Minnesota Zoo

We had a free Saturday all to ourselves so Grandpa Jack, James and I went to the Minnesota Zoo. James loved looking at the different animals and his favorite parts were the tropical exhibit and the farm part. The weather was beautiful and it was great bonding time for grandpa and grandson!




~m.

Pictures

As promised... finally the pictures!

{Having a picnic in the front yard.}

{Exploring our new room.}

{Testing out the new toys on our first morning in Minnesota.}

{James crawling around during our picnic with Nana Nell and TC.}

{All of us at our ladies' night do.}

minnesota!

Sorry for in my lack of blog updates! It has been a very hectic past few weeks to say the least. We have safely arrived and settled in to my parent's house here in good ol' Minnesota. The weather has been really nice and we're finally adjusting to the huge time difference. James is getting all the loving and attention that a baby could ever ask for. My mom and sisters abosolutely coo over him and my dad and brother think he's amazing. James is starting to warm up to them now. He loves looking at my dad and touching his nose and he also likes to listen to my brother talk and of course, he loves his cell phone. So... things are going great! He's also trying out all of his new gadgets that my family has gotten for him. He has an exersaucer with all the sounds and activities a baby could ask for, a new high chair for eating new foods (mac and cheese!) and his new car seat for going for rides in our new car!

We took our first trip to Target together yesterday. Wow was that an experience! I completely forgot how massive that store is. I think James and I were both like "woooooow" with huge eyes. It's so strange to be going through a culutre shock in a place that you grew up with. The Minnesotan accents are so much stronger than I remember, the roads are so much bigger and the stores are absolutely massive! Thankfully driving has come back to me quite naturally so I'm very very happy to be getting around with my car. I am missing England though. It's been our home for the past year and it's the only place that James knows. I know he is missing his daddy. He always seems to be searching for him and he gets the biggest smiles when he talks to him on the phone! I'm missing his daddy as well!

We do have good news though! Kev's paperwork has finally arrived from the Nottingham Police Dept. so it looks like his visa is on it's way!! Hopefully we'll all be reunited by the end of June. Can't wait till he's heerrrrre!


sorry for the lack of pictures! they won't upload for some reason but i'll have them up as soon as i can!

Ladies Night Out!

Okay, so I know this isn't exactly a post about James and all of his loveliness but last night was waaaaay to much fun not to share with everyone. Preeti, Rachel and Victoria and I all went to go see the British girl band called Girls Aloud and it was ahhhhh mazing! It was our first outing together without the babies and we had so much fun! 

James helping me get ready for the concert

Victoria, Preeti, Me and Rachel

Woo! Girls Aloud!

Costume #3

Nicola, Cheryl, Nadine, Kimberly and Sarah

Encore costumes

13 days...

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Splish Splash

James is 33 weeks old today. One week shy of being 8 months old!

18 days till Minnesota!

As Promised...

The stages of James' breakfast:

yay! now we have a mess :)

pasta time!

eating lunch out with mom and dad

Shropshire Pictures

20 more days....

Happy 78th Birthday NanNan Pat!

Phew, back from the weekend visiting Kev's nan and James' great-nan on her birthday. Happy 78th birthday Nan! Not much time, or energy to upload pictures so this will be a short post with pictures to follow soon. 

This weekend was a bank holiday here in England so Kev (and most of the English) had the day off work and we were in Trefonen (the town in Shropshire where Kev's Nan and Aunt and Uncle live) paying one last visit before the big departure. It was really good to see everyone again and we had a fun time telling stories and eating fabulous food with great company. James absolutely loved playing peek-a-boo with Pat and watching Cath and Simon's dog, Jet, walk around the room. He was very intrigued with her! He did so well this weekend with eating. He tried pretty much everything that was on our plates and actually ate small bits of food. I'm very impressed at how easy feeding him is getting. He loves to feed himself small chunks of food and he's very happy to eat whatever we're eating. Looks like the baby-lead weaning is paying off! He's still having some pureed foods if we're on the go... but for the most part we're having success with trying new textures and tastes. Hopefully it'll continue!

So, today we [the ladies plus James] walked around a Garden Centre in Welshpool called Coed-y-Dinas which is located across the boarder in Wales. (Yay! Another European country to add to my list!). We had a great time looking at the plants and all the random things that the centre sells. It was really hard having to resist buying anything for the home or garden as it's all going to be sold or given away in three weeks. 

Only 21 more days till we leave. 21 more days. Unbelievable how fast the time is going. 

We had a very teary good-bye today. It was very hard leaving while knowing that we wouldn't be seeing them again for a while. Just have to keep repeating : It's not Australia, it's not Australia.... we will be back to visit again soon!

Well, signing off for now. Will post the pictures from the weekend when I have another free minute. 

Love to all. 

~M.

A Few Pictures to Brighten Your Day

can you see his new tooth?

~mel