Lovely visitors

Here are a few photos from our recent (ish) visitors. Theo, Rachel and the gorgeous Emily came to stay for just over a week and it was just fantastic to have them. The bubs seemed to get on well, although I think Em kind of tolerated Alex while Alex got very excited, sometimes too excited when he saw Em (see photo above where he decided to show his enthusiasm by whacking her on the head and Theo had to gently restrain him). But generally they are babies with very similar temperaments - which helps I guess. 

So we explored all that Mount Maunganui had to offer, walking around and up the mountain, visiting the beach, the hot pools and had a picnic on the harbour. We also went to Lake Taupo and enjoyed boat trips of the slow ferry variety and the fast jet boat type and developed an unhealthy obsession with honey ice cream.

We also proved that you can have a wonderful joint family holiday with two babies in tow. Hopefully this will be the first of many family trips together.

Rach & Theo embracing their 'inner bee' in Taupo

Em giving Alex crawling lessons
(he started a few days later)

Picnic at Pilot Bay - Mount Maunganui

Baby Swap

Final Farewell

Our last few days in London saw more goodbyes. This time to people we'd only known a few months but would miss very much. It's strange to think that a snap decision to chose a particular anti natal class on a Tuesday evening meant we got to meet some fantastic people. It turned out that all the women in our NCT class were quite high flying career wise but we didn't find that out for several months, instead I discovered a group of incredibly open, sharing, generous and funny people and fantastic mothers.

I also got to spend time with their gorgeous bubbas and see them develop their own unique personalities, even though none are even 9 months old yet. As I sit in my hotel room in Bali, on our way to the next stage in our adventure with our own bubba I'm imagining what all these beautiful babies might become one day.

• Starting with Nicholas the feisty and flirty Italian, I'll have to say professional footballer, if only to keep his dad happy.
  
• The lovely Sarah with her calm considered nature and wise eyes, I'm sure it's not just because she's the oldest in out little group. Perhaps a psychologist, she seems like she'll be a good listener.
  
• Poppy with her always smiling face might put her inquisitiveness to good use a journalist or reporter maybe.
• Dilys is clearly the adventurer in the group, always wriggling, always on a mission somewhere, at this stage usually to knock down a stack of blocks her mum had just built.
  
• When I think of Tilly I think of her in the garden with the big lovable sheepdog Barclay by her side. Tilly will be the nature dwelling animal lover to me.

Of course the truth is they will probably be doing jobs that haven't even been invented yet but either way, I hope somehow we will still be in touch with everyone to find out.

Sleeping around

When Alex was one or two month's old I would often look enviously at the other mum's in my mothers group as their babies would always fall asleep on their mums' lap or tummy. Alex never really did that, he might nap on mum or dad for a few minutes but he usually woke up soon after. It's not that he was a bad sleeper, far from it, he slept in his baby bouncer; his hammock; our bed; the middle of the floor and under his rain forest play gym with music blaring... just not on mum or dad :-(.

For the other mums the opposite was often true, their babies would only fall asleep if they were firmly attached their mum or dad. I know it is a blessing really to have a baby that doesn't need me to get to sleep but I was still jealous of how cute the others looked curled up contentedly in their mum's arms.

Well in the past few weeks things have changed, he still falls asleep in those other places it's just sometimes he needs a little help from dad, or mum or Nanna B to finally drop off.

And quite frankly... we love it!

Putting those big feet to good use

Alex and his NCT baby buddies have been taking baby swimming lessons for about 5 weeks now and while the little man with the big feet isn't challenging for the 100m backstroke record just yet he is getting more confident in the water with every lesson.

So far we've learned how to swim to the edge, hold on to the side, splash about, jump in from the edge, float on our backs (the babies not the mums) and sing lots of watery songs. We've even had a few dunks under the water which was much more terrifying for us mums than the babies. Alex has now started kicking under the water which must be a good sign, but his favourite activity seems to be splashing mum in the face.

you've got mail

I'm kind of surprised at how much we've taken to this parenting business. I know I've had very little practice with very little people in my life except the odd cuddle with a friend's bubby - followed by the swift 'pass back to mum' move . But it's true what people say, it all kind of comes to you as you go along... so far anyway.

Despite this, I can't help feeling like we're on some kind of crazy ride, a virtual reality parenting game - a kind of human tamagotchi that we get to feed, change and play with for a while but give back at the end of the game

Occasionally I'm reminded me that it's all very real and for some reason this letter arriving in the post was one of those moments. This was Alex's first piece of mail, a very official looking - note the use of his full name... it's kind of like he's in trouble. And the whole 'parent or guardian of' business reminds me of an bad US drama series, where the parents answer the door and there's two grave-faced policemen saying "mam, are you the parent or guardian of Alexander Auberon Butler?". It turns out it's just a letter from the Home Office with his passport application. So now I'm off to get a passport photo for the little man... at least he's too young to be embarrassed by it.

First month in the world

Some photos from master Butler's first month exploring the world.


Bathtime... looking at mum! After initial reservations about bathtime, including a memorable incident involving pooping in the above bath we are now loving our massage and bath routine and our post bath cuddle with Dad in our cuddledry towel.




Here we have our extra special home made baby blanket from the lovely Amy, made especially special by the fact that Amy is probably our busiest friend, yet she took the time to knit this wonderful blanket. It now goes everywhere with us, in the pram, on the car seat, on the bouncy chair... and amazingly Alex hasn't been sick on it yet... clearly a blanket with extraordinary powers!




Trips out and the ever changing weather in London mean many costume changes for master Butler



Hanging out with NCT friends including Nicholas, Poppy, Dilys, Sarah, Tilly & of course Alex


A few visitors during the first month, already showing the love to Nanna B & enjoying a first picnic with the Comfort-Serbutts (Cordellia is running around in the background somewhere)