Camping it up

Neil and I went to see Priscilla - The Musical on Saturday starring Jason Donovan. I am not usually a fan of musicals but am a fan of the film. I treated Neil to a ticket for his birthday and off we went on Saturday leaving Mack with daddy for the day.

I bloody well forgot my camera - and an umbrella so don't have any shots of us shopping and lunching in Soho/Covent Garden or getting caught in a torrential downpour on the way home. I can tell you though that the show was absolutely fabulous! The costumes, the campness, the music and the Aussie humour meant that I had aching cheeks at the end of it (from smiling and laughing so much!). The costumes and set design/stage production were A-MA-ZING. It was good for me to have a day out of mummy-land and I had no worries that Thom wouldn't be able to cope. In fact Mack ate and slept at the right times - perhaps in his cot may have been more appropriate - but hey, the boys had a good time at home together and Mack joined in the spirit of things in a pair of pink hotpants (warm weather here).

A weekend in the country

We spent the weekend at the Newton's in the Essex countryside. Mack had some new experiences which are documented below...he always seems extra chilled out in the country and loves exploring Granny and Grandpa Newton's garden.

Mack enjoyed 'holding court' as we ate our breakfast. Very entertaining child!




This little cart (above) is about 40 years old - Thom and his sisters were pulled around in it when they were babies. We filled it with cushions and blankets and took it in turns pulling the little prince around the garden.



The swing was a big hit

Movin'

Still imagaes don't really show the crawling style but believe me he is into everything!

Photoshoot

Rocking

About a month ago Mack started to rock on his hands and knees and ten on the 4th of June he started crawling at the age of 7 months. I was hoping he would wait a bit longer but he was off and now crawling is a means to an end for him to get to a place where he can drag himself up to standing. We've already had a few bumps and tears but all par for the course...

Stuff

He likes the chair but hates the bouncer - I have put it away for a while...

Gorgeous

We left gorgeous late summery weather in Sydney and returned to identical matching weather in London so the transition was pretty smooth. Here we are in our back garden with Uncle Neil after Thom had mowed the lawn.

Belated update

Sorry about the lack of Blog action lately! I don't find myself having very much 'me' time at the moment and when I do, there are usually other priorities (like sleeping). We had a busy trip to Australia and Mack's first visit was packed with action and admirers. The little fella travelled really well and actually slept during most of the flight over. We spent two weeks in Adelaide followed by 5 days in Sydney and were blessed with great weather most of the time. In fact, the weather was a bit too hot when we arrived in Adelaide at 35C and poor Mack dealt with it by sleeping and sweating alot. He had only ever experienced UK wintery weather! Our trip was full of mixed emotions for me. It was a happy time as Thom, Mack and I were able to spend all our time together as a family and it was lovely to be able to finally introduce our beautiful boy to everyone. It was also lovely to be amongst fantastic friends and family and catch up with lots of special people and meet some new editions. (it had been 4 years since my last visit - far too long!). Speaking of special people, Granny Margaret was one of the main reasons for our visit and it was great to finally introduce Mack to his 'Oz Nan'. I had not seen mum since our tragic time together here in the UK last Summer so it was an emotional reunion. Unfortunately our visit coincided with one of Mum's severe depressions so she was having treatment for that whilst we were there and didn't get around to doing alot of of things we had planned to do together. I felt Dad's absence/loss pretty strongly in Adelaide as so many things reminded me of him. I had plenty of 'moments' during the visit and missed him being around. And he never got to meet Mack face to face. After Adelaide we headed to Sydney, where we were rushing around, trying to see everyone we wanted to see and have some family time as well. We had a great time and wished we'd had more time there and will definitely make sure we do next visit!
Here are some pics from our trip, we have a bit of video too but I'm not sure how to put it up on the Blog - any suggestions?