Thor and I like to hang out in the same places

Before Christmas was a pretty busy time for Seth as he spent a lot of Saturdays revising for upcoming exams. He took one Saturday off though, much to mine and Caleb's delight and we went to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. I'm not sure if I've ever been there before and if I have, it was when I was so young that I don't really remember it! It's more or less on the same site as the National Maritime Museum as well, which was where part of Thor 2 was filmed. It was great to be there anyway but I would be lying if I didn't say that that fact added to my excitement a little bit!! Also, for anyone that has seen the film, you know that bit where Thor is looking at the map and it shows Greenwich? It also shows the town where we live. I like to think I'm a little bit famous now ;).

This was taken the other side of the gates, from the front of the building in the above picture.

The Royal Observatory was really interesting, if you're slightly geeky like we are! There were lots of displays all about time with lots of lovely watches to look at (we all know how much I love my watches!) and we posed on the meridian line.

Greenwich Meridian separates east from west and it's at the centre of our system of time zones. So we had a foot in both camps in the picture above! (Well, Caleb did anyway, Seth and I were on either side of the line). We had a lovely day out there and we also visited the planetarium which is on the same site. Caleb didn't enjoy it quite as much as we did and he fell asleep but he can be forgiven for that!

The observatory is at the top of a massive hill and it took about 20 minutes to walk up it (okay, it may have been less, but it felt that long, it was pretty steep and cold too!!). The view from the top is amazing though, you can see out over all of London. I love that we have so much to do and see pretty much right on our doorstep.

A couple of family snaps

In the summer, Seth and I went to see our friends, Simon and Laura. We went to the lavender fields near their house and Laura took some photos of us. I think she said at the time that she needed to practise taking people shots but she is amazing! It was so lovely for us because we don't really have that many photos together, I am always the one that takes them and Seth just never really takes any unless I instruct him to!  I've already put some of them on the blog in various places but here they are all in one place for you to see....

Precious moments

Yesterday, Caleb, Seth and I all had dinner together. We don't really get to do this at any time other than Sundays so it is always such a novelty to be able to sit around the table and eat together!

Caleb isn't the greatest eater in the world and never has been. He would quite happily just live on milk if we let him, he's really not that bothered about food. Even up to just a couple of weeks ago, we had to use all manner of distractions to try and get him to eat his food. It got to the point where it was getting a bit crazy though so we stopped with all of the distractions and just gave him dinner. The first couple of times was pretty difficult but he is so much better now than he was. There are still times when he needs a little distraction to encourage him to eat dinner though!

Seth and I had finished our dinner and as Caleb was still eating, we pulled up the youtube video, "Let it go" from the new disney film, Frozen and he watched that while he ate. My hand was resting on his highchair tray as he was watching it. Then, he picked up my hand, put it in his own little hand and held it, looked at me and gave me the most beautiful smile and carried on watching the video and eating. My heart melted a little and I got slightly misty eyed, I must say! It was one of those moments where I just felt so much love for him and really felt how much he loved me too. I love being a mother to that beautiful little boy.

Shoooooes

I can't believe that I have not blogged about this yet, especially given that it happened in the summer! I am such a slacker but alas I am blogging about it now so all is well.

When I got pregnant with Caleb, Laura (my sister) said that she wanted to buy the baby some Toms, Cons or Vans. The little baby ones look so adorable! We are also both fans of all of the aforementioned makes and we have at least one of each ourselves so it's like carrying on the tradition with the next generation! However we decided that it made more sense to wait until Caleb was actually walking or fairly close to it before we got them.

Before I continue, there is something that I must explain. Laura is a trainers fanatic! She's sporty so she has always been into her tennis trainers and running shoes but she also skateboards hence her love of Vans, etc. When we were younger, she used to have a file filled with pictures of trainers and to this day she still knows the particular make, style and design of pretty much any tennis or running shoe in any sports shop! Before I got married, Laura and I shared a bedroom and she had loads of shoe boxes everywhere, I think she owned around 30 pairs at one point! So, Laura buying Caleb his first pair of shoes was a big deal :).

One day in the summer Laura was visiting us and we went shopping in Bluewater. It was so much fun going around the shops with Caleb and trying on the various shoes. He wasn't all that interested in the Toms or the Cons but, I kid you not, his face lit up when we went into the Vans store and he (I) put the bright red Vans on his feet. He kept looking at his feet and grinning.

Needless to say, those were the shoes that were purchased. For the rest of that day he was walking around (holding our hands as he couldn't walk on his own at that point), smiling proudly and every so often, looking at his feet to admire his new shoes.

Even though he has had his shoes for a while now (and they still fit!), he still loves them and he will often be wandering around the house, holding them in his hand saying "shoooooooee". I think they were a successful present!

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

 December has been a great month for me! I always love the big build up to Christmas, and of course, Christmas itself. It's always pretty busy, but I love that!

It was my Mum's Birthday at the beginning of December. Seth was studying for exams so Caleb and I thought that we would get out of his hair to let him study in peace and went up to Norwich to spend some time with Mum. Laura came down from Liverpool and was also there. It's great when the three of us together under the one roof as that's how it's been for 18 years (Dad died when I was 12 so it's just been us girls at home since then). Mum and Laura come down to see me quite often but it's so nice when we are all at home. With one difference of course, my little Caleb tagging along and gatecrashing! He loved having the run of Mum's house and was desperately trying to figure out how to open the stairgate so that he could get up those stairs!

On one of the Saturdays before Christmas, Seth had to study. I hate it when he has to study on Saturday as that is the day when we should get to play but needs must! He went into university to study as it's always more productive than when he studies at home (not that Caleb and I are a distraction or anything!!!), so Caleb and I got the train in to South Kensington and met him for lunch. We then wandered around South Kensington and Knightsbridge and soaked up the Christmassy atmosphere. It was RAMMED with people. I can't believe that I actually even attempted going into Harrods with Caleb in a stroller but it had to be done. There was a woman who kept stepping right in front of the stroller and it kept clipping her heels. Each time she turned and glared at Caleb like it was his fault, which I thought was pretty funny. It was even funnier that, each time she turned, Caleb smiled sweetly, waved and said "bye". I love that monkey!

Caleb is riding the tube like a natural!

 Ahhh, Harrods, how I love thee!

Seth, Caleb and I headed up to Mum's for Christmas. It was lovely being there and especially watching Caleb open his presents. You know how people say that babies love the wrapping more than the presents? Caleb didn't really have that much interest in either, he was having more fun opening and closing the door of Mum's cabinet and trying to hide in the under stairs cupboard (I think he wants to be Harry Potter).

He ended up playing with his presents loads later on in the day though. We headed outside to try and get a little family picture. We took one last year and I thought it would be nice to take one every year but it came out really pixelated and didn't look that great! Behold the bad photo.

Christmas dinner was delicious, as always! Mum always cooks an amazing dinner and I overindulged. (I think I put on around 4 pounds over Christmas so I will need to try and shift that!). That evening, my sister Deb and niece Tor came over and we played games until the wee small hours. Deb and I were on a team together for Trivial Pursuit and we were so bad! It was a lot of fun though!

The day after Boxing Day we went over to see Lin and Steve (sister and brother in law) and my nephew and niece, Sam and Caitlin. We were meant to see them on Christmas Day but Caitlin had a stomach bug so we stayed away. I am so glad we still got to see them before we headed home.

Caleb playing with the ginger monkeys

 

My attempt at a panoramic shot

Lau and Cait chatting and the boys hanging out

 

Sisters! There was one with Lin too but that wasn't taken on my phone.

 

 We also got to see Seth's family over Christmas. It is the first time all of the children have been together in ages as his brother James and his wife Natalie and their boys were over from California. Seth's parents weren't there as they are serving a mission for our church in Greece but we got to skype them instead.

Seth and I had a pretty low key New Years Eve and when I say low key, I mean we did nothing. We were both ill (still are), so we spent our New Years Eve on the sofa rang in the new year with Shloer and watching the fireworks in London. We laughed that we weren't able to celebrate it properly and do anything special but we actually quite enjoyed it!

This is what we look like when we're ill. Aren't we gorgeous?! Seth would kill me if he knew this was up here for all to see, ha ha!


I hope you all had a great Christmas and a happy 2014 to you!