Family

Aeroplanes!!!

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I love it when traditions get carried down through families, when we do something with Monkey that we remember loving as kids. I love it even more with grandparents carrying things down things that they loved doing as kids. My Mum and Step-dad (Aka Nanny & Pops) were round on Monday after Rhyme Time and we were all playing in the garden (well, I was sat watching mainly).

Pops said he wanted to do aeroplanes with Monkey, and I wasn’t sure what he meant to start with, but it turned out they had done it before on their day out with Monkey.  It is something Pops remembers his Granddad doing with him as a child, and how much he loved it, and he wanted to carry it down and do it with Monkey. Which is just lovely!

Monkey took a tiny bit of encouragement to start with (he is a 2 year old after all, and takes a bit of encouragement with most things at the moment!) but then he absolutely loved it.

It was hilarious, and a tiny bit hair raising to watch, but seeing the glee on Monkey’s face was priceless.

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And of course hearing the “Aaaa-gain” repeated over and over afterwards until Pops gave him another whirl..

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The angle of this is weird and I know it looks like Monkey’s leg is at an odd angle but I promise it’s not!

and another…

WP_20140908_13_37_24_ProNanny & Pops then tried to get him to do wheelbarrows, and I have to admit we have tried to show Monkey this before and we failed… and unfortunately they failed too, though he did enjoy it I am pretty sure he didn’t have a clue what was going on!

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Just a lovely bit of fun in the garden 🙂

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall
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Mummy & Daddy take the night off!

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On Friday morning hubby and I left the house at about 8.15am and headed off to Hereford for a wedding. Monkey? Monkey stayed at home, in the care of his Nanny & Pops! This was quite a big deal for us. Before we had Monkey and when he was a tiny baby we had grand ideas about leaving him with the grandparents fairly regularly so he would get used to it from a young age and it wouldn’t be a big deal.

In reality things didn’t quite work out as we planned (when does it ever, with babies?). Colic didn’t help matters and I always found leaving him behind difficult when breastfeeding – having to express extra milk before the event, trying to ensure he would drink out of bottles, having to find somewhere quiet to express your engorged boobs while at an event (trying not to get any on your fancy outfit) to relieve the pain. Not simple or stress free, in my personal opinion. We did manage a couple of days like this but didn’t actually have any events or plans far away, requiring an overnight stay, when he was very little so always came home for the night.

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A Summer Meadow

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Last weekend my Auntie Maggie came to stay. We had a really lovely (and thankfully very relaxed) weekend with a lot of playtime. Considering Maggie lives in South London Monkey has a great relationship with her, we have seen a lot of her this summer and it has been great for him and he loves her to bits. In many ways she’s a bit like a 3rd Grandma!

He was really excited to have her come to stay and wanted Maggie with him all the time. After a short walk together, Monkey decided he didn’t want to follow Mummy & Daddy home, and instead dragged Maggie away in the opposite direction to have a slightly longer walk! We were all a bit surprised but as I may have mentioned (once or twice) he is getting much more independent lately!

We didn’t want to go too far while she was up and mainly just pottered and went on a few local walks. On Sunday my brother joined us too and we all walked to a little field a few minutes from our house. It is a slightly random field, surrounded and hidden by housing estates, roads and a lot of trees, there is hardly ever anyone there, and even though hubby and I grew up in this area, neither of us knew it was there until a couple of months ago!

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At the moment it is particularly lovely as it has the feel of a gorgeous summer meadow. I know they are just dandelions and other weeds but being greeted by the sea of yellow was just lovely.

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My older brother Paul had popped over to say hello so he came with us and we all had a lovely relaxed time in the meadow. I say relaxed, I was sat relaxing on a rise while Monkey made everyone else run around in circles and chase him etc.

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Just a lovely little ordinary family moment 🙂

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A Fab Weekend with Friends

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2008

Annabel & I in 2008

Last weekend some very good friends of ours came to visit from Newcastle. Annabel and I worked together for just a few months nearly 10 years ago and somehow, wonderfully the friendship has lasted. There have been times when we haven’t seen each other for a long time, or have barely spoken, but when we get together it is always as if no time has passed. There has been girls nights out in Manchester and catch ups in London.

What’s really great though is that our lives have gone in pretty similar directions now. While I am settled with Hubby and Monkey, she also has a lovely husband and an 18 month old Doodle who is lovely. If anything mummyhood and the challenges it brings has brought us even closer together, although we have never lived so far apart before!

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Family Fun at the Burghley Film Festival 2014

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Not too far away from us is the very grand Burghley House, a beautiful Elizabethan house in amazing grounds. Every year they hold an outdoor film festival and last year we went for the first time. During the day they show family films and then have an evening session with more adult films. After loving it last year we decided well in advance that we wanted to go again this year, and invited some of our family to come along too!

This year we went to see ‘Epic’ which is a film I hadn’t seen before, but in all honesty, with a toddler and other kiddies in the family we only really get to see snippets of the film, as the day is more about running around and having fun!
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Our Mini Helper – 26 months

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I’m not sure if it is toddlers in general or just him, but Monkey loves helping. He can be getting in the way and under my feet but if I give him a job to do, he is so excited. He doesn’t always actually help that much but it certainly keeps him busy while I am getting something done, and he does look cute while he is helping! Plus I figure it helps him learn life skills. For example he likes cleaning up after himself when he has spilt something on the floor or on the table.

So anyway we were doing some tidying in the front garden last weekend, which involved a bit of chopping but mainly weeding. Rather than Daddy doing it all and me trying to entertain Monkey elsewhere, we figured we could get Monkey involved. His Granny & Granddad bought him some gardening bits for his birthday, which have mainly been used in the sand pit so far, and it felt like the perfect opportunity to do some gardening with them!

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An ‘Okay’ week

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Our word of the week this week is “okay.” Not because it necessarily sums up our week, though it has been an ok week (you can read some of what we have been up to here), but because it is Monkey’s favourite word at the moment. It basically replaces yes.

The funniest thing about it is that he says it with the voice of a bored teenager, like “okaaaaay” if you insist mum, if I have to, if you really want to. Even though I know what he means is Yes! Yes! Yes!

A few examples

Shall we go on the swing? “Okaaaay” while running off clapping his hands

Him: “Chocat” Me: You’d like some chocolate? Him: “okaaay” Me: Sorry but no.

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A visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew

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Last weekend we visited my Auntie Maggie, who lives in SW London, for the weekend. Both of my parents grew up in that area and we visited fairly regularly as kids and had lots of days out and things, so there is a lot of memories there from my childhood, and I look forward to sharing some of those places, and memories with Hubby & Monkey over the years.

On Sunday we visited the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. We always drove past the entrance to Kew on our route through London so I have a lot of memories related to it, and the last time I had been was many years ago with my Granddad, when he was in the early stages of Alzheimers. Quite a while ago. It is somewhere we talk about a lot as a family though as my Aunt actually volunteers there!

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Visiting Friends and Family #GetGoodSummer Wk 2

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One of the 5 goals that I set myself as part of #GetGoodSummer, hosted by Claire at Clarina’s Contemplations, was to make sure we visit lots of friends and family this summer, while we still can before baby no.2 comes. (You can read more about my goals here, and see how I have got on so far with some other goals, here.) We have really made a start on that over the last week and so far it has been lovely.

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Feeling Grateful

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I feel a real need to write this post, to record how I feel for the future. Because at the moment, I feel so incredibly lucky and incredibly grateful for all that we have. I am also an incredibly hormonal pregnant woman today and keep crying so I need to get some feelings out of my head and down on paper.

I know exactly why I feel like this. Some of my closest friends are having really rough times at the moment. I hate, literally hate seeing them suffer and feel so lucky for our simple little life at the moment.

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