arotau

One of the lovely things about studying is that I can do much of my work at home, which in turn means that I get to see Mim and the kids a lot more.  Joel’s still a bit young to care about which room he’s in (as long as someone’s around), but Joshua quite likes coming to visit me in my study – which he’s allowed to do, as long as he’s happy to read a book quietly.

It’s lovely having him with me reading through his books, and while there’s still an element of distraction (he likes reading some of them out aloud, and asks me the occasional question), it makes a nice break from the Third Declension and writing about the Documentary Hypothesis.

Joel has recently started standing up on his own, even (daringly) holding on with just one hand. This is only a couple of weeks after he really started crawling, so in true second sibling style it looks like he’s doing everything he can to move on from crawling to walking as soon as possible.

He’s certainly much more willing to experiment with physical activity than Joshua, who was (and still is) quite risk-averse!

On Saturday we went to Shotover Park, which is a bit less than ten minutes drive from our house. One lovely thing about moving to Oxford from London is that the countryside is only a few minutes away, which Mim particularly enjoys. The children love being outside too, with both of them enjoying eating blackberries along the way.

This photo doesn’t have any news attached – it’s just a lovely picture of Joel being happy, which thankfully he often is.

Joshua seems to have settled fairly well – he still talks about the “new garden”, but having grass in the back garden was such a novelty when we arrived that he called it “the park”!