A family again

I just love the look of delight on my children's faces when they first see me after an absence from them.
When Austin and Luca greeted me at the airport after our 2 weeks of being apart, the look on Luca's face when he saw me was just magic. My baby loves me.

Oh my goodness did I miss them! We skyped once, if not twice a day while Austin and Luca were in London, Beni and I in New Zealand and the erupting volcano in Iceland. There's always a narrow window for skyping or phone calls because of the very annoying time difference! But now I know how it feels for our parents when they see their grandchildren over skype - I was so much wanting to reach into the computer monitor and kiss and hold my husband and son. Realising there was a whole world in between us was incredibly frustrating and a little frightening.

During the 5 weeks in NZ Beni learnt to roll over, started teething, started on solids and put on 1.5kg. Noice.

And he has formed a great attachment to his older brother.

It has been simply heart-melting stuff watching Luca and Beni interact these past few days since we have been together again as a family. Beni has been taking Luca through his repitore of new sounds and showing off his new chunky thighs with dimples on them just like mamma's...

Luca has discovered Beni giggles when you tickle him under his arms. We had a lovely time on our bed this morning having turns tickling Beni to make him laugh. What can compare to hearing children's laughter together? Not even sticky toffee pudding with lashings of caramel sauce and icecream. That says it all.

An interesting and useful thing about Beni being able to have extended times on his tummy is that he can join Luca on the floor playing with his cars. Luca even asks for Beni to come and play cars with him! Up until 2 weeks ago noone dared try to touch any of Luca's cars. What's changed between then and now I don't know but I'm liking it! This afternoon Luca gave Beni his Audi car to play with (his FAVOURITE!!) saying " 'ere go Beni, 'ere go!" and then gave him a kiss on the head. Fortunately there was a couch near by to catch my fall as my legs turned to jelly and my heart melted.

My bags are still yet to be unpacked and the place is a 'happy' mess, but I'm not worrying about the small things, just loving being a part of very special moments with our two sons. You don't get a re-run of these moments so I'm making the most of them.