Showing his loyalty

Yesterday in a fit of enthusiasm I attempted to bake some healthy scones, all wholemeal flour and no sugar etc. etc. Let's just say they didn't quite work out, unless you were looking for a small wholemeal weapon or an unattractive paperweight.

This morning at breakfast I discovered the true loyalty of our 7 month old baby boy. Disinterested in his strawberry and banana breakfast I thought I'd see if he fancied a nibble on one of the aforementioned rocks... i mean scones, soaked in tea to be slightly edible. Well, the enthusiasm was enormous, in fact when he discovered his piece of scone had fallen from his hand he was visibly upset. My heart did swell.

The video below shows a dedication to him mother's cooking well beyond the call of duty!

Byron Baby

Here are a few photos from the last leg of our Australian trip, where we stayed with Amma on the gold coast, had a lovely trip to a slightly soggy Byron Bay and visited the lovely Kate in Brisbane.


A tasty brunch and the morning papers in Byron


It's never too cold for a quick walk on the sand


A quick visit with Kate in Brisbane

Alfresco baby

Part of the appeal of moving bubba to the other side of the world is obviously the weather and the outdoor lifestyle that comes with more warm months. Given he's not yet walking, or even crawling for that matter (will he ever?) he can't fully appreciate the great outdoors.

One way we've made the most of it is through the great art of eating outdoors, as demonstrated by these photos. As well as being a lovely way to dine, or lunch or breakfast for that matter, the other bonus is it's much easier to clean up the um... slight mess which accompanies the darling boy whenever he has a meal. Win win!

The Family Series: GrandPa

Next stage on our journey was an introduction to GrandPa in Merriwa. A nice, relaxing change in pace from Sydney. A place where bubba got to see real versions of all sorts of animals only previously seen on his peek a boo iphone application including horses, cows, sheep and the very unusual beast which GrandPa breeds almost exclusively, and rarely found outside of the Upper Hunter area, the electric folding bicycle creature. Not to be missed.

Baby Alex seemed to take to his GrandPa with his usual enthusiasm, starting off with staring followed by big smiles and finally random laughing. This despite the cold he acquired during our travels (and promptly passed on to his GrandPa).

The Family Series: Mean Uncle hOb

The self titled 'Mean Uncle hOb' whose name is actually Navin (I don't have time to go into that particular story) is the first in a new series of posts about family members Alex has met in the past few weeks.

It seems Mean Uncle hOb (let's call him MUH for simplicities sake) has not been living up to his title and we were totally spoilt during our time with him in Sydney. He gave up his bedroom for us, drove us around and kept us fed and watered with the best restaurants the Northern Beaches has on offer (he calls them his extended dining room). He's really going to have to work harder at the whole 'mean' thing or a name change will be required.

It was also a good time to stay with health conscious Dr Navin (so many names) as both Haydn and I were in various states of disrepair and needed Navin's potions, pills & healthy food to get us back on the road again. In exchange for his kindness Alex didn't pee on his carpet or throw up on his bed - it must be love!

A tooth or two

Not content to simply pack up his life in London, visit a tropical island, attend his first wedding and start the move to the other side of the world - baby Alexander has also been busy growing not one but TWO brand new front teeth. He's very keen to use his newly discovered chompers at any opportunity, so much so that we're considering hanging a sign around his neck warning strangers not to leave their fingers unattended too close to his mouth.

The photo above was taken just before tooth number two made an appearance. The process has been relatively painless... from what we can tell. Possibly helped by the amber teething necklace kindly donated by Nanna B a few months ago.

Alex comes 'home'

OK, technically speaking it's not home for baby Alexander as he's never actually been to Australia before but given he's been to four continents and half a dozen countries in his relatively short life we can safely call him a united nations baby. Where ever he lays his nappy that's his home.

We actually arrived in Sydney over a week ago but both of us have been struck down with a range of ailments preventing us from doing any blog updating, and unfortunately little Alex can't quite reach the keyboard to update the blog himself... not yet anyway.



So far we've had a week being sheltered, fed, watered and generally spoilt by 'mean uncle hOb' whose is not living up to his name so far, we think he might be lulling us into a false sense of security.

We've also caught up with lots of lovely people, most of whom I managed to forget to photograph including: Nat & Miles, Sandra & Ian, Megan & Glenn, Nicole, Dan, Fern & baby Elliott, Lori, Steph, Belinda, Darren and the lovely and very tiny 2 week old Lily and last but definitely not least Rach and the gorgeous Emily. Phew!



Now we are in relaxation mode at Grandpa's house in the countryside. Alexander seems to enjoy staring at his newly discovered Grandpa for extended periods of time. Next we continue, all rejuvinated, up to Amma's place on the Gold Coast.

Current temperature in Merriwa: 24 degrees
Current temperature in London: 8 degrees

So far so good...

Help my baby is a carnivore!

So I have been doing my best to introduce baby Alexander to a wide range of foods now he's started on solids. As we're doing this baby led weaning business he usually gets something off my plate, which inevitably means vegetables or fish, and perhaps some bread or the odd noodle. We also taken some backup baby food with us to Bali which included the odd chicken, pea and pumpkin mush.

At the wedding on Sunday there was an amazing buffet spread so I thought it was a good opportunity to introduce Alex to some new foods. He's not been hugely interested in any particular food so I brought a small amount of beef, chicken and a few other bits. Well... when I waved the beef near him he almost bit my finger off. He then proceeded to suck the life out of it for a good 10 minutes. His enthusiasm for the dead cow was only surpassed by vigour with which he munched down the chicken.

Hmm... beef and chicken... OK. How exactly do I cook those? Any recipes where I don't actually have to touch raw meat are welcome below.