Before and a little after

I've been meaning to do this for a while. A picture taken on the 7th of April, so, just under 8 months ago, and one taken last night.

Swimming and girls toys

We went swimming this morning as usual. He's been waking up disgustingly early lately even with it getting darker. This morning was just before 5am. I think by about 5.45am Leon and I were fast asleep on his floor - I wasn't allowed to leave the room so I set up camp on his floor and then he wanted to get out so I with his sleeping bag still on, in the dark, I yielded but as I thought might happen he fell asleep next to me. Fortunately not on me so I could move about which was a blessing. We then slept until 8am, Tob overslept because we weren't there waking him up so he didn't leave the house until just before 9am.

Back to swimming, today he managed to swim, with chest floats and armbands, completely independent of me. I just let go and he was swimming! I was never more than a couple of inches away from holding him but it was really amazing. He was actually swimming!!!

Every time we go round to friends who have little girls and they have their own buggy, he is straight in there and plays with nothing else while we are there much to the annoyance of the girls. A couple of friends have said 'you can find blue buggies' but I wasn't convinced, it's a girls toy, I don't care what you say. Today, however, in Oxfam, for £4 I spied a very dark blue buggy with blue seat with snails and bugs on. Since getting it out and giving it to Leon at home he has been playing with it continuously. Changing his nappy was like 'Never! prize this out of my cold, dead hands!!!' Much to my amusement. He's finally playing with something else now, just to prove me wrong. I think it's more because he needs a sit down having gone round and round and round the living room and kitchen with buggy, teddy strapped in. The fact that he loves it so much is reward enough.

Grandma's 3rd Great Grandchild

My cousin, Danielle has just had her baby, a girl called Sophie. Beautiful head of hair and very very cute. I'm allowed to be broody...

Squeeze

It's been a while since my last confession, this is due to being busy, knackered and generally preoccupied. Leon continues to develop in his own time, for example he has finally mastered clapping and uses any opportunity to enjoy this, especially to music or if he hears clapping on telly. He likes to clap himself too, when he stacks 2 blocks on top of each other or posts a shape into the shape sorter which has been coming on every day. We had Melissa and Rudi with Amelia and Phillipa round for Sunday lunch. Tob did a really delicious chicken meatballs with pasta and tomato sauce. It was really the first time we all sat down at a table and Leon ate exactly the same as us. With a little chopping up and assistance of course but he made a bit of headway with his spoon and certainly enjoyed having a go. He had some of the chocolate bread and butter pudding too, much to his delight. The wolfs were the 3rd and final family of guests we've entertained this weekend. Last night, Tob cooked a Lamb curry for 6 month pregnant Valerie and Ollie who stayed over and left about half an hour before the Wolf's arrived. That was a nice evening. I dare say I offered too much advice and made too many generalisations on the subject of early motherhood. Valerie took it well, even made a couple of notes and took up a recommendation on a book we found rather useful. About half an hour before Valerie and Ollie arrived Saturday early evening, Nadine, Adam, their two kids, Dagonet and Freya (yes, I know. They are LRPers, that's all I can say) with Tricia and Mat, all of whom we were parading round in Medieval garb with just outside Harrogate last weekend. Tricia facebooked me saying they were about and on a whim we accepted them as our guests in Ely for the early part of the day. We walked into town, saw the cathedral and the river before having a reasonable meal at the Maltings. Leon, Dagonet (19months) and Freya (2 and a half) went thirds on a broccoli and pasta kiddie which was more than enough before Leon and Dagonet led their Dads on a wild goose chase with reigns, it really wasn't clear who was leading who. The pictures are of both that episode down by the river and today with the Wolfs down at the swings. There's also a lovely picture of Ellen 'asleep' in the ball pit, and Leon Saturday morning in front of the mirror 'does my bum look big in this'. Definitely a full on weekend but we certainly feel loved.

Frank's birthday

A few weeks ago we had a family get together for Frank's birthday - here's a collection of photos taken by me, Fred and Sue - some really surprising and lovely shots

pick up that broom lad!

Leon having fun

Here's all the mums and pics of Leon enjoying singing, bubbles and chasing balloons!

cake

There was a fantastic cake - every little monster had a little monster's name :)

combined 1st birthday

At the weekend Christine's antenatal group had a combined 1st birthday party for all the little sprogs of the group :)

It was in Little Downham village hall, and we all brought toys for the kids - we filled up our and M&D's cars (M came too) - the ball pit went down a storm :)

Little monsters

Yesterday we had the post natal group party for all of their 1st birthdays. It was exausting and not much cop - the village hall was massive and cold, and even with the vast amound of toys we took there including a ball pit, a trike, a pullalong car, and numerous other things, the kids rattled around rather. Especially as Leon was one of only 2 who could actually walk, the rest were still crawling or cruising. I'm really glad we had a proper birthday party. The best bit was the cake.

Autumn leaves

After a very lazy start to the day, Leon and I had a trip up to the hospital for an eye check - All OK. On the way back the big USAF park next to the hosptial looked very inviting, all full of autumn leaves, I thought Leon might like to have the experience of kicking the leaves. He loved it. We were there for well over half an hour and Leon tore back and forth up and down the park kicking though the leaves.