here is the latest photos on my phone from last week:
we are planning on having a relaxing weekend and hearing all about Janine's trip to scotland.
have a great weekend!
we had a lovely weekend in leicester. we stayed in a small village (and i mean small, they don’t even have ANY shops) called old dalby. the village has a school, church, retirement home and a pub, the crown, where we had a very tasteful dinner. it is such a cute little village with open green spaces, cottages and it is so quite, we loved it there. we stayed in a little b&b, the cottage. this was the best b&b we’ve ever stayed at and the breakfast was just absolutely phenomenal. wayne even said that this was the best english breakfast he’s EVER had.
wayne’s work function (party) was on sunday, so we drove to old dalby on saturday afternoon and got back to london around 11pm (the 2 hour drive took us almost 5 hours because of an accident). driving there took as around 3 hours since riley (for some reason) got ill in the car. this is the first time he got ill in a car, so not too sure what the reason was for this. luckily he was all smiles again after his mommy cleaned him up.
this is the front of the b&b. the cute cottages in old dalby decor in the b&b
the boss’s house
riley showing us: JIPPIE!! and how he has mastered the iphone.
we walked around the village and just loved the green fields, horses and open spaces. {aaaaah, i LOVE this little face}
riley loves giving hugs to everyone at the moment, even his teddy
and he loves to show us when he is unhappy about something
this little mister was such an easy traveller (besides the getting sick in the car) and he adjust so quickly to everything we throw at him, i think we are very lucky. even with the 5 hour drive back, he didn’t really complain, he even fell asleep and slept until the next morning 8.45am. this was the first weekend away we’ve had since he was born (except for going to SA). and he was such a trooper! he made friends at the party and wanted to play with all the rocks and LOVED the bouncy castle.
and he just loves the pool. and he is so excited that it is extremely difficult to get a decent photo of him
we had such a great time that we can’t wait for next year’s party!!
this little boy turned 13 months, 2 weeks ago – so he is actually now 13 months and 2 weeks.
he is so busy and all over the place (that is why it is so difficult to get a decent, not blurry photo of him), i don’t know how he is going to be when he starts walking (i think running will be more accurate).
i love riley at this age, he is so adorable! he is talking up a storm and cracking us up on a daily basis. if anyone can cheer me up, it’s him. he has his own little language that almost sounds like he is speaking chinese. it’s so fast and entirely gibberish…but the funniest thing i’ve ever heard! i can’t wait until those are actual sentences pouring out of his mouth. he ‘talks’ a lot and point to everything.
he still loves other people and always try to get their attention (such a charmer).
he mimics the sounds that we are making and he has mastered meow and quack. he also ‘says’ train, it sounds like a very nasal ‘t’ the way he pronounce it. he says ‘oupa’ (grandpa in afrikaans). he can point to his nose and throw both of his hands in the air when we say jippie!
little mister has 5 teeth now. he can climb the stairs in our house to the top without any help, not a great thing at all for this mommy.
he loves music and he dances and claps every time he hears it. he knows what he wants. he will first point and ‘tell’ you what he wants and the tone of his voice will make it sound like a question. the only problem is that when you don’t understand he will go louder and louder and get more upset every single time. when he doesn’t like something (like food), he scrunches up his whole little face (it’s too adorable for words).
more of his personality is starting to come out. stubborn, impatient (i wonder where that come from, wayne?)…but he is also funny, easy going and too cute for words. he notices now when we are sad or got sore – he tries to comfort us you by putting his head on you. he is also trying to test us when we say no to him, he gets this very naughty look on his face (i can them see wayne clearly in him) and still try to do what ever we said no to, without taking his eyes of us.
he still adores his books! it is the first thing he asks for as soon as he opens his eyes in the morning (and after his naps). i got him a library card so that i can take out more books, since i couldn’t keep up with him anymore.
it still blows my mind that he is already one. i naively thought that my days would be long and lazy with a baby to take care of. little did i know this year would be the fastest of my life. and to think…they say it goes faster every year…i can’t even imagine. although with him, the passage of time has never been so clearly documented. as i looked through old photos of when he was 2 or 3 months old, i remembered those moments exactly, like they were yesterday. on one hand, it’s hard to remember life without him…but on the other, it doesn’t seem real that those tiny little legs are now standing, climbing up the stairs and jumping on the sofa and those perfect little lips are now talking up a storm. but yes, it’s real…very real! and i love him more than ever!!
{photos taken on our trip to highgate cemetery – on 1 Aug 2013}
we are going to leicester this weekend for wayne’s work function. the last time we went, the little mister was just about 8 weeks old and it was an easy trip for him. see how tiny he still was here. now 13 months old, i hope it will be the same.
he is such a little boy and had loads of fun playing in daddy’s work van and sam’s car – he was very upset when we took him out. we don’t own a car and we are almost never in one, so for him to go brrr and play with the steering wheel and gears was so adorable.
have a great weekend!
when we went to the southbank, they also had a carousel there and riley was so fascinated with all the horses and lights that we decided that i should take him on his first ever carousel ride. i was a bit scared of what he will think and if he would like it, if he started crying – i couldn’t just get off or ask them to stop it. but luckily for me he LOVED it!
he was so fascinated by everything around him and was pointing and talking constantly!
i even found a horse with my name on it!
last week was a very busy week! we took advantage of the lovely weather (wasn’t too hot and wasn’t raining) and done the touristy thing with janine. we went to highgate cemetery, british museum and portobello market. we also had one of our friends visiting us over the weekend, and they went to camden, leicester square and covent garden on sunday (when i stayed home with riley, since he wasn’t feeling to great). i’ve not had a chance yet to edit or even look at all the photos we took because riley is such a little cuddle bug when he isn’t feeling great.
i noticed that i didn’t post any of the photos we took when we where walking on the southbank. now in the summer they have cool exhibitions all along the south bank, like the queen’s walk window gardens.
and also the Sandy neighbourhood. that is like a huge sandpit for the kids. this was the second time riley ever came into contact with sand. the first was on our holiday in south africa (in cape town), where i think he was still to young to really take note of it – he was only 6 months old then. when we put him down on the sand, he wasn’t too sure what to make of it, he actually looked like he was saying to us – ‘are you guys CRAZY to put me down on this!’. the thing is, riley doesn’t like his hands getting dirty at all, he starts rubbing them together for me to clean them. and so on the sand he refused to touch the sand and totally refuse to crawl in it. wayne went to sit down next to him and showed him how much fun it is to actually play with it and throw it in the air. only then did he warm up a bit and try to enjoy it. it was so funny! i love how thing are still new for him and it makes us just appreciate everything we have around us.
we had such a great time! i love summer time!