The Twins on a Picnic

Oh the sun has got its hat on, hip hip hip hooray!

The sun has got its hat on and it’s coming here to – well, I wouldn’t like to bet money on the April sun sticking around for long but we have certainly enjoyed a real heatwave over the last couple of days.

For me that’s meant going in to the office a little earlier every day in order to leave the very minute that my working day officially ends, catch the fast train home and head out and about with Kirsty, the boys and our dog.  Our favourite thing to do of an evening in weather like this is to pop into the supermarket and pick up some reduced treats, then choose somewhere out of the way to spread our blanket and picnic.  We’re extremely lucky in that the part of South-East London in which we live has many pockets of woodland and parkland, as well as the Commons and a whole nature reserve all within twenty minutes’ walking distance.

The twins are of an age now where they are beginning to enjoy interacting with their environments and whilst we’re not officially ‘weaning’ we do give them little tastes of whatever we’re eating so long as it’s reasonably healthy.  Outdoor picnics are great because exploring the grass is a sensory experience for them and once they get tired of that, we can usually keep them reasonably amused by spooning tiny quantities of hummus into their mouths!

Managing our beautiful Josephine-dog’s needs in addition to that of the boys has been an additional stressor at times but I must say that forcing us out of the house multiple times per day has been so beneficial to our relationship.  If we time it right then the boys tend to sleep for much of the walk, particularly if we wear rather than pram them, and away from other distractions (hello twitter!) Kirsty and I are able to have lots of lovely, focused conversations with each other.

The boys have spent several hours outside each day since the day that they were born in October and admittedly it was a little gruelling to trudge around the park in the rain and the dark in the Winter but I really credit those walks with keeping us so sane as twin parents and maintaining the glue in our relationship.  With the brighter weather here we’re looking forward to spending even more time out of doors – we should probably start buying shares in baby sunscreen companies now!

Lysander looks so big in these pictures, eating from a spoon.

“Oh PLEASE may I share?!” says Josephine!

Balthazar was happy to roll about on the grass and play.

Lysander was… not.  He’s a funny child – he’s either over-the-moon happy or he’s devastated and there’s no middle ground and no build-up to either.

So his mama picked him back up swiftly.  She was attempting to console him when this happened:

Juggling two babies certainly keeps us on our toes!

I’m usually quite good – one might say TOO good – at insinuating myself into photographs.  I’ve even written a blog post in the past about the importance of being photographed with our children.  Yesterday though I was too enthalled with that beautiful backlight and orange sun to put the camera down for a minute!  No matter – I’m sure that you’ll see more of my face soon!

We had such a lovely evening, laughing and playing as the sun went down.  I want to be back there now.