...an afternoon at Farmer Palmer's Farm Park

Can't work out which one Jesse loves more, his first dippy egg or Zia Carly?

On his birthday, we took him and his cousin Ted to Farmer Palmer's Farm Park. The goats there are pretty little kids and had a good nibble on little fingers.

Despite the cold all the boys had fun in the adventure playground. Jesse introduced Ted to the swings.

And he was flying!

There was lots of playtime with Daddy...

But the birthday boy's favourite bit was playing on the tractors. Boys and their toys. The little dude got a bit too comfortable and started taking his hands off the wheel. I guess you can get away with it when Mama is doing all the driving...

The website talks about kennels for dogs but we were glad we left Badger at home when we saw a couple of metal boxes in the car park, not exactly what he's used to.

...celebrating Jesse's first birthday

This week we celebrated Jesse's first birthday. Cue cliches of where has the time gone...believe me I'm very surprised as the first few months of life with a baby crawled past.

We threw a very politically incorrect Cowboys and Indians party and he loved it! 

To have all his family in our house simply blew him away. He's not used to seeing all the people he loves together and he was so overwhelmed. He cuddled up on daddy's lap and took a second to take it all in, just like he does in all new situations. 

Jesse has been like that since he was a newborn, when I take him into a new situation (even a room he hadn't been into before in our house) he goes all quiet while he takes it all in. As he's a real sociable baby you can really notice the difference. 

My family chipped in to buy him a fabulous teepee from the Land of Nod. I didn't realise he would love it as much as he does, he's obsessed with it. Constantly crawling in and out of it. We often hear shrieks of laughter coming from the depths of the canvas, it's a big hit. 

 Here are some party photos:

Teepee cake made by Daddy's fair hands

...Badger baiting

Here's a glimpse of my Sunday morning...

We had a tough night from teething so it's great to see Jesse in good spirits. I hope you all are having a quieter, more peaceful Sunday.

...Jesse's first Christmas

...Celebrating Jesse's first Christmas I realised that he enjoyed spending time playing with his cousins more than playing with his new presents. He's all about family.

Here are a few photos of Jesse's first Christmas...

...dancing

...It's inevitable when Sam is out I find myself watching old dance music videos on youtube.

One of my favourites is Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation:



I was struck by how covered up she is, the emphasis was more on the dancing than on sex appeal. Don't get me wrong, I've never been bothered about pop stars dancing around in their underwear and love the Janet album when she did just that, as well as Rihanna, the Pussycat Dolls and Beyonce etc. This video just seems very rare these days.

Here's another favourite of mine:

Just watching Kimberly Wyatt proving she's not just a pretty pussycat doll gets the fire going in my belly and makes me want to dance again.

As does this final video : 

Good dancing is not just remembering the moves, to me it's about really feeling the music and showing that emotion through your performance like Lukas McFarlane does here.

It's not a surprise that Jesse loves dancing and busts a move every time he hears music, us singing or the peppa pig theme tune, he's not fussy...

...dogs and babies

Jesse's favourite thing is Badger. Shame it's not mutual... ;)

In the early days Badger's nose was put out of place as I had to hold this little screamy thing a lot to my chest to stop him from crying. Badger spent more time on our bed upstairs instead of sitting on me on the sofa. But pretty quickly he accepted Jesse as part of our pack. Helping me change his nappy (not particularly wanted) and stopping him from crying by licking his feet and bark talking at him. 

Now that Jesse can grab his fur, Badger is much more weary of him. Like any mama of furry and furless babes, supervising the baby/ puppy relationship is a daily priority. There are times when Badger brings his toys to Jesse to play and there are times when Badger growls when he sees Jesse approaching because he doesn't want to play.

But whenever Jesse falls over on his unsteady feet, Badger is there to (try and) lick his wounds and distract him from crying by waving a toy. And whenever I put Badger in his crate for eating Jesse's toys, Jesse is the first one there trying to let him out.

We are working on teaching Jesse to respect Badger's space and not to grab his nose...

...four grandsons, three daughters and a nonna

My mother who has three daughters, is now nonna to four grandsons. Not a scrap of pink in sight.

It's funny because when my older sister had our first baby Luca we all couldn't imagine our mum loving any other grandchild as much as him. Boy, were we wrong!

With every grandson she has become even more besotted and our boys just can't get enough of their nonna.

Each one lights up when they see their Italian grandma shrieking at them. And my goodness does she shriek. We are very lucky to have a devoted nonna in their lives.

Although there will always be a special place in her heart for the newest boy, here is my yummy Ted. I reckon its because they can't wriggle away from her cuddles.

Jesse adores his cousins, he looks up to Luca and is already terrorising Brandon.

He seems so taken with little Ted, they babble away together already ignoring us mamas - a sign of things to come...

..Bell tent testing

I've always wanted a bell tent and after years of Sam refusing I was so surprised when he bought me one for my birthday.

And not just any old bell tent, a strawberries and cream one that looks like a circus tent!

Sam admitted that now we have Jesse the way we camp is going to have to change too. No more pop up tent that barely fits us two, an airbed and Badger but can be popped up and down in seconds leaving valuable time for drinking.

He has resigned himself to the fact that we need to bring more 'stuff', cue the furry covers, lanterns, oh and the baby stuff so we need the extra space.

Next summer festival season is going to be a different kind of fun...