Happy Birthday Sheena

Today is Justin's moms birthday.  We blew up loads of balloons last night so she was greeted with a nice surprise this morning.  We started the day with presents and then heading out for breakfast at Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen.  It is about a 10 minute drive from our cottage and sits right over the water on a cliff.  We had a great table with a panoramic view of the ocean.  Everyone's food was divine, Charlie even devoured his smoothie and pancakes in no time at all. 
 

When we got back home we went for a stroll around the village.  It didn't last long as one member of the team was in need of a nap!  

This afternoon we went back out with Charlie to the local playground which is just around the corner from us. 
 

Thomas is whipping up a special dinner for Sheena tonight and we have a big chocolate cake to dig into!  Hope Sheena enjoyed the day!  We love you.

St Mawgan

On Monday morning we packed up our station wagon and headed south for Cornwall.  It was about a five hour drive, and Charlie was a champ once again staying in the car the whole time content as can be.  We got to our cottage and settled in quickly.  The cottage is super cute and the village called St Mawgan that we are in is adorable.  There is a gorgeous garden at the cottage with a nice view.  It has been very rainy so we haven't been able to enjoy it as much as we'd like.

Here is the garden and Charlie messing around there.

And a view of the front of our place. As you can see Justin has to bend down to get out the front door.  There are several areas in the house that are so low that Justin hits his head against the beams at least 20 times a day!
 
  We haven't done an awful lot since being here.  We do seem to be out and about several times a day, but for the most part we have been relaxing and hanging out.  Justin and I have been able to sneak away a few times for a pub dinner down the road or a nice lunch out.  Yesterday we took Charlie down to the ocean.  He was loving throwing rocks into the sea, until of course he had so much momentum from his throw that he went head first into the freezing cold water.  He was soaking wet and freezing as you can imagine, poor thing.  The good mother that I am I snapped a pic.

Before that incident though it really was such a lovely little beach to play around on, I can imagine on a warmer day how nice it would be to willing get into the water.

London

We left for London last Friday.  Our flight was around noon, which wasn't ideal for Charlie since he was awake for the majority of the flight.  He was content the most of the time, with a few tantrums or cries throughout the duration of the flight.  I don't know if he is actually becoming a better traveler, or if I am just less stressed or affected about him crying in a confined space.  I remember my first flight with Charlie to Hong Kong I was just a ball of nerves worrying about him crying and bothering others.  Now I could care less if someone is annoyed by Charlie.  He bought a seat on that flight and can cry if he wants to! Ha. 

 

Once we arrived in London everything went very smoothly through customs, getting bags and our rental car.  It was in record time really, we were out of there in no time.  Once we got home Charlie was spent and was literally begging for his bed and ended up sleeping through most of the night and we never had jet lag issues.  We stayed at Justin's parents house for the weekend.  They have an amazing playground literally across the street from their house which was brilliant for entertaining Charlie.  We all went over on Saturday and played for a bit.

On Sunday Justin's good friend Simon and his wife Georgie and their two kids came to visit us.  We had not met their newest addition Ben yet.  Freddie, their older son, is only 3 but looks about 5 and Ben appears to be following in his footsteps of being a big kid also.  Freddie and Charlie got along great, and Ben is such a happy baby.  We went to the playground again and they all kicked around a ball in the field next to it.  Later in the day Imdaad and Claudia came to visit too.  They just moved to the UK shortly after their wedding we went to in Ireland.  We had lunch at the house and hung out for the day. It was so nice to catch up with everyone.

The weather has been chilly but nothing too extreme.  We were lucky in London that the rain never came so we really enjoyed being outside.  Thankfully Charlie has allowed me to cover him in endless layers of clothes.  He was in the best mood all weekend.  I joked it was because he was in the motherland!

Talking

Charlie is adding new words to his vocabulary every day.  Last night when he was walking to his bedroom he said bye bye table to our dining room table which he has never said.  I get so much joy out of hearing him try to speak.  This weekend after doing Facetime with my parents, Charlie said Papa for the first time. I tried to get him to say a few words on video, but of course he wouldn't say Papa then!  It's still a cute video.  He loves to say Gus, which is one of his friends here from New Zealand. 

Out and about

Last weekend we took a long walk around the river.  Charlie's new favorite thing is to push his stroller instead of sit in it.  You can not help him push it, he wants to do it all on his own.  Such a strong personality our little lad has.
Charlie had lots of fun crawling all over some of the statues along the way. It really is a beautiful walk, I used to run along this path and haven't actually been around the river in quite some time.  It had been raining all morning so it was a bit cooler then normal which made the walk very pleasant.