Our bank holiday weekend had pretty cold windy weather, I think that was probably down to Adams cousin having a picnic on the Saturday. It was still good fun and Albert had his first ever game of rounders - he did an excellent job helping me be backstop.
We went to the aquarium, we have an annual pass so we go a lot. The fish are great even though it's quite little.

Here is Albert eyeing up the moray eel. The best bit for him is there is a big sand pit/ splash pool area out back which he can spend hours in even though it always seems to be a bit grey when we are there.

Rowan always seems to pretty much enjoy the aquarium looking like this:

His little hat rocks!
We also went to one of Adam's teams leaving do Tuesday night. Like most leaving does it was camping in a field on a week night so we only went for a little bit. But Albert does now think daddy works in a field with horses and a dog. A lady with a motorbike,

A man who lives in a van with a big hat,

a bunch of tents and a BBQ. Hard to feel sorry for someone with a job like that!

Now the holiday is over the weather is really good so we have had all the tents out in the garden and the water tables. Albert had some of his friends round it is amazing how much chaos 3 small people can make. Now they are talking is getting better they are having little conversations which is cool.
Albert: Holly!
Holly: Albert!
Albert: down ( she was still in her buggy), outside, garden tent.
Holly: ok.

Also yesterday we got Albert a wheelbarrow with his birthday money as he wouldn't stop talking about them, his new fave game. Collect up all toys and taggies and give to Rowan, judging from his expression and Albert's load we are going to have to watch this!

Yesterday Adam bought this home from work,

Turns out he is a ghostbuster and I never knew. Will now have to spend my days worrying he won't cross the streams

Port Issac.

We have just got back from a week in port isaac, Cornwall. It's lovely and our friends house is right on the cliff which means the views are great.

Albert had the best seat most mornings and evenings so he could watch the fishermen go out and shout come back fishermen. Adam likes watching them through his binoculars so he could see what they had caught. I think one of his holiday highlights was bbqing mackerel bought from the fish shop in the harbour for Nana and Grandad pop. We also had a friendly seagull who would tap on the window for food, a lot of people in the visitor book moaned about him waking them up in the morning but we were normally sat down for breakfast by the time that happened.

We spent a day at the Lost Gardens of Helligan (which is brilliant), with Nana and Pop we also took them for a walk around Boscastle which was lovely and Adam enjoyed reading about the flood prevention methods put in place since 2004. Albert also got given a cap by the man in the walking shop which was probably because he kept running out the shop with it and he was a nice man who took pity on us. The walk was meant to be round the coast for a bit but was a bit too scary with an erratic toddler so we walked inland after short while. I get so worried these days if we are anywhere slightly dangerous, I spent the whole 10 mins we were on the edge thinking how can I untie my sling fast enough to jump in the water after him and he isn't even a crazy baby he is quite careful!

We spent alot of time on the local beach rock pooling which was great as Albert got it for the first time, he lay in sand, turned over rocks, held crabs and poked anemones. Rowan liked being out on the beach too, he was so happy all holiday and he is so big already.

The gunk on Rowan's head is for cradle cap we aren't just really crazy with the sun cream! It's working too although it has meant he has lost most of his baby hair mohican which was dark and is growing back lots of blond in it's place.
Albert also loves Cornish pasties, I think partly because he can throw the crust bit to the birds.

It is nice to be home though especially since it is so quite in the city. No scary winds speeding through the bedrooms and excited gulls in the middle of the night, in fact on our little road there is no noise at all! We also saw Nana and Pop on the drive home on the A30 completely randomly how cool is that out of all the cars in Cornwall! We had two brilliant car journeys there and back too, mostly thanks to Mr Tumble and our borrowed DVD player which saved our sanity a couple of times, and we all learnt the signs for peacock and sitting room so, thank you Mr Tumble.

08/97

08/97 is missing feared shot.

08/97 is Adams favourite osprey at Rutland waters. He was cool he had woman trouble and was lazy when he was a younger bird but he turned it all around and was doing well with his lady bird the last few years. I'm sad that he is probably dead and angry that a mindless few can cause so much damage to such an important project. Hopefully they will be caught. Hopefully his young will return and the ospreys at rutland will continue to thrive.

Orchids

This weekend we went to the woods to look for wild orchids. Liking orchids is genetic in my family between my mum, sister and me we have collected quite a large collection of foreign fancy ones. Adam likes a challenge finding things in the wild so we went to look for some narrow leaved helleborine at Chappetts Copse which was stunning. They were everywhere, which is always strange when something is so rare everywhere else in the country. We were a little late I think because of the crazy hot spring we are having but they were still very lovely.

He is standing on a tiny hidden path we were very careful around the flowers!

Rowan is so alert now and he loves being outside, we are going to have to figure out a forward facing tie soon which is scary!

We went to the aquarium yesterday with 6 other mums and a total of 10 babies/ toddlers and decided to go to a new cafe at southsea castle which was lovely and they were brilliant about so many babies they shut the door to a part of their cafe so the toddlers had a big area to run around in. They also took our photo to show they are baby friendly on the web, all that would be nice but pointless if they didn't make really great cake and refillable coffee! It's also in southsea castle which was full of cannons.

My parents loved a good cannon photo so that's for them.

Also this week we have been craft shopping, Albert has just seen the glitter!

We had to seriously sort through his basket at the end of the shop. He will watch mr maker all afternoon if we are having a feeding afternoon so we are ready for some serious crafting now should the weather change.
Rowan also had his first go on the swings.

And he didn't hate it!

12 weeks

This week has been hard on Rowan he has had his 12 week jabs, his brothers cold and yesterday he has his tongue tie cut. He was brilliant at all off them. I was scared of the Tongue tie but only because Albert had it done so I knew what to expect, also he was only 6 weeks when he had it done so more like a baby. I had never heard of a tongue tie before having Albert but turns out I have one so it is my genes this time. I have been vey lucky that even though they have both had quite severe tongue ties neither have had any trouble feeding we just decided to get it done in case it affects speech and weaning later on. Also Adam laughs at me when I try and stick my tongue out so at least they won't have to deal with that.

Albert got a new book this week, Norman the slug he loves it mostly because he gets to shout ta dah at the top of his voice when Norman finds a shell and some wings, Rowan seems to enjoy the ta dahs. Normans shell is a sparkly pink doughnut so when we went shopping we went to Krispy Kreme to find a sparkly doughnut, Albert didn't really like it he isn't really a cake boy, but he loved the hat and I got to eat the doughnut!

Adam is also training Albert in the ancient art of tree whacking.

While he is also learning how to drop those subtle hints.

Last week we hopefully had Rowan's 12 week growth spurt if it wasn't I'm not sure I will make it through the next few weeks! Adam also went back to work so we had to start our post Easter diet - not great timing. Although one of my friends suggested maybe the reason Rowan wasn't sleeping was because i was no longer eating so much cake and therefore my milk was no longer full fat. I did point that out to Adam when he found the mini magnum wrapper after a very bad day.
I found Thursday hard going and had to give myself a massive kick to go to our local breast-feeding group which is silly as it is probably my fave group, it is like a little Zen hour there are no screaming toddlers just babies on mats and a lovely lady that answers you questions when you are at rock bottom and makes you tea. It helps that everyone that goes are people I now really well. I met them all there last time round and we have all had second babies at about the same time. I am really lucky to have met such brilliant mums as I didn't no anyone with babies when I got pregnant and all my really close friends lived miles away. Now I can't remember not knowing these lovely mums and toddlers and babies and I can honestly say I wouldn't have got through the last 2 years with out them. As soon as I arrived at the group I felt better, top baby tip whenever it feels too much get out the house. Rowan loves it there everyone is at his level and he gets to share the mat with babies who aren't obsessed
with roly polys.

This week we have been going to the park lots, Albert bumped his head on the slide just as he
was getting confident and so we have been working on building that back up again. He also
loves the swings which is great but after ten mins I find it so boring, I don't no how some mums and dads look so effortless standing there for hours and hours, every 5 seconds Albert gets asked if he wants to get off.

Rowan also had his first go on the see saw, swing and slide which was exciting. I can't wait for him to get bigger and play with Albert as most of our unintentional injuries at the moment are because Albert is desperate to involve him.

We also did rock painting with gem gem who has just started a blog about crafting here.
And for Nana they are both still enjoying the bath.

Bank Holiday weekend.

We have just had a busy bank holiday weekend my parents came to stay which is always brilliant and always good as they bring tins full of cake!
After the royal wedding which we almost missed as we ventured out into the deserted streets to go to the park. We did make it back for the all important dress shot, and it was a lovely dress as Albert decided he wasn't digging the slides, I think we are having molar issues.
The next day though we had an actual wedding our friends Zoe and Ben which was great. It was a no children wedding which is fine. Unfortunately telling a boobtastic baby that is hard so my lovely parents hung around outside the church for us, and then let me no when to come home for feeds. I did think how much easier mobile phones made this I would have had to hide Rowan in my bag 5 years again.

The venue for the reception was at hms dryad and they gave talks on the d day map which was housed there, it was built by chad valley which made jigsaws although we have some roaring dinosaurs by them so they have obviously expanded since 1944.

We also had one of our last 2 year old birthday parties this Sunday, Albert's friend Holly was 2 and she's so cool. It followed the pattern of most parties men in one area with their beer, a bunch of crazy 2 year olds fighting in a Wendy house and mums sitting on deck chairs with boobs out feeding the littlest party goers. There is always excellent cake at these parties there are some talented mums out there.
We also took Albert to wagamamas as alberts loves to eat noodles, think he mostly likes the massive spoon!

 

We also saw our friends lou, mike and their little Molly(we are going on holiday with them later this year. Albert has been standing in the bath, hanging onto the handles for about a year now, one bath with Molly sat down looking at him like he is a crazy fool and now we can't get him out! Face first, swimming, downside he won't share the bath with Rowan it's def Albert's bath!