Nursery

I've been meaning to write about Isaac starting nursery since he did last month, but haven't got round to it. Today was his sixth session and I was asked to fill in a little bit on a sheet for his first five sessions record which was the catalyst I needed to prod me into action.

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I had originally wanted him to go to a different nursery, but I missed out on getting him a place by two lousy  weeks! Imagine the frustration when I phoned up! So that's it for the year now. I shall see about getting him on the waiting list for when he turns three, but for now he attends our local day nursery twice a week for four and half hours at a time.

We went to look round the nursery in early November. As soon as we got there he was off! Quite happily played with the toys while I went on a tour with the admin lady. We arranged his two two hour settling in sessions for the following week and those went just fine. The tears started when I picked him up from his first session. The next time we went he saw the nursery gates and clung to me like a limpet shaking and crying that he didn't want to go and he didn't like it. It was so horribly traumatic for both of us that I wondered if I'd made the right decision - I went home and cried for half an hour straight and I know it took him a long time to settle that day. 

Since then it has been easier to drop him off at each session and today he wasn't upset at all!

He LOVES nursery now. When I pick him up he happily jabbers away the whole walk home about what he's been doing and what he likes. He made cakes today! The staff all love him and comment on how good his manners are. He thanked one of them for changing his pooey nappy today! Apparently they've been trying to take photos of him playing, but every time he sees the camera he scrunches his face up in his funny grin or he doesn't see the camera and looks deadly serious while concentrating. Bless.

So, it seems to be going well. PHEW!!

And we're still friends, he even tells me he loves me now *mummy gush*

Since we last saw you...

Isaac's had a birthday

we've been to some play groups

we've taken Rinny for walks

Isaac's kicked some footballs

we've hung out with friends and tried on their sun glasses [post cake]

Isaac' been to a Halloween party with his sisters

and we've done a fair bit of mucking about

We've also had our fair share of tantrums, snotty noses, bloody lips, nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!s, heart ache and tears. It's all about balance, right?

Life is still settling. We'll get there and hopefully my words will come back too and I can articulate myself again. Until then eh?

Pre birthday update

Hello pie fans!

Well, it's been a few weeks at least...actually a whole month (again, I know) since any Isaac related news. So here goes.

Isaac is now TEN DAYS shy of his second birthday. WTF? WHEN? When did my little baby boy suddenly nearly become TWO?! Best get on with birthday presents and cake!

Until a few weeks ago he didn't like slides. He could climb up them, but then didn't know how to do the next bit and no amount of Mummy help would teach him. Then we were at a local messy play morning (that happened to have a slide) and he observed a little girl's technique. Now? There's no stopping him! Literally. He spent half an hour sliding that day. The next time we went to a kids play area he spent another good half hour sliding. He can't get enough! Everywhere that has a slide must be slid upon. He loves the sliding. Nuff said.

He has lots of new words and ways to express himself now too. He says penguin! But called them pengas (with a soft g). TOO CUTE! It's because we have a lovely book (Me by Emma Dodd) that we read at night. I ask him which one he wants and it's usually either 'penga' or 'beebee' (Star Baby by Margarent O'Hair). He loves his bedtime stories. 

And talking of bedtime. I got him a duvet this week to see how he gets on with it. I plan to take the side off the cot soon and want him to be used to sleeping without his sleeping bags before we take the plunge. They've been so incredibly helpful, but I think it's time to move on, especially as I'm starting to think about potty training...but not quite yet. 

Other favourite words include: "Mum! Look!" "Where go?" accompanied by open hands gesticulating 'where?' "Cake" remains a firm favourite. Anyone would think that the boy lived on cake and cake alone. I do feed him a range of foods (when he'll eat them)! Cake seems to be a general term for food or being hungry. He knows "cook" now too and takes great pleasure in telling me that I'm cooking. There are loads, seriously. They all make me smile and some of them make me chuckle. He's ace.

He sees me with my Mummy bag of endless pockets and depth and apparently decided that he wants one too! He purloined this one of mine during an unpacking fit one day and gets very upset if he has to go anywhere without it. I decided I didn't really like it being dragged everywhere because it's one of my favourites so I have made him one of his own in a messenger style. It's pretty good, even if I do say so myself. It will get its own glorious post when I get around to taking pictures of it!

This was taken last Sunday on a walk up at Shipley Country Park. Yet another lovely place to walk the dog and take Isaac to see greenery and wildlife. He loved looking at the birds and the big pond there. He's very good at walking and walks nearly all the way into town without wanting to be picked up now. That's pretty good for one with such little leggies! We still use the hip seat, but much less now as he boldly strides about checking everything out.

The best thing I've bought for him to play with this summer has been his sand and water table from ELC. Hands down. He'll spend an hour at this thing playing with the sand. The water didn't do so well and ended up as part of the sand, so now it's just sand in there. Admittedly he chucks the sand all over the garden, but hey, he's having fun. That's the main thing. 

He still loves his books and we've snuck in a few episodes of Timmy Time on the BBC iPlayer. My GAHD he LOVES TT. Seriously. Then again I love it too. It's beautifully made, has simple story lines without (like a lot of kids TV) being horrifically dumb and makes us both chuckle. We love how different the characters are; even the two grown up characters in it are a hoot! 

Enjoying Mummy's hairband.

On a more serious note: he seems to be adapting well to our new house and living without Daddy. They see each other every other evening and every other weekend. He gets to see his sisters a fair bit too which is important because he loves them so very much. It's important for them to see him too, of course. I'm sure the change in circumstances will have affected him, but I'm doing all I can to make things right for us. We're still busy meeting up with people (when parcel collection doesn't scupper our plans gah!) and going out to parks and on dog walks etc. Busy keeps us happy. He met his French cousins for the first time last week which was great - they all got on famously!

We're headed south this weekend to scatter Grandpa over the Solent and pay our final respects. It will be emotional I'm sure. The whole family will be together again which will be nice. Blended family is a strange one, but seemingly the norm these days. Isaac will grow up not knowing any different. For that I am grateful; he won't remember Mummy and Daddy being together so less pain there than if he did...I hope? Only time will tell. 

Anyhoo, back to happy thoughts of the all important second birthday! See you next month? Or maybe before...

Happy birthday Grandma

This lady right here is my Grandma, my Dad's Mum. I never got a chance to meet her and my Dad didn't know her for very long either; she died when he was seventeen. What a trauma for him! Imagine having your mother ripped away from you at a time in your life when you're still finding your feet. 

I think she has a beautiful face and I can see a lot of my father in her. I like her laughter lines and her lovely smile. I wonder what she was looking at when this picture was taken? I love the spots on her clothes and how dark her eyes are.

This is the only picture of her that I have and I've had it for a good few years now. She's been all over the country with me and has made me feel happy when I've looked at her. 

I wonder what she was like? Dad tells me that she would have loved me very much. I think I have her cheeks.

She would have been one hundred years old today. So happy birthday to you Grandma that I never met. I hope we do one day.

A note on crochet (and a bit about knitting)

I have cancelled my subscription to The Art of Crochet. There are several reasons for this.

1. I have completed all of the square patterns at least once.

2. I'm not so keen on the other patterns in the magazine.

3. I will have very limited space in my new house for storage of crafty items.

4. I don't think I can learn much more from it.
5. I prefer square patterns from 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton and ones I find online. More imaginative and purty.

I've achieved what I set out to and feel no remorse about not completing the throw. I have The Art of Knitting after all! One subscription is enough for anyone. I only know the basics of knitting so I shall see how I feel about it when I can confidently say the first four things listed above about it.

On a crochet related note, I have made another amigurumi! Meet Barry.

He's a bit cute inne? He was made for my friend Kate because she loves penguins...a lot. He's another Lion Brand pattern (link here, you'll need a [free] account to view it).

In other yarn related news: the sweater I started for Isaac in January. You know...the one that nearly made it to finished item status? Well, it's never going to be finished because now it's TOO BLOODY SMALL for him. Plus it's summer. So meh. Nevermind. I learned that sweaters aren't as hard as I thought they would be and that knitting with circulars isn't as bad as I originally thought. R.I.P. lovely jumper. I've edited my Ravelry queue so I should ctually find myself achieving more, especially if I finish what I cast on and don't buy yarn unnecessarily! I'm told it's manageable. We shall see!

Green grass, blue sky and a picnic

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We really are lucky that there is such beauty so close to where we live. We arranged to meet my friend Steph and her daughter for the morning at Carsington Water as our sprogs seem to be nap synced. There are three walks you can do; we opted for the gentle walk as Steph is due any day now with Daniel (can't wait to meet you little man!) There was lots of chasing each other around and "this way!" and "a bee!" It was so lovely to get out into the sunshine and pretend I was by the sea a little bit. I even managed to take Rinny who loved it and didn't bugger about at all! A dog's gotta get out sometime, right?

And now for something completely different

Yes. A new chapter in my life is starting. One where I am no longer married to and no longer living with Isaac's father. I've debated writing about this heavily with myself and have come to the conclusion that I am going to want to remember how I felt at the time and so here I am. 

I honestly and truly thought thirty was just a number, life goes on, one year older and nothing changes, right? Oh how wrong can a person be? Thirty, for me, was an epic milestone. A time for massive reflection, consideration, decision making and action. There are things I know in my heart to be true that I've ignored for a long time and things I thought would go away and haven't. 

As far as ending my marriage goes, well, it was the single most difficult thing I've ever done. So many ripples with endless possibilities. It's not as if my decision only affects me and certainly wasn't one made lightly. In the beginning I was really really angry, then really really sad. Now I've made peace with it (this isn't one of those posts so don't expect juicy details) and am looking forward to the future. We have an Isaac plan which looks pretty bloody good and means he'll get to see lots of his Daddy. It's not as traumatic as I thought it would be, now, and we're both very positive about the decisions we've made. It's down to people outside of the decision to accept our choices. They don't have to understand it or even like it. Just accept it and move on. We are.

As for Isaac? I know he won't grow up with Mummy and Daddy living together as a happy family unit and this is what breaks my heart. Even now as I write my eyes prickle. I swore I wouldn't make him feel what I did as a result of my parent's separation. I can't guarantee that, but through communication and honesty I'm hoping he'll understand and not hate me for it.

So now I return to a me almost forgotten. It's something getting to know her again. I thank each and every one of my friends who supports me in my decision and loves me for who I am, even though I lost sight of that a long time ago. 

That covers all I wanted to. Anything else is not yours to know.

Boy in a box!

You know the general consensus that the box is always better than the toy? Well, here's all the proof you need.

And then it was June

Where does the year go? I blink and I haven't posted anything for over a month (again, I know). I've been sorting out pictures this morning and the month of June so far is looking shockingly empty Isaac photo-wise. The ones I do have are taken on my phone, so not the greatest quality.

Isaac continues to be a source of joy and happiness for me. He's always up to something hilarious which is really him learning, but could just as easily be mistaken for him trying to make me laugh. His latest favourite thing is a battered old Roses tin from Halloween a few years past. He likes to sit in it, wear it as a hat, throw it around and generally terrify the dog with the loudness of it. Poor Rinny looks like she's going to have a heart attack sometimes, but how to and indeed why kerb the enthusiasm of a child? It's tremendously difficult to snap him these days so most pictures are a blur of Wiggler!

He's recently discovered his pockets and loves to put things in them. We recently went on a short shopping trip to a local home store and I asked him if he wanted to take some toys with him. Off he went to find George Pig (borrowed from Roisin) and his little brontosaurus and put one in each pocket.

He's much more precise with a pen now and his scribbles are very controlled. I'm interested to see what he will draw when he'd older as I understand that boys draw differently to girls, not so much the things/objects.

He's in his own big room now so all his toys are up there with him. He really loves it and it means we have mostly reclaimed the living room! It also means his sisters' room stays tidy when they aren't here.

He's such a clever little boy. I know I'm going to say things like that because he's my son, but he really is a clever one. He always gives us his plate when he's finished. He's more than capable of drinking out of a regular glass at meal times. He loves to put his books and toys away when he knows it's time to do s. His words are coming along now and he'll try to copy me when we're reading a book. He particularly enjoys Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Goodnight Moon, Star Baby and For Just One Day. He still loves his Richard Scarry book and we keep that in his room so we can ready him different bed time stories. I'm getting very excited about reading him longer bedtime stories as he get older, bigger books like The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan, Just So Stories. Then there are Grimm's Fairy Tales, Aesop's Fables etc and the myriad new books in the children's literature section of the book shops that I haven't even begun to explore yet...there a just so many truly great books that I've known and loved that I want to share with him! I think it's important to share stories and toys from times gone by because, if I'm honest, kids culture these days scares me a little in that it seems to treat children like imbeciles, not little people who are going to be adults one day. I just hope his love of stories and books continues.

Trying on hats in H&M

He has a very serious side too where he's desperately trying to tell me something, but he just doesn't have the words yet. Gesture helps us a lot in understanding him and he understands pretty much everything we say to him. His attention span is phenomenal for one his age; he'll quite happily sit and play with the same thing very intently for up to twenty minutes! I was playing with him on & off with the same thing for an hour the other day! Of course there are times when he'll pull out every single toy in his room and not be interested in one of them for longer than thirty seconds. Some of his favourite toys include cars, dollies, his push along clacky dinosaur and his farm animals.

He likes walking around the shops with me; he'll chat to the shop assistants, peruse rails of clothes (with some of the cutest/funniest faces you've ever seen) and sample textures and smells, he likes to take things off shelves and then re-stack them - he never leaves a mess. I'm really a very lucky Mama! He LOVES the shoe department the most, particularly massive high heels! I guess it's because he doesn't see them at home so they are a novelty.


HE EATS VEGETABLES NOW! Almost forgot that! How? Simon and I have decided to change our diet and eat more simply during the week (steamed vegetables, grains and a simple sauce) so we thought we'd implement the change on Isaac too and so far no complaints. He's eaten butternut squash, ASPARAGUS!, potato, carrot, and green beans! We are most pleased. He also like lentil dahl as long as it's whizzed up to a smooth paste. He LOVES bread and is always asking for toast. Since he decided to eat vegetables I'm much more relaxed about his vitamin & mineral intake and if we have a bad day then I'm not so stressed. Some meals he'll eat loads and then at others next to nothing. We're all trying to limit our cheese intake and highly processed foods such as Quorn and tofu which looks to be more achievable now. Happy lady! Eating out is now much easier as a result also and waitresses and waiters alike are powerless to resist his cheeky grim and charm. Eating out food that tends to be cheese related because obviously that's all that vegetarians eat. When are restaurant management going the EDUCATE THEMSELVES?! Pigs may fly.

Lunching with Mama

So, that's enough waffle for this month. I shall leave you with the Wiggler doing his ghost impression. Not that he knows what a ghost is, but it was a very good impression none-the-less complete with shouting and staggering!

Crazy child...

We ain't been up to much...

...just pottering around the house & garden.

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Blanket Love 2

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As I've said before, he really does love this thing!

The first and coldest excursion

Right, this is as far back as I'm going.

There's something very special about being far enough away from [too much] civilisation that you can stand still and hear your own heart beating in your chest more loudly than anything but the [freezing cold] wind whistling past your ears. I never used to appreciate the dampened quiet of the countryside, but now I'm kind of addicted!

With this in mind and wanting to explore the Peak District more, we planned our first trip of the year (with all of the children). We chose the Manifold Valley as our destination which boasts a disappearing river and a cave (Thor's Cave to be precise and it's up a bloody cliff!) The date of this bold first walk? 20th February. Brr. 

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We're pretty organised people as a rule, but we learned a lot from this trip. Much of it is *slap forehead for not thinking of it already* type stuff, but hey; it is sometimes stressful when the girls arrive for the weekend and we just want to LEAVE THE HOUSE. Here are a few items we can now tick off our mental list of stuff to bear in mind for future trips.

• Lesson one: check weather where you are going. Just because it's sunny and mild where you are DOES NOT MEAN IT IS WHERE YOU ARE GOING! 
• Lesson two: locate on O.S. map where you are going and remember how to read grid references BEFORE YOU GO! 
• Lesson three: take hats/scarves/gloves/thermals for the small people because they feel the cold more quickly and savagely than you. 
• Lesson four: check baby changing facilities at the pub where you plan to eat lunch at prior to arrival. 
• Lesson five: do not feed your son a ridiculous quantity of cherries the day before planned expedition unless you have learned lesson four.

All that aside, as well as: the greyness, the sheer drops on parts of the route, the squelchy muddiness for the duration, the temperature that had brass monkeys talking nervously amongst themselves and the seemingly never ending uphill climbs, it was enjoyed by the majority! Did we mention there was snow? THERE WAS SNOW!

We're pleased that we made sure everyone had proper walking footwear and coats (without these we wouldn't have made it out of the car!) We did also remember to pack a deck of cards which kept the girls entertained while we waited for our food. Coincidentally, this was Aoife's favourite of the walks we've done so far making it, by default, Roisin's least favourite.

Hindsight is a glorious thing and has served us well on trips made since then. AND NOW IT'S NOT WINTER ANYMORE WOOOOOH!

Rain + wellies = happy boy

20 months today!

He certainly is!

Writing about someone/thing regularly is like when you see a person everyday; you don't always notice the changes you would if you only saw them periodically. Being able to go back and look through these pages to see what Isaac was doing a certain amount of time ago is truly great. I've never kept a written record of anything for this long; sure we take photographs and smile when we flick through them, but to see, in black and white, your own words describing sensations and emotions from events past is really quite special. I'm so grateful that it is so easy these days to keep loved ones up to date with things they may not otherwise hear about entirely, proven by Nanna's many trips away and Grandad's recent four month trip to India (from which he has now safely returned - welcome back Grandad!)

Seven weeks ago Isaac was walking confidently at home, but not so well out and about. Now he's off! Everywhere! Properly! When he wants to go faster he does this funny forward lean that reminds me a little of Good Robot Bill & Ted. He much prefers walking over being carried, but still asks to be carried occasionally. It's (understandably) usually when he's tired or unsure of somewhere. We use the hip seat more than the carrier now, preferring it for its ease in getting Isaac on & off quickly while he's transitioning to independence. We still use the carrier for long periods, e.g.: our walk on Dartmoor; we used it successfully on my back for the first time then too. Now he's bigger the back position seems to feel better than it did before. Hip position still dubious.

We made the decision to not use reigns: we are fortunate that much of our outdoor high street is pedestrianised and that many of the pavements in town are wide. Isaac doesn't like walking along side busy roads too much yet; he doesn't really run off or make us chase him when we're out (give it time, you say) and he knows to stay close to us so the idea of them seemed a bit redundant. He's developed the kid thing of walking into people's paths which I guess I did and you did and every child that's learning to walk tall in the world does. Most people aren't bothered by it which is nice.

The major development has been his words and little phrases. It's all very exciting! He's been babbling Isaac speak for months and months and month and his grown up words have been brewing for a while, but now they're tumbling out of his little mouth! Shoes! I wan s-tory! Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! (Rinny - possibly his favourite word) Am fiiiiished! (I'm finished) Nanny! Daddy! Mummy! Byyyyyyyyyyyye! No! Mmmm! (yes) Brush teeeee! (brush teeth) Fish! (thank you Tracey :-D) Toast! House! Down! Out! Door! Obviously the babbling continues which is just too cute, but it's lovely to hear him use grown up words to help him understand us.

A few miscellanea:

Nap times are still settling. Until today, for about two or three months, Isaac has had only one, two hour day time nap either before or after lunch which has been fine. Today he's had a morning nap of about three hours, but I'm not convinced he'll last until bedtime! What is it they say? A well rested baby sleeps better at night than a tired one? We shall see...again.

He has started to gingerly climb out of his car seat on his own.

He found his nose the other day. Delightful!

I had my first night away from Isaac four weeks ago when I went to stay with a friend in London. It was all good and nothing went wrong, not did either of us feel anxious about it at all. Win!

Isaac is now officially dog biscuit giver. No complaints from Rinny since the hand over.

He likes to flash his belly at us! It's so funny and he knows it's funny which makes it even funnier!

He's had his first proper haircut.

We've abandoned snacks completely. I'm not really sure why we included them in his daily eating regime, other than the girls have always had them and our HV said we should. However, we get on better without them. The End. (©RR)

On the whole things are going well right now (phew!) The sun has been shining lots which keeps us outdoors and busy. Isaac continues to make us chuckle and smile regularly and helping him learn about his world is staggeringly brilliant!

We're all really looking forward to summer; winter seemed awfully long this year. We've got lots of things planned so I'm sure it'll fly by at a rate of knots. The kids (and us if we're honest) can't wait for this year's Just So Festival. It'll be totally different now Isaac is walking and he'll be two weeks shy of his second birthday. Hopefully some other festivals too, if finances prove favourable, and definitely some camping, barbecues, visits with friends and days out in general thrown in for good measure.

A less cold excursion

I told you I was going backwards. 

In our bid to get out of the city together regularly we've been walking out in't Derbyshire countryside. Our first complete family walk in the Peak District was...er...cold...to say the least. But that's another story. With the days becoming longer and lighter and with wind the chill factor being not so down right bloody freezing, about six weeks ago (late March) we decided to try again. This time we chose a shorter, flatter route that we had walked before, was closer to home and had more interesting bits for the (Roisin) Bean. So off we set with our packed lunch to Stanton Moor which is home to the Nine Ladies Stone Circle.

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Looking back on these images and having just been to Dartmoor, it's quite remarkable how the terrain and flora differ in the two places. I know that we're further into spring now and that Stanton Moor is considerably further north, but Derbyshire moors seem so bleak and barren when compared with Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor. I guess for me, West Country moors are what I remember from my late teens/early twenties so I use them as my point of reference for greatness, although it will be nice to come back here in the summer to see if my opinion changes.

Coincidentally, Aoife wasn't such a fan of this walk as it wasn't "uphill enough". Gotta strike a balance somewhere!

First signs of summer

Continuing the remembrance of the past month and a half, some pictures and memories from about three weeks ago. 

Once the clocks have sprung forward, the difference in evening light is virtually instant and it's really lovely that the children can play outside for longer. Which they do, at every available opportunity.

I love that they all play so well together!

One of the girls' favourite questions when it's sunny is: "can we have the sprinkler out...pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?" Up until a few weeks ago it's been sunny, but with just enough chill in the wind for us not to agree, much to their dismay. But with the arrival of the first really warm and sunny weekend, who were we to refuse two very excited small people? When he awoke from his nap, Isaac wasn't so sure and preferred to watch from a safe distance.

And finally, my favourite picture from that afternoon.

I hope you all enjoyed the start of the warm weather!

Long time no blog

Well, it's been a while - about a month & a half actually! So what's been happening then? I might do this backwards so I can get the freshest stuff out of my brain and then think about before that...

Last week (over the Easter break) The Family Turn went to Devon for a much needed break from routine and stayed in a family residence just far enough away from Torquay (not that I don't like Torquay, but it's nice to be out where it's green for a change...and away from the grockles teehee!). The weather was glorious for the first five days and not that bad at all for the last two, especially considering it was April.

We went to the beach twice. The first time we went to scope it out as we hadn't visited that particular cove before and, true to form, Roisin "accidentally fell in the sea a little bit" and got drenched! She loved it though, they all did. We forgot to take the camera both times though. Boo! We did other stuff like visiting the nearby Babbacombe Model Village and Kent's Cavern.

The pictures of the model village really don't do it justice, the detail & humour were truly magnificent. The kids absolutely loved it, particularly the fire breathing dragon which induced squeals of delight! There was even a Royal Wedding procession - the most we saw of it in-fact!

We're always looking for ways to get us all out into the countryside. Being down in the West Country made this even easier than being at home what with the beautiful as it is remote Dartmoor being on our doorstep. Don't get me wrong, we get our fair share of moans and groans beforehand from the small people, but the overall experience is positive and Aoife particularly loves this kind of excursion. In-fact it seems the more challenging (i.e. uphill) the walk, the more she likes it! Rosh is (as always) the complete opposite, preferring short flat walks. HOWEVER. How can anyone fail to recognise such astounding natural beauty? And on such a  glorious day too.

Thank goodness for Ordnance Survey maps though, seriously. I love A-Zs for regular A to B driving, but deepest, darkest Dartmoor driving requires proper detail thanks very much! Kudos to my Dad for helping me out when I was wee. All those trips in his van following our route and recognising landmarks have obviously sunk in! Although it didn't stop the back seat driver comments "is this the right way?" "are you sure you know where you're going?" etc. Hmm.

We saved our trip to Paignton Zoo for Friday when my Mum and our friends Mark & Angie had arrived. I'm not a big fan of zoos, I remember being particularly upset at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. seeing the animals pace the same worn trail again and again. However, Paignton Zoo is more committed than most to conservation and breeding programmes in both the U.K. and overseas and the majority of the animals seem happy enough.

On our last full day we went over to Brixham. The original plan was to take the ferry across Torbay, but something to do with swells over on the other side of the bay meant we drove instead which worked out well nap-wise for Isaac. We'd found out (that morning) on the Brixham website that it was going to be the first day of the Pirate Festival and we weren't sure what to expect, but it was brilliant! There were pirates from all over the country making an appearance and really just wanted to arrrr! at people and be piratey; especially on camera. A nice chap was letting people hold his African Grey parrot. (I was relieved that his wings weren't clipped, rather he was wearing a little harness almost like the one we use for Rinny.)

Perhaps the best trip we made was to the House of Marbles near Bovey Tracey. I always forget how much is there! There are several small museums as well as a working glass factory with two skilled glass blowers, a restaurant serving really lovely food, an outside area with different marble related games and an enormous shop selling all manner of traditional toys and games, books, clothes, things made in the factory etc. and of course marbles. Admission is free and we all had a brilliant time! Definitely enough to fill one morning and lunch after. Highly recommended.

So that's what we did with the time afforded us by various Bank Holidays and religious holidays. Here's wishing you all a rather belated Happy Easter!

P.S.: Credit to Simon for photos. Demanding son = no photography for Mummy :-(

Meet the blanket

Isaac has a blanket. It is the blanket from his pram and early on he forged an unbreakable bond with it. He doesn't sleep very well without it which has pros & cons. He'll sleep pretty much anywhere with it. Without it, we're basically screwed. As the whole Premium Economy section of our flight to Newark found out recently when the air hostess took it away to stow for landing (because a blanket is, like, so dangerous and heavy and pointy sharp!!) and he screamed. For 45 minutes. Traumatised, distraught, nothing-Mummy-can-do-about-it-right-now-until-the-plane-lands-and-the-captain-turns-off-the-seatbelt-sign screams. Thanks lady! 

Recently he's started to go upstairs to pull it out of his cot and drag it around the house with him. He looooooooooves this blanket and is remeniscent of Charles Schulz's Peanuts character Linus (who was secretly always my favourite character in the comic/cartoons). I wonder if he'll be like Linus or if the blanket is just for show? Anyhoo, he's perfectly happy being a pretender to the Linus throne so who am I to complain!