Camping with the Small People

We've had 2 lovely holidays this year, one to the fabulous Bluestone National Park and most recently a week in beautiful Cornwall. In both cases we had fantastic accommodation, everything we needed to hand, ensure bathrooms, hot water, comfy beds and in Cornwall our own pool!

So with all that in mind I can only guess our latest booking is the result of lack of sleep / a breakdown / too much wine? Probably all of the above but hey it's booked now and in the middle of August we will be taking the toddler and 10 month old camping! Yup you heard me CAMPING! 

Before you think I've completely lost it I must confess this is a Eurotent ready pitched affair but I'm still getting a tad jittery about the trip, what do I need, will the girls sleep, what if it's freezing / raining? 

I know a few of my readers have been camping with kids, either as holidays or at festivals so please, please, please shower me with your tips, hints and general positive vibes. I want to love camping with the kids and would love to take them to a festival one day but this is our baby steps first attempt to see how this wimpy, far too comfortable in hotels, middle class couple cope! 

9 Months update

So when I was pregnant with F I remember making promises to myself I would do regular updates on her growing up on the blog, marking milestones, achievements blah blah blah......

Well she's now 9.5 months, it's been many months since my last update and this has happened. (Yeah I know it's not a heartfelt diary entry but no one told me that looking after a 3 year old and a baby is like putting myself through a spin cycle on a daily basis, I'm shattered!) 

• She's now pretty much eating what we do and loved fruit, corn on the cob and peanut butter. She's also developed a mean sweeper for when she's decided she's had enough!

• She's crawling! Crikey no one prepares you for this one 2nd time round. It's pure chaos in my house right now. Unlike D who in hindsight was a piece of cake, F is into everything especially is D happens to have it.

• She said her first words. We've been doing the Dada, Baba sounds for a while now and possibly a hiya but after spending a couple of days at a friends house who had a cat, we finally had our first proper word. Cat, cat everything is cat!

• She's cruising. Yep crawling is so last week we want to walk now and we've been scaling the furniture and waddling around with the walker, she's not going to be long.........

• Cleaning. Freya has decided she loves cleaning things, nothing pleases her more than a wet wipe to clean the house with, keeps her amused for ages!

• Pointing. F loves to point. Fact

• Kissing, there's nothing like a baby kiss, full open mouth, slobbery tongue kiss and we're get them by the bucket load

• We've got teeth, admittedly only 3 and a bit but blimey she knows how to use them! 

• Dancing. If there's music she'll dance! It really doesn't matter what the music is but that  chubby little booty starts bouncing around the room at the slightest sound of a beat. 

• She's a proper little water baby. F is amazing in her swimming lessons and loves being in the water. we didn't do swimming lessons with D as we could't afford them at the time and I seeing the difference it makes with F I really regret it. That said D is only 3 so we've decided to get her going with lessons as well. 

• She's like Velcro! Yep with all the amazing developments we've also hit the bugger that is separation anxiety. I can't leave the room, attempt to leave the room, even think about leaving the room without the quivering bottom lip and sad sobs following me, hanging on to my trouser legs and if Im really lucky leaving a delicious slug trail down my clean black jeans!

The best bit of watching little miss mischief grow up though is watching her become so close to D, They adore each other and literally no one can make F laugh like her big sister does, it's amazing! She wants D as soon as she wakes up and D goes straight to her for morning kisses and cuddles. I can already see glimpses of the trouble they are going to cause me over the next 20 or so years, definitely a devilish duo! 

So 9.5 months in I'm a knackered, sleep deprived loon but I'm totally in love. My girls rock! 

A Sunny Day at The 100 Acre Wood

Yesterday we visited the lovely Aldenham Country Park and went down the 100 Acre Wood trail looking for Winnie the Pooh and his Friends houses.