Elliot's baptism

This weekend we went down to Bristol for Elliot's baptism. It was lovely to spend some time with Elliot and the family on Saturday, and then the rest of the family on Sunday. Elliot was very well behaved, Sam did his first reading in church very well, and Marisca failed to capitalise on the opportunity to learn how to do it ahead of hers in September, by sleeping all through the service. She did wake up for cuddles with G'ma:

and Gramps:

Getting both babies to look at the camera was impossible, but at least in this one they're both looking at something:

and here they're even looking at the same thing (me!).

It was the first time that much of the family had met either Elliot or Marisca, and as big a gathering as we've had for some time, so a group photo was obligatory. Not a bad bunch.

Then and now

17th May:


20th July:

We need a bigger cushion!

A bit of culture

I thought it was about time Marisca experienced some culture - more than she gets from the TV we watch during feeding anyway - so on Friday we headed over to Milton Keynes to enjoy some of the International Festival.

First of all we set off on a rickshaw ride - we shared the rickshaw with another Mum and her six month old daughter. Before the ride we played a game of chance to determine what story we listened to on the ride: we ended up listening to a story about a mother letting her daughter go as she got older. Apt, don't you think?

After that we watched a mix of BMX stunts, parkour and street dancing. It was - um - odd. Excuse the photo quality, they were all taken on my mobile...

Then we had a ride on the Magical Managerie - a rather incredible carousel with lots of mechanical animals. We went on the flying fish, but here's a picture of the bull instead:

Finally, we went inside this:

which was a large inflatable structure. The walls were made of plastic, with thinner translucent strips which let in light. Different parts of the structure were different colours, and the whole thing was amazingly beautiful: the pictures here do not do it justice.

We wandered round and sat back enjoying the atmosphere: here we are having a rest and enjoying the colours!

All good fun, and a bit out of the ordinary. One lady told me I was very brave to be out and about with a three month old! I don't think so - I plan to fill my maternity leave with days like this...

Helping out

I helped a lady off the train with her pushchair yesterday. Unfortunately my usual commuting mindset is to move through the journey without interacting with the environment so this is more comment-worthy than perhaps it should be.

As I took the front end of the pushchair I noticed a nice spotty lunchbox hanging off the handles, which had a sticker on it with the girl's name. Mariska. I'm glad I helped.

Picnic in the park

We're out of sequence again - it's not always easy to find time to update the blog when cuddling Marisca is so much fun! However, being on your own with a small baby all day can be - shock - a bit dull. I've found life is much better if I have plenty of events planned, so I spend a lot of my time drinking coffee with other Mums. To spice things up a bit we had a champagne picnic in the park a couple of weeks ago. One of the benefits of maternity leave is the lack of short lunch breaks, so we spent several happy hours relaxing with a picnic and baby cuddles.

This is the life: a nice drink for Mum (Lucy) and baby (Leo)

The babies all behaved impeccably: we lined them up for a comparison shot of Leo and his harem: left to right we have Leo, Marisca, Esta and Orla.

The picnic was such a success we're repeating it next week. Champagne makes a nice change from coffee!

My favourite toy

When you're nine weeks old the world can be a pretty confusing place. So it's good to have some friends to help you and keep you happy. In Marisca's case her current best friend is Olivia the Octopus - guaranteed to make her smile, even more than Mummy and Daddy!

Olivia's tentacles each play a different note when squeezed, but while this keeps Daddy highly entertained Marisca is uninterested so far. She's just started reaching out to grab Olivia though, so maybe one day she'll be making her own music...

More visitors

We've had a few more visitors subjected to photographs, rogues' gallery below...

Heather, Andy, and my goddaughter Charlotte visited for tea and cake. Andy avoided photographs, let's assume he was the one that ate all the cake.

I previously observed that we had captured our sisters with Marisca but not our brothers in law. One down, one to go. Ian brought whisky, so a cuddle was the least I could give him in return.

Yesterday was Mary & Stewart's last night in Bedford: their next visit will be more of an undertaking, from Macclesfield rather than from Howard Avenue. It's been great to have them round the corner for the past few years and we'll miss them.