Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
A few years ago we went to Barry Island on New Year's Day and it was the most glorious day; the sun was shining on a perfect, blue-sky Winter's day. When the 1st January 2015 dawned in a similar style, it was absolutely our destination for some fresh air to blow away the previous year's cobwebs.
We're incredibly lucky to be able to nip to a beach whenever we feel like it, and in south Wales there is a massive selection of sandy, pebble or rocky beaches to choose from. The local sandy beach is Barry Island and fortunately it's a gloriously wide expanse of sand deemed worthy of a blue flag for cleanliness.
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61. From Where We Stand (We went to explore a new area of the coastline today, one I last went to around 23 years ago with my dad. However, this went to show that time is kind on memories because I don't remember it being such a pain to get down to, or it being quite so dirty with dog mess or general rubbish. We found an awesome ammonite fossil, but we won't be returning to that beach again.)
62. Contemplative (The Boy was shattered after school but I was blowed if we were staying in on such a nice afternoon! So off I dragged him to the clifftop park.)
63. Hello Gorgeous (I have always wanted a crotchetted blanket for The Boy, it's such a traditional item for a childhood and perfect for snuggling under when watching television or reading a book. Unlike all the other bloggers in the world at the moment, I have no idea how to make one. I do however follow an immensely talented lady called 'Hello Gorgeous' on Instagram who agreed to make one for The Boy. It arrived today and he was over the moon with it! )
64. Bookworm (Shattered after a long old day in work, I curled up on the sofa ready to collapse. The Boy picked up a book for his Tidy Books bookbox and came to sit with me. We looked through the pictures together but then he decided that he wanted to read the text by himself. So he did. Because he's four and is learning how to read. I'm so proud of him.)
65. Carefully Does It (We had a delayed Pancake Day due to Tuesday being a chockablock day which ended late. The Boy was determined to help me make his pancake so I tasked him with chopping the ham.)
66. Three Cousins and a Friend (The Boy went on a wonderful trip to the farm today and was physically drained after school. However, I plied him with milk and a sugary doughnut as he needed to go to a friend's birthday party in softplay from 4-6pm! Unfortunately, the poor girl came down with the nasty virus 'slapped cheek' and had to go to the doctor's during her own party so missed it. I'm hoping that The Boy doesn't contract it. On the way home, we called into his cousins' house where we all decided that 6.30pm wasn't too late to play outside. And the best bit was that it wasn't; it was still light!)
67. I'm Busy! (I love the eclectness of The Boy's ensemble here: hood up because it was windy, sunglasses on, one glove because we couldn't find the other, soaking trousers from jumping into his 'swimming pool'. Ahhh, the first trip to Barry Island of the season.)
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Crashing waves.
Frothing, foamy, Neptune's white horses.
Gusting winds.
Sand blowing diagonally through the air.
Squeals of laughter from a gleeful and playful family enjoying the abandoned swathes of golden sands.
All that squelchy sand is a blank canvas for running, jumping and falling over in.
And do you know where he went after he's verified how saturated and sand encrusted his gloves were?
Yep, right to 'give mummy a cuddle'.
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Linking up to Country Kids, Outdoor Play Party and Flashback Friday
33. Timing (You'd think I've called this photo 'Timing' because of the good capture? Nope, it's ironic. I was aiming to get both of them splashing at the same time, but do you know how hard it is to get two children to play ball with a muddy puddle?)
34. Sprinkles (I had a go at making marshmallow from scratch last weekend, and set it up to photograph on Monday. Easy, yes? Not when I'd used pectin instead of gelatin so it was vegetarian but it's not such a good setting agent. When I was trying to coat it in the mixture it started glooping, acting quickly I put it in the fridge, went and set up the shoot and rushed the marshmallow through. Then I had to invoke the emergency spoons to contain it!)
35. Baby-face (A tired Boy after school today, he reminded me just how little he still is.)
36. Quiet Moment (The Boy absolutely loves his Tidy Books book box – competition live over here – and it was so lovely to see him sit down next to the box of his own accord, pick up a book and start to explore it himself. I've looked forward to this moment since having a child. That's after he'd built a tree up the wall out of train track. As you do.)
37. Focus (Bath time is becoming a real battle with The Boy. Not just bath time, but bedtime in general. We've moved getting ready for bed forward by 15 minutes from 7pm as there was just too much stroppiness. He looks really calm here, but dear God when he has to get out? Hell on Earth! He holds on to the bath taps, won't let go and you wouldn't believe how strong he is! Mr. TBaM has to call me to help him, otherwise The Boy is going to hurt himself.)
38. Ahoy there Cap'n (My obsession with ride-ons continues!)
39. Fresh (Today has not been a good day generally. It started well but then I became all depressed and could have locked myself away forever never to be found by anyone. Eventually I 'faked it until I could make it' and we managed to get to Barry Island for a huge blow through. I felt so much better afterwards, which just goes to prove the findings of the UNICEF survey which highlighted children in the UK as the most depressed in the western world in conjunction with the fact that we're the third worst in the world at getting children out doors. We all felt a damn sight better for the 'fresh air' i.e. 50mph+ gales.)
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Over the course of the Summer, we've been to many different places in a bid to have a 'great family day out' and they've all been pretty damn near perfect. We've garnered many memories and had a lot of laughs along the way, but the one place which is always guaranteed to make us feel at ease as a family is the beach. And while we've been to quite a few spectacular beaches during the past two months, it's the one that is on our doorstep that always brings out the child in all three of us.
Barry Island.
For most it's synonymous with Gavin & Stacey, or Butlin's holidays in the 1970s, but the holiday camp days are long gone, and most of the programme wasn't even filmed in the locality. Barry Island is so much more. A blue flag beach with golden sands and clear water, protected from strong winds by the rocky peninsulas at either end of the Whitmore Bay, the sounds of the funfair fade once on the beach and the sandcastle building begins.
A fortnight ago we decided to pack up for the afternoon and head down to sate The Boy's incessant pleas to visit the Island. It was August Bank Holiday Sunday, and it was sunny. I expected to have difficulty finding a car parking spot, let alone a spot on the beach. However, it may as well have been a weekday in December, it was so vacant.
And we did all the things that you should do at the beach; built the most enormous sandcastle fortress, buried each other in the sand, ate chips, splashed in the sea, kicked sandballs, flew a kite, and then washed our bits off in the sea afterwards (that might have just been The Boy though).
Gavin and who?
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237. Fortress (A beautiful Sunday afternoon on August Bank Holiday weekend, saw us pack up our beach stuff and venture to Barry Island for the afternoon. And for once it wasn't crowded! We decided to make the biggest castle ever, and this was our finished product; gargantuan isn't it? This is the castle I've always wanted to make and it was brilliant fun, people along the beach stopped to take photos and comment.)
238. Practise (The biggest concern that I have for The Boy going to school is coping with lunchtimes. He currently has a cooked meal at lunchtimes, but won't be having school dinners as I don't think he'll eat them. I decided it was time to practise eating from a lunchbox, as I know how chaotic it is at lunchtimes in a dinner hall with minimal staff around. We packed up our tea and took it to the nature reserve for a picnic practise. I don't want The Boy to struggle with anything so we've spent this week practising opening and not spilling food, eating things in the right order, and working out what type of yoghurt is the best to send in for him.)
239. Climbing Boy (We headed out for another picnic lunch, this time in the park. And what better way to burn off that energy afterwards that tree climbing?)
240. Squelch (We had a very exciting morning visiting somewhere special in Cardiff, but I can't disclose any information about it until later in the year and it's under embargo until then! We had lunch in Pizza Hut and I spent the whole time staring at The Boy, absorbing ever cell of his face, trying not to cry about missing him in school. Then we went down the beach for some plopping fun, although The Boy has discovered sandballs are far more fun to throw than pebbles, filthy child.)
241. RUN! (My mum was looking after my niece and nephew for the day, so we took all three children to Barry Island, somewhere they don't go very often. Reluctantly at first The Boy's cousins entered the water, then his Boy Cousin came back out to remove his trousers so he could paddle more freely, while Girl Cousin just sat down in the sea fully clothed instead. All three had a whale of a time; all you need is sand and water, and they're happy!)
242. Ritual (Today was the last day of our old routine. Our last day together, just me and him, without being stuck in the rigmorale of bowing down to the constraints of school holidays. Our last day of him being my little shadow and us having the freedom to not rush and just do what we want. Just typing that makes me cry. I know we'll have half-terms and school holidays, but it is not the same. Every day for four years and two months, he has waited on our bed (sometimes with or without Mr. TBaM, depending upon age) while I shower and get dressed. Then Mr. TBaM goes to work and we have cuddles in bed for half an hour. Every week day (that I've not worked) for four years and two months. This was our last day doing this. And I am counting down the days until October half-term until we can do it again.)
243. ARGGGGHHHHH! (We took The Boy to Peppa Pig World for our last Summer treat and had a brilliant time exploring old favourite rides and new treasures. This was an old favourite and I took about fifteen photos of them on this ride, from top to bottom. I can't show later ones as Mr. TBaM would divorce me, but this was right at the top, just as they both realise how steep the drop is!)
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In recent weeks we've started using a reward chart with The Boy, not for behaviour but to help promote independence and getting ready for school. So far the targets we've used have focused on getting dressed, eating meals within thirty minutes and tidying up, which are key things he'll need to do in the classroom and to make his lunchtime easier. If he gets all of the stickers on his chart then he achieves his reward which is something he chooses at the beginning of the week. By and large we've managed to get away with going to somewhere that we would normally go to anyway, bless him he's not cottoned onto this yet!
Last weekend he chose to go to Puxton's Park near Weston-Super-Mare, an all-weather adventure place he and I have been to a few times with Mummy Mishaps but never as a family. It was somewhere I wanted to go to over the Summer holidays anyway, so again was an easy choice. I was quite looking forward to the trip and showing it off to Mr. TBaM, I should have known that would be a sign of it being a bit rubbish really! It was their birthday weekend which meant cheap entry = bonus as it only cost us £12 to get in; it was their birthday weekend which meant cheap entry = downer because everyone else in the locality was there! Let's just say that I'm not a fan of men going topless or women wearing bikinis in anywhere other than the beach, a pool or their garden, and as a result the plethora of excess skin on display really spoilt the trip for me. Various play equipment was broken (cargo nets and ladders on the fort, and the bouncing pillow), the few animals out were fed up and hot with no shade, and combined with the fact that Puxton's seems to have virtually no shade in any form ensured I felt pretty dejected about our family fun time! Of course, The Boy had some fun with the zip wire and the sand play, but I suspect even he was a bit disappointed with the trip.
We left early and headed to our old faithful; Barry Island.
Sunday promised to be an even hotter day than Saturday, and I'd initially planned for a quiet day at home. However, still dejected from the previous day, I decided that we'd head to Southerndown, one of my favourite beaches, via strawberry picking at a PYO fruit farm. On the National Trust list of 50 Things To Do Before You're 11 &¾ is 'eat an apple straight from a tree' and while picking strawberries is not exactly the same thing, I figure it's more about actually eating fruit straight from the plant and realising it doesn't come in plastic packaging from a shelf in the supermarket. Therefore I'm ticking that one off!
Following our adventures in the strawberry field (where The Boy really needs to learn that he shouldn't switch sides during fruit picking as daddy is rubbish!) we headed down to Southerndown, along with half of south Wales. I suspect the other half were at Barry Island! Southerndown is a stunning beach with rockpools and a huge swathe of sand that can (and did) accommodate thousands at low tide, but is completely covered at high tide. Luckily we arrived just on the right side of low tide and spent a really pleasurable few hours in a magnificent location where all that can be heard is families and friends having fun.
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