Playtime learning

Daddy and Eve wearing their sunglasses, about to go on a trip to the park

We've had another lovely weekend with our gorgeous Eve. She's doing well being dropped off and collected in the pushchair and has got used to the fact that she won't be put in the sling anymore for journey's to and from nursery.

Sam collected her on Friday evening. When I saw this video, as Mum my first response was 'she's not wearing any socks!' - to which he replied, 'but look how happy she is.' Ah, hmmmm....

After playing in the lounge on Saturday morning, whilst I was cleaning the house, Eve settled down with Daddy to watch Sesame Street on the internet. As I pottered about it was lovely to hear Sam and Eve singing along to alphabet songs. Eve was particularly keen on Elmo. She made us laugh, as when Elmo came on she put her legs up on the table and lay back and watched him contentedly.

I took Eve out for the first time in her big girl car seat. Dad fitted it in the car, and off we went to Lidl to do the shopping. For the first time Eve sat in the pull out seat section of the trolley. She absolutely loved it, and was constantly pointing at things, asking 'what's this?'

Eve still has her morning nap - usually 2 hours. I tried changing the naps and realised it didn't make any difference to night-time sleeping so I went back to letting her sleep when she wants to. This is pretty much just in the mornings. She rarely ever sleeps in the afternoon unless we're going somewhere in the car. It's funny to change routines that have been in place for so long. I now realise that I have to go shopping with her in the car seat when she is not due a nap so that she'll stay awake to go in the trolley. As now she can no longer be placed on top of the trolley in the baby car seat.

Yesterday afternoon, after a trip to the swings we did some drawing in the kitchen. Eve was absolutely covered by the end of it, but it was great fun. Thankfully I had given her Crayola chunky markers so they came off her skin easily in the bath. Another great buy from the Pound Shop.

Of course she tried to eat the pens, but quite soon realised that they didn't taste that nice. Eve has also had a great time this weekend playing with new toys, as Daddy bought her a toy box of grocery fruit and veg. As she pulled out each item she asked 'what's this?' and we told her. She particularly likes the strawberry and carrots.

Eve's vocabulary is coming on really well and she's learning new words each day. Yesterday she started saying 'tick tock' after a song we sing that's on baby telly, and has also been saying 'choo choo' for quite a few weeks whilst she plays with her wooden trains.

Sunday Brunch With Buddies

The weather was simply glorious this weekend, cold, fresh and very sunny. Eve had her best nights sleep in 9 months on Saturday night, sleeping through from 10pm to 6am (I was one very happy Mummy). Eve had a mammoth 3 hour nap on Sunday morning, which I had to gently wake her up from as we were going to be late for our brunch date at our friends house.

Thankfully we have just had our car fixed by a friendly, helpful chap called Steve at Langdon Motors just around the corner from us. It's so nice living in such a great neighbourhood. 

We drove over to Dan and Ocky's house where they had the table set for brunch. It looked so pretty and the food was very tasty. It was really nice to be invited over for a meal that had been lovingly made for us all. Working full time and constantly being on the go makes me enjoy relaxing times such as this all the more these days. 

Our friends Terry and Si were also there. Terry was down for the weekend from London - she hadn't seen Eve since she was about 4 months old, so it was nice for them to spend some time together. Si is off to live in Australia with his lady George, so a farewell brunch with him was just the perfect thing.

Our lovely hostess Ocky with Eve

Arthur and Eve played in the lounge for a bit after we had eaten. Eve was very taken with Arthur's skateboard and a little yellow hammer that made a funny sound when she shook it. I don't think poor Arthur was very impressed with Eve delving into all his toys, but it amused us adults.

As it was such good weather we took a stroll down to the park just off Bedminster Road. The park is incredible - not only did the wee bairns have fun on the swings, us big kids had a great time trying out the various apparatus. Fantastic park, we'll definitely be returning...

Eve had a wonderful time in the park, she was such a good girl all day, really enjoying herself and getting involved in everything.

I was a tiny bit scared here, Terry was making it go quite high :-)

Sam, Eve and Me. Dan with Arthur, Ocky and Si

From the park we wandered over to The Spotted Cow on North Street in Bedmo, had a quick drink, said our farewells and then wandered back to find our car. Eve was so happy being carried around by us all afternoon in the sling. Sam and I had a wonderful weekend with our girl. We don't get to spend as much time as we used to with friends, so it really made our spirits soar seeing good mates - thank you Dan and Ocky for such a great day!

Good Luck Si and George

We hope you have an incredible adventure on your travels to live in Australia x