bit much and we’d have much grumpier children!  After splashing in some puddles in the car park, we headed back to Katharine’s lovely warm, dry house and watched Madagascar snuggled up on the sofa!

For our final night in Southampton, Matt and I enjoyed a bit of a treat.  Katharine’s mum babysat, and we headed out together for a curry and proper catch up in Ashurst.  We ordered far too much and all felt like we could have rolled home afterwards, but it was lovely to get out for a few hours!

We woke to sunny skies on Wednesday, so squeezed in a quick trip to Katharine’s local playground before packing up the car and heading to Berkshire.  We stopped in at Matt’s dad’s on the way home – in the one hour drive North, the weather changed yet again, and we arrived in Crowthorne to drizzle.  You’ve got to love British summertime!  Undeterred, we headed off to The Lookout in Bracknell Forest so Matt, Dick and Alex could do a spot of mountain biking. Of course, with a two year old on the back of your bike, you can’t really attempt much of a dramatic course – but the boys did enjoy the green run together!

After a couple of laps of the route, I whisked Alex and Sophie off to the adventure playground and left Matt and his dad to do a spot of cycling on their own.  We soon got pretty cold and wet though, so headed back to enjoy lunch with Michele and some playtime before our final drive of the trip – back to London.

We had a fabulous few days away – the children behaved brilliantly, and we really enjoyed some fresh air and family time together.  Can’t wait to get back down to the New Forest – hopefully with more sunshine and calm winds next time!

We’ve got more planned for our final few days off, so expect another trip filled post next week!  In the meantime, just in case this post hasn’t included enough photos, here are all the snaps we took on our short trip South:

It’s been a crazy busy weekend, involving two theatre trips, lots of outside time and not quite enough sleep (for Matt and I anyway!).

But it has been such fun 🙂  It started with an unusual Saturday morning excursion for Alex and I.  I’d heard about a local special performance by Samsam the Bubbleman which was raising money for a great cause.  Samsam performed at the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and holds 9 Guinness World records for various bubble achievements!  Given how much Alex loves bubbles, I thought it was the perfect thing to take him to – and I was right!  He loved it (as did I)!  Alex was very brave and went up to the front during the performance to try and catch some of the bubbles.

The pictures aren’t great as it was quite dark – but you get the idea!  Samsam did some truly amazing things with bubbles – and I must admit I was a bit jealous of the lucky children who got to go inside a bubble – that must look very strange!

After the bubble show, Matt and Alex headed off to the Brockwell Park adventure playground for the afternoon.  Apparently, Alex spent nearly an hour playing in the massive sandpit (and I am still finding huge amounts of sand around my house so they clearly both had fun!)

Matt took Alex to watch the BMX riders on the track in the park – Alex seemed keen to have a go, so we must get his balance bike out again and see if he’s more enthusiastic about trying to ride!

Sophie and I had a much quieter afternoon catching up on laundry and grocery shopping – fun fun fun!

Once the children were tucked up in bed, our lovely babysitter Emma turned up, and Matt and I headed out on date night.  We had a lovely meal at the Brockwell Lido Cafe overlooking the pool – it was so relaxing and we even managed not to talk about the children all evening!  After dinner, it was still quite early and mild, so we wandered through Brockwell Park where a free open air showing of “Spirited Away” was on.  I’m not a huge fan of the film, but the atmostphere was amazing.  There were loads of people enjoying the film on picnic blankets, surrounded by lanterns and the glorious London skyline – and even better, there was fresh popcorn, cakes and beer at little market stalls.  I just love living in Herne Hill!

Today has been even busier.  The morning started as most Sundays do with Matt and Alex swimming in Dulwich and Sophie and I stocking up at the Herne Hill Farmers’ Market.  After a speedy lunch of quesadillas, Matt took Alex off to his second theatre trip of the weekend – to see Chris and Pui (of CBeebies “Show me, show me” fame).  Alex seemed to enjoy himself (although Matt says he prefered the chocolate ice cream at the interval!).  It’s so nice that Alex is getting to the age where we can take him to the theatre.  I’ve just booked tickets to a puppet performance of his favourite book (Bear Hunt) in a couple of weeks. Can’t wait!

When the boys got back, we headed straight out again to the Dulwich Park Fair – the culmination of the brilliant Dulwich Festival.  Alex had a few meltdowns because we wouldn’t let him have another ice cream, but thankfully not so many to spoil the excursion.  He, of course, loved the rides – going on the merry-go-round, inflatable slide and a rocket ride.  His absolute favourite thing was pretending to be “Mike the Knight” and learning some archery:

Sophie enjoyed all the bustle and noise at the fair – lots of things for her to look at.  She’s still too small for the rides, but not the swings:

In other Sophie news, she’s eating like a trooper now.  It’s hard to believe that a couple of weeks ago having food anywhere near her mouth made her gag!  And I’m delighted to report that she will happily eat my homemade purees (although I think she prefers shop-bought pouches like her big brother!).

And the biggest news of the week – she’s cut her first tooth!  Probably time to stop breastfeeding!

Phew – got through the enormous emotional milestone that was day one back in the office!  Things didn’t start well with Sophie having a horrendous night and me missing the train to get to work.  But they quickly improved when I was presented with diet coke and chocolate cupcakes on arrival!  How well my team know me 😉

The day was nice and quiet, catching up with people and sorting out my inbox and desk.  No doubt it’ll pick up quickly, but it was a relief to have a gentle day to ease back into things.

Thankfully, it passed quickly and soon I was speeding back home to where I belong – with my babies

There’s nothing quite like the cuddles you get when you’ve been away for a while!

So that’s it – my maternity leave is over.  I am struggling to believe it’s done – it seems like yesterday I was waiting for Sophie to arrive, and now she’s happily spending her days with her brother and Jacqui, our childminder.  We’ve had no issues at all with her settling in – so it’s an enormous relief that I don’t have to worry about her.  There have been no tears when we’ve left her, and are greeted with lovely big grins and flapping arms every evening.  I know that’s going to be a real highlight of my day!

I have quite mixed thoughts about returning to work this time – perhaps it’s because I am sure that my little family is now complete so I this is my last time off with a baby!  I’ve been reading back in my blog about my return to work with Alex back in 2011, and I remember being so excited about getting back into the company of adults.  I found the first few months of his life incredibly difficult and it took me a long time to feel like I was coping with my new life as a mum.

As another blogger I love to read writes so much more eloquently than me, I feel so much more calm and confident second time round.  I’ve loved the first few months with Sophie and I’m sad that I don’t get to spend all my time with her as she grows and develops.

But I had always intended returning to work once Sophie was 6 months old, just as I did with Alex.  Many people choose to take longer, especially other mums around Dulwich, but I feel that this is the right amount of time for me.  But it’s funny, I’ve actually found myself lying about Sophie’s age when talking to other mums at baby classes about how I’m returning to work now!  People seem so shocked that I’m going back to work when she’s six months old.

Even if I wanted to, I can’t really afford to take more time off (we knew when we bought our dream family house that it would involve us both working) – but regardless, I think this is a good time to return.  She’s young enough that she doesn’t have major separation anxiety, so she’s settled really quickly.  Plus, I think Alex has really benefitted from spending so much time with other children of varying ages.  His language and social skills are really strong, and I’m sure that’s because of his exposure to so much interaction. I don’t think he’s growing up scarred from not spending every minute with me!  And I hope they both understand, and especially that Sophie sees that it is possible to have a career and a family, and do OK at both of them!!

Whatever you think, this is certainly going to be a challenge!  I’m returning to a stressful job during a time of change for my department and institution, and I’m nervous about balancing the challenges of my role with the pressure of organising a home and family.  Just trying to get four people dressed, fed and out of the house before 8am every day is giving me chills!  And I’ve never been able to leave work in the office.

Anyway, we’re all organised for tomorrow, so I hope we’ll make it through the first day!  And I certainly hope I have enough time to keep blogging about the adventures of Alex and Sophie.

I shall close this rather self-indulgent post with a picture of Alex, who was a dream today.  During Sophie’s morning nap we had a fabulous time painting with duplo bricks and trains.  I have some lovely new artwork for my fridge 🙂

I can’t quite believe another weekend is over – and this is my final one on maternity leave.  I’m back at work on Tuesday – gulp!  More on that in another post….

In the meantime, what have we been up to? Yesterday morning, Matt and Alex headed off to the messy play club, “Happymess“, again.  When he woke up, we gave Alex the choice between toddler football and art, and he picked art – am a very chuffed mum!  This week they were creating blossom trees, playing with a play dough farm and making mud pies.  Here’s a gorgeous picture of my boys making their blossom tree:

But of course, Alex’s favourite part of the morning was making messy mud pies:

My fridge door is filling up with fabulous pictures (thankfully not made with mud).  I love it 🙂  Not sure that Matt particularly enjoys it – but I love Alex getting creative and muddy!  I’ll definitely take Alex next time – I want to have a go!

Whilst the boys were off getting dirty, I spent my time busy in the kitchen making batches of puree for Sophie who is finally showing an interest in food.  She’s been devouring Ella’s Kitchen fruit and vegetable pouches (always Alex’s favourite too), as well as bits of finger food like toast, cucumber and rice cakes.  She does like using her hands to eat – mealtimes are getting decidedly messy for Family Agar.  I invested in some long sleeved, plastic bibs for Sophie today to try and save her clothes – here she is trying to eat some puree herself:

Yesterday afternoon, I took the children over to Dulwich Village to get Alex some summer sandals – ironically, the heavens opened as we left the shoe shop, but Alex still insisted on an ice cream reward for his brilliant behaviour in the shoe shop!  So we sat in the rain and ate ice cream – such a British summer!

Today, thankfully, the weather was a little better – just in time for the Goose Green Summer Fair, part of the annual Dulwich Festival.  We enjoyed a lovely few hours in the sunshine, it was even warm enough to sit for a picnic together.  Alex is so much bigger than he was at last year’s fair, and went on all the children’s rides on his own.  He even climbed up some enormous slides by himself and had no qualms about sliding down from the top – I couldn’t watch!

He went on his first donkey ride at the fair.  He queued with me for ages, and then when his turn came decided that he didn’t really want to ride a big donkey.  But thankfully he changed his mind and agreed to ride on “Cedric” – and he loved every minute.  He very politely thanked Cedric at the end of his go 🙂

When we got home, Alex insisted on spashing in the water again, so happily sat in his mini paddling pool in the chilly wind (whilst I watched on wearing multiple layers!).  At least this week I persuaded him to wear some swimming trunks! He definitely has Scottish blood 🙂

I think we need to cut our grass!

This weather makes me feel so happy! I love not having to wrap the children (and me) up in jumpers and coats and adore spending the day outside. And for the weather to be this brilliant on a Bank Holiday Monday in the UK makes me even happier as Matt could enjoy the day with us 🙂

He took Alex to the Brockwell Park adventure playground this morning whilst Sophie napped and I prepared a picnic for lunch. This afternoon Hummy Mummies, the choir I go to each week with the children, was singing at the Dulwich Village Preschool 50th Anniversary fete. It was the perfect place to be on a glorious afternoon like today. It was small and safe, so Alex could run around barefoot. He spent most of the time on the two bouncy castles getting hotter and hotter! We managed to drag him off for a gingerbread man, and later an ice cream – but mostly he just jumped!

It was fun singing with the choir – here we are, with Alex joining us in the middle:

And a video if you’re super keen of us singing a cheesy Carpenters song!

It was such a beautiful day, we decided to walk home whilst Sophie had a quick nap in her buggy. We wandered through Dulwich Park (where it seemed most of the population of Dulwich were spending the afternoon) the park looked beautiful, although we had to concentrate in order to dodge the bicycles, runners and dogs speeding round the perimeter! Alex spent ages looking at the ducks and lake, trying to persuade us to take him out on a pedalo (!). Maybe next week…

Sophie soon woke and seemed very entertained by her brother on the buggy board in front of her. It was the first time in her entire life that her arms and legs had been exposed to warm sunshine – and she looked very happy about it!

Hot and sweaty after the long walk home, I promised Alex we’d get some water out in the garden to splash in. So I found a big tray and filled it up, chatting to Alex about how we’d play with his Octonauts toys and boats in the water – but as soon as the tray was full, Alex stripped off and sat in it. I don’t think you could get a smaller paddling pool (I feel bad, as we have a proper paddling pool in the shed!). He LOVED it – making a kelp forest for his fish with grass, blowing fairy liquid bubbles and generally getting very wet. It was so nice watching him having a brilliant time outside – I hope this weather lasts!

Today’s been the culmination of a lovely few days. Sophie started properly settling in with Jacqui, our childminder, on Friday so I had the full day to myself. Whilst it felt very wrong to begin with, not having anyone to look after, I quickly eased into a lovely quiet day. I relaxed at the hairdressers (and now no longer have grey hairs!), treated myself out to a yummy lunch in Brixton Village and did a spot of shopping and baking. I have four whole days to myself next week – am very excited about it!

On Saturday, Matt took Alex to a local messy play club (with the brilliant name Happymess). I’d spotted it online and thought it looked like a fun way to spend an hour – particularly when the theme this week was dinosaurs. Alex loved painting his own dinosaur:

And he loved making foot prints and dinosaur eggs from play dough.

It’s a great concept for a playgroup – I’m sure we’ll be back.

On Saturday afternoon, our Auntie Joan from San Francisco arrived for a quick visit, meeting Sophie for the first time. Matt’s brother and family joined us for dinner and Alex had a great time with his cousins (in fact, he hasn’t stopped asking for them since!). I’m kicking myself for completely neglecting to take any photographs of the family reunion – so annoying.

We had a pretty quiet Sunday. We all headed down to the Herne Hill Farmers’ Market for supplies and Alex had a little trip on the Brockwell Park miniature railway. Unfortunately my iPhone was stolen on the bus down to Herne Hill, so my Sunday afternoon was spent on the Vodafone shop in Brixton buying and setting up a new phone. My mood was improved at the frozen yoghurt shop in Brixton Market – Alex and I gorged outselves 🙂

As I sign off and head to bed, I’ve just realised that this is my one hundreth blog post! Thanks for reading.

Look at me, i’m six months old!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewagar/8684708560/in/photostream/

Sophie got to that milestone on Friday – I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown by.  It seemed to take forever for Alex to hit six months, but this time round, time’s vanished.  I’m not sure if it’s because I’m more relaxed this time round, if it’s because she’s an easier little baby or because I know this is the last time I’ll be on maternity leave.  Anyway, here she is then and now:

• The huge smile that greets you when you go into her room in the morning or after a nap – she literally looks completely delighted to see you and totally refreshed from her sleep.  I wish I looked like that in the morning!
• How she sleeps in that gorgeous baby way with her arms at the sides of her head.
• Her smile in general – I am amazed daily by what a happy baby she is.  She grins at everyone and makes even the grumpiest strangers smile.  Love it!
• How she flaps her arms wildly when excited (often wacking us in the head when we’re carrying her!).
• How she sometimes stops feeding just to look at me and give me a grin.
• How fascinated she is in her feet – often holding them both and chomping on her toes.  When she’s having a really good feed, she really curls her toes.
• Her completely crazy hair (always the first thing strangers comment on when they meet her)
• Her breathy giggle – revealed usually when raspberries are blown on her tummy, when Alex makes silly noises and when she’s tickled.  I must try and video it
• The anticipation she shows in her face when you do “Round and round the garden” or “This little piggy” on her tummy and toes.
• How she loves blowing raspberries herself now (and likes to do it nicely inappropriate times when you’re mid conversation with someone)
• The shock on her face when she suddenly manages to roll right over on her mat – it still surprises her sometimes!
• How fascinated she is with her big brother – she finds him hilarious, even when he’s climbing all over her!  I can’t wait to see them grow up together and interact more (will probably regret saying that when they’re fighting and arguing!)

My gorgeous girl 🙂

Sophie spent Tuesday morning with Jacqui, our childminder, as part of her gradual settling in – leaving Alex and I to have a morning together.  Since Sophie was born, I’ve had very little time with Alex on his own, so it was quite a treat for me, and I tried to make sure it was for him too!

We started our morning enjoying a scrummy breakfast at the Lido Cafe.  Alex was very well behaved (which was a relief because it turns out that on weekday mornings, the cafe is full of professional people working at their laptops) – a cBeebies sticker magazine kept him occupied until his croissant and milkshake arrived!

He kept looking at the lido trying to spot his daddy expecting to see him swimming there!

We then walked over the park, enjoying the views of London, to the brilliant adventure playground.  It’s a few months since we’ve been there, and I was amazed at how much Alex had developed physically.  He refused to stick to the toddler climbing frames, and instead headed straight for the scarily high ladders and bridges.  I tried to remain calm when he climbed onto frames that were far too high for me to reach him – and thankfully, he managed not to fall off.  He adored it so we must make sure we visit again soon:

Sadly we didn’t have much time as we had to dash into Brixton to go to the toddler cinema at the Ritzy. This was Alex’s second trip to the cinema, having gone with his childminder at Easter – and it turns out he really enjoys it!  He managed to sit relatively still to watch three episodes of Rastamouse (!) and, of course, very much enjoyed munching on popcorn!

All too soon, it was time to head back to Jacqui’s to swap children!  As soon as we arrived, Alex was off playing with his friends and bouncing on Jacqui’s trampoline, so he barely noticed when I left with Sophie!  We ladies had a very chilled out, quiet afternoon.  Sophie did a wonderfully long afternoon nap so I caught up on lots of admin and enjoyed the sunshine in our garden.  When she was up, we had a lovely walk into Dulwich Village to the new cake shop for an afternoon treat.  All in all, a fabulous day.

Here’s Sophie during her morning at Jacqui’s:

It’s hard to believe my maternity leave is almost over.  Sophie starts properly at the childminder at the end of next week.  I then have a week to myself to get organised before starting back at Imperial on 14 May.  How fast has this time gone?

We’ve been making the most of finally getting some proper Spring-like weather – hence my blogging silence.  I’ve been too busy being outside!

Last week was pretty busy with me spending a half day in the office getting ready for my return to work (less than 3 weeks to go!).  That meant that Sophie and Alex spent a half day together with Jacqui.  It felt incredibly strange being on the train to the office on my own, wearing heals and make up and without a nappy bag in sight!  But it all went fine – Sophie enjoyed trying some toast and meeting new friends.  Here she is looking very relaxed with her big brother and her new friend, Jacob:

Saturday dawned beautifully sunny, so we bundled into the car and headed off to Blackheath and Greenwich for the day.  It was pretty busy with preparations in full swing for the London Marathon the next day, but there was still more than enough space to enjoy the beautiful park and views:

Matt took Alex into the London Planetarium to see a special show for pre-school children called Space Safari.  Alex apparently loved the tour of the solar system – particularly because he’s now learned the names of all the planets from the wall stickers in his bedroom (we have to say goodnight to them every evening!).

We then all headed down to the National Maritime Museum to see the Ansel Adams photography exhibition.  It was quite a struggle to actually get Alex into the building as he fell completely in love with the water feature outside:

Once we’d finally persuaded him to enter the museum, he did enjoy running around the exhibits – being particularly interested in lighthouses:

We did manage to check out the stunning Ansel Adams exhibition – at very high speed as neither child was interested (although Alex did like a couple of the pictures of waves crashing on the beach as they reminded him of Octonauts episodes!).  It wasn’t long before the glorious sun beckoned us back outside though, and we found another brilliant water installation to entertain Alex whilst we enjoyed lunch:

It was such a pleasure watching him splashing around barefoot in the sunshine – he’s definitely an outdoors boy!

After some scrummy ice cream and a quick loop of the Cutty Sark, we trekked back up the hill in Greenwich Park and drove home to meet Auntie Katharine who’d popped up to London for some babysitting duty.  Once the kids were safely tucked up in their beds, Matt and I got dressed up and headed down to the Brockwell Park lido for our friends’ wedding reception.  We had a lovely evening catching up with friends, dancing, eating croquettes and huge amounts of cheese – and even spotted the International Space Station passing in the clear night sky above the pool.

Sunday was a bit quieter.  Katharine, Matt and Alex visited the Herne Hill Farmers’ Market to pick up some cakes for afternoon tea, whilst Sophie and I cooked a Sunday roast.  We timed everything perfectly, so Sophie napped while the rest of us ate vast amounts of food!  We’ve finally reached a point where Alex will sit with us properly for a full meal and join in with conversation – it’s a real pleasure to sit as a family!  Just need to get Sophie interested in food now.

With Katharine about, we decided to try and get a picture of the four of us.  Yet again we proved to be highly unphotogenic, with Matt and I showing the effects of an unusually late night, and the children refusing to pull nice faces.  Oh well – we’ll get a good photo one day!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewagar/8668186427/in/photostream/

The final act of a fabulous weekend was getting Alex through another milestone – removing the sides of his cot!  He was very excited to see his new “big boy bed”, and we were very worried that we’d suddenly have little visits from him once he realised he could get out of his bed for the first time!  But, we gave him a new “Gro Clock” and told him to stay in bed until the sun comes up – and so far he has!  In fact, it appears that he wakes up before the sun rises in his cot, and sits in his bed waiting to watch it come out!  It’s hilarious listening at the door for his exclamation each morning!

I shall leave you with a nicer picture from our mini photo-shoot – me and my girl:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewagar/8669287052/in/photostream/

It’s been a weekend of culture with family Agar visiting two different museums.

Yesterday, tipped off by twitter, we ventured out to Acton to visit the London Transport Museum depot which was having an open weekend.  Now I’m a massive fan of the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden – it is heaven for Alex with brilliant exhibits and lots of hands-on fun for toddlers.  But its depot turned to be a wholly inappropriate place to take a toddler!

Things didn’t start off well with a 20 minute wait in a queue to get in, but we were still looking forward to seeing some steam trains in action, model railways and other exhibits.  Once inside, we found it absolutely packed full of people and a huge amount of antique transport machinery most of which was not ideal for a toddler to touch.  It was incredibly stressful trying to pull Alex away from exhibits and people’s feet.  There were loads of model railways – but they were the kind that were to be admired from a distance, something Alex didn’t really understand.  Poor boy.

There were some highlights though – we loved seeing the Metropolitan Steam Locomotive No.1, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Underground:

And I was tickled to see a very early incarnation of one of our local buses – we live just off Half Moon Lane:

But we escaped the depot pretty quickly and headed over to Ealing Common for a pub lunch.

Today was much more successful as we popped to our local favourite, the Horniman Museum where we met our friends John and Sladana, and their daughter Sasha. It was a properly warm and sunny day, so we spent a lot of time playing in the gardens there. But of course, we enjoyed the museum itself with an obligatory trip to their little aquarium and musical instrument collection.

After a pub lunch in the packed Florence in Herne Hill, we’ve had a quiet afternoon in the garden.  Alex “helped” Matt mow the lawn with Sophie and I observing from a safe distance!  Here she is showing off her beautiful eyes:

In other news, potty training is going very well with Alex finally pooing in his potty (I won’t share the photographic evidence sent to me by our childminder! Not one for the family photo albums!).  He’s having fewer accidents thankfully, so hopefully the worst is over.  His reward for doing so well was some Octonauts toys – he’s obsessed with the CBeebies programme, and I’ve never seen him so excited by a toy than his “Octopod”:

Before I go, here’s another cute Sophie picture of her enjoying some tummy time this week:

Just a quick post as today was a day of milestones for family Agar.  Sophie spent her very first few hours with our childminder this morning, enabling me to spend some time with Alex on his own.  I felt super nervous about leaving her, even though she sees Jacqui every day and is a very happy and easy baby. I needn’t have worried – she slept, fed and smiled her way through the three hours away. 🙂  Feeling a lot less worried about returning to work now.

So what did Alex and I do with our morning?  We headed off to the local children’s centre for his 2.5 year developmental check with the community nurse.  I was super proud when, after hearing him chat for a couple of minutes, the nurse decided to do the 3 – 3.5 year old check with him.  And he aced it!

He managed all the puzzles, drawing (circles and lines), physical challenges (jumping, catching and hopping), conversation, counting and problem solving brilliantly.  The only things he couldn’t do were draw an “X” shape and build a bridge from duplo – but the nurse said she wouldn’t expect that from a 2.5 year old.  Feel a very proud mummy this evening!

She weighed Alex, finding him still in the 91st centile (which he’s been in since he was 6 months old).  His height has him in the 50th centile – I fear he may have my height genes and not Matt’s.  Oh dear!

We celebrated his success with a trip to a local cafe for a little cake and juice, before heading to Alex’s very first dentists appointment (perhaps not the best preparation!).  Alex got a bit cranky in the waiting room, so we spent the time taking self portraits on my iPhone.  Still got to work on his smile – enhanced here with some dribble:

Sadly, Alex decided he’d performed enough this morning, and when we got into the dentist’s chair, he refused to open his mouth!  Apparently this is normal for toddler’s dentist appointments, so we just need to go back and try again in 6 months!

We headed back to Jacqui’s where I swapped children, leaving Alex to play with his friends for the afternoon and taking Sophie home for some cuddles.  She had a play on her new door bouncer which I think she liked:

We headed into Dulwich Village for a walk and to check out the new branch of Gail’s cake and bread shop which opened there today.  I walked away with a bag of bread and cakes – and a free cookie to celebrate opening day.  All I can say is thank goodness my maternity leave is ending soon – otherwise I’d be the size of a house.

It’s been a busy day – but great fun.  I’m hoping to have a morning a week with Alex for the next few weeks to give Sophie some settling in time and me some time with my boy 🙂  Happy days.