Groovin' at the folk festival

I was a bit dubious about taking the lad to the folk festival, and didn't really expect to last out much of the 4 days. But he was a star and seemed to enjoy himself so we were there for most of the event. As my old man said, this year wasn't as good as previous years musically but it was lovely to go with the baby and nice to meet up with friends there too. We took a lovely video of Al on Clive's knee jiggling his little legs to the music of Marcia Ball but I don't know how to put a video on here so we'll just go for a couple of photos. Ooo and we were really keen to see how he reacted to Seth Lakeman ... when we saw Billy Bragg live just before Al was born SL was the support act and each time he played his fiddle really fast Al wiggled a lot inside me. Funnily enough he was fast asleep until SL started his set and woke up just in time for the fast fiddles!

Here's Al flaked on the blanket, worn out from all that leg jiggling.

Sophie was a willing and wonderful baby-sitter and Al spent lots of time sitting on her knee.

And we had to get a souvenir photo of the stall that sells the festival special of curried goat :-)

Gran

Gran came to spend some time with us (or was it just to see Al???) and we got some lovely photos of them together. She couldn't keep her hands off him and he loved the fuss and attention. Lots of bonding between them despite the 87 year age gap. She was quite concerned again about his lack of a shawl ... although he's unlikely to catch cold when the lounge hasn't dropped below 27c for the last 3 weeks!

A little accident ...

Lesley came all the way from teaching in Senegal to meet Al (ok so maybe she had one or two other reasons for being back as well). He showed his appreciation by having a little nappy leak on her leg - sorry Lesley! Louise came to the rescue and volunteered to take him off and change him ... but he weed all over the place while she had his nappy off! Obviously despite the hot weather the lad is managing not to get dehydrated :-)



Looks like he and Pat had a good chat about it all afterwards though!

1st night away with the lad for Kate's wedding and Mummy's birthday

It took us about 3 hours on Tuesday night to pack everything up for Al's first overnight trip away, then we remembered maybe we should pack something for ourselves too! It was record breakingly hot but we were in an old church for Kate and John's wedding which was wonderfully cool. The wedding was really informal, without the usual bells and whistles, but with beautiful vows, and of course Kate's stunning dress! Before the happy couple left they took time out to demonstrate a few dance moves.

It was all a bit much for Al though, and he had to have a little rest.

That night we stayed with Kate's friend, Vicky, in Folkestone, and she took us for a walk down to the beach - Al's first trip to the seaside. He was suitably impressed as you can see from the photo.

The next day, before we came home, we went to the zoo for Mummy's birthday. We saw a 3 day old baby elephant, and a 3 day old baby gorilla (who proved a bit difficult to get a photo of).

Of course, the cutest baby of all was Baby Al. Here he is being introduced to Mummy and Daddy's zoo favourite - the lemur. Once again Al fails to hide his feelings on this historic first.

Helen's baby shower

We had a lovely afternoon at Helen's baby shower at the Orchard today. Here's Helen holding Al ... testing the theory that holding a new baby will bring on labour!

Al and Caroline compared hats ...
















while Liz and Cara helped Al with his smiling practice.

We didn't get a photo of Carrie at the Orchard so instead here she is with Wez the next day at our house.

Picnic in the park

Sunday afternoon picnic in the park with some other little babies (and their parents) plus Havyn, the big girl. She was very helpful when Al's dummy dropped out but her method of pulling his chin down and trying to insert the dummy the wrong way round wasn't very effective! Ah well, Al doesn't look bothered and she was quite happy.

Summertime, and the living is easy ...

It was such a lovely evening when we picked Clive up from work so we headed for the garden of the Red Lion for dinner. Cambridge is such a small place we always seem to bump into people we know and tonight was no exception.

A couple of years ago we met mum and Martin there for lunch and mum took a photo of us on her phone ... it was our first photo together (awwww!). Tonight I took a photo of my two lads over a pint with my phone. Here they are.

Al's first wedding

Yesterday, July 8th, was Kay and Roland's wedding. It had an African theme and was really lovely. We all had our photo taken with Kay, and then Al and his little pal Noah slept off the excitement in their matching car seats. The babies were a star attraction - only marginally eclipsed by the bride herself.

And here's the happy couple, Kay and Ro. Not a great photo but that's because the proud daddy was too busy taking pics of his little boy :-)

Keeping fit

In case you ever wondered what a young lad like Al gets up to all day, here's a little picture of him working out in his baby gym. No wonder he's so fit and healthy, huh?

Hiding his disappointment

Well, here's the lad still wearing his footie vest even though England are out of the World Cup ... he's clearly sad but coping with the disappointment.

He's not impressed with Wayne Rooney though ...

PS Note the way his once skinny chicken legs have filled out. Clearly the legs of a footballer in the making.

As you can see in the second photo he was cheering the lads on with his raised arm. He would have been smiling but he's only 5 weeks old and hasn't mastered that talent yet.