July 26th

This weekend we went to Nottingham which was great. Albert worked out where we were going before we left, I don't suppose there are many places we go after a bath and a bedtime story. He was properly excited, in fact he kept saying I'm a little bit excited, he kept running up to Rowan and saying " we're going to Nana's baby Rowan, Daddies coming baby Rowan" and then when we were taking too long in the toilet, " we are waiting Mummy" he was one of the cutest he has ever been!

While we were there he found a basket so he pretended to be rusty dog with Rowan's Sophie the giraffe.

This week Albert also discovered hot chocolate.

We took Aunty Gem Gem to the park and the sand pit. I do enjoy the park now I have to go on everything, we especially like the see saw.

Finally Albert seems to have stolen my sunglasses and daddies head torch!

Water festival.

This weekend we decided to go to the Hampshire water festival, appropriately enough it was pouring with rain.

Rowan had to wear a 12 - 18 month all in one cagoule as little baby coats don't tend to come with much waterproofing. He did a very good job early in of holding Albert's special muddy sticks.

It was quite nice in the rain, very quiet anyway. We got to stroke crabs and starfish, hunt through ballpits looking for ducks with saving water facts hidden on them. There was also a cool little carousel.

Earlier in the week we went to the farm where Albert spent a good ten minutes roaring at the turkey - the turkey was gobbling very loudly back at him, we did stop him as I think Albert was probably quite lucky the turkey was being kept away from annoying toddlers.

They had some very nice little wooden chainsaw sculpted tables and chairs too which we came very close to bringing home with us.

On one of the more sunny days we did some painting outside , my throw away let's do some foot painting was taken at it's most literal, Rowan also got painted and was angry when I stopped Albert. They are already ganging up on me!

Albert's favourite saying at the moment is " me make baby laugh" which is true, but Rowan shouldn't always laugh! Here he is with a bowl on his head, which only got worse as he smiled at Albert.

Also!

This week Rowan started trying food, just a little bit of a different thing every day. So far avocado is bad and mango is good.

Swede was also a little hit.
In the last couple of weeks he has just found his feet, and he will spend ages desperately trying to get them into his mouth, very cute.

He also got to share his first mechanical car ride, although he did have to sit next to Albert who shouted Roary the racing car over and over again.

Hampton court flower show.

On Sunday we went to the last day of Hampton Court flower show, it was a lot busier then it looks on tv!

It was also very big I don't think we saw anywhere near all off it, the show gardens were lovely, there was a clever one with periscopes and mushrooms which Albert enjoyed at the end of the day as they were picking all the mushrooms to sell to eat. There was a sort if frenzied atmosphere though as it was the last day. We managed to look round the floral marquee while Albert and Rowan were doing this:

There were some great displays of alot of plants I know nothing about but it doesn't mean I
haven't started a list for the garden next year. I think we will have some of these

And Adam is a big fan of these

There was a good little children's area with lots of Alice in wonderland scarecrows which I thought were a bit scary, they also had a very tall mad hatter who tries to shake Albert's hand although he wasn't sure, a tall rabbit man who he quite liked and a queen of hearts who he kept shouting Polly at, as in Aunt Polly from Mr. Tumble. He also really enjoyed the House of Fairy Tales tent which had a spinning story telling swing thing and lots of chalk boards, they are also going to be at Camp Bestival so we will be able to hang out there most of the weekend.

Having the double pushchairs was also handy late in the day as Rowan came out for a look around and we loaded it with Nana and Pop's plants and all our bags.

Although it has to be said Albert's absolutely most favourite thing of the day was the ferry rides and double decker bus trips to and from the show they were very exciting!

Strawberries.

This weekend we went strawberry picking at a farm up in Titchfield, Albert was a natural. We picked strawberries, raspberries and broad beans. After not liking them a year ago it was the raspberries which got the most testing.

Here is Albert with all the strawberries we didn't eat already! We are still trying to think what to do with all of them.

With the raspberries we made ice cream, and with some of the strawberries a tart we might try jam with the rest as they are very ripe now.
We also went to jackys house for her birthday, we went for a walk in the woods and played in the paddling pool in her garden.

Rowan seems to really like the water going in the pool and also the splash pool at the aquarium with the big boys, he is also almost sitting up on his own he is getting soo big far too quickly!
Also painting, Aunty Gem Gem and Daddy were very excited about the new rollers and paints but not as excited as Albert.