A present for mum on his birthday

Alex turned 1 today - can you believe it? I can't, in fact I think I'll continue to deny it and call him 'my baby' for at least another 7 years.

So far we have spent most of his birthday on Skype. In fact, I think that is what Skype is specifically designed for, grandparents, great grandparents, aunties to wish happy birthday to their respective grandkiddies, nephews etc.

And generous soul that he is, Alex has given his mum a present on his big day. He's been asleep for almost 2 hours this morning - and those that know him will know that this is an incredibly rare event. In fact I've done all my morning jobs and admin and don't actually know what to do with myself now, hence the blog update.

Chatting with Aunty Sian & opening presents

And can I just mention that in the video above, Alex is chatting to his great grandma and other family in Florida. Great grandma has very recently acquired her own skype account. If anyone tells me that technology is all bad I say... 'bah'.

The family way

So, the main reason we plucked our 3 month old from the comfort of London town and transported him over the Atlantic to Florida was to visit his great grandma Joy. Mum had already travelled about 24 hours from Australia to visit, so what's another 9 hours or so.

Well it was really worth it as Gran loved her little blue eyed, fair haired, very white great grandson (sorry to go on about it, but when is this boy going to get just a tiny bit of colour so he looks a little bit like my son?). And it didn't take long for Alex to smile and giggle at his great granny.


I must admit though that Alex's favourite family member was definitely my 7 year old cousin Zoe... it might have been the two missing front teeth, the big shining smile or the fantastic array of noises but no matter what Zoe did Alex would break into uncontrollable giggles. It seemed to happen whether Zoe was trying to make him laugh or not. While in Florida if Alex started to get even a little grumpy Zoe would appear with a hand puppet, some baby noises, or a lovely Icelandic lullaby and make everything better. Needless to say, now we are back in London and missing all the family in Florida very much - hopefully we will get to visit again soon.

Here are a few more pictures from Florida, including a trip to South Beach, Miami and dinner out with the family.


























































p.s. Zoe's mum is Icelandic (hence the lullaby) and that's also the reason mum has finally settled on the name Alex will call her - Amma. Amma is Icelandic for Grandma, and though we're not technically from that part of the world we all like the sound of it. So Amma it is... until mum changes her mind again.