Opening Bounty pack of free stuff and Cow&G
ate treats almost getting Leonsito crawling!




It was the fruit pot that got him there in the end...




That's my boy ;)

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Location:Church St,Richmond,United Kingdom

Finally holding his beaker on his own! He'd do it before- but only for daddy oddly enough...


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Cooking for baby

Ahh just what I needed!
Baby cook book for 50p from Romania relief charity shop




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Location:Church St,Richmond,United Kingdom

I love his new little pose hanging out the pram to check out what's going on around him (though, really should strap him in...)



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Winged horses and water nymphs

Cascade, pool and Oceanides

I love these statues in the gardens by the river.


Imported from Italy by a fraudulent financier who took his own life on conviction in 1904, they were acquired by the last private owner of York House, an Indian grandee called Sir Ratan Tata.  
http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=11

Two winged horses, with a female rider in a shell chariot, plunge through the water at the top of a cascade and pool. Seven other figures are sitting on the rocks or clambering up and holding out - what? Their hands are empty now, but some think they used to hold pearls aloft. http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/kids_detail.asp?ContentID=11 



I'm going to check out what wonders await at the Twickenham museum this week...
Their website's quite cute with ideas of what to do, for example :

Things to do
- Visit the gardens and draw a picture of the statues, cascade and pool.
- Make your own winged horse or dragon horse out of clay or playdough.
- Can you find the part of the wall that was taken down to get the statues into the gardens? (Clue: It was rebuilt with bricks of a different colour.)

Leon and I are now on a mission...



bless - we can even print out and colour in our own drawing
http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/printdo.asp?ContentID=11

Eating frenzy

OH my goodness - Leon just ate 2 sweet potatoes, some cauliflower, half a courgette and cheese for lunch - it was meant to be for 3 meals! This fellow's getting expensive... Need to find some decent cheap batch recipes!

Home

We've been at our cute one-bed flat on top of a cool boutique on a pretty cobbled street by the river in Twickenham, SW London, by the river Thames, for less than a year. We moved here when I was heavily pregnant and had to move as our St Margarets Landlady didn't want a screaming baby living next to her... (wait til you have a baby landlady - there's a lot in store for you - Our baby's actually been very good and our neighbours never hear Leon - or have complained anyway...) My waters broke here and my day of contractions and wailing was here and Leon's grown up in this lovely place. But it's almost time to move on. I need SUN in August, or at least light (the sky is grey today) and a view (not scaffolding, walls and grey sky). Twickenham is lovely but there's not much vibrancy... there's community but it's not very visible. In Dalston, people chat in the streets, there's sound and movement in the streets. Even in Barnes there is more movement and chatting in the cheese shop, the butchers, boutiques etc. and that's the last place I'd want to live. I just hate that big main road that goes through Twickenham.

The people who've been there a while love to chat and you hear some amazing stories and can picture life in Twickenham in the 60's and 1700s (not really any other dates weirdly) and that's even without having gone to the museum (next trip out for Leon and I). I was getting to a point where I was feeling trapped in suburbia and everyone lives in a bubble -  but it's actually a lot better that most the suburbs in that you can get a pint of milk any time at night and don't need a car... Although the grocers are kind, fishmonger helpful, most charity shop ladies chatty... we were looking to move.

We were considering moving to the other side of London but it didn't seem worth it. Not much cheaper and not as nice (loads of parks and river in Twickers)- and why bother going through another move? I've moved the furniture around a bit to give Leon more space to wander and to give us a breath of fresh air. However the flat needs a MAJOR declutter - anyone have any tips? 

I'm looking forward to moving to the sun at some point next year!