A day with daddy

Not the best blip picture today (he looks like he's wearing Wabbit as a Russian hat). It was the best of the bunch that Robin had taken as today was daddy and son day. Their first full day together, in fact!

I was using my first Keeping In Touch day to join the team at our annual beach party in Sea Palling, Norfolk. I was dreading being away from Charlie for so long. The plan was to be at Liverpool Street station to catch a 9am train, and then we'd be back into the same station at 10pm, so add on an hour's commute each side and it was shaping up to be a very long day.

Thankfully however my neighbour and one of the Partners at the company, Tim offered to drive so I didn't have to leave the house until a very leisurely 10am! Charlie had woken at 5:30 as usual so I brought him into our bed and we were snoozing on liand off until 9am! It was lovely. It was also nice having Robin home. So much so that I almost bailed just so we could spend the day together.

Instead I grabbed my wellies, sunglasses, hoody, jacket, breast pump (!) and sun cream and headed out to meet Tim. It was a 2.5 hour journey there and back but it actually flew by. We had a nice natter about babies, work, iOS7, the usual.

It was a lovely day all round. The agenda is the sane every year. There are a series of presentations on the beach (complete with visual aids drawn with chalk, 10ft high on the sea wall) about company performance and strategy. There are ice buckets full of alcohol to dip into at any point too but I exercised a little restraint and stuck to pear cider and one vodka cranberry. We then played rounders and had a BBQ.

Tim and I had quietly agreed to head off at about 5pm but it was obvious that by that time neither of us was ready to leave (especially as food had just been served). I was loving catching up with everyone and there were still people I didn't manage to speak to. The baby boom continues with another colleague telling me their partner is present. There will be 6 babies from the company in 2013, not bad from a 80 employee business.

At around 5;45pm the heavens opened and the lovely sunshine we had for most of the day was replaced with biblical style rain. I found Shiv, Danielle, and Harpal huddled in the bag tent and also said goodbye to Abby then I headed to the car as fast as my legs could take me. I was soaked through when I finally got there.

Thankfully I had a dry hoody in my bag but 2.5 hours sat in soaking jeans wasn't a fun prospect. We stopped at a McDonald's for a hot chocolate and I stood in front of the bathroom hand dryer for about ten minutes in a vain attempt to dry off. Didn't work.

I got home at 8:30pm and the little man was in bed. Robin and Charlie had been out to Wood Green to pick up some car permits, and had taken the steep path to Ally Pally.

Charlie also rolled for him! I couldn't believe it. I've been watching him since we guessed he rolled on Sunday but nothing. Apparently he was happily going back and forth from his tummy to his back. It was nice Robin got to witness one of Charlie's firsts seeing as he's at work for most of Charlie's normal waking hours.

So a good day all round!