After hearing about how my friend Katie has really gotten into baking recently Sam and I decided it was high time we paid her and her gorgeous son Aedan a visit. Now that Sam and I seem to have longer journeys with the pushchair down to a fine art we will hopefully be making more effort to go visiting friends during the week.

Little Aedan is toddling around like a pro now and with his cute smile and pretty eyes is very good at getting into mischief and then charming his way out of it. Sam seemed to enjoy watching his antics and was happy to play with whatever toys Aedan found for him.

Sam also enjoyed the attention he received from Katie’s friendly dog Jupiter who did a good job of keeping us all well licked which Sam found good fun (me not so much…). We went out for a good walk with Jupiter plus another dog during which we managed to get the boys to sleep so when we got back we sat down to a nice cup of tea. Katie brought out some very tasty cakes that she had made just the other day and the pretty flowers on the top were almost too nice to bite into.

Thanks so much for having us Katie, we are sure to be back soon, especially if there is more baking going on 🙂

Wanting to make the most of some summery weather Rich’s good friend and work colleague Steve decided that it would be a good idea to have a small barbecue for the elite at work. Obviously Sam and myself were also invited 🙂

Steve was very organised and did all the shopping, food preparation and cooking himself and even managed to get food cooked at the time that it was planned (a rare occurrence at a BBQ). We both ate well as Sam was very good and had his post dinner nap without a fuss. After Sam’s nap there was enough time to watch a croquet game (which Sam found hilarious – check out the video on Rich’s blog) as well as meet some of the older staff members as can be seen on the left.

We then had to dash off, but luckily the chicken had just finished cooking so with the buggy and a skewer of chicken each we headed off for our train home.

This evening we were invited out to eat another delicious roast prepared by Steve followed by a very tasty pie for dessert which Matt had made. Sadly this is likely to be our last meal out round at Steve’s and Matt’s as they are being inconsiderate enough to want to move leaving Rich and I without our favourite free food place. However, I am quitely hoping that this may yet turn to our advantage as they are moving to different places this doubles up on our potential free meals!

Sam was very good while out with his mum and dad, he didn’t want his usual evening nap but apart from that was very well behaved and fell asleep quite obediently at 8.30pm in his buggy. Thanks for having us Steve and Matt and good luck with the move!

Our very good friends Karen, Sean and Maia have finally managed to make it all the way down the road from northeast Scotland to visit us. They stopped off in a nearby hotel and spent Sunday and this morning with us before continuing their journey down to Kent.

Maia has really gotten big since we saw her last and she is much chattier with you now, which is great apart from sometimes it is a bit hard to work out what she is trying to say as she has a slight northern/southern accent which can be a little confusing. That didn’t stop her from having a good time though and she really enjoyed playing with Rich who always seems to hit it off with the girls ;-p.

We all got a chance to catch up and apart from forgetting to buy any food for Maia’s dinner everyone else ate well (Maia did get some yummy toast though – we must try to do better next time!) as Rich made his celebrated Chicken Jambalaya which went down a treat. Karen got plenty of chances to huggle Sam which she seemed to enjoy quite a bit (who can blame her?) though she managed to resist the temptation to take Sam away with her so I guess having a two year old really is more than enough to be getting on with!

Karen and co. also popped round this morning to say hi quickly before they all trouped off down to Dover – it was really great to see them all again and hopefully it won’t be as long between the next visit to meet up with them.

Being at home with Samuel so much has made me really appreciate the company of my friends and family, especially when I know that they have made a special trip out to come and see us. So I feel especially honored that we’ve had guests both today and yesterday.

Daniel came all the way down from Leicester on Sunday just to say hi and meet Samuel (and then went all the way back that evening- wheew!) and kept us entertained with stories of his hospital work. Daniel has delivered 3 babies himself as well as seeing a few births so it wasn’t too surprising that he was brilliant with Sam. Unfortunately Dan is too far away for us to trick into babysitting – but hopefully we’ll be able to visit him again soon – after doing the trip up to Yorkshire every trip seems possible now 🙂

I’ve also just had some work friends round for midmorning tea and really enjoyed getting a chance to chat with some other girls over tea and cake, it even gave me the opportunity to use the lovely tea set that I got a few years ago. One of these friends is pregnant herself and will be having a little girl in April so we both enjoyed a good chat about baby stuff and hopefully we’ll be able to see each other more often now we are both on maternity leave.

Ah well – now to get some tidying up done while Sam sleeps, it’s not all just tea and cake you know!