Willows Farm

We now seek outchild friendly places with indoor and outdoor activities. A favorite is Willows Farm which has real and wooden animals, soft play areas, giant slides, you name it. Here is M with cousin Oscar and Daddy. Note the reins - essential wear for our little torpedo. One blink and he's gone.

Friends

Mack here in the garden with his little mate Evie. They have known each other all their lives!

Well trained

I will keep this as evidence for when he is older. At the moment he LOVES cleaning -- especially scrubbing.

Emotional

Mack is 17 months old now and the days have become an emotional rollercoaster as his limitations frustrate him and he struggles to communicate how he is feeling without words. However, I am quite good at working out what the problem is.

Where have we been?

Well, here we are! We moved house in January and then seemed to fall off the face of the earth. We were cut off for quite a while as it took ages to get the phone and internet connected and then I guess we were out of blogging practice. we are renting a lovely house while we wait and look to buy.

New addition

We visited Aunty El the other day to celebrate the arrival of new cousin baby Isabel (born 28th December). Mack had fun with Oscar's toys and the doting Ray girls. I think he looks very grown up in these pictures - a bit shocking - where is my little baby?

London Zoo

It has been lovely having Thom at home over the Christmas break. We visited London Zoo last week but didn't realise how cold it was. Many of the animals were hiding so Mack found it difficult to see. However, he loved the pigeons (could have seen them for free)and the penguins. The merry-go-round was a new experience but was perhaps a bit too fast!

Dizzy!
Make like a penguin...

Knackered.

Merry Christmas!

And a very Happy 2010 from all of us xxxxx

On the move

We are moving house on the 15th January so it's all happening here. Will be n touch with new address.

Snow

Our weekly visit to the farmers market was a chilly one this week as we had a covering of snow. It was lovely to see sparkles everywhere but we couldnt stay too long due to numb feet. The coffee was extra good!
Colour coordiated Dad

Nice and snug

Warm

The weather has turned very chilly lately and Mack has been able to wear one of his new Granny Margaret knits made from Aussie merino wool. I have been getting alot of wear out of my gorgeous fingerless gloves - thank you Claerwen! Photo coming soon...

model

Peek a boo!

Cocoa

Things went very quiet the other morning and as I looked over I realised that someone had found a tin of cocoa in the kitchen cupboard and had poured it all over the floor. Consequently it was all over him as well, including up the nostrils. Lovely!

Cute

Here we are heading to a coffee shop on the weekend with Mack being very independent. He was sporting his cool new coat - thank you uncle Neil! The scary thing is he doesn't want to hold our hands, he wants to bolt off so we have to be very careful with him and have bought some reigns. Not sure what he will make of them though!

Birthday fun

Mack had a great time today down at the Newton's house in Essex. Sue and Bryan put on an amazing lunch complete with banners and balloons and despite the weather there was alot of fun. Thom requested a Victoria sponge cake so I rose to the challenge and produced one for the occasion. Never realised how difficult it is to bake a good sponge - I felt that this one was a bit heavy and flat but it looked good for the candle blowing moment...



The packaging is sometimes more popular than the present! (circa 6.30am)

Happy Birthday!!

Today our little boy turns one! Mack was born at 10am a year ago at Barnet General Hospital. It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed since meeting our chubby bundle. He is running around everywhere now and charming everyone he meets. He loves books, hide and seek and chasey. A few words are forming - 'dadda' and 'mumma' and something resembling 'dog'. He prefers to point and gurgle and use body language to communicate at the moment. We are going to the Newton's today for a lunch to mark Thom's 40th and Mack's first so more photos later...