Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
We're so lucky where we live.
So lucky to have miles upon miles of glorious coastline; swathes of golden sand, mounds of perfectly elliptical pebbles, an abundance of rock pools populated with crazy creatures, and a vast tidal range allowing for hours spent on the beach.
Enjoying childhood.
230. Plopping (Following on from my brother's goodbye before he emigrates to Australia, I phoned my eldest brother to ask if he'd like to do something. We went to Southerndown beach further long the coast, which is one of my favourite beaches in Wales. The Boy and his Fiery Cousin plunged straight into the enormous rockpool splashing about, followed by a brief picnic and a quick departure from the beach as the tide was rapidly coming in; thank goodness for the RNLI warning klaxon. We then explored the ruined castle on the cliffs before plopping some stones into the tumultuous waves. One sibling may be moving to the other side of the world, but I still have two here to appreciate.)
231. The End Is In Sight (We went to Longleat for a Jungle Dogs event, and although we didn't venture into the safari, we did decided to have a go at the hedge maze. Big mistake. It's supposed to take 45 minutes, but after 55 minutes we were losing the will to live I was beginning to feel tetchy and claustrophobic, when fortunately The Boy found the 'This Way Out' sign. We finally crossed the final bridge to freedom!)
232. Small World (Tuesday was a quiet day after the frantic weekend travelling around the country, involving lots of outdoor play with The Boy's Playmobil pirates and the tuff spot. I love the reflection in this photo.)
233. Full (I decided to finally try out my hand at taking a photograph of the full moon using my tripod and the long – 55-250mm – lens that my husband bought me for my birthday. I'm quite pleased with the clarity of it, what do you think?)
234. Grip (We had a go at decorating a t-shirt for a review and I had to hold the fabric down and stretch it out to make it possible for The Boy to draw on. I like this photo for a few reasons; his pencil grip is cute, and I love the way he's holding my hand, his hand looks so small against mine.)
235. Manual (That photo there of The Boy balancing on a blue pole? I took than on manual settings. Fully manual. Not TV or AV or P. But M. For manual. Me.)
236. Drill (We've been doing a craft activity today which involves The Boy using a hand drill for the first time. I was stretched upwards with my camera pointing down to take an overhead view, and hadn't realised that he was so curious about it coming through the underneath, he'd ducked down. I like his inquisitive nature.)
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This week sees the continuation of my use of the FatMumSlim #PhotoADay prompts, however I've struggled with them this week. There have been photos I wanted to use but they didn't fit that day's theme so I couldn't use them. It made me remember why I usually give up halfway through the month!
188. Where You Are (We started the day Hendrewennol fruit PYO down the coast road, and The Boy was in awe to see so many strawberries growing in the fields. It was blindingly hot though so we quickly progressed onto one of my favourite beaches; Southerndown.)
189. Path (Since The Boy had a climbing frame for his birthday, he is getting more and more adventurous in the ways he climbs up the top. This path he's taken has seen him swing along the monkey bars, Climb up through the bars of the jungle run, pull himself up and then climb along. Think the frame was a good idea!)
190. Three Things (We did some sponge printing and literacy this morning, using the sponge letters to spell out family names.)
191. Smooth (The Boy had to have a change of bedding part way through the night which meant that Oliver Monkey also needed washing. We engaged the spare Oliver unknowingly to him, and he was amazed at how smooth Oliver was all of a sudden! Whoops!)
192. I Wore This (So unimaginative, I know! A trip to the beach after work, walk along the pier with a yummy ice-cream. And you get my shoes. That's the problem with these prompts!)
193. Bad Habit (Why in God's name do we go to bed at gone 1am every night? We're knackered!)
194. Four o'clock (The Boy's reward this week was to visit Parc Play, but it was so unbearably hot that we only managed 20 minutes there. We'll go back on Monday)
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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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