Just a few recent pics

I have a variety of pictures I want to post, given our last post was in September! I thought I'd start out with just a couple random pictures taken just over a week ago.

Wesley in Papa's hat

Casa de los abuelos

Wesley, Dave and I traveled to Michigan for vacation and to enjoy the party Dave's parents put on each summer. Last Sunday Dave went back to London for work and I flew to Nicaragua for a work trip and Wesley stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. Seems like he's having a great time playing with his cousin Tyler and we're happy he's spending and enjoying time with family. Here's a picture of Grandpa with Ben on his lap, Tyler to his left and then Wesley (Ben is Wesley's other cousin/Tyler's little brother). Oh yea, and I can't forget Shadow in front!

Step by step...

Wesley is now walking, nearly running, all over the place! I've had a few friends ask about when he started walking. Somewhere around his first birthday he started taking a few steps and in the span of about a week he went from 1 or 2 steps to 5 or 6 to pretty much walking with his fair share of "kerplops!". Since then we've watched him become increasingly stable on his feet, picking up the pace and now he's even turning himself around in a circle when he "dances". Here is one of my favorite pictures because it is an angle from which I frequently watch Wesley these days :) Below is a video taken June 22 where you can see him toddling along :)

Mom and Babies Holiday!

In June Wesley and I went on a vacation with a few of our mom and baby friends from swimming. We had a wonderful time and are very grateful to Lena and Noah for inviting us! There are so many adorable pictures from this trip, I had a really hard time choosing just a few. So, I also uploaded some here.

Wesley's First Birthday

On June 1, 2008 Wesley turned 1 Year Old! We celebrated with a picnic in Hyde Park with his swim buddies, including two other birthday boys - Xander and Jackson.

Finn and Wesley getting the party started

The picnic in full swing

Jackson, Elke and Wesley blowing out the candles

Tasting our cake; Digging in with Finn; Sharing; and Wearing my plate on my head :)

And here are a few other non-picnic birthday pictures:

(Birthday Tigers outfit from Grandma & Grandpa Billings; Exploring the package from Gma & Gpa B; Taking a walk on my bday!)

Water Babies!

While my mom was here visiting and Dave was on holiday from work, they both came to watch one of our Water Babies classes. Dave recorded the class on our camcorder and we hope to get that online at some point. In the meantime, here are some photos.

Getting ready for our underwater glide swim together

On the wall for some Humpty Dumpty with his friends - left to right it's Wesley, Xander, Finn and Albert

Fun fun fun! We love to swim!

Grammy Linda comes to London

From May 9 - May 25 Grammy Linda visited from California. During her visit we went to Edinburgh, Scotland and to Paris. It was great for Wesley to spend time with Grammy and I think Grammy might have enjoyed spending time with Wes :) Here's a link to more photos of her visit.

Wesley and Grammy at Giraffe restaurant in London

Wesley and Dave checking out the view from Edinburgh Castle. Okay, maybe more like checking out the backs of their eyelids. Wesley is actually asleep in this picture :)

Stirling Castle, Scotland

Sleepy Wesley on the train home from Scotland

Grammy and Wesley in Paris

Kristen and Jenna in London!

In March we had a lovely visit with Kristen and Jenna. I thought I'd share a few pictures with you. For anyone who doesn't know who Kristen and Jenna are, they are my wonderful friends, practically little sisters who I have known since Jenna was just about Wesley's age!

11 Months

Teeth

Wesley is up to six teeth now! Here you can see a little bit of his two upper front ones :)

More fun in the park

Here are some other pictures of playdates and other fun in the park!

Upper left: Wesley, Allie, Isabelle

Upper right: Wesley with sand in his mouth

Lower pics: Wesley and Xander sharing the walker!

A walk in the park

We've had some nice sunny days recently so we've been hanging out in Hyde Park. Here's a short video of Wesley taking a stroll in the park.

Friends!

Here's a picture of some of the wonderful moms that we love to hang out with!

Left to right: Tamara and Jackson, Silvia (friend of Audrey visiting from Rome), Audrey and Oscar, Jolene and Wesley, Lena and Noah (and Tina), Claire and Ollie. Our photographer was the lovely Elke and her little Finn. Missing from the outing were Kate and Xander.

And here's a picture of the little guys from a playdate awhile back and another from a more recent day at Fulham Palace.