I had a complete meltdown around Easter time when my little man began walking - he seems far too young to be doing so. I cant believe the tiny baby stage has already passed by. Riley has been taking steps for ages, pulling himself up on furniture and cruising around for about the past 3 months. But the transition from taking a few steps holding onto something to full blown independent walking happened rather fast. When we were away on holidays at the end of March he began letting go and walking between things like from the coffee table at nan's place to the lounge - and was most pleased with the applause he received. Full of determination he began taking more and more steps, and on the morning he started daycare, at exactly 11 months old he took 8 steps on his own. By the end of the day he was taking up to 15 steps and then two days later, pretty much walking around everywhere. He's been a bit unsteady and has taken many falls, but its so cute to watch him walking around - and rather weird to be in one room and have him just appear at the door and walk on in. Here's a video of him walking around shaking his maraccas (which were a gift from Aunty Caitlin) he loves them!
It was my second last week off work with Riley so we decided to hit the road for a break away before starting work/daycare. On 30 March we headed north to South West Rocks to visit my grandmother Marie and Eric. It was a great week away. Riley travelled so well in the car and enjoyed his time visiting his great grandmother and showing off his (almost) walking skills to anyone who would watch. It was a very wet week to say the least - being just south of Coffs Harbour we happened to time our trip with a huge lot of rain that resulted in bad floods. But in South West Rocks we werent flooded and we made the most of our time on holidays going on drives, walks, shopping and of course lots of eating and drinking at the various pubs and restaurants. This pic of Riley with Grandad Jeff was taken at the Smithtown Hotel where we enjoyed lunch on our last day - everyone thinks they are very alike,
Well as most of you already know, Riley and I made the move back to the 'big smoke' early in February - cant believe it's already been three whole months! The move was massive and certainly not something I'd like to repeat again in a hurry. It took so much work, weeks of packing and clearing out 6 years of stuff from the Canberra house. It was hard emotionally (and physically in 38 degree heat with no aircon) to be putting that part of my life behind me but I know it was the right thing to do to be closer to family and friends for support - thanks to those who helped with the move, namely mum and dad, Jann, Mike and Leonie, Matt and Mel and Doug and KJ. I am sincerely grateful and appreciate everything you did. Feeling very settled being back in the shire and loving the life - although I dont know where summer went so fast! I am now back working again, three days a week from home doing PR and media work for a friend's company who has some great Canberra-based clients http://www.threesides.com.au/. Riley is in daycare two days, and spends a day with Nanny Christine too. He is loving it. Here are a few pics I took on moving day. 